Visit of Chancellor of FGS Institute of Humanistic Buddhism to FGS South Island

On 1st July 2019, the Chancellor of Fo Guang Shan Institute of Humanistic Buddhism (FGS IHB) Venerable Miao Fan, accompanied by Venerable Zhi Sui from the same department, paid a visit to FGS South Island. Later in the evening, the visitors held a Sharing Session with members of Buddha’s Light International Association (BLIA) South Island to find out more about the model and direction FGS South Island adopted in the propagation of Humanistic Buddhism in Christchurch. At the Sharing Session, Venerable Miao Fan shared with the attendees the wisdom and personal life stories of Master Hsing Yun. This Sharing Session was attended by 30 people made up of  FGS New Zealand Abbess Venerable Manshin, FGS South Island Minister-in-charge Venerable Jue Xi, BLIA South Island President Bernie, Vice President Lih-son Ding and 20 odd BLIA South Island members,

Aided by video slides, BLIA South Island Director Kok-Wei Low talked about his experiences with the motel owners and the reactions he received from them while carrying out the distribution of Master Hsing Yun’s book “366 days with Wisdom”. He reported that, in all, 1300 motels were approached and more than 800 of them responded positively, resulted in a distribution of a total of 20,000 copies of the book. Next BLIA South Island Vice President Lih-Son Ding briefed the visitors on the “2019 FGS South Island 3G4G Festival of Cultural Sharing” project with a video presentation showing how Master Hsing Yun’s 3G4G concept was effectively carried out by BLIA members and how the New Zealand Police actively participated in the activity. BLIA member Juin-Mei Chang reported that the exhibitions by local artists at Fo Guang Yuan (FGY) Art Gallery Christchurch have been well received by the local populace and the Gallery has now become a platform for artistic interchanges and a melting pot for Eastern and Western cultures. BLIA South Island committee member Cao Qian shared her experiences in the ‘Coffee and Chocolate Festival’ and the ‘FGS Vege-Fair’. The ‘Coffee and Chocolate Festival’ was very well received by the local populace. FGS South Island invited local suppliers to set up stores. In the Festival, the crowd was treated to a painting demonstration by ‘Coffee Artist’, a talk by Chocolate Ambassador and a host of performances by local artistes. Ticket sales for the Festival topped 1600 and 1300 visitors visited the Festival. Due to its success, this Chocolate Festival has now become the new model for the propagation and integration of Humanistic Buddhism in New Zealand. Other than the above effect, the Chocolate Festival and the Vegefest have also served to expose more local Kiwi to vegetarianism.

FGS South Island Minister-in-charge Venerable Jue Xi pointed out that FGS South Island is the FGS Temple located at the southernmost of the World and is sparsely populated. Due to these geographical factors, it is very difficult to maintain running of the Temple by following the conventional way of mobilising its disciples and the Chinese community alone. Only through localisation and active engagement of the Kiwi populace would it be possible to propagate Humanistic Buddhism here. This was witnessed by the “Embroidery Exhibition by artist Yao Hong Ying” at FGY Art Gallery Christchurch in 2009 when FGS South Island managed to register 2000 ‘Friends of FGY’ within a short period of 2 months. It was due to this large pool of ‘Friends of FGY’ and the accumulation of 11 years of experiences thereafter that the success of the recent “Coffee and Chocolate Festival” was built on,

In her speech, FGS New Zealand Abbess Venerable Manshin stressed the point that, other than participating in prayer sessions and studying the Dharma, ‘Art’, ‘Food’ and ‘Education’  all form important parts of Humanistic Buddhism. For this reason, FGS North Island has continuously carried out the annual “3G4G Festival of Cultural Sharing” for the past 6 years; and FGS South Island has similarly organised this same event for the past 2 years. All these events have brought much acclaims and tremendous responses from the New Zealand public. Afterwards, Abbess Manshin shared her joy and enthusiasm by giving a lively narration of the video presentation of the exciting moments encountered in the distribution of the book “366 Days with Wisdom” as well as in the “Coffee and Chocolate Festival”. For all these achievements, Abbess Manshin thanked all BLIA members for their relentless supports to FGS South Island Minister-in-charge Venerable Jue Xi.

In her summing up speech, Chancellor of FGS IHB Venerable Miao Fan said that through this sharing session, she could see the positive results achieved by FGS South Island in the propagation of Humanistic Buddhism and the actual realisation of Master Hsing Yun’s original concept of Humanistic Buddhism here. After she returns home, Venerable Miao Fan hopes to compile all these facts and observations into a paper and promote this New Zealand model to others. She claimed that since Master Hsing Yun’s concept of ‘propagating Buddhism via Culture’ has taken root here, New Zealand can now claim to be the site for Humanistic Buddhism. Venerable Miao Fan later shared with the gathering the speech given by Master Hsing Yun at this year’s Memorial Service celebrating the 50 years Opening anniversary of FGS Headquarter. The audience were visibly moved when Venerable Miao Fan narrated how, at the age of 93, Master Hsing Yun still maintained his unyielding spirit by uttering the words “I will work harder!”. At the end of the session, the attendees expressed that they had  indeed benefitted greatly from this gathering and promised to delve more into the books written by Master Hsing Yun so as to grow their wisdom and to generate positivity.