CONGRATULATORY MESSAGE From Ven. Master Ching Hsin, Taiwan
CONGRATULATORY MESSAGE
From Ven. Master Ching Hsin, Taiwan
The triple-sacred day of Vesak, which celebrates the Gautama Buddha’s birth, attaining enlightenment, and attaining pari-nirvana, has been the most important occasion for all Buddhists worldwide. I am very pleased to see that the 11th Anniversary Celebration and International Buddhist Conference of the United Nations Day of Vesak 2014 will be hosted by the National Vietnam Buddhist Sangha in Ninh Binh Province, Vietnam with the theme of Buddhist Contribution to Achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals.
The UN Millennium Development Goals are to eliminate poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental deterioration, and discrimination against women, which are important social issues and have aroused global attention. These are the critical global affairs to deal with. After Sakyamuni Buddha’s attaining enlightenment, he devoted himself to promoting and developing the truth as well as transforming all the sentient beings out of his compassion for the world and his concern about the well-being of human beings. Therefore, the Celebration has five sub-themes as follows: (i) Buddhist Response to Sustainable Development and Social Change, (ii) Buddhist Response to Global Warming and Environmental Protection, (iii) Buddhist Contributions to Healthy Living, (iv) Peace-building and Post-Conflict Recovery, (v) Buddhist Education and University Level Curriculum. The Celebration invites the Buddhist groups all over the world to share their ideas and come up with the solutions to the global crises. The Celebration is of historic and epochal significance.
I do applaud National Vietnam Buddhist Sangha for its efforts to organize the Celebration aiming at the important issue “Buddhist Contribution to Achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals.” After the discussion, good suggestions and recommendations for improving the well-being of all beings by Buddha-dharma which Sakyamuni Buddha realized and proved will be brought out. In the end, I wish the Celebration a great success.
Yours in the Dhamma
Ven. Master Ching Hsin
Rector, Ching Chueh Buddhist Sangha University
President, World Chinese Buddhist Sangha Council
