The Abbot President of Jiezhuang Lu Temple of Xiyuan Garden in Suzhou, China Visits DDM to Promote Buddhist Education
At nine o’clock on the morning of September 3rd, the Abbot President of DDM, Venerable Guo Dong greeted a party of monastics led by Venerable Pu Ren from Jiezhuang Lu Temple at the Wish-Fulfilling Guanyin Hall at DDM to deepen the Dharma friendship of the two monasteries. The two Abbot Presidents earnestly talked on the topic of education and they created karmic ties by giving presents of dharma literature with each other. In this atmosphere of sharing, Venerable Guo Dong encouraged the Venerables present, despite the diverse backgrounds they may be from, to play the role of spreading the Dharma and to assist sentient beings in purifying humanity and society.
Venerable Pu Ren, who is also the vice president of the Buddhist Association of Jiangsu Province in China, said the Dharma education service of DDM is very worthy institution to learn from. He added that the public has from time to time not had a good impression of monastics, but the late Venerable Master Sheng Yen let the Buddha’s Dharma be known to the world to guide the public in uplifting living habits in an ‘implicit way’. In conclusion, he acknowledged the late Venerable Master Sheng Yen’s work in paving a way for the success of Buddhist education and considered Venerable Master Sheng Yen a contemporary eminent monk of Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, and Macao. For this reason, he specifically led the Venerables and scholars of Jiezhuang Lu Temple to visit DDM.
Venerable Guo Dong responded that the ‘implicit way’ which Venerable Pu Ren mentioned is really the “care” and “education” which DDM has always put emphasis on. Based on the two core ideas of care and education, DDM continually promotes Protecting the Spiritual Environment, the Fivefold Spiritual Renaissance Campaign, The Six Ethics of the Mind Campaign and Three-fold Education which are all methods for improving society. Finally, he added that to study the Buddha’s Dharma is to liberate all sentient beings from suffering, and he hoped everyone can return to the original intention of the Buddha, tolerate cultural differences, and communicate with one another. Thus, the fight and injury of the mundane world could be avoided.
Afterwards, the visiting group of twenty-five people headed to the Education and Administration Building, the Library & Information Center and Founding History Memorial Hall where all were deeply impressed by the long-term cultivation of Buddhist education by DDM. Owing to a similar Dharma lineage, members of the visiting group said they wished to make a special visit to DDM again and experience the Chan practice of DDM.
(Translated by Tom Hsieh/ Edited by Australia Editing Team)