To ensure the smooth progress of the Fo Guang Shan Chicago expansion project, Head Priest Venerable Yung Han and the monastics led the community in a series of monthly cultivation services starting in February 2025. This five-month period of diligent repentance practice concluded successfully on June 29. Before each monthly service, Venerable Yung Han conducted a “Repentance and Practice” course, guiding the assembly to deeply understand the sutra content of that month’s repentance. This helped practitioners strengthen their faith, accumulate spiritual merits, and make vows for diligence. Over the past six months, more than 1,000 participants from areas such as Detroit and Indiana have returned to the temple to practice, filling their bodies and minds with Dharma joy.
Following the final service on June 29, Venerable Yung Han encouraged everyone to work hard on the path to Buddhahood and to maintain awareness of the six sense faculties in their daily practice. She led the devotees in launching the “Ten Thousand Affinities Diligent Cultivation” initiative, praying that the collective power of community practice would bring the temple expansion to a successful and smooth completion.
Yuelian Wu, a former Superintendent of the BLIA Chicago Chapter and current Superintendent of the Las Vegas Chapter, returned to Chicago to participate in the service and expressed deep emotion. Having witnessed the temple’s journey from its inception through many challenges, she felt a profound sense of gratitude and joy. Seeing the devotees struggling with limited space to put on their Dharma robes, she realized even more clearly the urgency of the expansion to fulfill missions in culture, education, charity, and religion. Zhi-Hui Liu, a journalist for the Merit Times who was visiting the U.S., also participated in the cultivation and praised the solemnity of the service. She remarked that finding an authentic Buddhist temple in the U.S. is a rare blessing, and as a refuge for the spiritual life of devotees, the temple requires everyone’s collective support for the Triple Gem.
Sisters Dr. Kuan-Kuan Lee and Dr. Mei-Mei Lee from the English Subchapter were delighted to hear about the expansion plans, looking forward to the future library, cultural classrooms, and educational facilities that will benefit the public. Participant Hai Yin, attending a service at the Chicago temple for the first time, initially planned to stay for only one session to experience the atmosphere. However, she was so moved by the solemn chanting that she decided to stay for the entire day and even volunteered to help with the cleanup. She remarked with a smile, “I only planned for a brief stay, but the power and inspiration of the service made me want to stay until the very end.”
Hui He and his mother attended the service for the first time, expressing gratitude for the monastics’ guidance and vowing to support the expansion project. Dima, a participant from Ukraine, entered the temple for the first time and thanked the team for the simultaneous translation, which allowed him to hear the Dharma and experience a sense of peace. Jazz dancer Hai-Qiong Gu, a friend of FGS, shared that it was a rare and precious affinity that led her to the temple to listen to the teachings, viewing it as a new starting point in her life’s journey.