Address: 57 West Street Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia 4350
Tel: (617) 4637 8765, Fax:(617) 4637 8764
Website: http://www.chinkung.org
Contact: Stephan Tang, Secretary
Officer: Ven Master Chin Kung AM, President
Brief Description/History
Under the guidance of Venerable Master Chin Kung, the Pure Land Learning College Association, Inc. (PLLCA), Toowoomba, Queensland, was established in the year 2001.
The Pure Land Learning College, guided by the spiritual teachings and leadership of Ven Master Chin Kung, has a strong commitment to the vision and mission of interfaith understanding, respect, harmony and peace.
The interfaith programs and activities of the Pure Land Learning College community worldwide is based on Ven Master Chin Kung's wisdom and teaching that "different religions can unite to co-operate to teach their followers the virtues of sincerity, purity of mind, non-discrimination, loving-kindness and peace; to accept, respect, love, and trust one another; to care for and cooperate with one another. Together, this is the mission and responsibility of every religious worker and every peace builder. We should make every effort to move toward this goal. Then disasters will be avoided, world peace and stability achieved, and happiness will indeed prevail". (from Ven Master Kung, Education for Shared Values for Intercultural and Interfaith Understanding: Reflections and Proposals for Action. Plenary speech at UNESCO International Conference , Adelaide, Australia, 29 November, 2004).
In an effort to realise the concept of interfaith understanding and harmony, Master Chin Kung not only participates in charity events, he proactively works and interacts with local universities, government officials and religious leaders. Moreover, PLCA organises Multi-cultural Forum every Friday, propagating the universal love of all saints and deities of all religions. This helps to recover the true form of Buddhism as education in a multi-cultural and multi-faith society.
Master Chin Kung, the President, teaches daily and is currently lecturing on the Flower Adornment Sutra. These lectures are broadcasted live over the Internet and satellite TV. Master Chin Kung travels widely to expound on the importance of world peace and to promote interfaith dialogue. The PLLCA has provided major assistance in the establishment of the Griffith University Multi-Faith Centre, the Australia Centre for Peace & Conflict Studies in the University of Queensland, as well as several educational and social projects in Indonesia, China, Thailand, Australia, and the United States.
Activities
- The PLLCA holds classes on a quarterly basis, and also conducts distance and e-Learning classes in Chinese, English, and Vietnamese. On Sundays, the students participate in the Thrice Yearning Ceremony to chant for world peace. Saturday Get-together Dinners followed by a forum are held so residents and neighbors can learn and share ideas. The PLLCA helps to recover the true form of Buddhism as an education in a multi-cultural society, and stresses the importance of all religious and ethical teachings. To propagate the Buddha's teachings, the first step is to restore the awareness that they are a form of education in a multicultural society. This will enable people to be more open to and benefit from the teachings. The PLLCA is working towards actively achieving this goal.
- Apart from normal routine classes, PLCA organises a Get-Together Dinner every Saturday. This provides a channel to interact with our neighbors and friends in Toowoomba, which is a conservative town that has many retirees in the neighbourhood of PLCA. In trios and pairs, retired folks in the neighbourhood will drop by PLCA for dinner. To them, it is a golden opportunity for friends and neighbours to meet up. For the disabled friends who turn up, such get-together is a good chance for them to relax and dine with the public. To-date, Get-Together Dinner has been around and in each session, a crowd of over 60 people can be expected. From our Australian friends, Get-Together Dinner has now become a part of their lives because they feel as if they are home whenever they are there.
- It is towards this sense of belonging that PLCA has organised Christmas Party and Lunar New Year Celebration the past two years. These activities attracted a turnout of more than 200 Australians, and everyone at the events truly experienced the happiness of unity in diversed religions and races.
- Publishing and broadcasting lectures of Ven Master Chin Kung that include teachings on interfaith understanding and harmony for world peace on the Hwazan satellite TV station that has global audience;
- Donations to establish and build the Multi-Faith Centre, Griffith University , in 2000-2002, and funding of MFC programs and activities since 2002; Ven Master Chin Kung or nominee PLCC Venerable provide policy advice to the MFC as member of the Centre's Advisory Committee
- Further support and co-sponsorship of major international and regional symposia co-organized with the MFC and diverse faith, interfaith and multicultural communications and educational institutions and organizations including UNESCO. The conferences include the International Symposium on “Cultivating Wisdom, Harvesting Peace. Educating for a Culture of Peace through Values, Virtues, and Spirituality of Diverse Cultures, Faiths and Civilizations, held in August 2005 and the Asia-pacific Interfaith Summit on “One Humanity, Many Faiths”, held in February 2009 at the Brisbane City Hall.
- Support of multi-faith tours by leaders of diverse faiths from Singapore (2000), Indonesia (2004) and Malaysia (2008) to visit various faith institutions and communities in China
- Ven Master Chin Kung served as honorary advisor for the visit of the official Indonesian interfaith delegation to Al Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt and the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue at the Vatican in 2004, and has presented many papers and keynote addresses on the vital role of faiths in promoting respect, understanding, harmony and cooperation to help build a peaceful world.
- Ven Wu Shin, Deputy President, Pure Land Learning College and other PLCC Venerables have been contributing their services as honorary Buddhist chaplains in the multi-faith Chaplaincy of the University of Queensland.