Winter Experimental School of the University for Life & Peace opens
Global Faculty, Students Work on 'Loving the Earth' Strategies
The University for Life & Peace's ‘Winter Experimental School 2019 in Yangon, Myanmar’ opened on January 10, 2019, to conduct a two-week syllabus with the theme of ‘Addressing the Deep Roots of Ecological Crises: Towards New Strategies’. The 35-men strong faculty and student body come from 14 countries for a happy study. Dharma Master Hsin Tao, Founding Abbot of the Ling Jiou Mountain (LJM), hopes that everyone will learn from and work closely with one another to collectively forge a power of renovation, creation, and transformation.
The University for Life & Peace's ‘Winter Experimental School' marks a milestone of education for a co-operation between spiritual values and sciences. Ten international professors well-known for their respective expertise come from different parts of the world, with a common ideal of ‘Loving the Earth, Loving Peace’ and a shared sense of responsibility for the Earth's safety. They gather in Yangon and employ the group study module to encourage learning from one another. It is hoped that the two-weeks' time of shared studies will render it feasible to integrate wisdom from all sides to form strategies to implement the ‘Loving the Earth’ ideal.
Professor Michael von Brück, International Advisor of the University for Life & Peace, brought wisdom and professionalism to help the structure take up more definite shape gradually and interconnected professionalism with cross-disciplinary research for educational objectives. Dharma Master Hsin Tao urged to “let spiritual care unite with professionalism and academics to develop knowledge that is both positive and contagious. Together with the positive effects of science and technology, such knowledge can help establish the “Principle of Interdependent Co-existence” for the human society to keep the Earth safe.”
The Opening Ceremony on January 10 began with a song on the traditional Burmese harp for blessings and peace, and the ending was on a dance performance entitled ‘Peacock Displaying Fan-shaped Tail-Feathers' to symbolize wishes for smooth operations and success for the Winter School. Guests of honor present on the occasion included the Honorable Bhaddanta Kumara, Chancellor of the National Buddhist Buriram University, Myanmar, former General Military commanding officers of Myanmar's North-eastern region and Shan State Phone Myat, Myanmar Taipei Trade Office Dr. Myo Thet, Deputy Commissioner of Religion & Culture U Aung Thein Nyunt, Bureau Chief of the Ministry of Religion & Culture of Yangon U Sein Maw, former Party Secretary of Yangon U Khin Maung Htun, etc. The faculty and student body are quite international by origin, and the gathering was witness to a lot of sparkles of contact for concerns about the Earth's ecology.
With the screening of the film ‘The Power of Awakening’ at the Opening Ceremony, the message was clear that the Earth is being devastated and to promote peace while protecting the ecology are top priorities at present. Dharma Master Hsin Tao pointed out that the Earth is like people and to survive it goes without saying that we must benefit the Earth by awakening the positive cycles of people’s heart via religions, and by restoring Nature’s ecology by virtue of an altered magnetic field of the Earth through positive mindfulness en masse. ‘Loving the Earth’ is by no means a mere lip service, but to help create and safeguard a global ecology based on a diversified symbiosis and an inter-reliant co-existence.
The University for Life & Peace was a conceptualization borne out of the ‘Loving the Earth’ ideal of Dharma Master Hsin Tao. It is furthermore a pro-active plan for action. Master Hsin Tao pointed out that the stress signal - ‘The Critical 12 Years’ - issued by the United Nations in October 2018 ought to jolt people into an acute awareness that our Planet Earth is on the brink of collapse, with the environment severely polluted, species disappearing fast, and the ecology in a chaos. Crises such as extreme climate and extinction of species, as well as the ultimate safety of the Earth, could only then be helped when people make no distinctions about nationality, geography, races, and religions and return to our consensus of the common mission of ‘Loving the Earth’. Such a realization, in turn, can become a social movement of global significance by stringing up the academics, the businesses, and the politics.
