8/29/2020   Hsi Lai Temple Dharma Talk, a path to release anxiousness

Fo Guang Shan Hsi Lai Temple held and online English Dharma Talk on August 29. The abbot, Venerable Hui Dong was invited to give a talk on “How to apply the Buddha Dharma in life while facing the upheavals in today’s world”, a total of 80 people attended the talk online.

There are challenges such as COVID-10, race, family, and various conflicts that we have to face in today’s world. These challenges led to negative emotions such as stress, hatred, fear, and anxiety, thus caused spiritual and social problems. Venerable Hui Dong first expounded the importance of Buddhism in today's chaotic world, and encouraged the public to look at the world from different perspectives, and to practice the Dharma in the daily life.

Ven. Hui Dong mentioned, “The mess of the world is generated from people’s mind”. The bitter fruit is due to the attachment of oneself. As the basic of practicing the Buddha-dharma, he encouraged everyone to have the right view, to observe the truth of impermanence.

“We can’t control the external world, but we can examine our own mind.” Methods and benefits of meditation were mentioned and provided during the talk. In order to live a positive life, Abbot encourage everyone to practice “do good deeds, speak good words, think good thoughts” which was advocated by Venerable Master Hsing Yun, the founder of Fo Guang Shan.

Questions were opened after the talk. “How do you not get angry when you see somebody has done something harmful to the public during the pandemic?”, “How to get a balance between theory and practice?”, “How to improve the power of mindful and how to evaluate the correctness of the thoughts?”, “If the mind and body are not me, who is me?”, “How to keep calm?”, Abbot answered the questions patiently. The participants appreciated Hsi Lai Temple for hosting this online Dharma talk.

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