Prince Edward Island (P.E.I) Buddhist monks welcome outside world this weekend
Dear friends around the world,
I am most happy to see this beautiful new Buddhist Retreat centre opening in Prince Edward Island, Canada. It is incredibly important to incorporate some results of meditation in our lives. Buddha was so open and His sole intention was to benefit a person whether you accept His teachings in full or not. A part of Buddha’s teachings can be extracted and incorporated into our daily lives. We are so inundated with materialism and bombarded with all the items our mind tells us we must have to be happy and along the way we sometimes lose that happiness. Meditation can stabilize our mind, give it focus and relax us. When we are relaxed we tend to do less harm to others and ourselves. We tend to create less unhappiness. Meditation is a method taught by Buddha to release all harmful emotions and increase positive emotions so that our short lives are not wasted on activities that really bring us nothing but emptiness. An emptiness of feeling our time and efforts are wasted. Our lives are wasted.
I offer my most sincere prayers to the continued growth of this beautiful place and great spiritual success.
Tsem Rinpoche
P.E.I. Buddhist monks welcome outside world this weekend
1,800 visitors have already registered online for either Saturday or Sunday open house
By Sara Fraser, CBC News Posted: May 02, 2016 4:00 PM AT
An aerial shot of the Great Enlightenment Buddhist Institute Society compound in Little Sands, P.E.I (Submitted by GEBIS)
Location of Prince Edward Island, Canada (the red dot)
P.E.I.’s Buddhist monks are opening the doors wide for their biggest-ever open house this weekend at their monastery complex in Little Sands.
The Great Enlightenment Buddhist Institute Society (GEBIS) has made the Island their home for the last eight years. They’ve built up a large compound of about a dozen buildings, which they’ve said is worth about $10 million, and still expanding. Hundreds of Asian monks study there year-round.
“This is just a way for us to make personal connections with Islanders,” said Venerable Dan, GEBIS public affairs spokesperson.
Islanders will get a chance to see ornate Buddha statues. (Sara Fraser/CBC)
“This weekend, the Mother’s Day weekend, will be a perfect opportunity for us to open the door and welcome Islanders and friends to come in and get to know more about us.”
Islanders can tour the facilities, which include a prayer hall for up to 500 monks adorned with gold-plated Buddha statues, and living accommodations where the monks bunk in austere, 10-man rooms.
They’ll also show off some of their traditional handwork including drawing and intricate, colourful sculpture created from butter.
‘A wonderful experience’
“A lot of monks are pretty nervous, cause they’ve never spoken English before,” said Venerable Dan.
Venerable Dan says the annual open house is 'a way for us to make personal connections with Islanders.' (CBC/Jessica Doria-Brown)
Because of the popularity of past open houses — 1,200 people came to last year’s one-day open house — GEBIS is asking Islanders to pre-register for the open house on either May 7 or 8 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The address is 12174 Shore Rd., Little Sands, four kilometres east of the Wood Islands Information Centre.
About 1,800 people have already registered on their website, gebisociety.org/openhouse. No one will be turned away, said Venerable Dan, but parking could become a problem if too many folks show up.
“Come join us for a wonderful experience,” said Venerable Liu in a message on the event’s Facebook page.
About 1,800 people have already signed up to come see the monastery in Little Sands. (Sara Fraser/CBC)
Celebrating Mothers Day
The open house will show how monks live their daily lives at the monastery, and include “a demonstration of student monks learning using Buddhist debate on the Buddhist philosophy,” said Liu, as well as “an exhibition of acts and stories of kindness between the Islander and the monks over the past few years.”
The monks will also showcase how they celebrate Mothers Day, which is Sunday, “by showing appreciation to the kindness of their mothers,” said Liu.
The monks have become known for their home made baked goods, and Islanders are invited to sample them.
The whole tour should take 60 to 90 minutes, Venerable Liu said.
The public can see how the monks live, 10 to a dorm room. (Sara Fraser/CBC)
[Source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-monks-open-house-little-sands-1.3562409]
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Prince Edward Island (PEI) is a province of Canada and is the smallest province of Canada in both land area. The island is famous for red sand beaches, red soil, potatoes, to name a few. The coastal and pastoral beauty of this place has attracted people to stay because of small town feel, non-existent rush hours, short drives to work, low crime rate and quality of education.
A Buddhist monastic community from Taiwan had set up a community for people from around the world to practice Buddhism on this island.
They has made the Island their home for years with many facilities, including a monastery, dormitories, libraries, and worship rooms . The friendliness of Islanders has warmed their hearts, and they are reaching out to their local community, building friendships with Islanders. That’s great that they had adopted an open-door policy, inviting anyone into their facilities to see what they were all about. They study and practice all Buddhism, from different sects such as , the Gelug lineage of Tibetan Buddhism and the Lu Tsung lineage of Chinese Buddhism and they’re also open to other traditions. and then promote those universal ideas and values. A wonderful experience for many of them. Looking at the pictures tells all.
Thank you Rinpoche for this wonderful sharing.
Open house is such a welcoming and warm concept to reach out to people who may or may not already appreciate the tradition that is welcoming them.
Rejoice that this corner of Canada is able to be a beacon of Buddhism for the benefit of sentient beings.
Everything about Great Enlightenment Buddhist Institute Society in the photos shows how neat and tidy everything is. Maybe that is a reflection of the state of mind of the monks taking care of the centre – being very mindful and aware. This also show their gratitude for the facilities that they have by their taking very good care of it.
And, how they show their generosity by sharing their teachings and believes with the locals with this open house. Nice that they requested for pre-registration online as this will definitely help with the traffic control.
Very heartening to see the locals being polite and co-operative by having so many pre-registering for the event.
Nice to note too that it’s Mother Day. Maybe that is to quietly respect the Buddhist believe that all beings have been our Mothers before.
Thank you for the sharing.
This is the first time I come across a place called Prince Edward Island. With a populace of less than 200,000 people, it is a big deal to have such huge and beautiful Buddhist Retreat Centre built for the people there. I am even more impressed that so many people registered for the open day of the Retreat Centre. It is a clear sign that Buddhism is gaining popularity in the west. Rejoice for the people in Prince Edward Island. I hope that more people in Malaysia can come to appreciate Buddhsim and learn to make connections with the Buddha through the facilities in Kechara Forest Retreat.
Humbly, bowing down,
Stella Cheang
This is a great news! Allowing the public to enter the community does not only help the people to have a better understanding about Buddhism, but it also widens the interest of Buddhism.
The facilities are very well done, providing retreatants or people who stay there a serene and harmonious environment to abide in. I’m sure that it took them a lot of time, effort and resources to build this up and I rejoice for their determination to spread the Buddha Dharma.
What the Great Enlightenment Buddhist Institute Society did is a really good thing to do!
Opening their monastery to the public has many good reasons such as making personal connections with the islanders, it is also a good opportunity for the locals to learn and see how Buddhist monks go through their daily life, learn more about Buddhism.
It is also a great chance for the islanders to accumulate merits by making offerings to the Buddha’s
I rejoice to see that Buddhism is growing bigger in the Western world and places like the Great Enlightenment Buddhist Institute Society are being set up for people to study the Dharma!
Wow! Another virtuous Buddhist institution all the way in Canada providing studies and facilities for the sangha community who can then focus on their Buddhist practice. I find it amusing that the monks are nervous because they don’t speak English. It also shows that the monks don’t go anywhere else except stay in the premises to study and practice.
I guess it’s a good idea that this institution opens up to the public. In this way, they can connect to the people in the neighbourhood and also inspire them to join the institution.
Rejoice to see Buddhism grows in the western world and to such a large scale like The Great Enlightenment Buddhist Institute Society. P.E.I is such a beautiful place, pristine and close to nature, so it must be a wonderful place to do meditation and retreat. I wish Kechara Forest Retreat will also become holy spot where sangha and lay practitioners come to engage in serious retreat leading to attainments.
It is just amazing that the open house was planned in conjunction with mothers’ day. It is very meaningful as gives a chance to families to spend time together in a temple.
To think about it, it makes sense to have the open house in conjunction with mothers day as Buddha has always thought that every sentient being has been our mothers in one of our past lives. Having open house on mothers day is good because it teaches all that we should love and care for everyone just like how we love and care for our mothers.
It is beautiful that there are so many people that have registered and went to temple to understand Buddhism more. It is great to see so many westerners that are interested in Buddhism. The centre is being planned in such a modern mixed with traditional way which is beautiful.
It is wonderful that this beautiful new Buddhist Retreat centre has been set up on Prince Edward Island, Canada, for a group of Sangha , probably from Taiwan, to do meditation and retreat. These Chinese monks from the East are truly brave and caring to set up a Buddhist retreat place,in a place, where Buddhist consciousness may be minimal. To introduce Buddha’s practice of retreat and meditation here is wonderful as this aspect of Lord Buddha’s teachings serves well to stabilize our usually unruly mind, pulled and pushed by samsaric pursuits of materialism and mistaken objects of happiness.
“Meditation,” as Tsem Rinpoche says, “is a method taught by Buddha to release all harmful emotions and increase positive emotions so that our short lives are not wasted on activities that really bring us nothing but emptiness. An emptiness of feeling our time and efforts are wasted. Our lives are wasted”.
Thus it is good that Open Houses are held and the public here in Canada are introduced to one of the many beneficial aspects of Dharma practice.
This is quite wonderful to witness and Mother’s Day is a perfect day to host an open house. It’s especially meaningful since all sentient beings have been our mothers in previous lifetimes, and will be in future lifetimes…and if you extend that logic, every day and every moment is Mother’s Day for a Buddhist, used to remind ourselves to be grateful for the kindness of our previous, current and future mothers such that we may have the opportunity now to study, learn and practise dharma.
Moving beyond the significance of Mother’s Day, the center itself shows that a combination of compassion for others to reach out, organisational skills and working with the community are the keys to a Buddhist organisation’s growth and success. It would be too easy to hold so-called Western open-mindedness as responsible for their success, because I’m sure these centres have their own challenges too, establishing themselves in countries with centuries-strong Abrahamic traditions.
It’s just interesting how as time passes, Buddhism grows in the west while it goes to decline in the east.
Thank you for sharing of Prince Edward Island Buddhist Retreat Center article. it is so rejoicing for the P.E.I Buddhist practitioner to have a beautiful place and for the people to go there and have peaceful time. I like the the green retreat center with nice images Buddhas looks very compatible…
Dear Rinpoche,
This buddhist institute is really beautiful and I rejoice that such centre had manifested at Canada. The location of it is on an island which makes it even more amazing. Looking at the picture of the prayer hall and dormitory for monks, I can see that the place is well designed and comfortable.
I can see that Kechara Forest Retreat will be something similar in the near future too. Thousands of people coming to visit and hundreds of monks and nuns staudying dharma here. May the dharma grow in places where there is no dharma and May dharma flourishes even more in places there are dharma.
Humbly,
Chris
What a beautiful Buddhist institute! I rejoice in these Asian monks hard work in creating a Dharma institute in a foreign land. It goes to show with hard work, focus, determination, we can spread dharma anywhere.
It is wonderful to see this community of sangha blossoming and in a way it educates the people of Canada about sangha and plant seeds of dharma in them each time they visit.
Their open house reminds me of our Kechara Forest Retreat open house day http://retreat.kechara.com/
It is wonderful to see the growing number of people interested to visit the institute and to experience a day in the life of these beautiful sangha. May P.E.I. Buddhist monks grow further and may their institute of studies expand even bigger.
Love their altar… I notice a beautiful mother Tara though I’m not sure if I am seeing two (Green and White Tara) but I think one of them is surely her 🙂 Thank you for sharing this lovely Buddhist institute Rinpoche. May Kechara Forest Retreat grow into a Buddhist centre like so with lots of ordained sangha. Thank you!
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing of Prince Edward Island Buddhist Retreat Centre. I rejoice for the P.E.I Buddhist Monks to have such a beautiful centre and for the islanders who have such blessing on their island. The retreat centre with the beautiful altars of Buddhas, looks so warm and welcoming. The rooms looks simple, neat and comfortable.
Reading this article makes me think of our very own Kechara Forest Retreat in Chamang, Bentong. Although the current buidlings were beautifully built as an offering to our Guru, Rinpoche has so kindly open them to us for pujas and retreats, ie. the Inner Peace programs, personal and group retreats. May we work together to swiftly complete the building of Kechara Forest Retreat as per Rinpoche’s vision.
Thank you Rinpoche for the update, This looks like a wonderful place to visit. I’m not suprised a centre opened up there, The east part of my country mainly Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and the P.E.I. do have a few centers established there, and some places to do retreats.
Dear Bradley
It is nice to hear that there are many Dharma centre in your countries such as this. I rejoice if other Dharma centre flourish because it means the Dharma growth.
I hope one day you too will visit our beautiful Kechara Forest Retreat.
Best wishes
Valentina
I hope so too. It’s on my trip list. 🙂
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing such a wonderful news!
I rejoice from the bottom of my heart that many will now be benefitted from the persistence and kind monks as well as the generous sponsors. So many have to work together in harmony, go through tonnes of obstacles in order for such beneficial project to be completed. The people at Prince Edward Island now can enjoy dharma at their doorsteps.
The highest giving is to give dharma as it cures all problems we have internally. Without dharma, we will be trapped continuously in our sufferings. In times where materials are more important, dharma will not be appreciated, sponsored and promoted in anywhere. For an island where Buddhism is foreign, to have such a huge dharma institute is definitely not easy. The islanders must have a lot of merits and should be grateful for this to happen.
Wow! I never knew that such a beautiful Buddhist institute is available in Canada.
It is true that what Rinpoche said, that meditation is important in our lives. After all, meditation is one of the three important aspects in our practice along with view and behavior.
Having a calm mind is truly important as Rinpoche mentioned. If we observe and think about all the damage we have done around us and to the people around us, most of it stems from having an angry and agitated mind. Of course there’s exceptions where people pre-meditate their negative actions… but for most cases, the harm we conduct with our body and speech mostly come from not having a calm and subdued mind.
It’s truly beautiful to have a glimpse of the humble lives of these monks in GEBES. I feel this humbleness and attitude of changing their lifestyle for the Dharma is something so rare in Malaysia… if anything at all for most, Dharma has to accommodate our samsara in order for us to do anything Dharmic at all lol… But I suppose it is expected of a land barren of the Dharma, and with more teachings and understanding, and appreciation of the Dharma, things can change.
Dear Rinpoche
Thank you for this beautiful article. I rejoice for this Buddhist centre at Prince Edward Island and hope for their success.
It also opens our eyes on what we can potentially achieve with Kechara Forest Retreat in Bentong. I pray that one day our open house can attract as large number of people if not more.
Valentina