Turning Life around with Education: The Big Learning of Life & Peace from Childhood onward

Dharma Master Hsin Tao said that 'we (the Ling Jiou Mountain) aspire to create a world-class university of religion that can carry on the life education, revitalize a spiritual education, and assure deep rooting for social and cultural education. We aim at cultivating Buddhist missionaries while instilling collectively in our students a holistic ideal and religious care to help build a peaceful and harmonious life from within them individually.' As a result, the University for Life & Peace has begun to take up more definite shape in Burma as a gift to the country of Myanmar, a dedication to humanity, and a commitment to the world.

The forward-looking 'Experimental Winter School 2019 in Yangon, Myanmar' opened in January with a profound significance both in terms of time and place to mark a meaningful milestone for the materialization of the University for Life & Peace. That was by no means the first time that Dharma Master Hsin Tao made an educational endeavor, as 'to educate is to teach Buddha's ways' has forever been the core and essence of what the Venerable Hsin Tao Master strives to implement. War-orphaned and left in poverty growing up, the Master's personal childhood experiences made him acutely aware of how life is for the underprivileged. Our world would be missing out on a grand Chan master, had he not received help and support from kind-hearted people for an education otherwise.

Suppose life is a house, then education constitutes its pillars. The stronger the pillars are, the sturdier the house is. But in rural villages in remote northern Myanmar, life in general is too harsh to prioritize education for children over feeding them first. It is common for children there to encounter poverty, missing school education, child trafficking, abuse of substance, abduction to become child soldiers, etc. After a long and hard deliberation, education emerges as the last resort to help turn life around for the children there.

Thus came the Naung Mon Project into being in Lashio in northern Myanmar. The early phase of the Naung Mon Project for about a decade saw a focus on helping local farmers re-shape their economies by providing job opportunities to minority farmers, when the Project was run mainly as an eco-farm specializing in organic plantation that practices fair trade. The Project was an integrated, multi-purpose betterment plan to improve the quality of both life and education for the people to eventually overcome poverty by becoming economically self-reliant.

Construction for the campus began at Naung Mon in 2015 in the hope that a Buddhist education shall spread peace, with the support of other plans such as the improvement of soil and the transformation of staple food, the additional medical resources and services, as well as the introduction of the concept of 'Building Green' to decrease environmental impact and material waste for the ultimate purpose of constructing buildings that are environmental-friendly and conducive of sustainability. It was furthermore hoped that such ideals and know-how can be passed on to the local construction teams for lasting permeation through all local communities.

June 2016 saw the Sramana School of Maha Kusala Yama Monastery in Naung Mon begin to accept pupils who, besides acquiring the teachings of Buddha, would have a curriculum that abides by the standard prescribed by the Myanmar authorities. In order that the Sramanas would develop a multifaceted capability, the thematic learning of the Buddhist studies encoporates morning sessions, evening sessions, the Pali language, and general studies of the Dharma. Courses of basic education in language, mathematics, science, history, geography, etc., are conducted in Burmese, Chinese, and English. Group activities of PE, music, calligraphy, gardening, etc., are also built into the curriculum to enhance the pupils's grasp of group learning and community interaction. Bhikkhus will play life coaches to supervise their daily routine and help them grow into strict regimen required of practicing Buddhists.

The University for Life & Peace will be dedicated to the ideal of "Love & Peace" substantiated by 'Caring about Life for Humanity / Awakening Spirituality by Practice' for its educational objectives. The University has been designed to be a campus to materialize and construct a physical structure to manifest the global ethics of 'Respect, Tolerance, Love'. The Sramana School, on the other hand, shoulders the mission to root deeply and spread out widely to afford increasingly more children the opportunity to turn their life around. In so doing, the country Myanmar opens up herself to embrace the world and vice versa.

The progression of the University for Life & Peace, from the Sramana School at Naung Mon in 2016 to the Experimental Winter School in Yangon in 2019, is a journey of a series of Big Learning of Life & Peace from childhood onward. Besides marking a meaningful milestone, its significance lies in becoming a manifestation and a reminder that the world ought to become aware of deep roots of the Earth's crises, and to solidify our collective consciousness of "Loving the Earth" for actions to resolve root cause of our ecological crises. Everyone is cordially invited to join us and take that first step to jumpstart the power for changes and for awakening the spirituality. Come join us and build a University for the Earth’s safety and its sustainability.