Toowoomba (Part I)

21st - 24th Mac 2008

Purpose - Religious Retreat at Pure Land Learning Centre

By - Mini Bus provided by the learning centre

With - Karen T, Jenifer, Shiyi & Karen K

A few weeks before the trip, Karen T and I decided to be active in the UQ Buddhism Society. We found out that they were planning to have a trip to the Toowoomba learning centre during the Easter break so we were very excited about it. Toowoomba is a highland west of Brisbane. At first, I was just excited to get away from Brisbane for the break and since I had no plans and was too broke to go anywhere this free trip was perfect. So I really didn't know what to expect. And that was shown in the things I packed there... I brought short skirts, which were not allowed to be worn there... I brought perfume which was not encouraged to be used there since we are supposed to be in our purest presence

What surprised me the most was how intense it was...

When we first arrived there, we went into the dining hall to have lunch... First realisation was that the food was really good even though it was vegetarian. Second realisation was that everyone seemed to be happy and in harmony with one another. There were many pin ups of photos of the venerable Chin Kung and other prominent figures of Pure Land Buddhism.

Pure Land Buddhism by the way is the most popular form of Buddhism which involves the chanting of Amitabha Buddha's name so as to be reborn in his Pure Land, also known as the Land of Ultimate Bliss.

The dining hall appeared to me to be like a church, so I suspected that the building was originally a church but then taken over by this organisation.

After having lunch, we were taken to our rooms. Karen T and I were in a room with a pair of mother and daughter also from Malaysia. Jenifer and Shiyi were in a room with another two people who were already there from before. The funny thing was that there was a lady sleeping in between them who they thought was rather weird. When Shiyi was unpacking her pillow, the lady told her to take the pillow away from her as it had a stain and she felt like vomitting. Also, she was asking them whether they had any plans to leave the place for any activity as if she was locked up in the place for too long and needed to escape. So the two of them kept crashing into our room to rest cos they were scared of this lady. Haha...