Visiting the New York Buddhist Vihara

Visiting the New York Buddhist Vihara

When I arrived in New York Nicole and Jessica welcomed me and took me to the New York Buddhist Vihara. People call it Queen’s temple. It was a great privilege and a wonderful moment to meet and get blessings from the Most Venerable Kurunegoda Piyatissa Nayaka Thera, the chief Sangha Nayaka of U.S.A. All the resident monks were very busy but they welcomed us in a very friendly fashion. I visited the shrine room with Nicole and Jessica . It is a very big and beautiful shrine with traditional wall paintings.

We had only a very limited time to stay there but I was very lucky to get blessings and the opportunity to have a discussion with the Nayaka Hamuduruvo. I felt strongly his compassion and good wishes. .He was very open and admired the Dhamma work done by the young monks. I thought: He is a model example for all of us who are on a Dhammaduta Mission. The Most Venerable highly admired my teacher in Sri Lanka and showed some of his photos taken with him. He was very kind in offering a copy of his biography. We left the Vihara wishing him good health and thanking all the resident monks who had been very kind to us .I wish I could have had more time to stay with them.

some of the photos by www.michaelseto.com