Over the past 25 years, a former tip in East Brunswick has been transformed into CERES - one of Australia's most visited environmental education centres. As DINAH ARNDT discovered, over the past decade a group of Braybrook Buddhists have been quietly following suit.
QUANG Minh Temple is a hive of activity as volunteers work hard to transform the Braybrook site into not just the largest Vietnamese Buddhist temple complex but also an educational centre on the environment and sustainable living.
MARIGOLDS will festoon Quang Minh Temple in Braybrook along with other flowers, candles and decorations as thousands of Vietnamese and Chinese residents celebrate the Lunar New Year’s Eve this Saturday.
When presented with the opportunity to plant trees at the Quang Minh Temple in Melbourne, young people attending the Parliament jumped at the chance.
Who wouldn't want to provide a service to a temple community, get some fresh air and have an enlightening educational experience, all at the same time?
Experiencing the death of a loved one, or witnessing the death of others, can be one of the most profound events in one's life. Especially in Western culture, death is something we pretend does not exist. We are constantly encouraged to hold onto life, and even if we're with someone we know is dying, the subject is rarely, if ever, mentioned. Never acknowledging this universal experience of the unknown is like an individual who admits he has a mind but not a body, or vice versa; in short, by hiding from such an inherent part of life as death, we deny ourselves a truly integrated understanding of life's possibilities and its meaning. Buddhism has a lot to say about the role of death in human life, as well as its true nature. Death can be a teacher. Only in facing death, those of loved ones and our own, can we be free from the fear of it and learn the lessons it has to teach about life.
The Jade Buddha for Universal Peace is the largest Buddha carved from gemstone quality jade in the world. The Jade Buddha is 2.7 metres high and sits on an alabaster throne of 1.4 high. The Jade Buddha itself weighs around 4 tonne and has been valued at $5 million. Its size and beauty make it a wonder of the world. The Buddha has been carved from a rare boulder of translucent jade (“Polar Pride”) which was discovered in Canada in the year 2000.