西澳青年團

Young Adult Division of Western Australia

The birth of any nation or organization has its background, causes and conditions. The origin of the "Buddha's Light International Association—Young Adult Division" is no different.

During March 22nd to March 24th of 1996, BLIA World Headquarters & Hsi Lai Temple jointly organized the First American & Canadian Buddhist youth Camp at Hsi Lai Temple in California, USA. About 100 participants from 23 universities of Canada (Vancouver and Edmonton) and USA (Texas, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Arizona and California) attended. Coincidentally, Grand Master Hsing Yun was on his Dharma promotion tour in the United States at the time, and as Grand Master Hsing Yun has always highly valued and cherished the youth, he agreed to the invitation from the organizers to give a speech for the participants.

During the speech, Grand Master Hsing Yun pointed out that to understand a nation's future, we look at the youth of the nation; similarly, to know the future of Buddhism, we can look at the efforts of Buddhist youth. He then mentioned many of the world's famous leaders of past and present, who had been very dedicated in their youth and went through many difficulties in order to succeed in their career. Further, Grand Master Hsing Yun pointed out that, during the history of Buddhism, Sakyamuni Buddha and Grand Master Xuen Zhuan from China devoted their youth to Buddhism, and only by their going through many hardships and overcoming many obstacles do we have today's accomplishments. Therefore, youth is Buddhism's future hope. Grand Master Hsing Yun's words inspired the participants to contribute to the promotion of Dharma. They sincerely requested Grand Master Hsing Yun to form a Buddhist youth group to allow more youths to work together to promote Buddhism. This proposal immediately received Grand Master Hsing Yun's support, and was approved with immense applause at the "BLIA First Meeting of the Second Board of Directors" held in Malaysia on April 23rd of the same year. Hence an internationally based youth group affiliated with BLIA was born.

The First International Buddhist Youth Conference, organized by BLIA and co-organized by BLIA-YAD and BLIA R.O.C, was held at Fo Guang Shan from January 1st to January 3rd of 1997. The conference gathered together over six hundred Buddhist youths from 95 different areas across the five continents. At the time, there had been a number of incidents relating to religion in Taiwan that caused many people in the society to misunderstand the Buddhism. Thus the conference's main focus was to allow the youth, through Buddhism, to develop a righteous view of life, to practice Dharma in daily life, to care for society and promote national and world peace. For this reason, during the opening ceremony, Grand Master Hsing Yun said to the participants that today's youths have to have responsibility, gratitude, kinship, and compassion. He specifically emphasized that the one who is gratefulness, is the richest. This pointed out a clear direction for this conference.

After three days of Dharma talks, discussions and interactions under the guidance of venerables of Fo Guang Shan, the participants formalized the objectives of the BLIA-YAD:

1. To establish our direction through Humanistic Buddhism
2. To foster leadership skills by forming youth groups
3. To broaden our life experience through activities
4. To deepen our faith in Buddhism through education
5. To enrich our values by contributing to society

At the same time participants also raised following points regarding the future development of the BLIA-YAD:

1. To organize a yearly conference, to expand our horizons and enrich our life experience
2. To actively promote YAD subdivisions, encouraging youth to learn Buddhism and to spread the Dharma
3. To reinforce Committee training, developing quality leadership skills and improving the nature of activities
4. To build a communication network, sharing achievements and learning and growing together
5. With the outstanding performances, knowledge and enthusiasm of Buddha's Light youths, plus the inauguration of 23 YAD subdivisions during the opening ceremony, Grand Master Hsing Yun was deeply touched and said, "The formation of YAD subdivisions around the world is like spreading Bodhi seeds. Do not underestimate a seed, one day it will grow. Do not underestimate even little causes and conditions, when they ripen, the whole universe will quiver. The future of Buddhist youth is boundless." He continued, "Although BLIA-YAD is a small step for BLIA, it is a great leap for human kind."

Want to know more about BLIA YAD, please visit www.bliayad.org