The annual Light and Peace ceremony will once again
be held at the Nan Hua Temple in Bronkhorstspruit on 29 September 2013, 10h30 to
12h00, celebrating and promoting peace and
harmony.



This
year’s event will focus on spiritual awareness through relaxation, music and
compassion meditation. The positive feedback from last year encouraged Nan Hua
Temple to offer visitors a chance of discovering freedom of mind and offering
them the opportunity to relax, emptying the dialogue of the mind and having a
chance to connect to their inner being. It also offers the opportunity for
engaging with like-minded, multi-cultural people, and benefiting from a
collective energy.
 
According
to Venerable Jue Kai, the change from a frenetic festival theme to a tranquil,
engaging event has been very well received. The celebration will be more
meditative, serene and peaceful. Guests will have the opportunity to experience
difference forms of meditation, listen to a traditional Eastern and Western
musical performance and give light offerings for peace and goodwill around the
world.
 
Visitors
will receive a small Mexican Ghost succulent (Graptopetalum
  paraguayense), a species of succulent plant in the jade plant
  family, which is an easy-to-grow, drought resistant succulent and depicts
  environmental sustainability and spiritual preservation, celebrating internal
  growth as well as harmony with the natural world around us.
 
Entrance
and lunch is free and families and children are welcome. Guest will be
entertained during lunch by a Youth Talent Show.

The Nan Hua Temple in Bronkhorstspruit hosted a special event for New Year’s Eve 2011/2012. The Temple’s monks, nuns and staff, assisted by the charity organisation BLIA’s (Buddha’s Light International Association’s) members, put on a spectacular spiritual event for young and old, Easterner and Western, religious, spiritual or just open-minded, to enjoy and embrace 2012 in a divine manner.
The event started off with chanting by all which was followed by the transcribing of the Heart Sutra.

Fo Guang Shan Nan Hua Temple held its annual Baby Blessing ceremony on 1 January 2012.
Every parent has hopes and aspirations that their child will grow in good health, physically and mentally; that they will live a meaning and fulfilling life; that they will develop a kind and loving heart and that they will become wise and blessed with good fortune. Parents from all races brought their babies and children to be blessed by the Abbott and receive a spiritual stimulus for their lives ahead. Pregnant women also came to receive a blessing for their unborn.

After sending four South African youth to represent South Africa in the annual International youth Seminar on Life and Chan that was held in Taiwan this year, the youth were expected to put in to practice and to transfer all that they had learnt at the seminar to the local children of Bronkhorstspruit, which is where the Nan Hua Temple is situated. They organised a camp for the local children between the ages of 5-14 years. The aim of the camp was to give the children in the community the opportunity to interact with one another in order to exchange cultural and religious backgrounds and embrace our diversity as a rainbow nation.

After the exceedingly momentous arrival and registration of the children all wide-eyed and eager to begin their program, we organized a fun ice breaker to allow the children to relax as they began to interact with one another. The children were placed according to their age group and were each expected to provide themselves with a group name, group flag and a war cry which they believed would best represent their group dynamic.  During the opening ceremony the The Venerable left the children with come food for thought shortly before the camp commenced. He blessed them with the knowledge of trying to accept the camp activities and everyone whom they would encounter here with both a grateful and joyful heart.

On Thursday, in memory of the ablishment of the death penalty, the Government invited families of the executed prisoners as well as various religious leaders to the inauguration of the Pretoria Prison gallows into a museum by President Zuma.
The death penalty was abolished on 19 December 1997 by the highest court in the country, the Constitutional Court. The Department of the Correctional Services invited various religious leaders to bless the establishment of the museum. Under the leadership of the Minister of Correctional Services, Nosiviwe Noluthando, Master Hui-Xing represented the Nan Hua Temple at the event. Master Hui-Xing used the Buddhist Purification Ceremony in hope to purify and cleanse the sadness and angar in the families heart as well as praying for world peace.

Landscape design students at the Department of Architecture of the University of Pretoria (UP) were tasked with redesigning the gardens at Chan Lin, Nan Hua Temple’s Zen garden. The project was integrated into their curricula and a basic guideline was supplied by their lecturer, Ida Breed.

The designs and ideas for the redesigning of the Zen garden to Venerable Masters Hui Fang, Abbot of Nan Hua Temple, Venerable Jue Kai and Lee Raath-Brownie, a volunteer at the Temple were presented in October 2011 by the students.

I recently attended the Ceremony of Light and Peace hosted by Nan Hua Temple in Bronkhorstspruit on 25 September 2011.
The event is held annually and is a traditional Buddhist' ceremony. The gathering celebrated and promoted inter-religious and cultural collaboration and amity.   
Visitors from all walks of life, all age and cultural groups and various religions were welcomed in the main shrine by the Buddhist mantra, 「Om Mani Padme Hum」.    
The welcome speech by Nan Hua mentor, Ven Master Yi Chun, was very inspirational and called for the promotion of social collaboration and reduced conflict between nations and races. She added that compassion practiced by individuals could collectively make the difference in less fortunate lives and if we live our lives in a mindful and considerate manner, we could all be instrumental in the spirit of world peace. She furthermore stated that all people are all equal, irrelevant of culture, religion, race, sex, standing or political views. 

On the 25th July 2011, 24 students studying landscape design at the University ofPretoria came to visit Nanhua Temple and our Zen Meditation Centre, with the purpose of using our Zen Centre garden as a practical project in their studies, and redesigning the garden so that the meditation practitioners will experience oneness with the whole environment, feel the Zen atmosphere, and calm their minds.