Fo Guang Shan (North Island) English Dharma Talk : Joyful Wisdom, Mindful Living: Finding Inner Peace through Meditation

The English speaking members of the Auckland BLIA, along with the members of the public were privileged to be able to attend a lecture given by Venerable Miao Guang. She is a visiting Venerable from Taiwan and is known to the Auckland members through the Dharma DVDs shown at the Temple. Over 70 people came to listen to her.
The themes of her lecture were: Joyful wisdom; Finding inner peace; Mindful Living.
The Venerable began her lecture on the benefits of meditation and the long term impact that it has on physical and mental health and the attainment of inner peace. Through meditation we learn to observe our thoughts and ourselves with honesty; we learn to take note of what is happening in our mind. Through meditation we learn concentration and mindfulness. We can consider whether they are wholesome or unwholesome thoughts. Then we can then apply our Dharma learning to it.
She then went on to speak of discovering yourself through observation of self and that we have eight consciousnesses, which she then explained in detail.
The Venerable then spoke on a range of other topics. For example:
• The ultimate truth of cause and conditions. Everything arises because of causes and conditions. Everything ceases because of causes and conditions. For example:
Cause = apple seed; Conditions = water, soil, fertiliser, sun; = An apple tree which produces apples.
• If you have problems accept, observe, and resolve. Meditation allows us to do this. Ask yourself questions. Be honest with your self.
• Let go of your expectations; don’t become too attached to them; learn to let go.
The attendees spoke of how easy they found her lecture to follow and the modern examples she used to illustrate the Dharma lecture she gave. For the regular English Sub chapter members they appreciated her fresh perspective on Dharma topics that are discussed during the Wednesday evening Lotus Link classes and hope that there will be more visiting English speaking lecturers in the future.