Celebrating Mother’s Day – The FGS South Island Way
On 10 May 2014, members of Buddha’s Light International Association (BLIA) South Island celebrated Mother’s Day at the Cloud and Water House, Christchurch, by taking part in the following activities: Folding of Paper Cranes, Chanting of Heart Sutra and, Expressing of gratitude to the Mothers. The event, jointly organized by Fo Guang Shan (FGS) and BLIA South Island, was well attended by more than 80 BLIA members among whom were BLIA South Island President See Shen, Lee and Vice President Louise Kuo. The purpose of organising the event was two- fold; firstly, to acknowledge and thank all the Mothers for all the sacrifices they have made and secondly to thank all the volunteers for their services rendered in the recent Buddha’s Birthday Celebration.
The celebration started with a “Filial piety Sutra” Session by Venerable Jue Xi. This was followed by reading of an article written by Venerable Master Hsing Yun on “Prayer for Mother”. Before ending the dharma session, Venerable Jue Xi elaborated on the Buddhist concept of filial piety by telling the story of “Zen Master Huangbo Xiyun and his Mother”.
Afterwards, the congregations were treated to a sumptuous vegetarian meal and were entertained by various programs presented by the members of BLIA. A short video “ World’s Toughest Job” was shown to illustrate and praise the greatness of the selfless sacrifices of Mothers.
For this year’s Mother’s Day celebration, all the members of BLIA pledged to carry out three activities, namely, to fold paper cranes, to recite Heart Sutra while folding and to express gratitude to Mothers. On Mother’s Day, more than one thousand paper cranes were exhibited. With ingenuity, the paper cranes variously represented the Humanistic Buddhism Spirits of Three Good Deeds, Four Gives, Five Harmonious and Six Paramitas. In a variety of themes, the exhibits brought freshness and joy to all present. BLIA Youth Adult Division (YAD) made special effort to hang 400 odd paper cranes on tree branches, thus manifesting the spirit of esprit de corps and youthful ingenuity. The one thousand odd paper cranes carried with them one thousand odd recitations of Heart Sutra by members of BLIA SI, all with the aim of transferring merits to Mothers of the World. YAD further presented hand gesture “Droplets of Gratitude” to entertain the crowd.
In her winding up speech, BLIA president See Shen, Lee thanked all those present for making the event a huge success. She specifically thanked Venerable Abbess Manshin and Venerable Jue Xi for taking care of BLIA members of in ways Mothers would care for their children. She also thanked those who have helped in the recent Buddha’s Birthday Celebration. Finally, President See Shen, Lee wished all the Mothers a “Happy Mother’s Day!”
Venerable Jue Xi, in her parting speech, explained on the meaning of folding of paper crane. She was deeply impressed by the serious effort put up by BLIA members who had, within a short period of one week, completed the folding of more than one thousand paper cranes. Venerable Jue Xi encouraged every member to join in the paper crane folding groups so as to contribute full-heartedly, with joy, kindness and compassion, to the activities. She said such meaningful activities would transfer merits to the Public, in general and to Mothers, in particular.
Venerable Jue Xi announced that the three activities started for the Mother’s Day celebration will be continued till the “Filial Piety” Month and hopefully ten thousand paper cranes will be coincide with the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva on 8th August. At that time, competitions will be held to select the team with the best originality, the most productive team and, the best design team.