

                   *The Anecdotes of Sayagyi U Ba Khin, II*

                                 Compiled by
                             Saya U Chit Tin, WKH


          Copyright 1988, The Sayagyi U Ba Khin Memorial Trust, U.K.
                     Heddington near Calne, Great Britain
                             Dhammadana Series 8

                         Dedicated by the compiler to
                               *Mother Sayama*
                            (Sayama Daw Mya Thwin)


                This Publication is one of several marking the
                tenth anniversary of Mother Sayama and Saya U
                Chit Tin's coming out of Burma to continue their
                work in the Tradition of Sayagyi U Ba Khin by
                teaching the Buddha-Dhamma in the West.


  =======================================================================

                             *TABLE OF CONTENTS*

  Introduction....................................................   vii
  Venerable Ledi Sayadaw (1846-1923)
  by Saya U Tint Yee..............................................     1
  Saya Thet Gyi (1873-1945)
  by Saya U Tint Yee..............................................     9
  Sayagyi U Ba Khin (1899-1971)
  by Saya U Chit Tin..............................................    21
  That Empowering Laugh
  by Jocelyn B. King..............................................    47
  The Teacher Found
  by Jocelyn B. King..............................................    53
  In Memory of Sayagyi U Ba Khin
  by Jocelyn B. King..............................................    56
  U Ba Khin, the Guru of the International Meditation Centre, Burma
  by Dr. Om Prakash...............................................    58
  Thray Sithu Sayagyi U Ba Khin
  by Daw Mya Sein.................................................    61




                                *INTRODUCTION*

  This second collection of //Anecdotes// concerning //Thray Sithu Sayagyi U 
  Ba Khin// brings together short biographies of his teacher //Saya Thet 
  Gyi// and his teacher's teacher, //Venerable Ledi Sayadaw//, as well as a 
  more detailed account of Sayagyi's life. We are very pleased to be able to 
  include two anecdotes written especially for this booklet by Mrs. Jocelyn 
  B. King, a close meditation student of Sayagyi's who went to meditate 
  together with her husband Dr. Winston L. King in July 1959. We are also 
  reprinting another article of hers and articles by two other students who 
  worked under Sayagyi's guidance. These were originally published in the 
  special issue of the //Maha Bodhi// magazine (April 1972) devoted to 
  Sayagyi.

  These anecdotes will be of interest to the many students of Buddhist 
  Meditation in the //Tradition of Sayagyi U Ba Khin// and will serve as an 
  inspiration to them to keep striving for the goal of //Nibbanic Peace// 
  within.

  Knowing very well the greatness of the Parami of the coming Buddha, 
  //Ariya Metteyya//, who will be able to quench the fires of hell, Sayagyi 
  assuredly taught //Knowing Anicca: The Way to Nibbana// and has also shown 
  us the way to encounter //Buddha Ariya Metteyya// by diligently practising 
  the //Eightfold Noble Path// as taught by //Buddha Gotama//. Sayagyi 
  conveyed this Path to us in its pristine purity.

  May Peace prevail in the world!

  *Truth Must Triumph!*

                                                        Saya U Chit Tin




                           *VENERABLE LEDI SAYADAW*
                                 (1846-1923)
                               Saya U Tint Yee

       Ven. Ledi Sayadaw was born in 1846,[1] in Saingpyin village, Dipeyin  
  Township in the Shwebo district, which is to the north of Mandalay. At 
  that time, Upper Burma was still under the rule of the Burmese kings. His 
  father's name was U Tun Tha and his mother was Daw Kyone. He was given the 
  name of U Tet Khaung.[2]

       When Ven. Ledi Sayadaw was born, one of the central posts in the  
  house supporting the ridgepole suddenly lighted up. Light went up from the 
  ground to the top of the roof and continued out to the sky. This event was 
  seen by everyone in the house. This was reported to a well-known learned 
  man, Sayagyi U Kyaw Hla, who was versed in astrology and physiognomy, was 
  consulted concerning what to name the boy. When he scrutinized the 
  handsome boy, he gave the name "Maung Tet Khaung" ("Maung" is the 
  equivalent to "Master" as a title for young men; "Tet" means "climbing 
  upwards"; "Khaung" means "summit" or "roof"). True to his name, Ven. Ledi 
  Sayadaw succeeded to the highest degree in his learning.

     He received a traditional education. In the villages, this meant going 
  to the monastery school where the bhikkhus (monks) taught the children the 
  alphabet and how to read and write. They also learned to recite many Pali 
  texts. They would memorize the Mangala Sutta, for example. Then the 
  language and literature they studied were based on the Buddha's Teachings. 
  At that time, the level of literacy was higher in Burma than in Western 
  countries. When the British took over Burma as a colony, they were very 
  impressed by the level of education in the country.

     Ven. Ledi Sayadaw began studying under Sayadaw U Nanda-dhaja at the age 
  of eight. When he was fifteen, he ordained as a samanera (novice) under 
  the same Sayadaw and took the name Nana-dhaja ("the banner of knowledge"). 
  As a samanera, he studied Pali grammar and the Buddhist texts including 
  the Abhidhammattha-sangaha, a commentary which serves as a general 
  introduction to the Abhidhamma section of the canon. He then went on to 
  study the Abhidhamma texts themselves.

     In those days, before the introduction of electrical lights, the 
  samaneras and bhikkhus studied the written texts during the day and 
  recited from memory after dark. Working in this way, Ven. Ledi Sayadaw 
  mastered such texts as the Dhatukatha (Discourse on Elements), the 
  Patthana (Conditional Relations), and the Yamaka (Pairs).

  At the age of 18, as Shin Nana-dhaja, he grew dissatisfied with life as a 
  samanera because he was only learning Buddhist texts (the Tipitakas). So 
  he disrobed and became a layman. His first teacher, Ahphyaukpin Sayadaw U 
  Nanda-dhaja, and Myinhtin Sayadaw U Dhammasara sent for him one day after 
  the rains retreat and tried to explain the disadvantages in being a layman 
  and the advantages of being a samanera. They tried their best to persuade 
  him to take robes again, but he would not. Myinhtin Sayadaw told the young 
  Maung Tet Khaun that he would not give him orders, but he would like to 
  propose that the young man continue his studies. Maung Tet Khaung was very 
  intelligent and had already learned much of the Tipitaka as a samanera. By 
  continuing his studies, he would be able to earn a good living and had a 
  comfortable life as a layman. The young man agreed immediately, saying he 
  would never hesitate when it came to learning.

     "Would you be interested in learning the Vedas first?" the Ven. 
  Myinhtin Sayadaw asked.

     "Yes, venerable sir," answered Maung Tet Khaung.

     "But you must become a samanera," the Sayadaw said, "otherwise, Sayadaw 
  U Gandhama of Yehtut Village will not take you as his student."

     "I will become a samanera, reverend sir," Maung Tet Khaung agreed. In 
  this way, he ordained again as a samanera.

     By that time, Sayagyi Kyaw Hla had died, so he was entrusted to the 
  care of Sayadaw U Gandhama, who taught him not only the Vedas but also 
  explained the merits to be gained by being a monk and promoting the 
  Buddha-Sasana. The young samanera was happy learning the Vedas with this 
  teacher, and after completing his studies, he returned to his former 
  teacher, Ahphyaukpin Sayadaw. He had spent six months as a layman at home 
  and it took him eight months to learn the Vedas. Now that he had learned 
  the Vedas and was well versed in the Tipitakas, he was very happy to 
  remain in robes. He was to spend the rest of his life in the Sasana. One 
  day, he told his story to his immediate disciple, Ledi Pandita Saya U 
  Mayng Gyi. "At first I was hoping to earn a living with the knowledge of 
  the Vedas by telling people's fortunes," he said. "But I was more 
  fortunate in that I became a samanera again. My teachers were very wise, 
  and with their boundless love and compassion, they saved me."

     The brilliant Samanera Shin Nana-dhaja now arrived at the age of 19. 
  Not only had he learned the Vedas and the Tipitaka, he was also well 
  versed in poetry and had written many verses on the Vedas, Jataka tales, 
  and Pali grammar.

     On April 20, 1866, at the age of 20, he took the higher ordination to 
  become a bhikkhu under Ahphyaukpin Sayadaw U Nanda-dhaja. His aunt, Daw 
  Phone, and her husband, U Kan Sa, were the sponsoring lay disciples. There 
  were twenty Kammava Sayadaws helping in his ordination. Sayadaw U 
  Nandadhaja was his preceptor.

     On June 6, 1867, just before the rains retreat, the future Ledi Sayadaw 
  took leave of his Preceptor and the Kammava Sayadaw. After paying them due 
  respects, he left for Mandalay to continue his studies. Mandalay was the 
  most important centre of learning in Burma. There, he studied under 
  several of the leading Sayadaws and some of the leading lay scholars. He 
  studied in the Mangala monastery under Ven. San-kyaung Sayadaw.

     At this period, King Mindon (ruled 1853-1878) organized the Fifth 
  Buddhist Council, which was held in Mandalay in 1871. The main purpose of 
  this Council was to edit the Buddhist texts. These texts were carved on 
  729 marble slabs that stand today at the foot of Mandalay Hill, 
  surrounding the Kathodaw Pagoda. Ven. Ledi Sayadaw helped with editing and 
  translating parts of the Abhidhamma.

     During his studies, Ven. San-kyaung Sayadaw gave an exam of twenty  
  questions for two thousand students. Only Ven. Ledi Sayadaw was able to 
  answer them satisfactorily. His answers were published later (in 1880) 
  under the title Parami-dipani ("The Manual of the Perfections"). This was 
  the first of many books to be published in Pali and Burmese by Ven. Ledi 
  Sayadaw.

     Under the last Burmese king, Thibaw (ruled 1878-1885), Ven. Ledi 
  Sayadaw became a Pali teacher at the Maha-Jotikarama monastery in 
  Mandalay. (This monastery is known in Burmese as "San-kyaung." Ven. San- 
  kyaung Sayadaw was the leading monk in this monastery.) Ven. Ledi Sayadaw 
  had passed all his exams after only eight years as a bhikkhu, and was 
  therefore qualified as a beginning teacher. Even after he began teaching, 
  he continued to study under other Sayadaws. He also discussed the Doctrine 
  with well-known lay scholars who were very learned in the Pali texts, and 
  he learned from them as well. In 1882, he went to Monywa, a city on the 
  Chindwin River to the north-west of Mandalay. This was to become his 
  permanent residence. There, he taught the samaneras and bhikkhus the Pali 
  canon.

     In 1885, the British conquered Upper Burma, and King Thibaw was sent in 
  exile to India. A year later, Ven. Ledi Sayadaw went into retreat in a 
  forest to the north of Monywa. The forest was named Ledi forest. After a 
  time, many bhikkhus came, requesting that he teach them. A monastery was 
  founded and named Ledi-tawya monastery. He took the title by which he is 
  best known in the West from this monastery: Ledi Sayadaw ("the venerable 
  teacher of Ledi").[3]

     It was later, in 1897, that his main works began to be published. In 
  that year, his "Manual of Ultimate Truth" (Paramattha-dipani) was 
  published in Pali. This was a commentary on the Abhidhammattha-sangaha. In 
  this work, Ven. Ledi Sayadaw corrects some mistakes he found in the 
  existing commentary on that work (Abhidhammattha-vibhavani). This led to 
  some controversy, as the older commentary was used by many of the bhikkhus 
  in studying the Abhidhamma, but eventually, Ven. Ledi Sayadaw's 
  corrections were accepted.

     Ven. Ledi Sayadaw's second book (Nirodhi Dipani) was on Pali grammar. 
  Both of his first texts are very difficult and show his mastery of his 
  subjects. Through them, he became famous as one of the most learned of the 
  bhikkhus in Burma. Later Ven. Ledi Sayadaw began to publish books in 
  Burmese, including his own translation of his "Manual of Ultimate 
  Meaning." He wrote his Burmese texts in a simple language that made it 
  easy for lay people to understand them. He said that he wished to write in 
  such a way that a farmer could read his works. Before that time, very few 
  books on Buddhist subjects were written so that lay people could 
  understand them. Even when teaching, the bhikkhus would often recite long 
  passages in Pali, then translate them word for word, and it was difficult 
  for the listeners to follow.

     Ven. Ledi Sayadaw also wrote many works in verse, as this made it 
  easier for lay people to memorize them. In answering questions sent him by 
  Mrs. Rhys Davids of the Pali Text Society, Ven. Ledi Sayadaw said, "I have 
  written a book called Paramattha-sankhepa (a Burmese translation of the 
  Abhidhammattha-sangaha in verse form) that even young girls can learn 
  easily in four or five months. Another book, Sadda-sankhepa, also in 
  verse, helps a beginner to learn Pali in five or six months. My 
  Vinayasankhepa, again in verse, helps the bhikkhus to learn the rules and 
  duties of a bhikkhu in two-months' time."[4]

     In //The Manuals of Buddhism//, seventy-six manuals, commentaries, 
  essays, and letters written by Ven. Ledi Sayadaw are listed. His texts 
  were all based on the Pali texts. He never went beyond what is contained 
  in the Teachings of the Buddha as approved by the Theravada Buddhist 
  Councils.

     Ven. Ledi Sayadaw was also influential in the West. A discussion of the 
  Yamaka book of the Abhidhamma, which he wrote in Pali, was published in an 
  appendix to the Pali Text Society edition in 1913. A partial translation 
  of his text was published in the Journal of the Pali Text Society (1913- 
  1914) under the title "Some Points in Buddhist Doctrine." As so many of 
  his texts, it was written in answer to questions sent to him. In answering 
  Mrs. Rhys Davids' questions, he uses a pun on her name in addressing her 
  as "the London Devi of the texts" (Landana-pali-devi). A discussion of the 
  Patthana, entitled "On the Philosophy of Relations," was also published in 
  the same journal (1915-1916). U Shwe Zan Aung, who collaborated with Mrs. 
  Rhys Davids on the translation of the Katha-vatthu (//Points of 
  Controversy//, first published in 1915), referred many questions to Ven. 
  Ledi Sayadaw.

     Finally, the Niyama-dipani ("The Manual of Cosmic Order") was first 
  published in partial translation in //The Buddhist Review// (1915-1916). 
  This text, written especially for Westerners, is included in //The Manuals 
  of Buddhism//, with the parts left out of the first edition included. Ven. 
  Ledi Sayadaw was aided in his contacts with the West by the Society for 
  Promoting Buddhism in Foreign Countries, which was founded in Burma 1913. 
  Some of the English speaking members were helpful in translating the texts 
  Ven. Ledi Sayadaw wrote in Burmese.

     Ven. Ledi Sayadaw was honoured for his contributions to Buddhism. In 
  1911, the British Government of India, which rules over Burma, awarded him 
  the highest honour given under them to bhikkhus: Agga-maha-pandita ("a 
  scholar of the highest order"). Today, this sort of title is conferred on 
  bhikkhus by the Burmese government. Such titles are usually given to 
  bhikkhus who are over sixty years old and who have done research on the 
  Pali texts and published books which are useful to the bhikkhus and the 
  lay community. Later, he was given an honorary doctorate (D.Litt.) by the 
  Governor General in a ceremony held at Rangoon University.

     Ven. Ledi Sayadaw travelled to India to Bodhagaya to visit the place 
  where the Buddha was Awakened. A poem written in Burmese about the 
  important events in the life of the Buddha as related to the seven days of 
  the week is still well known and learned by Burmese children. Meditators 
  in the tradition of Sayagyi U Ba Khin are familiar with this poem as it is 
  recited by Mother Sayamagyi at the end of group sittings. An English 
  translation is given in //Anecdotes I//.

     He gave many classes in studying the texts and in meditation on trips 
  throughout Burma. Several meditation centres founded by him are still 
  functioning in Burma.

     Towards the end of his life, Ven. Ledi Sayadaw had trouble with his 
  eyesight due to the poor lighting he had had for many years when reading 
  and writing. At the age of seventy-three he went blind. It was when he was 
  blind that he devoted all his time to teaching and practising meditation. 
  He died in 1923, at the age of seventy-eight, after spending fifty-eight 
  years as a bhikkhu.



                         *SAYA THET GYI (1873-1945)*
                               Saya U Tint Yee

     Saya Thet Gyi [5] was born in 1873 in a farming family in the village 
  of Pyawbwegyi, which is across the Rangoon River from the city of Rangoon. 
  He was a devout Buddhist even as a child. He went to school for only six 
  years, as he needed to work to help support his family. He worked for a 
  time driving bullock carts and then in a rice mill counting the bags of 
  paddy loaded in the boats. He only made six kyats a month, but the kyat 
  was worth much then. The equivalent today would be approximately three or 
  four thousand kyats. At that time he began to practise meditation in a 
  casual way under a lay teacher named Saya Nyunt.

     He married and had a son and daughter, but one year there was an 
  outbreak of cholera and Saya Thet Gyi lost five members of his family, 
  including his two children. His daughter, who was about fourteen, was very 
  close to one of her first cousins, and this niece died in Saya Thet Gyi's 
  arms. When they were preparing for the niece's funeral, his daughter began 
  to complain about a stomach ache. She came down with cholera and also died 
  in her father's arms. These great losses led Saya Thet Gyi to go to many 
  of the Sayadaws and lay teachers, seeking a way out of suffering and 
  death.

     Around 1903, he followed the example of his first meditation teacher, U 
  Nyunt, and went to Monywa to practise meditation under Ven. Ledi Sayadaw. 
  He was around thirty years old then. He was accompanied in his search by a 
  companion. While he was away, his wife and sister-in-law looked after his 
  rice fields and sent money to support him. He was away for thirteen years. 
  The first year or two, he would return to the village to see his wife and 
  friends, but after that, he worked without pause.

     His family sent him about one thousand kyats a year to support him. At 
  times the only food they had to eat was dehydrated cooked rice, which they 
  would add water to reconstitute it. They would eat this with a little 
  dried fish.

     Ven. Ledi Sayadaw taught Saya Thet Gyi Anapana meditation and explained 
  about Vipassana. He learned the basics about the four essential elements 
  of material phenomena, about consciousness and the mental factors. But the 
  main practice was concentration of the in-breath and out-breath.

     After working for thirteen years, he decided to return to his native 
  town. When he took leave of Ven. Ledi Sayadaw, his teacher told him, "You 
  should continue practising and strengthen your concentration (Samadhi). 
  When concentration comes, the factor of wisdom (Panna) will come too. Once 
  the factor of wisdom comes, you will be able to spread the Teaching 
  (Dhamma)."

     At that time, Saya Thet Gyi was not very satisfied with the results he 
  had obtained. He knew his concentration was strong, but he had not reached 
  his goal.

     Before returning to his native village, he wanted to see his former 
  teacher, Saya Nyunt. He crossed the Chindwin River, which has a very swift 
  current, and he searched for a week in the forest there, but without 
  success. So he returned to his native village.

     Back in his native town, he and his companion stayed at his own Dhamma 
  Hall. Saya Thet Gyi did not even go to see his wife, but continued to 
  meditate. His wife and sister-in-law would not go to see him because they 
  thought he should have come to see them first.

     There was a lady staying near the Dhamma Hall, so Saya Thet Gyi and his 
  companion asked her to provide their meals, and they paid her to do this.

     Just a week before they came there, the villagers had decided to fix up 
  the Pagoda and Dhamma Hall, which had been allowed to fall in disrepair. 
  When Saya Thet Gyi and his companion arrived, everything had been cleaned 
  up.

     Saya Thet Gyi continued meditating for a year. The people in the 
  village saw that he and his companion had come back but did not go to 
  their house. They found this peculiar, and some of the people said they 
  may have become mentally deranged.

     Saya Thet Gyi and his companion continued to meditate -- especially 
  Saya Thet Gyi. He worked continually and his concentration kept improving. 
  He got sensations throughout his entire body, but he was not able to 
  penetrate further. His concentration was too broad, rather than being 
  narrow and strong enough. He remembered Ven. Ledi Sayadaw's instructions, 
  however, and continued to work.

     Suddenly, one day, he felt a sensation in only one small spot -- a 
  sensation that arose on its own. He watched that sensation very carefully, 
  and suddenly he gained insight in what might be called "the nature of 
  phenomena." He knew he had made significant progress in his work. He could 
  not consult Ledi Sayadaw directly, but he knew that the books written by 
  his teacher were at his home. He was yearning to consult these texts, for 
  he was experiencing something new, and he wanted to compare his experience 
  with what his teacher had said in his manuals. So he decided to go back to 
  his house.

     When his sister-in-law saw him coming, she said to her sister, "There 
  comes your husband. Don't speak to him. You've been saying you want to 
  divorce him." Both the sisters had been laying plans to divide the 
  property between themselves and Saya Thet Gyi.

     The sister-in-law went down from the house, as she planned to leave the 
  compound before Saya Thet Gyi arrived at the house. But somehow she found 
  she could not leave, and instead, she walked up and down in the compound. 
  When Saya Thet Gyi entered the gate, she suddenly had a change of heart 
  and greeted him very politely. "Why have you come?" she asked. "How are 
  you? How is your health?"

     Saya Thet Gyi's assistant was with him. He had been watching his 
  friend's progress in his meditation, and he was convinced that it was the 
  power of Saya Thet Gyi's loving kindness (Metta) that had brought about 
  this change in the sister-in-law.

     They went upstairs to the house, and the sister-in-law said to her 
  sister, "Here's your husband. Go and prepare some tea and bring some 
  pickled tea leaves (la-phet)."

     Saya Thet Gyi just greeted the women normally and then went straight to 
  the cupboard with books and took out Ven. Ledi Sayadaw's manuals. While he 
  began to study the texts, the women prepared a meal and sent for the 
  neighbours to come. Everything ran very smoothly.

     Saya Thet Gyi explained to his wife that he would not be living a 
  household life now, and that she should consider him like a brother. She 
  and her sister invited him to come to the house for his meals in the 
  mornings, as he was keeping eight precepts and not eating after noon.

     Saya Thet Gyi was very indebted to his wife and sister-in-law for all 
  they had done for him--sending money to support him while he meditated, 
  etc. He told them that the only way he could repay them would be to give 
  them the Dhamma.

     For a time Saya Thet Gyi went to his house for his meals. But then he 
  said that he would have more time for meditation if he took his meals at 
  the Dhamma Hall, so they arranged to send his meals to him.

     Slowly people came to know about Saya Thet Gyi and to have respect for 
  him. They had not thought very highly of him at first, but the way he 
  behaved and talked showed that he lived according to the Teachings of the 
  Buddha.

     The first meditation course was arranged with about fifteen students. 
  Saya Thet Gyi was about forty-three when he began teaching in 1913 or 
  1914.

     Saya Thet Gyi continued to teach at the Dhamma Hall, supported by his 
  wife and sister-in-law. He was able able to provide the food for the 
  meditators, and he even paid workers for the wages they missed while they 
  meditated. He was able to do this through the financial aid he received 
  from his wife and sister-in-law.

     After teaching for one year, Saya Thet Gyi wanted to go see Ven. Ledi 
  Sayadaw again. He went back, accompanied by his wife, sister-in-law and 
  some other relatives. Saya Thet Gyi told Ven. Ledi Sayadaw about his 
  experiences and the meditation courses. Ven. Ledi Sayadaw was very happy, 
  and indicated his approval, saying "Sadhu, sadhu, sadhu."

     Ven. Ledi Sayadaw told him he had reached a very good stage in his 
  meditation, but he cautioned him not to say anything about having reached 
  a particular stage. He should observe his mind, watching the play of his 
  mind for eight years. In that way he could see whether the negative 
  qualities were really rooted out and not just being held in abeyance for 
  the time being.

     "You can now teach meditation on my behalf," Ven. Ledi Sayadaw told 
  him. "As a first step you must teach some of my bhikkhus, and you must 
  spread the practical aspects of Vipassana meditation to at least six 
  thousand people."

     Ven. Ledi Sayadaw called the bhikkhus who were his pupils and asked 
  them for volunteers to meditate under the guidance of Saya Thet Gyi. Over 
  thirty of them volunteered.

     When Saya Thet Gyi went back home, he thought of travelling around 
  Burma because Ven. Ledi Sayadaw had told him to teach six thousand people. 
  But his sister-in-law said, "You have a Dhamma Hall here, and we can 
  support you in your work. We can prepare the food for you and the 
  students. So why not stay here and give courses. There are many people 
  willing to follow Vipassana meditation courses under your guidance." So he 
  decided to stay there.

     There was one man in the village who was well versed in the Dhamma 
  texts. He had a friend who was also very knowledgable in the Dhamma texts 
  -- especially the Abhidhamma. This friend wanted to meditate under Saya 
  Thet Gyi's guidance, but the first man said, "Why should you go and 
  meditate under this Maung Po Thet? He doesn't even know any of the Pali 
  texts. He doesn't know Pali."

     Nevertheless, the friend decided to go. He had practised meditation 
  under the guidance of a bhikkhu, but he could not make progress in his 
  concentration.

     Saya Thet Gyi had to guide this man in a different way because he was a 
  student of Abhidhamma and was well versed in the texts. When he did 
  Anapana, images appeared and he would fix his attention on them. As soon 
  as he fixed his attention on them, they disappeared. So he spent all his 
  time trying to get back the image. Two or three days passed, and when Saya 
  Thet Gyi checked on his progress, he said to him, "I think as a student of 
  Abhidhamma you have been told that when you do Anapana you are practising 
  Samatha-bhavana (development of calm). In Samatha-bhavana the idea is to 
  go into the Jhanas, and that image is important for going into a Jhana 
  state. When the image came up, you must have tried to fix your attention 
  on it. And then, when the image disappeared, you have been wanting that 
  image to come back, and there has been frustration in your attempt, 
  because it didn't come up again."

     "Yes, that's true," the man said.

     Then Saya Thet Gyi said to him, "Ignore this image. Concentrate on the 
  in-breath and out-breath and the touch that arises at the moment of the 
  in-breath and out-breath. Concentrate and be aware only of this. In 
  theory, the books say you may count the number of breaths, or else you may 
  count the start, the middle, and the end of the breath. You will know all 
  this just by being aware of the touch. This is because the start, the 
  middle, and the end of each breath is included in the awareness of the 
  touch of the breath -- the consciousness of the touch that arises with the 
  in-breath and the awareness of the touch arising with the out-breath. Do 
  not worry about the image. Just be aware of the touch."

     This man had to do Anapana for a week before Saya Thet Gyi taught him 
  Vipassana.

     After his meditation course, the man saw the bhikkhu under whom he had 
  meditated before. The bhikkhu said to him, "You have meditated under Saya 
  Thet. What is the difference with when you meditated with me? How do you 
  feel?"

     The man knew that the bhikkhu wanted him to say that meditating under 
  his guidance was better, so he answered in a non-commital way, "Oh, it's 
  just Anapana. It's all the same."

     The bhikkhu was not satisfied with this answer. He said, "No, I want to 
  know the difference between the meditation you did under me and the 
  meditation you are doing under Saya Thet."

     The man knew he could not escape, so he said frankly, "Sir, when I was 
  meditating with you, I could not get proper concentration, even after 
  working a long time. When I meditated with Saya Thet, I got good 
  concentration within a week. I knew for myself that the meditation was 
  better. My Samadhi was strong, and I could feel the Anicca arising 
  throughout my body -- the arising and falling aspects."

     The bhikkhu never went back to see that man after that.

     The man who had tried to prevent his friend from meditating, with Saya 
  Thet Gyi disliked Saya Thet Gyi. One day, when Saya Thet Gyi walked by his 
  house, the man began to abuse him. Saya Thet Gyi was not disturbed. There 
  was no change in his facial expression or in his attitude. He just kept 
  walking. Then he said to the man, "Are you calling me? I have to go to 
  such-and-such a place. When I return, I'll come and visit you."

     But the man said, "Don't come to visit my place! I was just trying to 
  say you are of no use."

     Another man was walking along behind Saya Thet Gyi, and he thought the 
  first man was abusing him as well. "Are you insulting me?" he asked.

     "No," the first man replied, "I'm talking to Saya Thet."

     "What has Saya Thet done to you for you to abuse him so?" the second 
  man said. "You are trying to accuse him of being what he is not and for no 
  reason." So the second man took up the quarrel, and the two men came to 
  blows.

     Saya Thet Gyi, however, went on his way. And he said to the second man 
  later, "If I should return that man's challenge, he will just make more 
  unwholesome acts. That is why I try to avoid that."

     Another incident in which Saya Thet Gyi had to confront difficulties 
  happened later in his life. He had a nephew, U San Thein, who looked after 
  his rice fields. The usual arrangement was to have attendants who worked 
  on the rice fields, and these attendants hired labourers. They paid the 
  labourers according to the amount of rice produced each year. A portion 
  was agreed for Saya Thet Gyi, and this was delivered to Saya Thet Gyi's 
  place each year by the attendants and labourers. But Saya Thet Gyi did not 
  deal with any of this directly.

     One year, after delivering the rice, the labourers lodged a complaint, 
  saying that Saya Thet Gyi had taken all the rice. In other words, they 
  accused him of theft. Some of Saya Thet Gyi's disciples (including Sayagyi 
  U Ba Khin) told him that since he had not done anything wrong -- neither 
  verbally nor physically -- the labourers were bound to lose the case. They 
  offered to take up the case for him.

     Saya Thet Gyi told them, "If the case goes on, there will be more 
  unwholesome acts done by them. If we refute their accusation, they will 
  become angry and bring up more that is unwholesome."

     So Saya Thet Gyi went to the labourers and settled the case out of 
  court, paying for the damages. So we can see that Saya Thet Gyi always did 
  his best to minimize any negative feelings that others might feel towards 
  him.

     By 1945, when he was over seventy years old, Saya Thet Gyi had taught 
  many students, and several of these had started meditation centres of 
  their own. Saya Thet Gyi called together his nephews and nieces to 
  distribute all his possessions among them. He set aside fifty acres of his 
  rice fields for the maintenance of the Dhamma Hall he had had constructed.

     There were twenty water buffaloes to be distributed. Three of them were 
  old, so he sent them to a farm set up by an Indian foundation where they 
  would be maintained without working for the rest of their lives. The other 
  water buffaloes were distributed to people whom he knew would not mistreat 
  them. Before sending them away, he went to them and said, "As far as I am 
  concerned, you are free from your work. You have been my benefactors. 
  Thanks to you the paddy has been grown, and I have benefited from your 
  work. I hope that you will be released fron this kind of life for a better 
  existence." In this way, he took leave of them.

     By this time Saya Thet Gyi's wife had died. His sister-in-law was 
  paralysed, and he himself suffered from poor health. So he went to Rangoon 
  in order to receive treatment and to see his students there. He never 
  returned to his native village.

     In Rangoon, he stayed in a place on the northern slopes of the 
  Shwedagon Pagoda. He used a bomb shelter that had been built there as his 
  meditation cave. At night, he stayed in a meditation centre that one of 
  his assistant teachers had set up.

     His condition slowly deteriorated. Before his death, he said, "I have 
  no money, but I don't want to be a burden on you when I die, so I will be 
  cremated in a place not usually used for cremation."

     He died at the age of seventy-two, surrounded by many of his pupils. 
  Sayagyi U Ba Khin was not able to be present. He had had an operation on 
  an eye, and it had become infected, so he was at the General Hospital on 
  the day Saya Thet Gyi died.

     Saya Thet Gyi was cremated where he died, on the northern slopes of the 
  Shwedagon Pagoda. And Sayagyi U Ba Khin decided to build a small pagoda 
  there. Sayagyi had his disciples contribute ten kyats each towards the 
  construction of this pagoda so they could share in the merit of building 
  it. Everything connected with that pagoda was done in multiples of ten.

     Unfortunately, the land was public land, and a bhikkhu started building 
  four large statues of the Buddha around that pagoda. As it was public 
  land, there was no way to prevent it. The statues are so large that you 
  cannot see the little pagoda now. This is one reason why Sayagyi set up 
  the International Meditation Centre in Rangoon on private land.

     Saya Thet Gyi carried out his mission. When he died in 1945, he could 
  be confident he had followed Ven. Ledi Sayadaw's instructions to him. Even 
  though he was not learned in the Pali texts, through his own experience, 
  and with the aid of the manuals written by Ven. Ledi Sayadaw, he had been 
  able to teach the Dhamma to many. He had thoroughly mastered the texts 
  written by Ven. Ledi Sayadaw and almost knew them by heart. By comparing 
  his own experiences with what was written in them, he had been able to see 
  how he was progressing and teach himself.



                     *SAYAGYI U BA KHIN (1899-1971)*[7]
                               Saya U Chit Tin

     Sayagyi U Ba Khin was born in the Pyoncho quarter, Upper Pazundaung, in 
  East Rangoon, on March 6, 1899. He was the son of U Paw and Daw Saw May. 
  He had one older sister. His father was a rice broker and his mother 
  earned money for the family by selling merchandise.

     The neighbourhood in which he lived was one of factories, rice 
  warehouses, and sawmills. It was not a area where he would come to know 
  well-educated people -- especially those speaking English. A knowledge of 
  English was very important during the English occupation of Burma, as any 
  hope of job advancement developed on it.

     After a short stay at a monastic school, U Ba Khin entered the Burmese 
  Methodist Middle School at the age of eight with the help of an elderly 
  man from the match factory, U Bar Bi. U Ba Khin had a great gift in his 
  ability to remember all his lessons. He learned the English grammar book 
  from cover to cover. He stood first in every class and gained a Middle 
  School Scholarship to continue his education. He went on to Saint Paul's 
  Institution and studied in the High School. There, too, he stood at the 
  head of his class every year. Before he came to that school, a student who 
  became a close friend of his had always led the class, but after U Ba 
  Khin's arrival, that student was second.

     In March 1917, he passed the English High School Final Examination, 
  winning the Seewan gold medal of his school and a collegiate scholarship. 
  His school was one of the best, for six students in his class were 
  presented with collegiate scholarships that year out of twenty such 
  scholarships for the entire country.

     U Ba Khin was not able to attend university, however, due to the death 
  of his mother and his father's age and poor health. Instead, he worked for 
  a Burmese newspaper, //The Sun//.

     Later he became a clerk in the Accountant General's Office of Burma, an 
  office in which there were very few Burmese. His ability to memorize the 
  rules (service rules, account code rules) and all the complicated 
  applications of the rules (past decisions, opinions, footnotes, etc.) made 
  him an unusually competent accountant. He was very thoroughly trained and 
  passed the departmental examinations, including the Subordinate Accounts 
  Service Examination held by the Provincial Government of India in November 
  1926.

     His superiors in the office thought very highly of him. He was very 
  thorough, and his reputation among the authorities (who were Europeans for 
  the most part) was very high. This led to his being made the first Special 
  Office Superintendent in 1937, when Burma was separated from India and the 
  Auditor General's Office was opened in Burma.

     U Ba Khin first learned about Buddhist meditation from a friend named U 
  Aye Maung, who was a school teacher. U Aye Maung went to do a course with 
  Saya Thet Gyi in December 1936. When he came back, U Ba Khin went to see 
  him, on Jan. 1, 1937. U Aye Maung explained that he had done Anapana and 
  Vipassana meditation. U Ba Khin wanted to try also, so U Aye Maung 
  explained the technique for Anapana. U Ba Khin tried it, and he 
  immediately saw a light which came up before him and expanded. Both he and 
  U Aye Maung were surprised by this. As a result, U Ba Khin was very 
  anxious to try a full course. So on Jan. 8, 1937, he took leave from his 
  office with great difficulty. It took great courage to leave before 
  wriiten permission granting him leave came through. He had never been 
  ambitious for personal advancement, however, and he went, even though he 
  was risking his job and perhaps his career.

     Saya Thet Gyi's place was due south of Rangoon, across the Rangoon 
  River and the paddy fields. It was only eight miles, but over muddy 
  fields, that was a long way to go. In February, after the harvest, it 
  would have been possible to go by bus, but U Ba Khin had to go in a sampan 
  boat. It was low tide, which meant that he could only travel up to Phyarsu 
  village in the sampan -- only half the distance along the tributary which 
  ran from Pyawbwegyi. At Pharsu he climbed out of the boat, carrying his 
  bed roll and a few provisions, and climbed up the river bank, his legs 
  sinking down in the mud up to his knees. The remaining distance across the 
  fields he covered on foot with his legs caked in mud.

     On the night he arrived, U Ba Khin was given Anapana. His progress was 
  so rapid, Saya Thet Gyi had him begin Vipassana on the second day. 
  Usually, Saya Thet Gyi had his students do Anapana for a week. A Bhikkhu 
  named Inmagyithein Tawya Sayadaw (U Yukandara) was meditating under Saya 
  Thet Gyi's guidance along with U Ba Khin. U Ba Khin's progress was very 
  rapid, and he was able to become well established in the practice during 
  his first course. He had gone to Saya Thet Gyi's thinking he would stay 
  only a few days, but Saya Thet Gyi persuaded him to meditate for seven 
  days.

     When U Ba Khin returned to his office, he was worried that he might 
  find an order of dismissal. He found an envelope on his desk, but when he 
  opened it, he was surprised to find he had been promoted. Up to that time, 
  Burma had been a province of India in the British Empire, but the two 
  countries were separated administratively in 1937. A separate Auditor 
  General's Office of Burma was established. Previously, the heads of 
  departments were English and most of the officers and staff were Indians, 
  but now, a search was made to find qualified Burmese to take positions of 
  responsibility. So U Ba Khin was chosen for the post of Special Office 
  Superintendent.

     Between 1937 and 1948, when Burma gained independence, U Ba Khin held 
  several different posts:

       1. Accounts Officer, Burma Railways, 1941;
       2. Director of Accounts and Audit, 1942-1945;
       3. Assistant Accountant General, 1945;
       4. Deputy Accountant General, 1947;
       5. Chief Accounts Officer, Civil Supplies Management Board, 1947.
     
     U Ba Khin continued his meditation, and in 1941, he was made aware of 
  his mission as a teacher of meditation. When he was promoted to the 
  position of Accounts Officer for the Burma Railways Board in February 
  1941, he had to travel on the Rangoon-Mandaly line to audit the accounts 
  for the local railway stations. One day in July of that year, he had some 
  free time when he was in the town of Kyaukse, forty miles south of 
  Mandalay. He decided to have a look around the Shwetharyaung Hills, and 
  set out with the local stationmaster. They could see in the distance, from 
  the top of a hill, a cluster of buildings which they recognized as the 
  monastery of Webu Sayadaw. The stationmaster knew the countryside, so they 
  decided to go there and arrived around 3:00 P.M.

     They found an old nun who was pounding chillies and beans and asked her 
  if they could pay respects to Webu Sayadaw.

     "This is not the time to see the revered Sayadaw," she said, "he is 
  meditating and will come out of his hut at about six o'clock."

     U Ba Khin explained that he was a visitor from Rangoon and that he did 
  not have much time. He would very much like to meet the Sayadaw. Would it 
  not be possible to pay respects outside the hut?

     The nun pointed out a small hut and the men approached it together. U 
  Ba Khin squatted on the ground outside and said, "I come from Lower Burma, 
  Rangoon, and I wish to pay my respects to the Sayadaw."

     Soon, the door opened and a cloud of mosquitoes emerged followed by 
  Webu Sayadaw.

     Keeping his attention in the body and with awareness of Anicca 
  (impermanence), U Ba Khin paid his respects.

     "What is your aspiration?" asked Webu Sayadaw.

     "My aspiration is to attain Nibbana, Sir," replied U Ba Khin.

     "How are you going to attain Nibbana?"

     "By meditation and through knowing Anicca, Sir," was the reply.

     "Where did you learn to be aware of this Anicca?" asked Webu Sayadaw.

     U Ba Khin explained that he had been studying and practising meditation 
  with Saya Thet Gyi for four years.

     "Oh," the Sayadaw said, "I thought you must have been practising this 
  Dhamma for many years, and in the forest. You have acquired good Parami 
  (perfections) and you must teach the Dhamma to others. You should not 
  wait. Start teaching immediately. Do not let people who meet you miss the 
  benefits of receiving this teaching."

     So Sayagyi U Ba Khin had no choice but to teach, and the stationmaster 
  became his first student. That same night, back at the railway station, 
  Sayagyi taught him Anapana meditation in the bogie (railway carriage) in 
  which he travelled, using the two tables of the dining compartment as 
  their seats. This was the beginning of Sayagyi U Ba Khin's long career as 
  a meditation teacher.

     Saya Thet Gyi also encouraged Sayagyi U Ba Khin to teach meditation. 
  Sayagyi took some Burmese government officials with him to meditate with 
  Saya Thet Gyi during the Japanese occupation. One of these officials had 
  Saya Thet Gyi visit him in Rangoon from time to time. But Saya Thet Gyi 
  told them, "I can see you only in the evenings and mornings, but U Ba Khin 
  will always be available. So whenever problems arise, you should ask him. 
  I am like a doctor, and he is like the nurse. The doctor can only see you 
  occasionally, but the nurse can see you all the time."

     In this way, Saya Thet Gyi made Sayagyi U Ba Khin's status clear to 
  those who were his superiors in his work.

     Sayagyi arranged meditation classes in his residence in Budd Road, 
  Rangoon, during the Japanese occupation. Those who participated included 
  the former Prime Minister of Burma, the owner of //The New Light of 
  Burma// (a Burmese newspaper), and the then president of the Shwedagon 
  Pagoda Trust.

     Burma gained Independence from the British on January 4, 1948. U Ba 
  Khin was appointed as the Accountant General. His career in lay life from 
  that time on was very busy. When he retired from the post of Accountant 
  General on March 26, 1953, he was immediately re-employed by the 
  government, and held various high-ranking posts until October 22, 1964. 
  During most of that period, he held two or more separate posts which were 
  equivalent to Heads of Department. At one time, he held three separate 
  posts for three years. On another occasion, he held four such posts 
  simultaneously for a year. The posts included:

       Officer on Special Duty (O.S.D.), Auditor General's Office;
       Chairman of the Special Enquiry Committee, State Agricultural
              Marketing Board (S.A.M.B.);
       Director of Commercial Audit;
       O.S.D., Ministry of Trade Development;
       Chairman, S.A.M.B;
       Deputy Chief Executive, S.A.M.B.;
       Principal, Government Institute for Training in Accounts and Audit.

     Even though he worked at what amounted to several full-time jobs, 
  Sayagyi was also able to teach meditation. Sayagyi considered Jan. 4, 
  1948, to be not only the Independence Day for Burma, but also the 
  Independence Day for the Buddha-Sasana (the Buddha's Dispensation). As we 
  shall see, the 1950s were important years in the revival of the practice 
  of the Buddha's Teachings.

     The government encouraged the organization of Buddhist Associations in 
  October 1950. Sayagyi formed an association known at the Buddha-Sasana 
  Akyo-saung Athin (Association to Promote and Propagate the Buddha's 
  Teachings) for members of his office. The opening ceremony took place on 
  January 1, 1951. [8] Soon after, a room was set aside in the office for 
  meditation, and Sayagyi conducted the first course in April 1951, during 
  the Water Festival holidays.

     This led to the forming of a Vipassana Research Group, made up of some 
  of his more serious and advanced meditators.

     The meditation room in his office became so crowded, it was decided to 
  open a centre in Rangoon. Around the same time, the Buddhist Associations 
  connected with the Auditor General of Burma were amalgated into one (known 
  as the Audit Department Buddhist Association) and the group formed earlier 
  was dissolved.

     Sayagyi then established the Accountant General Vipassana Association, 
  dedicated solely to the practice of Vipassana Meditation.

     The site for a centre was selected by Sayagyi on January 15, 1952. A 
  pagoda was built that same year, the Light of the Dhamma Pagoda.

     During these same years, the Sixth Buddhist Council (Chattha Sangayana) 
  was being planned. The Burmese government set up two organizations to do 
  the planning: The Buddha Sasana Nuggaha Association and the Tharthana 
  Yeiktha of Rangoon. They were founded by a group of conscientious, 
  responsible Burmese laymen: Sir U Thwin, the President of the Shwedagon 
  Pagoda Trust; Sao Shwe Thaik, the first President of Burma; U Nu, the 
  Prime Minister; Myanma-Alin U Tin, the Finance Minister; U Ba Khin, the 
  Accountant General; and U San Thein, the Commissioner of Income Tax.

     The association served as the basis for the Union of Burma Buddha 
  Sasana Council (UBSC), which was subsequently formed in August 1950. 
  Sayagyi U Ba Khin was made chairman of the Committee for Patipatti 
  (Practical Buddhist Meditation). He was elected by the government to a 
  second term of office of three years, along with the other eight members, 
  including the Religious Affairs Minister from the Cabinet. This Executive 
  Committee was composed of twenty-nine members. In addition to the above 
  nine, eighteen members represented more than fifty district members from 
  all around Burma who in turn represented the religious associations in 
  their own Divisions or States.

     Sayagyi was also very active in planning for that momentous occasion as 
  an Executive Member of the UBSC and as the Honorary Auditor of the Council 
  right from the beginning. he was responsible for supervising and 
  maintaining the accounts of the Sixth Buddhist Council, thus being in 
  charge of receipts and expenditures running into millions of kyats.

     More than 170 acres of land were acquisitioned -- the owners being 
  reimbursed. A very large manmade, rock cave, with temporary timber 
  buildings surrounding the west wing, was built to house approximately 
  5,000 Bhikkhus (monks) and ten to fifteen thousand laymen and laywomen in 
  the Great Cave. There were temporary sheds built for the observers.

     On the opening day of the Council, Rangoon was crowded with pilgrims 
  from abroad and from all over Burma. The monasteries and hotels were all 
  full>  There were so many people they had to take turns in going to what 
  came to be known as the Kaba Aye Thiri Mangalar Hill, seven miles from 
  Rangoon. Holding the Council itself took two years (2498-2500 Buddhist Era 
  [1954-1956 A.D.]).

     The following buildings were constructed for the Chattha Sangayana in 
  order to accomodate the large number of members of the Sangha and lay 
  people who attended -- as many as a quarter of a million at a time:

       The Great Cave (Maha-Pasanaguha),
       The library and museum,
       The Great Sima (for official acts of the Sangha),
       The Sangha Hospital,
       Four hostels: Jambudipa, Pubbavidaha, Uttarakuru, and Aparagoyana,
       A refectory with modern equipment for cooking and a laundry building,
       The Administration Block,
       The printing press for publication of the Buddhist canon (Tipitaka),
       Living quarters for the office staff and officers.

     Over forty million kyats were spent by the government on this project, 
  and several million more were collected from foreign and local lay 
  disciples. Preparations were made in record time: the Great Cave was built 
  in thirteen months, thanks to the effort put forth by those working on it, 
  much of the labour being voluntary. The other buildings were put up in 
  those same thirteen months and were ready just in time for the opening of 
  the Council on the full-moon day of May 1954.

     Sayagyi U Ba Khin was fully occupied with these preparations. He was 
  responsible for drawing up and arranging the accounts and for the system 
  established for collecting the money given in Dana by the people. Money 
  was sent in from all over the country, being collected by the treasuries 
  of the cities and towns. These, of course, were under the charge of the 
  Accountant General's Office. Special columns were entered in the books of 
  the district and township treasuries to account for the Dana money paid in 
  by those who were responsible for collecting it. The treasuries 
  transferred the money to the headquarters in Rangoon for deposit in the 
  UBSC bank account.

     Sayagyi devised a system for the collection of contributions by use of 
  printed coloured receipt books. Different books were printed for different 
  denominations ranging from one kyat to ten, twenty, and so forth up to 
  one-hundred kyats. For donations of more than one hundred kyats, a receipt 
  book which was especially designed for that purpose was used and only 
  selected people in higher posts or with higher responsibility handled that 
  money. The system worked, avoiding any suggestion of mishandling of the 
  funds.

     Sayagyi served as a member of the Chattha Sangayana Executive Committee 
  which was responsible for conducting the entire council, including 
  inviting eminent scholarly Bhikkhus from the five Theravada countries: 
  Burma, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos. These monks, working in 
  groups prepared the texts of the Pali canon for publication. They worked 
  at the Kaba Aye Siri Mangalar Hill, comparing and correcting the texts, 
  referring to the Singhalese and Cambodian editions and to the Roman-script 
  edition of the Pali Text Society in England. The Pali texts were published 
  there by the UBSC and were recited in the Great Cave. All this was 
  concluded on the full-moon day of Kason, May 24, 1956 -- Buddha Jayanti 
  Day. The commentaries and sub-commentaries are still being published.

     Sayagyi was also a member of the following sub-committees:

       The editorial board, //The Light of the Dhamma// (English),
       The editorial board, //The Light of the Sasana// (Burmese),
       The Sub-committee for Propagating the Buddha-Dhamma (in Burma and
              abroad),
       The Sub-committee for the Hills Tract Mission (in Burma and Assam).

     He began a second term as a member of the Executive Committee in 1954, 
  but once the major projects of the Sixth Buddhist Council were complete 
  and everything was running smoothly, he resigned from the UBSC. In 1962, 
  he was reappointed by the Revolutionary government to a Special Enquiry 
  Committee created to inspect the affairs of the UBSC. When the chairman, U 
  Lun Baw, died, Sayagyi served as acting chairman, until January 1967.

     As can be seen from these records of his career in lay life and in 
  connection with Buddhist affairs, the government gave him more and more 
  important assignments from 1955 to October 22, 1964.

     The 1950s were also important because of the number of Western students 
  who meditated under Sayagyi's guidance. Foreign intellectuals and 
  organisations first became acquainted with Sayagyi (popularly known to 
  foreigners as Guruji -- both titles meaning "great teacher") through a 
  series of lectures which he gave in September 1951. These lectures were 
  called //What Buddhism is//. They were given at the request of a Religious 
  Study Group made up of members of the Special Technical and Economic 
  Mission of the U.S.A. and their families. The group met in the English 
  Methodist Church, Signal Pagoda Road, Rangoon. The Vipassana Research 
  Association published the lectures in a booklet which soon found its way 
  to various Burmese Embassies abroad and to Buddhist organisations all over 
  the world.

     Many of the Western people who came to Burma for the Sixth Buddhist 
  Council were interested in the practical side of Buddhism. At that time, 
  the monks in Burma were not fluent in English. So when the Westerners made 
  enquiries, they were referred to Sayagyi, as he was the only English- 
  speaking teacher of Vipassana. Sayagyi also met foreigners at official 
  receptions and he would invite those who expressed an interest in 
  meditation to come to the Centre and try.

     Sayagyi's Western students renged from senior citizens to school boys, 
  and they came from all walks of life: professors, lecturers, doctors, 
  nurses, teachers, students, businessmen, politicians, administrators, and 
  religious men, etc. They are from various religions, races, countries, and 
  cultures. They came with an open mind and the necessary sincerity and 
  willingness to follow the instructions given by Sayagyi, and so they all 
  responded well and greatly benefited.[8]

     The Dhamma-duta activities that Sayagyi was unreservedly devoted to can 
  be divided into two categories:

       1. The maintenance of the purity of the Buddha's Teachings in Burma
              and abroad;
       2. The revival of the Sasana (Teachings) in its land of origin and
              the spread of the Dhamma to lands where it had only been seen
              as a glimmer before.

     It would be impossible to recount all his achievements that come under 
  the first category, which was his main objective from the time he took up 
  his Dhamma-duta work. With the help of the Vipassana Research Association 
  members and his eminent Assistant Teacher, Sayama Daw Mya Thwin, he was 
  able to conduct one ten-day meditation course every month at the 
  International Meditation Centre, Rangoon.

     In Burma, the range of students varied from the president of the 
  country to an ordinary office boy -- and they were all treated equally and 
  given equal attention in the training. Just as a high-ranking official who 
  has the potential to reach the highest stage of spiritual attainments will 
  reach that state if he is taught correctly and works correctly, so too, an 
  office boy with the same potential will also reach that stage if the same 
  conditions are met. In fact, one of Sayagyi's outstanding students was an 
  office boy, and the highest ranking official to work under his guidance 
  could go into deep meditation at will for an hour and a half.

     Starting in 1951, Sayagyi submitted his experiences in Vipassana 
  meditation to several venerable Sayadaws for verification. These included 
  such well-known bhikkhus as Ven. Abhidhaja-maharatthaguru Ma-Soe-Yein 
  Sayadaw (President of the Sixth Buddhist Council), Ven. Veluwun Sayadaw of 
  Bahan (President of the Hill Tracts Buddhist Mission, Buddha Sasana 
  Council), Ven. Nha-kyeik-shitsu Sayadaw of Tha-yet-taw monastery 
  (President of the All Burma Maha-Sangha Abbots Association, Rangoon), and 
  Ven. Webu Sayadaw (Presiding Sangha and Meditation Teacher for three 
  meditation centres). All the venerable Sayadaws greatly appreciated his 
  success as a meditation teacher and said "Sadhu, sadhu, sadhu" (well done) 
  in approving his achievements.

     Sayagyi invited Ven. Webu Sayadaw to visit IMC-Rangoon for a week in 
  June 1953, and he came with a retinue of twenty bhikkhus, women devotees 
  keeping ten precepts (usually called "nuns" but not bhikkhunis), and lay 
  followers. The Sayadaw visited the Centre several times after that first 
  occasion, whenever he visited Lower Burma. Daw Mya Sein (lecturer at 
  Rangoon University) described his second visit, which took place on May 1, 
  1954:

       Sayagyi's students paid their respects to the Sayadaw by entering
       into deep meditation for thirty-seven minutes. The Sayadaw was very
       pleased with this evidence of Vipassana practice. In his simple,
       gentle way, the Sayadaw expounded the Dhamma and then told us that
       Sayagyi had put us on the right Path. It was left to us to walk along
       it steadfastly and diligently towards the Goal. ... We were so elated
       by the Sayadaw's approval of our practice and our gratitude and
       respect for Sayagyi knew no bounds. He was a true Acariya -- a
       Teacher of Dhamma and Vipassana meditation, ready to advise and help
       all those who came to the Centre. ... Now and again he invited
       learned Sayadaws and submitted to them his findings in Vipassana
       research and accepted their advice and suggestions. ...  Besides the
       week ends, every time the college closed, I went back for a full
       course, and so I learnt how to enter into deep meditation. This stood
       me in good stead when I had to take air journeys. When taking off and
       when landing, I would go into deep meditation with a vow to wake up
       when the plane was safely airborne or when it landed. But it needs
       constant practice; without it, the ability fades away, as I have
       discovered to my dismay. Sayagyi wanted to travel abroad in order to
       teach Vipassana meditation.

     Dr. Om Prakash (Consulting Physician, United Nations Organization, 
  Rangoon, and the honorary family physician to Sayagyi) described this as 
  follows:[9]

       Sayagyi U Ba Khin had a great desire -- a desire which was never
       fulfilled -- to go abroad, especially to the U.S.A., and teach his
       method of meditation, which he believed -- and very correctly so --
       to be the easiest and most logical way to practise meditation.
       Sayagyi was able to lead two successful teaching missions to Upper
       Burma in 1967 -- one in January and the other in April. Although he
       retired from all official assignments in 1965, he still continued on
       as a member of the Special Enquiry Committee of the Union of Burma
       Buddha Sasana Council. The affairs of the Council, whose members had
       been disbanded in 1962, were conducted by Sayagyi, its president, and
       two other members. When the president of the Enquiry Commission died,
       Sayagyi had to take charge and continued to conduct its affairs until
       January 1967, when he finally had to request permission to resign due
       to poor health. As soon as his health improved, he led two missions
       to Mandalay and Maymyo to teach Vipassana to the local students. He
       was assisted on these two missions by his Assistant Teacher, Sayama
       Daw Mya Thwin, by me, and by Mr. S.N. Goenka and his wife, Mrs.
       Illaichi. These trips were the forerunners of teaching missions
       outside IMC-Rangoon, both at home and abroad.

     In 1963, Sayagyi travelled to the United Kingdom, France, and the  
  Federal Republic of Germany on a mission led by Brigadier Aung Byi in 
  connection with the Burma Pharmaceutical Institute, Rangoon. He wore his 
  own national dress, even though he was warned that autumn in Europe could 
  be rather cold for someone from Southeast Asia. He came back smiling, 
  still in national dress, and bringing with him some cuttings from the 
  daily newspapers with reports of the unusual heat wave that had occured in 
  Europe and which had enabled him to wear the national dress he loved so 
  much.

     By the time Sayagyi retired from official assignments in 1965, he had 
  laid a firm foundation for his second objective to revive Buddhism in 
  India and spread it to other countries. He had thoroughly coached his 
  Assistant Teacher and trained the members of the Vipassana Research 
  Association to teach meditation. He also commissioned the following 
  foreign disciples and entrusted them with the Dhamma-duta work in their 
  respective countries:

       Authorized by a letter dated April 23, 1969:

       1. Dr. Leon E. Wright, PhD., Professor of Religion, Washington,
                D.C., U.S.A.
       2. Mr. Robert H. Hover, La Mirada, California, U.S.A.
       3. Mrs. Ruth Denison, Hollywood, California, U.S.A. (to teach women
                only).
       4. Mrs. Forella Landie, British Columbia, Canada (to teach women
                only).
       5. Mr. John E. Coleman, Maidenhead, Berks., U.K.
       6. Mr. J. Van Amersfoort, The Hague, The Netherlands.
     
  Authorized separately in July 1967, when a ten-day meditation course was 
  conducted with guidance coming from Sayagyi in Rangoon:

       7. Mr. S.N. Goenka, Bombay, India.

     In Burma, the ten members of the Vipassana Research Association 
  assisted Sayagyi in his teaching, and in particular, Sayama Daw Mya Thwin, 
  me, U Tint Yee, U Ba Pho, and U Boon Shain. When he taught members of the 
  Indian community in Burma, especially the Hindus, his disciple Mr. S.N. 
  Goenka helped him by translating for several years. In June 1965, Sayagyi 
  ordained for ten days as a bhikkhu under Ven. Webu Sayadaw at 
  Ingyinbintawya Meditation Centre, Shwebo District, Upper Burma, along with 
  his disciple U Ko Lay. Ven. U Kusala was Sayagyi's name as a bhikkhu.

     Ven. Webu Sayadaw visited the International Meditation Centre, Rangoon, 
  several times over the years. He would give short Dhamma talks to 
  Sayagyi's students after his two daily meals. "This is the place from  
  which we have to start our work and our mission," he remarked on one  
  occasion. "When we first visited, this place was like a jungle, but what 
  progress has been made within these years! It is like the time of the 
  Buddha when so many benefited. Can one imagine how many enjoyed the fruits 
  of the Dhamma in a single moment then?  Can one count the number? They 
  were innumerable!"

     Sayagyi U Ba Khin continued to teach Vipassana meditation at the centre 
  he had established until his demise in 1971. Some days before his passing, 
  he recalled with Metta all those who had assisted him in his life -- the 
  old man who got him started in school, the Burmese scholar who helped him 
  to enter Saint Paul's Institution, and many, many others. He found in the 
  local newspaper a notice of the seventy-second birthday of an old friend 
  with whom he had lost contact forty years earlier. With the help of one of 
  his disciples, he dictated a letter to his old friend, and to some of his 
  foreign students and disciples. The next day, Monday, the 18th of January, 
  the letters were dispatched, and Sayagyi suddenly became ill. When his old 
  friend received his letter on the 20th, he was shocked to read as well the 
  announcement of Sayagyi U Ba Khin's demise on January 19, 1971.

     About a week before his death, Sayagyi had been sitting on a bench 
  outside the Dhamma hall at the Centre. Sayama, the lady disciple who had 
  been assisting him in teaching for many years, was with him, standing 
  nearby.

     "I'm thinking of leaving for good," Sayagyi said all of a sudden.

     "Well go," Sayama replied quite casually, assuming that he meant to go 
  abroad to teach. "I'll look after the affairs here."

     A few days later, on January 19th, he was gone.

     After Sayagyi's death, Webu Sayadaw visited Rangoon and about twenty- 
  five meditation students from the Centre went for a private interview with 
  him. When I reported that Sayagyi had died, the Sayadaw replied, "Your 
  Sayagyi did not die. A person like your Sayagyi will not die. You may not 
  see him now, but his teaching lives on -- unlike some persons who, even 
  though they are alive, are as if dead, who serve no purpose and who 
  benefit none."

     A number of those who were present recollected the lines uttered by 
  Ven. Vappa, the second of the five ascetics (Pancavaggi) who heard the 
  Buddha's First Sermon, when he attained Arahatship. These lines were often 
  recited by Sayagyi in his talks:"He who sees can see who sees and who does 
  not see. He who does not see, sees neither those who see nor those who do 
  not see."

     Sayagyi U Ba Khin's teachings, which were in accord with the Buddha's 
  Teachings and with the way in which the Buddha taught, do indeed live on!  
  The Centre in Rangoon has continued to thrive, and two International 
  Meditation Centres have been established outside Burma, one in the United 
  Kingdom and one in Australia. Organisations have also been set up in many 
  other countries, and many meditation courses in the tradition of Sayagyi U 
  Ba Khin have been held in these countries over the years.

     In October 1978, my wife, Sayama Daw Mya Thwin, and I came out of Burma 
  at the request of the Western students in this tradition. We have been 
  privileged to help carry on Sayagyi U Ba Khin's mission, and especially to 
  help in firmly establishing the Buddha's Teachings in the West.

     A particularly momentous occasion was the dedication of a pagoda at 
  IMC-Perth. It follows the same design as the pagoda at IMC-Rangoon, and is 
  named after it: Dhamma Yaung Chi ceti (The Light of the Dhamma Pagoda). 
  The dedication was held on the full-moon day of Tabaung, 2530 Buddhist Era 
  (March 14, 1987). There are also plans to build a similar pagoda at IMC- 
  UK.

     Sayagyi U Ba Khin was convinced that this is a very important period in 
  the Buddha-Sasana -- the Buddha's Dispensation, or, the period during 
  which the Buddha's Teachings are available. This Sasana is expected to 
  last for five thousand years. We are now midway through the Sasana, the 
  time when there is a revival of interest in and practice of the Buddha's 
  Teachings.

     Sayagyi concluded his last message to his disciples abroad by saying:

       The time clock of Vipassana is now struck -- that is, for the revival
       of the Buddha-Dhamma, Vipassana in practice. We have no doubt
       whatsoever about definite results accruing to those who would with
       open mind sincerely undergo a course of training under a competent
       teacher. I mean results which will keep them in good stead in a state
       of well-being and happiness for the rest of their lives.

     As one of Sayagyi's Western students said after Sayagyi's demise, "For 
  him, only a more glorious life could await. Fortunate would be the 
  generation with whom he again takes rebirth."




                           *THAT EMPOWERING LAUGH*
                               Jocelyn B. King

     Several months before my husband and I left Rangoon on March 1, 1960, U 
  Hpe Aung, the director of the International Institute for Advanced 
  Buddhist Studies (I.I.A.B.S.) at Kaba Aye, told us that he would advise us 
  both to take a course in Buddhist meditation [10] because he thought that 
  it would greatly contribute to our better understanding of Buddhism. My 
  husband was working at I.I.A.B.S., both as a teacher and advisor, 
  supported by the Ford Foundation which was funding this project along with 
  the Burmese government as a means for establishing understanding and good 
  relations between East and West. I was learning Burmese and trying to find 
  my way around in a culture which was totally strange to me.

     Although I had read books about Buddhism and was interested, I really 
  knew very little about it, and the thought of meditating all by myself in 
  a small cell was disconcerting to say the least, even though the course 
  was to last but ten days. Then when we visited the International 
  Meditation Centre (I.M.C.) in July 1959 to talk with U Ba Khin,[11] its 
  founder and meditation master, I became even more apprehensive; to spend 
  most of ten days in a small room/cell, like those we were shown, was 
  almost more than I could bear to think of. However, I told myself, ten 
  days wouldn't last forever and compared to ten months or ten years they 
  were nothing!  So I agreed to go with my husband, at the appointed time in 
  September, for my first ten-day course. Some weeks afterwards, when I told 
  some American friends who were also with the Ford Foundation in Burma 
  about the astounding (to me) experience at the Centre, they exclaimed, 
  "Why you've just had a successful psychotherapeutic treatment!" It had 
  indeed been that but much, much more!

     First I must mention some important and interesting things which began 
  to happen almost immediately. When I realized that we were to be in our 
  meditation room-cells by 4:30 a.m. I was shocked, since I was not 
  naturally an early riser (but I became one!). Moreover, we would be 
  spending more than eleven hours daily in those cells and we were not to 
  talk with anyone else but the meditation master unless absolutely 
  necessary. A partial exception was made in our case since we were 
  foreigners and first-time meditators. My husband and I ate our two meals 
  of the day together, though our lodgings were at opposite ends of the 
  compound. I think that Sayagyi U Ba Khin knew it would do us good to talk 
  together and compare what was happening to us. Our evening meal was only 
  liquids of course and we were to kill no living creatures -- ants, 
  spiders, mosquitoes for example -- but we were furnished with mosquito 
  nets and with spray insect repellent.

     But those //small// room-cells -- eight of them! They were each about 
  eight feet long, in the shape of a truncated triangle, six feet tapering 
  to three feet in width, the small end opening into the central shrine room 
  under the pagoda spire and radiating out from it like the spokes of a 
  wheel. There was a Buddha image in the south cell, the one opposite was 
  used as an entrance. The floor of the shrine room was elevated a step 
  above the floor of the cells, each of which had a door opening into the 
  shrine room where the meditation master slept (to be available for 
  emergency calls) as I later observed and from which he talked with the 
  various meditators, one by one, when he wished to. Each of our cells also 
  had a door on its outer end opening onto a walkway around our "meditation 
  pagoda".

    On my very first entrance into my cell, I looked apprehensively at the 
  confined space in which I would spend much of the next ten days and felt 
  smothered and penned in. However, that place began to grow; my space 
  awareness changed as I became accustomed to sitting but "becoming 
  accustomed" to sitting did not take place overnight. At first I spent most 
  of my time hurting and feeling sorry for myself. The addition of a few 
  cushions did not help much on the concrete floor covered with thin 
  matting. Yet time began to change too!  Some hours would pass as slowly, 
  it seemed to me, as three; others would pass so rapidly -- like a few 
  minutes! -- that I was surprised.

     After the first three or four days, when I concentrated on the in- and 
  out-breathing at the nostrils as we had been instructed, Sayagyi told us 
  that we were to have an especially good meal late that afternoon to give 
  us extra strength. When the evening meditation hour came, my husband and I 
  sat together in my cell while Sayagyi sat right inside its open door in 
  the shrine room. He instructed us in the Vipassana meditation on the 
  fiery-furnace nature of the body: we were told to first meditate 
  concentratedly on the top of the head and when we had a sense of heat 
  there, to extend it down the body to the soles of our feet and back up to 
  the head again. I was soon burning away at a great rate.

     My feelings of great dissatisfaction, kept over the years, with my 
  parents and rebellious antagonism towards them, kept over the years but 
  which I had refused to allow in my conscious mind, began to burn away. 
  Likewise, my unacknowledged desire to manage the lives of our three 
  children, especially our two sons, also began to burn away. After a time 
  my wrong feelings towards parents and children simply left! As this was 
  occuring I began to realize that there were many other impurities that 
  needed to be dealt with. How surprised I was when Sayagyi told me that 
  impatience was a form of //anger//! Yes, I began to see that it was, and I 
  determined to do something about it -- to recognize it, be conscious of 
  its appearance in my thoughts, words and actions, and to burn it up with 
  the fires of Vipassana.

     On the sixth or seventh day of our ten-day course, my heart began to 
  beat with an alarmed, almost audible thump every time I sat down to 
  meditate. Sayama,[12] assistant to Sayagyi, came into my cell and sat down 
  in front of me, while Sayagyi sat in the open doorway of the shrine room. 
  She could speak no English, but she didn't need to: her gestures, the 
  expression of her face gave me a feeling of comfort and hope, even though 
  my heart continued to beat somewhat unnaturally -- and did so for most of 
  the remaining three or four days.

     Now I come to Sayagyi's astonishing -- to me --  reaction to a dream I 
  had in the early morning of the last day of the course. My father had died 
  the year before, when we had been in Burma only five months. Ever since 
  then, I had felt sad and depressed whenever I thought of him because I had 
  not been at his side during his last days and had been unable to help or 
  comfort my mother in her loneliness. The night before we were to go to 
  I.M.C. for the meditation course, I had a strange dream in which I seemed 
  to be coming to the end of the road on which I saw myself travelling.

     The ten days later, in the early morning of our last day at the centre, 
  I dreamed again; this time I was standing over //my own// dead body, 
  seeing its greenish look of decay, smelling the odours of decay and 
  feeling my repulsively cold and unresponsive flesh. It was frightful to 
  me; so frightful that I arose from my bed, dressed quickly and was in my 
  room-cell at four instead of four-thirty. The door of my cell was open 
  into the shrine room and Sayagyi was there fast asleep. I called to him in 
  the agony of my fright at having come face to face with my own sure-to- 
  come death and decay. Though I did not know it at the time, I had begun 
  now to realize that my grief over my father's death was really and mostly 
  a grief over my own inescapable death and decay.

     Sayagyi awoke immediately and sat up to hear me while I told him about 
  my dream. Then he began to laugh!  Incredible! (he had a marvellous, deep- 
  throated laugh -- indescribably rich and full.)  He continued to laugh for 
  some time while I sat there astounded. Then I began to feel a strange 
  comfort. Now I know that I had directly confronted impermanence (Anicca), 
  //my// impermanence, for the very first time and had seen it for what it 
  is. Almost imperceptibly my heart stopped its wild beating.

     That wonderful laugh is still going on for me!  No words could have 
  done what it is still doing.



                             *THE TEACHER FOUND*
                               Jocelyn B. King

     Very soon after my first eventful meditation experience, Sayagyi U Ba 
  Khin left for England on a government mission.[14] I have forgotten how 
  long it was before he returned to Rangoon, perhaps two or three weeks. 
  Once or twice I had our driver stop our car at the foot of the I.M.C. hill 
  for me to inquire when he was to return and to find out if there was any 
  news from him.

     Finally he was back, and I stopped to see him with the thought of 
  thanking him politely for the course and of inquiring about his trip and 
  his impressions both of England and of those parts of Europe he had 
  briefly visited. He had made the entire trip in his Burmese clothing;[15] 
  he simply did not feel comfortable in Western clothing, he had said before 
  leaving. The Dhamma Hall was a large "open air" room:[16] under a roof, 
  but with three sides open, separated from the outside only by waist-high 
  partitions, the fourth side opening into various service rooms. Its floor 
  was two or three steps above the surrounding walkway. Slippers or shoes 
  were to be left outside upon entering.

     Sayagyi was sitting there in the Teacher's Chair, which was raised a 
  little above the Hall floor. I think that there were two or three Burmese 
  men, who were his disciples, standing nearby. Except for them, he was 
  alone. Things had been different before, I thought. There had always been 
  people around -- the other meditators, some visitors perhaps or some of 
  his disciples; he had freely mingled with all of us, talking, laughing and 
  telling stories in his inimitable way. Then in the latter part of the 
  afternoon came his teaching session with meditators and perhaps Burmese 
  visitors who had come to hear his words. All of us had sat around a table 
  with him in Western style.

     //Now// it felt very strange to be standing before him like this, ready 
  to make polite talk. I looked all around the hall for a chair. They had 
  always been provided before, plenty of them, or else we were //all// 
  standing and talking together. Now there were //no// chairs in sight. 
  Almost unconsciously I adapted to the situation and sat down on the floor 
  in front of him. We talked for a few minutes and during that time I said 
  that I would probably be back to visit the Centre again. He was very 
  pleasant and gave me some of his impressions of the places where he had 
  been.

     The car was waiting for me in the road below and no doubt there were 
  many disciples waiting to see him, so I got up to go. It was not very long 
  before I realized that something had happened; he had known, and now I 
  knew, that he was my Teacher. If I had sat in a chair in ordinary fashion, 
  I don't know what might have happened to me. Maybe nothing more than 
  something of this sort -- "I had such an interesting experience in Burma!  
  But it's so good to be back home again in the United States where things 
  are not so strange and hard to understand."



                       *IN MEMORY OF SAYAGYI U BA KHIN*
                                Jocelyn B. King

     In July 1959, when my husband and I made a special trip from our home 
  on Dubern Road to visit the International Meditation centre to talk with 
  Sayagyi U Ba Khin concerning arrangements for a ten-day meditation course, 
  I little knew how my whole life was to change and that this Burmese 
  gentleman with whom we were talking for the first time was to become my 
  revered teacher and guide in the Way of Vipassana Meditation, no matter 
  what distance or time should intervene. I assumed that to take such a 
  course as this would simply give me some first-hand knowledge of Burmese 
  Buddhism. It seemed an "interesting thing to do."

     However, during the ten days of that first course in September 1959, it 
  was first-hand knowledge of what I really was and of my sticky hold upon 
  what could not be held. That became my strong existential concern. In the 
  small meditation room assigned to me, as I struggled with a protesting 
  body in the attempt to "one point" the attention, time changed its 
  character for me. Space, both in and out of the body, began to seem quite 
  relative.

     Then Vipassana work began and the inner torments and frustations broke 
  into heat that vanished, leaving elation over the new freedom. I was never 
  allowed to stop at any temporary or false refuge. "No, you must keep 
  working and cleansing every day, every day, till all impurities are gone. 
  First we get rid of the coarse ones. But the fine ones are hard to deal 
  with and take longer."

     Before the ten-day course was over, I knew that my most deep-lying fear 
  was that my own body would perish and rot away, forever gone. I could not 
  face death with equanimity. Sayagyi's help was essential in this crisis. 
  Then, instead of being through with the whole thing and regarding it as an 
  "interesting Burmese experience," I found myself coming back for another 
  course while my husband had to be away on business, and then later on for 
  still another before we left Burma to return to the U.S. I did not decide 
  that Sayagyi should be my Teacher. Rather, I discovered that he //was// my 
  Teacher.

     Since that time, I have not ever been out of touch with him. He has 
  never failed to help me. And even with his death, I cannot feel out of 
  touch when I remember so well what he taught and was. His healing 
  generosity and compassionate interest in all human beings he learned only 
  from the Enlightened One. He embodied that which he constantly taught to 
  others -- the calm centre in the midst of Anicca.



     *U BA KHIN, THE GURU OF THE INTERNATIONAL MEDITATION CENTRE, BURMA*
                           Dr. Om Prakash, M.B.B.S.

     His was a fine personality, majestic, sober, noble and impressive. A 
  faint smile and the look of a calm, satisfied mind, he always bore.

                             *Personal Relations*
  When with him, you felt as if he cared for you and loved you more than 
  anybody else. But strangely enough, everyone felt the same about himself. 
  U Ba Khin's attention, love, metta, was the same for all, big or small, 
  rich or poor. In return, he did not want anything but sincerity of purpose 
  and a truthful nature.

                                 *Tolerance*
  He tolerated all religions. he never criticized or ridiculed any faith or 
  belief. But he preached Buddhism, as he understood it, and he understood 
  it well above many, many others. He never asserted anything, never forced 
  any idea on you. He followed what he preached or taught and left it to you 
  to think over and accept his views in part or in full as you wished.

                                   *Habits*
  He did not smoke or take alcohol or any narcotics; took tea and coffee in 
  moderation, liked milk, ovaltine, etc., especially towards the later part 
  of his life. Although he was not a strict vegetarian, his love of "life" 
  was extreme. He would not allow even mosquitoes to be killed in the 
  perimeter. Even the use of pesticides and insecticides was prohibited in 
  the Centre.

                               *Love of Nature*
  He had a great aesthetic and artistic sense; loved flowers very much, took 
  special care about getting rare varieties, had a nice collection of 
  beautiful flowering plants, which were all over the garden around the 
  Pagoda. He knew all his plants well and would talk about them at length to 
  the visitors.

                                   *Humour*
  He had a good sense of humour, was witty and would enjoy a simple harmless 
  joke heartily. He could laugh well, and would repeat simple, healthy jokes 
  and enjoy them with his listeners.

                                   *Human*
  He kept himself well informed about world politics, and modern advances in 
  science and technology, was a regular listener of radio, read daily local 
  newspapers and foreign periodicals. He was specially fond of //Life// and 
  //Time// magazines.

     He had a great desire -- a desire which was never fulfilled -- to go 
  abroad, specially to the U.S.A., and teach his method of meditation, which 
  he believed -- and very correctly so -- to be the easiest and most logical 
  way to practice meditation. He had the means to go, had many invitations 
  from foreign disciples, but some technical formalities in obtaining 
  passports, etc., always stood in his way. Excepting this one desire, he 
  had all his desires and wishes in the world fulfilled. He led a full life.

     He could bear disease and illness bravely and well, was a very 
  intelligent and co-operative patient. He never took a pessimistic view of 
  life, was always optimistic and took a hopeful view of life. He took 
  suffering and disease as a result of past Karma and said it is the lot of 
  one born in the world. The symptoms of disease also he would minimize and 
  never complain, and put them down to "wind troubles." Even his last 
  illness, which came and took him away from us suddenly, he treated very 
  lightly: "as bleeding piles which will get all right in a day or two." The 
  doctors had to rush him to the hospital as a case of internal haemorrhage.

     Previously he had survived three operations on enlarged prostate, with 
  heavy post operation bleeding.

     He was very pious and great soul, with pure mind and body and lovable 
  to everyone.

  [Dr. Om Prakash, Consulting Physician, United Nations Organisations, 
  Burma, Rangoon, was one of the honorary family physicians for Sayagyi U Ba 
  Khin. He was a friend and also a good disciple of Sayagyi, meditating 
  regularly, though he was engaged in multifarious duties as a leading 
  physician of Rangoon from the pre-war years.]



                       *THRAY SITHU SAYAGYI U BA KHIN*
                                 Daw Mya Sein

     On May 1, 1954, Venerable Webu Sayadaw honoured the International 
  Meditation centre with a visit. Sayagyi U Ba Khin's students paid their 
  respects to the Sayadaw by entering into deep meditation for 37 minutes. 
  The Sayadaw was very pleased with this evidence of Vipassana practice. In 
  his simple gentle way he expounded the Dhamma and then told us that 
  Sayagyi had put us on the Right Path; it was left to us to walk along it 
  steadfastly and diligently towards the Goal. If we stood and stared at the 
  scenery or strange objects on the way or tried to follow by-paths, of 
  course, it would take a long, long time.

     We were so elated by the Sayadaw's approval of our practice, and our 
  gratitude and respect for Sayagyi knew no bounds. He was a true Acariya -- 
  a Teacher of Dhamma and Vipassana meditation, ready to advise and help all 
  those who came to the Centre. He had a clear understanding of the many 
  types of students, their different approaches to the practice of 
  meditation and the latent forces within each one of them. Now and again, 
  he invited learned Sayadaws and submitted to them his findings in 
  Vipassana research and accepted their advice and suggestions.

     It is said that each one has a link from previous existences with a 
  Teacher whose guidance is necessary to put one on the Right Path. I 
  certainly must have had a Paramita link with Sayagyi. Before the Second 
  World War, when the whole family went for meditation practice to Saya Thet 
  Gyi, U Ba Khin's guru, I did not have the slightest desire to join them. 
  One Sayadaw had taught me Anapana (breathing-in and breathing-out) 
  concentration soon after my father's death in 1926; during days of stress 
  and strain and during a serious illness in 1936, I had practised it and 
  gained much benefit and was quite satisfied.

     It was only in 1954 that I began to feel the need for further training 
  in spiritual development. No sooner had I heard about U Ba Khin and the 
  International Meditation Centre than I met him for the first time at a tea 
  party given by the Sasana Council in honour of Western scholars of Pali. I 
  had been impressed by his lectures at the Methodist Church. Now, his 
  presence filled me with confidence and I asked him for permission to visit 
  the Centre the following Sunday. There I learnt that the next ten-day 
  course would begin on Friday; it coincided with the private study period 
  at the university. So I requested U Ba Khin to accept me as a trainee. Not 
  only did he accede to my request, but he also gave me the Anapana 
  Kammatthana [meditation subject based on the in-breath and out-breath] on 
  that very day and told me to practise at home before coming to the Centre.

     The eight trainees on the February 1954 course came from different 
  walks of life, yet Sayagyi was able to guide and help each one of us. He 
  was still an active government servant, and although he stayed at the 
  Centre for the ten days, he had to attend to his office and meetings 
  during the day. On his return, he would sit in the centre room [of the 
  pagoda] and speak to us individually about our experience, our 
  difficulties, our progress, or otherwise. About 6 p.m., after we had cold 
  drinks and had stretched our legs, he would explain the Dhamma or tell 
  appropriate stories from the Suttas to all of us in the main hall or 
  Dhamma-yon. We returned to our cubicles and meditated till 9 p.m.

     Sayagyi was patient and painstaking but very strict and stern when he 
  found sloth and torpor in the trainee. Unlike foreign seekers after Truth, 
  the Burmese trainees felt that they could always go back for another ten- 
  day course; a few felt it was a pleasant and peaceful interlude from their 
  daily cares and worries. The vegetarian food was delicious and wholesome, 
  and in spite of the Sabbath [i.e., not eating after noon], one tended to 
  put on weight. The company was congenial and conversation became general 
  in the off hours. Sayagyi then told us to eat less, keep the vow of 
  silence and remain in the cubicle as much as possible till he returned.

     Besides the weekends, every time the college closed, I went back for a 
  full course and so I learnt how to enter into deep meditation. This stood 
  me in good stead when I had to take air journeys. When taking off and when 
  landing. I could go into deep meditation with a vow to wake up when the 
  plane was safely airbound or when it landed. But it needs constant 
  practice. Without it, the ability fades away, as I have discovered to my 
  dismay.

     Nearly seventeen years had passed since my first course when I again 
  became a constant visitor to the centre. Although I had made frequent 
  stays at the Centre in the early days, mu journeys abroad and my work and 
  domestic involvements had left little time for more than short visits to 
  pay my respects to Sayagyi. In 1968, however, I went every day for ten 
  days to the Centre because Sayagyi wanted me to keep company with a 
  foreign devotee who was taking a course all alone. But soon after that 
  Sayagyi was back at hospital. So again, I missed the opportunity of his 
  admonition and advice.

     A little more than three months before his demise, at Sayagyi's 
  suggestion, I went every evening to the centre, meditated for an hour or 
  so, slept there, again meditating in the early morning and returning home 
  about 7 a.m. Sayagyi knew that this was not sufficient to get me back to 
  the previous stage of development. So he asked me to stay for a course or 
  at least for three full days; but not realizing that he was nearing the 
  last days of this existence, I postponed my stay till April.

     I was aware of the change in him -- his deeper understanding, his 
  greater loving kindness towards all and his increased ability to radiate 
  and guide and help even those disciples who were overseas. Then on 
  Thursday, I paid my respects and went home. On Monday, by evening, he had 
  been taken to the hospital, and Tuesday, January 19th, Sayagyi left us. He 
  appeared to be so strong and healthy, yet, "Decay is inherent in all 
  component things, but the truth will remain forever."

     As instructed by him, our duty now is to be vigilant and diligent in 
  our search for Truth and become worthy disciples of Sayagyi U Ba Khin and 
  true followers of the Buddha.



                                  FOOTNOTES:

  [1] He was born on Tuesday, the 13th day of the waxing moon of the month 
  of Nattuw in the year 1208 of the Burmese Era.

  [2] Although he did not remain a layman long enough to use the respectful 
  title "U," it is considered appropriate to speak of him using this title 
  due to his later achievements. He was the eldest of five children: 1. U 
  Tet Khaung (Ledi sayadaw U Nana [Ashin Nana-dhaja]), 2. U Tet Swar 
  (layman), 3. U Tet Pwar (U Kumara, who died when still young), 4. U Tet 
  Htwar (also known as U San Htwar and well known as U Kitti), 5. Daw Ma Lay 
  (laywoman).

  [3] His full title in Pali was: Ledi Aranna-vihara vasi Mahathera ("The 
  Great Elder dwelling in the monastery in Ledi forest"). The title 
  "Sayadaw" ("venerable teacher") was originally accorded to important 
  Theras ("Elders" -- a title given to bhikkhus ten years after their 
  ordination) who taught the king. The term was later given to highly 
  respected bhikkhus in general.

  [4] This letter, dated 1917, is in the Pali Text Society archives.

  [5] "Saya" means "teacher" and the "Gyi" added to his name might be 
  translated "the great Thet."  He would be addressed in this way only after 
  becoming a meditation teacher himself, but for the sake of consistency, we 
  have referred to him at all periods of his life with the same title. His 
  name as a young man was Maung ("master") Po Thet.

  [6] This biography is based in part on my article, "The Tenth Anniversary 
  in Memory of Thray Sithu Sayagyi U Ba Khin (1981)," //The Maha Bodhi//, 
  Vol. 89, nos 1-3 (1981), pp. 49-55. U Ba Khin was given the title of 
  "Sithu" when Burma gained Independence on Jan. 4, 1948. The Burmese 
  government conferred the title "Thray Sithu" on him on Jan. 4, 1956.

  [7] For more details, see Saya U Ba Pho's article, "How the International 
  Meditation Centre, Rangoon, was Founded and Developed," //The Anecdotes of 
  Sayagyi U Ba Khin// (1982), pp. 29-37.

  [8] For more details concerning his teaching of Western students, see the 
  introduction to //Dhamma Texts// (1985), pp. xvi-xxi.

  [9] //The Maha Bodhi//, Vol. 80 no 4 (1972), p. 104.

  [10] Her husband , Dr. Winston L. King, wrote an account of the ten-day 
  meditation session with Sayagyi U Ba Khin at the International Meditation 
  Centre, Rangoon, Burma, and it was published in the appendix to his book 
  //A Thousand Lives Away// (Cambridge: Harvard, 1965).

  [11] Dr. King has this to say about Sayagyi: "Two impressions of him stand 
  out vividly, as characterizing the 'essential' U Ba Khin: He was 
  thoroughly Burmese and truly Buddhist. As to his Burmeseness: He loved 
  Burma and felt at home there. In this love of Burma there was no 
  disparagement or disdain for other countries, Peoples, or cultures, only a 
  joyful and willing acceptance of his own karmic destiny." //The Maha 
  Bodhi//, "U Ba Khin Memorial Number," Vol. 80, no 4 (April 1972), p. 105.

  [12] For details concerning Sayama, see Saya U Tint Yee, "What I Know 
  About Sayagyi U Ba Khin" (//The Anecdotes of Sayagyi U Ba Khin//, SUBKMT, 
  1982), pp. 41ff. See also p. 431 of U Ko Lay's biography, //Sayagyi U Ba 
  Khin// (Rangoon, 1980).

  [13] Dr. King wrote about Sayagyi's visit to England: "In this connection 
  I remember a remark of his shortly before he was to visit England (for the 
  first and last time) on government business: 'People keep asking me, 
  'Aren't you excited about seeing England for the first time?' But what is 
  there in England more wonderful than the thirty-one planes of existence 
  that we here in Burma know about?' To be sure he was saying nothing 
  against England nor was he implying that Burma took up all of one plane, 
  or that it was a perfect country (or people). But what he was saying was 
  that he was thankful to have been born in a country where one could 
  encounter the Buddha Dhamma." //The Maha Bodhi//, Vol 80, no 4, p. 105.

  [14] When he came back, Sayagyi recounted that he managed on his trip to 
  the U.K., France, and West Germany in his Burmese clothing and that there 
  was a heat wave all over Europe, and when he was in Bonn the temperature 
  was 80 F. (27 C). He told Sayama and his disciples at I.M.C. Rangoon that 
  he was happy to be able to comfortably wear his national dress including 
  the traditional Burmese hat (gaung-baung) throughout the whole journey. He 
  also confided that in all his life he had never worn any other style of 
  clothing except traditional Burmese dress -- such was the spirit of his 
  "Burmeseness".

  [15] The Dhamma Hall at I.M.C. Rangoon was renovated in 1983, and is now  
  enclosed.



                         Worldwide  Contact Addresses
                    in the Tradition of Sayagyi U Ba Khin
                    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


  *AUSTRIA*:  International Meditation Centre, A-9064 St. Michael/Gurk 6,
              Austria;Tel: +43 4224 2820, Fax: +43 4224 28204

  *EASTERN AUSTRALIA*: International Meditation Centre, Lot 2 Cessnock Road,
              Sunshine NSW 2264, Australia;
              Tel: +61 49 705 433, Fax: +61 49 705 749

  *UNITED KINGDOM*: International Meditation Centre, Splatts House,
              Heddington, Calne, Wiltshire SN11 OPE, England;
              Tel: +44 380 850 238, Fax: +44 380 850 833,
              Email: CIS, IMC-UK,100330,3304

  *USA (East Coast)*: International Meditation Centre, 438 Bankard Road,
              Westminster MD 21158, USA;
              Tel: +1 410 346 7889, Fax: +1 410 346 7133;
              Email:  CIS, IMC-USA, 74163,2452

  *WESTERN AUSTRALIA*: International Meditation Centre, Lot 78 Jacoby
              Street, Mahogany Creek WA 6072, Australia;
              Tel: +61 9 295 2644, Fax: +61 9 295 3435

  *CANADA*: IMC-Canada, 336 Sandowne Drive, Waterloo, Ontario, N2K 1V8,
              Canada; Tel: +1 519 747 4762, Fax: +1 519 725 2781

  *GERMANY*:  Sayagyi U Ba Khin Gesellschaft, Christaweg 16, 79114 Freiburg,
              Germany, Tel: +49 761 465 42, Fax: +49 761 465 92

  *JAPAN*:    Sayagyi U Ba Khin Memorial Trust, Komatsuri-Cho 923,
              Kishiwada-Shi, Osaka-Fu, 596 Japan, Tel: +81 724 45 0057

  *THE NETHERLANDS*: Sayagyi U Ba Khin Stichting, Oudegracht 124, 3511 AW
              Utrecht, The Netherlands,
              Tel: +31 30 311 445, Fax: +31 30 340 612

  *SINGAPORE*: Sayagyi U Ba Khin Memorial Association, 9 Penang Road #07-12,
              Park Mall, Singapore 0923
              Tel: +65 338 6911, Fax: +65 336 7211

  *SWITZERLAND*: Sayagyi U Ba Khin Gesellschaft, Greyerzstrasse 35, 3013
              Bern, Switzerland;Tel: +41 31 415 233, Fax: +41 61 691 8049;
              Email: CIS, 100256,3576

  *USA (West Coast)*: IMC-USA, 77 Kensington Rd., San Anselmo, CA 94960.
              Tel: +1 415 459 3117, Fax: +1 415 346 7133

  *BELGIUM*:  Address as for the Netherlands, Tel: +32 2414 1756

  *DENMARK*:  Contact Address: Mr. Peter Drost-Nissen, Strandboulevarden
              117, 3th, 2100 Kopenhagen, Denmark. Tel: 031 425 636

  *ITALY*:    Contact address: Mr. Renzo Fedele, Via Euganea 94, 35033
              Bresseo PD, Italy.  Tel: +39 49 9900 752

              --------------------------------------------------
      Published by the Sayagyi U Ba Khin Memorial Trust, United Kingdom
               Address as above, registered charity no. 280134
              --------------------------------------------------




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  TITLE OF WORK: The Anecdotes of Sayagyi U Ba Khin, II
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