"Even I, at seventy-five years an old man already, am able to keep working with endurance for the benefit of others. Young people should be able to do even more!" he says.

That's one inspirational speech Sayadaw has a habit of making. Before the author came to the Mahasi center I thought that the monks at meditation centers lead luxurious lives. I has heard other people say that, too. Because I lived at the main Mahâgandâyone Monastery, some of the Sayadaws from the Mahâgandâyone branch monasteries did not take a liking to me. On account of their dislike, from their mouths came the words, "Even with this excellent education you have, you don't turn around and teach the knowledge you have to others. You should spread it far and wide. At the meditation center you live an easy life, intoxicated with pleasure. You wouldn't be able to leave the center." I guess I was reaping the consequences of past unskillful actions. Was it due to the fact that I had not only thought that the meditation center monks lead a life of luxury but had found the words coming out of my mouth, too? I guess my vacî kamma (verbal actions), my words, were coming back to me. Putting myself in their shoes, I was able to forgive them. No doubt, just as I myself had spoken out of ignorance before, they were speaking out of ignorance this way.

Sayadaw often speaks of "Patipatti which does not lack Pariyatti. Pariyatti which does not lack Patipatti: [Practice which does not lack theory, theoretical study which does not lack practical experience]." I told those Sayadaws about how, in accord with that mindset, there are three or four classes taught for the primary, lower, middle and upper, and teacher level scripture classes, during the course of a day at the Shwe Taung Gon Sâsana Yeiktha. That is in addition to the Dhamma talks and interviews are given when necessary, of course. Nonetheless, they didn't seem satisfied. I guess they wanted me to be teaching the scriptures to large numbers of monks, like them. They definitely know that I am writing books under the pen name "Thâmanay Kyaw". Don't they want to take into account the fact that I am writing all those books? The author, whose health is not fully up to par, gets exhausted with just this task. When my health gets worse, I get even more exhausted.

Sometimes the line Sayadaw once said comes to my ears, "My mental energy is exhausted already". When he said it I didn't really appreciate it. Now I understand. Not long after I heard those words from Sayadaw, I heard him say, "I am going to go recharge my mental energy."

His recharged mental energy is apparently strong. The amount of altruistic work he does is out of proportion with his age. The more Sayadaw ages, the more his work increases. The more there is, the more he does. From the one Shwe Taung Gon Sâsana Yeiktha in Yangon, there have come to be branch centers in Mawlamyaing, Pyin Oo Lwin (Mamyo), and the center in Lumbini, Nepal. With the Panditârâma Forest Center,

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