The Need For Unity And Coordination -- The following article came from a reader called Chin who wishes to address the local Buddhist community concerning

I received an email from a fellow Dharma friend in May inviting me to attend a Buddhist Youth Conference in August. Being a fairly "new" Buddhist, I signed up for the conference happily. The week the conference was to be held, another friend called me to invite me to a youth conference. I told her that I had already signed up and we made arrangements to meet on that Saturday morning. It was when she emailed me to confirm the meeting on Friday evening that we realized that we are going to two different youth conferences. Subsequently, I also found out that there was another conference of a slightly different nature that was held on the very same Saturday.

Puzzlement soon turned to indignation. Pardon me if I am wrong, but my conclusion is that the Buddhist organizations are not really united in their efforts in reaching out to the public. Would it have been helpful if the different organizations have communicated on this issue? Though the title captions on the two conferences are somewhat the same, the programmes are indeed different and both audiences would have benefited from both if the conferences had been organized on separate days. Wouldn't the two organizations have benefited if they had tapped on each other's network?

The next question is whether there is a need for Buddhist organizations to be united? What is wrong with everyone running their own activities? It is definitely more efficient to have the event run by an individual organization, and be spared the pain of coordinating and compromising with the requests from another organization. Moreover, most people are volunteers. They have their other commitments and they may not have time to talk to other organizations which may hinder their discussions. While the Buddha has been skilful enough to develop many methods to help us practice, have we also let this be the reason for the different organizations to stay away from each other?

"The big switch." published in The Straits Times on 9 August 2008 highlighted the number of young people who converted to Christianity. People who visit Tanah Merah on Sundays would see the stream of young people coming out from Expo Halls, not including other parts of Singapore. The problem is not restricted to just teenagers but also old folks as well.

My mother who is a traditional Taoist lady and an introvert surprised me when she volunteered to make a trip to my sister's church on her own the other day. The fact that they are English speaking did not deter her, as she knows she will be warmly welcomed by the people, even if she does not know everyone. Another friend had been successful in sharing with his parents the teachings of the Buddha. Unfortunately, he had been unable to find a centre where his parents can have their own support group.

I give due credits to everything that had been done by the different Buddhist organizations. Over the years, I have seen new Buddhism classes, chanting classes, Sunday school classes and community outreach programs that have been developed.

But I am not sure whether the changes are fast enough to keep up with the number of teenagers and adults that are going with their friends to the churches and the cell group every week. I am not sure whether sufficient efforts are made to support our fellow Dharma brothers and sisters in both their spiritual practices and getting their family members to understand and join their chosen philosophy. Public schools are finding it difficult to teach the current youths and deriving different pedagogies and activities to make lessons interesting and to get the message across. Can we continue to use the current method of teaching Dharma that had been passed down from generation to generation? Do the centres want to tap on each other's strengths to support each other or do they want to continue to operate individually? While Singaporeans have gained competitive advantage in the world as a result of our dual language policy, should language also be a reason for the Buddhist community to be divided?

Every Buddhist organization has its tradition, culture and profile of devotees. Every centre also has its own strengths and weaknesses. Buddhists do not evangelise. But do we want to continue to be reserved and keep our low profile, run our own individual events? Or do we want to stand united, communicate with each other, build on the activities organized by the different organizations, refer friends who may be more suitable to another centre, provide youth exchange, senior citizens support, Sunday school teacher training and hold collaborative efforts to celebrate major events? There are many pressing issues that have to be addressed. We are silent and vulnerable as long as we stand alone. Only when we are united, even a silent worker can be heard.