studying the wetland ecology

Taking learning outdoors - fabulous learning experiences of instructors and students

Students and teachers just love it - comparing and/or applying theory into practice. Dr Porntipha took her students on a tour to the wetlands community and school projects on eco-friendly and sustainable economic development.

Or to museums and exhibitions to learn about local cultures and goings-on; the most recent being the Ideal and Importance of Bodhisattva in present day Thai culture and society.

Dr Suwida, always a community development enthusiast, took her friends and colleagues at IBC on a tour to one of the schools under the 'Morality Development' project in Trang. Having spent a day there discussing with the teachers and students, touring the school projects, they left with very good impressions of the school - very happy and disciplined students, a very dedicated and committed team of teachers, a school well supported by the surrounding communities.

Throughout the millennia, our ancestors have shown us economically and ecologically sound methods of sustainable living; the nature's teaching on the mutual dependence of all things, animate and inanimate. We, their descendants today have the wisdom to improve on those methods, and some to live them. Yet the question lingers, why do we allow the world to continue moving in an opposite direction - senseless exploitation of the earth for something known as 'wealth'. While the 'economy' expands for the gains of a few, so do the earth's deserts to the detriment of many. Buddha had given the answer to the question a long time ago. It's up to the students of the Buddha to build up a mass critical enough to make real changes.

How much time do we have before the pristine beauty of nature disappears from the earth so that future generations will never experience or know what 'nature's beauty or serenity' is!! See how beautiful those big smiles on the faces of those young children (picture below) were? Preserve this earth for future generations so that they too could experience and smile at the beauty the children of today experience!

Would we ever learn to apply effectively Buddha's teachings on interdependence and interpenetration for the good of all?