“Election”
Teaching of Venerable Sayadaw Ashin Ottamasara
Delivered on 8th November 2015
at Thabarwa Centre (Thanlyin)
Part Three (Last Part)
Part Three (Last Part)
When the time comes, the charity fundraising concert, USA Cinema Music
Event, will come to an end. Likewise,
the General Election of Myanmar will also come to an end. In contrast, Thabarwa Centre will be
ceaselessly doing meritorious deeds, such as offering dana, observing sila and
practicing meditation bhavana,
round-the-clock without recess.
At personal level, try to go over and above your
usual way of doing wholesome deeds. Also
encourage and inspire people, including the
yogis from Thanlyin Thabarwa Centre, other Thabarwa Centre branches, other
meditation centres and people from all over the world to develop greater
interest in doing wholesome deeds.
Since doing wholesome deeds concerns everyone, we need to make a
concerted effort in diligently fulfilling our obligations. This is not an
impossible task. As long as we are
committed, we will be able to fulfil our merit-making tasks fruitfully.
If merit-making tasks were impossible to fulfill, I would not have been
able to establish Thabarwa Centre, a sanctuary doing many wholesome deeds and
operating around the clock without recess.
In the past we faced many difficulties and ran the centre on a very
limited budget. Though the situation has gotten better as time goes by, we are
still facing difficulties and insufficiencies.
The task of running a centre with more than 2,400 yogis will
always be challenging. The difficulties
are meant to be there for us because without them, we would not be able to grow
in momentous ways.
Due to our concerted and continuous merit-making effort,
Thabarwa Centre Thanlyin has evolved from a piece of uninhabited, stark and barren land to what it is today. The difficulties that we are currently facing
will also fade away as have these conditions of the past. When the time comes, both the physical
appearance of the centre as well as the disposition of the yogis will
definitely be transformed.
It is very
important for you to be involved in this transformation process with
open-mindedness. If you are not willing to change, you will be left behind and
others will replace you.
In the
past, Thabarwa Centre was merely an exclusive area for a small group of people.
As time goes by, it becomes an area for the general public. As Thabarwa becomes a community for the
general public, many capable people are coming forward to
render help and assistance to us. Gone
are the days when Thabarwa had to depend solely on its small group of people to
get things done. Increasing numbers of
capable people from far and near are helping and assisting us now.
Previously, I had
no one whom I could rely on to get things done.
So I had to do everything by myself.
It will be an opposite situation from now on. Many competent and talented people will come
forward to assist me in my endeavours.
Hence, I might no longer be perceived as an indispensable person in
future. It could also be the same
scenario for Thabarwa Centre. Even if
Thabarwa Centre does not exist anymore, there will be many other merit-making
centres established to carry on the torch of doing wholesome deeds. As long as you have good faith, optimism and
confidence, you can successfully do limitless wholesome deeds.
The time when I
first established Thabarwa Centre, I only had the vision, perception and belief
that it was necessary to do limitless, wholesome deeds. Though I had full confidence in my vision, it
had yet to materialise successfully. My
confidence level underwent a 360 degree turnaround when I started to experience
the consequences of doing limitless wholesome deeds. Indeed, I had successfully cracked the code
for lasting confidence in doing limitless wholesome deeds, which in turn boosts
others' confidence, too.
My concept is
that, if you have confidence in yourself without any visible result, it could
just be your own perception and might not be accepted by other people. In my case, I have proved to many people that
we can do wholesome deeds freely, without any limitations, boundaries or barriers. This is indeed a noble path, which will lead
you to a fruitful destination. Work continuously, consistently and diligently
until you reach to the noble destination.
In other words,
if you do unwholesome deeds until the end of your life, you will receive
unimaginable bad consequences (bad karma). In the same manner, if you do limitless
wholesome deeds, you will also receive limitless merits (good karma) and noble consequences. Each and every one
of us has a noble duty to do limitless wholesome deeds. At the same time, inspire other people around
you to do limitless wholesome deeds as much as they can. It is indeed a very
meaningful and noble task, worthy of your best efforts.
Let’s do
mindfulness insight meditation for about 15 minutes. Sit in a comfortable posture. Keep your body
upright, firm and without any tension. Don’t let your body weight press down on
the ground. Close your eyes gently. Relax your mind and body. Let go of
unnecessary tension in the body. Please be calm, quiet and mindful. Breathe
gently, naturally and freely. Be mindful and just know the present happening of
the breath. Do only what is necessary to do.
Be tolerant.
Be forgiving.
Be compassionate.
We must train
ourselves to be harmless and compassionate even towards those who are violent
and torturing us. We must remain sympathetic, with a mind of good
will, and with no inner hate. Take every
opportunity to remove hatred, jealousy and violence from the mind. Even if bandits
were to catch us and carve us up savagely, limb by limb, with a two-handled
saw, we should not get angry at them even at that moment. If we do so, we are no follower of the
teachings of Lord Buddha.
The End …
Credits
Translated by … Hnin Nwe
Soe and Maw Maw Than
Edited by … Sayalay
Aloka Cari
Team Thabarwa
Note
: This translation work has
neither been read nor edited by the speaker.
Any mistakes and mistranslations in this project are solely the
oversight and incompetency of the translator.
Our sincere apologies for any inconvenience caused.