February has been another great month for the development of the Albury Buddhist Temple  (Wat Buddhavongsayaram) including many firsts.

This month has seen the creation of t-shirts for our members to wear proudly and make the decision about what to wear to temple a lot easier. This was preceded by the very first ‘Facebook Group Vote’ to decide on the design, slogan and format of the shirts. Thanks to our member Ben for his time and effort in their creation and all those who voted for and purchased shirts. I look forward to seeing the finished product soon.

Speaking of our Facebook group, this month saw the 170^th member join “Wat Buddhavongsayaram” Facebook Group and it has become an ever increasing forum, not only for the temple’s activities, events, photos and reminders but also news from the Buddhist community at large. We look forward to our Facebook community continuing to grow.

The 18^th February 2011 marked a significant day on the Buddhist calendar, the celebration of Magha Puja. This is a ceremony held to commemorate an important event in the life of the Buddha that consisted of 4 amazing occurrences ; 1250 monks ordained by the Buddha attained enlightenment and assembled on the day of the full moon during an auspicious month to pay respects to the Buddha without being called together. The ceremony is a night time event by candlelight and I was privileged enough to attend the ceremony at Sydney’s Wat Dhammakaya which was quite amazing. Photos have been posted on the Facebook page for all those interested in seeing this beautiful event.

Another first came in the form of our Robe Offering ceremony which was attended by many of our wonderful temple members and lead by some very special visitors from Wat Dhammakaya in Sydney. Thank you to these generous ladies for travelling so far to participate and showing us the ritual of Robe Offerings. We appreciate their continued support and invite them to return soon.

And finally our very first Buddhist Intensive Course was held at the temple. To all those that attended I hope you found the course beneficial and educational and thanks to our member Jason for providing the fabulous posters to advertise this event. If you were unable to attend the Intensive Course you are welcome to come along every Sunday to join us in our meditation and lunch offering 10.00-11.30.

Seeing you there.