Sri Lankan’s Venerable Receiving Humanistic Buddhism
Knowing Fo Guang Shan (FGS) South Island New Zealand (NZ) is reopening, the Abbott from Christchurch’s Samadhi Buddhist Vihara Sri Lankan temple, Venerable Bhante Some and Venerable Bhante Maliyadewa together with Venerable Vi Piyankara from Sri Lankan’s Indramaya Pandura came visiting FGS on 18th of August. FGS South Island NZ temple supervisor, Venerable Jue Xi and Buddha’s Light International Association (BLIA) committee members Tracy Chen and Cao Qian welcomed them.
Cao Qian has first ushered the respectful visitors to the Buddha’s Hall to prostrate to the Buddha, following a tour to the Fo Guang Yuan 2 art gallery in enjoying the exhibition of “2016 Venerable Master Hsing Yun One Stroke Calligraphy International Tour Exhibition” and the video of “Venerable Master Hsing Yun’s One Stroke Calligrphy Short Film”. Venerable Bhante Soma especially brought the far away traveler Venerable Vi Piyankara, that will be staying in NZ for 3 months, to come visit FGS South Island to observe more. Venerable Bhante Soma told that he was in FGS headquarters in Kaoshiung, Taiwan attending the World Buddhists Forum in year 2000, and with great chance he has met with Venerable Master Hsing Yun during the opening of FGS South Island NZ in year 2007. He wishes the master great health and if the conditions allow, hopefully he could visit Christchurch again.
Besides giving a warm welcome to the 3 respectful Venerables, Venerable Jue Xi thanked the visits from Venerable Bhante Soma to important events hosted by FGS South Island NZ in past years, like the Buddha’s Birthday, Siddhartha the Musical, Venerable Hui Kai’s English Dharma Talk, giving support in propagating Buddhism in every aspect. In addition, Venerable Jue Xi have then introduced the “Encyclopedia of Buddhists Arts” where the completion process took 12 years. Venerable Jue Xi also expressed, even at the age of 90, Venerable Master Hsing Yun writes calligraphy almost every day and averagely writes 200 pieces in a day. This wisdom and compassion moved a lot of people.
In the end, Venerable Jue Xi gifted the book of “Humanistic Buddhism – Holding True to the Original Intents of Buddha” to the Venerables, hoping to see them again in 2017 and also hopefully they could visit FGS headquarters again.