Bodhi Monastery hosted an all-day meeting on Saturday, June 14th for Buddhist Global Relief (BGR), a newly developing inter-denominational Buddhist relief organization. The mission of BGR is to provide relief to the poor and needy throughout the world regardless of nationality, ethnicity, gender, or religion. Bearing in mind the Buddha’s statements that “hunger is the worst kind of illness” and “the gift of food is the gift of life,” BGR especially focuses on providing food aid to those afflicted by hunger and lack of food security. Its long-range goal, however, is to combat all the manifestations of poverty that detract from the inherent dignity of human life.

Though Bodhi Monastery has no formal affiliation with BGR, it has a connection with its founder and Chairman, Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi, who is currently a part-time resident and teacher at the monastery. In 2007 Ven. Bodhi wrote an essay for the magazine Buddhadharma. In his essay, he called attention to the narrowly inward focus of American Buddhism, which has been pursued to the neglect of the active dimension of Buddhist compassion expressed through programs of social engagement. Some of Ven. Bodhi’s local and distant students felt inspired to follow up on his suggestions, so they took action, made more connections, and formed a founding group of approximately 20 people.

 

Ven. Thich TriHoang, Rev. Joan Hoebericht, Patricia Price, Sharon Salzberg, and David Loy have accepted roles as Advisors to the organization. Clement Wong has been appointed Treasurer.

First Donation Given by Ven. Jen-chun and Bodhi Monastery

Ven. Jen-chun sat in on parts of the meeting, while Chin Lee, an administrator at Chuang Yen Monastery, translated for him. One of the topics of the meeting that was facilitated by David Braughton of Tampa, FL, was where to get the funds to start this all up. Ven. Jen-chun came in at one point during the meeting and presented the group with the very first donation, a gift of $5,000

How You Can Help

BGR is currently recruiting volunteers with various skills and expertise for both project-based help and longer term commitment. The main priority is to build up a strong volunteer work force and to establish funding through 2009 for start-up expenses and administrative overhead and to bring in enough donations through fund-raising efforts to be able to make substantial contributions to feed the hungry.