My Trip to the Hsi-Lai Temple for the 1^st meeting of the 4^th Board of Directors  (Wen-Tze)

I am lucky and honored to participate in the First Meeting of the Fourth BLIA Board of Directors at Hsi Lai Temple, Los Angeles, two weeks ago. Initially, I was very hesitant to attend the meeting because Houston was in the path of an impending category 5 Hurricane Rita. I was worried about leaving my home and Chung Mei Temple, especially at this time. The anticipation was extremely nerves breaking, but Master Yung Chuan insisted that I should go, and I did.

I arrived at LAX approximately 3:30pm, and no one was there to pick me up. I wonder if the Hsi-Lai temple volunteers knew of our arrival. Both of us put on our BLIA yellow vest so that the volunteers can easily spots us. We waited for about an hour and half before we saw a volunteer, also wearing the yellow BLIA vest, slowly approaching toward me. She looked surprised as she wasn’t expecting me. She was there to pick another person from New Jersey whom is arriving at 500pm. The kind volunteer radioed her friend to pick us up, and I left LAX for Hsi-Lai Temple around 600pm in a van. Little did I know that during the entire time I was waiting at LAX, a distressed Jet Blue Airline aircraft was circling above the Pacific Ocean dumping its fuels in preparation for an emergency landing at LAX. As we now knew, the front landing gear had twisted 90^o degree and was unable to retract. Luckily, the plane was able to land safely on the runway and all 140 passengers onboard were safe. For a moment inside the van, I thought the whole world had gone crazy. When I arrived at the footstep of Hsi-Lai Temple, I quickly prayed in front of Kuan Yin Bodhisattva. Then, I headed for dinner. I had not eaten anything in the last 7 hours. I ate a lot of tofu and noodles.

Overall, I had a great time and I learned a lot from the BLIA Board of Directors meeting. I learned:

(i) that BLIA is finally granted the Non Governmental Organization with consultative status by the United Nations,

(ii) of the activities organized by BLIA chapters throughout the world,

(iii) of the proposals and motions of BLIA for next year, and

(iv) of the important role the BLIA in promoting humanistic Buddhism.

The highlight for this event, in my opinion, is the dharma lecture by Venerable Master Hsing Yun. This is my first meeting of the man who founded Fo Guang Shan Monastery 39 years ago in Taiwan. I only knew of him through the many pictures I had seen on the book cover of his book. Seeing him the really gave me the feeling of hope, joy, compassion, and most important of all, the sense of security. I knew this meeting will go smoothly. This is also the first time I ever experienced such a unique meeting unlike the many scientific conferences I had previously attended. First of all, I never had a chance to be hungry while I was there. The Los Angeles BLIA chapter volunteers treated us like CEOs and we were well fed. Second, the food and desserts was good. Third, we only need to sit through four meeting sessions, but ate five times per day.

In the meeting, I met a lot of new people and also had the opportunity to reunite with old friends from the BLIA Dallas chapter. After the 3 days Board of Directors meeting ended, I took part in the Triple Gem Refuge and Five Precepts ceremony conducted by Master Hsing Yun. The goal of becoming a Buddhist is never complete without at taking and upholding the five precepts.

My flight back to Houston was uneventful. When the plane landed at IAH, I took a deep breath as I saw the whole world was back to normal. When I looked back of these 5 days, I have learned and gained so much and I will be preparing for next year conference in FoGangShan Monastery, Taiwan.