The world conference closing ceremony, organized by the 27 BLIA North American chapters, concluded its 8 days meeting.

The virtual meeting started on the evening of Oct 8th at 9 pm Toronto time. Out of the 180 BLIA Toronto members who registered, close to 60 members attended the meeting at the Fo Guang Shan Temple (FGS) of Toronto together with the venerables.

Venerable Chueh Fan said at the gathering, that they came together to celebrate three happy events. Firstly, a celebration of Thanksgiving since traditionally it is a time of reunion of family, in this case, the reunion of Buddha’s Light family members. Secondly, to celebrate the appointment of Sue Hutchinson as Dharma Lecturer by BLIA World HQ. Thirdly, to celebrate the beautiful conclusion of this year’s “Wisdom and Innovation Virtual BLIA World Conference”. It was indeed a very special moment to come together to celebrate this joyous occasion. Sue’s appointment ceremony was both heartwarming and solemn. BLIA prepared a big cake for the celebration. Under the applause of all the attendees, Venerable Chueh Fan put on the Dharma Lecturer sash for Sue and awarded her the certificate. Sue expressed her gratitude to the monastery for its support ever since 1995 when she first joined BLIA. She thanked her BLIA family for affirming and accompanying her on her Buddhist path.

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At 9 pm sharp, one of the segments of the meeting, “BLIA stories” began. Members looked back and shared their challenges and accomplishments from 30 years ago as they built the association across the 5 continents. It was extra poignant as they listened to Venerable Master Hsing Yun’s speaking in a nonchalant manner. The sense of “Where there is Dharma, there is a way” was strongly felt by all members and that all
the success is only possible with the strength of faith and the motivation to propagate Humanistic Buddhism. The cohesiveness and strong membership of being a part of
the BLIA family with the unyielding objective to spread the Dharma is what made all Buddha’s Light members proud.

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At the end of the closing ceremony, BLIA World HQ President Most Venerable Hsin Bao in his speech remarked that he is very pleased with the meeting. He hoped that members would learn much from this meeting and from each other to make oneself better and to help others. He is looking forward to meeting everyone at the 2023 BLIA General Conference next October at FGS Monastery in Taiwan.

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