Journal 9.26

Sept 26th, Saturday                                              Sunny

Today, our school has organized a trip for us exchange students. The half day we spent in Fo Guang Shan is very pleasant. From this experience I have learned a lot that Buddhism does not only consist of those hard-understanding Buddhist scriptures but also contain a lot humanity.

As soon as we entered the gate, we found groups of kids playing around. The nun who speaks bilingually coming from Canada told us that the "2009 Children Happiness Art Festival" was holding today. The festival consisted of a play concerning about the Monkey King, a painting exhibition and plenty popular science games.

I was a little shocked because we would never see such a scene happening in the temple of the Mainland. The temple was supposed to be serious and mysterious without laughs, running kids and noises. The wall blocked the temple off the world with no interacting with the mass population.

The nun told us Fo Guang Shan had always been aiming to the education. There had been several universities in Taiwan and the U.S. Colorful activities were held regularly in Fo Guang Shan to make contributions to education. All of these were rarely seen in the mainland.

I think the reason why there are differences is the perspective when it comes to the function of religion. Most people in the mainland may think the Buddhism is a way to help himself but not the whole society. It seems there is a wide gap between the temple and the society. On the contrary, the Buddhism in Taiwan is open to everybody and its believers take helping other people as their necessary courses.

I hope that the Buddhism in the mainland can not only focus on the Sutra but also on the environment outside the temple. The temples should try to take off their mysterious clothes and become more human. I believe it is the only way the Buddhism could enhance and glorify.