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Buddha image and pays his respects by putting his palms together. Sayadaw doesn't really dare turn his back on the Buddha in order to turn and face the audience while he gives his talk. So he has the throne placed not directly in front of the Buddha, but off to the side. You also find a picture of Mahasi Sayadaw and one of Sayadaw as well as flowers and other offerings.
You find a picture of Sayadaw's preceptor (into the Order), the first Mahabodhi Forest Monastery Sayadaw U Kelasa, hung in reverence on the wall near his dining table. It is a picture of him on his way to almsrounds, with his begging bowl slung over his shoulder. It's very sublime. Near the table where the junior monks eat, you find another picture of the Mahasi Sayadaw. It was taken during Mahasi Sayadaw's trip to America. In the picture, he is sitting on a really high wooden chair with no sitting mat and with his legs hanging down. It is a picture attractive in its simplicity.
There are a great many pagodas at the Shwe Taung Gon Sâsana Yeiktha. Local monks and nuns, men and women, old, young, and middle aged, of all ages and from every stratum of society, come to build their pagodas. Foreigners come in a similar manner. These foreign men and women take the pagodas they have been building at the Shwe Taung Gon Sâsana Yeiktha back with them when they return to their own countries and continue to work on them. These are Dhamma pagodas indeed. Satipatthâna Dhamma pagodas. These Dhamma pagodas are costless to build. Sayadaw and the other senior teachers have already imparted the proper construction technique.
These Satipatthâna Dhamma pagodas are being constructed without a pause from three in the morning until eleven at night. When sitting, they are being built. When standing, they are being built. When walking, they are being built. When reclining, they are being built. When eating, they are being built. When showering, they are being built. Even in on the toilet, they are being built. The Buddha advised us that it is possible to do this construction without missing a place, without missing a moment, and directed us to become proficient at this type of continuous construction. The Buddha Dhamma is very thorough indeed. In the Buddha's teaching, there is nothing superfluous, and there is nothing missing.
At Shwe Taung Gon Sâsana Yeiktha, some yogis build their Dhamma pagodas for a week, some for a month, some for a year, and some for many years. Your own Dhamma pagoda grows by just as much as you are able to build. The higher your Dhamma pagoda goes, the more meaning your life has, the higher its value. So if you wish the value of the brief life you've got to rise higher and higher, just build your Dhamma pagoda higher and higher.
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