Teaching of ThaBarWa Sayadaw U Ottamasara
Question and Answer and Dhamma Discussion
with Korean Yogi
at ThaBarWa Centre (Thanlyin)
18th October 2012
18th October 2012
Part Two
Korean Yogi : The next question is that I saw (I have
witnessed that) there is no strict rules and no strict regulations in this
Centre, mostly about practice and about living in the centre. When I experience
in other meditation centres or sangha, they put much importance on rules or sila. So how will you say about
this?
Sayadaw : It is
much more important for you to do good deeds than the methods which you use. Again it is more important for you to do good
deeds than all the rules and regulations. This is the reason why I give high
priority and put emphasis on the most important aspects such as doing limitless
good deeds continuously, practicing insight meditation in a right way, doing
good deeds with the aid of abandoning power and observing sila
in a right way than implementing rules and regulations in ThaBarWa Centre.
What I want to say is
that I had ever encountered circumstances where they place central emphasis on
rules and regulations and where the sets of rules and regulations were well
implemented but people just simply ignore or do not abide by them at all.
On top of this, I had
also experienced the scenario where people simply centre their best effort on
abiding by the rules and regulations but weak in doing good deeds ... people
merely do obligatory and limited good deeds as per the guidelines and
requirements.
This is the reason why,
at ThaBarWa Centre, we place central emphasis solely on doing limitless good
deeds, regardless of who, what and why, be it volunteers who donate their
labour for a worthy cause (labour dana),
those who do and utter nothing but the best and the most beneficial things
(observe sila),
listening to dhamma teachings and practicing insight meditation (practice bhavana).
We centre our emphasis
solely on doing good deeds only. Should
we place central emphasis on rules and regulations, yes, people might become
more disciplined but might put less effort on doing good deeds. They might have
huge grasping on rules and regulations. Likewise, if you place central emphasis
on sila
or samadhi,
they might have grasping on sila
or samadhi.
Another scenario is that
people might even think twice to join meditation retreats and thus don't even
have chance to do good deeds just because of those strict rules and
regulations. Since I had discovered those weaknesses as well as the
immeasurable benefit accrued from good deeds, even if they have chance to do
only tiny bit, as long as they do good deeds, they will be rewarded with huge
benefits. I always encourage them to do good deeds freely and willingly without
restraint, with full setana.
It should not be the case where they do good deeds just because they are told
to do so. These are the reasons why I do not implement any strict rules and
regulations at ThaBarWa Centre.
Korean Yogi : Today I witnessed the passing of one yogi.
Would you give short teaching about death because we are all bound to be death.
Sayadaw : I
teach my yogis, disciples and those who come to ThaBarWa to practice insight
meditation on how to use life in a more practical and useful way. On the
contrary, I also teach them how to best make use of death ... to experience it
without loba
(greed), dosa
(anger) and moha
(delusion).
My teachings do not
centre around life and death but the possible options to best make use of the
situation if they are being confronted with. In general, people tend to have
perception that they still have life to handle and take care of before death,
they are still alive, need to take good care of life and protect it well while
they are still alive, etc and thus spend so much time on these actions.
This is not the best way
to make use of life. In contrast, here in ThaBarWa, all the yogis are
encouraged and trained to enhance the power for performing limitless good deeds
while they still have chance to do so. My teachings mainly centre around doing
limitless good deeds and enhancing the power for true understanding in order to
achieve maximum benefits without even taking life and death into consideration.
In this way, ThaBarWa
yogis will not be confronting with the situation where they need to centre
their mind on life and death. My main intention is to equip yogis with the
right understanding so that they neither need to ask this kind of questions to
others nor ask themselves.
Korean Yogi : The next question is why did you establish
this centre? Do you have any plan for
the future?
Sayadaw : The
background reasons for establishing this ThaBarWa Centre is since I was one of
the practicing yogi in the past, I am well aware of the requirements and
difficulties which the fellow practicing yogis are facing on top of their
struggles and great effort which they put in to understand dhamma teachings.
Since I was in their
shoes before, their problems and requirements become mine. Since these problems and requirements are
difficult to handle, I did countless of limitless good deeds, abandoned until
there is nothing left for me to abandon, did all kinds of sacrifices in order
for me to solve for the problems of fellow yogis.
By doing so, my
difficulties and problems were solved accordingly. Due to my strong will and determination (setana)
in solving others problems and difficulties as well as to establish meditation
centre one day in future, I put in more time and effort in teaching dhamma and
insight meditation to fellow yogis. Finally, out of sheer necessity and
requirements, ThaBarWa Centre was established.
Since its establishment,
without limiting the number of residents, ThaBarWa takes on everyone who seek
refuge for care and attention, including
those who genuinely have desire to practice insight meditation as well
as those who are not at all interested in dhamma but facing health, social and
financial problems.
This is the reason why ThaBarWa
takes on everyone, regardless of whether they are practicing yogis or not, as
long as they come here to seek for refuge, regardless of age, race, social
status and health condition, we teach them the best ways to solve their
problems, by doing limitless good deeds regularly and continuously. These are
the background reasons behind the establishment of ThaBarWa Centre.
To be continued .....