Engaged Buddhism in Australia

Engaged Buddhism in Australia is a form of Buddhist practice which aims at relieving sufferings for all sentient beings, including the practitioners themselves.  Their Engaged Buddhist activities mainly focus on education and healthcare, but they may also extend to providing financial and emotional support to all being living in distress, oppression, and endangered situations.  There are nine categories of these activities:
1 Educating adults in the community
2 Educating children in the community
3 Supporting the sick and the dying in hospitals and hospices
4 Supporting the sick and the dying in the community, and taking care of those who have incurable diseases
5 Visiting prisoners in prisons
6 Providing emotional support and guides to the addicts
7 Raising funds to help the poor and the needy
8 Organizing lectures about human rights and against oppression
9 Humanitarian activities for plants, trees and animals
Over 96% of Buddhist organizations in Australia are engaged in community education programs.  An example is The Friends of the Western Buddhist Order with its various centers in Melbourne, Sydney, and Toowoomba in Queensland.  It organizes dharma talks for local communities to teach the causes of sufferings and how to relieve sufferings, mental health programs to teach meditation and stress management.  The Toowoomba Center offers martial arts lessons to promote physical health.  The International  Phat Quang Son/Phat Quang Mountain Organization with its branches in Wollongong, Perth, Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne also has similar community programs.  For example, they give dharma talks, teach meditation practice, provide developmental and cultural activities and lessons about flower arrangement, calligraphy, and cooking vegetarian meals.  A temple in Perth regularly has dharma talks and discussions about Buddhist ethics and contemporary issues such as abortion, divorce, homosexuality, suicide, depression, and addiction.  The purpose is to apply what the Buddha taught to daily life to relieve sufferings according to the Four Noble Truths.

(To be continued)

Source:

http://giacngo.vn/nguyetsan/phatgiaovaxahoi/2012/01/02/7F720A/