Temple as a School. Students from Waitakere College visited Fo Guang Shan North Island Buddhist Temple NZ

To make the temple like a school is an expectation from Venerable Master Hsing Yun, who is the founder of Fo Guang Shan. On the 19th Oct, 60 students from Waitakere College who have chosen Chinese language as elective course witnessed this wish come true.

It was a long journey for the students to across the Great Auckland from west to north to get to the temple, which took them nearly one hour to arrive. They were accompanied by a group of teachers lead by Ms. Jarbeau to have the outdoor teaching activity. When they arrived, they were welcomed by Fo Guang youth and then a temple tour guided by Annie Ng who is one of the directors of Buddha’s Light International Association. At the end of the tour, every student was given the book 366 Days of Wisdom written by the Venerable Master Hsing Yun.

“After visited the Venerable Master Hsing Yun’s One Stroke Calligraphy exhibition, I started to think about having outdoor classes, that is why we take students to come here to study”, said by the teacher MinZhi Jiang.

These 60 students are from 9th and 10th grades and they are taking Chinese language course. The Waitakere College insists the concept of “learning languages through culture”, and encouraged by this concept, teachers take their students to such a place where it has the Tang Dynasty style buildings and riches in the traditional Chinese culture to study. “It is very rare to have such a high quality place to study Chinese in Auckland”, added by the teacher Jing He.

Director Annie Ng introduced the founder of Fo Guang Shan Monestry, Venerable Master Hsing Yun to all the students, guided them with a tour in court yard，drum and bell building，Main Shrine, and the Pagoda. She invited them to the world tour of exhibition of One Stroke Calligraphy written by Venerable Master Hsing Yun. The students also enjoyed the vegetarian food and before eating, students joined their palms together and read the Fo Guan Four Mottoes intently. In the end, they said thank you in Chinese to the volunteers who worked at the dining hall.

After the meal, students learned making a lotus flower out of a piece of paper by folding it. When Annie Ng told them that lotus flowers spring out of muddy trace of dirt, yet they are still clean and pure, encouraged them to convert troubles into strength which help them to grow, the students were impressed by her words and some of them even put the paper lotus flower on their heads wishing to add some wisdom.

In the afternoon, students learned how to breath and stretch by following Venerable Miaoyu while doing Tai Chi and mediation. They learned so intently and attracted more and more visitors to join them to do it together, which became a special scenery at the temple.
During the game of “Chinese Characters Treasure Hunt”, teachers designed cards with six Chinese characters including Water, Buddha, Pray, Heart, Auspiciousness and Treasure on them and scattered them around the temple. Students who found all the cards with all the Chinese characters would take a selfie and then go into the Art Gallery to have look at the exhibits again as the last step of the learning.

A very positive feedback was received on the next day from Teacher Jarbeau about this outdoor teaching activity held in Fo Guang Shan Monestry. Jarbeau said it was impressive and unforgettable for the students to come to the temple, especially for those who came here for the first time to see the sculpture of Buddha and Venerables. It felt like the content from books and TVs came into life and became so vivid for them. They have also tasted the profound Chinese culture. Tai Chi, mediation, vegetarian food and the temple buildings were their favorite activities. Some students even asked when will be the next time to come to the temple to study.

The Waitakere College is located in west part of Auckland with a total of 1400 people. It is a college with diversified culture, accepting both girls and boys, having a good reputation in International Students Education. The official website of the college has seven different languages including English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Thai and Khmer. The Waitakere College insists the idea that Be the best they can be, spares no effort in helping students to discover and cultivate their inborn talents.