Seva: MIMC: Here each child gets dreams and wings
Venerable Bhikkhu Sanghasena was born in the remote Himalayan region of Ladakh – an ancient state located in the far north west of India, high on the Tibetan plateau. He was brought up within a deeply religious family, amongst people who followed the ancient Buddhist traditions and believed in peacefulness, humility and innocence as the natural way of life. At the age of seventeen he joined the Indian Army, where he developed a strong sense of personal discipline and responsibility.
1977 was a particularly significant year in his life, for this is when he felt the inner spiritual call and decided to leave the army. He left the mountains of Ladakh far behind him and became a committed disciple of the renowned Buddhist scholar and celebrated monk, Venerable Acharya Buddharakkhita Mahathera, the abbot of the Mahabodhi Society Vihara, Bangalore, South India.
In 1986 Venerable Bhikkhu Sanghasena founded the Mahabodhi International Meditation Centre (MIMC) in Ladakh. The Mahabodhi International Meditation Centre (MIMC) is a great example of one man’s vision turning into reality. A dedicated team of social workers, teachers, doctors, monks, nuns, community leaders and care-providers have created an integrated community at Devachan in Ladakh which provides comprehensive care to all segments of society: children, elderly, special needs individuals, monks & nuns, the sick, as well as those seeking spiritual development. The community has become a model for the region through sustainable, ecological development.
Mahabodhi Devachan is built on the values and practices of the Buddha Dhamma. The Sanga provides the core leadership and vision for its development and working. The community of monks and nuns, students, elderly and disabled, staff and guests all have equal access to the timeless and life changing teaching of the Buddha.
‘Meditation’ is the accepted translation of the Buddhist term ‘bhavana’ which more accurately means mental culture or mental development. Buddhism is primarily about gaining insight into the true nature of reality and bringing an end to dissatisfaction and suffering in life. The immediate benefits of the practice of meditation is the minimising of restlessness, discontent, fear, aversion and a cultivation of equanimity, acceptance and tranquility. The practice of meditation consciously cultivates and develops the mind to rise above the stresses and insecurities that burden our lives, and generates a richer and deeper experience of life. The highest goal of the practice, however, is gaining permanent release from the unsatisfactory cycle of life. This is the ultimate goal of the Teachings of the Buddha.
Traditionally, there are two main approaches to Buddhist meditation. The first is calm, samatha, meditation. The purpose is to calm both body and mind; it is to bring the mind into a state of perfect concentration. In a day to day practical sense, samatha helps in greater peace of mind and tolerance for the stresses life puts in our path. Despite these benefits samatha does not offer a complete pathway to enlightenment – a complete release from our restless and discontented selves. Buddha introduced the practice of vipassana – insight – meditation as the critical technique to move us to full entitlement. Vipassana means ‘to see things as they really are’. It builds on the positive emotion generated in Samatha, and helps develop awareness into the impermanence and interconnectedness of our experiences.
At Mahabodhi, the practice and teaching of meditation is one of the main programs. Meditation is introduced to all students and staff of Mahabodhi Devachan. Each year, during the summer months, the MIMC is engaged in conducting several mediation activities targeting visitors. Meditation classes are conducted both at the main campus and at other places in Ladakh.
Benefits of Meditation course is designed to help people. It helps them to find immediate physical and psychological relaxation,to train and discipline the mind and use it positively, effectively and efficiently in daily life, to develop tranquillity, serenity and clarity of mind, to find practical solutions to the problems occurring in our daily lives, to learn the art of living in this world peacefully, harmoniously, friendly, mindfully, creatively, positively, helping and serving, caring and sharing with each other’s without hurting and harming each others and above all to help experience the ultimate bliss of Nirvana.
Mahabhodhi International School :
It provides free education and Hostel (both boys and girls) facility for children from Poor and backward families. Every year, from August to November, shepherds and farmers from the remotest villages of Ladakh trek to an unassuming building just off Choglamsar (a small town, 10 kms from Leh). Here, at Mahabodhi Devachan, they wait with their wards, mostly girls, some even as young as 4. It has been more than a decade since MIMC established its Residential School and Girls Hostel to provide schooling for the destitute and poor children of Ladakh. Parents, uncles and grandfathers come armed with the required papers – a letter from the Village Head or the Hill Council Representative, attesting their economic status; and their child’s vaccination papers – and a story of poverty and hardship that varies only in details. They know that if their child gets admitted to the Mahabodhi Residential School and Hostel, then their cycle of ignorance and poverty will be broken.
Mahabodhi has a unique admission and selection process. The students are first selected for the hostels, and care is taken to admit the most deserving candidates in terms of social and economic impoverishment. Once the hostel vacancies are filled, then day students are filled in. Again, priority is given to those who cannot afford to study at the many schools that have now sprouted around Leh. If after fulfillments of all these admission criteria, some seats are still vacant, only then is admission extended to the general public.
Mahabodhi Karuna Charitable Hospital
Health care and medical development in Ladakh is very poor and many people in the remote areas cannot effort to buy medicine or get proper treatments. Doctors in Ladakh are very rare and many people die or suffer from serious diseases due to lack of medical facilities available. Furthermore, the costs of good medical treatments are for many people of Ladakh beyond their capacity to pay.
To supplement medical services, and provide quality Medicare, Guruji Ven. Sanghasena Mahanyaka Thera started the Mahabodhi Karuna Charitable Hospital in 1996 by the kind initial support of Mother Park Sung Soo from South Korea. The hospital now has a mobile ambulance, to impart heath care in rural areas.
The residence of remote villages otherwise cannot access adequate health care given the geographical isolation, harsh environment and lack of general health education in Ladakh. Outfitted with the latest medical equipments among clean, well maintained facilities, the Karuna Hospital continues to set new standards of Health care in the region.
The Mahabodhi Hospital organizes annual summer medical camps in remote villages, attended by specialist doctors from their hospital and abroad.
It does not take a person long to realize that every flower that blooms and every tree that survives on the Devachan campus is a living miracle. The grassless craggy mountains that ring the campus the of brown, boulder ridden land that lie beneath, the sand that swirls in the whipping evening wind all are the very antithesis of a green and lush landscape. But walking among the different compounds of Devachan one is transported into lush gardens full of flowers and fruit trees. There are even little vegetable plots.
Green Devachan, an Environmental Project of MIMC at Devachan:
‘Green Devachan’ is blooming due to many years of concentrated effort and relentless care. Guruji – Ven. Sanghasena Mahanayaka Thera, started the Mahabodhi Desert Development and Afforestation Project in 1992 as the first buildings were constructed and the first students moved in. The main aim of the project is to turn the rugged, sandy, and barren desert like land of the Devachan campus into a green oasis. Slowly but surely this goal is being reached.
Now the once desert part of the mountain close to Leh in Choglamsa is turned into a real oasis where more than 500 odd residence of the Mahabodhi Campus not only enjoy spiritual atmosphere but also a very beautiful village like atmosphere with apple trees, apricot trees, poplars, willows, vegetables and flowers. Indeed the desert is now turning into a Devachan (Pure Land or Heaven like) in real sense with the blessing of Guruji – Ven Sanghasena Mahanayka Thera( MIMC ).
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