Meditating in Myanmar

Hi Folks!

How are you and how’s life?!

Doing great, I’m sure.

If you aren’t, close your eyes, bring your thoughts to your breath and feel it as it calmly, quietly goes about its work. 

Stay with it for a while. 

Thank it for keeping you alive and well even if you mostly ignore it, take it for granted or upset its rhythm by your thoughts and behaviour.

When someone does something similar to you any time in your life, go to your breath and thank it.

Maybe you could promise it that you will be a little more aware and responsible and grateful, starting now?

I have been in Myanmar for a year now, and have completed the first year of my two-year MA in Pali Language and Literature. 

I had come on the full moon of April, and the whole year has been a wonderful experience.

In India, in about five hundred years after the passing away of the Buddha, the techniques of meditations that he had taught which would take a practitioner to Nirvᾱṇa were lost completely. 

They remained in the books for a while more and then it was gone too. Only the Buddha’s name and the list of five precepts remained in school’s text-books to learn by rote and get 2 1/2 marks in the exam.

2500 years after his death, as was predicted, his Dhamma – the teachings came back to India from Myanmar where they had been maintained in their pure form and took root again to spread all over the world. 

Guruji S.N.Goenka learnt Vipāssanā from his teacher Sayāgyi U Bā Khin in Myanmar, taught it for many decades here in India and all over the world, and now the teachers trained by him continue to do so.

After coming to Myānmār, I discovered that there are 17-18 more types of Vipāssanā meditations practised to reach the same goal!     

Myānmār is full of monasteries which have been running for hundreds of years. 

It is predominantly Buddhist and monasteries and pagodas are a part of everyday life of the locals, whether in villages, towns or cities.

The children grow up seeing their parents, grandparents and relatives pray to the Buddha, chant Suttᾱs and follow the precepts in their routine behaviour which are:

I shall not kill, not steal, not indulge in sexual misconduct, not lie, and not indulge in alcohol. 

These precepts have layers, like along with not indulging oneself, one will not make someone else do it and will not encourage it. 

The one on not lying has other strands like avoiding gossip, loose talk and also harsh and hurtful speech. People here are soft-spoken, do not raise their voice, do not gossip or hurt another.

There are Dhammā schools conducted during school holidays to which girls and boys from age 5 or 6 go and stay for the month. 

Most become temporary monks and nuns and get up at 4.30 am to go to the Dhammā Hall to chant and meditate! 

Then there are lessons and time to play. 

I spent a few days in a centre in a room next to the little girls and was fascinated to watch the bright, shiny faces and listen to their happy laughter and chatter which, of course, I could not understand! 

Most were unattended but a few mums and aunts had come for a few days until the girls settled in and learnt to wear the robes themselves! 

The boys were in a different wing, very conscious of their ochre robes, screaming away the chanting robustly but otherwise, laughing and playing.
                                                                    

As part of my studies, I had to attend two meditation retreats of techniques different to whichever I have been practising. 

My classmates are all monks. 

Here, there is no restriction to sticking to your own tradition the for whole life. 

The monks ordain from a monastery of a particular tradition, whichever they have entered during childhood or later. 

Then, they can go to other ones and practise some other technique. Meditating and listening to discourses to understand is important.

The first one I went to was the Pa-Auk method which stresses on Jhāna (dhyᾱna-deep samᾱdhi). 

The focus is on a particular point while breathing. 

The 84 year old founder and chief Sayādawgyi is considered the ‘agga’ (agra) in practise, not only in Myānmār but all the Theravᾱda Buddhist countries. 

He was a wonderful teacher, knowing exactly where the student stood in his/her meditation and would guide instantly. I stayed for 27 days and a lot of mental baggage went out for good.

The second one was the Mahāsi method which stresses on awareness of the movement of the abdomen while sitting and every movement like walking, stretching, bending, eating, and bathing and so on when one is up and about. 

They alternate between sitting and walking meditation. I stayed here for 21 days and some more of mental baggage went out for good!

Right from land to the construction, upkeep, food, celebrations – everything is solely on donations. 

The devotion of the people is humbling. 

At the Mahāsi centre, apart from the monks and nuns, there was a mother with her three young daughters in their teens/early twenties, couple of young men and an old couple in late seventies among others. 

Then a group of about 60 girls and 15 boys came from a college to meditate. 

The taxi driver who dropped me, charged much less than what I had thought he would.

 He said he would come to pick me up too, but sent his son instead. 

Why? 

Because he himself had gone to take temporary ordination!

No wonder - the air, the environment is so calm and peaceful. 

No shouting, loudness, lechery, drunken misbehaviour. 

Regarding the burning issues, everyone knows their genesis and sigh with helplessness.

I am glad to have had this opportunity to meditate at two wonderful centres of two wonderful meditations.

Do at least a ten-day course, come on an even keel; feel empowered to deal with difficulties.

Have peace within and a calm, happy life.