{"id":10183,"date":"2026-09-30T00:14:01","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T17:44:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moemaka.net\/eng\/?p=10183"},"modified":"2026-09-30T00:14:01","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T17:44:01","slug":"maung-lu-hmwe-seeds-of-morality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moemaka.net\/eng\/2026\/09\/maung-lu-hmwe-seeds-of-morality\/","title":{"rendered":"Maung Lu Hmwe \u2014 Seeds of Morality"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"\"<\/a><\/h3>\n

Maung Lu Hmwe \u2014 Seeds of Morality<\/h3>\n

MoeMaKa, September 29, 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

Whenever Maung Lu Hmwe visits a displacement camp deep in the forest, there are always things that weigh heavily on the heart\u2014and things that make us laugh.<\/p>\n

When I traveled to a remote forest displacement camp last week, I noticed that religious life there had improved compared with last year. Last year, monks rarely ventured into this forest area, which was widely regarded as a \u201cblack zone.\u201d This year, however, I saw a monk who, out of compassion for the displaced people, traveled there on his own motorcycle on Sabbath days during Buddhist Lent to administer the precepts.<\/p>\n

On one bend along the rough forest road, two motorcycles suddenly came face to face, and the monk himself briefly \u201cascended into jhana\u201d\u2014straight off his motorcycle. That gave us a good laugh. The women devotees were worried that the monk might have been injured after his unexpected flight from the motorcycle. But the monk said he was fine. He seemed to be the kind of monk who would not make much of an ordinary injury.<\/p>\n

The little school in the forest camp is neat and pleasant to look at. With the mountains and forest behind it, the school makes a heartwarming scene.<\/p>\n

Seeing it reminded me of the teachers and friends in America who helped us when the school was first being built.<\/p>\n

Although the school looks beautiful from the outside, there is still no proper floor inside. There are not enough decent desks and benches. At the front of the classrooms, there are not even chairs for the teachers to sit on.<\/p>\n

It is understandable that the floor has not yet been completed because flooring is expensive. But the poor condition of the classroom furniture\u2014and the fact that there is not even a chair for the teachers\u2014made me feel that something was missing.<\/p>\n

What the school really needs is a teacher who can take the lead.<\/p>\n

So we met with the school committee and discussed what could be done to improve the children\u2019s education.<\/p>\n

Education is something that should never be neglected.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I also heard about something that happened to a displaced woman from the forest camp who had traveled to the villages to observe the Buddhist Sabbath.<\/p>\n

When she went toward the villages, she left her motorcycle beside the road. It remained there for about two nights.<\/p>\n

During those two nights, someone apparently stole the engine oil that had just been put into the motorcycle.<\/p>\n

Not knowing the oil was gone, she got back on the motorcycle and rode away. The motorcycle eventually seized up on the road.<\/p>\n

So, in addition to losing the engine oil, she ended up having to spend around 60,000 kyat<\/strong> repairing the motorcycle.<\/p>\n

On our way back from the forest camp, we came across another incident in a village.<\/p>\n

A sack containing a basket of shelled peanuts had been left beside a field near the main road, ready to be used as seed for planting.<\/p>\n

A man and a woman arrived on a motorcycle, loaded the sack onto their bike and rode away.<\/p>\n

The owner of the field saw them taking it. She was working in the field, turning cattle around, and shouted at them from a distance. They pretended not to hear her and left with the sack.<\/p>\n

The woman whose seed peanuts had been stolen then set off on foot, trying to catch up with the motorcycle or find where it had gone.<\/p>\n

Looking at her\u2014sun-darkened, exhausted and out of breath\u2014I felt deeply saddened.<\/p>\n

She had bought those peanuts on credit so she could plant them<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The seeds of morality and ethical conduct can be planted through education and religion<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

That is why I have great respect for the monk who not only helped make it possible to build bridges into the forest displacement camp, but also came there to plant the seeds of moral conduct.<\/p>\n

Thinking about seeds reminds me of The Refugee<\/em>, a short story by the great American writer Pearl S. Buck<\/strong>, who wrote extensively about China.<\/p>\n

The story tells of famine in China and of a starving man who, despite his hunger, refuses to sell or eat the seed he has saved for planting. He endures his hunger in order to preserve those seeds for the future.<\/p>\n

What kinds of seeds, then, should people like us be planting?<\/p>\n

The fields around the forest camp are already drying up.<\/p>\n

People have lost their possessions along with homes destroyed by military arson.<\/p>\n

They say the El Ni\u00f1o conditions mean winter crops may fail.<\/p>\n

People continue to run for their lives, sacrificing their homes, livelihoods and sometimes their lives because of military airstrikes and military columns.<\/p>\n

Under circumstances like these, what can we plant?<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the very least, we must plant the seeds of morality<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Planting the seeds of morality means that each and every one of us must first uphold ethical conduct ourselves.<\/p>\n

In particular, those who lead communities and education must live and behave as examples. Only then can they pass the seeds of morality to the next generation.<\/p>\n

The revolution has left behind countless burned-out places.<\/p>\n

There are more fields of ashes than we could ever count.<\/p>\n

Only if we can sow the seeds of morality and education<\/strong> upon those devastated grounds will the country be able to rise again.<\/p>\n

A young man confided in me:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThere are other things happening that are no different in principle from stealing the engine oil from a displaced person\u2019s motorcycle, or taking away seed peanuts that a farmer bought on credit.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

To rise again from these fields of ashes, before planting any other seeds, I hope that we can first sow the seeds of morality and ethical conduct<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maung Lu Hmwe \u2014 Seeds of Morality MoeMaKa, September 29, 2026 Whenever Maung Lu Hmwe visits a displacement camp deep in the forest, there are always things that weigh heavily on the heart\u2014and things that make us laugh. When I…<\/p>\n

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