Peace starts from within the family

 Home of Light Project

Home of Light is another project that worked hand in hand with the others to create a peaceful society in Thailand and the world. This project was initiated in 1999, the year Thais commemorated the 72nd birthday of His Majesty the King of Thailand. It aimed at convincing both Thai youths and adults to do virtuous deed as a tribute to His Majesty the King, and to morally develop themselves through a shared effort among families, temples, and schools.

This project played a key role in teaching and guiding youths with the right way of living according to teachings from Lord Buddha.  The project’s purpose was to improve their morality; maintain their beautiful culture; and instill their love in the nation, religions, and His Majesty the King.  This will permanently unite Thai society.

The project lasted for 2 months from December 1999-January 2000.  There were 3,342,053 participants from 16,853 institutes across the nation.  The activities included keeping a virtue journal by each participant: students, teachers, and parents.  Each member received a diary and a “Home of Light” sign for each family.  The Family activities included chanting, meditating and offering alms as a tribute to His Majesty the King.  Participants also joined the ceremony commemorating the birthday anniversary of His Majesty the King; wrote letters to felicitate the king, and also joined special activities organized by their institutes.  

The virtue journaling activity within the short two months proved to improve behaviors of student participants.  They were more joyful and responsible, had more disciplines, and were able to spend their free time beneficially. They were more willing to lend a helping hand to their parents than before.  These good behaviors were also a consequence of their observing good examples modeled by their parents and teachers.

Many families benefited from this project; parents decided to quit drinking, smoking, and gambling, since they were aware that their children were looking up to them as role models.  The “Home of Light” was a very successful project.  In the future when every region in the world brings family and school to work together to promote virtuous deeds, we will all receive the promise of increasingly good citizens, who are the best resource for creating world peace.

 Kalyanamitta Home Project

Kalyanamitta Home Project, a first step towards world peace, was created from the vision of Phrarajbhavanavisudh.  It stressed the fact that we need to first create peace and happiness within the family, the smallest unit of society.  The project’s purpose is to bring Dhamma to the family.  Their understanding of Dhamma will shield them from bad influences and norms which are abundant in current society.  It is operated under the motto “wherever you turn, you will see Kalyanamitta.”  

The word “Kalyanamitta” means good friends or true friends who wish their friends well, who advise them to do virtuous deeds.  The members’ objective is to bring at least 3 family members and friends to chant and meditate daily for at least one hour.  The project creates more family time when family members get involved in creative activities promoting love and happiness.

At the beginning of the project, a sign “Kalyanamitta home” is given to each family member.  Anyone can participate; they will only have to gather family members to meditate everyday in the prayer room in each house.  The prayer room should not only be the place for worship but also a family-uniting place where the whole family can accrue merit.  Other activities include offering alms to monks every morning, making merit at temples nearby, and learning Dhamma.

Up to the present, the project has extended love and happiness to over 100,000 families, both in Thailand and abroad.  The numbers of participants are increasing continuously.  With the realization that one cannot be the only good person in society, it becomes necessary to make our environment and our society Kalyanamitta as well.  It is therefore our responsibility to be Kalyanamitta to each other; subsequently our community and society will be immune from harshness.

 Meditation Practice to Bless Their Majesties the King and the Queen

In various auspicious occasions of His Majesty the King and Her Majesty the Queen, Phrarajbhavanavisudh has invited people to join the meditation practice together for giving a blessing to the King, such as:

There was the novice monk ordination Ceremony on February 8, 1998 at Wat Phra Dhammakaya for giving a blessing to His Majesty the King related to His 70th Birthday Celebration. There were students, government employees, soldiers, policemen and the general public joining this ordination, altogether totalling 13,842 participants.

On August 7-9, 1998, the Upasikakaew Ceremony (laywomen’s retreat) offered a blessing to Her Majesty the Queen and expressing gratitude towards our “Mother”. Over 140,000 women joined this Ceremony as participants. It was a great historical moment for Thai women.

On January 1-3, 1999, the Upasokkaew ceremony (laymen’s retreat) offered a blessing to His Majesty the King in worldwide centers of Wat Phra Dhammakaya, in 13 places. There were one thousand participants joining in this project, composed of both Thai and foreigners.

On January 29-31, 1999, Phrarajabhavanavisudh organized the Upasokkaew Ceremony (laymen’s retreat) to offer a blessing to His Majesty the King related to the celebration of the 6^th anniversary of His birthday. There were almost of 200,000 participants both laymen and laywomen. Channel 5 and Channel 11 broadcasted this program for 2 hours.

Phrarajbhavanavisudh once said that apart from the gathering of those who practice good deeds, people who sit and meditate together create a power which comes from everyone’s still and purified minds. This power will eventually affect the whole world because all human actions affect the atmosphere as the motto: “Picking flowers reverberates to the stars.” He wholeheartedly believes that the more people there are who practice meditation, the more the world will change for the better.

 Create World Peace by reducing, stopping and quitting drugs and bad temptation

Drugs and path to bad temptations (i.e. gambling) is the shortfall of creating world peace.  It undermines both physical and mental fitness of ones enslaved to them.  It destroys peace and happiness within the family, and subsequently society and the world economy.  When there is no peace in a family because of drugs and the roads to ruin problem, the dream of world peace will unfortunately remain a dream.

Hence Phrarajbhavanavisudh initiated a campaign "No alcohol No tobacco.”  The campaign has been successfully carried out since then. The activities include pouring away alcohol and burning cigarettes.  The records show that during 2003-2004 the “no alcohol no tobacco” activities were organized for over 1000 times by college students from over 100 universities across the world.  From these activities there are many drinkers and smokers who quit drinking and smoking, as well as alcohol and cigarettes retailers quitting the sale these products, liquor manufacturer completely closed down their operation.

Ones of the very memorable examples were the close down of a traditional liquor factory and the biggest winery of the northeast in Nakornrachasima and Srakaew provinces, respectively.  During the winery shutdown, over 100000 bottles of wine (>7millions Baht in value) were poured away completely.

Phrarajbhavanavisudh’s “no alcohol no tobacco” project campaigns against the use of drugs and bad temptations:  which are causes of unhappiness in family, society and country.  The campaigns made an owner of the largest prostitution house in Samusongkram province realize that his business was a source of social problems.  The problems started from the family, propagated to society and eventually the country.  He decided to close down his business, demolish the facility which brought in many hundred thousand Baht a month.

Furthermore, the owner of the largest cock-fighting pit in the central region of Thailand agreed to close down his cock-fighting pit which brought in a hefty sum of money.  His decision came after learning Dhamma from Phrarajbhavanavisudh who does not support gambling and the bad consequences towards oneself and society.