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Summer 2016/17

Festive Greetings from BCV

Words from the President Phra Khru Kampeepanyawithet (Ajahn Boonsom)

The Year is moving on and Summer is here with us. As I mention in the last newsletter the weather is an excellent teacher of the Dhamma. The weather teaches us Impermanence. It teaches us to accept the days as they come and to enjoy whatever the weather brings us. That is nature.

BCV had its election on the 22nd of October and I am back as the President. I want to thank the people who have volunteered to be in the committee as the BCV depends very much on the people willing to give up their time for the BCV.

The workplan with OMAC finishes on 30 June 2017. In the meantime there is much to be completed to allow us to meet our key performance indicators. The committee together with the help of volunteers will be organising events. I invite you to participate in those events.

I like to take the opportunity to wish you and Family a very Happy Holiday Season, enjoy your time with your children and family. It is also time to wish you a Very Happy New Year and Success, Fulfilment and Joy in the 2017.

I thank you for your contribution to the BCV and together we can help more people to have access to the Dharma.

DhammapadaVerse165PurityandImpurityDependonOneself

Attana’ va katam papam attana samkilissati Attana’ va katam papam va visujjhati Suddhi asuddhi paccattam n’ anno annam visodhaye

By oneself, indeed, is evil done; by oneself is one defiled. By oneself is evil left undone; by oneself, indeed, is one purified. Purity and impurity depend on oneself. No one purifies another.

Sadhu sadhu sadhu (The President)

Summer 2016/17


The Committee for 2016/17

President: Ven. Ajahn Boonsom Vice President: Laura Chan Treasurer : Ven. Gontug Rinpoche

Secretary : Michael Wells Ordinary Member: Siri Elleperumaarachchi (Kris) Ordinary Member: Dinesh Weerakkody

Spiritual Health Chaplaincy Convenor: Ven. Hojun Futen Spiritual Health Chaplaincy Supervisor: Su Sullivan Prison Chaplaincy Convenor: Ven. Hojun Futen Buddhist Special Religious Instructions Acting Convenor: Peggy Page Interfaith Convenor: Peggy Page BCV 20th Anniversary: Gerlad Lim Administration: Albert Chang

Ven. Gontug Rinpoche – Treasurer 2016/17

His Eminence the 18th Gontug Rinpoche is a high rank Rinpoche as certified by His Holiness Kadham Trichen Rinpoche. The name Gontug denotes the ‘mind’ emanation of Gonbawa, who lived from 1016 to 1082.

Gontug Rinpoche has received the Highest Yoga Tantra Empowerment of Yamantaka on 5th January 1997 by His Holiness Kadham Trichen Rinpoche and also the Heruka Empowerment as well as the Guhyasamaja Empowerment subsequently. Rinpoche was ordained as a monk on 9th March 2004 in Taiwan and was given the name Losang

Summer 2016/17


Kunga. Rinpoche received his Bikshu vow on the 27th May 2004 from Geshe Topgyal from Jangtse Monastery at the Tibetan Colony in Mundgod, Karnataka, India.

Rinpoche took over as Abbot of the Mahayana Monastery in Nepal in 2006 and also received Master degree in both the Sutra and the Tantras from The Mahayana Buddhist Monastic College. Rinpoche was assigned by His Holiness Kadham Trichen Rinpoche to set up the Kadhampa Buddhist Society of Australia in 2012.

Rinpoche has been very active and committed in propagating Mahayana Buddhism and engaging in community services both in Glen Waverley and in the state of Victoria. He held various key committee positions, twice as treasurer and later as the vice-chair of the Australian Sangha Association during the past consecutive years. He is also among the working-committee of the Monash Interfaith Group, and is currently a Special Religious Instructor for Buddhism at Essex Heights Primary School, Mount Waverley, in addition to volunteering as a Chaplain for the Emergencies Ministry in Victoria.

Constitutional Amendments Passed at the AGM. The original constitution of the Buddhist Council of Victoria (BCV) was amended in 2014 due to changes in the Incorporated Associations Act which led to the original constitution being non-complaint.

BCV adopted a new constitution which was based on the model rules. However these rules are written with a presumption that an association will consist of individual persons as members, rather than the circumstance of the BCV where members of the Association are Buddhist temples, groups or organisations who are represented by accredited delegates.

At the AGM members passed a number of motions which sought to clarify that where the constitution refers to a member it means a member temple, group or organisation and that where issues arise in regard to a particular individual, this will refer to an accredited delegate.

In addition, there one new section was added. However this was not so much new as revisiting an aspect of the original constitution which had been deleted along the way. This new section refers to the re-establishment of a Sangha advisory committee to

Summer 2016/17


provide guidance and advice to the committee members on matters of importance. The Sangha advisory committee is free to determine how and when they meet and is not bound by the council in any way.

Both those proposing the redrafting, and the delegates at the AGM on the day, considered that, although there is no legal requirement to include a Sangha advisory committee in the constitution, by doing so we can highlight in a symbolic way the importance of the Sangha to the Buddhist community, which the Buddhist Council strives to represent.

The proposed changes have now been submitted to Consumer Affairs Victoria who must agree to the changes before they can be finalised.

Michael Wells

Secretary

Health and Prison Spiritual Care

Assistant Coordinator and Credentialing

It has been an interesting 12 months in Spiritual Care. Our programs of health and prison spiritual care have grown large enough that a new coordinator was required. At first we thought we would go the old route of splitting the two spiritual care teams up and giving each program their own coordinator. Then our friends at Spiritual Health Victoria had an idea that

would stop us from possibly losing a lot of the knowledge gained in the past two years by appointing an assistant under the current coordinator whose role it is to learn all about both programs while having their own specialised tasks. That way the coordinator and the assistant coordinator can easily fill in for each other when required with the view that the assistant might very well take over from the coordinator one day and when that occurs all knowledge will have been passed on.

Summer 2016/17


As such I would like to introduce Su Sullivan who has taken on the role of Assistant Coordinator for Spiritual Care. Su has a background in managing volunteer organisations and her education in psychology puts her in great stead for one of her main roles with his to provide supervision to our valuable spiritual carers. In a way Su is here to care for the carers.

Su’s other main task is to complete the credentialing of all our spiritual carers. Credentialing is a task given to all faith groups by the state government via Spiritual

Health Victoria. It is to ensure that all spiritual carers in Victoria, regardless of the faith or tradition they belong to, have the same training and support and so that we can secure our funding for the program next year. It is a big task for Su and we ask that all the BCV’s spiritual carers assist Su when required.

In the first quarter of next year there will be training for new spiritual carers. Please keep an eye out for further information and dates in the near future on the internet page. If you are interested in helping those in need and would like to join our team, please contact the coordinator.

Chaplaincy Convenor

Venerable Hojun

Summer 2016/17


BSRI (Buddhist Special Religious Instructions) Report

The school term is coming to an end. A very Big Thank You to the Principals, School Councils and Parents of North Clayton Primary School, Huntingdale Primary School and Essex Heights Primary School for allowing the BSRI to continue in the schools during lunch time. With the permission of the Principal, school councils and parents, the children would have missed out on the Teachings of the Buddha. The children are taught values that are important to the day to day living of a person. Values are the foundation to

children growing up to be a person who have respect, responsibility, compassion, kindness, love, generosity, acceptance, patience, determination, truthful, mindfulness and others.

A big thank you to the instructors who gave up the hours in a week to bring the Teachings to the class. They are Gontug Rinpoche, Lucky Hewagama, Prema Kodikarage, Atsuko McQuire and Michelle Tay. Kim Siok See, Prem Nawaratne and Albert Chang helped out when an instructor is not able to attend the class. This allows the class to be on even though the assigned instructor is not able to attend. This buddy system is working well and will be used more in the future.

After a meeting with RfP, information is that our instructors will be accredited for another five years. What this mean is that SRI classes will still be on if a school wants to have it.

In the New Year we will be advertising for an SRI convenor. Information will be posted on to our website. Please look out for the information and if you are interested please apply.

I take this opportunity to wish all of you a Very Happy and Enjoyable Holiday Season and a Very Joyful, Successful and Peaceful 2017.

Summer 2016/17


A bit of Dhamma The Blessings of Pindapata

I chanced upon this article when I was looking for something else and I like to share it with all of you. It provides an explanation into what Pindapata

and gives a vivid account of the process.

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/khantipalo/wheel073.html

Peggy Page - Acting Education Convenor

Child Safe Policy Are you on a board or committee of your temple organisation that is involved with working with children? Do you have Working With Children Check?

And do you know that from January 1, 2017, new legislation applies to all organisations in Victoria working with children? This new legislation has 7 Standards that you must incorporated into the day-to-day operation of your community as a form of standard operation procedure (SOP). Then from July 1, 2017, there will be a body set up to monitor the implementation of this new legislation.

We strongly advise you to find out more about this new legislation and how to implement it in your organisation by visiting below sites, Commission for Children and Young People Level 20, 570 Bourke Street Melbourne Victoria 3000 Freecall: 1300 78 29 78 Phone: (61 3) 8601 5884 Email: [email protected] www.ccyp.vic.gov.au

Summer 2016/17


United Nations Day of Peace

A joint event was held by the Melbourne Thai Buddhist Temple and the Buddhist Council of Victoria on the 21st of September to celebrate the United Nations Day of Peace. Venerable Buddharakkhita who is from

Uganda was visiting Melbourne and was invited to give a talk. Venerable gave a most educational talk on how conflicts arise in us and when conflicts arise we have no peace. His reason for conflicts arising is when we have different views of the same object. To prevent conflict from arising is to be able to accept that we can have our own views of the same object. During question time he spoke about his experience in bringing the Dhamma to Uganda. A Big Thank You to Venerable Buddharakkhita for giving the talk, to the Ajahn Boonsom for hosting the event at the Melbourne Thai Temple and to all who had helped to make the event a success.

Peggy Page - Interfaith Covenor

BCV 20th Anniversary Celebration BCV is planning and organising our 20th Anniversary celebration to be

held in March 2017. We are calling for volunteers who would like to be part of this exciting celebration.

Please contact BCV via email at [email protected] or call Albert Chang at 0411 883988

Gerald Lim – Program Convenor

Summer 2016/17


Fund Raising for the Buddhist Council of Victoria (BCV) For the last 4 years the BCV was fortunate to have received funding from the Office of Multicultural Affairs and Citizenship to set up an office and to have an admin officer working 2 days a week. The BCV is gaining greater visibility among the other faith groups as well as recognition by the Victorian Government that it is a body that represents Buddhist organisations in Victoria and is a way for the Victorian Government to reach Buddhists in Victoria and vice-versa. The BCV has 4 programs to serve the community. The Special Religious Instructions in Schools program brings meditation and the Teachings of the Buddha to school children, the Chaplaincy program brings Chaplains to visit the sick in hospitals, residents in Nursing Homes and prisoners and the Interfaith program participates and organises events that allows for the Buddha Teachings to be shared with others. The funding for BCV ends in June 30th 2017 and OMAC expects BCV to be self-funding. The BCV had now applied for a fund raising permit that allows it to raise funds from a greater circle of people. A fund raising sub-committee will be formed.

I will like to start a very simple and affordable fund raising event. The Save a Coin a Day campaign. If we can just slow down and before we buy our next cup of coffee or chocolate or new pair of shoes etc. we can consider putting aside a coin for the BCV. I said “Save a Coin” because children can participate too by putting away a 10cents or even 5 cents. As we all would know a dripping tap will fill a bucket so will a coin fills the container over time.

A calculation of the amount that be raised. For example each collection box returns with an amount of $100.00 which = 30c per day for a year and we have 300 people do it BCV will have $30,000.00 per year which is sufficient to run the office and to

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have an officer for a two days week and some left over for activities. If you like to have a money box please call 88222013 on Tuesdays and Fridays 11:00 to 3:00pm or send an email to [email protected]

A Big Thank you and Good Bye to Bianca Paliaga It was with mixed feelings that we received Bianca's decision to leave BCV in August 2016 to spend more time with her family. We will miss her professional manner and her service to our community, but we wish her well with her family and her future endeavours. Her administrative role is now delegated to Albert Chang, who has been with BCV since May 2014. Albert has been a Buddhist since 1995 and has been playing many different roles as a volunteer with Yun Yang Temple, BCV, BSRI, and the United Nation Vesak Day Celebration.

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