The World Morality Restoration Project
Every human is a member of society in their family, or the world. Everyone has responsibility in accordance with their role and position in society to develop the world they live in. For a long time we have tried and failed, and we have thus proved that concentrating only on material development will create competition and consumerism as well as a lifestyle that engages in squandering wealth, these activities that lead to various social problems such as drugs, sexual crime, or even wars in every corner of the world. Hence, civil society came into existence to raise awareness and establish cooperation among individuals and organizations to solve social, economic, moral and political problems, as well as developing society and the community.
Buddhism has been used to develop human resources since people are the social capital of the world. Dhammakaya Foundation led by the Most Ven. Phrarajbhavanavisudh understands the importance of the urgent need to build a strong social capital, to develop human resources. Since the Dhammakaya Foundation was founded, it has pursued its goal which is “to build a temple with a clean and peaceful atmosphere, to train monks to be true monks, and train people to be good members of society”. Monks, novice monks and all lay devotees are all invaluable social capital for society. Dhamma is wisdom capital which is the foundation for moral conduct. Dhamma is the resource for the creation of sustainable morals in society and the world. Henceforth, the World Morality Restoration Project was initiated to develop every member in the family. This project includes:
Every man will be trained to observe precepts, practice meditation, and study the Dhamma through daily activities based on the practice of discipline, respect and patience. These activities include chanting, meditation and taking care of the personal belongings. After ordination, everyone will have learnt the Dhamma and the practice of being a true monk, they can in turn be role models for society. After the training, some participants will continue their lives as a monk and preserve Buddhism for the future generations, while others return to the householder’s life, and apply the knowledge from the training in their family. These actions will elevate the moral level in societies.
While men who are leaders of family had an opportunity to ordain as monks, ladies could take part in the one-million Ubasika training program. Ladies play a vital role in the family, their duty is to raise their children and family members to be virtuous human beings. The one-million Ubasika-training program focussed on the development of habitual behaviors through daily activities which were chanting, meditation, as well as making merit by giving and keeping precepts in accordance with the Lord Buddha’s teachings.. This training program for ladies, will result in an increased number of moral teachers in society.
The future of our world lies in the hands of our virtuous children. Dhammakaya Foundation instilled morality development activities in 5,000 schools in Thailand through the V-Star project. Every student in this project will have to develop themselves morally through the ten daily homework assignments based on the Lord Buddha’s Dhamma. After training, their behavior drastically improved, as they developed positive moral behaviour. To motivate their development, Dhammakaya Foundation also organized activities such as the V-Star Grand Assembly day where 500,000 students came together. This activity encouraged them to continue being good students for their teachers and good children for their parents.
However, moral is declining in every corner of the world. Since the goal of Dhammakaya Foundation is to promote true peace for the world, the projects for the restoration of morality and Buddhism are being implemented in many countries especially former Buddhist countries. These projects encouraged people in those countries to study the teachings of the Lord Buddha more enthusiastically.
After the ceremony of releasing sky lanterns was organized in Mongolia for three consecutive years. The V-Star project was introduced in Mongolia in 2009 with 250 participating students. This year, the number of participants increased to 20 000 students, which means that the number of participants increased more than a hundred times in just one year.
The ceremony of releasing sky lanterns was the first step of the restoration of Buddhism in India. The training of Upasaka and Upasika training was organized in the same year to revive the authentic teachings of the Lord Buddha, as well restore the lost Buddhist culture in the Land where Buddhism originated. There were over 300 participants in the one-week training.
After presenting 222 and 250 Buddha statues respectively to various temples in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, the World Peace Ethics Contest for families was organized to instill the knowledge of Buddhism in the family and elevate the moral level in the smallest unit of society.
Dhammakaya Foundation also penetrated non-Buddhist countries by initiating a one-week Upasika training in Congo and Solomon Islands. The training had a positive response and was very well received. This is a sign of moral establishment in those countries. The Foundation also organized a project to train moral teachers to propagate Buddhism in their own countries by means of the the International Dhammadayada Ordination Program. Every trainee will be trained intensively in Thailand through a set of daily activities. They will simultaneously learn the Dhamma theory and Dhamma practice and will return to their hometown(homelands) to restore or propagate Buddhism in the future. These are the progress of social capital which is human resources that Dhammakaya Foundation has done for 40 years. If every Lord Buddha’s son and daughter come together and determinately share our father words, the unsolvable problems in the world will finally resolve and peace will definitely happen.
Human beings are the is the priceless social capital of the world. No amount of money in this world can compare to the value of a virtuous and devoted person. For the last 40 years the Dhammakaya Foundation has vigorously and tirelessly endeavored to take on the task of training and developing men, women, children, families to become virtuous, rightous members of society, by educating them in the Dhamma,purifying the mind through applying self discipline and practicing meditation.
To overcome the obstacles the world faces today, we have to uproot the cause, which is the kilesa in our mind. For this we use Dhamma as our weapon. But this is not a task we can do alone. As Lord Buddha’s sons and daughters, as one family in the Dhamma, we share our Father’s words, and work together to transform the seemingly unsolvable problems in the world, into solutions. Where is anger, let us show loving-kindness, where there is delusion let us bring wisdom, and where there is greed let us show generosity. By means of the Dhamma we can show the world peace, and make it a reality…so that all beings can live in harmony, happiness and pursue the utmost goal of life.
