BLIA (North Island)NZ Executives’ Seminar

On 14 May, BLIA (North Island) NZ held its’ Executives’ Seminar where 50 executives attended and Abbess Manshin was the speaker of the day. The two main topics of the Seminar were the theme of 2010 BLIA General Conference ‘ Environmental and Spiritual Preservation’ and ‘Spiritual Cultivation – Life’s Attitude’, exploring the construction of the mind from a Buddhist perspective.

After the introduction of BLIA (North Island) NZ directors and executives by Dolly Tsai, everyone was encouraged to reflect on the true significance of ‘ Environmental and Spiritual Preservation’ through the lively and humorous interactive talk given by Abbess Manshin. She emphasised that environmental preservation encompasses more than the general concept of reduce, reuse, recycle and restore. Environmental preservation starts from oneself and relies largely on one’s life attitude in order to attain the ultimate goal of preserving our natural environment. She encouraged everyone to purify one’s body, speech and mind and quoted many interesting examples to illustrate how right attitudes effectively help to protect the environment.

During the talk on ‘Spiritual cultivation – Life’s Attitude’, she shared about the concept of the pagoda : ‘Life is beginningless and endless’ and ‘Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication’ to illustrate that simplicity is the result of rich life experiences. One’s mind can be cultivated spiritually through the transformation of all life’s challenges into motivation and strength, overcoming ignorance and attachments, and walking towards a simpler life.

President Dolly Tsai expressed her gratitude to Abbess for her time and guidance on behalf of everyone, and hope that more seminars can be held to benefit more people.