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"Burma Dhamma" now has an Instagram account, and feel free to follow us here! While this blog shares diverse information related to Buddhist practice in Myanmar, on Instagram we share various photos illustrating the many forms of the Dhamma that can be seen in the Golden Land. Many of the photos capture real-time moments, especially when foreigners visit the sacred sites. Many of these Instagram photos do not appear on this blog, so for those who wish for more Burma-Dhamma in their life, follow us there!

Sayagyi U Goenka Pilgrimage: A Day in Kyaukse

On this day, pilgrims descended on the important town of Kyaukse, near the Mandalay airport and just south of the city of Mandalay. This is a place of vast importance in the biography of Webu Sayadaw. For many years, this monk's whereabout were totally and entirely unknown, and even present-day biographers have been unable to construct any narrative of where the great monk was for nearly a decade. Likely he was practicing intensive Vipassana meditation in wild forest regions, and had little to no contact with other people at this time. However, Kyaukse marks the site where Ashin Kumara, as he was then known at the time, resurfaced after so many years away. Suffering from chronic stomach problems, he had a dream in which a supernatural being directed him to a special well in Kyaukse that contained celestial water. "Drink some of this," the being promised, "and you shall suffer no more." U Kumara followed the advice, and true to his word, his stomach pains did indeed ease. 

As he recuperated, he found a cave just up a hill where he could meditate intensively, later followed by a black stone on which he would sit for many hours in the open air. Located on Webu Hill, U Kumara ultimately because known as "the Sayadaw on Webu Hill," or just "Webu Sayadaw" for short.

Eventually-- to speed the story up many years in the space of a sentence-- a vast monastery was built around the great monk, which is what a young government minister found in 1943 when he had a brief layover en route to Yangon. The Minister's name was U Ba Khin, and upon meeting Webu Sayadaw for the first time here and describing his meditation practice, he was instructed in no uncertain terms to begin teaching immediately! Just a few hours later, he taught his first student: a train worker at the Kyaukse station. Later, with Webu Sayadaw's blessing, U Ba Khin would open IMC, where a young Indian named S.N. Goenka would learn under him, and eventually spread this wonderful Burmese Dhamma around the world...

An Indian pilgrim takes photos of the very cave where Webu Sayadaw began his practice in Kyaukse

The very kuti where Webu Sayadaw was meditating when U Ba Khin came to the site as a young government minister

U Sarana to visit Sagaing Hills

Readers of this blog may find that many of our entries share information about the Dhamma in Burma which is basically unavailable anywhere else on the Internet, and which even many printed books do not carry.  Most of these posts are excerpts from the upcoming meditator's guidebook to Burma, Shwe Lan, for which hundreds of specialists and volunteers have given their time for more than two years. For Shwe Lan, hundreds of monasteries, pagodas, meditation caves, and other Buddhist sites were visited in Myanmar, and dozens of interviews were conducted with noted scholars, writers, monks, nuns, and meditation teachers. Many of the blog posts are but a small window into the breadth of information that is being compiled and revised in the Shwe Lan draft, to be freely shared with seekers on the Path.

With this in mind, it is with great joy that we announce that the monk U Sarana has volunteered to take a one week fact-finding mission in the Sagaing Hills. He will go with another monk who is familiar with the mystery and legends surrounding the Hills, both of whom will be supported by a local lay woman, who will look after their daily needs. They will spend an intensive week visiting more sites from morning until night, and conducting interviews with monks who have lived in these Hills for many years. Surely, they will find much precious information that has never been known about this area of the Golden Land where, more than any other, Vipassana practice has flourished for centuries. What is more, U Sarana is known for being particularly devoted to his Buddhist studies, Vipassana practice, and monastery responsibilities, and very rarely ever leaves his monastery. So it is all the more remarkable that for the first time, he has offered not only to leave his monastery, but also to go all the way to Upper Burma! This is a rare event indeed. His findings, research, documentation, and photos will eventually appear in Shwe Lan as well finding their way on this blog, to benefit all meditators.

U Sarana's trip expenses will be covered by the generous dana that meditators around the world have given Pariyatti to fund this volunteer project. All dana received goes directly to project expenses; which in this case will cover the travel expenses from Yangon and throughout Sagaing for these three researchers. His lay supporter has estimated that the total cost for this week trip may be $600-700. For those meditators who have found inspiration from this blog and would like to see this continue, and who moreover would like to gain merit by being involved in this kusala project, financial dana may be offered to Shwe Lan via Pariyatti's page here. Scroll to the bottom of this link and there is an option for giving dana through one's credit card.

For those without financial resources but who would also like to be involved in this wholesome project, please send us an email directly.

Sayagyi U Goenka Pilgrimage: Dhamma Mandapa in Mandalay

The 2015 Sayagyi U Goenka Pilgrimage is now underway! Pilgrims descended from such countries as Israel, England, India, the US, and China, and are being led around the sacred sites in the U Goenka tradition.

On this day, pilgrims visited the Dhamma Mandapa U Goenka Vipassana center in Mandalay.

Meaning “Pavilion of Dhamma” and located where the royal gardens once stood, this center affiliated with the Sayagyi U Goenka tradition is actually located within the compound of Bamaw Monastery. In the spirit of mutual respect and honor that characterizes many Dhamma practitioners in Burma, several years ago the present Bamaw Sayadaw offered part of his compound to be used for this U Goenka center, the first to appear in the Mandalay region. As one enters the compound, one sees the bright white spire of the Maha Bodhi monastery, a site in the Saya Thet Gyi tradition, looming up beyond the monastery grounds. In the compound itself, to the right, is a newer Bamar Monastery, and set against a backdrop of palms to the left is the architectural highlight of the compound, the older Bamar Monastery.

To read about last year's visit to Dhamma Mandapa, see here. Also, please note that while the 2013-4 pilgrimages were sponsored by Pariyatti, the 2014-5 pilgrimages going on now are being run independently by Compassionate Travels Myanmar. For upcoming pilgrimages, see Muditā Works.

Female Meditators in Burma: Point, Counterpoint

Individuals within a particular category or grouping may react any number of ways to a similar situation. This is certainly true of female meditators in Myanmar. The same situation may frustrate one woman, cause no reaction in another, and become a learning experience for a third. With this in mind, we share two contrasting experiences of foreign women who chose to live at monasteries for some time in Myanmar. 

First, a Mexican female meditator shares her thoughts:

“Myanmar is organized by a system of hierarchies where the monks are at the top and young lay people at the bottom. So the treatment is very different between the level of attention that monks get and the level of attention that everybody else gets. The religious organizational system is a patriarchal... The first time I came to [a monastery] I was surprised to see the difference in treatment among monks and Sayalays. Sayalays spend much of their time taking care of monks: they clean, cook, organize the monastery, and take care of the female yogis. They offer all the time things to monks and from an outsider’s point of view, or at least the way I saw it, Sayalays role’s is more like been at the service of monks... in reality some Sayalays are cooking and cleaning the monastery continuously and they also give the food to the monks every day.

For me this radical treatment among men and women, not only in the religious environment but also sometimes in daily life, was radically new. I was told by a lay Burmese man that I have all the conditions present in order to practice, the only thing that I was missing was to be reborn as a man! In some Buddhist commentaries, this Burmese man continued, it said that one of the conditions for enlightenment is to be a man. So therefore, according to him half of the population of the world cannot get enlightenment! As a good Latin women, I immediately reacted and told him that he was wrong and he need to prove those statements before saying them.

For me all this aspects were incredible shocking... I find it a massive contradiction because it is against the teachings of compassion and Metta. It also against the teachings of non-self. Why should the form matters if in the core there is no form? The process that happened in the mind is the same."

Then, a Chinese woman shares the following:

“These issues [concerning gender matters in Myanmar and relations with monks] are not new to me since I got to know them either from talks, information online or my own observing. I did not feel so much culture shock as a result. Well, as I am trying to learn more, I feel like I know less or nothing sometimes! So I become more and more inclined to ask questions and listen carefully. The thing is that I am not always intelligent enough to see the whole picture so that probably there is lack of insight present on my part. Sometimes I see things on the service level, but do not have enough insight to penetrate the subtle level; or say the hidden blessings. For example, based on Western culture, we can say that Burmese females are treated inferior to males. But at the same time, women can gain merits by serving monks, male foreigners and so on, which can go on to benefit their Paramis. Some people may say if these women don't invest as much time on their daily duties, then they can make better progress in their meditation. But as far as I observe myself, when I experience Dana of any kind, I felt wholesome mental states arise. But if I asked for this for that, many times I get disappointed. If I could have been giving without so much greed to gain since I was born, probably I could have made a faster progress! I am not sure if women exerting effort to strive for equality is actually a sort of craving. For me the best way is to observe and have patience. Things are changing. There is Dhamma.”

"Practicing in Daily Life"

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

"After two weeks at Shwe Oo Min Monastery I needed to leave because I was going to see my family. I was very interested to see if I could keep myself mindful outside of a retreat centre. I found it very challenging. It was very difficult for me and I felt I needed to practice a lot more. After my parents left I came back to Shwe Oo Min in Yangon to keep learning form the teacher and increase the momentum that I had before, and that now had disappeared. So I needed to build it up again little by little. At the beginning a felt very sad about it because it was so difficult to build it and just with some moments of no mindfulness-- it was gone. However, it was also a very good experience because it taught me how sensitive can be the practice if we don't practice continuously and it also told me where I was in the practice. I realize that I had a long way to go so that it is better that I not get excited about experiences and keep myself humble. The way is very long. The Path is very long."

Burmese Dhamma in the Colorado Rockies

The Rocky Mountain Vipassana Association (RMVA), which offers courses in the tradition of Sayagyi U Goenka, is located in Boulder, Colorado, in the US. Last month, the editor of Shwe Lan Ga Lay gave a presentation to the RMVA Trust that shared some of the inspiring stories from the Pariyatti pilgrimage that took place in Winter 2013-14. Many Trust members commented how much they appreciated hearing stories about the figures in the U Goenka lineage (such as Ledi Sayadaw, Sayagyi U Ba Khin, etc.) in more detail than they had ever heard before. This month, the RMVA has included a short article on the pilgrimages and the Shwe Lan project. Their January Newsletter can be found here.

(Please note: an earlier version of this newsletter incorrectly stated that the 2014-5 pilgrimages are sponsored by Pariyatti, and this is not the case. They were run independently by Compassionate Travels Myanmar. For upcoming pilgrimages, see Muditā Works)