Burma Dhamma: Compassionate Hands

Showing posts with label Compassionate Hands. Show all posts

Wednesday, 12 June 2013

A gracious gift from Nature's Gift Photography

Work on the upcoming meditator guidebook to Myanmar, known as Shwe Lan Ga Lay, has been in full swing. As it is a dana project, contributors are all giving their skills in kind, and thus far a team has been assembled of editors, writers, artists, designers, researchers, and others. We're very happy to announce that Zach Hessler at Nature's Gift Photography has offered to donate any prints we wish to use from his Myanmar photo gallery for our guide. This will allow readers to enjoy his colorful and artful photographs as they use the guide to develop in meditation and learn about Burmese culture. Zach is a meditator with many years of experience of visiting the country and any purchases from his Myanmar collection goes to support local Burmese charities, such as Compassionate Hands.

Thursday, 28 March 2013

Children Meditation Course at Saya Thet Gyi Meditation Center, Pway Bwe Gyi

These are photos from a recent Children's Meditation course that was held at Saya Thet Gyi's meditation center in Pway Bwe Gyi, which is across the Yangon River from Yangon (and then a further 30 minute cycle ride).

Note some are wearing the traditional brown scarves that denote in Burmese culture that one is on a religious retreat. Also, most are in their white and green school uniforms as they attend.

For those who would like to gain merit by sponsoring further meditation courses for children in Myanmar in the future, please contact us.

Children Yogis break for lunch

Yogis from local schools head into Saya Thet Gyi's Meditation Center to begin their one day course

Burmese Buddhism

Vipassana in Myanmar

It is true that Buddhist resources are now easily attainable at bookstores and on the web. Nevertheless, some types of information and “ways in” are only available to yogis who are physically in Myanmar. For these practitioners, knowledge and experience can arise in many forms—from meeting a meditator friend who has just come from such-and-such monastery, to hearing about an upcoming Dhamma talk by a particular Sayadaw, to finding a precious, out-of-print book unavailable online. The blog endeavors to bring at least some of this process of discovery online, making it accessible to practitioners around the world.

The posts are a mixture of notices about courses and events, testimonials and journal entries from yogis, inspiring quotes and biographies of monastics, tidbits about Burmese culture, pilgrimage photos, and much more. Yogis who have interesting or inspirational stories or information about Dhamma in the Golden Land are encouraged to use the contact form on the blog. Guest posts about particular experiences and announcements of upcoming events are often featured.