English Dharma Enrichment Work (DEW) on 7 Nov 2021
Establishing A Harmonious Community (Part 1)
Today’s DEW was attended by about 300 students.
The workshop started with Venerable Bensi highlighting the importance of cherishing this morning’s Dharma learning opportunity. Not only have we put in much effort to plant the right causes for today’s learning, the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and Dharma Masters have overcome multiple challenges to bring us these precious teachings.
Venerable Bensi explained that the 7 and 14 Nov’s DEW content focused on the 3rd part of the core teachings taught by Master Jih-Chang – (1) Relying on the Teacher (2) Establishing the Dharma (3) Establishing a Harmonious Community. These were core teachings because by practising them, we would plant the right causes for achieving Buddhahood to benefit all sentient beings.
Next, Venerable Bensi shared the Lamrim’s definition of an Excellent Teacher, whom one should rely on. Participants had the opportunity to interact with Venerable via a poll and the zoom chat to understand some misconceptions that some have, plus the right way to rely on one’s teacher.
Following that, participants then listened to Master Jih-Chang’s discourse on the right way to rely on an excellent teacher, which starts from developing faith in the teacher. Venerable went on to highlight that to put what one has learned from the teacher into practice, one could only do so by learning and working with fellow practitioners (or virtuous friends). This led to the next segment of today’s DEW, which was conducted by Lecturer Cheryl.
The next lesson, led by Lecturer Cheryl, was about An Exemplification of a Harmonious Community. The participants feasted their eyes on the beautiful tulip fields in Prince Edward Island (PEI) where the Great Enlightenment Buddhist Institute Society (GEBIS) was located.
The GEBIS Sangha members had tirelessly grown and cared for the tulips, which had brought much joy to the residents of PEI. More importantly, the monastics brought the Buddha’s pure, complete teachings to the PEI residents and over 100,000 students globally. Lecturer Cheryl shared that under both our excellent teachers, Master Jih-Chang and Teacher Zhen-Ru, there were 1500 monks and 800 nuns, who diligently learned together and worked together to benefit students in various countries. The monastics were learning the Five Great Treatises. Those who had completed their learning proceeded to teach others and did translation of Buddhist scriptures from Tibetan to Chinese, so as to enable many others to learn the Buddha’s complete teachings.
The DEW ended with an inspiring Insightful Praise about building a monastery, which expressed the disciples’ reliance on the excellent teacher, as well as their resolute determination to learn and work together to benefit all sentient beings by establishing the Buddha Dharma.