Tu Viện Quảng Đức105 Lynch Rd, Fawkner, Vic 3060. Australia. Tel: 9357 3544. quangduc@quangduc.com* Viện Chủ: HT Tâm Phương, Trụ Trì: TT Nguyên Tạng   

Burnie's Buddhist hospital chaplain also committed to fire fighting

20/03/201507:33(Xem: 7450)
Burnie's Buddhist hospital chaplain also committed to fire fighting

Burnie's Buddhist hospital chaplain also committed to fire fighting

Posted 

Buddhist priest Alan Piercey is a hospital chaplain in Burnie, a fireman with his local brigade in Penguin and a one-time purveyor of chocolate.

Media player: "Space" to play, "M" to mute, "left" and "right" to seek.

 06:15       
AUDIO: Sifu, Buddhist hospital chaplain and fireman(ABC News)

He is known to the people on the North West coast by a number of different names, the most often used borrowed from a popular animated movie.

"My ordained name is Venerable Shih Jingang (pronounced Cher Gin Gun)," he said.

"Most people around the North West Regional Hospital in Burnie just know me as Sifu.

"And if you ask any five-year-old, they'll know exactly who Sifu is: a character from Kung Fu Panda. I believe it's a cartoon."

It's opened more doors than closed them. In the Buddhist community we sometimes call it the Dalai Lama effect

Sifu

Then there are the good men, women and children of the Penguin Fire Brigade, who know Sifu as Alan Piercey, although they sometimes just call him respectfully, "Monk".

Alan has been a retained volunteer firefighter for fifteen years and has headed off to a number of major bushfire campaigns in other parts of Tasmania.

Between ceremonial cushions and meditation bells on the mantelpiece in his Penguin home are trophies including the Penguin brigade's Senior Firefighter of the Year 2013.

"Sometimes I'll be meditating with a group here when my pager goes off. It has happened," he said, this trademark smile unfaltering.

"Sometimes in the middle of the bushfire season I just have to run!"

Alan Piercey fireman

Sifu, as he prefers, has been a Buddhist since he was a child living at Richmond, just outside Sydney.

When he was seven years-old, his mother started to take him to aged-care homes to sit and talk with the elderly residents.

"One of the most beautiful experiences I had was sitting with an elderly woman who, while she held my hand - and she had the most beautiful smile on her face – died peacefully," he said.

"That memory has stayed with me.

"My life has always been involved with chaplaincy in one way or another, where I've sat a lot and listened to people's stories."

These days Sifu is part of the chaplaincy team at the North West Regional Hospital, a job that requires its practitioners to act as a chaplain to all, regardless of religious beliefs or lack thereof.

He said that occasionally he encounters people who are uncomfortable talking to a smiling man in flowing brown robes.

More often there is a great curiosity about what he has to offer.

"It's opened more doors than closed them," Sifu said.

"In the Buddhist community we sometimes call it the Dalai Lama effect.

"There's an image many Buddhists have of being nice, friendly people.

"And I'd agree with one of the things [Buddha] says which is quite universal and that is 'my religion is kindness'."

When Sifu trained for the chaplaincy he was told that he was the only non-Christian chaplain to become qualified for hospital chaplaincy in Northern Tasmania.

There are many different branches of Buddhist teaching across the world and Sifu has been ordained by an order which blends Ch'an (or Zen) and Pure Land Buddhism, two of the major Buddhist forms in China.

As so often happens today, he researched his options via the internet and established a Skype relationship with his teachers before requesting full teachings and to eventually be ordained in that tradition.

"My abbot came out here to Tasmania and I was ordained in Gutteridge Gardens in Wynyard," he said.

Alan Piercey at home

"People automatically assume you are a monk and there have been periods of monastic living for me along the way.

"Because I have a teaching role it is more correct to call me a priest. I go out into the world.

"In my case it's being a retained volunteer firefighter and, over the last few years, it's being involved in chaplaincy."

Part of Alan's role is to raise funds for different charities and to support himself in the role of Buddhist teacher.

He sells Buddhist meditation bells and other items which facilitate the practice of Buddhism.

For a period he also sold chocolate, which served as a personal test of the Buddhist principle of eliminating craving.

"It was a wonderful way of fundraising and also keeping me on the road," he said laughing.

"You can become attached to anything – certain people I know would regard chocolate as a form of instant bliss.

"But it's a very temporary bliss."


http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-20/burnies-buddhist-hospital-chaplain-committed-to-fire-fighting/6149590


Gửi ý kiến của bạn
Tắt
Telex
VNI
Tên của bạn
Email của bạn
01/03/2017(Xem: 13467)
Recently I was asked why I love Buddhism. So here are 7 answers for why I love, appreciate, respect, study, practise and share the precious Buddha Dharma. Some answers are short and sweet, while others are in more detail. Of course I could give many more answers and more details, however I've kept it to just 7, for the benefit of easy reading.
09/01/2017(Xem: 14282)
Every morning when I read the news, there are so many reports on war and destruction happening all over the world. This sometimes leads me to feel overwhelmed, helpless and somewhat guiltyfor the relatively peaceful life I have. How do Itransform these feelings of sadness, anger and helplessness into something a lot more productive and constructive?
30/12/2016(Xem: 9788)
1/ How does reincarnation work in Buddhism? 2/ When we pray who do we pray to? And the words we say when praying what do they mean? 3/ Have you ever been in love? 4/ In the future when treating patients how can I use Buddhism to help me? 5/ If good and bad are all relative to a person, let’s say, to a terrorist bomber, what they are doing is a good thing, but to others it is not. So that would mean right and wrong is relative too. So how do we know that something is an ‘absolute’ right thing who says that this is right and that is wrong. 6/ As a practising Buddhist lay person how can I reconcile my desire to be successful/ambitious/career-driven with the Buddhist concept of right livelihood. Sometimes it feels like the pursuit of being successful career-wise is very wordly, driven by materialism. Can I be a decent Buddhist AND a successful career person. Is this possible?
11/11/2016(Xem: 7479)
Audio: Body Mind Transformation
26/10/2016(Xem: 14985)
Seven Wonders of the Buddhist World | BBC Documentary | with English Subtitles, Over thirty years ago I sat and watched a programme on British television about Tutankhamen. I still remember the frisson - the realisation that the stories I'd heard; of boy-kings dripping in gold; of hidden burial chambers and court intrigue could, sometimes, be true. That BBC documentary was inspirational. I've been fortunate enough to spend my adult life following my own research interests - and delight in being able to share the results with a wider public.
26/10/2016(Xem: 30308)
In India in the 6th century BC, Sakyamuni, "a wise man of the Sakya tribe", had been meditating under a tree when, suddenly, he was struck with the comprehension of all things. He became Buddha, meaning the « Illuminated ». His message, based on a pragmatic philosophy, taught how to free oneself from all needs in order to achieve illumination. After the death of the Enlightened One, his disciples – a few monks – began to spread his teachings all over India, from Ceylon to the Himalayan. Fearing man’s penc
29/07/2016(Xem: 5663)
Fund Raising Dinner for Victorian United Nations Day of Vesak Inc. Since 2009.
10/03/2016(Xem: 9504)
It is generally accepted that the Vietnamese print media started in 1979 in Australia when the first issue of the Bell of Saigon / Chuông Saigon was on sale in Sydney. Initially, it was published fortnightly then became a weekly. Over the past four decades, the media in Vietnamese have gone through a developmental pattern which is not dissimilar to those in other culturally and linguistically diverse communities (CALD) in that it has grown in number and strength along with the Vietnamese speaking community.
29/11/2015(Xem: 8868)
Thousands of Tasmanians who travelled from all corners of the State rallied in Hobart for climate action in the lead up to this week’s Climate Summit in Paris. This should be a wake up call for the Hodgman government which has ripped up Tasmania’s ClimateSmart strategy and continues to subsidise the emissions-intensive native forest logging industry. The science tells us that protecting the vast stores of carbon in Tasmania’s forests must be part of our response to climate disruption. Tasmania is uniquely placed to be a world leader in responding to global warming, but the state government seems happy to keep its head in the sand and ignore the enormous opportunities that exist to create jobs and prosperity in low carbon industries. Every responsible government has a climate plan. Even war-torn South Sudan has acknowledged its civil responsibility and prepared a comprehensive climate plan.
22/11/2015(Xem: 11401)
Thiền tập .b ở trường Trung học Phật giáo Pal, Sydney The Mindfulness in Schools được biết đến rộng rãi trên thế giới có tên gọi .b (dot bee), và theo khảo nghiệm của đại học Cambridge và Oxford thì .b mang đến những tác động tích cực cho các em học sinh luyện tập đúng cách. Trinh Nguyễn tìm hiểu chương trình này trong cuộc phỏng vấn với Giáo viên hướng dẫn Bodhidasa Caldwell của trường Pal, và phiên dịch viên Thu Vân. Muốn tìm hiểu thêm về hoạt động 'Mindfulness in Schools', chương trình 'Teach 4 Peace', và buổi dạ tiệc gây quỹ 'Little Buddha', liên lạc với trường Trung học Phật giáo Pal Phone: +612 9755 7778 Email: info@pal.nsw.edu.au Web: http://pal.nsw.edu.au/
facebook youtube google-plus linkedin twitter blog
Nguyện đem công đức này, trang nghiêm Phật Tịnh Độ, trên đền bốn ơn nặng, dưới cứu khổ ba đường,
nếu có người thấy nghe, đều phát lòng Bồ Đề, hết một báo thân này, sinh qua cõi Cực Lạc.

May the Merit and virtue,accrued from this work, adorn the Buddhas pureland,
Repay the four great kindnesses above, andrelieve the suffering of those on the three paths below,
may those who see or hear of these efforts generates Bodhi Mind, spend their lives devoted to the Buddha Dharma,
the Land of Ultimate Bliss.

Quang Duc Buddhist Welfare Association of Victoria
Tu Viện Quảng Đức | Quang Duc Monastery
Most Venerable Thich Tam Phuong | Senior Venerable Thich Nguyen Tang
Address: Quang Duc Monastery, 105 Lynch Road, Fawkner, Vic.3060 Australia
Tel: 61.03.9357 3544 ; Fax: 61.03.9357 3600
Website: http://www.quangduc.com
http://www.tuvienquangduc.com.au (old)
Xin gửi Xin gửi bài mới và ý kiến đóng góp đến Ban Biên Tập qua địa chỉ:
quangduc@quangduc.com