LJM Endorses Wetland Protection, Lighting 10,000 Lamps at Shwedagon Pagoda
Buddha once said that all sentient beings have Buddha nature.
The Winter Experimental School of Ling Jiou Mountain's University for Life & Peace in Yangon has been running with a tight schedule for its courses, which accommodates meaningful extracurricular visits including a field trip to a conservation area of wetland, a visit to the State Pariyatti Sasanta University, as well as to the famous Shwedagon Pagoda billed as one of the Seven Wonders of the World to light up 10,000 lamps in prayers of world peace and blessings for our battered Earth. The University for Life & Peace manifests LJM's dedication and hope that it would become a concentration of positive karma the world over.
Ecological crises in recent years have brutally shown harsh realities of an endangered Earth, with extreme climate, extinction of specimens, endless calamities triggered by severe environmental pollution but a few painful examples. By a sharp contrast the world has also learned about the long-term dedication to a global education of spiritual ecology on the part of Dharma Master Hsin Tao, Founding Abbot of the Ling Jiou Mountain, on the basis of “Loving the Earth, Loving Peace”. Master Hsin Tao teaches us that our world is a life community substantiated by a “diversified symbiosis and an interdependent co-existence”. The Master therefore hopes to awaken a positive cycle of people's spirituality with the help of religions to impact the Earth's magnetic field and restore Nature's ecology to keep the Earth safe and to secure sustainability.
Dharma Master Hsin Tao led the delegation of some 50 members as faculty and students of the University for Life & Peace on a visit to the Moe Yun Gyi Wetlands under protection by the Myanmar government. Initially certified by the authorities as Myanmar’s first protected area of wetland in 2004, with approval for ecological tourism accessible to five thousand visitors per month and many jobs were created for the local communities. An international accord of wetland was signed in 2005 with a validity of 50 years to help promote and secure Nature's sustainability.
Representative of the Myanmar Trade Office in Taipei Myo Thet pointed out that there are more than 300 types of wild plants and insects among other life forms exist in colonies in the wetland area. Migrant birds from Siberia also make it their habitat here for the winter. This offers a glimpse into the interdependent symbiosis between people and the environment, and life forms amongst one another, to make it utterly clear what Nature's inter-reliant ecology is about. Now that Master Hsin Tao has decided to build up the University for Life & Peace in Myanmar, Representative Myo Thet stressed that he would throw himself 100% behind LJM to support the commitment and endeavor back-to-back.
Myanmar is the country where original Buddhism has been kept intact, and as such, it is a Buddhist Pureland, where faith is life and vice versa. Yangon has always been the center of religion, where Buddha's footprint could be traced almost everywhere. Dharma Master Hsin Tao led the delegation of the University for Life & Peace's faculty and students to the Shwedagon Pagoda to light up 10,000 lamps around the historic monument and further dedicated two stupas made of flowers that read “Love EARTH” and “Love PEACE”. On site of Myanmar's national pride, the Master led the delegation in walking around the monument in paying tribute to the Buddha, and lighting up the lamps in prayers for peace and auspices, practicing meditation in the aura of the Pagoda's field of pure energy. The compassionate Master Hsin Tao picked an auspicious day for the delegation to visit the Shwedagon Pagoda, namely on December 8 of the Lunar Calendar, the anniversary when Buddha Sakyamuni attained Enlightenment. The lamps symbolize the Master’s hope to carry on the ageless wisdom across history that will guide good thoughts and direct vows and actions thereof onto the paths of awakening with no regrets whatsoever.
The University in Yangon that the delegation visited is also the oldest in Myanmar with a history of 100-plus years, and a motto of Truth and Loyalty. The State Pariyatti Sasanta University runs on the backbone of Buddhist studies. Chancellor of the University, Ashin Bhddanta Kumara, has been committing endless efforts tirelessly to the university for Sanghas. Likewise, Dharma Master Hsin Tao has been outspoken and proactive in promoting education and incubating quality manpower. The Master hopes to turn people and life around by virtue of an education that knows no boundaries of country, geography, races or religions, to ultimately become a deliverable campaign with global impact as a worldwide social movement that runs on a twin ideal of “Loving the Earth, Loving Peace”.
