Finished teaching 10 days course of Buddhism in Thabarwa Centre

Including Basic Buddhism and meditation for beginners

and Pali and Abhidhamma for serious Buddhists.

Taught by Sayalay Cala Theri,
MA 3rd year in International Theravada Buddhist Missionary University.
BSc Computer (Honors), Coventry University/Inti Colleges and Universities.
Dhamma translator and editor for 9 years.

Loving-kindness and Forgiveness

Recently in Feb 2016, I was teaching in Thabarwa centre to a group of foreigners who were travelling in Myanmar. Most of them were happened to stay in this centre for a few days. I was thinking, I tried to share the essence of Dhamma, without dwelling too much on ritual or superficial side.
I taught them loving-kindness combined with forgiveness. The reason was that I read lots of psychology books and realised people living in modern technology and stress society are not able to slow down, enjoy life and forgive one’s mistakes. I started with the normal way to radiate loving-kindness, and combine with forgiveness practice. I was quite surprised to hear the feedback at the end.
At first, I started with ‘May I be well and happy’ as a loving-kindness practice.
The usual way is wishing us in four ways:
May I be well and happy.
May I be free from mental suffering, - no stress, no sadness, no depression, no unhappiness
May I be free from physical suffering - no body problem. no cancer, no heart problem, no eyes problem…
May I take of myself happily.

  [Click here to read more]

Dhamma reflection in poem

When the dream doesn’t come true!

I had a big dream of going overseas,
To further my studies, to improve my knowledge
Days and night, I planned with my sister,
We discussed and thought many times.

We had big dreams and high hopes,
Happily we lived in our dream,
My dream was her dream,
And her dream was my dream.

Then I received the news,
The scholarship is for others,
The dream was burst,
All plannings came to naught.

We were in surprise,
and couldn’t believe at first.
How we cherished the dream!
How we loved that dream!

But then this bad news was good news.
Now, we have finished that dream,
And realized the emptiness of that dream.
It was daydreaming and night-planning.

If the kamma is there, it will be fulfilled,
If the kamma is not there, it will not be fulfilled.
Though we do things with diligence and effort,
But maybe ‘fate’ prefers us to stay in Myanmar.

Now, we get on with our lives in Myanmar,
We move to next planning in charity works,
Maybe we continue to dream more,
But dreaming makes us happy.

Whatever fulfilled or unfulfilled dreams,
We have many hopes for the future,
Even though some hopes left unfulfilled,
But least we have beautiful hopes!      

Impermanence

Dhamma reflection: Dialogue between a boy with a mother on the topic of impermanence and appreciating life.

Supposing a little child has broken a cup, he will be afraid his mother will scold him. However, if the mother is wise, she will give him such advice as below.

[Boy said:]
Mum,mum, Come here and look.
The cup is broken by me.
I am so sorry about it.
I really apologize for it.

[Mum said:]
It is alright, boy.
No problem, boy.
The cup is made of glass,
So, it will be broken easily.

[Boy said:]
Why are you not angry with me?
Why do you not scold me?
Normally, you always get angry,
When I break any things, mum.

[Mum said:]
Today I realize the nature of things,
Things are impermanent,
Transient in nature.
Things get broken, sooner and later.

As long as we treasured it before,
Have used it before,
Really appreciated it before,
So it fulfilled its purpose.

We see things in positive way, son,
We see things in useful way, son,
We have used the cup to hold the water.
We have used the cup to drink from it.
It lets our body be cool and without thirst.

The cup has finished its function.
So, we are happy with it.
Now, the cup is broken.
Never mind, the cup has done its duty.

Let's us buy another cup.
Let's us appreciate another cup.
So also, we live in this moment, appreciating what we have.
Therefore, We live in this life, appreciating each other.

Impurity of the body

Beauty is only skin deep.

This is the truth, but who wants to know?

We spend money on clothes, decoration,

To beautiful this body.

It looks beautiful on outside,

It is really ugly inside.

Full of impure things,

urine, feces, sweat, snot.

We need to take care of it,

Bath it, feed it, groom it.

Taking care of it every day,

Day and night.

Yet it lets us down

By aging, sickness and death.

Not so say we should ignore it,

Because we still need it.

Just as the boat carrying passengers to other shore,

So also the body carrying us to the truth.

From the body, we learn the truth:

Impurity, impermanence, suffering and non-self.

Though it shows us this truth,

We choose to ignore it.

Welcome to the truth,

If you really like the truth.

Domain and life goal

Domain and life goal Whatever we do, if we do at the area/skill we know, then we can get success very easily. If we do in an unskillful area, we can succeed if we have many supports from others. If we do in an unskillful area, we cannot succeed if we are lacking of support from others. This area is called 'gocara' in Pali, meaning is domain, field, pasture. Today, I have a talk with a devotee. She is failing in business because she is doing a business that she is not familiar with, and her family cannot support it. She fails because of wrong domain and lack of support. For the yogis, the domain is the four foundations of mindfulness. As long as yogis stay in this domain, that means practising the four foundations of mindfulness, i.e. body, feeling, mind and dhamma, they will succeed in their meditations. Also to be succeed in gaining education, or doing a job, etc, the chanda (wish/desire) and faith/confidence (adhitthana) in ourselves are very important.In fact, chanda is one of the adhipati (predominance) condition among the 24 conditions. Adhitthana is one of the 10 paramis. As for me, my wish is to learn Pali more and improve in my Dhamma knowledge. I also have the confidence that I can achieve my aim. If we have a very strong wish and confidence, and we work at right domain/area, we can succeed in our life goal. [Sayalay Cala Theri, 10th Mac 2016]

DHAMMA CLASS

DHAMMA CLASS
March, 12th to 22th 
1. Learning the Ultimate Truth and Personal Truth by meditation.
2. Applying Pali and Abhidhamma into Vipassana Practice - Patthana, Pali suttanta.
By Sayalay Cala Theri.
at Tharbawa Centre, Than Lyin, Yangon.