Home visit to Lesley, Michael and James Ruki-Willison

On 11 Februrary, Venerable Abbess Manshin, Venerable Maioyu and 17 members of the Fo Guang Shan (North Island) BLIA visited Lesley, Michael and James at their lovely South Auckland home in Bombay. Their house is in a peaceful rural location and has lovely views of rolling farmland and grazing animals. This environment provided the right conditions for a very interesting and meaningful conversation lead by Venerable Abbess Manshin. The themes were mainly focussed on:
- interaction between cultures, languages and Buddhism;
- the development or construction of our minds.


Cultures, languages and Buddhism

- Language portrays culture and also a point of view. The challenge in localisation is to combine the meaning of Chinese and English languages with the Buddhist meaning. It is the spirit of the words that needs to be understood when translating. It is useful to keep in mind that there are limitations on both sides and on the one hand is the language and on the other, the understanding of the faith.

- We need to be free from the negative. Go beyond duality which is beyond different points of view.

Constructing our minds

- Writing ideas down crystallises our thoughts. You pay more attention when you write things down. It also causes you to reflect and make more enquiries. This reflection causes something new to emerge.

- We all need a foundation or 'soil' to grow from. You grow yourself by making a start then observing, focusing and reviewing over and over again. When you observe you can start to see and appreciate the detail; it
is a continuous process.

- Don't mind other people's business but don't hide in the corner either - you still need contact and interaction with the outside world to learn compassion and selflessness. Your 'corner' is inside you - the community is vital. It is about finding equilibrium. Buddhism is not separate from life; it is life - a way of thinking, an attitude, an outlook. It's not about religion, it is about being human.

- We can talk but without putting it into practice, our words are empty, devoid of content. When we start to put it into practice, we undergo a change, just like a butterfly. Like a butterfly we need the struggle to strengthen our wings but we also need support through this process. When we break through this struggle it is like "rocks exploding and scaring the sky". We have shed our outer shell and 'reconstructed' our mind. We must keep working on the construction of our minds to the best it can be. Sometimes it is difficult to 'reconstruct' but doing and struggling is the way we progress. The struggle means we have become aware and are making progress.