Messages from Serbia
CONGRATULATORY MESSAGE
Most Venerable Leaders and Members of the Sangha,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear Dhamma Friends
It is great honor and privilege for me to be able to address the participants of such an important and auspicious event as it is the United Nations Day of Vesak 2014. I’m coming from Serbia, a small country in Eastern Europe. As you may know, the whole that region, the Balkans as it is called, passed and is still passing through turbulent times. Brutal civil war, violence and ethnic conflicts, economic recession, social transition and painstaking rebuilding of the material, as much as spiritual assets of the community, marked the last two decades. We in Serbian Theravada Buddhist Society “The Middle Way” strive to contribute to that process by planting a seed of Dhamma and spreading the Buddha’s message of peace and compassion to all our countrymen. As an important step on this road, I am happy to inform you that our Community submitted a request to the authorities for Buddhism to be recognized as an official religion in Serbia. In all our efforts we benefit enormously by receiving support and guidance from the Sangha, Therefore, I’d like to emphasize continuous support from two monasteries in Great Britain. These are Aruna Ratanagiri Monastery, with Ajahn Munindo as an abbot, and the Oxford Buddha Vihara, let by Venerable Dr. Khammai Dhammasami. We owe them a great deal.
Also, contacts with other brothers and sisters in Dhamma on occasions like this one help us to get inspiration and strength for tasks still ahead of us in establishing stable and prosperous Buddhist community in Serbia. Therefore, I’d like to take this opportunity to express my enormous gratitude for inviting me and offering such a wonderful opportunity to come here.
I wish also to congratulate all organizers for their efforts and wonderful hospitality. And I wish to all participants from various countries success and contentment in their lives, as well as great benefit from the Lord Buddha’s teachings. Let our gathering here also sends strong message of peace, happiness, prosperity and stability for the whole world.
Thank you!
Branislav Kovacevic Predsednik
