Just Back From Burma

Introduce yourself to others at Dhamma Wheel.
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Chi
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Just Back From Burma

Post by Chi »

Hi Everybody!

My name is Chi. My "monk" name is Aggadhamma, which means "higher practice" or "excellent practice." I am 23 years old, tall, half Japanese, half Chinese, born in America. The Dhamma has so utterly changed my life. There is nothing else that really interests me.

A bit of practice background:
5/10 Goenka 10-day
7/11 Goenka 10-day
8/11 Goenka 3-day
9/11 Goenka 10-day
12/11 U Pandita 64-day

What an experience the 64-day retreat was! I urge everybody to attend a longer retreat, whatever the cost might be.

Thanks for your support at Dhammawheel. I started lurking around September I believe. There is nothing better than to be able to find refuge in a supportive community of Dhamma practitioners. Not everyday is an "up" day, so we all need good, virtuous friends to see that we don't stray.
Last edited by Chi on Tue Jan 01, 2013 6:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
Do Good, Avoid Evil, Purify the Mind.
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retrofuturist
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Re: Just Back From Burma

Post by retrofuturist »

Greetings Chi,

Sounds like you've been putting in a good effort on the Noble Eightfold Path. May great benefit accrue from it!

Metta,
Retro. :)
"Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."
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Cittasanto
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Re: Just Back From Burma

Post by Cittasanto »

Just opened the link in your signature, you may not be a monk now, but from your list of retreats you are certainly worthy of respect :anjali:

May you soon have ability in finding skilful methods and thoroughly understand the peaceful way!
Blog, Suttas, Aj Chah, Facebook.

He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them.
But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion …
...
He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them … he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.
John Stuart Mill
dhamma_newb
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Re: Just Back From Burma

Post by dhamma_newb »

Welcome Chi :hello: You are very lucky to have gone to those retreats. Must have been an awesome learning experience. See you around the forums!
The watched mind brings happiness.
Dhp 36

I am larger and better than I thought. I did not know I held so much goodness.
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Ben
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Re: Just Back From Burma

Post by Ben »

Hi Chi and welcome to Dhamma Wheel!
i was in Burma one year ago doing a long retreat.
I look forward to your contributions.
kind regards,

Ben
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global ReliefUNHCR

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little_stone
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Re: Just Back From Burma

Post by little_stone »

:hug: :anjali:
Chi
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Re: Just Back From Burma

Post by Chi »

Thank you everybody for all of your support!

I just put the costs of a 90-day retreat at GAIA House on my credit card! They gave me the bursary rate, though--the cheapest they can offer. I start on April 1.

Gosh, am I overly reckless? Or am I giving no thought to material wealth? Or both? I feel it's the Dhamma. It's like a high, you know? I can't get enough of it. It might be a subtle clinging to the Dhamma. Ah, it's better than not practicing, I suppose.

Now, it's time to gather resources for the plane ticket.... :)
Do Good, Avoid Evil, Purify the Mind.
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Cittasanto
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Re: Just Back From Burma

Post by Cittasanto »

Chi wrote:Thank you everybody for all of your support!

I just put the costs of a 90-day retreat at GAIA House on my credit card! They gave me the bursary rate, though--the cheapest they can offer. I start on April 1.

Gosh, am I overly reckless? Or am I giving no thought to material wealth? Or both? I feel it's the Dhamma. It's like a high, you know? I can't get enough of it. It might be a subtle clinging to the Dhamma. Ah, it's better than not practicing, I suppose.

Now, it's time to gather resources for the plane ticket.... :)
like I said on another thread, there are far worse things to cling to!
it is through clinging to the right things in an appropriate way that one overcomes clinging.
Blog, Suttas, Aj Chah, Facebook.

He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them.
But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion …
...
He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them … he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.
John Stuart Mill
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Goofaholix
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Re: Just Back From Burma

Post by Goofaholix »

Chi wrote:I just put the costs of a 90-day retreat at GAIA House on my credit card! They gave me the bursary rate, though--the cheapest they can offer. I start on April 1.

Gosh, am I overly reckless? Or am I giving no thought to material wealth? Or both? I feel it's the Dhamma. It's like a high, you know? I can't get enough of it. It might be a subtle clinging to the Dhamma. Ah, it's better than not practicing, I suppose.

Now, it's time to gather resources for the plane ticket.... :)
If you have the freedom, time, and money for full time practise I say good on you, go for it, I certainly don't regret the time I spent doing so. Perhaps in later life you won't have this freedom.
Pronouns (no self / not self)
“Peace is within oneself to be found in the same place as agitation and suffering. It is not found in a forest or on a hilltop, nor is it given by a teacher. Where you experience suffering, you can also find freedom from suffering. Trying to run away from suffering is actually to run toward it.”
― Ajahn Chah
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vidar
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Re: Just Back From Burma

Post by vidar »

Welcome Chi. May you have great benefit from your practice and can reach Nibbana in this very life.

:anjali:
All the world is on fire, All the world is burning, All the world is ablaze, All the world is quaking. That which does not quake or blaze, That to which worldlings do not resort, Where there is no place for Mara:That is where my mind delights. (SN 5.7)

By degrees, little by little,
from moment to moment,
the wise purify themselves,
as a smith purifies silver.
—Dhammapada 239
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DNS
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Re: Just Back From Burma

Post by DNS »

:hello:

Welcome to Dhamma Wheel!

Impressive list of retreats attended!

:buddha2:
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bodom
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Re: Just Back From Burma

Post by bodom »

Welcome chi!

:anjali:
Liberation is the inevitable fruit of the path and is bound to blossom forth when there is steady and persistent practice. The only requirements for reaching the final goal are two: to start and to continue. If these requirements are met there is no doubt the goal will be attained. This is the Dhamma, the undeviating law.

- BB
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