Insight Myanmar

How has the coronavirus pandemic impacted foreign meditators in Myanmar? This is precisely the question we set out to answer in this “Expats in Exile Edition” of our COVID-19 in Myanmar series.The guests include:·     Jose Molina, an agricultural economist based in Yangon, who observed that life stayed pretty much as usual in the city, even as the rest of the world shut down. Initially resisting the inclination to leave, he ultimately packed up his apartment and had an emotional farewell at Chan Myay Yeiktha Monastery, his primary place of practice. Now back in Massachusetts, he has had to adjust back to a more materialistic culture and reflects on the Dhamma lessons that can be learned during a pandemic.·     Emily Rothenberg, a Fulbright Fellow in Mandalay who had hoped to use the pandemic as a time to settle into practice, but could not find a Burmese monastery that would accept foreign meditators. Moving into the home of a US diplomat and hoping to hunker down there, as the situation grew more serious she ended up catching one of the last flights out of the country. Back home in Chicago, she tried to plan her own self-retreat, and struggled to find a sense of stability after such a tumultuous period.  ·     David Sudar is a former monk at Shwe Oo Min Monastery under Sayadaw U Tejaniya. He had returned to Myanmar earlier his year as a lay meditator, to spend the winter in retreat. He managed to travel back to the US in spite of a debilitating illness, and self-quarantined at home in Portland, Oregon. In addition to continuing his own practice through extended self-retreats, he is also guiding meditators around the world through Zoom sessions, and discusses how yogis have found their practice impacted by the pandemic.·     Gary Leung, an Australian meditator who came to Myanmar for eight months of Dhamma practice, and ordained temporarily as a monk at the annual Kyaswa Monastery meditation retreat in the Sagaing Hills. His first indication that the pandemic was becoming more serious was during a pilgrimage in Upper Myanmar,  when he learned that Burmese monasteries would no longer accept foreigners, and he changed his return flight earlier to be able to leave before the country shut down. Once back in Sydney, he self-quarantined in his family home, and is continuing to practice and work remotely.As part of this new series, we will explore how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting Burmese monastic society in upcoming episodes, as well as how it is impacting meditators around the world and pushing meditation teachers to respond in new and innovative ways to the crisis as it unfolds. In this time of uncertainty and insecurity, we hope the voices that follow provide information and insight, and help awaken the seeds of wisdom within you.If you would like to support our mission, we welcome your contribution. You may give via Patreon at https://bit.ly/2XDPQJo, via PayPal at https://bit.ly/2TPPRIV, by credit card at https://bit.ly/3gBbqGT, or at Go Fund Me at https://bit.ly/2XEjw9c. If you are in Myanmar and would like to give a cash donation, please feel free to get in touch with us.

In 2017, Zach Hessler, then known as U Obhasa, was a forest monk in upper Myanmar. Following in the tradition of monks during the Buddha's time, one day he set out from his forest monastery on foot to wander among the mountains and villages in the vicinity. He did so with the intention of following a set of ascetic practices known as dhutaṅga. But he could not have imagined what would happen next. Unknowingly entering a forbidden area, he and his monastic companion suddenly found themselves surrounded by several dozen men wielding weapons, suspecting that the two bhikkhus were spies. Where some would spin what ensued as an adventure tale of escaping a near-death experience in an exotic locale, Zach instead goes into the Dhamma wisdom derived from that terrifying encounter. His fascinating story explores a range of topics: the conditioning of the mind, modern and traditional forms of monkhood, living in nature, the purpose of the Vinaya, complacency, the value of practice, and what happens within the mind when the concept of death becomes an imminent reality. If you would like to support our mission, we welcome your contribution. You may give via Patreon at https://bit.ly/2XDPQJo, via PayPal at https://bit.ly/2TPPRIV, by credit card at https://bit.ly/3gBbqGT, or at Go Fund Me at https://bit.ly/2XEjw9c. If you are in Myanmar and would like to give a cash donation, please feel free to get in touch with us. Also make sure to check out our website: https://insightmyanmar.org/

How is the coronavirus pandemic impacting monastics in Myanmar? This is precisely the question we set out to answer in this very special “Monastic Edition” of our COVID-19 in Myanmar series. The guests include:·     U Viveka, a Canadian monk studying under Sayadaw U Tejaniya, who is using the pandemic as an opportunity to examine his fear of death.·     Ashin Sarana, a Czech monk who was teaching in the USA when the pandemic hit, and returned to undergo a mandatory (and then self-imposed) period of quarantine at a Burmese monastery.·     Pabhassaro Bhikkhu, a Polish monk who found his ideal monastery just north of Yangon—only to be told he had to leave the country for visa reasons, but realizing this instability and unreliability is a core teaching of the Buddha.·     Ashin Dhammosadha, a German monk who finished his studies at Yangon’s Buddhist University before staying at Mahasi monastery, and who eventually found his way to a small monastery north of Yangon to begin an extended self-meditation retreat.·     Bhante Mokkhita, a German monk who runs the Mudita Foundation, supporting poor local families impacted by a loss of income due to the pandemic, and who reflects on the different ways that Westerners and Burmese approach the inevitability of death.As part of this new series, in upcoming episodes we will explore how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting Burmese monastic society, and how it is impacting meditators around the world, and pushing meditation teachers to respond in new and innovative ways to the crisis as it unfolds. In this time of uncertainty and insecurity, we hope the voices that follow provide information and insight, and help awaken the seeds of wisdom within you.If you would like to support our mission, we welcome your contribution. You may give via Patreon at https://bit.ly/2XDPQJo, via PayPal at https://bit.ly/2TPPRIV, by credit card at https://bit.ly/3gBbqGT, or at Go Fund Me at https://bit.ly/2XEjw9c. If you are in Myanmar and would like to give a cash donation, please feel free to get in touch with us.

In the second installment of our ongoing COVID-19 in Myanmar series, we present the Women’s Edition. So often at times of crisis and at key moments in world events, it is the voices of men who make the news. This is certainly no less true in Myanmar, where speeches from revered Sayadaws and male meditation teachers dominate the Dhamma discourse. For this reason, this episode will highlight those voices and experiences of female practitioners, who discuss how they have responded to the current pandemic.The guests include:·     Katie L’Estrange, a British teacher, fundraiser, and meditator who left her Mandalay home with her young son, just as the pandemic was exploding to return to Wales.·     Sayalay Piyadassii, a Lithuanian nun hunkering down at the Shan State Buddhist University in Taunggyi.·     Dominica Bastrzyc, a Polish backpacker-turned-meditator who found shelter at a monastery north of Yangon when the pandemic hit.·     Inga Bergman, a vipassana meditator from the S.N. Goenka tradition who organized a donation drive from her home in Chicago to feed Yangon monasteries unable to procure food from alms rounds.As part of this new series, in upcoming episodes we will explore how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting Burmese monastic society, and how it is impacting meditators around the world, and pushing meditation teachers to respond in new and innovative ways to the crisis as it unfolds. In this time of uncertainty and insecurity, we hope the voices that follow provide information and insight, and help awaken the seeds of wisdom within you.If you would like to support our mission, we welcome your contribution. You may give via Patreon at https://bit.ly/2XDPQJo, via PayPal at https://bit.ly/2TPPRIV, by credit card at https://bit.ly/3gBbqGT, or at Go Fund Me at https://bit.ly/2XEjw9c.

In this inaugural episode of our ongoing "COVID-19 in Myanmar" series, we present the Burmese Edition, where we hear from the four local voices who present their perspectives on the ongoing coronavirus pandemic in Myanmar. They reflect on how their Buddhist faith and practice has played a role in helping to them to understand and respond to the crisis. The guests include:·     Zaw Win Htet, a local historian and monastic school supporter in Chaung Oo.·     Dr. Jenny Ko Gyi, a Buddhist professor and translator.·     Inda Aung Soe, a former monk and founder of an organic composing organization.·     Nay Zaw Tun, a safety and security manager at a Yangon corporation.Similar themes run through these discussions: personal karma in contrast to world events, Myanmar’s close proximately to China, praise for the Burmese government’s handling of the crisis, and affirming the power of mettā, or living kindness.As part of this new series, in upcoming episodes we will explore how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting Burmese monastic society, and how it is impacting meditators around the world, and pushing meditation teachers to respond in new and innovative ways to the crisis as it unfolds. In this time of uncertainty and insecurity, we hope the voices that follow provide information and insight, and help awaken the seeds of wisdom within you.If you would like to support our mission, we welcome your contribution. You may give via Patreon at https://bit.ly/2XDPQJo, via PayPal at https://bit.ly/2TPPRIV, by credit card at https://bit.ly/3gBbqGT, or at Go Fund Me at https://bit.ly/2XEjw9c. If you are in Myanmar and would like to give a cash donation, please feel free to get in touch with us.

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.