4th Ehipassiko Camp

The 4th Ehipassiko camp was held a week ago, from 3rd till 5th July. About 30 members of the society participated in this annual event in the Sau Seng Lum Temple, Petaling Jaya. For this time round, the theme was "Ehipassiko: It all begins in the mind". The term Ehipassiko, which means 'come and see for yourself', has been part of our annual camps' theme since the 2nd camp because it is the mission of the camp to encourage fellow Buddhists to go the extra mile beyond the mere belief of the Buddha's words, to experience the teachings of our great Teacher for oursleves through our daily lives.

Through the efforts of the 4th Ehipassiko Camp committee members lead by our ex-Vice President, Loy Siao Wei and our newly appointed president, Lim Dwee Shion, events and activities were carried out swiftly through the 3 days 2 nights camp. Fun games, inspiring talks, meditation and leadership workshops were among the major events throughout the camp which was held mostly within the air-conditioned environment of Sau Seng Lum Temple. In addition, Bro. Mooi Chee Onn and Bro. Lai Kar Wei were invited to demonstrate several self defense skills and basic Tai-Chi movements during the Flexi-me session in the morning.

Bro. Mooi and Bro. Lai demonstrating hand defense

During the camp, participants were also introduced to basics of Buddhism in the talk entitled "ABC of Buddhism" by Dr. Chan Kah Yein. Educational pictorial slides shown during the talk made it very interesting. Besides that, Dr. Phang Cheng Kar, a Buddhist psychiatrist and medical lecturer was also invited to give a talk entitled "5 Precepts and Bioethics", an issue which is very relevant to future health practitioners. Participants were given various bioethical dilemma and engaged in short discussions to analyse whether each case was ethical in a Buddhist perspective.

Dr. Chan giving her talkDr. Phang guiding discussions with participants

Other than Buddhism, there were also talks and workshops focusing on leadership and management in a Buddhist organization. Bro. Tan Huat Chye, founding president of the Kinrara Metta Buddhist Society gave another talk on "Good Leadership Qualities". In this talk, he stressed the importance of being a good Buddhist leader rather than just a leader in a Buddhist organization. Besides his talk, a workshop was also held entitled "Teamwork Building & Leadership Skills" lead by Bro. Koh Mui Han. In this workshop, Bro. Koh divided participants into 3 groups for a simple game which aims to educate participants in ways to work together as a team.

Bro. Tan giving his talkBro. Koh conducting the workshop

Before ending the camp, the society committee organized an Annual General Meeting whereby nominated participants were called upon to replace the existing committee members in an official ceremony lead by then-president, Bro. Lai Jun Yan. Then, new committee members took their oaths guided by the new president, Bro. Lim Dwee Shion.

Overall, the camp was a success and managed to live up to the theme "It all begins in the mind".

'Understanding and acknowledging the nature of our mind would be pivotal before we could ever be able to understand our real self and begin to transform ourselves for the better...'
Bro. Lai Jun Yan, from the July '09 newsletter

Fong Ren Yi