Page 26 - EH74

24 EASTERN HORIZON | FACE TO FACE

but later I was told by the monks support of the teachers who
that they were not ordained into the ordained me, my kappiya Sis. Siew
Saṅgha but were just lay preceptors. King, Ariya Vihara’s excos, and
various Buddhist organizations all
However, even as a lay person, I inspire me and sustain my spiritual
was already a practitioner, leading a growth in the Sangha.
simple life. I decided to renounce as
I believed it was the best way to live Through your Ariya Rainbow
by the Dhamma. After years of lay Kidz Program, you teach children Ven. Saranankara Nayaka Mahāthera and
practice, I took novice ordination the moral values of Buddhism. Ajahn BrahmavamsoMahāthera and Ven.
Sumangala Bhikkhuni, monks and nuns
(pabbajjā) and higher ordination How do you teach children the supporting Ariya Vihara fund raising for
(upasampadā), in the Theravāda Five Precepts in a skillful way so AriyaBuilding Project for the 1st Malaysia
Theravāda Bhikkhunī Sīmā, Nunnery &
bhikkhunī order which was revived that they can appreciate these Dhamma Training Center, December 2022
in 1996. values and practice them?

What sustained me is the teachings Ariya Rainbow Kidz Program (ARK)
of the four brahmavihāras, was developed after gathering facts
mindfulness, concentration, and from a survey carried out among
insight into the Truths which give dhamma school teachers, parents
me much joy. The glimpse of not-self and their children (what they
also helps me to understand and learned, taught, and the result) from
experience the Noble Eightfold Path several Buddhist Sunday schools
Ariya Rainbow Kidz's perfomance Wesak
that leads to peace and freedom. in Malaysia in 2009. I presented a
May 2019
Thus, letting go and living a simple paper entitled “Buddhist Women
lifestyle in accordance to the Teachers: Lay and Ordained” during
th
Dhamma is natural to me. the 11 Sakyadhita International
Conference on Buddhist Women in
When people asked me why I Vietnam in 2009. We discovered
became a nun, “my answer is always that due to the “school system
to practice virtue and develop my approach” in teaching, Sunday
mind (bhāvanā).” When one has a school teachers mostly taught from
glimpse of the Noble Truths, it is textbooks. Students were bored
Ven. Sumangala awarding certificate of
natural for one to be a renunciant with this approach. Meanwhile,
good service to young leaders during Ariya
in the Saṅgha, rather than “wanting some parents treated Sunday School Charity Food & Family Fair - July 2022
to become” a nun as this “wanting” like a nanny center, using the time
is craving which leads to suffering. their children were at Sunday has to attend the program with
Therefore, by learning and by School for shopping or doing house his or her child/children. We
diligent practice of the Noble chores, while they themselves did believe that a family who learns
Eightfold Path, one will discover not make any effort to learn and the Dhamma together will grow
the Truths and develop further as practice the Dhamma. Thus, parents together. After the program,
one gains assurance that “this is the themselves were not setting a good parents, through their proper
path” to awakening. example for their children.
understanding of the virtues that
the Buddha taught, become good
The presence of the Fourfold One criterion for the Ariya role models for their children.
Assembly - bhikkhu, bhikkhunī, Rainbow Kidz Program is
In ARK, our motto is “Head. Heart.
upāsaka and upāsikā – and the parental involvement. One parent
Hands-on” which is experiential.