Kindess from Afar
Sagaing Hills, located in the Sagaing Region of Myanmar, is home to a thriving and vibrant nunnery community. Not only is the area home to some of the most beautiful scenery in the country, but it is also home to many Buddhist nuns who practice their faith in the hills. The nunnery community in Sagaing Hills was established in the late 1960s and has since grown to become one of the most important Buddhist centers in Myanmar. Currently, there are now thousands of nuns living in the hills, making it one of the largest nunnery communities in the region. The nuns living in the Sagaing Hills have been praised for their dedication to their faith and their commitment to helping others in need. Many of the nuns have taken on leadership positions in their communities, providing education, counseling, and other social services to their fellow nuns and their neighbors. Recently, one of our local volunteer teams visited several nunneries in the Sagaing Hill and Mandalay Hill area to deliver donations that were kindly offered to our nonprofit for the needs of nuns. Our volunteer from this area reported the delightful stories that they heard from the nuns how our contributions helped them in different ways. This is one of those stories.
“Indeed, the nun told me that she cannot retire from this heavy duty as she feels a kind of obligation towards the Sāsanā, until her last breath. ”
Daw [Redacted] is the head nun of [Redacted] Nunnery who is at the age of over 80. Although she is in her ripe old age, she cannot live in a calm retirement as she has a lot of concerns for the nearly 100 nuns who dwell in her nunnery while undergoing a Buddhist education. She works not only to make sure that proper education is provided, but she also works hard for their survival, i.e. food, clothes, healthcare, etc. Indeed, she told me that she cannot retire from this heavy duty as she feels a kind of obligation towards the Sāsanā, until her last breath.
She took some time to tell me how our contributions helped her and the nuns she looks after. Gradually, I began to realize that she has a great “mother spirit” and is quite a responsible woman for her community of young nuns. While she was managing all the affairs of the nunnery such as food, clothes, accommodation, healthcare for the nuns, she could have been well working on her own mental balance through meditative practices, but instead her thoughts always went to others. It is very noteworthy to deeply contemplate this, and even it fills us with an inspiration and bliss that we are one of the helpers that has come to her nunnery to help her after her Buddhānussati meditative practices. She boldly emphasized and mentioned that our contributions were so helpful that just knowing there were kind-hearted foreign practitioners who cared about her, for a short time her mental peace was restored. She even stated that this time the helpers came from outside of the boundary of Myanmar, which was a great surprise for her.