The New MBA -- Venerable Yifa and Master Jijing are Masters of Buddhist Administration

On August 31st, Dr. Yifa was invited to visit the Gaozun Temple, located in Deyang, Sichuan province in China to meet with the Master Jijing, and to attend the annual meeting of the Fuhuideng Educational Group. In the speech she gave to the employees and volunteers of the the Fuhuideng group about Buddhist management, Dr. Yifa shared the management wisdom in Buddhism gained from running Buddhist groups in Taiwan and internationally.

A special arrangement was also made by the Fuhuideng group for Dr. Yifa to have an in-depth discussion with Master Jijing. Both are students of Master Xingyun, and advocates of science, technology and education. Dr. Yifa and Master Jijing shared their understanding about the ideas of Humanistic Buddhism proposed by Master Xingyun and reached an agreement for future collaboration. Dr. Yifa emphasized that instead of any individual Buddhist master, Buddhist followers belong to the whole of Buddhist society, as well as non-Buddhist society. “The Buddhist practice won’t thrive unless all Buddhists collaborate with each other.” She sincerely hoped all Buddhists can act together.

Prior to this trip, Dr. Yifa also visited two famous Buddhist temples in Fujian province, accompanied by the chief editor of the “Xin Chang Fen” magazine, Mr. Zhibin Wang. On August 28th, Dr. Yifa arrived at the Ziguo Temple, located in Fuding, and met with the Master Xianzhi, who is the vice president of the Buddhist Society of Fujian Province and also the abbot1 of Ziguo Temple. Dr. Yifa highly praised the project of elderly care held by Ziguo Temple, and shared her experience in how to internationalize, modernize and technologize Buddhist education.

On August 30th, Dr. Yifa visited Hongshan Temple, located in Xiamen, meeting with Master Fayun, the abbot of Hongshan temple and president of Hongshan Academy. Master Fayun recalled the idea and practice to rebuild Hongshan temple. Dr. Yifa was highly impressed by the beauty of the architecture the Hongshan temple and how well-equipped it is. They both agreed that there should be collaboration between Buddhist groups and there should be an international vision of education of Buddhist youth groups.