Oceania region was tasked with organising a Round Table Conference on the sixth day of 2022 BLIA Virtual 4th Meeting of the Seventh Board of Directors (7th of October). The attendees of the North Island Meeting include Abbess of FGS NZ, Venerable Manshin; Minister-in-charge of FGS Auckland, Venerable Rulian; President of BLIA North Island Chapter, Yulin Ku; Vice presidents, Nick Yoong and Larry Yang; subchapters’ supervisors and committee members, alongside other BLIA members from all around the world. With the conference theme of Localisation via Culture and Education, approximately 50 people joined the Round Table Conference when the New Zealand Temple Team presented a practical example – Three Goodness and Four Givings Festival of Humanistic Buddhism Cultural Sharing (3G4G Festival of Humanistic Buddhism), which has been organised in both North and South Island over the past 8 years.
Since the Festival was first founded in 2014, a total of 50 schools, over 205,000 teachers, parents and students have taken part in this programme. The aim of this Festival is to introduce Buddha and the beauty of Humanistic Buddhism via interactive learning to students aged between 5 to 18, from different cultural background and races. Various questions such as “Why should we organise the 3G4G Festival of Humanistic Buddhism?”, “How did the Temple design the 3G4G Festival events” and “What are the strongholds of Humanistic Buddhism which can be utilised for localisation?” were brought up by the facilitators of the session – Vice President of BLA North Island, Larry Yang and Secretary, Muyang Wang.
Abbess Manshin complimented BLIA members worldwide in her speech for their bravery and great teamwork all around the world, which contributes to the harmony of the society and adds colour to multiculturism by sticking to the vows and shouldering responsibilities. Localisation does not confine to local geographical location only, but it spans across the entire world and projecting forward to the future. Venerable Master Hsing Yun once said, “Localisation comes in many forms, such as language, social custom, habit and education,” which refines our understanding on localisation. We will have to be futuristic in order to expand one’s growth, which will further portray a deeper context in a multicultural society.
The President of BLIA North Island, Yulin Ku gave words of compliments to the organiser for combining wisdom and innovation, where the subdivisions from all over the world came together and supported the conference. A relatively new technology platform, Vfairs, was utilised to gather BLIA members around the globe. The conference song for this year, Good to Have You, seems to be perfectly crafted to represent this well, where good affinities were amassed in a place akin to the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss. “I believe that the conference this year provides a good cause and condition for the BLIA members to grow and enhance their lives,” she added.
The President of BLIA North Island Third Subchapter, Anita Chu expressed that she was touched for being able to join the 2022 BLIA Board of Directors Meeting, especially after seeing BLIA chapters all around the world for organising events diligently to introduce Humanistic Buddhism and Fo Guang Shan temples. The theme of the conference is Wisdom and Innovation. Technology and innovation are merely tools, whereas wisdom is the root. Once equipped with wisdom, technology and innovation can be used not only for Buddhism, but also for all human beings.
The advisor of BLIA North Island First Subchapter, Jennifer expressed her gratitude towards the organiser – BLIA chapters of North America and venerables for offering a myriad of interesting and meaningful conference activities. As Venerable Master Hsing Yun once said, “Impermanence stimulates positivity and the charge to move forward”, innovative technologies and concepts were created as the results of impermanence caused by the pandemic, such as the usage of Vfairs for the conference this time.
The advisor of BLIA North Island First Subchapter, Peggy mentioned that she was able to feel the energy of BLIA members from all 5 continents through the screen in promoting Humanistic Buddhism and putting Buddha’s teachings into practice. “We are fortunate to be under the leadership of Venerable Master Hsing Yun, and it’s such a blessing to be learning from the utmost virtuous people from BLIA,” she added.
