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| (A statue honoured Sayadaw U Vinaya, seemed a real Sayadaw looking at us.) |
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Today was the 30th of August 2015, the full moon day of Wah-khaung in Burmese calendar. It was the day Sayaday U Vinaya’s 101th birthday. The ceremony for Sayadaw’s bd was held at Sunlun Meditation Monastery at 7th miles. I was told that there were 15 monks attended the ceremony, and people could donate anything they wished to the monk. Some prepared 15 yellow robes, or towels, or medicines, or books, or kyat-notes, or etc. I was happy to think what I was going to offer on that day. Finally I was decided offering my book “A Memory of My Grandparents” to each of the monks at Sunlun monastery.
In the early morning of 6:00 A.M, people were waiting at the hall in the Sunlun monastery. Sayadaw U Wara who was the head of the Sunlun Meditation Centre, with the monks attended to the hall where we were waiting. Sayadaw firstly gave a speech about Sayadaw U Vinaya who passed away three years ago, if He still alive, He would reach the age of 102. Sayadaw U Wara related the short biography of Sayadaw U Vinaya, and also reminded us that we would have to remember Sayadaw U Vinaya’s gratitude, and loving-kindness which were still guarding us.
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| (Men's corner while waiting...) |
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| (Women's corner while waiting...) |
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I missed our Sayadaw U Vinaya so much while listening the speech. I was sure myself that although Sayadaw U Vinaya passed away, I still followed His teaching, and did meditation as much as I could until now. I believed that the act of my doing meditation shows how I miss Him, and respect Him from the bottom of my heart.
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| (I donate my royalties that I received this year to Venerable Sayadaw U Wara) |
After the speech, Sayadaw U Wara guided us paying respects to those to whom respect is due, and remembering those to whom we owe gratitude. After reciting Buddha’s Teaching, and praying, Sayadaw U Wara led us to follow his speech as saying ‘Thar-du’ three times, means ‘Well done’, for our good deeds to all the beings around, including our relatives, and grandparents who passed away, or to whom concerned. The act of offering means ‘dhanna’ or giving, an important aspect of Buddhist teaching.
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| (I was waiting my turn to offer my book to the monks.) |
Donating our offering to the monks seemed to me so wonderful, and respectful to all the Buddhist. After all, I went to the pagoda which stood in the monastery ground, and under which Sayadaw U Vinaya’s body lay, and there I sat down, and saying prayers with my heart, and I believe Sayadaw’s kindness still protecting us, and I promised I would never forget to do meditation in this busy world.
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| (The pagoda under which Sayadaw U Vinaya's body lay.) |
Good morning how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because trough them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately it’s impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Myanmar? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Myanmar in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Calle Valencia, 39
28903 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez