Insight Myanmar

In this inaugural edition of the “Myanmar Dhamma Diaries,” Joah tells the story of an alcoholic Airbnb guest from Europe who disrupts his Yangon home. Learning that the guest had chosen to stay there as a cry for help in battling his addiction problems, Joah arranges for him to meet two foreign monks to begin to learn about Dhamma, and eventually helps him to stay for several weeks under the care of Ashin Mandala at Webu Sayadaw Monastery in Ingyinbin village, in northern Myanmar. There the guest is given sensitive, personal guidance in meditation and the Dhamma, and his mind starts to quiet down for perhaps the first time in his life. Joah and Zach close by discussing what this anecdote tells us about the possibilities for spiritual practice in Myanmar today, and contrasts this experience with opportunities found in the West.If you would like to support our mission, we welcome your contribution. You may give via Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/insightmyanmar, via PayPal at www.paypal.me/insightmyanmar, or by credit card by going to www.insightmyanmar.org/donation. If you are in Myanmar and would like to give a cash donation, please feel free to get in touch with us. And to donate for our special “Coronavirus In Myanmar” episodes, please go to https://www.gofundme.com/f/coronoavirus-podcast-episodes-in-myanmar.

Swe Win’s journey has taken him from a love of British literature to the pits of solitary confinement in Insein Prison in Yangon, where he escaped harsh conditions and toxic anger by taking up a meditation practice. Since being released, he has become a serious vipassana meditation student in the tradition of S.N. Goenka, and has continued his activism by becoming one of Myanmar’s leading investigative journalists. In this episode we explore the remarkable life of one compelling figure.If you would like to support our mission, we welcome your contribution. You may give via Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/insightmyanmar, via PayPal at www.paypal.me/insightmyanmar, or by credit card by going to www.insightmyanmar.org/donation. If you are in Myanmar and would like to give a cash donation, please feel free to get in touch with us.

The provincial upbringing that characterized Maria Alejandra Amaya V’s childhood in the Colombian countryside outside of Bogotá could scarcely have predicted her later interest in Vipassana meditation in the tradition of S.N. Goenka, nor her eventual life in robes of a Buddhist nun at Pa Auk Monastery. “Sometimes I think [my story] is like a very good romantic story in Theravada Buddhism,” notes Sayalay Khanticari, as she is now known by her Paḷi nun name. “[Yet], at that time I didn’t see what was happening.” She tells how a backpacking trip around South America with her husband led to a growing interest in meditation, landing them at Dhamma Giri in Mumbai, India before an eventual stay in Myanmar. There they enjoyed extended stays at Panditarama and the International Theravada Buddhist Missionary University (ITMBU), before her eventual ordination. Sayalay Khanticari’s journey through continent and spirituality is a fascinating one, and inspiring for any meditator on the path.If you would like to support our mission, we welcome your contribution. You may give via Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/insightmyanmar, via PayPal at www.paypal.me/insightmyanmar, or by credit card by going to www.insightmyanmar.org/donation. If you are in Myanmar and would like to give a cash donation, please feel free to get in touch with us.

Ashin Sarana may be one of the most well-known foreign monks in Myanmar today. He conducts his own meditation courses and routinely gives Dhamma talks in fluent Burmese. But did you know that his earliest monastic influences was a kung-fu movie and a book on magic? In this talk, U Sarana traces his spiritual journey from his native town of Pilsen in the Czech Republic to the Buddhist and Pali University in Sri Lanka, to full bhikkhu ordination in Myanmar in 2012. He talks about falling in love and yet choosing monkhood over marriage, and discusses the recent controversy he stirred up in Myanmar when he suggested that lay supporters should not donate to monks who touch money.If you would like to support our mission, we welcome your contribution. You may give via Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/insightmyanmar, via PayPal at www.paypal.me/insightmyanmar, or by credit card by going to www.insightmyanmar.org/donation. If you are in Myanmar and would like to give a cash donation, please feel free to get in touch with us.

Daniel is senior vipassana teacher (Acharya) in the S.N. Goenka tradition, in addition to being a licensed acupuncturist. He was appointed a Center Teacher (CT) originally for Dhamma Santi in Brazil, and then a Coordinating Area Teacher (CAT) “to serve the Rest of Africa.” A native Argentinian, he described going into self-exile after Juan Perón’s return to power, which led him first to Paris and then to India, where he took up meditation under Goenka-ji’s guidance. After being appointed a teacher, he undertook Spanish translation of all discourses and instructions, and conducted courses across Latin and South America, in many cases for the first time. This interview coincided with his return to Burma for the first time in exactly 40 years, when he had first visited in order to ordain as a monk at the International Meditation Center. Daniel also shares his memories about the early days of Goenka-ji’s vipassana courses in India and how they have since spread around the world.If you would like to support our mission, we welcome your contribution. You may give via Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/insightmyanmar, via PayPal at www.paypal.me/insightmyanmar, or by credit card by going to www.insightmyanmar.org/donation.

At a time when foreigners were only granted seven-day visas to Burma, then one of the most closed countries in the world, Alan Clements arrived in 1977 and managed to stay nearly five years, training directly under Mahasi Sayadaw and then Sayadaw U Pandita, despite enduring repeated forced disrobings, deportations and eventual blacklistings. Despite this, Alan has returned to the Golden Land whenever and however possible, including a 1995 trip in which he was permitted to interview Aung San Suu Kyi, then temporarily released from house arrest. In this discussion, he reflects on his personal experience comprising over four decades of Dhamma practice and activism in the country that he so loves. If you find the Dhamma interviews we are sharing of value and would like to support our mission, we welcome your contribution. You may give monthly donations on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/insightmyanmar, or one time donations on PayPal at www.paypal.me/insightmyanmar. If you are in Myanmar and would like to give a cash donation, please feel free to get in touch with us.

We caught up with Sayalay Piyadassii in Yangon, between time in her native Lithuania and as a student at Shan State Buddhist University in Taunggyi. She shares how her initial enthusiasm taking silent vipassana retreats in the tradition of S.N. Goenka led to nunhood in Myanmar in 2013, and she has remained in robes ever since. A number of themes are brought up in her spiritual biography, such as finding an appropriate balance of study and practice, the somewhat discriminatory treatment of nuns in Myanmar as compared with monks, and the benefit that Burmese culture has had on her spiritual life. If you find the Dhamma interviews we are sharing of value and would like to support our mission, we welcome your contribution. You may give monthly donations on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/insightmyanmar, or one time donations on PayPal at www.paypal.me/insightmyanmar. If you are in Myanmar and would like to give a cash donation, please feel free to get in touch with us.

Thabarwa Sayadaw has had a meteoric rise in Myanmar. After weathering a series of crises that threatened the very existence of his monastery, the Burmese monastic’s mission is now expanding at an unprecedented rate across not only the country but the entire world. And then there is his monastery itself, which is redefining the role of monasticism and the shape of Burmese Buddhism in the 21st century. In this inaugural interview, Thabarwa Sayadaw shares his biography from layman to monastic, as well as the early start of his monastery.

We are proud to present the inaugural episode of the Insight Myanmar podcast! Our host, Joah McGee, will first give a brief introduction about the podcast’s mission and background, followed by short previews of each of the first six interviews we’ve conducted so far. The full-length podcasts will be aired once weekly and feature (in order of appearance on the trailer):Alan Clements, an American yogi, activist, and author, describes his time as a monk during the late 1970s and early 1980s in Myanmar.Sayalay Piyadassi, a Lithuanian nun, discusses her early years as a nun in Myanmar and her joy in simplicity.Thabarwa Sayadaw, a leading Burmese abbot, shares the stressful early years of trying to establish his monastery and the crises they faced.Ashin Chanda, a Bangladeshi monk, tells how the early heartbreak of losing his mother set him on a path in search of inner peace that ultimately led to his ordination.Sebestien Le Normand, a French meditator, reflects on a special visit to International Meditation Center (IMC) in Yangon.Ashin Sarana, a Czech monk, describes why he is so concerned with the problem of Burmese monks touching money.We invite you to rate, review, and share our podcasts, as every little bit helps. You can subscribe to the Insight Myanmar podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or however you get your podcasts; or, you can listen and download right off the web at https://insightmyanmar.captivate.fm/. If you cannot find our feed on your podcast player, please let us know and we will ensure it can be offered there.We would also like to take this time to thank everyone who made this podcast possible, especially our two sound engineers, Martijn Comes and Thar Nge; Zach Hessler, content collaborator and part time co-host; Michael Alahouzos, who assisted in our fund-raising efforts; and Ken Pransky, who helped with editing. Finally, we are immensely grateful for the donors who made this entire thing possible. We also remind our listeners that the opinions expressed by our guests are their own and not necessarily reflective of the host or other podcast contributors. If you find the Dhamma interviews we are sharing of value and would like to support our mission, we welcome your contribution. You may give monthly donations on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/insightmyanmar, or one time donations on PayPal at www.paypal.me/insightmyanmar. If you are in Myanmar and would like to give a cash donation, please feel free to do so.