By BGR Staff
All of us at BGR offer our warmest and deepest thanks to all of our supporters who participated in Buddhist Global Relief’s online special event, “Creating a World That Works for Everyone,” as well as the many others who support our work.
A theme that recurred during the event was the importance of collaboration and community in our work to create a world that honors the life and well-being of everyone on this Earth. At a time when more than 800,000 people—10 percent of the world’s population—face chronic food insecurity and undernourishment, the need for our committed cooperation is greater than ever.
Buddhist Global Relief is a model for such compassionate partnership, and this year’s event proved a microcosm of the good that our work together makes possible:
Rick Hanson, founder of the Global Compassion Coalition, placed our work in the context of the totality of human history. He spoke of the millennia of early humankind when, within each tribe or band, survival depended on the ability “to care and to share.” Transformative change, he suggested, arises from a return to those values, the building of a new “global commons.”
Raimund Hopf spoke of how he founded BGR’s European partner, Mitgefühl in Aktion (MiA), “Compassion in Action.” The European Buddhists who brought MiA into reality were inspired by the work we have been doing together here in the U.S. In just a few years they have built an organization that is itself inspiring Buddhists throughout Europe to join their work of putting compassion into action.
Ven. Jin Chuan, a BGR board member, and Ven. Jin Wei, reminded us that we are creating a world in every moment. They asked us to consider our lives from three perspectives, from the individual self outward: “Can we accept ourselves as we are, and accept the world as it is? Can we walk together with others as friends and support one another? Can we honor our kinship with all beings?”
Roshi Joan Hoeberichts in turn provided a response to those questions through a beautiful teaching on how we can practice with the Four Immeasurables to transcend our sense of separation by encountering our fundamental interconnection.
Several BGR partner representatives shared their organizations’ work with us: Ayya Yeshe, founder of Bodhicitta Foundation (India); Prasad Binuwara, from Shraddha Charities (Sri Lanka); Tyler Hudacek, from Action Against Hunger (Tanzania and Somalia); Joah McGee from Better Burma (Myanmar); and Annarbha and Acharn Yai from the Dhammajarinee Witthaya School (Thailand). These speakers exemplified our interconnection as they shared stories, images, and videos of people around the world whose lives have been touched by you, our donors and supporters.
Devotional chanting led by Ayya Yeshe, and a lovingkindness meditation led by our event emcee and BGR board member Ayya Dhammadīpā, offered us the opportunity to practice together as a beautiful Dhamma family united by our commitment to the collective work of conscientious compassion.
At BGR, we often say, “We could not do this work without you.” We mean this from the depths of our hearts. Together, as a global community, we are creating a world that works for everyone. Let’s continue this work long into the future.
With many thanks and abundant blessings from Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi and all of us at Buddhist Global Relief.
