Wilson Lau New Media

Buddhism - a religion, a philosophy, a way of life

As a Hong Kong Chinese, I grew up living with Buddhist’s values at school and at home so much that I have stopped being conscious about it. But recently I have sort of ‘rediscovered’ the religion and have found it such a peaceful religion, especially amidst all this trouble around the world. I believe in no small part that the religious differences have somehow triggered the problem in, say for example, the Middle East. (For more on Buddhism in Hong Kong, please check out this site.)

My relatives and I, when we have the chance, discuss Buddhism a little bit, and listen to some Buddhist mantra and sutra set to nice tunes. For example, there is a collaboration between Tibetan Lama Gyurme and a French musician Jean-Philippe Rykiel. The music is a fusion of electronic and Lama’s chants. For a bit of sampling, please check out this site Narada.com. We also visit temples in Hong Kong, China and Thailand.

In this picture is an alabaster Burmese Buddha statue my relatives recently purchased from a shop in Bangkok. We were told that it was of Mandalay style. The inscription in Burmese at the base of the statue was a mystery to us. The Venerable Dhammapala at the Centre of Buddhist Studies at Hong Kong University helped us to ‘decipher’ it. It is basically about a Burmese couple commissioned the making of this statue in June 1912 and the merit is meant for Nibbana and shared with all beings.

The Venerable Dhammapla at Centre for Buddhist Studies. He maintains this site for Tung Lin Kok Yuen. I met him in person totally by chance one evening, though we had had some email contact before that.

Buddhists’ organisations in Hong Kong have long been involved in all facets of the local people’s life, including charities, welfare and education. The Hong Kong Buddhist College in Shamshuipo in Kowloon will celebrate its 40th anniversary in 2008.

Buddhist monasteries and temples are major tourist attractions in Hong Kong. The best known one is Po Lin Monastery which is now linked by the cable car Ngong Ping 360 on Lantau Island with the New Territories. We visited Po Lin on a gloomy, misty day in January. The cable car glided towards the monastery in the mist as the Big Buddha gazes from a distance amidst the cloud.

I recommend taking an extra 10 to 15 minutes to go to look at the Wisdom Path where you will find the Heart Sutra Inscription. The calligraphy was donated by Professor Jao Tsung-I, who is one of the patrons of HKU’s Buddhist Studies Centre. Each of these wooden columns is at least 5-metre tall. Studying them one by one when cool breeze sweeps past your ears, bringing along this sweet smell of the moist grass in this isolated, peaceful slope, is an interesting experience.

On a recent trip to Guangzhou, we visited a well-known Buddhist monastery called Guang Xiao Si . The sixth patriarch of Zen Buddhism, Hui Neng, was trained here in the 7th century. I still feel inspired by the verses in one of his poems that emphasize “nothingness”. When I first visited this monastery as a child in the early 1980s, it was so dilapidated due to years of neglect. The main hall was off limit to visitors because the beams on the roof were broken. Tiles fell down and there were holes on the roof. Although the monastery seemed deserted, I was in awe by the history of the place as well as its layout. I felt at peace when I strolled through the garden in the shade of the Bhoddhi trees. Monks swept fallen leaves off the path. This picture shows the main hall after several years of extensive and thorough renovation. The monastery has received huge donations from the community. Somehow it has just become a bit too tacky for my taste. I think it has lost some of its previous atmosphere as a place for quiet meditation and worship.