On the morning of 10th June, the opening ceremony for the 2021 English training course for Buddhist sutra lecturers was held at Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou. The training course is organized by the Buddhist Association of China and undertaken by the Buddhist Association of Hangzhou, the Chinese Buddhism Sutra Lecture Exchange Center and Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou. Attendees at the ceremony included Zhong Xinzhang, the Deputy Director of the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Committee of Zhejiang Province. Li Lei, the Deputy Director of the Religious Department Branch One of the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Committee of Zhejiang Province. Tang Mingzhuang, the Deputy Secretary of the Leading Party Members’ Group and Deputy Director of Hangzhou Municipal Bureau of Ethnic and Religious Affairs. Venerable Zongxing, the Vice Chairman of the Buddhist Association of China. Venerable Guangquan, the Deputy Secretary-general of the Buddhist Association of China and Director of the Chinese Buddhism Sutra Lecture Exchange Center. Venerable Changshun, the Director of the Teaching Affairs Department of the Buddhist Association of China and Deputy Director of the Chinese Buddhism Sutra Lecture Exchange Center. Hu Shengjun,the General-secretary of the Buddhist Association of Hangzhou Professor and Venerable Yuanci, the Director of the BACC Library. More than 30 trainees from all parts of the country also attended the opening ceremony.
On behalf of the Chinese Buddhism Sutra Lecture Exchange Center, Venerable Master Guangquan extended warm welcome to the participants of the ceremony. In the 21st century, the new missions of Chinese Buddhism are to promote fine Chinese traditional culture and spread Buddhist positive energy for a community of shared future for mankind, said Venerable Master Guagnquan. He also encouraged all trainees of the course to master a foreign language so that they can better spread Chinese Buddhism and the fine Chinese traditional culture to other parts of the world.
To adjust to the new development of the new era, the 2021 English training course for Buddhist sutra lecturers aims to cultivate international Buddhist talents and enhance their abilities to spread Buddhism to the world. The 20-day long training course lays equal emphasis on the studies of Buddhist scriptures and the language of English, offering a series of themed lectures and courses of “An Introduction to Classic Scriptures”, “An Introduction to Yogacara Thoughts”, “Buddhism English”, “English Translation”, etc.
