Q & A Session with Venerable Huifeng – “Buddhism in New Zealand”
On the evening of 23rd August, Venerable Huifeng held another lecture/Q &A session at Fo Guang Shan. It was attended by an audience of over 100.
Many questions were eagerly raised to the Venerable, including:
• How prevent obstructions from illusory thoughts during long sitting meditation sessions?
• How to transcend our unknown habits which are deeply hidden within our consciousness?
• What is the state of consciousness after physical death?
• How to transfer merits to the deceased?
Venerable Huifeng answered these questions with simple and easily digestible answers. He described that contemplative meditation practice can allow one to enter a state of calm and tranquillity, and different people will have a different meditation experiences. If we can prevent external circumstances to affect our inner mind, then our mind can control external states, and this is what’s called “meditative concentration”. Regarding our habits, everyone should diligently seek out and correct these bad tendencies, but if we cannot find them, then we will need to sincerely seek out the help of good Dharma friends such as Venerables and those who are cultivated. It’s important to transcend these impure habits lest they create obstructions for us during the last minutes of our life.
The Venerable described the power of transferring merit as incomprehensible. After a person has passed away, their consciousness can stay in the intermediate state for the cycle of 7x7 days (total 49 days). Usually according to the person’s habits and attachment they will stay close to their physical relatives. So when these relatives diligently recite sutras and conduct Buddhist rituals on their behalf they will feel immense joy from receive these transfers of merit. Their worries for the future, concerns and attachment to the current life will be reduced.
Venerable Huifeng also talked about whether essential meanings of the Dharma can be lost when after translating Buddhist scriptures into English. The Venerable encourages everyone to often read and recite Buddhist sutras and materials, thus developing better understanding of Buddhist knowledge from wide cultural perspective. All words should be understood according to their intended meanings, but nevertheless, similar words may still have different meanings. Hence we should combine the power of many different scriptures to study, thus developing thorough understanding.
Finally Venerable Huifeng encouraged everyone to develop positive thinking, and elevate wisdom from repeated reading of Buddhist sutras. We should stay close to the temple to cultivate our merits and practice the Dharma along the right path.