Webu Sayadaw's Meditation Cave

Before U Kumara (the future Webu Sayadaw) popped up in Kyaukse out of the blue on March 12, 1924, no one was quite sure where he had been spending time. All that was known was that he was in the midst of years of intensive, solitary practice; even his modern biographers and closest disciples have been unable to reconstruct those early years in any detail. And while U Kumara continued his secluded practice here, Kyaukse was also where the next phase of his life began, and from where word about the achievements of the noble monk would spread to the rest of the country. 

The first site of note at Webu Sayadaw Monastery in Kyaukse is Dhat Ma Shaw Well, situated on the right side of the road, between the inner and outer monastery gates. After leaving his formal studies behind at the Masoyein Monastery in Mandalay in his mid-twenties, U Kumara spent some time living in remote caves and forests; perhaps given these hardships, he was frequently afflicted with stomach illnesses. 

One story goes that he was once travelling by train from Shwebo when someone advised him about a well near the Webula Hills that was known for its medicinal qualities. (In one version this was a holy man or pilgrim clad entirely in white. In another, it was a woman who met him before the train, and when U Kumara suggested that he may go home to Ingyinbin seeking a cure, she diverted him instead to Kyaukse) Soon after, he had a dream in which a being directed him to come here and search for a well of clear, bluish water. When he found the well, it is said that the same supernatural being appeared to personally offer him the water, and after drinking it, the monk’s stomach pains ceased. U Mya Thaung wrote that following this event, Webu Sayadaw never again laid down, had a cold, or spit. Those who wish may drink from this well, but note: pilgrims do so at their own risk.

Dhat ma shaw carries a couple of different meanings. Translated literally, it means “the knife falls down,” a reference from the 12th century when King Alaung Sithu is believed to have passed through here, back when the village was known as Paung. At that time, one of the royal attendants accidentally dropped his knife in this well. But when “knife falls down” is said quickly in Burmese, it can be heard as “the diarrhea has stopped,” a reference to the curative effect the well water had on Webu Sayadaw.

The words “ye phyu ye pya,” (or “white water, blue water”) came to be associated with the famous Kyaukse well that healed Webu Sayadaw. The white color refers to the water found naturally throughout these hills, while the curative water in Webu’s story was blue. Located around Webu and Weba Hills, this gave rise to the clever ditty, “Ye phyu ye pya, webu weba,” which references the geography, water quality, and famous monk all at once.

Beside the well is a stone tablet with a Burmese inscription, telling the Phaung Daw Oo story of the magical royal barge that carried King Alaung Sithu by air around the country. The king constructed a pagoda wherever he stopped, and so today many pagodas carry the name Phaung Daw Oo, meaning “the prow of the royal barge.”

Today, only serious meditators are allowed to enter and meditate in this cave, which is still standing today. Below is a photo of an inscription on this cave, with the translation below:

"Follow the tip of the nose - align with mindfulness,
To other object - (mind) should not be let go.
Contact and mindfulness - should be known continuously,
(thus) the difference between body and mind - will be known without fail."
The benefactor Venerable Webu Sayadaw
Champion 1998"

A Yogi Story: "Practice after Health Issues"

The following narrative continues the story of a Mexican meditator who has been in Burma for many years. This is the ninth entry, and her entire story up until now can be found here.

"I kept practicing at the monastery and slowly the teacher helped me to see the difference between nature and concepts. This made a radical change in the practice and in the perception of reality for me. So then it was possible to investigate reality directly and to see the patterns in it. It was a very interesting time for me.

But it was around this time that I had a lot of health problems. They were mainly related with food and poor hygiene. At the beginning I had problems with digestion, and the precept of not taking food in the afternoon was very difficult because I had previously had gastritis and colitis, so the body was reacting a lot. The same problems happened in Kalaw with a lot of diarrhea but in Shwe Oo Min Yangon was even worse. I need to learn about local medicines because the medicines that I had were not working very well. So I try many things and I asked local people for help and advise. Most of the time local people were extremely kind and helpful. They really try to take care as much as they could.

The food in Myanmar tended to be extremely oily. It is the way they protect the food from fungus because of the heat. However, the quality of the oil is very bad. Normally is the cheapest oil they could afford. So many foreigners we struggle a lot with digestive problems. It can be constipation or chronic diarrhea. I needed to go many times to the hospital to take various kinds of tests.

The quality of the hospitals is very low as well as the hygiene. I could get some good information thanks to the doctors, who most of the time were very kind and willing to help, however, the standard is not very high at least in allopathic medicine. The best medicine in Myanmar in my experience is the local medicine. Is the one that works for diseases in the country. So what I ended doing was to ask mothers what medicine they use to give to their babies when they got strong diarrhea and that is the medicine that could relief the pain, symptoms and the problem.

Is good also to have supplements because in monasteries we only eat two times and the quality of the food sometimes is not very good because of hygiene and because of the amount of oil. Garlic helps to reduce cholesterol and to improve the immune system. Spirulina helps to keep one strong. Probioticis helps with chronic diarrhea. Ginger is good to improve digestion and heat in the body. Magnesium is good for constipation. I recommend to know local medicine and to learn form Ayurveda or Tibetan medicine. Those medicines are base on food. They will balance the body with alimentation, so is easier to find the products and just take them. In my experience this is what have solve the problem not antibiotics.

I kept meditating there until hot seasons and then I move again to Kalaw because of the heat. There I had the opportunity to keep practicing in an environmental that I already knew with new yogis. After it I needed to go out of Mynamar and I came back to Shwe Oo Min Yangon to keep practicing."