The Power of Awakening (The University for Life & Peace)

The Winter School 2019 in Yangon, Myanmar: a pre-opening program of the University for Life & Peace and milestone of integrating spirituality and science education

Before its official launch, the  University for Life & Peace announced to host a special pre-opening program under the banner ‘The Winter School 2019 in Yangon, Myanmar’, which will open on January 10. The pilot program will run on the theme of ‘Marching toward New Strategies to Treat the Root Cause of the Earth’s Ecological Crises’. Twelve well-known international experts will employ the group study modules to encourage learning from one another among the students during the course of two weeks. The Winter School aims at identifying possible solutions to the deteriorating issues affecting people’s daily life by virtue of case-specific cooperation.

The Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has already issued a warning that the tipping point of an increase of 1.5 degrees Celsius in global warming will happen in 2030 by the soonest, with all sorts of climate disasters ensuing. The North Pole will become ice-less and summers will be literally scorching. More than 90% of coral reefs will disappear, with the sea level rising exponentially to swallow up coastal metropolises. Countries will need to re-define their geopolitical borders.

In other words, we have only 12 years left to try turning things around from their current standing: severe environmental pollution, life forms increasingly threatened with extinction, the Earth’s ecological order out of sync, with the life of humankind on the brink of collapse. The Earth’s safety, therefore, is only then possible, when we return to the consensus and mission of the “Loving the Earth” ideology that transcends demarcations of countries, regions, races, and religions and instead connects academics, enterprises, politics, and even social movement of global scales. That is indeed the rationale why Dharma Master Hsin Tao promotes the University for Life & Peace as a pro-active outreach program and an action plan to substantiate the “Loving the Earth” ideal that the Ling Jiou Mountain remains committed to.

Dharma Master Hsin Tao says that “the ecology stems from spirituality and life is a continuation of the memory matrix. Because of the spirituality, all forms of existence are inter-connected and life continues to rise. When united with the spirituality, our ecology will display a positive interaction, a harmonious symbiosis, and an interdependent co-existence. In the case of a fallen spirituality, what we as humankind depend on for our livelihood will be gradually impeded by greed, anger, and ignorance that will eventually do away with any and all that life depends on, leading to an on-going destruction of the memory matrix of life and ultimately rendering the ecology unsustainable for Nature.”

The turning point for the Earth to return from being endangered and back to safety hinges on a spiritual awakening, and awakening of humanity and the awareness of the root cause of the Earth’s crises to the extent that the ethics of a spiritual ecology be promoted, its theorization and discourses become professionally established and a social charter and code of conduct for a harmonious symbiosis with Nature prevails.

The second meeting by some sixty international experts and scholars for a think-tank for the University for Life & Peace in the pipeline took place in Yangon, Myanmar, in October 2017. The experts are authorities on their respective disciplines and fields spanning a wide spectrum from medicine, biology, life science, philosophy, ethics, economics, sociology, law, theology, etc. They formed various sub-committees to help steer preparations for the future University and its operational blueprint. Professor Michael von Brueck from Munich, Germany, is in charge of the esteemed Board of International Advisors. The Professor led planning and discussions for the future University and contributed wisdom and professionalism to a sound and solid foundation of the University for Life & Peace, which has been taking up a more definite shape and form step by step over time.

What sets the University for Life & Peace apart from a standard university is its mission in passing on a mindset and an attitude of life besides what the curriculum offers, as well as its emphasis beyond achieving academic results by dedicating these to the world to make a substantial contribution to the improvement of the milieu of mankind.

It is in the design of the University that its mission will yield results to have wide-ranging impact for the world and achieve new milestones in creating values. Put succinctly, the University for Life & Peace will amplify how individuals return to spirituality and influence friends and relatives and even the next of kin by embracing and embodying changes themselves, pretty much similar to the effect of resonance that gives rise to chain reactions through different segments of the society inducive of a collective consciousness of “Loving the Earth”. Such enlightened awakening of spirituality, in effect, is a realization of what Dharma Master Hsin Tao always refers to in his famous quote that ‘the world is at peace when the heart is at peace’.

It may take another three to five years for the University for Life & Peace to reach the level of fund-raising sufficient to sustain its operations. The Winter School 2019, Yangon, Myanmar, as its special, pre-opening program with foresight is both relevant and applicable. As the first step on its way to a meaningful milestone for the future University for Life & Peace, the pilot program will also mark the first step of a promising future for humankind as well.