UoA Fo Guang Club Deep Meaningful Conversation

Fo Guang Club held its first Deep Meaningful Conversation on the 22nd of March at the University of Auckland. YAD Subdivision 2 President Thomas Lai led members through a short meditation session to get everyone feeling calmed and focused before reading the chapter Causes, Conditions and Effects from the book ‘Buddha-Dharma: Pure and Simple’ by Venerable Master Hsing Yun.

The reading session commenced with calm bodies and focused minds as FGC President SinJun led members in taking turns to read the chapter. Throughout the reading, they learnt that everything relies on causes and is supported by conditions that give rise to effects. All lives are revolved around and related to one another, and henceforth it is important to be kind to others and create good causes and conditions to yield success and for good effects to occur. If one is willing to work hard for achievements, wholesome effects can be attained regardless of the situation.

This was followed by a group discussion where participants shared their learnings and interpretations of the chapter. An interesting question during the discussion that left members pondering was: What would you do differently from now on to improve your causes and conditions for your next life? As thoughts and reflections flashed across the room.

FGC member Winnie expressed her gratitude to the committees for organising this event, as she greatly enjoyed the discussions. She added that there was still much knowledge to fill and would love to have a deeper understanding of the topic. She hoped the session would be longer and shared that she would be looking forward to more of these sessions in the future.

FGC President SinJun shared: "It was great to see members actively participating in the discussions around causes, conditions and effects. As we answered the discussion questions, many questions and thoughts filled the room." SinJun further added that we are constantly learning and improving; hence it is also important that we make an effort to create good causes and conditions for others and ourselves.

It was a meaningful session where sharing of thoughts, perception of ideas, understandings and self-reflection took place. It was not before long that the enjoyable session came to an end while participants anticipated the next coming event.