While people were looking at the picture of the Bamiyan Canyon Buddha statues destroyed by the Taliban, Brother Chen Yoe said, “People destroy because they fear difference - they do not understand that we, as human beings, share certain common values. Unfortunately, some people choose to live without “self-awareness.” The audience was deeply moved by his words. Sister Sing Sien was the tour guide for the India exhibition; she introduced the religions of Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism that coexisted in this ancient land to emphasize the importance of mutual respect.
There was an area dedicated to a 'Google Earth and Map Game' that allowed students to utilize the computerized tool to figure out the location and cultural information in the areas along Hsuan Tsang’s journey.
The speaker for the first seminar was Rev. Heng Sure, from
Berkeley Buddhist Monastery, and started at 10:30AM. Rev. Heng Sure was born in Columbus, Ohio in 1949. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. from UC Berkeley. Later, he became a monk at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, under the guidance of Rev. Hsuan Hua.
Rev. Heng Sure praised Tzu Chi for this great effort. The content of the exhibition covered art, culture, and religion. According to his own research, Master Hsuan Tsang spent 19 years on his journey and brought back valuable authentic materials of Buddha’s education. He pointed out that many people did not know how to pronounce Hsuan Tsang’s name, and thus, it was difficult for people to remember him. In Asia, because of the famous “Monkey King Journey to the West” fiction, people have mistaken impressions about the real Hsuan Tsang.
Rev. Heng Sure summarized how Hsuan Tsang was able to walk 10,000 miles in extremely difficult conditions without even thinking of giving up. There were many reasons for Hsuan Tsang’s conviction: first was the dharma, second was selflessness, third was calmness, and fourth was being a vegetarian. He encouraged the audience to become vegetarian and suggested that children who were already vegetarian study well compared to other kids.
The second seminar started from 1:00PM and was conducted by Mr. Chi Hong Wang, Editor-in-Chief of Rhythms Magazine. Mr. Wang traveled through Central Asia including Bamiyan and
Afghanistan during 1998 and 2003. Upon his visit in 1998,
Afghanistan was already going through 19 years of civil war. At that time, the great statue of Buddha was still in Bamiyan Canyon, but later was destroyed by the Taliban in 2001. Mr. Wang described a great wish from a child in the region to have a dictionary. With a lack of basic necessities, no postman could deliver the dictionary from Mr. Wang to the child.
Mr. Wang applauded the achievements from Dharma Master Hsuan Tsang. He not only brought back sutras from India to China, but also made Buddhism a religion for millions of Chinese for 1500 years.
The last seminar was presented by Dr. Zhu Qi who spoke about the 2,500 year history of western China. He described while traveling through rural areas, many refugees would come to grab bread and food from people on the train. Life was very difficult and unthinkable. After 1500 AD, long-range transportation vessels were invented. Merchants did not need to travel through high mountains and jungles anymore. The Silk Road gradually lost its value as a path to connect the East and West. Dr. Qi suggested that a very famous Chinese poet, Bai Li, could be from Kyrgyzstan, as suggested by the president of Kyrgyzstan. That was quite interesting and unheard of.
In these three seminars, the lecture hall was completely full. At the end of the lecture, Tzu Chi sisters performed ‘Love Brightens the World’ to entertain the audience.
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