Good morning, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I extend to all of you a warm welcome to the Buddhist Prajna Temple and Library!

I extend my appreciation to Mayor Zehr, Dr. Bryant, Mr. Jason Farrugia, and to all of our distinguished guests, friends, and devotees.Thank you all for taking the time to attend today’s event.This weekend is also a very special celebration for the Shakyamuni Buddha’s 2549th birthday!Your presence is very much appreciated.

To establish a center in Kitchener-Waterloo for the studying of Buddhism has been a wish of our Buddhist practitioners throughout several years.With the generous help of The Corporate Body of the Buddha Educational Foundation in Taiwan and other Pure Land Learning Centers, along with the dedication of all of our volunteers throughout the past several months, we have finally realized our dream.We have established a small Buddhism library with a complete collection of Dharmic materials, though it's still in its initial phase.We believe it will play a positive role in propagating the Buddha’s teaching, promoting multi-cultural activities in society, and enhancing harmony among different religions and ethnic groups.Ultimately, in this way, we may achieve world peace.

Nowadays, with science and technology advancing by leaps and bounds, persons have become busier and busier.We seldom have time for calm introspection, let alone to think about things such as life and death!We have a deep feeling that life is unpredictable, we have more worries, and society is less stable and lacks a mental or spiritual awareness.But persons seldom know the root cause of the problem, and they do not know how to face the cause and solve the problem.Everybody hopes for happiness and world peace.When we ponder deeply over it, we discover that the reason we don’t have happiness and peace is because we are infatuated with modern science and technology, while neglecting the teachings of the ancient sages.Maybe some persons think the teachings of religion are not suitable for modern life, and that we can have whatever we want.But what we see in the newspapers and on television are all manner of natural and artificial disasters; we live lives full of worry.Buddhism teaches that true happiness comes from a peaceful mind.The land will be pure if the mind is pure.If our minds are full of happiness and compassion, then we can face everything happily.Wisdom comes from having a pure mind; the happiest man is the one who has wisdom.

We know the originators of different religions all taught compassion and love.Their purposes were to make others feel happy and to remove from them their suffering.Shakyamuni Buddha spoke of “compassion”; Jesus taught “Love”; and Muhammad taught “Mercy”.“God loves everyone”.When we carefully observe the religious scriptures, we find the world’s religions are based on “ Compassion and Love”.Actually, this is our common goal.All of the religions are our best education.Religion is about the engineering of spiritual development; the problems are how much we know about it and whether we want to learn and practice.We at the BuddhistPrajnaTemple not only study the Buddha’s teachings, but we also study all of the good teachings of different sages and religions.By studying these, we may know the relationships between all of the teachings, and we can promote peace and harmony among different religions and ethnic groups.We hope the teachings of the saints can bring our societies true happiness, peace, and prosperity.

Our wish is that the citizens of this city and of this country live in harmony, equality where they can mutually understand and learn from one another, respect one another, and work together.The elders of this city all are our parents; the children all are our children.We shall carry forward the Buddha’s spirit, building this city and this country with loving-kindness, establishing a model for peace and prosperity.

Finally we hope that the Buddha, the Bodhisattvas, and the Gods will bless Kitchener and Waterloo.With the guidance of our mayors and teachers, we hope to unite our Gods and promote a multi-cultural society, bringing peace and harmony to our cities, to our country, and to the whole world.

In conclusion, I offer my best wishes for good health, happiness, and good fortune to everyone!

Thank you!

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I am deeply honored to have been invited by Master Zhaoxu to offer a few words on the occasion of the opening of the BuddhistTemple.

This is an auspicious and joyous event. Not only for those of you in the Buddhist and Chinese communities but also for all of us in Waterloo Region. When I first came to Water in the 1960s we did not have a Buddhist temple. And while some have emerged in recent years, this is the first BuddhistTemple that has its foundation in the great Chinese Buddhist pure land tradition. It is establishment enriches and expands our multi-cultural and multi-religious Canada.

Buddhism is a remarkable tradition. And over the years I have learned much form those who have taken refuge in the Dharma, the Buddha, and the Sangha. Doboom Tulku, a Tibetan Buddhist put me one the path of meditation, Kosen Nishiyama, a Soto Zen priest, taught me something of the way of zazen, and Han Top, a Korean Buddhist, taught me something of the pure Land tradition and I hope to learn more form Master Zhaoxu. Within Buddhism there are many ways of seeking to overcome suffering and to awaken to the truth of life, to rediscover the Way opened by Siddhartha Gautama who become the Buddha, the Awakened One over two and a half millennia ago. Following his awakening, the Buddha taught the Four Noble Truth: 1. Life is Dukkha/Suffering, 2. The Cause of suffering is Tanah/Clinging Desire, 3. There is a Way to Overcome Suffering, and 4. The Way is the Eight fold Path. All the tradition of Buddhism shares this Foundation.

The tradition of Chinese Buddhism are many, but just variants within the Mahayana Way. In the story of Buddhism in China there emerged some distinctive traditions, most notably the Chan (Zen) and PureLand traditions. It is often said that the Chan Way emphasizes “self-power,” while the PureLand tradition emphasizes the “other power” of Amida Buddha. But both of these Ways come to the same end in Mahayana Buddhism. That end is spoken of in one of the most loved of all Buddhism sutras among the people of East Asia, the Lotus Sutra. There is revealed the Great Vehicle of Mahayana Buddhism: namely, the promise and conviction that all will achieve Enlightenment. The compassion of the Buddha is boundless, it is universal. And the vow of Amida Buddha is to realize Awakening or Enlightenment for all who call upon Amida.

When John Blofeld, an Englishman who went to China in the 1920s, encountered the Ven. Hsu Yun, a Chan master, he was surprised to discover that his monastery also practiced the Pure Land tradition. Blofeld thought these were different ways and pressed Hsu Yun on this point. But the Master explained: the monastery has to serve all kinds of people. Some follow the way of Chan which “leads to a direct perception of reality, enabling us to transcend duality and go straight to the one mind or original nature.” Others repeat the sacred name of Amida Buddha until finally “he achieves such a state of prefect concentration that duality is transcended and he comes face to face with Reality.” “He calls the power by which he achieves this Amida, you may call is Chan, I may call it Original Mind. What is the different? The power he thought was outside, was inside all the time.” It is this remarkable synthesis of the different Ways of Buddhism that is the genius of Chinese Buddhism. It is in the great PureLand tradition that this temple stands.

So, I am delighted to be here for this auspicious occasion. I welcome the establishment of this temple here and trust that it will be a place where the Dharma is taught, the Buddha celebrated, and the Sangha is realized. May it be a place of compassion and peace.

Thank you very much!

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Good morning everyone and thank you very much for the invitation to be part of this opening. It's certainly a privilege for me to be representing our council, for all the citizens of the City of Kitchener to be here for this special occasion, and for those of you who are part of this community.

I think it's the location of this temple and learning centre is very appropriate within the downtown of the City of Kitchener. Because we are a very diverse community, not only the City of Kitchener, but our entire region. And it's diverse in so many different ways: through culture, through our languages that we speak, through our industries, but as well through our faith. And one of the strengths of the community is the respect for one another and respect for the different faiths that we each have. Not only do we have that respect, but we also very much celebrate that respect.

Now even though I am not a Buddhist, I can identify with the Three Learnings of self-discipline, concentration, and wisdom. And my own faith and my own tradition ascribes to the ultimate goal of harmony among everyone and that world peace can be achieved. It's a wonderful goal that I think all people of this world strive to. It is up to us as individuals, up to us as people of faith to ensure that in fact, that sort of goal is achieved at sometime in the near future. It is only on an individual basis that peace and harmony can be achieved and that obviously spreads to throngs of people and to countries and the world can be at peace.

I wish you well here at the Prajna Temple and this learning centre and we look forward to having you very much a part of our downtown community. Thank you!

Day one topic: The Cause of Suffering and Happiness

Since this was the first Buddhist Dharma talks organized by The Toronto Amitabha Society with the cooperation from The Buddhist Parjna Temple in Kitchener. Everyone worked very hard to promote and organizing these two days events. Nobody could predict how many people show up. All we could do was just let it happen. The amount of people came for the day one Talks was not that many, it filled one third of the Lecture Hall. Around thirty to forty people.

Venable Wuling started the talks with a brief history of Shakyamuni Buddha. How a prince named Siddhartha Gautama left behind a luxuries life in the palace to seek the Truth. After he toured outside the palace and he came across an old man, a sick man, a dead man and an ascetic monk. These experiences had bothered him. He wanted to discover an answer to a satisfactory life and end all sufferings.

Then, Venable Wuling pointed out that all sufferings come form within us. She suggested that we should lives ours life with morality and practice the five basic precepts.

Refraining from Killing, Stealing, Sexual Misconduct, Lying and taking of Intoxicants and Drugs.

By practicing refrain from killing, not only harm and injuries another human. But, cultivating compassion and loving-kindness toward all sentient beings. One of the reasons Buddhist are vegetarian.

When one practice refrains from stealing. Not only removing things from other without permission. Also not to steal others people happiness and emotion by ill will. This is the way to controlling greed, desire and attachment.

Sexual misconduct is defined as any sexual behavior that violates the rule of personal propriety, including a person of underage. One is practicing the morality of controlling sensual lust.

Not telling the truth with intention to cheat, injure or bring pain to other person. Those are false speech. Many people unwilling to share their knowledge with others. So they only willing to teach their coworkers limited amount of working knowledge and hold back some secret. Just to prevent others are better then him or her. This is not a cultivation of respect, and truthfulness.

Alcohol and drugs influences the mind that lead to wrong doings. By no taking intoxicants and drugs. One is developing of mindfulness skill.

After two hours of lecture. Venerable wuling answer questions from the audients.

1) Can we kill poisoning inserts that harmful to people?

2) How about to kill for self defend?

3) What is the different between Christian and Buddhist?

The answers from Venerable Wuling.

1) Most inserts or animals are not harmful to people if we could take care of our own environment without interfering to their existing. In this earth, human being has to share their living space with other sentiments beings. Most inserts or animals to kill for a living. They have no intention to harm human. In return we should show the same respect to them.

2) If you have been attacked. By all mean to defend yourself or your family. This is part of the cause and effect. Sometime and some conditions in our life. We have to use our own judgment to handle the particular situation.

3) No different in any other religions or faith. We all teach people to love one another to live in peace and harmony. The reason we had so many different religions is because people came form different country, culture and language. We all learn things differently but having the same goal.

Day two topic: Six Virtues of Living Well

The Dharma Talks started off with her Microphone was not working. We all have to move a table with another microphone toward where Venerable was sitting. After few minutes, all things settle down and she began by saying, Patient is one of the virtues of living well. The rest were Generosity, Morality, Diligence, Concentration and Wisdom. Those were the six paramitas or perfections.

By practicing Patient, it helped us to develop a feeling of calm and bear no angers. Many unhappiness in our life caused by lack of patient and it harbored ill thought and stressful emotion.

Again in Venerable talks. She emphasizes the important of Morality. Morality is a code of good conduct and discipline. Morality is one of the main Buddhist leanings. In order for the society to function in a proper working manners. The people have to take morality very seriously because it unites people to live in a harmony ways.

When someone mentioned generosity. First thing came in our mind will be material giving or donation of money. In fact giving a smile or the Dhamar, spreading and teaching it to the family and friends were part of generosity. Generosity of emotional giving of comfort words and laughter were equally important.

Diligence is constant progress to continue studying the dharma. Everyone here today in this hall is diligence students because you all have the joyful effort to seek the truth.

Meditation is a very good practice to calm our delusion mind. This is one good way to achieve mindfulness or right Concentration. Most of us living in this rat’s race world, especially in USA and Canada. You might take a shower every day to clean up your dirty body. How about your dirty mind? Some monk in Tibet they might not had to wash themselves every day because they mind were so pure that the body was not dirty.

Wisdom means the insight to see things as they really are. By learning the Dharma, chanting and praying that going to guide us to the Right Understanding and Thought. In Pureland practice we recite Namo Amitabha, ten recitations for nine times a day. This is a simple and effective way to cultivar. It wouldn’t take allot of time and effort. But, it benefited us a good deal.

During question period. Those were the questions been asked.

1) What the Buddhist view regarding family issue such as divorce and same sex marriage?

2) If Buddhist doesn’t belief in God then do they belief in a Creator?

Venerable Wuling do admitted that were taught questions. But she had some answers for us but that might not be a good solution, she said.

1) Nowadays family broken up mainly due to less of morality between the spouses. If two persons could love each others from the beginning. They should not give up so easily heading for the separate ways. The parents had to take into the considerations of children to be bought up in such a situation. Same sex marriage is a personal choice. Again, the persons that made such a commitment have to face the consequence. Someone asked The Dalia Lama this question. He was not be able to gave a direct answer. In Buddhist prospective, same sex-marriage, is a personal choice according to the country’s law.

2) Buddhist belief in Dependent Origination and the Law of Cause and Effect. Origination depends first on the present of a cause and then on the present of the right condition. When both cause and condition are right, a result or effect will be produced.

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The second annual Non-violence Festival held in Waterloo Park, Ontario. This festival will be a celebration of the building of a world that is free of all form of Violence. That allows people to share idea on the philosophy of Non-Violence about war, environment destruction, and human rights. Despite unreasonably cold and windy weather and the constant treat of rain. Everyone agreed that it was a good cause to participate. The festival consists of local communities groups and vendors such as Amnesty international, Project Ploughshare, Community gardening, Retrofit co-housing and many others. Activities during the day include games, crafts and face-printing for kids. In the evening local bands, speakers and performance held on the band shell.

The Prajna Buddhist Temple was there to distribute free Buddhism books, CD and DVD in four different languages, English, French, Vietnamese and Chinese. We also had the opportunities to answer some questions from those people interested in Buddhism and Meditation.