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A Spiritual Journey to Burma Buddhism and Freedom
- Feroze Dada
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Welcome to Healing From Within” I am your host Sheryl Glick author of The Living Spirit Answers for Healing and Infinite Love which shares stories of spiritual awakenings spiritual communication healing energies miracles and a clear view to using intuition to understand your spiritual and energetic life force and today welcome Feroze Dada author of Children of the Revolution who shares the long and violent struggle for freedom heroism and hope by the people of Burma. It is often in viewing or experiencing the challenges of the world that we unravel the layers of our true being and become what we have always been: free.
As listeners of “Healing From Within” are well aware Sheryl and her guests share our intimate experiences and insights into the dual nature of life as spiritual beings having a physical life and learning to use the Universal Laws of energy to provide for personal growth and development ultimately bringing about greater love compassion and a clearer view of the human condition.
Feroze thinks back to his childhood and remembers people places or events that may have shown them or others what path in life they might travel and what passions values or lifestyle they might embrace as adults. He tells us that his cousins were second cousins born in a remote part of British India and members of a well-off family of traders of grain. Feroze was the oldest of three brothers and my father was a strict disciplinarian We all went to Catholic school not because of the religion but because they wanted the best education for us. There were no hugs no bonding. My father was very distant and my mother was my best friend. In college I was in a rock band and captain of my college cricket team. I was caught in a girls house and her parents reported me. It was quite an ordeal and Feroze was sent to London to live with some family friends. It wasn’t like Miami sunny with skyscrapers but I did begin work at a small firm of accountants. Soon he was making good money and joined Brondesbury Cricket Club. The club boasts an impressive roll call of alumni. By 1982 he had become a tax specialist with a well known London firm and was invited by a friend Imran Khan one of Pakistan’s leading politician where I met my wife Mu Mu. She was born in Burma but had lived in Pakistan most of her life. Mu Mu studied psychology and joined the Japanese Embassy as cultural officer. She still had a large family of cousins in Burma and that eventually took us there after living in London for thirty years and raising two children. This was the time of life where we could afford to met new interests and charitable work and what lead to the writing of this book.
Feroze decided to write this book and donate all proceeds to the monastery school and orphanage at Inle Phaya Taung. The idea for the book started when Feroze met Major a Pa’O guerilla at a family gathering in Myanmar Burma. Major relates the persecution of his people faced in their struggle for equality and freedom. They are near beautiful inlet Lake in Shan State and a storm drives Feroze and Major ashore and they shelter at the Phaya Taung monastery where Feroze meets the Head Monk Phongyi who is passionately caring for and teaching more than 600 orphaned and refugee children of the revolutionary wars. There are one and a half million orphans in Myanmar a country scarred by the ravages of internal strife and decades of repression.
We meet Phongyi who has endured a desperately hard childhood but was accepted into the monastery at Lin Lam to further his education and how he influenced you.
Phongyi believes the path to enlightenment peace and compassion is through education and he has two ambitions to generate an income to feed and educate the ever-increasing number of children at the monastery and to improve the health in the community around the monastery.
The Dali Lama has given the Foreword to Children of the Revolution..tell us something of his interest in the Burmese children and that part of the world.
Buddha quote says “Every morning we are born again What we do today is what matters most.”
Sheryl says: I believe the Dali Lama offers that same ideology to be in the present moment to create and find joy, not in the past, nor worrying about the future.
As an endorsement to this book The Dali Lama wrote, “Burma’s internal conflict in the past several decades has had a drastic impact on the lives of its people. Children of the Revolution is an encouraging account of a Burmese monk’s effort to alleviate their plight especially that of the children. The author Feroze Dada gives a moving account of the monk’s work and talks about his own efforts to support a school and care center for destitute Burmese children started by the monk in his monastery. I offer my prayers for their success.” September 18, 2014
Feroze tells us about the plight of these destitute Burmese children. Feroze arrived in Burma in 2009—twenty years after the military rulers decided to change its name to Myanmar and end the country’s last vestiges of its colonial past. Burma has a turbulent past and uncertain future like most of the developing third world nations where tribalism religion and separation provide a lack of acceptance of those different from you and divide the people usually leading to war death and harm to families most especially the children of these transitional societies. Burma is struggling to come to terms with democracy. Though free elections took place in 2010 after fifty years of military rule deep cultural and religious divisions remain. President Thein Sein who had been the prime minister in the previous military administration now promised greater freedom for his people. The US and European Union dropped all non military sanctions and promised developed aid. Despite this Burma remains a fragile and volatile country with continued unrest of economic migrants and religiously persecuted people attempting to flee its boarders and shores.
Sheryl says…we see this playing out across The middle East most especially Syria whose five year Civil War has caused the deaths of over 500 thousand people and destroyed much of the civilized towns and country. And also in Venezuela we have watched the decline to poverty fighting and large populations leaving the country. In South and Central America it is no different. Where democracy and education have been slow to replace or work alongside of tribal and uninformed leaders progress and improved conditions are not possible.
We find out how Feroze became involved in his work to help bring change to the children of a monastery inspired by Phongyis and Major’s refusal to be passive in the face of struggle and peppered with Buddhist stories of compassion taught to the orphans, Feroze suddenly steps out of his role as story teller and helps to realize Phongy’s dream to provide a future for the children. Critically he eventually manages to make Phaya Taung financially independent by setting up a drinking water bottling plant for both the monastery an community making use of the natural springs on the monastery land. The practicalities of realizing this are extremely difficult as Phaya Taung is in the middle of nowhere and there is no electricity on the site. Despite these obstacle Feroze raises the funds negotiates his way through the monumental complexities of the permissions putting in place the resources for the design and delivery of Ko Yin mineral water.
Feroze discovered a country of many contrasts with a beautiful landscape of mountains jungles and rivers. Burma is at a crossroads. The country is rich in natural resources including timber oil gas and rice as well a a source of many precious stones such as rubies and sapphires but the economy is one of the least developed in the world. Corruption is rife, as is large scale trafficking in heroin. There are many reasons why there are so many abandoned children in Burma Conflict yes but also poverty disease particularly malaria and TB and natural disasters such as the devastating cyclone in 2008 that took at least 140,00 lives.
This book is also the challenge for Feroze as a Muslim absorbing Buddhist philosophy and building a bridge of peace which offers a transformative view about how to live a meaningful life that will bring education and hope to thousands of Burmese children.
Peace comes from within
Do not seek it without
Buddha
Feroze wrote, “You discover that both the freedom fighter and the Buddhist monk are in different ways forces of nature or men of action and while you learn about their lives, you also find the human goodness that shines in the darkness of war and you witness the path of dharma in the world. You cannot fail to be encouraged by Phongyi’s example to go beyond one’s imagination because there is no limit.
Feroze tells us about MuMu his Burmese wife and how she has influenced your views and desire to participate fully in helping the Burmese people. My journey of self-discovery as we moved between my metropolitan western life and Taunggyi in the northeast of Burma where Mu Mu’s family lives has helped me find a new reality and purpose.
Feroze wrote, “I thought I had achieved much, but I was wrong. The whole process of realizing what was missing and then inadvertently discovering how to live a truly meaningful life, and was in itself a remarkable spiritual journey. It might never have happened had I not fallen in love with a woman from Burma and if she had not introduced me to a tribal warrior and if he had not taken me to a remote monastery and if I had not met a remarkable monk. And if he had not shown me the faces of hundreds of children—many of them orphans. The world I entered could not have been more different than my own. I had no map no compass and no real idea where my adventure was to take me. My destination was clouded by my own lack of purpose and fulfillment. I sensed that something was missing from my world. But I had no idea what.”
Another key player in the book is Major who helped you see and understand the regional conflict amplified by ideological differences including the rise of communism in the east as well as the ethnic and tribal rivalries and the turf wars to control the cash from the lucrative opium trade. Tell us about this character. The Major who learned his survival skills early in life smuggled cattle across to Thailand in order to pay for his education. He went on to join the PNO at one time the largest insurgent force in Burma and now the political and welfare arm of the Pa”O courageously providing valuable assistance in the movement of fighters supplies and information between the training camps in Thailand and the conflict zones with the government troops.
At the time the young Major was making his way in the world of the revolutionary fighter, the Monk Pongyi was returning to the monastery in his native Shan province after completing his formal Theravada Buddhist training in Yangon.
Phonghyi believed that only education could help his people. By the time he returned to Lin Lam the PNO fighting against the government forces in the mountains had split into two warring factions—the Red Pa’O and the White Pa’O. The Red Pa’O had aligned themselves with the Burmese Communist Party or BCP and life in the towns and villages became even more precarious and the refugee problems were soon to be overwhelming. By 1986 a fragile peace allowed Phonhyi to start work on his establishing his primary school and then the middle school followed by 1993. The doors were opened to 450 orphans of the wars. Life was very difficult and in particular feed of the children a huge challenge.
Phongyi’s and Major’s stories bring us together with Feroze at the monastery and one night during a severe storm Feroze Mu Mu and Major begin their effort together to support this orphanage. We can begin to learn from the Buddhist monk some of the wisdom that comes from a true sense of compassion matched to a deep intellect and by seeing the Perfections or Paramitas by seeing them in practice at the monastery
Feroze tells us how Buddhism offers a transformative vision about how to live a meaningful life. Some of the quotes below from Budda express much about the importance of finding wisdom within self-growth acceptance and a willingness to release many of the ego based illusions of our societal and parental training and to follow a path of rightful living thinking and action according to the Four Noble Truths and The Eight Path Life Style.
As Buddha said, “Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon and the truth.”
Then Buddha said, “ There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to the truth: not going all the way and not starting.”
Listening is a key tenant of all spiritual practices and Buddhism.
Buddha said “ We are what we think
All that we are arises with our thoughts,
With our thoughts we make the world.”
Feroze was awakened to a new way of observing himself and others and new feelings when he met Ahwin Kaw Kaw the eldest member of his wife’s clan who was about eighty years old with a heavily lined face and very healthy for a man that age he noticed that when he spoke he was not just calm and softly spoken but there was a look of total contentment in hise eyes and across his face.
Feroze asked him his secret and he responded, “I have very little but I need even less.” But Feroze was interested in what he meant in the spiritual context. He gave a smile and said, I do mean spiritually. I am content to be alive and I thank God for every day that he gives me….the tree can only be as strong as the love and nourishment it gets.
He sent Feroze to the lake and told him that it would change his life forever.
Mu Mu told him that Ahwin was a remarkable man, a palmist and clairvoyant but he stopped using his special gift because he believed foretelling the future whether good of bad interferes with the natural balance of life so by telling him to go to the lake he was giving him a special message or insight into what was possible for Feroze to discover about himself and his future.
Intel Lake is home to about seventy thousand people called Inthas. Most of them make their living from fishing and from farming. The sacred imagery of the area, the energy of adventure the tranquility of the lake were helping me find an unaccustomed inner peace. It was in this environment that I was to meet a man who would play a significant part in changing the course of my life. Feroze was introduced to me as Major the manager of a hotel He was well known and had a distinct bold and confident look. He had spent years as a rebel fighter, fighting the military government. His actions led to Burma being granted independence in 1948. Burma had been under British rule until it was invaded by the Japanese during the second World War.
Feroze would love readers to take away with them after reading Children of the Revolution that in 2013 the Government of Burma spent less than 4 percent of its budget on health care compared to twenty percent on the military Sanitation and access to clean drinking water remains a prime concern. Much of the underlying blame comes from a lack of education. Against shocking statistics a small monastery was able to throw a lifeline to so many children who would otherwise have become casualties of this country’s fragile environment. A monk with a handful of helpers performed nothing short of a miracle. Buddhism has held a remarkable place in Burma and conquering the problems of the outer world as we seek peace within and our divine love of life and the eternal nature of Spirit.
I want to thank Feroze Dada author of Children of the Revolution for sharing your journey of inspiration for living with authenticity and purpose, and for sharing the story of all who are connected with the monastery in Burma now known as Myanmar, and continuing support of orphaned children in a land with much beauty and culture but still with a history of much unrest war poverty and corruption as many try to bridge the divide between the past and future and help the country to evolve into a democratic way of life.
In summarizing today’s episode of Healing From Within Feroze Dada shows us how over time and circumstances one may open their hearts to the greatest challenges of life, overcome the physical or ego based reality and to once again remember that healing and living with purpose is within each person’s reach. We must allow ourselves to move past self absorption and to care for others and the world of nature and people with a passion that opens the heart to really knowing that a life well lived is about cooperation community family friends and sharing ALL that you have- mind body and soul as you pour your resources into the world and begin to make changes within your own thinking as you provide health awareness, education and love to those in need.
This is not just the story of success at an orphanage in the Phaya Taung monastery, but a call to recognize places all over this planet where people, most especially women and children suffer at the hands of those who chose greed and corruption, military might over healing, and who work against the natural intuitive needs of all humans which is to be provided with their natural birth right: safety security and a sense of hope and well being.
As Feroze wrote, “Globally there are nearly 800 million people without access to drinking water and three times as many without adequate sanitation. Every minute of every hour of every day, a child dies from water related illnesses. All this is a sobering thought, and I am acutely aware that what we have been attempting at Phaya Taung is only a drop in the ocean. But I ho0pe that where we lead others will follow. It has been an incredible experience frustrating and bewildering certainly, and at times physically draining, but extraordinarily rewarding. We were getting back far more than we were giving…..”
Feroze Mu Mu and the people of Burma would have you know that all our lives are the better for seeing the beauty of an ancient culture the smiles of the children and the beauty of the lake and landscape. Wherever there is love there is a way forward to improve conditions and to advance life so we may move past any suffering to joy and happiness. It begins with one person perhaps…
