How will a lazy person acquire knowledge? How will a person without knowledge get wealth? How will a person without wealth make friends? How will a person without wealth obtain happiness?
How will a person without happiness gain merit? How will a person without merit attain Nirvana? (From Chapter one, On the sage of Loka Niti treatise)
These admonitions urge the new generation to do what they want and inspire them to be diligent. I think that there are no people who don’t want to succeed in their lives. Although a few people can achieve their goals, most people can’t reach their target. Why? There will be many different answers. You yourself know your answers.
The most important key to success is that you must persevere in your field. A person who is steadfast will be successful one day. When we discuss about such a person, we use the proverb “Practice makes perfect”. When we talk about them, we often give the example of the former president of America, Abraham Lincoln. Similarly, there were many respectable people who could win in the world. What they did are good legacies and examples that we can follow.
I would like to tell you about an incredibly diligent person here. Despite being born in the countryside of Burma and his parents being poor farmers, he became an associate professor at New York University where he retired. His name was Aye Kyaw. He was born in Yawma village, Taungu township, Arakan State of Burma.
There were no good schools in the countryside at the time between the British colonial era and Japanese Fascism era like this era. There was Buddhist monastic education. So, most of the children in the villages went to study at the monasteries. Aye Kyaw also began his education as a monastic student. His first mentor was the venerable U Waryama, who was the abbot of his village.
If the abbot knew about his success, he would have been very pleased because every teacher or mentor would like their students or mentees to be outstanding. Aye Kyaw was a student who teachers hoped for.
He told his students and mentees why he was outstanding, and why he could have very beautiful handwriting. He expressed his appreciation for his first mentor who had trained him when he was young. He never forgot his gratitude to his mentor. He often spoke out about his first teacher and how he had trained him.
He always talked about this whenever he met his students, “I didn’t write the alphabet with a slate when I had studied in the monastery. I wrote on the wooden plate which was painted with charcoal powder and cooked rice mixed with soapstone pencil. If I spelt a word wrong or my handwriting was not beautiful, my mentor would rap my finger joints severely.”
And then he had another teacher, his name was U Kyaw Aye. He was not only his primary school teacher but also his elder brother. He was a helmsman who could change his life. He was afraid of his brother and teacher. U Kyaw Aye ordered him,
“Hey, Aye Kyaw, will you be ordained as a monk? If you are ordained a monk, you must study hard literature and you must try to become a scholar. If you are a layman, you must study hard to become an intellectual person. If you are brilliant in education, you would never be disrespected in your surroundings. You must choose what you like. You must try to become an educated person.”
This was a guideline for his future life. So, he left the monastery and went to an ordinary school. He started studying in grade 3 at the primary school of his village because the monastic students were brighter than ordinary school students who were the same age. They did better in writing, reading and mathematics in the countryside at that time.
Although he could not compute two to four is equal to eight in the multiplication system, he could easily count them by the way of astrology that he had studied in the monastery. Besides, he had already studied “Loka Niti treatise”, the treatise of Buddhist instructions in ethics which is of high standard. And he had already memorized some Pali verses. Although he was ten years old, he could recite sentences and verses of treatise.
In 1955, he passed high school. Having passed high school, he, his family, and his relatives were very proud and elated because it was very difficult to pass high school at that time. While most of the people from their region guessed that achieving such a standard was satisfactory, his parents had a different attitude.
So, he went to Kyaunk Pyu College, Arakan State. He had studied at Kyauk Pyu College for two years. He learnt History, Pali and optional Burmese language there. When he went to Rangoon University in 1957, he studied History as a major.
When he was at Rangoon University, others mocked, jeered, and laughed at him because he used an umbrella that had Aye Kyaw B.A. M.A. Ph.D. written on it. However, he didn’t pay attention to others’ ridicule and was indifferent to them. He regarded the mockery as his moral power motivating him to keep on his way. The more other people mocked, the harder he studied. He tried to prove that what he’d written on the umbrella was not insane. He graduated with a B.A (History) in 1959 and B.A (Honors) History in 1960.
He was the person who was not only greedy but also crazy to study about education. He followed 1. Sandadipati, 2. Wiriyadipati, 3. Sittadipati and 4. Wimantha Dipati which The Lord Buddha taught in Pali language, as a guideline of his life. These Pali words mean that to be successful you need 1. Passion, 2. Extreme diligence, 3. Mind or Consciousness, and 4. Investigation.
He was appointed as a tutor at the Department of History, Rangoon University in 1960. While he was preparing to write an M.A (thesis), he had to read a lot of reference books and documents. Among them, The Thuriya newspaper (The Sun), which was printed daily, was a very important reference for his thesis. Because it was published from the 1910s to 1950s, the newspaper copies were many thousands. So, he had read them for three years thoroughly. He read them steadfastly and interestingly. He passed M.A (History) in 1963.
Besides, he wrote “The History of Burmese Education.” He had a habit that if he did something, he would dedicate himself to it.
At that time, some of his coworkers said, “Don’t do excess work, take it easy. Although you do extra work, you cannot eat more than others.” But he wrote it until it was completed. Finally, the book he wrote was awarded the national literature award in 1971.
Then an opportunity arose for him to go to study abroad. The Department of Higher Education was offering a scholarship to the most deserving candidate. However, it was a very difficult opportunity to get because only one candidate was chosen from the whole country. Under U Ne Win, the notorious dictator of Burma, a poor candidate like him had the slimmest chance.
If he wanted the scholarship, which was a valuable prize, too, he knew he had to study extremely hard and commit himself. He read the Nation newspaper and the Guardian newspaper to improve his English with might and main. When the result of the examination for the scholarship was announced, he was chosen. His dream had come true. And then he went to study for a Ph. D degree at Monash University in Australia. In 1978, he graduated with a Ph. D degree from Monash University.
Finally, he got all that because he wrote Aye Kyaw B.A, M.A and Ph. D on his umbrella, in spite of others jeering at him. As a surplus, he also graduated in Law. He studied not only History but also Law. But Life is not strewn with rose petals. After his ambition was fulfilled, he was satisfied by his life, and he decided that he would work as a professor at Rangoon University. However, a murder case that occurred at Shwe Bo hostel, where he worked as a warden in 1980, changed his life. An incredibly cruel fate entered his life and altered it significantly.
In that case, Sein Tun Khaing, a student who came from Mrauk U of Arakan State, was stabbed by Win Min, a shan ethnic student. Arakanese students, who were not satisfied that their friend was killed, protested on the campus. Being the warden, he was responsible for resolving the affair.
Though the problem was finished, Win Min, the murderer, was not sentenced. Twelve Arakanese students were sentenced to 10 years each. Moreover, the authority pressed him that either decrease or dismiss his position. He was a lecturer at that time. He resigned from the university because the authorities did not sentence the person who committed murder. Nevertheless, his
resignation from Rangoon University was not completely unfortunate; it was similar to a cat being thrown into a pile of dried fish. He was appointed as an associate professor at the University of Phayap in Chiang Mai in Thailand. Although he departed from Rangoon University, it was not sorrowful for him as he turned his footsteps to foreign universities where he taught.
If he hadn’t been dismissed by the authorities, he would have changed his life from an educated person to a very obedient person to the dictatorship under the notorious military government.
While he was working at Phayap University, he got an opportunity to work as a lecturer at Cornell University in the U.S. Then he worked at Illinois University and New York University. So, he was a mentor not only to Burmese students but also to international students. Furthermore, he occasionally broadcasted articles to benefit Burmese youth on Radio Free Asia.
When I asked him, “Among your many secret ways to be successful, which one is the most important?”
He answered that he always carried his father’s words in his heart. His father said, “My son doesn’t get distracted and divert your attention from what you desire. Keep it firmly in mind.”
He said, “It is imprinted in my heart totally.”
And He also told me, “Ambition is a great motivator!”
By Htay Win