Visit of Devotees of FGS Hsing Ma Buddhist Temple Malaysia to FGS South Island

Accompanied by Buddha’s Light International Association (BLIA) South Island member William Chong, 12 devotees of Fo Guang Shan (FGS) Hsing Ma Buddhist Temple Malaysia visited FGS Temple South Island on 27th October 2019. They were welcomed by FGS South Island Minister-in-charge Venerable Jue Xi who brought them to view the external architecture of the Temple building and to tour the Fo Guang Yuan (FGY) Art Gallery Christchurch. For the first time, the visitors found the four Bodhisattvas sited at the external wall instead of the interior of the Temple building, and were told that this design was inspired by the ‘Longman Grottoes’, giving rise to a merging of Eastern and Western cultures, and adding character and charisma to the Art Gallery.

Afterwards, Venerable Jue Xi brought the visitors to the Buddha Hall to perform light offering. She also narrated to them the long journey undergone by FGS South Island in its history of Temple construction; from the start of construction, to the time of Canterbury Earthquake, and then through the three-years eight-months reconstruction period when FGS was forced to move out of the wrecked building. During this unfortunate period, FGS South Island lost many of its devotees. After the reconstruction when FGS moved back to the renovated building, everything has to restart afresh; step by step the members put in their hard work to propagate Humanistic Buddhism. Later, Venerable Jue Xi presented to each visitor the ‘2020 FGS New Zealand Calendar’ as souvenir, and the visitors were pleasantly elated.

After the Temple tour, the visitors adjourned to the Water Drop Cafe for tea. Here, by clever use of simple daily life’s stories, Venerable Jue Xi managed to bring out the beauty and usefulness found in the Dharma. Venerable told the visitors that they were lucky to be able to come into contact with Buddhism, especially authentic Buddhism, in this part of Southern Pacific. They should treasure the affinity resulted from the good Karmas of their previous lives. Venerable likened life to tea. When we are young, we are like green tea; fresh and full of fragrance, but lacking in ripeness and tastes abrasive. When we grow old, we are like red tea; tastes smooth (because of longer roosting) and suitable for repetitive drinking. Nowadays, we are living in a troublesome world and cannot avoid facing external temptations and challenges. But if we can maintain our belief in the Dharma teachings and not affected by the surrounding disturbances, we can avoid being misled by the bad elements.

At the end of the visit, the visitors thanked Venerable Jue Xi for her kind advices and hoped to have another chance to revisit FGS South Island for another round of Dharma education.