Ven. Nepal Nāthaputta and I have been going for alms together for some time now. He usually comes with me the whole way on Saturdays and on Sundays, he forks right after the 2nd or 3rd house. However, recently, a new monk decided to join our route. Last week, Ven. Nepal Nāthaputta went off on his own on Saturday while the two of us went on my usual route (good for two monks). We did the same this Saturday. When we came back Ven. Nepal Nāthaputta showed me the contents of his bowl. It had 2 spoons of rice and a few bananas. While this was clearly not enough food for him, it made me so happy. But Why? I’m a monk, right? Why should I be happy that a friend didn’t get any substantial food?

During the Buddhist Rainy season, I was invited to go to Cambodia as part of a group to deliver some relics and see Angkor Wat. While most people don’t know much about Cambodia as a Theravāda Buddhist Country, it is actually 97% Buddhist, which ranks them as the most Theravāda Buddhist Country in the world. The trip ended up being more than 1000 times more powerful than we ever expected and it will be a memory for a long time to come.

Ven Ananda with the two donors Recently, we received six new tables arranged by a monk’s two donors. The tables were nice but I didn’t think we needed them, so I asked the monk why. He said there was not enough room on the tables for his donors’ donations, so they decided to donate more tables so they can donate more. When his donors make donations, they are not small. Normally his group of donors are not ten or twenty, but sometimes fifty or sixty donors and sometimes more. They stay up the whole night cooking and then deliver the donations for breakfast and lunch. So after staying up all night and cooking the food for the monks, they found that the tables had less pārami (accumulated strength qualities) than their own pārami. So that was why they donated more tables. They are not just regular tables either. Take a look at the cover photo and see how nice they are.

Introduction Foreigner monk gets a COVID vaccine jab during the times of the new Myanmar government In this article, I want to share with you some of my experiences of living as a monk in Myanmar during the covid pandemic and the government change that happened recently. I also want to explain why I left Myanmar at the end of 2022 and what I am doing now. I am an American Buddhist monk who has been living in Myanmar for many years. I was first ordained in 2001 at Pa-Auk Forest Monastery and then later did a resetting ordination in Sri Lanka during 2007. I have spent the majority of my monastic life in Myanmar, learning mostly from Pa-Auk Sayadawgyi but I have also spent 6 years at Na-Uyana, Sri Lanka. Most of my monastic life was spent practicing meditation, but now I am studying at the International Institute of Theravāda (IIT) in Sri Lanka.

Recently, the doctor ordered some lemon juice for me to take as medicine, so I asked the office helper for some lemons. She went into the kitchen and then to the “walk-in refrigerator.” I just had to laugh and then snapped a picture. What does a walk-in refrigerator look like? How doe they make walk-in refrigerators in Myanmar Monasteries? Instructions: Take an eight by eight room, Lay the walls with tiles Insulation (optional) Put one or two air conditioners inside Pa-Auk Maymyo: Only 1 air conditioner. Maybe because of the cooler climate and insulation.

6 Color Buddhist Flag Yesterday, on Vesak, I was invited to go with Sayadaw Kumarabhivamsa, the Tipitaka Sayadaw and one more monk to visit the three very large Buddhas in our monastery and then finally to give water to the Bodhi Tree. When we give water to the Bodhi Tree, it is not uncommon to give pure bottled drinking water to it. Yes, you read that correctly. Bottled drinking water is used to water a tree.

Now the world is getting used to COVID-19 and many countries are announcing a new policy called “Living with COVID”. Now we are too. I will explain…. On March 17, 2022, Pa-Auk Pyin Oo Lwin literally started to live with COVID. On that day, there were 5 monks that were sick and tested positive. When lunch came, we were on high alert. Massive testing happened within the next few days and we went from 12 positive cases to 25 and then to 35 and now we are at 50 cases for the male size and 15 for the female side only one week later. It spreads quickly but I think the increase of numbers will go down. I have succeeded in testing negative for 2 tests in one week thus far.

From Knowing and Seeing Pa-Auk Forest Monastery video In 2005 I made a video called, “Knowing and Seeing Pa-Auk Forest Monastery.” This is about the Pa-Auk Main Branch in Mawlamyine. Sayadawgyi was young back then and used to climb the stairs to his mountain kuti twice per day. I will miss that. The title was meant to play with the name of Sayadawgyi’s famous book called, “Knowing and Seeing.” The book is referring to knowing and seeing the detailed Dhammas which were once thought impossible to know and literally “see”. He has since proved that all of this is possible. His original detailed 5 volume book set was rejected for printing locally by the national monk committee. To get around this, the book was printed in Taiwan and shipped to Myanmar as any other imported book. Like any banned book, or the Streisand Effect, it made the material and author more popular due to curiosity.

Eating Hall Feb 7 2022 Today is my 21rst anniversary for when I first got ordained as a monk on February 7th, 2001. As you know there was a hiccup and I ordained twice (back to back) leaving me with an official age of 15 years. However, the total years is 21 and this is my blackjack year when I first got my name. There were many reasons why I wanted to ordain as a Buddhist Monk. The desire to reach Nibbāna was the main reason, but there were other reasons such as,

Monks walking up the monastery road near the library 2014. (Double umbrella) Excerpt from Going For Broke: Monasterynote5: Walkman Karaoke, 2004 Rainy Season is luckily my favorite and I love all five months of it. It is the perfect temperature also, not too hot, not too cold. It’s quiet and the noises around me get white washed out from the rain striking the metal corrugated roofing. We had over 350 Bhikkhus and a total of more than 600 residents this past Rainy Season (2004). One problem is that nearly everyone has the same brown or silver umbrellas. Surprisingly, up until last Rainy Season, everyone sort of knew which umbrella was theirs just by the markings. Some would put string on the handle while others might have some tape along the fabric to stop the leaks.

Injection on Western resident monk Pa-Auk finally vaccinated 2000 of its residents across its branch monasteries with a privately sponsored SinoPharm vaccine. Pa-Auk Pyin Oo Lwin branch had its vaccines delivered on September 18th, 2021 with about half of the total population signed up. Vaccination was voluntary and provided by donors. While it did take a long time for us to get the vaccine, the government did invite us for the vaccine back in April or May 2021. However, for various reason, the vaccine was declined. Furthermore, since we had, and still have, a fairly strict lock-down and quarantine procedure, it was felt that Pa-Auk could wait until the information and situation were more clear. The decision needed a delicate balance that protects those who want the vaccine and also those who wish to rely on isolation.

Recently, I got a nice message from a monk friend telling me he was taking vassa (3 month Rainy Season Retreat) on July 23rd (the Full Moon Day) and wishing me a happy vassa before he goes offline for three months. However, we at Pa-Auk are taking the vassa today on July 24 (the day after the Full Moon Day). The calendars often say it starts on the Full Moon Day, but we don’t do that at Pa-Auk. So who is correct? Rainy Season from the back of the sima hall

Recently, I had a serious medical problem that had the potential to be extremely serious. Please don’t ask. In any case, I arranged permission to go outside and then arranged for someone to help me get to a clinic in Mandalay which had the proper technology to properly assess my problem. This article is not about going out. Instead this article is about coming back and staying in quarantine. Because we do not have monastery-wide vaccines yet, Pa-Auk is quite strict about letting people go outside because when you come back, you will need to be on a 3 week quarantine before testing for your release. It used to be 4 weeks, but recently changed this past month. Because the number of monks on quarantine was going out of control, 15-20 monks, a new protocol was arranged for incoming monks to stay in the empty quad kutis. In this way the quarantine monks can be kept in a single area, and food can be arranged more easily. It was not easy to deliver so many meals to all of the scattered individual kutis in the monastery. Below is picture of the entire male side of Pa-Auk. Remember there is a female side too with additional quarantine people. At the very bottom of the photo are some of the quad kutis. Some got cut off from the photo including the one I am living in.

If you go to a Theravada Buddhist forest monastery in Asia, you are likely to find a full skeleton or parts of a skeleton somewhere where it can be viewed easily. Some monasteries also have cemeteries inside the boundary like Pa-Auk Forest Monastery in Mawlamyine. Some other monasteries have a place were dead bodies are burned (with open wood fires), right on the premises, like Pa-Auk Mawlamyine and also Wat Pa Nanachat in Thailand. Wat Pa Nanachat has an enclosed glass case with a skeleton inside located in their main eating hall. Does that sound appetizing? Pa-Auk has a glass case near the entrance of the lower monastery, not far from the cemetery.

I’ve been looking forward to the Myanmar Internet being cut off, but it does not seem to be happening. I guess that is good for the people here. I will be taking a SIM break for about 5 days… Tuesdays are usually when I post things from the meditation hall because it is the day I have to manage the Tuesday cleaning crew. My job is to clean the Big Buddha (that is me below).

Pa-Auk Main Gate (cc-by-sa) Pa-Auk Forest Monastery and Pa-Auk Sayadaw share the same names. Why is that? Some people might question why Pa-Auk Forest Monastery and Venerable Pa-Auk Sayadaw have the same names. Did the Pa-Auk Sayadaw name his monastery after himself to immortalize his name? Is this an ego trip? What is the who, what, were, when, why, and how of this story? Who? Venerable Pa-Auk Sayadawgyi (cc-by-sa) Venerable Pa-Auk Sayadaw’s real name is Sayadaw U Āciṇṇa. It means “habitual kamma” in the Pāḷi Language. If you ever meet him and know how he acts, you will see that he lives up to his name. He is very predictable because he does everything systematically according to the dhamma on a habitual basis. It is not polite to call a sayadaw by his Pāḷi name if he is given such a title. Likewise, when speaking to him, you would just simply address him as Sayadawgyi (big sayadaw). In my days, we just called him “Sayadaw.” However, after some time, many teachers became of age and also became “sayadaws” too. That was when he became known as “Sayadawagyi.”

In 2014, I came in contact with yogi Brahm at the Mawlamyine Branch of The Pa-Auk Forest Monastery during a 10-day fast with Venerable Mokkhita. He is a great photographer and I thought it would be cool to show him the Pa-Auk kitchen and let him capture how the meals are made for 1200 yogis each day. Take notice of the large quantities of food that are cooked on wood fired stoves. Instead of picking just a few pictures, I made a small video slideshow. Enjoy!

Of course I’m happy! On November 24, I helped make a nice breakfast and lunch for Pa-Auk Forest Monastery, Pyin Oo Lwin. I organized 28 monks including myself to be the donors for the whole day meals + fresh squeezed apple juice, for a full value of 1,250,000 Myanmar Kyat. It fed approximately 530 yogis across four sections in Pa-Auk Forest Monastery. But how is that possible for monks to donate money?

Chinese congee Photo By Daiju Azuma - Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=567814 Rice soup is most popularly known as Congee (Kahn-Jee). However in the Buddhist world, it is referred to as yāgu in the Pāḷi Language. It occurs many many times in the tipiṭaka (more than 500 times) and it is still eaten today in Asia and Southeast Asia. To make it, you simply boil and then simmer one part rice with eight parts water for one or two hours. Some rice cookers have a congee setting. You can put various items on it and salt to taste.

While I have said quite a lot to inspire people about life as a monk around the world. I should give you both sides of the story to be fair. When you think about living in Asia full-time or just for a visit, the first thought that comes to mind is, “Will I get sick?”. It can happen, and when you rely on volunteers and health standards that work “most of the time” but not all of the time, then problems can arise. And if you are a monk who goes house to house, you are at the mercy of every kitchen’s health standard in every single house.

A kuṭi is a small hut or lodging that a monk lives in and it is one of the basic four requisites: Robes, Food, Lodging, & Medicine. They come in various sizes and qualities and I have prepared a small showcase of pictures which can show more than just the words. We are supposed to reflect on the utilitarian purpose of the lodging, also called senāsana. Before we begin, here is a small sample of the morning chanting monks must chant everyday.

Going for Alms at Pa-Auk The world has has begun to know about Covid-19 and unfortunately, some countries know it better than others. As a monk, I try to stay away from basic web internet except one day per week, but I still hear what goes on and as of today, April 6th, 2020, Myanmar has 21 cases and one death. The number grows slowly in the beginning as you all might know and it is uncertain what will become of the virus in weeks to come.

(Republished from June, 2015) Having Fun At The Pa-Auk Dentist Clinic (Repost/refurbish from June, 2015*) Because dentists are very expensive in America and the Pa-Auk dental clinic has pretty good sanitary conditions (for Myanmar), I went for a checkup before my trip to Hawai’i. Usually in Asia, you only go to a dentist when there is pain but I had some sensitivity I wanted to get checked and I waited for the Saturday dentist who is known on the street as “the old retired dentist who takes his time and does a good job.” He is a volunteer like the other two dentists and two medical doctors who visit our in-house monastery clinic.

At Theravada monasteries there is no eating allowed after Noontime. Some monasteries only give one meal per day, while other monasteries give 2 meals per day. Both meal plans are allowed by the Buddha. However, some monasteries have no meals brought to the monks and they need to go out in the village and collect it. This last case is very rare and usually done by the forest monks living in secluded places or ehem.. Kaua’i. At Pa-Auk, we get breakfast, lunch and an afternoon filtered fresh fruit drink, usually avocado juice. Life here is easier compared to the life in Kaua’i where collecting my meals and eating could take four or five hours and rarely would I get a hot meal to eat. Nevertheless, I have found that the difficulty of collecting food to be very rewarding. Because the food is brought to us, we have more time to focus on meditation.

The standing marble Buddha at Pyin Oo Lwin Pa-Auk On Feb 7th, 2001 I took my original ordination with The Most Venerable Pa-Auk Saydawgyi. It was the happiest days of my life and the most important one besides successfully being born as a human and surviving any serious death or injuries. Although there was a small hiccup, it has been 19 years total. I had just finished arranging my residential visa that was said could not be changed from a tourist visa without leaving the country. Since it was a Buddhist country and my desire to ordain was really strong, something worked out. After that, I was free to ordain any single day I chose. When Pa-Auk Sayadawgyi asked me which day I wanted to ordain, I told him that the full moon day would best. He said, “Awe.. that is a very busy day, we cannot do that day.” Not knowing what was really going on that day, I said, “Please?” and Sayadawgyi said that he would try to see what could be done. He rarely says, “no” and that is why he is so well loved.

I recently turned 49 and I found some old pictures of myself that I thought I would share. It is very difficult to get older pictures of myself because it was before the digital picture revolution. In those days, we used to hire (through a helper) the man known as “photoman” who had a camera and would take one single picture and then sell the prints for about $1 each. It was very expensive for locals to develop a whole role of film and this was how it was done. The first picture exists only as a scan from a friend who had this on his website long ago. The second picture I still have (laminated) and the third picture was sent to me by a friend who spotted this picture frame hanging up at Sayadaw U Khundadhana’s monastery in Dawei, Myanmar.

Downloaded from https://www.needpix.com Interview 1 of 2 Note: Some edits have been made afterwards to make things clear or to protect the anonymity of people. I am sitting here now with one anonymous monk. He has sat for more than 24 hours in 4th jhāna and I wanted to interview him anonymously to inspire others. So we are here with Bhante (Note: All monks can be called “Bhante”). I want to ask a few questions. First is…. You are quite senior and I don’t think you were successful before in meditation. So what did you do in your early years? Did you study? Did you do try meditation, and what type of meditation did you do before to prepare for this? Are you fluent in Pāḷi? Can you elaborate on this?

New Update and Summary: Myanmar Visas in the USA now only take 4 business days (It used to be of 3 Months). See Religious Visa application for USA Embassy: http://www.mewashingtondc.org/sites/default/files/pdf/visa/Religious-Visa-Forms.pdf Visa cost is $50 valid for 3 months (arrive before 3 months) and stay permit of 70 days Sponsor letter, Payment, application form, work history, and passport are needed. Verify all of this at the Myanmar Embassy in DC at +1 202-238-9332 http://www.mewashingtondc.org/content/visa-and-permanent-residency What Is a Meditation Visa? Many people are not aware that there is a thing called a Meditation or Religious visa. This visa is renewable and allows one to stay for longer than the 30 days a tourist visa allows. Tourist visas are not renewable. If you would like to meditate for more than 30 days, a meditation visa is the way to go. Otherwise, a tourist e-visa is more appropriate. Follow the link here for a tourist e-visa and don’t go to any other place. The rest are third party sites trying to make money off of your ignorance. If you Google Myanmar Visa, you will get lost by all of the advertisement that pay Google to pop up first. If you forget the link or this post, remember to Google Myanmar Embassy. Google will hopefully automatically know your location and pick the right one for you.

I recently found this video in my Google Drive. I had a layperson (probably UKZ) follow me around in the line to show what it was like for a monk to go through the alms food line at Pa-Auk Main Center, Mawlamyine, Myanmar. It is not easy to manage so many donors with big hearts to give. Most of the time, I am giving hand signals to get less food. You might want to play this at double speed. However, you can get a real time feel of what it is like, once one enters the food line. There are often 400+ monks waiting in line to get to this point too.

Racism in Asia, Myanmar and Monasteries I remember when I came to Sri Lanka, in 2007 and I met a monk who said he was from Slovenia. “Slovenia? What kind of country is that?” I told him that I had memorized the world map in school, but I didn’t remember any “Slovenia.” There happened to be a large world map in the other room and he called me over to see it. He pointed to his country and a bunch of other new countries a few centimeters away. At that time, I had been a monk for 6 years and I didn’t own a television when I was a layman before that either. I’ve been out of the real world for some time and I asked why they would do such a thing. He told me:

Drone View. A Brief Return to Pa-Auk Maymyo (pyin oo lwin). In 2012 I had left my home at Nauyana, Sri Lanka to reconnect with my teacher Pa-Auk Saydawgyi in his spank’in new meditation center. It was built by a Myanmar Billionaire, and was still being finished as we were coming to the grand opening retreat. The climate was nice and cool and the food was exceptional. However one of the faults was that it was really close to a major road, in a spot where the truck shift gears and accelerate. They can be very loud and the sounds bounce off of the walls of the village lined kuties (monk houses). When I saw Sayadawgyi he asked me what I thought of the new place. I said that every monastery has its faults but it is overall really good. Then I told him, “If anyone ever offers you more land, buy the land on this side of your kuti.” His kuti was quite far from the road, and “this side” was further away from the road. He said, “Who will be the donor?” and I didn’t know, but I continued.. “If anybody offers more land, tell them this side.”

Top: Ma Ba Tha conference Bottom: Reaching out to Muslims to show loving-kindness. Recently, I was convinced to go to a “seminar on peace” this past Saturday. Some of you may have seen my picture on Facebook in regards to a Ma Ba Tha conference I attended. I was told that I should not pay attention to the negative press and that they are a peaceful organization and the gathering was about peace. I was also told that I might have the opportunity to tell the organization that they should work for peace with the Muslims instead of separation and hate. They should not blame the Muslims for the exponential decrease in monastic Buddhism in Myanmar (which I will speak about later). That chance to speak never came, and when I got there, I noticed that it was a three year anniversary celebration of the organization rather than a conference on peace. Once I was there I was stuck. I was the token Western monk, and my picture was taken hundreds times by just about anyone with a camera who saw me along with several professional photographers. When the first person took my picture, I smiled. I knew there was nothing I could do about it. If I resisted getting my picture taken, they would have a picture of a monk resisting getting his picture taken. There is a monk at Pa-Auk who doesn’t like his picture getting taken, and everyday pictures are taken of him not being happy about cameras which enhances his dislike for cameras. Contemplating the check-mate scenario I was in made me smile like a father who says to his child with a toy gun, “You got me!”

 I cannot believe that I am writing an article that explains how the monks are fighting over food. It is very awkward to hear isn’t it? On the other hand human nature is human nature. We have six monks who sit at each table and sometimes there is not enough of the special items to go around. And that is when the fighting begins… But it is not what you think.

In the eight plus years that I have lived in Myanmar, I have never seen the Thingyan Water Festival festivities happening in the street. I normally spend my time in the monastery and normally, if I went on alms, it would be early in the morning. However, our Kyownpine monastery goes out on alms round a little later so we can collect real food to actually eat a little bit easier (so the donors have time to cook). Because of this, I was able to see the “License to Spill” in action for first time.

Kyownpine Pa-Auk Branch Monastery in Mudon, Myanmar. I have moved to Yorgo Sayadaw ’s new monastery called Kyownpine. The Yorgo Sayadaw read my first ordination transaction 15 years ago and invited me to come. He speaks no English, but we have fun together. Such a lovely place, lots of Metta here. Good views, cool at night (75 degrees), nice kuti. This place is suitable for foreigners to live at complete with proper vinaya (monks’ rules). The food is collected from village Pindapata. I have been helping collect the food with three other monks. A truck follows us and sometimes up to ten helpers to help sort and collect the food. Currently, about 50 monks are here. The villages that invite us (one village per week) are prepared to feed us by the hundreds.

From the pamc lookout. I am back in Myanmar from Kauai, Hawaii. I will begin the Bus trip to Pa-Auk Meditation Center this morning. What a long transit back that was. Here is a picture taken from Pa-Auk Lookout point that friends and I had fun taking a while back. I will begin the Bus trip to Pa-Auk Meditation Center this morning.

[![some-wish-for-peace](/images/some-wish-for-peace.webp" >}}](/images/2015/11/some-wish-for-peace.webp" >}} Some wish for peace, I did something (story below) I thought I would repost this on my blog due to the recent events. We must strive for peace. Originally posted on WithMetta.net I just got back from inviting 2 Muslims to serve at the head of the meal line for Tomorrow’s lunch at Pa-Auk. Everyone thought I was crazy and that the Muslims would kill me or at least shout at me as soon as I entered the compound. Instead they sat us down and offered us apples, and fruit juice with a happy and warm welcoming smiles.

I made this video from 55 minutes of nearly silent footage. I cut it us and added a script to it. The titles in English are from the original and are misspelled in some areas. The monastery is more or less the same except a new health clinic which i had posted pictures of earlier. I finally got a higher resolution copy uploaded (in full) to YouTube, thanks to a wonderful Bhante who helped me upload it from the DVD Version. All other versions are made from the Vcd except for a failed upload from a friend of a donor. Help give this one the rankings over the others because 1) It is better quality 2) there are no ads

The website Http://TimeAndDate.com is a “must-know” and “must-have” for Buddhist monks, especially when they travel abroad. It calculates the Moon Phases and Solar Noon for a specific area. One thing that was very enlightening was how the Western calendars were off from the Buddhist calendars for the new and full moons. Why? Well… pick a place in the East, like Yangon and see when the full moon is. Then pick a place in the far West like Honolulu and see when the full moon is. Then you will see that the moons are moons anywhere in the world at one given time, and they do not pay attention to time zone differences. For instance, the new moon is on October 12 in Honolulu, but October 13 in Yangon. If you (from Hawaii) were to call someone in Myanmar on the phone in the afternoon of October 12, and asked them the date they would say it was October 13. They would also say it was a full moon day. That is why the Western or Eastern calendars are “off” by one day.

From my oldest posts from GPlus in 2015, which are slowly being restored. A Counterfeit Mitsubishi Truck was found in Pa-Auk Forest Monastery. I had my doubts, so I asked the driver to open up the hood. It was in fact, a Toyota engine block. Consumers, please be careful! In the olden days there were very high taxes on cars. I think 200% tax which made used cars hold their value well. To avoid import taxes, it was common to make a village car. Here is the post I made.

My father asked me what the food was like. Here is a small video going through the alms-line at Pa-Auk I’m not sure what year this was. I think sometime around 2015