CHCH Girl Guides visit FGS South Island

Twenty girl guides from West Bourne, Christchurch visited Fo Guang Shan (FGS) Buddhist Temple South Island New Zealand on the 25th of May at 6pm. It was the first time for most of the girls to visit a Buddhist temple, and also to become acquainted with Buddhism. They remarked on how amazing and interesting the main shrine was, and throughout the whole tour, the girl guides’ and their accompanying parents and teachers were shown clips of the Buddha, how to bathe the Buddha and ring the Wishing Bell, plus other stories about the Buddha’s life, and the meaning behind some of the Buddhist rituals, so as to have a basic understanding of Buddhism.

That night also saw many of the girls experience meditation for the first time. Even though it was only for ten minutes, it was enough to let them feel a deep and tranquil inner peace, as well as learning how to use sitting meditation in their daily life to reduce built up stress from school work.

During the Q&A session, the girls also learnt to how to apply 3G4G in their daily lives, to be a good student and kid both at school and home, with their teachers, family and friends. At the wishing tree, the girl guides made the wish :“for everyone to be happy and for there to be world peace!”. After that, there were taken to see some of the wooden sculptures and portrait artwork on display. Some volunteers guided the girls into making lotus origamis, which they could wear on their hair or wrist.

At the end of the day, Venerable Abbess Manshin told the girl guides and their parents more about FGS in New Zealand, and sincerely invited them to the North Island temple in Auckland if they had the chance. Venerable Abbess Manshin also presented two copies of the FGS NZ 10th Anniversary Book to two of the teachers.

One of the teachers, Katie Collins, described the activities that day as being very meaningful. She and her colleague Rachel learnt a lot more about Buddhism that day, and she did not hesitate to recommend other schools and girl guide troops from Christchurch to come and visit the temple. One of the parents said that it was a first time revisiting the temple after the big earthquake, and she was very pleased with the organised activities that day, having learnt a lot more about a new religion.