Title: The Thabarwa centres - a mindful foresight strategy

Authors: Khema Cari; Aloka Nani

Addresses: Thabarwa Centre, Downtown Centre, No. 45, 4th Floor, 45th Street, Yangon, Myanmar ' Thabarwa Centre, Downtown Centre, No. 45, 4th Floor, 45th Street, Yangon, Myanmar

Abstract: Within the frame of globalisation and the strive for future modes of living in a global society, this article describes the development of the Thabarwa Meditation Centres, which started in Yangon, Myanmar, in 2007. It explains the aim of the centres, their mode of operation and their organisational structure, based on the centres' main paradigms. To understand their stunning growth and success, it is crucial to perceive how they bring their members to understand what is called the 'law of cause and effect' concerning everyone's actions. Once a person understands this law of cause and effect, one can use it to transform his or her life. A Thabarwa centre is the place where any person can abandon creating causes for suffering (understood in the Buddhist sense) and instead make causes for good results. This article describes how the Thabarwa centres are answering the needs of society on material and spiritual levels by offering free food, housing, medical care, education and meditation guidance to everyone that arrives in the centre.

Keywords: social help; Buddhism; Theravada Buddhism; purification of mind; mindfulness; truth; desire; suffering; nature; impermanence; healing; Myanmar; Yangon; meditation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJFIP.2019.098371

International Journal of Foresight and Innovation Policy, 2019 Vol.14 No.1, pp.65 - 80

Received: 10 Mar 2018
Accepted: 25 Apr 2018

Published online: 18 Mar 2019 *

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