Public Activities for Melbourne DDM

The Melbourne Dharma Drum Mountain (DDM) Melbourne Branch was invited by Stockland Shopping Centre to join them for the oriental promotion programme at the centre in October 2006.

We were delighted to host a series of events in the foyer of the shopping centre with the aim to enhance religious understanding amongst the multi-cultural populace living in the local municipality. We were invited to perform the 8 Form Moving Mediation and the Blessing Ceremony.

Linda Marett from Melbourne Branch gave an introduction to Dharma Drum Mountain and Sheng-Yen Shifu. Chi Kwang Sunim from the Seon Centre, who attended the Women Faith Leaders' Retreat in DDM Chin Shan in June, performed the blessing. Assisting her were two Korean nuns from a local Korean temple.

This program was held over four weekends. Our demonstration of 8FMM was well received by the public. We had a couple of DDM practitioners on stage demonstrating the movements and several DDM volunteers stationed around the room to explain basic concepts to interested persons. All volunteers wore DDM uniforms to show the unity of our team.

Melbourne DDM members have been practicing these eight forms for sometime and we firmly believe these movements are beneficial to our health, and hence we have taken Shifu's words into account and have attempted to promote these eight forms of moving meditation in a spirit of Bodhi-mindedness.

At our bookstall, we had many complimentary booklets and Shifu's books on display and the public were glad to acquire these literatures on topics such as Zen meditation practices, Buddhism and the DDM Eight Form Moving Meditation.

Finally, we thank Shifu for his spiritual guidance to raise our awareness in the Dharma and for his generosity in giving us the opportunity to reap the merits by promoting the vision and ideals of DDM in the wider communities of Melbourne.


(Article submitted by Chiew Shin-Yee and authorized by Laura Chan)