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May 23, 2008
Banquet in Honor of Dr. Nguyen Manh Hung, President of Hong Bang University
at Maharishi University of Management Argiro Student Center Festival Hall
Fairfield, Iowa USA
 Introduction by Dr. John Revolinski, Director of Recruiting and Placement, Maharishi University of Management
 Dr. Hung and Ms. Thai, thank you for being here with us tonight, and I thank everyone who has joined us to honor you and celebrate your visit to our campus. My wife, Christina, and I had the privilege of meeting Dr. Hung, President and owner of Hong Bang University, and Ms. Thai, the Director of International Affairs for the University in Ho Chi Minh City. It was clear when we met Dr. Hung that he is a man of great depth and vision. We have had the opportunity to be his host here in Fairfield for the past few days, and I want to tell all you some things I learned about him.
Dr. Hung is a professor of history. He wrote a Japanese-Vietnamese dictionary and has published several other books. He is currently working on a novel called War and Peace in Vietnam which traces the Vietnam war and its aftermath from the point of view of both the Vietnamese and Americans. In addition to being a scholar, he is an expert in fencing, a martial artist, and he plays the guitar and piano. Dr. Hung, a person like you we call a renaissance mansomeone who delights us by displaying intelligence in many diverse areas. Ten years ago Dr. Hung founded Hong Bang University which currently has 25,000 students. Hong Ban University reflects Dr. Hungs flare for life. In additional to offering several programs in social, computer and biological sciences, it offers a number of technical programs including video animation, fashion design, and 9 martial arts programs.
Dr. Hung is very interested in meditation. Students in his spa technology program take a mandatory meditation class. This morning when we had the chance to introduce him in detail to Maharishis Transcendental Meditation, he immediately had a deep appreciation of it. When I explained Maharishis popular saying, Water the root to enjoy the fruit, Dr. Hung responded by drawing a diagram of a tree showing surface roots and deep roots. He said that modern education has been like watering the surface roots, but with Transcendental Meditation the students can water the main tap root and thereby improve all other aspects of life. He appreciated the summary of research we presented on Transcendental Meditation so much that when he saw the volume of collected papers on Transcendental Meditation program he expressed interest in owning it. When we visited the M.U.M. Bookstore a short time later, he purchased all five volumes of the collected papers and is having them shipped to Vietnam, along with Maharishis book, The Science of Being and Art of Living.
In order to help you further appreciate of this exceptional man, I would like to play a CD that he shared with me. It presents him playing the guitar and singing a song with students from the French Department at Hong Bang University. The song was written by people from his university and is sung in French, but has a Mexican motif.
Play CD
I think you can all see how much the students at Hong Bang University love Dr Hung. He has become quite a television personality and is appreciated throughout Vietnam.
Now I would like to invite Raja Bob LoPinto to say a few words. I explained to Dr. Hung that Maharishi appointed certain individuals to in his organization to look after the development of consciousness of each country on earth. Raja Bob was appointed as Raja of Vietnam and is charged with overseeing the rise of that country to enlightenment. Raja Bob traveled from Washington, DC, to be here this weekend just to meet with Dr. Hung. Please welcome Raja Dr. Bob LoPinto.
 It was my great honor and privilege to warmly welcome Dr. Hung to Maharishi University of Management. Dr. Hung is a great and obviously deeply loved leader in his country. The Raja has a parental role for the countries that are in his care, attending to the development of the consciousness of the people so that their lives will always be free from suffering and disappointment, and will overflow with fulfillment and abundance. Dr. Hung has naturally assumed this parental role for his students and thereby for his nation. He cares deeply for their well being in every way, wanting them to achieve not only academic excellence, but a life that is stress-free, healthy and joyful.
With this profound insight into the importance of his role as President of Hong Bang University, Dr. Hung has grasped the understanding that academic knowledge alone cannot fully nourish the student and develop their total potential. He beautifully sees that the very essence of each student, the Self within, must fully blossom in each student and it is the role of education to offer the knowledge and technology to accomplish this. And so he came to M.U.M. with a clear understanding of its motto: Knowledge is structured in consciousness. He shares our mission is to develop the inner potential of the student and create total brain functioning so he or she can live the fruit of all knowledge
harmony, happiness and success in all areas of life. Upon his first introduction to the leaders of M.U.M., Dr. Hung immediately saw the great potential in establishing an alliance with M.U.M. as a means to supplement the offerings of his wonderful university and thereby realize his vision for bringing a complete educational program to his students.
Dr. Hung is an exceptional man, and has already fathomed for himself the value of deepening his inner silence as the basis for greater dynamism in life. And, indeed, his life has been truly dynamic with extraordinary accomplishments in many fields to his credit. It is no wonder that this man of full heart and penetrating intellect is so beloved by the students, faculty and administrators of Hong Bang University, by the leaders of Vietnam as a great and honored countryman, and truly by everyone who has the good fortune of meeting him.
I consider myself to be one of the very fortunate who has met and enjoyed spending time with Dr. Hung, and I look forward to visiting Vietnam and Hong Bang University this July. It will be our honor to visit this great nation with Dr. Hung as our host, and to firmly establishing the collaboration that our two universities indeed, our two countries will forever cherish.
Now I would like to ask Bill Goldstein, the Legal Counsel for Maharishi University of Management to say a few words. Dr. Goldstein has worked extensively with a University in Beijing which collaborates with M.U.M.
Maharishi has reached out his hand to the world to create a planet of peace and Dr. Hung has joined hands with us to this end.
It is most fitting and so much appreciated that this response has come from the President of this esteemed university in Vietnam, a country that has had its land and people taken advantage of and impacted so seriously by foreign countries. For it to hold out its hand and offer an olive branch to our American University shows the great heart and strength of character of the Vietnamese people. Dr. Hung is a very evolved soul, he sees the commonality of America and Vietnam, both are melting posts of many countries which have assimilated all the best to offer from a variety of cultures. He does not dwell on the past.
This knowledge that we offer from Maharishi and the great Vedic tradition of India can provide to the students of Vietnam the source of peace within that will render them invincible from outside disruptions. It can make their education meaningful and fulfilling. We are so highly honored and we offer all our faculty and resources to President Hung; we are at his disposal to create a University and country of permanent peace in Vietnam.
Next I would like to introduce Dr. Cathy Gorini, Dean of Faculty at Maharishi University of Management and Professor of Mathematics.
 It was a great honor for Maharishi University of Management to host Dr. Nguyen Manh Hung, President of Hong Bang University in Ho Chi Minh City, and Ms. Thai, Director of International Programs at Hong Bang University. Dr. Hung impressed us all with his great success and experience in the area of higher education and scholarly activity. He has demonstrated great wisdom in developing curricula that gives students great breadth and depth of knowledge combined with practical skills.
We are looking forward to collaborating with Hong Bang University to bring Consciousness-Based Education to students in Vietnam.
Now I would like to ask Dr. Raul Calderon, Director of the Fitness Center at Maharishi University of Management to say a few words. Dr. Calderon has traveled extensively in Vietnam.
 On a personal note, I must say that I have enjoyed my visits to Vietnam tremendously. I fell in love with Vietnam after my first visit two years ago. My friends who had visited before me told me how impressed they were with the people and culture, so I had to go check it out for myself. Now, I feel at home when I visit Vietnam.
It is a pleasure to meet Dr. Hung. I think that he reflects the sincerity and integrity of the Vietnamese people that I have met on my trips. I think it will be a wonderful opportunity for our respective universities to share with each other the best we have to offer. From our side, it will be a great pleasure sharing the value of incorporating consciousness-based education with Hong Bang University. We are delighted that Dr. Hung has expressed such a keen interest in establishing a collaboration between our universities.
Personally, I feel very fortunate that Dr. Hung has invited us to visit his university because I will now have more friends to visit on my next trip to Vietnam.
We wish Dr. Hung and all the students at Hong Bang University a great school year and we look forward to many exciting collaborations.
I was very fortunate to have my wife, Christina, accompany me on my trip to Southeast Asia where we met Dr. Hung. Christina immediately recognized Dr. Hungs great vision and ability to appreciate the knowledge of development of consciousness. Christina, please share you feelings with us about Dr. Hung.
 The first time I had the honor to meet Dr. Hung was at Hong Bang University in Vietnam, April 2008. We were surprised and delighted by the depth of Dr. Hungs consciousness.
Dr. Hung started the meeting by asking us to tell him about our University. We explained that with the guidance from Maharishi Mahesh Yogi to our faculty over the last 50 years that Maharishi University of Management had incorporated Consciousness-Based Education into its entire curriculum.
Dr. Hung expressed his deep appreciation of the value of Consciousness-Based Education and told us that before our arrival he asked his faculty to add this value to the curriculum at Hong Bang University. This deep desire to have the knowledge of consciousness be incorporated in education motivated him to form a collaboration between Hong Bang University and Maharishi University of Management. It is a perfect fit, a match made in heaven.
Dr. Hungs deep level and intrinsic understanding of consciousness only comes to the best and greatest of men. We are grateful to Dr. Hung for his vision and his organizing power to give enlightened education to Vietnam. He truly is a great leader in Southeast Asia.
Next please welcome Dr. Scott Herriott, Director of Expansions programs for Maharishi University of Management.
 The ancient Greeks said, Know thyself. The ancient Indians said, Know that by which everything else is known. These insights into the most profound purposes of education are already well understood by our guest, Dr. Hung.
Dr. Hung is an educator, a man of knowledge who knows how to impart his knowledge to others. But he also knows how to strengthen basis of education to make education strong. He says Water the root to enjoy the fruit, and he points out that there are surface roots to a tree and there is the deep tap root. The tree of knowledge contains the facts and figures, the methods and theories that students learn in class. The surface roots are the health and emotional well-being of the student, which support the educational process. The tap root is that one thing knowing which, all else is known. It is the source of the sap for the tree. In the student, it is alertness, wakefulness, consciousness. It is completely abstract and transcendental to experience. Yet it is the basis of all knowing.
More than that, the tap root of education, consciousness, is the knower. It is the Self of the student, ones abstract, inner nature, ones being. Modern education has come to neglect the knower, neglecting the consciousness of the knower. Modern education focuses on the leaves, flowers, fruits and branches of the tree of knowledge. It pays a little attention to the surface roots, the health and well-being of the student. But it has forgotten about the tap root, consciousness.
In the modern age, the ancient wisdom about human consciousness has been revived by the founder of our university, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Through his technique of Transcendental Meditation, students experience how their mind settles effortlessly to the most simple state of awareness, pure consciousness, which is the seat of creative intelligence in man. Coming out of meditation, students enjoy greater freshness of mind, clarity of mind, creativity and intelligence. They gain better health and well-being. They do better in their studies.
At Hong Bang University, Dr. Hungs students already practice yoga and some forms of contemplative meditation, and they earn academic credit from that practice. It is a great credit to Dr. Hung that he supports such practices. Though the cooperation with Maharishi University of Management, HBU students will have the opportunity to learn this very ancient technique, the Transcendental Meditation program, which takes the mind to the transcendental basis of thought and experience. It will be a joy for Maharishi University of Management to collaborate with Dr. Hung and Hong Bang University.
In closing, I wanted to tell you a little story about our time with Dr. Hung on Thursday. He and Ms. Thai arrived Thursday afternoon after traveling many hours. In the evening after a pleasant dinner with Raja Bob we took him the celebration with was held at the Sondheim Theater at the Fairfield Arts and Convention Center. That evening, the authors of extremely popular self-help books were being recognized by the community. Our guests were so tired, I hesitated to bring them there, but I was glad we went. The authors spoke very movingly about the most important values of life. They said that truly great people are those who live for others. I have realized these past few days that Dr. Hung is such a man. His life is dedicated to uplift all of humanity, and most especially his countrymen in Vietnam. Dr. Hung, we honor you for this greatness, and have to tell you that we share you vision. At our university we practice Transcendental Meditation and enjoy the benefits of peacefulness, clarity of mind and personal harmony we gain as individuals from it. But the true higher purpose of our university is to radiate the peacefulness we gain to those around us. With Transcendental Meditation and its advanced practices, we have the means for a few thousand of us to radiate orderliness and positivity to such an extent that we can uplift the entire nation and the world. I pointed out to you tonight as we entered this building the Maharishi Tower of Invincibility that stands next the Golden Domes on our campus. The tower symbolizes the influence we are producing on our country. We are creating invincibility for our nation and influencing the entire collective consciousness in the power of goodness and peace so strongly that no enemies will be born. We will be blessed with only friends. Dr. Hung, our hope is that we can work together with you to enable students at Hong Bang University to grow in this peacefulness and radiate the same influence in Vietnam. We hope to see a tower of Invincibility erected on your campus.
Welcome Remarks to Dr. Hung of Hong Bang University
By Ed Malloy, Mayor of Fairfield, Iowa, May 24, 2008
 This evening I am most honored to have in our home three very special international guests who have come to Fairfield to explore Maharishi University of Management. I believe that ones fortunes come from a level of deserve and this evening I am very happy for the City of Fairfield because our special guests symbolize a high level of deserve and that makes the mayor very happy.
The Acharya of India represents the ancient tradition of Vedic knowledge, and our guest, the Raja of Vietnam, Bob LoPinto, of the Global Country of World Peace who studied under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi represents the modern custodian of Vedic Knowledge. They have come together with Dr. Hung and Mrs. Thai of Hong Bang University, Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam. The meeting of these great representatives is historic for the future of education at Hong Bang University. My wish is that this great knowledge of the Consciousness-Based Education can bring as much success to Ho Chi Min City as it has to our City of Fairfield, Iowa.
I applaud the wise choice of Dr. Hung to pursue this association with Maharishi University of Management. I welcome Dr. Hung and Mrs. Thai to our city and look forward to their return visits and to visiting your great university. On behalf of my wife, Vicki, and daughter, Kelly, we welcome you to our home and thank you for blessing us with your visit.
Ed Malloy
Mayor, City of Fairfield
May 24, 2008
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