Appreciation speech on behalf of the BA and MA Graduates by Ven Rony Barua at IBC 11th convocation, 2018

Thank you

The Founder and the Council Chairman of International Buddhist College the Most Venerable Shifu Dr. Wei Wu, Respected Venerable Mahāsaṅgha, Council members, Honourable Rector, Vice Rector, Dean of the Graduate school, Professors, Lecturers, Dear Faculty members and Staff, Distinguish Guests, Dear Graduates, Family members and friends of the graduates.
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A Very Good Afternoon to all!
First of all I wish to express my sincere thanks to the organizing committee for giving me the chance to speak a few words on this day, the 11th Convocation ceremony of the International Buddhist College.
I am extremely delighted to be present today and on behalf of the graduates I would like to take this opportunity to express my deepest appreciation to everyone who had worked tirelessly for our success today.
Let me start by congratulating my fellow graduates for their achievement today. The graduation ceremony is one of the most memorable events in anybody’s life. This comes at the end of a long journey of academic and social preparations. We should be aware that our graduation today is not our final achievement. It is just the beginning of our career as a student of Buddhist studies, as a good monastic or lay member of the society, as a good, kind-hearted and wise human being. We still have so many things to learn and accomplish in life. Therefore, it is high time that we set up our goal and work for it.
When I first arrived at the IBC Korat campus in 2014, I did not have much knowledge about Buddha’s great teaching. I am from Bangladesh, an Islamic Nation, where we do not have much opportunities to study Buddhism. After attending my first few classes, I was very much inspired by the explanations of the lecturers and professors on the excellent messages of the Buddha covering different aspects of life. To be honest, I did not do very well in my first semester. I became so inspired to achieve a Dean’s award myself, when I see some of my seniors were performing so well in both academically and in conduct. Eventually I have got several dean’s awards, however I realized that getting the awards is not the only end, it is the effort in achieving the awards that helped me study and perform better.
We did not just gain knowledge within classrooms, we also learned how to use them in our practical life. Studying in IBC gave me the opportunity to meet and know students from different parts of the world. IBC has created the opportunity to learn about different cultures, languages, thoughts and lifestyles. .
So, I am deeply thankful to IBC, it is a loving and compassionate home for most of us. Here we get to learn about the three major Buddhist traditions and their teachings. IBC has created an environment for international brotherhood. In IBC we, students from different countries participate in community work which taught us how to live our life harmoniously and happily in a community. Without the establishment of IBC we might not have all these chances to learn and study Buddhism from different perspectives and have the opportunity of experiencing such a diversity of cultures and traditions.
I would now like to take this opportunity to express my heartiest gratitude to the most Venerable Shifu, Venerable Dr. Wei Wu, without whom IBC would not have happened. It is because of Shifu’s dedication, hard work, loving kindness and compassion towards Buddhism and Buddhists around the world that we now have this wonderful institution called IBC. By establishing IBC, he created an environment where we are trained and encouraged to spread Buddha’s messages of metta and karuna towards other living beings throughout the world.
I am also deeply thankful to the donors (dāyaka) who have been supporting IBC so that students from different parts of the world have the opportunity to come and study Buddhism in IBC. Without their kind support, we would not be able to pursue our BA, MA or PhD degrees in IBC. We are really indebted to them for their generosity and selfless support.
I would like to express my gratitude and respects to all the professors and lecturers for their dedication and efforts in preparing, teaching and explaining their lectures so that we could easily get the important messages of the Buddha, and information about Buddhist traditions, history and cultures.
I also want to express my thanks to the staffs and all the other members of the IBC family for helping us in various matters such as visa application, food, lodging and other matters.
I would like to say that IBC dose not just give us the opportunity to learn the Buddha’s teaching in theory, it teaches us how to put them into practice as well. I would like to share a few important messages of the Buddha that we learnt and that we should all remember in our life:
Statements such as ‘manussatta patilābho dullabho’ (obtaining human existence is rare), ‘saddhammasavana parama dullabha’ (listening to the true dhamma is extremely rare) letting us realize how grateful we should be have the opportunities we get in our lives.
0ther statements such as ‘kataññū katavedī puggalo dullabho lokasmiṃ (the existence of a person who is grateful and thankful is rare in the world.), ‘Brahmā’ ti Mātāpitaro, ‘pubbācariyā’ ti vuccare’ (Mother and Father are like Brahma, they are our very first teachers), and ‘mātāpitu upaṭṭhānaṃ… etaṃ maṅgalamuttamaṃ (looking after the parents is the greatest blessing )’ teaches us that we should be grateful to our benefactors and take care of our parents because they are like the great brahmas possessing immeasurable qualities; and without their kind support our life is meaningless.
Also statements like ‘santuṭṭhi paramaṃ dhanaṃ (satisfaction is the greatest wealth)’ teach us that we should live a contended life rather than being led by greed.
Finally, on behalf of all the graduates today, I would like to say a big thank to IBC, its founder Ven. Shifu, supporters, managing committee and staff and Thailand and its people for their support, love, compassion and generosity towards us. I hope all the graduates would find the ways to establish themselves in truth and knowledge and dedicate their lives for the benefit of the world.
Thank you very much for your kind attention.
May Triple Gem Bless you all.