In his high age at a respectable 80, the Most Venerable Sitagu Sayadaw Dr. Ashin Nyanissara is a highly esteemed Buddhist leader and an accomplished scholar of Buddhism, constantly winning recognition and citations one atop another throughout his religious practice. Special honors accredited to the great Dharma preacher include honorary Ph.D. degrees from numerous universities, ‘Highest Acclaim for Benefiting Humanity’ and ‘Highest National Award for Buddhist Elders’ from the Burmese government, with Aung San Suu Kyi praising him as ‘the country’s venerated, outstanding, great mentor’.

At the invitation of Dharma Master Hsin Tao, the Most Venerable Sitagu Sayadaw and delegation came to Taiwan for a 4-day whirlwind visit. November 9 saw the visitors at the 17th anniversary of the Museum of World Religions, and the delegation spent the following day visiting the Lower and Upper Monasteries of the Ling Jiou Mountain, respectively the Sheng Shan Temple and the Wu Sheng Monastery. Myanmar Trade Office (Taipei) Representative Mr. Myo Thet and his wife accompanied the delegation for the whole day to show high esteem to the respected Dharma preacher and members of his group.

A heavy rainfall in the morning seemed to have been there to wash away the tiredness of long itineraries of the delegation. The rain stopped in time for the visitors to enjoy an excursion in a bright, sunny day of late autumn with gentle breezes to keep the spirit high. Ling Jiou Mountain followers and the Burmese communities in Taiwan followed the delegation everywhere to stay in close vicinity of the great Dharma preacher Sitagu Sayadaw of Theravada.

An executive summary on the overall plan, ideals, core value and direction of development about the future University for Life & Peace was offered by Director YANG Zhong-Ching of the Project’s Preparatory Office, following an introductory film titled ‘The Messenger of Love & Peace’. Dharma Master Hsin Tao then took the opportunity to formally introduce the LJM to the visitors, highlighting that the Upper Monastery (Wu Sheng) is more focused on meditative and other religious practices, whereas the Lower Monastery (Sheng Shan) pays attention to the promotion of the Buddhist culture and other LJM ideals of humanity and ecology. Master Hsin Tao reiterated the pleasure of having the rare opportunity to welcome the special delegation from Myanmar.

The most venerable Sitagu Sayadaw of Myanmar is of the opinion that it is necessary to unite Buddha’s teachings with human societies and that notion be regarded as people’s mission for a dedication. Examples were cited as how wells and reservoirs were created to help solve the issue of water scarcity. And how 10 hospitals with 31 eye clinics were established for the health of the 15 thousand monastic practitioners and their families, in order that the monks and nuns can truly focus on performing their religious duties. Furthermore, to foster and incubate young generations for Burma’s future, he established four Buddhist Academies to release a thousand talents as college graduates to the society each year.

The most venerable Sitagu Sayadaw, realizing how hard Master Hsin Tao and his team have been working on the future University project and other ideals, was deeply impressed and felt a strong sense of solidarity for a shared vision and common mission. In particular, the great Dharma preacher was touched by Master Hsin Tao’s compassion and reaffirmed that they have both always stayed true of the Dharma without straying once. The high priest of Myanmar extended a warm welcome to a brotherly fellow Dharma Master and pledged co-operation wherever appropriate to the future University for Life & Peace in Myanmar.

Referring to Master Hsin Tao as his own ‘younger brother’, the most venerable Sitagu Sayadaw points to the many near-identical life experiences they share as follows. Both are ascetic practitioners and promote the conduct and spirit of Bodhisattvas. Both are convinced that peace of the world and of the universe will only then be possible if it first arises from within yourself. They both reserve no efforts in promoting meditation and have deep rootings in the space of education, and never let up in grooming talents for future generations. Lastly, both are disciplined for their own attainment of enlightenment, but equally more concerned with helping sentient beings for sake of compassion.

In response and in a similar fashion, Dharma Master Hsin Tao pointed out that the future University for Life & Peace in Myanmar will be a world-class institute of higher education to incubate and train professionals to care for the Earth. Myanmar is where the original Buddhism has managed to remain almost intact, and as such it is an ideal place to cultivate high-end, future professionals with compassion and wisdom. There are plans to roll out pilot programs for the University’s winter school in January 2019 with esteemed scholars and experts staffing the syllabus. It is hoped that such a soft launch with solid contents will mark a footprint for the future University’s milestone.

Dharma Master Hsin Tao personally extended an invitation for the most venerable Sitagu Sayadaw to send his Burmese students to join the winter school’s pilot programs, in the hope that learning together will instill heartbeats of same frequencies of the furthest-reaching peace waves to create resonance as described in quantum physics to help safeguard our home planet, the Earth. In return and in response, the high priest from Myanmar promised to visit the programs of the winter school to offer blessings, and he, too, welcomes Master Hsin Tao to visit the four universities he has thus far established.