DEW 2021 Achieving Greater Heights Life After Life
The 2021 DEW started off with a new look and feel in presentation format, and as usual with an interesting backdrop for speakers as the English DEW branding. This morning saw about 340 participants attending.
Venerable Bensi started by bringing up the key theme of the current DEW, which is Achieving Greater Heights Life after Life. Venerable elaborated that we need high status rebirth in every life as an important condition to get better and achieve full liberation to become Buddha. Master Jih-Chang and Teacher have created a conducive environment for us to create good karma. This DEW covered the core values taught by Master, which concerned our current and future lives.
Lesson 1 In the first lesson, Lecturer Jennifer Goh and Lecturer Pua Hwee Leng brought up the importance of the two E, which is 1) Excellent (True) Dharma and 2) Enabling the Buddha’s Teaching to stay in the world.
Lecturer Jennifer explained that Master demonstrated the importance of preserving the Buddha’s Teaching during the Taiwan earthquake. He urged the Sangha members to stay alive, so that the Dharma could continue to stay in the world. He guided his disciples that besides essential survival tools, they also needed to take along the Lamrim book during any disaster. This also demonstrated Master’s wisdom and kindness towards sentient beings.
Two polls were conducted. The first was “Do we need the people who have learned the Dharma to keep the teaching in the world?”. The second was “Does propagating the Dharma have anything to do with me?” Both questions received absolute “yes” responses from the participants.
Next, Lecturer Jennifer played a discourse by Abbot Jing Yuan that highlighted: the Excellent teaching comprises of two1) Nature of scripture and 2) Nature of realization. These two have a cause and effect relationship.
Lecturer Pua Hwee Leng explained that to enable the Dharma to stay in this world for a long time, we need practitioners who can uphold and propagate the excellent Dharma. Thus, we must make the aspiration to become such practitioners! Lecturer Pua Hwee Leng then played part of the Global Lamrim II (Discourse 227) to emphasize that Excellent Teachers with Complete, Pure Lineage are very important because only the teaching of pure lineage is able to guide us to escape from the suffering of the three miserable realms and be liberate from samsara.
Lesson 2 After a short break, Associate Lecturer Patrick Chua proceeded to touch on how easy it seemed for us to meet the Dharma. He cited that when he first learned the Lamrim about 10 years ago, he had lamented about having to carry the Lamrim book. He later realized that the Lamrim came from hard work of past masters to seek Dharma & therefore urge us not to take the scriptures for granted.
Many past masters had undergone long and difficult journeys to seek the perfect Dharma in India. In the ancient days, there was no modern transport or navigation facilities, and this resulted in the loss of many practitioners’ lives. On average, only 10% survived for each trip made. Indeed the current Dharma we are learning is a precious gift from past masters and practitioners.
Lesson 3 Venerable Bensi next linked the earlier 2 lessons with a chart from abbot’s discourse that showed the history of Buddhism with two dark ages. It was during those periods when both Master Atisha and Master Tsong-Kha-Pa had revived the complete teachings, which has lasted till today. Master Jih-Chang and Teacher further propagated these teachings to other parts of the world, including Singapore.
Both our teachers, through their wisdom and care, had systematically established a Dharma education system for us, so that we can have the complete tenets to achieve emptiness.
Similarly in Singapore, Abbot Jing Yuan also introduced novel approaches to let the public connect with Buddhism and learn the teachings whenever they visited BW Monastery.
Summary Venerable Bensi wrapped up by reminding participants that teaching & learning is a continuous work to preserve the Buddha’s excellent teaching. We therefore need to treasure, preserve & continue with the Lamrim classes in order to plant the karmic causes for meeting the excellent teaching again and again in future lives.
Steven LeongD.E.W. Committee
