DNA of the Mind Dharma Talk by The Most Venerable Hsin Ting enlighten many hearts

Fo Guang Shan North Island had the honour of hosting The Most Venerable Hsin Ting during his visit to New Zealand in 2012. On 13 November at 7pm, BLIA (North Island) NZ President Dolly Tsai invited Venerable Hsin Ting to hold a dharma talk titled 'DNA of the Mind' at the Main Shrine with 380 people in attendance.

Venerable Hsin Ting emphasised that Buddhism is the teaching of spiritual sociology. According to Founder of Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Order Venerable Master Hsing Yun, we need to develop Humanistic Buddhsim within ourselves. Human nature is a combination of physical and spiritual well being with our minds determining the manner in which we talk and act. Good health enables us to control our physical body and spiritual mind. Hence, cultivating a healthy mind is one of the fundamental lessons in our lives.

Venerable Hsin Ting also mentioned that our sixth and seventh conciousness are forms of conditions. The sixth conciousness correspond to our sense of mind and behaviour while the seventh conciousness contain selfish thoughts and unwholesome habits. The seventh conciousness takes all good and bad karma, wholesome and unwholesome habits and sends them to the eight conciousness, sometimes called the storehouse conciousness. This conciousness will determine the fate of our next life, therefore we must strive to eliminate any bad karmic seeds and plant only good ones in our mind's DNA. With a purified DNA mind, we would be able to take control of our present and uplift our future.

During the dharma talk, Venerable Hsin Ting also told many interesting stories about the Three Good Deeds that are Do Good Deeds, Say Good Words and Think Good Thoughts. Whatever we encounter in life has a cause and effect. Our fate and experiences in this life are the effects of causes planted during our past lives. Likewise, what we are causing in this life will be the effects during our next lives. By enhancing our spiritual DNA, we would find answers to many life challenges.

At the end of the talk, Venerable Abbess Manshin thanked Venerable Hsin Ting on behalf of the audience for discussing the sixth, seventh and eighth conciousnesses and in the process unlocking the mystery behind our mind's DNA. In order to purify our lives, we must be willing to search for solutions to problems with open hearts and powerful minds. DNA of the Mind received a raptuos round of applause from the audience who were reluctant to leave even after one and a half hours of being enlightened with Buddhism.