Som Oeurn MAO Sharing knowledge to peers, friends and others is one of my habits and passion, and I hope that this little preparation will help others to gain more knowledge for their own benefits, family and society as a whole.

1. សាកលវិទ្យាល័យបញ្ញា សាស្រ្តកម្ពុជា
Paññāsāstra University of Cambodia (PUC)
Reflection 2
Personal Grow and Development
Guided by: Bliss and Wisdom Group
Som Oeurn Mao
ID: 135908 / GROUP 6
3

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Personal Grow and Development May 28, 2018
After a presentation of professional grow and development conducted for one
and a half hour on May 21, 2018 by a group of Taiwan monks, Bliss and Wisdom
Group, I noticed that they are from Buddhist foundation led by Founder and
Spiritual Master, Jih Chang. This Bliss and Wisdom Organization was founded
in 1992 and based in Taipei, Taiwan. Their goal is to promote the Buddha
Dharma and to make the teachings freely available to the general public. They
do not favor to any school, and all are afforded equal respect. During the
presentation, they tried to advice and educate us about how we can turn our lives
to be good, better and the best. Below are the points that I have absorbed from
them after joining their presentation.
Firstly, what I have learnt on that day is what Buddhism really is. To what they
have explained, Buddhism is the only path to end suffering and attain happiness,
which is developing bodhicitta and achieving Buddhahood (Jih, 1992). Achieving
Buddhahood is not an overnight endeavor. It begins with the aspiration, followed
by clear obstacles and amass merits, life after life continuously.
Secondly, what I have learnt is their Monastic Community which is consisted of
three structural elements included BODY, MIND and SPIRIT. In the body stage
of their Monastic Community, they focus on healthy living, so they educate their
people and community to grow only organic things on their farm. They don’t use
pesticide chemical fertilizer which can seriously affect to their people and
community. In contrast, if they do, they strongly believe that they will bring bad
sight effects to their people and community, and there will be three things
happened: Poisson to Death, Hungry to Death and Fight to Death. They also have a program
called Pure Spring Project which is one of their projects that educates and helps
famers with organic plantation and shows their people how to save and take care
of drinking water reservoir which is the source of our lives. They also have tree
planting program which they always believe that they can be part to protect the
environment and many lives on earth. So far, they have planted 382,000 trees,
and there are more than 81,00 people who have participated in this program.
They have also created a business channel which they can help their farmers with
the products from their organic farm called Leezen Company. Currently, this
social enterprise has 132 chain stores, and they also have their cooperative
partners: 300 farms, 500 suppliers and 550 retails stores. The core value of this
company are good producers, honest distributors, and happy consumers. In
mind stage of their structural elements, they focus on culture and education.
According to the philosophy of master Jin-Chang, he stated that “Education is the
key to the rise and fall of human beings”.

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Personal Grow and Development May 28, 2018
This quote also reminds me of Nelson Mandela’s quote saying that “Education is
the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” (BrainyQuote, 2018).
To me personally, this philosophy is 100% correct. As human beings, we have to
have knowledge and strong education which represent our own core value and
uniqueness. The knowledge and education most likely bring us to the top level
and more likely turn us to be a problem solver rather than problem maker. And
the last stage of the structural elements is Spirit (Buddhism) which can help calm
ourselves down and start loving with what we are having right now. They also
advised us to take control and overcome those negative thoughts in order to turn
our lives to be happy, successful and peaceful.
Thirdly, what I have learnt from the second speaker is whenever we start doing
something, we have to know who we are, what interest us the most and how we
are important for our community and society for the next few years. Then select
what we like the most and move forwards; what they call is “following one’s
nature”. After knowing ourselves and selecting what we like, we have to “develop
our potential” through our time, energy effort and our commitment, then
“appreciate the way of our living”, later “give aspiration and build the goal” and
last “fulfill responsibility and mission” for ourselves, our next generation, our
community and as well as our society.
Overall, I can conclude that in order to turn our lives to be good, better and the
best, we have to learn how to make peace in mind, enjoy with what we are having,
share, support and help others as much as we can without expecting something
back, know about logic and common sense and have real knowledge and strong
education. I think the presentation conducted on May 21, 2018 is really useful
session, and it does not only provide benefits for myself, but also for other
students who are learning at PUC community.

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References
BrainyQuote. (2018). BrainyQuote. Retrieved from www.brainyquote.com:
https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/nelson_mandela_157855
Jih, C. (1992). Bliss and Wisdom. Retrieved from
https://ladakh2017blog.wordpress.com:
https://ladakh2017blog.wordpress.com/