In the times we live in, economy and culture go hand in hand. Today, encounters and exchanges between people from different countries, ethnic groups, or cultures are more frequent than ever. This is why ours is called the era of the global village. In the last three years, the Covid-19 pandemic has brought the world face to face with the obvious fact that we are a community with a shared destiny. In this mutual dependence, we have rediscovered that “the movement of a single hair affects the whole body”. Also, as individuals, we are exposed to the impermanence of what is alive, and to all kinds of work and personal pressures. Increasingly, we move through states of anxiety and confusion – and perhaps to cope with these, we need a different, transcendental, and generous wisdom to help us quiet the mind and deal calmly with the problems that come our way.

Our mind is the framework from which we access the world, and which determines our relationship to life. And Buddhism is a religious discipline that focuses on knowing the mind. It gives us the key to activating inner wisdom, and at the same time, it is medicine to heal suffering. Buddhism is inclusive. Buddha preaches the equality of all living beings and reminds us that we all have the same nature, i.e. a wise and compassionate nature waiting to be awakened. Guided by this principle, the Hai Hui Shan Buddhist Community studies and shares the Buddha’s teachings. So that Buddhist wisdom and compassion may help everyone to live fully, and thus make the world a beautiful and peaceful place.

“Hai Hui Shan” means in Chinese “the meeting of the sea and the mountain”. A name that refers to the pillar of our community: those who are united by the same will, will cross seas and mountains to meet each other.

Under this name, the Hai Hui Shan Buddhist Community aims to promote cultural exchange between East and West, to serve the Chinese diaspora and the local community, and to contribute to world peace and prosperity through Buddhist culture and faith.

The Hai Hui Shan Buddhist Community will carry out its service to society through three actions: 

1. Provide a platform for cultural exchange. Buddhist culture will be the vehicle for enhancing dialogue between East and West. By working for the integration of the Chinese diaspora in the West, we offer the local community a new dimension of Chinese culture. This exchange can take the form of celebrations, cultural festivals during the Chinese New Year or on significant dates in the Buddhist calendar, Zen meditation courses, summer camps for young people, etc.
2. To carry out charitable activities. We want to spread the Buddha’s egalitarian spirit towards all living beings, without distinction of any kind; the compassionate spirit in which he regards the suffering of others as his own. To celebrate this, we will mark the Buddha’s birth (eighth day of the fourth month of the lunar calendar) as a day of charitable action. We want to contribute to the social harmony of the local community by helping the disadvantaged, regardless of ethnicity, class, or gender. We will use charity to help the local government cope with crises, as we already did with donations for medical supplies during the Covid-19 epidemic.
3. To practice spiritual care and life care. To popularise the traditional teachings of Pure Land Buddhism, focus on the original meaning of life, provide psychological care for the whole cycle of existence and offer palliative services to the terminally ill. Hai Hui Shan seeks to meet the faith needs of the Buddhist community and improve people’s quality of life.