BLIA South Island AGM & Exec Conference
The 2015 Buddha’s Light International Association (BLIA) South Island NZ Annual General Meeting & Executive Conference took place on the 3rd of October at Fendalton Community Centre with the participation of Fo Guang Shan (FGS) NZ – Venerable Abbess Manshin, FGS South Island NZ Temple Supervisor – Venerable Jue Xi, BLIA South Island Advisor – John Lai, President – See Shen Lee, Vice President – Louisa Kuo, Elsa, James Low and around 40 more members. The event also sees BLIA North Island Dolly Tsai attending to give support and encouragement.
At the meeting, President Lee with the Leaders of West Subchapter, North Subchapter, English Subchapter, Love & Caring Group and the Young Adult Division (YAD) presented last year’s activities and reports. It then followed by a short film that happened in May earlier this year at Fo Guang Shan headquarters where the presentation ceremony of the Buddha head statue to Youjue Temple, Hebei Province China entitled “Universal Shining of Buddha’s Light, The Sacred Reunion” was shown to all members of BLIA to get a feeling of this solemn and touching ceremony. In addition, the “BLIA South Island Activities” was also displayed, giving everyone a glance of healthy activities that happened through the year bringing sweet and fruitful results.
As the year 2016 marks the year of Double Celebrations with FGS celebrates their 50th Anniversary and it is the 90th birthday of FGS international founder Venerable Master Hsing-Yun, proposals from the headquarters to encourage members to take part were given:-
1, April’s Praise to the Great Buddha Concert;
2, May 16th will be the Buddha’s Light International Day where a special exhibition of historical photographs of each temple will be held;
3, July will be the month of the BLIA YAD International Conference;
4, Venerable Master Hsing Yun’s “One Stroke Calligraphy” will take place in NZ’s Fo Guang Yuan Gallery One and Two.
Besides that, topics of Venerable Huiyan’s “Beauty of Buddha’s Light” photography exhibition and giving out of Venerable Master Hsing Yun’s “366 Days with Wisdom” to the old folks home were also discussed in this meeting. The abbess was subsequently invited to hand out certificates to the new Board of Directors, giving a joyful and lively scene to all.
The Executive Conference brings Venerable Abbes Manshin giving a topic of “Six Hearts that BLIA Members Should Have”. The abbess emphasized, as BLIA members, we should have the heart of Wisdom, Compassion, Humbleness, Apologetic, Diligence and Loyalty. Wisdom could break through all worries; Compassion is the fundamental driving force behind all practices; Humbleness gives us non-stop strength of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas; Apologetic could flare up hard-work towards goodness and willingness to strive, Diligence preserve us from giving up and retreating; Loyalty is the backbone of all and these all brings us the power of success.
Later on, President Lee, Vice Presidents – Louisa Kuo and James Low shared “How to Become a subchapter Leader” in exploring ways to organize activities, keeping in contact and ways to communicate with members, further on exchange and promote feelings of each other. Supplementing that, Vice President – Elsa and Committee – Mei-Hwa, Chen shared their experience in “How to Recruit New BLIA Members”. Through these wonderful sharing, everyone has a clearer idea in their role, moreover this event led to the enthusiasm and willingness of everyone to get involve more.
In the end, everyone felt the wholesomeness of the event with everyone now full with passion to commit and write down better results after the 2015 BLIA South Island NZ Annual General Meeting & Executive Conference.