On Dec 22th. SFYAD hosted their 5th English Book Sharing Forum, where they invited Venerable Miao Zhong (SFYAD Advising Venerable), Qianjun Wang (SFYAD Officer) and Winson Yang (SFYAD member). This session was moderated by Yuchen Qian (SFYAD Secretary), where the chapter discussed was titled “Do I Resemble a Monastic?” from the book, “I am Not a Dependent of the Buddha”, written by Venerable Master Hsing Yun. This chapter sparked questions around one’s identity, how one can practice Dharma as well as the mindset one ought to keep.
Winson talked about his conviction and original intention of dispelling misconceptions about Buddhism and meditation, and to discover greater evidence of the scientific relationship between the two. This led to the pursuit of a Ph.D. in neurology; Winson felt that patience is key in this journey, as he has to endure the long research process and difficulties along the way. On the other hand, Winson mentioned that compassion is important, for it helps him find out the needs of others, in both his research and his role as a teacher/mentor. This allows him to render a comprehensive solution, such as giving others opportunities to learn as opposed to “telling” them what to do.
For Qian Jun, a graphic designer, she shared that the Dharma helped her see the big picture during the design process - and better achieve a “neutral” design, akin to “middle path” espoused by the Buddha. Just as everyone has their own path to enlightenment, Qian Jun realized that Buddha’s teaching is like a navigator to aid one in exploring their true selves; and life’s goal is about developing truths. This inspired her to guide others, especially those in unfavorable conditions to realize hope through the Dharma.
Being a monastic, Venerable Miaozhong has faced criticism due to misunderstanding and misconception from the laypersons. However, she would instead focus on extracting the positive feedback from these negative evaluations to improve herself and the conditions around her. The Venerable spoke of the essentialness of being open-minded and mindful at all times, where the former keeps one’s judgments at bay, and the latter allows one to be skillful in speech and action. As for the phrase “Buddhism Depends on Me”, the Venerable explained that it is about how we can apply Buddha’s teaching in our lives, for the best way to propagate is by demonstrating, setting an example.
This session also marked the end of the book sharing forum series, with the goal of completing 50 book sharing sessions by the San Francisco subchapters before the end of 2019. SFYAD’s book sharing sessions had been diligently organized by Qiulin Peng (SFYAD Committee) and Lilian Tao (SFYAD Committee) in the past 5 months. One striking feature of SFYAD’s sessions was that they were being held in English, despite the book was written in Mandarin.
12月22日，舊金山佛光青年分團於三寶寺舉辦第五期《我不是「呷教」的和尚》英文讀書分享會，約15位青年大眾參與。此次分享會是月度《我不是「呷教」的和尚》讀書分享會系列的最後一期，圍繞星雲大師著作的第五章《我像一個和尚嗎》內容進行，邀請了舊金山佛光青年分團指導法師妙忠法師、幹部王千鈞以及活躍團員Winson Yang，在引言人錢予忱的開題下，對每個人在社會的角色問題進行分享和討論。
Winson談及自己對神經學的興趣與對佛學的學習交點上，為讓大眾正確了解兩者的科學關聯，繼續攻讀神經學科博士。他堅定自己博士生的研究身份，這讓他學會以忍耐之心對待科學研究漫長的研究過程與結果的探索，同時身為課程助教，慈悲心讓他能從學生角度主動找到更好的教導方式，助力學生了解潛力從而促進他們的發展。身為平面設計師的千鈞感歎，佛學的學習與實踐幫助她在設計過程中看到整體，了解自己與大眾關係，從而找到中道的設計，更重要的是讓她區分虛妄，認識真正的價值。妙忠法師從出家眾的角度，提到大眾對這個角色存在誤解，但她分享到自己則會從負面評價中汲取正面建議，從而改進成長。作為終身的承諾，出家對妙忠法師而言意味著從自身做起，以身作則，傳遞佛法的知識，更重要的是佛法的應用。
為期五個月的讀書分享會活動至此暫告一段落，該系列每期分享會均邀請不同的引言人帶領三位與談人，精選書目中的一章，對書中大師的個人故事進行解讀，並結合個人經歷與大眾討論分享，話題包含感恩、本地化、改進缺點、布施、平等、初心、信仰的力量、角色的承擔等。
