The Trash Problem in Myanmar

Last month, Kandawgyi Gardens in Pyin Oo Lwin held a very special event: the France Flower Festival. To showcase the beauty of nature in a garden that is known as one the country's best maintained natural wonders, it went all out in showing the splendor and diversity of its flowers and other fauna. Many Burmese came from all around to attend, and after it was over... well, there are some rock concerts that come away less trashed. Ko Zaw Min captured some of the disturbing scenes of the careless and wanton debasement of the garden. In a country that has literally banned and threatened artists who use the Buddha's image to send a sign of caution concerning the rising toxicity of air quality, and where its third most holy site (Golden Rock) was nearly shut down due to its lack of trash refuse system turning it into a large landfill, the local destruction and overall lack of care in preventing littering continues unabated. Despite the growing concern in the younger generation and increasing activism to create a sustainable environment that is pleasant for all to live in, the road ahead seems long and and hard.

The Inaugural episode for Insight Myanmar!

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We are proud to present the inaugural episode of the Insight Myanmar podcast! Our host, Joah McGee, will first give a brief introduction about the podcast’s mission and background, followed by short previews of each of the first six interviews we’ve conducted so far. The full-length podcasts will be aired once weekly and feature (in order of appearance on the trailer):

Alan Clements, an American yogi, activist, and author, describes his time as a monk during the late 1970s and early 1980s in Myanmar. Sayalay Piyadassi, a Lithuanian nun, discusses her early years as a nun in Myanmar and her joy in simplicity. Thabarwa Sayadaw, a leading Burmese abbot, shares the stressful early years of trying to establish his monastery and the crises they faced. Ashin Chanda, a Bangladeshi monk, tells how the early heartbreak of losing his mother set him on a path in search of inner peace that ultimately led to his ordination. Sebestien Le Normand, a French meditator, reflects on a special visit to International Meditation Center (IMC) in Yangon. Ashin Sarana, a Czech monk, describes why he is so concerned with the problem of Burmese monks touching money. We invite you to rate, review, and share our podcasts, as every little bit helps.

You can subscribe to the Insight Myanmar podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or however you get your podcasts; or, you can listen and download right off the web at https://insightmyanmar.captivate.fm/. If you cannot find our feed on your podcast player, please let us know and we will ensure it can be offered there. We would also like to take this time to thank everyone who made this podcast possible, especially our two sound engineers, Martijn Comes and Thar Nge; Zach Hessler, content collaborator and part time co-host; Michael Alahouzos, who assisted in our fund-raising efforts; and Ken Pransky, who helped with editing. Finally, we are immensely grateful for the donors who made this entire thing possible. We also remind our listeners that the opinions expressed by our guests are their own and not necessarily reflective of the host or other podcast contributors. If you find the Dhamma interviews we are sharing of value and would like to support our mission, we welcome your contribution. You may give monthly donations on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/insightmyanmar, or one time donations on PayPal at www.paypal.me/insightmyanmar. If you are in Myanmar and would like to give a cash donation, please feel free to do so.

Vipassana for those of African descent

Thanks to Victoria Robertson, who shared this memory of over ten years ago, when a meditation course was organized in India for meditators coming from an African heritage. She writes:
"In keeping with his volition to spread Dhamma throughout the world, may it be known that S. N. Goenka, insightfully allowed a 10-day course for people of African Heritage to be held at Dhamma Pattana- Mumbai, India Dec. 2009-10. Pictured here is an informal meeting with Guruji and Mataji on metta day and an inspired painting created by a student who attended this historical course."

Although the event was held with much pride and a deep sense of community was experienced, it is uncertain why such an event was not permitted to take place again. Since then, some senior meditators and teachers have pushed for greater inclusiveness among peoples and socio-economic classes not typically represented.

Opening a new hotel? Give to monks!

It is hard to find an occasion of any kind in the Golden Land that doesn't involve generosity and deference towards the Sangha, the Buddhist monastic order. In this case, to inaugurate the opening of Hotel Dawei, the owners and senior staff invite several monks from a local monastery. After feeding them a full nutritious meal consisting of several courses, requisites are presented and accepted on the part of the monks, who then give discourses to the householders and chant Pali suttas. Such a selfless start to any company grants the staff with some good merit and a clear heart to start on the business side of running the day to day operations. As Dawei opens up to greater tourism and unexplored beaches find their bums, it is refreshing to see local values and spiritual beliefs still held onto.

A tentative opening...

A recent view of Maha Bodhi Myaing Sayadaw and his current forest abode. For many years the forest recluse's whereabouts were kept a highly classified secret that only a select few had access to. Now, he seems to be allowing a small trickle of visitors to see him in his temporary home, and meditators who take the pilgrimage are beginning to share their auspicious encounters with the venerable.

Insight Myanmar Episode #1: Trailer

The Insight Myanmar podcast

Check out our new podcast called "Insight Myanmar", which is available wherever you get your podcasts by searching. You can also use these relevant links:

Apple podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/…/p…/insight-myanmar/id1495592193

Listen off the web: https://insightmyanmar.captivate.fm/

Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/insight-myanmar

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4b306XVfpXHkb0KPUrnQ64?si=_mq2nn0oT5-yS4ce_G5Imw&nd=1

Tune In: https://tunein.com/…/Religion--Sp…/Insight-Myanmar-p1286837/

Please rate, review, subscribe and share! And if you appreciate our content, please consider donating to help us continue to carry out our mission. You may give via Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/insightmyanmar, as well as via PayPal at www.paypal.me/insightmyanmar. If you are in Myanmar and would like to give a cash donation, please feel free to get in touch with us.

The Sound of a Wooden Gong at a Burmese Monastery

We intend the upcoming Burma Dhamma podcast to give not only voice to the people and practitioners of the Golden Land, but also the actual sounds of Burmese monasteries, virtually bringing the listener into this rarified environment as much as possible! So today our intrepid sound engineer, Ko Thar Nge, spent the morning at a Burmese monastery getting just the right sound of the wooden hammer striking the "own maung," the ubiquitous wooden noise-maker that every Burmese monastery must have to call monks together. These ambient sounds of Burmese monastic life will be featured between interviews and discussion, bringing the listener closer to the experience of practice and renunciation.

This week is another packed schedule of interviews-- Alan Clements, Ashin Chanda, and U Sarana have all confirmed. Three interesting guests with much to share about their own life and practice of Dhamma in Myanmar.

Of the interviews already completed, we are nearing a release date, and hope to have them out in the next week. Stay tuned for more to come!

A late night interview podcast with Thabarwa Sayadaw

What a talk! Thabarwa Sayadaw made a surprise stop by our recording studio at midnight and we talked till almost 4 a.m. Still, there was so much to discuss that we only reached halfway through our topics, so we hope to continue our talk later this month.

The majority of our conversation focussed on the origin story of Sayadaw himself as well as the development of the Thabarwa center and mission. He discussed his difficulties in being from a family of Chinese immigrants in Yangon and his early interest in education and business. While wildly successful in a time in Myanmar when almost no entrepreneurial activity was taking place, it led to a severely imbalanced mind that became dominated by greed and anger, causing him to make several key poor business decisions. Concerned about his deteriorating mental state, this led to an interest in meditation, and he spent several years studying intensively at such centers as Mogok, Thae Inngu, Goenka, U Ba Khin, and Mahasi.

He became a proper teacher in his own right at the time that massive societal and political transformations were underway in Myanmar, and he discusses openly how the the upheaval of his country put his entire center and mission in an existential crisis, not knowing if they were going to be shut down from one month to the next. Ultimately, the advent of a free press by 2014 finally allowed independent journalists to share more widely what his unique meditation center was trying to accomplish, and the resulting stability led to steady growth and today, international renown.

Thank you to Thabarwa Sayadaw and so many close to him that helped make time in his busy schedule. Sayadaw had just flown from the UK on December 31st, and had spent the prior several days driving from one event to the other throughout Yangon, as well as side trips to Hpa An and Mandalay, and is leaving today to Vietnam. So we were really privileged to have access to so much of his time.

A Dhamma podcast with Ashin Sarana

What a great talk with Ashin Sarana yesterday! We started by learning about his earliest interest in Buddhism and spirituality. Who would have thought that an early fascination with magic and Chinese action movies were the entryway for this Czech monk into the Dhamma. U Sarana went on to describe his (mostly unsuccessful) search for a Buddhist friend in his youth, and his eventual decision to leave his girlfriend in Europe for novice ordination in Sri Lanka followed by a three year degree in Buddhist studies. Now almost a decade in Myanmar, he came just as the internet became available in a country just beginning to open up, and while Facebook was exploding. He joined the social network initially only to make Burmese friends, as a way of practicing his written Burmese ability, and from there began to use the online platform as a way to answer wide-ranging questions on Burmese culture and history, meditation practice, and the Pali scriptures. This unwittingly led to a controversial incident last month in which he found himself the center of attention in his role to speak out against monks touching money, and U Sarana discusses this matter in detail on the podcast. He also mentions a number of other wide-ranging activities, such as his translation of 20 hours of Dhamma talks of Sayagyi U Ba Khin which were recently unearthed, his creation of two picto-dictionaries for English/Burmese/Singhalese/Czech, his upcoming video Dhamma series, his assistance on the Shwe Lan Ga Lay meditator's guide, his new meditation monastery, his search throughout rural Myanmar for a true arahant, and much, much more.

We are finalizing our podcast feed and hope that it will be live in the next few days! Stay posted for more information.

We can only continue to manage the technical costs of producing our Burma Dhamma podcast with the generous support of meditators who find this information valuable. If you'd like to support our mission, please consider leaving a donation at paypal.me/insightmyanmar or https://www.patreon.com/insightmyanmar