On 1 July 2017, Chinese Han Transmission Esotericism Academy—the esotericism faculty of Tasmanian Chinese Buddhist Academy of Australia— held its 9th Annual Academic Symposium.
The symposium unfolded with the traditional Ancient Indian Vaisali Bhagavan Fo Fan Vidyadhara Indra Net Homa Holy Ceremony, following this was the Holy Ritual of Displaying Flags. In the Holy Ritual of Displaying Flags, apart from exhibiting the Australian flag, the Chinese flag was also shown; apart from displaying the flag of Tasmanian Chinese Buddhist Academy of Australia, the flag of Holy Tantra Esoteric Buddhism was put on display to express the highest Holy Tantra Jin Gang Dhyana Gu Fan respect to the motherlands along with propagating the School demeanor of “Respecting the Teacher and Valuing the Path, Solid Practice and Personal Realisation”. During the Holy Ritual, the flag of the World United Buddhist Sangha Cultural Exchange Council was exhibited, embodying the Dharma dissemination vow of uniting high monks and eminent ones, sangha, lay practitioners, and scholars of different sects and schools of Buddhism around the world, even including sentient beings from different religions.
Closely following the Holy Ritual of Displaying Flags was the Welcoming of the Ancient Indian Vaisali Bhagavan Fo Fan Vidyadhara Lineage Transmission Holy Tantra Dharma Instruments.
After the opening ceremony, Bhagavan Zhi-Ji Patriarch Master delivered the primary guiding speech for the symposium. This year’s symposium, we were especially fortunate to have a delegation from the Hong Kong Religious Cultural Research Association, the Hong Kong Religious Charity Foundation, and the Shenzhen Confucius Buddhist Daoist Cultural Research Institute that made a special trip to attend, and also addressed the symposium during the opening ceremony. Vice President Mr. Shi Weizhong delivered a speech filled with spiritual enlightenment, and was extremely moving, inspiring people to deeply reflect.
Also in attendance was the Vice Secretary General of the Hong Kong Religious Cultural Research Association, Ms. Xin Nina. Ms. Xin is the student of the student of the great Chinese painting master Zhang Daqian. During the symposium, Ms. Xin had a spur of the moment inspiration and performed a piano piece written by Master Hong Yi called Dao Bie, expressing her spiritual realisation of this “Silk Road to Brush and Painting in Tasmania” stop, and also to convey her best wishes to all the Holy Tantra Elder Gurus, Gurus, Practitioners and Reincarnated Practitioners.
Following this, the annual report summarising the Academy’s spiritual harvests of disseminating Dharma and delivering sentient beings, along with academic exchanges between groups from within and outside the Religion during the past year, was delivered by the Dean of Tasmanian Chinese Buddhist Academy of Australia, the President of the Headquarters in the U.S.A., Elder Guru Vajra Hong Jing.
The symposium subsequently entered into the stage of academic deliberations with the President of the Academy, Elder Guru Vajra Long Sheng, Dean, Elder Guru Vajra Hong Jing and other Elder Gurus presiding over the discussion of papers. Elder Guru Vajra Fa Cheng provided instant translations into English so as to aid the learning of foreign class members and those whom have come to support the symposium. After the respective authors shared the synopsis of each paper, Elder Guru Vajra Long Sheng provided comments and evaluations to help elevate them.
Paper submissions for this year’s symposium was extremely enthusiastic, a total of one hundred papers were received with sixty-five being selected after evaluation. Authors included senior Elder Gurus 80 years of age, and seven year-old Holy Tantra Young Reincarnated Practitioners. Paper content was also very lively and extensive, however apart from formal written submissions, young Reincarnated Practitioners and Practitioners submitted artwork of the Buddha and Ancestral Patriarch Masters as thesis submissions. There was also a 12-year-old young Reincarnated Practitioner who composed and performed Song of Bhagavan as his thesis submission.
The symposium had over hundred Holy Tantra Elder Gurus, Gurus, Practitioners, Reincarnated Practitioners and Devotees in attendance, including pilgrimage practitioners who especially travelled from various regions around the world such as Mainland China, Hong Kong, U.S.A., Indonesia and mainland Australia. Local Western class members also attended the symposium to mutually study. This year’s symposium featured nine papers that were awarded first prize, the remaining papers were commended with second prizes, third prizes and memorial prizes.
The symposium completed in perfection at 7 o’clock in the evening.
