COMPASSION IS OUR MINISTRY

Warmest greetings from Mahabodhi Ladakh. I sincerely hope this finds all of you in the best of physical, mental and spiritual health. I arrived back to Devachan safely and am now immersed fully in the various summer actives.

On behalf of all the staff, students and members of MIMC, I would like to express my heartfelt grateful thanks to each and very honorable members of BGF, the members of the MDL, and everyone else, including the group of performers for the significant and grand program you have organized.

Under the chairmanship, proficient leadership and guidance of Datuk Dr. Victor Wee, the Malaysian desk for Ladakh and the BGF, have worked very hard to make the fund rising program ‘Compassion in Action’-Dinner a magnificent success. The speeches by Datuk Dr. Victor Wee, his brother Mr. Lee Lee Kim and others, and the Dhamma songs and music performed by various groups were most inspiring and encouraging, I am sure they touched the hearts of the audience.

My sincere thanks to Mahaupasaka Charlie Chia for his continued help and support in organizing the event and liaising with various groups right from the beginning and for his wholehearted support for such a grand event. I also wish to express my deep appreciation and thanks to all of you for organizing my talks in KL, Penang, Kuching and Singapore. I greatly enjoyed meeting so many devoted Buddhists and in sharing some words of Dhamma with them. I am grateful for the opportunity given to me to present slides about Ladakh and the spiritual and humanitarian activities of MIMC. I do hope they are satisfied with my Dhamma talks and our missionary works.

Our staff and students were thrilled to watch the video films and the photographs so nicely prepared by Bro. Peter Tan (offical photographer) and Bro.Lim Teik Leong (official videographer) of the fund rising dinner program. They requested me to convey their heartfelt thanks and gratitude to all of you for the profound compassion, love, the time and the vigorous efforts you put in to organize such a grand and wonderful fund raising event.

We will be showing the film and the photographs to more of our members in our forthcoming yearly General Body meeting.

The unreserved wholehearted financial, moral and spiritual support extended by you all, is a great inspiration to me and my fellow staff to carry forward our mission and vision - to bring smile and beauty on the faces of less fortunate children, and confidence and dignity in the hearts of more underprivileged people and more specifically to the visually-impaired children, the differently abled people, the destitute elderly, the sick and the infirm, the deprived children from economically marginalized families of far flung villages and the novice Monks and Nuns.

I wish that all the people of the world draw inspiration from the devout Buddhists of Malaysia. If they could show concern to each other like the Malaysian Buddhists do, the world would be totally different, no one would be suffering from poverty, illiteracy and exploitation, and this very earth would become a heaven.

But, alas! This planet has become a battle field and human lives are in chaos, misery and fear. The root cause of all these misfortunes, as Lord Buddha said, is greed, hatred and ignorance. And no other religious teachers have explained as precisely and clearly as the Buddha, the ways and means to overcome these miseries and achieve ever lasting bless of Nibbana. We the Buddhists, particularly those who are blessed with all the necessary conditions to practice like the Malaysian Buddhists, are indeed most fortunate ones. Having realized this, let us redouble our efforts for our own further progress as well as to share with others who are deprived of this precious teaching of compassion and wisdom taught by our Lord Buddha.

The creation of Devachan campus would not have materialized without your continued patronage, good-will and generous support. Therefore our staff, students and members are sincerely striving to create a beautiful and harmonious space here at the Devachan campus; spiritually enlightening, mentally peaceful, culturally rich, environmentally harmonious and globally focused for all our supporters, sponsors and friends and for the benefit of all the lovers of peace and seekers of truth right across the world. We have been able to create a simple guest house called "The Mahabodhi Global Family Guesthouse" in the campus. We extend a humble invitation to all our supporters, sponsors and friends to come and visit Ladakh and to be our guests and friends here at the Devachan campus. You will then have an opportunity to see and experience directly what we have managed to achieve through your generous donations and support. Our team of staff, students and members will take immense pleasure and joy in serving you and in making your stay at Devachan truly memorable and meaningful.

Devachan belongs to all !! It is yours ! we are eagerly looking forward to the pleasure of welcoming you to Devachan! A great sage said, " This opportune physical form is worth more than a wish granting gem, you only gain it once. So hard to get, so easily destroyed!" Another sage said "No self deception could be worse, after obtaining such an opportunity, then not using it for virtuous end, nothing could be blinder".

It is indeed very fortunate that we have been able to cultivate such a gracious association with one another in this lifetime, and we are truly blessed with the opportunity to work together and offer some virtuous service. May our friendship, rooted in nobility, grow ever stronger! Pray:

May you all be healthy, happy and peaceful.
May all of us be blessed with the necessary conditions to continue our mission of creating peace in the hearts and smile on the faces of more and more people.
May all our words, actions and thoughts be a constant source of inspiration as we seek to dispel misery and ignorance far and wide until our very last breaths have been taken!
May the darkness of hatred and violence disappear from every heart, every house, every nation, every continent and every corner of the world!
May the light of pure love shine in every heart, every continent and every corner of the world!

Once again I, on behalf of all the staff, students and all the other residents of the Devachan campus, express my sincere thanks and gratitude to all of you for and the many opportunities I got in sharing my Dhamma talks at many different places. My heartfelt gratitude to all those who spared their valuable time and energy and so enthusiastically participated in the fundraising event.

May you be well and happy.

May the Buddhas and Boddhisattavas bless you and your family members.

Thank you so much.

With very kind regards and much metta.
In the Dharma,
Bhikkhu Sanghasena.

A record number of 115 dinner table tickets sold!

Donation amount received RM90,000++ to date!

Sadhu for being part of this miracle... see you on Sunday, 24th May 2009 for the Dinner at Sunway Convention Centre! (Inside Sunway Pyramid)

Miracles begin in the mind. What began as an idea in the mind of Venerable Sanghasena has now become a miracle in Himalayan Ladakh. That idea which was mooted more than 25 years ago has today blossomed into reality, nurtured by sheer persistence and compassion by the monk who started it all.

Who would have thought that one monk could do all the work that would require the resources of a town council. He built residential schools for poor students, hospital and mobile clinic for the sick, monastery and nunnery for the training of monks and nuns, home for the aged and physically and mentally-challenged children, and started programmes for communal harmony, youth development, emergency relief and environmental preservation.