Aggācāra International Theravāda Education and Meditation Centre (Aggācāra International College)

by Sayadaw Dr. Nandamālābhivamsa Today, I will explain the essence of Kaccānagotta Sutta. It is found in the Nidānasaṃyutta which explains the Dependent Origination. This Kaccānagotta sutta (Discourse to Venerable Kaccānagotta) is very important for a practitioner who practices insight meditation. Without the understanding of this kind of discourse (sutta), we cannot comprehend our knowledge in Dhamma. Let us consider the case of Venerable Channa[1], who was the attendant to the Bodhisatta. He followed the Bodhisatta since he renounced the world who ordained himself after leaving the palace. Later on, Channa too joined the monastic order, but he practiced meditation without a good foundation. The foundation of meditation has two types of knowledges. The first is the Analytical knowledge of mind and matter (nāma-rūpaparichedañāṇa), and the second is the knowledge of causality (paccayapariggahañāṇa). These two knowledges are the foundation of Vipassanā meditation. Bhikkhu Channa did n...

  Philology Point Dhammānupassanā is formed by Dhamma+anupassana. The word Dhamma comes from the root √dhar (to bear) and the suffix-ma. This Dhamma means all mental and physical phenomena, which bear or hold own intrinsic nature, such as phassa (contact) which has the nature to contact with object, and citta (consciousness) which has the nature to cognize the object. Anu=again and again. Passana =√dis>pass+ana. The root √dis is to see. Therefore, anupassana means to see with the wisdom eye again and again. What does it suppose to see? The mind supposes to see the real nature of the mental and physical phenomena, or nāma and rūpa. [ Click here to read more ]

Yesterday, we started our Pali and Abhidhamma class after lunch, so I did have a few hours free in the morning. I met some young sayalays, some are half-orphans, and some without parents. I followed them wandering around the Thabarwa centre. We did chanting together and circling around the pagoda. Then they showed me their favourite places and trees. Their favourite stick was stuck among the branches, so we tried to hit it with a stone or another branc h to make it fall down. On the way to a monastery, the young nuns saw flowers on the ground, and they were happy. They plucked the flowers, and I suggested them to offer them to the Buddha. After paying respect to the Buddha statues in a nearby pagoda, they pointed to me a tree that had many fruits (the name is Ji thi), and then they were busy collecting the fruits. Then they saw a statue of ascetic that is sitting on the ground, and they hug it like old friends. (You can see in the photos attached.) Normally, the childre...

Personal Story from Sayalay Aggavati Enjoyment I worked as a tour guide before I became a nun, when I was working as a tour guide. I used to dress up well, had great fun by going to different places and meeting different types of people. I enjoyed my work very much. It was an exciting and enriching experience. I visited many parts of Myanmar. Personal Suffering Then, on one occasion, I went with some tourists to a hilly place in a forest. The place was full of mosquitoes and I suffered from mosquito bites and I was infected with malaria. Without knowing my situation, I went back to my home in Yangon. After a few days, at the middle of one night, my body felt feverish, and I suffered from very high fever.                        [ Click here to read more ]

WHAT BUDDHISTS BELIEVE By Sayadaw Dr. Nandamālābhivaṃsa [1]            Buddhists believe in the Buddha, believe in kamma; believing that conditioned things are impermanent, unsatisfactory (sorrow) and have no soul. You can see clearly that the Buddhists believe in the Buddha. When we believe in the Buddha, we believe in the knowledge of the Buddha that is omniscient ( sabbaññutañāṇa ) which means the Buddha knows everything. The Buddha teaches universal truth. It can be divided into two: the wholesome state and the unwholesome state. It is different from other religions. In other religions, people believe in God, or the Creator. This God creates everything. We are created by God, therefore God blesses the people. People pray to God and confess to him. Buddhists do not believe in God neither do they believe that God is the Creator. We are not created by God.      According to the Buddhist texts, God is none othe...