Annual Committee Report for the Year 2010

Sakyamuni Dharma Centre, PJ

Annual Committee Report for the Year 2010

(for presentation during the AGM 2011)

Election of A New Committee

The year 2010 has once again been a busy year for us at the centre. We have had many activities for the year, but the most significant being the election of a new committee and a new president. 2010 marked the completion of the tenure of the previous committee. During the Annual general meeting held on 21 March 2010, a new committee was elected and Bro. Khor Lai Siew (better known as LS Khor) was elected as the new president.

The current committee would like express their gratitude towards Bro David Cheong, the immediate Past President, and the previous committee for their hard work and contribution during their tenure.

Dharma Activities

Normal Pujas

Under the guidance of our current Resident Teacher, Lama Phuntsho, we continue to carry out many activities. Every month we would hold (according to the Tibetan Calendar) two Guru Puja & Tsog offering, one Tara Puja and one Protector Puja. On other auspicious dates, special puja would also be arranged.

On Sunday, after the usual weekly puja, Lama Phuntsho would give a short Dharma teaching to all the members present. Many members found it to be very helpful. Further, in order to help members to understand the prayers better, on every Tuesday, Lama Phuntsho also conducted classes in elementary Tibetan language.

Wesak Day

For Wesak Day, other than the usual activities at the centre, we continue to participate in the Wesak Day Float Procession. One at Brickfield Maha Vihara (on the actual day) and the other at Chempaka Buddhist Lodge (on the day after Wesak). Although participating in the Wesak Day procession is a very time and energy consuming exercise for all the members concerned, many were delighted and rejoiced at the opportunity to be part of these annual events.

During the day of Wesak Day, we had a grand puja (with eight auspicious offerings), which was then followed by a brief meditation session. It was simple but yet spiritually enriching celebration. After the conclusion of the spiritual part of the celebration, we then had a vegetarian lunch, during which all members together with people from our neighbourhood attended.

Group Chanting

We also continue to maintain our chanting group. Upon any request, the group would provide support and comfort to our members and friends during the period of bereavement and/or needs, by carrying chanting of beneficial prayers for the deceased and/or the person in need. Although the numbers of request had not increased much, many members are still enthusiastic about such opportunity to perform such meritorious acts.

Blood Donation

This year our annual blood donation campaign was held on 17 October 2010. As usual many members made great effort to get family and friends to attend the event. However, due to the change of the blood bank policy of not accepting blood from donors who had lived in UK, the number of blood collected dropped. We would now need to make more effort to get new donors to the campaign.

Long Life Puja for Our Guru and Spiritual Advisor

On 23 November 2010, the students of His Eminence Khensur Rinpoche Jampa Yeshe, Our Guru and Spiritual Advisor to our centre, offered a Long Life Puja to His Eminence, praying and Wishing our Guru for his good health and long life. The Puja was held at Gaden Shartse Monastery in Mundgod, South India. It was led by the Abbot Khen Rinpoche Jangchup Choeden, former abbot/Khensur Rinpoches , Reincarnate Rinpoches and followed by more than 1200 monks.

Due to the long distance, not many of our members made the trip. The Centre was represented by our President Bro LS Khor.

Building Funds

We delighted to report that as the result of the efforts and support given to us by all the friends, families and members of the Centre, we now had only two (2) more installments left to the ten (10) installments for the completion of the purchase of our current premises. It has been a long and challenging journey, we again request the full support of all of you so we can finally realised our goal and fulfilled the wish of our Guru to have a permanent and secured place of practices for the centre.

Awareness, Publicity, Information and Communication

To increase our ability to reach of ours members and the public, we have experimented with various methods of communication, such as newsletter, email, newsgroups and sms. Following analyzing the results and also consider the limited resources available at our disposal, we have decided to drop the publication of our paper newsletter. Instead, we have adopted a more modern approach to communicating with our friends and members, Sakyamuni Dharma Centre, started to have a presence on social network site, namely Facebook. It has been a successful exercise, resulting in many centre following our steps, and joining Facebook.

We also also started a blog, but due to the lack of time and human resource, the progress has been slow.

Note of Thanks

We would like to thank our Guru and Spiritual Advisor His Eminence Khensur Rinpoche Jampa Yeshe for his blessing and guidance, without which, we would not have been able to do all the work and carry out all the activities over the past years.

Further, we also wish to express our heartfelt gratitude to all sangha members, in India or otherwise, and especially to our resident teacher lama Phuntsho. They continued to give help and guidance to all of us, no matter how challenging or difficult was the situation. Their commitment is truly an inspiration to us all at the centre.

Once again, kudos should go to Bro David Cheong, the immediate Past President, and the previous committee, for the hard work they had put in during the tenure. We were able to do many things, one of them being taking part in the Wesak float procession, which we had never done previously.

Last but not least, thanks should also go to all the members, sponsors, friends and families. Their continued support is what kept the committee going, without their encouragement and support, many of our activities would not have been possible.

We would like to dedicate all the merits of all the good deeds we have done to all sentient beings.

“May all beings be able to achieve the ultimate liberation quickly;

May all beings never be separated from the Dharma;

May all beings be Well and Happy.”

Tashi Delek and Thank You!

Committee, 2010-2011

Sakyamuni Dharma Centre,

Petaling Jaya / Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia