SASANA ABROAD – LOS ANGELES TO HAWAII
SASANA ABROAD
LOS ANGELES TO HAWAII
After closing the retreat at Los Angeles, Sayadaw, Dr. U Mya Aung, U Tun Kyi and U Khin Hlaing left Los Angeles for San Jose on August 9th at 3:00 p.m. U Thein Naing (son of U Thein Mg) met Sayadaw and the team at the San Jose Airport at 4:00 p.m. After spending three days at Tathagata Meditation Center, Sayadaw together with Dr. Mya Aung and U Tun Kyi left San Francisco airport for Hawaii on August 12th at 5:00 p.m. On arrival at Hawaii Airport at 10:00 p.m. U Kyi Lwin, U Tin Aye, and U Kyaw Myint were waiting for Sayadaw and the team.
Sayadaw and the team resided at the Hawaii Thai Monastery, gave dhamma discourses and instructions on how to meditate. Sayadaw expounded ‘Four Conditions which are hard to attain to a group of twenty devotees’ from 7:00 to 9:0 p.m on 1356 (ME) the seventh waxing day of Wagaung. Next morning, the eighth waxing day of Wagaung, Sayadaw gave a brief libation dhamma after breakfast Daw Pyone Pyone Aye, M.Sc. (Hawaii) of Mandalay asked “Your Ven. Sir, many foreign friends ask me why the Buddhist monks are not allowed to take food in the afternoon. Please explain to me since I could not give them any answer.” Sayadaw’s sudden answer was, “As the people looked down upon the monks when they went round for alms-food in the afternoon, Lord Buddha laid down a restrictive rule that the monks must not take food in the after noon.” In fact, the real reason is not that the monks going round for the alms-food, but because they took food in the afternoon.
Once the Exalted One was residing at Veluvan Monastery, Rajagaha. At that time seventeen young sattarasavaggi monks went to the pagoda festival on a hill-top. There they met their relatives who offered them alms-food and also some cakes and sweet-meats to take back to the monastery. The young monks offered the cakes and sweet-meats to their friends at the monastery. The chavaggi monks asked the young monks whether they took food in the afternoon and in the evening at the festival. The young monks confessed that they had taken food. The chavaggi monks and the other monks upon learning it looked down upon the young monks. For this reason the Buddha passed a Disciplinary Rule saying. ‘A monk takes food in the afternoon. That monk has committed an offence.’ From that time, on the monks are not allowed to take food in the afternoon.
Daw Pyone Pyone Aye had another question, ‘Why cannot monks take food by themselves and eat? They can only have food when the devotees offer it to them.’ In connection with a monk, the Buddha laid down the Disciplinary rule, saying ‘A monk takes and eats food himself, without devotees offering. That monk has committed an offence’. At one time while Lord Buddha was residing at a monastery with a turret, in Vesali, a monk lived at the graveyard observing an ascetic purification practice, namely wearing Patched-up robes. He took and ate food (by himself) which were left by the people for their dead parents and relatives. He looked very fit and fat. Thereupon people accused him of being a human flesh eater. Other monks with less greed also looked down upon him.
On the eighth waxing day of Wagaung, 1356 (M.E) a Vietnamese doctor, Mr. San Vi Huin invited Sayadaw and the team to his house where Sayadaw meditated together with the foreign yogis from 6:00 to 6:30 p.m. Afterwards Sayadaw gave a dhamma talk and Dr. U Mya Aung acted as translator. The dhamma talk was on the benefits of vipassana meditation and how to note the ‘intention’ in the four postures contemplation, namely walking practice, standing practice, sitting practice and lying down practice. Mrs. San Vi Huin told Sayadaw that she was very pleased with the Instruction on how to contemplate and note the intention in the general bodily actions. Moreover she said, ‘Not long ago I joined a retreat center for a month. As my contemplation was very good, sometimes I felt my body was very light and elevated into the sky; sometimes I had a feeling that I was walking in the cloud. I also experienced a joyous happiness after reaching the various stages of reverence. Am I a sotapanna? ‘ Sayadaw replied, ‘It is almost certain that you are going to be a sotapanna if you continue to strive for it.’
She again asked how could she know that she was a sotapanna. Sayadaw answered, ‘In order to know you are sotapanna, you must reflect upon your mind. If you find that you have reverence and faith in the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha even at the risk of your life, you can definitely decide that you are a sotapanna. Suppose an influential person told you not to pay homage to the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha, and that he would take your life if you do so. However, you still have strong conviction in paying homage to the Triple Gems even at the expense of your life. Then undoubtedly you are a sotapanna.’
Hawaii to Japan
On the tenth waxing day of Wagaung, 1356 (ME) August l6th, Sayadaw, Dr. U Mya Aung and U Tun Kyi left from Hawaii Airport for Japan at 12:00 noon. Sayadaw and the team arrived at Tokyo Airport at 7:00 p.m and waited for the Singapore airline for two hours.
Tokyo to Singapore
Sayadaw, Dr. U Mya Aung and U Tun Kyi left the Tokyo Airport for Singapore on the eleventh waxing day of Wagaung, 1356 (M.E), August 17th at 4:00 p.m. U Aung Than and Daw Khin Mya Mya and family, U Nay Win and Daw Than Than Sein and family, U Moe Kyaw Thoung and sister Ma Palai were at the Singapore Airport when Sayadaw and the team arrived there at 11:00 p.m. Sayadaw and the team spent the night at S.B.Y.O. Meditation Center which Sayadaw had visited before.
Singapore to Yangon
On 1356 (M.E) the twelfth waxing day of Wagaung, August l8th at 2:00 p.m. Sayadaw and Dr. U Mya Aung left Singapore Airport for Yangon. The Saddhammaransi Sanghas, the members of the Services Organisation and the Saddhammaransi yogis, totalling about eighty, were at the Yangon Airport to meet Sayadaw and Dr. U Mya Aung when they arrived there at 4:00 p.m.
Sayadaw’s sasana abroad took two months and thirteen days.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to express my gratitude to the Editorial Committee of Saddhammaransi Meditation centre, Yangon and also to Ma Thet Thet who patiently read the draft manuscript and corrected the typing errors.
Mya Yee
