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Sayadaw spoke about himself, saying that he doesn't do what he wants to. He works only for the great benefit of the Sâsana.' Since I wanted to study Myanmar for the Sâsana and the benefit of others, he gave me permission to continue studying right here at this center. Sayadaw doesn't give Sri Lankan students permission to study Myanmar at his center easily because Sri Lankans' vîriya (effort or energy) is weak. The climate in Sri Lanka is better than in Myanmar. That's why Sri Lankans don't work hard at their work. Since Sayadaw lived in Sri Lanka for about three years, he got a good understanding of Sri Lankans. Apparently, that's why he concluded that my vîriya is weak, too. It was just because of that.
'Venerable Sayadaw, my preceptor (into the Order) in Sri Lanka said, 'The Sayadaws like Mahasi Sayadaw in Myanmar have all passed away. Of the Sayadaws in Myanmar I know well, only U Pandita is left. U Pandita looks not for his own benefit, but only for that of the Sâsana and of others. So, if you want go to Myanmar, just go to his place,' he said. That's how I learned of you, Sayadaw, when I was in Sri Lanka, even before I came to Myanmar.' "
U Dhammâjîva spoke to Sayadaw like that, he said.
U Dhammâjîva spent the rainy season of 1996 at the Hse Main Gon Forest Center. There were another four Sri Lankan monks along with him. Those other four monks are not fluent in English. U Dhammâjîva, on the other hand, was by then quite fluent not only in English but also in Myanmar. At Dhamma interviews, U Dhammâjîva's fluency in Myanmar has been very beneficial. When they had interviews, with U Dhammâjîva translated what their meditation teacher U Nanda said in Myanmar into Sinhala for them. It was he who translated the Dhamma talks, too. Besides having a modern university degree, he is proficient on the subject of agriculture. Thus, he has taken responsibility for the cultivation efforts at the Hse Main Gon Forest Center and is working enthusiastically. There have been a great variety of trees planted under his leadership. I guess, when those trees mature this center will be like the Veïuvana monastery of the Buddha's time, known far and wide for its sublime beauty. Since they are planted evenly, they will be very pleasing to the mind, no doubt.
He has also translated into Sinhala Sayadaw's American Dhamma Discourse, the Myanmar original of the book edited and published in English as In This Very Life. Foreigners really appreciate Sayadaw's book In This Very Life, both in the East and in the West. Not a few have come to the Shwe Taung Gon Sâsana Yeiktha because they had read that book and wanted to practice meditation. That book is famous abroad. They even had to print a second edition. There's yet another book of Sayadaw's in English, On the Path to Freedom. Then there's the books of Sayadaws called Raindrops in Hot Summer. If the Dhamma talks Sayadaw has given abroad were to be published, they would amount to a great many books. As Sayadaw's books are being into Sinhala, Vietnamese, Korean, and Japanese, Sayadaw's Dhamma discourses are really proliferating abroad.
If both the Dhamma discourses he has given at home and abroad were to be pub
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