April: SFYAD Upcoming Events

SFYAD has planned many events for April, and will be planning even more till July!
Our Monthly Seminar’s topic for April is “Ways to Obtain Freedom“. We will also be volunteering at the MedShare and having fun at California’s Great America! We hope for you to join us at any of these events!

April Upcoming Events

Preview imagePromotional Video Recording

[When] April 2nd, Sunday, 5pm
[Where] Meeting @ San Bao Temple, heading to Golden Gate Bridge together. Having Dinner after!
We will be recording a 20 second video as promotional materials for an upcoming youth conference held in LA. We would like to gather as many people to help us in this video! The whole group will be reading a few sentence together, with Golden Gate Bridge as the background.
[Register] https://www.facebook.com/events/100713947142850/

 

 

 

 

Volunteering @ MedShare [Registration Full]

[When] April 8th, Saturday, 12:30pm – 4pm
[Where] MedShare, San Leandro
MedShare depends on volunteers to sort and box donated medical supplies for shipment to healthcare facilities in developing countries. We will be sending 15 volunteers to help out at MedShare.
[Registration Closed]

 

 

 

 

Preview imageMonthly Seminar: Ways to Obtain Freedom

[When] April 9th, Sunday, 1:30pm – 3pm
[Where] San Bao Temple
“Nothing can stand on my road to freedom.” We aspire freedom, hoping to get rid of chain locked our steps. What is exactly the true freedom we are looking for? How can we truly be free? Join our monthly seminar to find out.
[Register] https://www.facebook.com/events/133100543889455/

 

 

 

 

 

Preview imageCalifornia’s Great America

[When] April 22, Saturday, 10am till late
[Where] Great America
Come join us for roller coaster ride!
[Register] https://www.facebook.com/events/405935866448327/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Preview imageBuddhist Seminar: The Importance of Causes and Conditions of This World

[When] April 23rd, Sunday, 2:30pm – 4:30pm
[Where] Holiday Inn San Francisco-Golden Gateway
The Vice Abbot of Fo Guang Shan, Venerable Hui Chao is invited to give a talk on “The Importance of Causes and Conditions in this World”, a chapter from Venerable Master Hsin Yun’s Book “Hear Me Out”.
[Register] https://www.facebook.com/events/1307503142664673/

 

 

Other Upcoming Events

Please email to sanfrancisco@bliayad.org if you are interested in any of the following events.

Tea Ceremony

[When] April 29th, Saturday, 1:30pm
[Where] San Bao Temple
Learn the proper way of hosting a tea ceremony!

 

 

 

 

 

Preview imageBay to Breakers Run!

[When] May 21st, Sunday, 8am
[Where] Main St & Howard St
We will be participating in this run! Everyone is welcomed to join us!
[Info] http://baytobreakers.com/

 

 

 

 

Memorial Day Weekend Retreat

[When] 5/27-5/29 (Sun – Mon)
[Where] TBD

 

Temple Life Experience Weekend

[When] 6/3-6/4 (Sat-Sun) and 6/10-6/11 (Sat-Sun)
[Where] San Bao Temple
Experience life in temple through this 1D1N stay @ San Bao Temple, for two subsequent weekends.

 

International Buddha’s Light Young Adult Executive Conference

[When] 7/11-7/15 (Tue-Sat)
[Where] Hsi Lai Temple, Los Angeles
[Info] https://www.facebook.com/events/153784688449530/

SFYAD Monthly Seminar: Moving on – How to let go of your past

 

Drowning in the the sadness of losing beloved?
Replaying the heart-breaking scene in mind?
Getting stuck in the past?
You are one step to own the world – moving on.
Those moments, good and bad, are parts of who you are, accept it.

BLIA SFYAD presents our monthly seminar: “Moving on – how to let go and reconcile with your past” where we discuss about letting go of obsession with the irreversible, and taking the warmth to start the journey.

It is open to everyone who is interested to join, any race, gender, religion (or lack there of) are welcomed.

Time: 3/12/2017 Sunday at 1:30 PM – 3 PM
Location: 佛光山三寶寺 Fo Guang Shan San Bao Temple
Address: 1750 Van Ness Ave, San Francisco, California 94109

[Dec 2016] Food Bank Volunteering & Winter Clothing Drive

[2016.12.17] SFYAD volunteers at Food Bank

The BLIA San Francisco Young Adult Division (SFYAD) participated in volunteering at The Second Harvest Food Bank at San Carlos on the 17th of December, 2016. This food bank aims to provide nutritious food to over a quarter million low-income people living in the Bay Area every month. During the holiday season, the food bank receives a considerably large number of food items as donation. As such, there is a large demand for volunteers to help sort and pack the food items before delivery.

SFYAD gathered a team of 21 volunteers in a cold warehouse on a Saturday morning for this event. Our team was assigned the following tasks:

  1. Separating the sweet snacks from the salty ones from a huge stack of mixed snacks.
  2. Packing these items into small boxes weighing around 9 lbs.
  3. Stacking the boxes neatly onto pallets. The boxes containing salty snacks were stored separately from the sweet ones.

The team packed a total of 1120 small boxes of food within a mere 1.5 hours. Our fast and efficient teamwork was recognised and praised by the manager. Selene, the President of SFYAD, found this morning to be a “meaningful experience and definitely a good exercise too!” Carl, the Vice President of SFYAD, noted the efficient communication and synergy of the team and said, “communication allows teammates to express what they are comfortable with working on and allows teammates to switch roles with each other for better team performance.”

Text: Prateek Yadav; Photos: Carl Ho, Katrina Hallie, Selene Chew

 


 

[2016.12.18] BLIA SF and SFYAD collaborate with ECS’s Next Door Shelter to distribute donated Winter Clothes to Homeless

It was a slightly different Sunday for volunteers from The Buddha’s Light International Association (BLIA) San Francisco Subchapter and Young Adult Division. For the first time, the volunteers distributed winter clothing to unhoused adults at the Episcopal Community Services’ (ECS) Next Door Shelter.

The Buddhist organization had been accepting winter clothes donated at Fo Guang Shan’s San Bao Temple (1750 Van Ness Ave) from the 4th Dec to 18th Dec. The response was overwhelming. Over the short period of 2 weeks, the temple had received approximately 500 pieces of clothes, ranging from coats and sweaters to scarves and pants. All thanks to the charitable devotees and neighbors from around the temple.

Venerable Miao Zhong had personally informed Suzanne Markel-Fox, the Vice President of Middle Polk Neighborhood Association. She’s also a resident of Marlo, a condominium located right beside the temple. Suzanne had graciously set up a collection station for the condo’s residents in the lobby. This helped contribute tremendously to the number of clothes collected.

Selene Chew, President of BLIA’s San Francisco Young Adult Division (SFYAD), also reached out to Diana Almanza, Site Manager at ECS’s Next Door Shelter (1001 Polk Street), to propose a collaboration to distribute the winter clothes to the people there. Diana gladly agreed. ECS is a non-profit organisation that serves the homeless and low-income men, women and children in San Francisco. ECS’s Next Door Shelter provides safe, 24-hour access to shelter for unhoused adults in the city. They serve 345 adults daily, of which many are suffering from substance abuse problems, mental health issues and chronic medical conditions.

On Sunday, 18th of Dec, 25 volunteers from the temple sorted and packed the clothes into different types and sizes in the morning. During the afternoon, the clothes were distributed in the shelter. A volunteer named Flora Xu was assisting the homeless people to choose clothes in the female sweater section. She described her experience as interesting and heartwarming when she discovered that the happiness brought to the homeless made her smile too.

Coats and large sized clothes were the first to be gone. Most of those who arrived later had to leave with only a scarf or a towel due to the lack of clothes in their sizes. Isaac Seetho, another volunteer, said, “Today highlighted how important coat donations are; something I didn’t really think about before. Like, most of the people didn’t care for the sweaters at all, which wasn’t quite what I expected. It was interesting to see the other side of clothes donation.”

The volunteers helped almost 100 unhoused adults find clothes that they needed. About 150 pieces of clothing were given out directly, and 100 more were donated to the shelter to help out other adults in need of change of clothes. The remaining clothes were donated to Saint Anthony’s at Golden Gate Avenue.

Text: Selene Chew, Edited: Prateek Yadav and Yen Ting Liew; Photos: Kee Heng Tiow, Selene Chew

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20161120 First Children’s Blessing Ceremony by San Bao Temple and SFYAD!

San Bao Temple held its very first Children’s Blessing Ceremony on November 20, 2016. Venerables Chuehhsing and Miaozhong led a chanting and prayer for over forty children; they wished for the children to grow healthily and treat others with courtesy. The Venerables encouraged parents to bring their children to the temple more often in order to deepen their connection with Buddhism and nurture the next generation of Buddhists.

After the ceremony, the San Francisco Young Adult Division (SFYAD) hosted a variety of fun activities for the children to enjoy. With their activity passports in hand, they toured stations such as origami, face painting, and musical chairs. At the end of the event, the most active children were also able to bring home some toys for themselves. The event was a great learning experience for the newly formed YAD Executive Team, and they hope to plan more activities that bring people of all ages and interests together in the future.

Text: Yen Ting Liew, Edited by Prateek Yadav.

Photography: Katrina Hallie Chak.

20161017 網路票選 舊金山青年分團第二屆團務委員改選

2015年授證的國際佛光會舊金山協會舊金山青年分團第二屆團長與副團長誕生了!10月16日舊金山佛光青年分團在三寶寺召開2016年度團員大會暨幹部改選。15位團員有6位在外地求學,雖然無法出席,但把握機會,在網站上投下神聖一票,本地團員出席率則高達90%。選舉過程順利圓滿,展現舊金山佛光青年的承擔與傳承。

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2016.03.20 [YAD] Karaoke Night

On Sunday night, SFYAD headed to Yamasho for a super fun karaoke night. We had our own room to jam out at! There was a mix of Chinese. Japanese, and English songs that everyone sang. We had a blast singing together!

2016.03.13 [YAD] Sunday Gathering

We came together on this fine Sunday to…

We continued our tangyuan sell since we didn’t finished selling the last batch. We also got to finally meet with Ven. Miaozhong from Fremont! There was an introduction about our YAD and what we’ve done in the past. Then followed our monthly Buddhism class with Kee Heng, and we learned and discussed about meditation. Finally, we talked about the progress on the Taiwan trip and our banquet.