Venerable Webu Sayadaw

[Ben]

Dear all

The following link directs one to a short biography of the Sayadaw, transcribed discourses, including:
- The Way to Ultimate Calm: Selected Discourses of Webu Sayadaw
- The Essential Practice - Part 1
- The Essential Practice - Part 2
- To Light a Fire
- Dhamma Discourse

Also here you will find a 10-minute collection of video clips and a slideshow of photos featuring Ven. Webu Sayadaw.

http://www.pariyatti.org/ResourcesProje ... fault.aspx



Metta

Ben

[fijiNut]

sadhu, sadhu, sadhu...

I have always found Venerable Webu Sayadaw's advice invaluable in my practice:

(1) One can only expect the fulfillment of one's aspirations if one is perfect in morality.

(2) When practicing generosity (dana) in the religion of the Buddha, the mental attitude and volition involved are very important.

(3) Believing in the law of kamma, one should always act with an upright mind.

(4) One should not aspire to any happiness of either the human or celestial worlds — which are impermanent — but only to Nibbana.

(5) Because of the arising of the Buddha we have the opportunity to practice right conduct (carana) and wisdom (pañña) fully and thereby to benefit greatly.

(6) From the moment we are born to the moment we die, there is the in-breath and the out-breath. This is easy for everybody to understand. Every time we breathe in or out, the breath touches near the nostrils. Every time it touches we should be aware of it.

(7) While we are walking, working, doing anything, we should always be aware of the in-breath and the out-breath.

[Ben]

Hi FijiNut

Some years ago, I bought a copy of 'Way to Ultimate Calm' and found the Sayadaw's discourses to have a certain earthiness about them. Very basic but very inspiring. The Sayadaw didn't know very much Pali and didn't seem, from my estimation, to be familiar with the Abhidhamma. What he did have was a depth of bhavana-maya-panna.

It must have been incredible to be at the International Meditation Centre in Rangoon in the 1950s when he visited and gave discourses.

There are some additional biographical anecdotes given in John Coleman's 'The Quiet Mind' and in U Ko Lay's 'Manual of Vipassana Meditation' which details meetings with the Sayadaw.
Metta

Ben

[fijiNut]

Ben,

We very fortunate to be born within a period of the Buddha Sasana where the noble Ariya Sangha still exist within our lifetime and where we know the path of liberation is still open to those who persevere.
His teachings were for lay people to listen and practice there and then and hence the beautiful simplicity of it all.
However, in the age of information overload, our minds are so openly scattered and proliferated, and so sometimes the most simplest advice is so hard to do - 'note the sensation of the in-out breath throughout the day'.

metta,
fijiNut

[Ben]

How very true!
Thank you for your thoughts FijiNut.
Metta

Ben

[jcsuperstar]

'Way to Ultimate Calm' seems liek a great book name... im gonna have to find this now

[Ben]

'Way to Ultimate Calm' seems liek a great book name... im gonna have to find this now

In North America, order it via the bookshop at www.Pariyatti.org
Metta

Ben

[upekkha]

it is also available freely on google books,
http://books.google.com/books?id=B8gwRy ... lt#PPP2,M1