Donations

Nan Tien Institute and Nan Tien Bridge

Nan Tien Institute’s (NTI’s) vision is to support and inspire learning and the pursuit of research and creative practice. It provides the local region with a place for the exchange of Western and Eastern arts and culture. NTI contributes to the advancement and integration of knowledge, culture and ethical understanding - for the benefit of humanity in an increasingly complex and globally interdependent world. The Nan Tien bridge will link NTI’s new and innovative Campus, Art Gallery & Cultural Centre with Nan Tien Temple, the largest Buddhist Temple in the Southern Hemisphere.

This link and connection will symbolise the pathways of learning, cross-cultural connections, and the foundations of Buddhist wisdom that support the educational programs offered at NTI.

Separated by a busy highway, this overpass will facilitate an easier and safer walk for all between the Campus, Art Gallery and Cultural Centre and the Nan Tien Temple.   Sponsorship Form

Why do we make offering?

“Offering” originally refers to the offering of material good such as food and clothing to the triple Gem – Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, to our teachers parents and the deceased.

To our superiors, offerings convey our feelings of affection, our duty and respect to them. While to our sub-ordinate, it encompasses the meaning of “empathy”, “care” and “protection”. These are what’s referred in the Buddhist scriptures as “to repay our indebtedness to the top, to provide relief the those suffering below”. Regardless whether we are offering to our superior or taking care of those below us, we should aspire to the Bodhichitta, or the heart of infinite altruism, in that our motivation behind the offering is not for the benefit of ourselves, but for all the countless sentient beings in the entire space and across all dharma realms.

The Buddha refers to the merit from offering as “like the big expanse of the sky”. When one offers with a mind of non-discrimination and equanimity, then the fruit of the offering with also be vast like the limitless sky.