IBPS Manila

The International Buddhist Progress Society of Manila, Philippines (also known as Fo Guang Shan Manila) (Chinese: 菲律賓馬尼拉佛光山) is the main branch way-place of the Taiwan affiliated Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Order in the Philippines. As do all branch temples, way-places, and organizations of Fo Guang Shan, the branch follows Humanistic Buddhism, a modernized style of Buddhist teaching as propagated by Venerable Master Hsing Yun, spiritual founder and teacher of the order.

In 1989, while monks from the Fo Guang Shan order were preaching Buddhist teachings on the southern islands of Cebu and Bacolod, they received requests from lay followers in Manila. In November 1992, Venerable Yung Guang brought with her statues of the Three Treasure Buddhas (namely Sakyamuni, Amitabha, and Bhaisajyaguru) to the famous Ongpin Street, in Manila’s Chinatown. In the beginning, Venerable Yung Guang founded the small Manila Buddhist Center in a premises offered by lay devotees.

After half a year of preaching, the number of lay followers increased, and the space was no longer sufficient to accommodate all of them. Having realized the great potential in the capital of the Philippines, Venerable Yung Guang invited Venerable Tzu Chuang, director of the Overseas Supervisory Council and senior bhikkuni of the Fo Guang Shan order, to come to Manila to inspect a historical building, which was the former USSR Embassy, and renamed it the "Manila Lecture Hall". This constituted a new page in the history of Buddhist preaching in the Philippines.

Following the guiding principles set out by Fo Guang Shan, the Manila Lecture Hall propagated Dharma through education, cultural activities, charitable programs, and Buddhist practices. Activities such as Youth Summer Camps, Children's Summer Camps, Filipino children's classes, and lectures on Buddhism were conducted regularly.

With the assistance of the local Buddhist community, a seven-day exhibit on hundreds of Buddhist statues from private collections was held at the Century Park Hotel. This was an unprecedented undertaking in the history of Buddhism in the Philippines which attracted a huge number of Buddhists and non-Buddhists who came to appreciate Buddhist art.

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Wikipedia