Ching Kwok Temple and the Buddhist Education Foundation of Canada
In 2001, Ven. Wude, Ven. Tixiu, Abbess of Ching Far Temple, and Ms. Chris Ng, current president of the Buddhist Education Foundation of Canada, co-founded the Buddhist Education Foundation of Canada (BEFC).
The goal of BEFC is to sponsor Buddhist courses at the University of Toronto, applying the Buddhist teachings to engage in the practice of contemporary Western psychology with the practice on mental health. In 2003, BEFC sponsored its first courses “Socially Engaged Buddhism” and “Buddhist Psychology: Theories and Applications” at New College, University of Toronto. Thereafter, every year BEFC and Ching Kwok Temple had organized fundraising banquets to raise funds for the continuation of the New College courses.
BEFC’s donations to New College had enabled the creation of the minor program “Buddhism, Psychology, and Mental Health” (PBMH) in 2007. Within ten years, the number of enrollment to the PBMH program had increased enormously and admission had continued to rise. Furthermore, BEFC had also received support from the Buddhist community namely Ching Far Temple, Cham Shan Buddhist Temple, Fo Sien Tong Buddhist Temple, and especially Ching Kwok Temple’s many volunteers, in all of its fundraising activities, enabling the PBMH program to develop and establish successfully.
In November 2014, two weeks prior to his passing, Ven. Wude agreed to a partnership with Emmanuel College, University of Toronto and pledged one million in Canadian dollars as endowment for the creation of the Shi Wu De Professorship in Chinese Buddhist Studies, a permanent professorship in the studies of Chinese Buddhism, the first of its kind in a Canadian university, leading to the establishment of the Master of Pastoral Studies Program in Buddhism.
