Anne Wei
Copy Editor
An old barn was recently remodeled into a Buddhist temple in Naperville near Route 53. The temple, which was previously located in a rented house in Darien, practices Humanist Buddhism, which is a form of Mahayana Buddhism.
“We emphasize the Boddhisattva way; we do a lot of charity work to help the people,” said Venerable Manpou, director of the temple. “We don’t only concentrate on our minds to cultivate our inner nature, we also like to…do charity work, for example, we donate food to homeless, and we visit senior homes.”
Although Mahayana Buddhism is more commonly found in China, Japan and Korea and Manpou is Taiwanese, she welcomes people of all cultures to the temple.
“I don’t like it when people say Chinese Buddhism, Japanese Buddhism or Korean Buddhism because no matter what kind of Buddhism it is, it belongs to Mahayana. And since we immigrated from our regions…[it is actually] localized. I think in the future, there should be an American Buddhism.
“If we say there is Chinese Buddhism, we give people the wrong image; they think, ‘Oh, this temple is only set up for the Chinese.’”
Manpou, who speaks both Chinese and English, encourages students to come “come, sit around and feel the peace [since]…with our style of life, it’s hard for people to just sit there and hear [their] thoughts.”
Seth Brady, comparative religions teacher, also thinks the temple will be a good way for students to experience Buddhism since it welcomes English speakers and is so close.
“[At other temples], there tends to be a language barrier most of the time. Most of the monks are non-English speakers and it’s been a challenge to find English speakers…I really have wanted to find a temple that kids can understand, so I’m really excited about it.”