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JOY
The article which I am writing today is the thirty-seventh in this series about Sayadaw. Thirty-six articles are already complete. Sayadaw was sixty-three when the author first came to Sayadaw's place. Sometimes I find myself wondering what it was which brought about this coincidental meeting. I can only imagine that we were connected in our past lives, for I can't see them. If I could, I would get to find out how it was that the two of us were related. Anyway, I can't see it now, so I can only speculate.
There is one peculiar correspondence. That is that, by the Gregorian calendar, Sayadaw and the author have the exact same birth day and month. 28/7/1921 - that is Sayadaw's birth day, month, and year by the Gregorian calendar. The author's birth day, month, and year are 28/7/1956. By the Myanmar system, Sayadaw was born in the year 1283, on the ninth day of the waning moon of Waso. The author was born in 1318, on the sixth day of the waning moon of Waso. Even by the Myanmar system, they are only three days apart. You would have say that this is a remarkable little coincidence.
I can only write of the happenings in Sayadaw's life which I saw since the very first time I met him, when he was already sixty-three. Even of those, without having kept notes, I can only write as much I recollect clearly. It really takes some digging through my memory to drag some of them up. When it does not come easily, it makes it difficult to write. For all intents and purposes, at those time, I can't write.
Moreover, we need to give an account Sayadaw's childhood background. Only then will we get the complete picture of Sayadaw's life. Giving an account of Sayadaw's life starting from his adulthood would be like including only the buds, flowers, and fruit in an account of a grand old tree. Only if we describe sequentially how the tree was conceived and how it matured would we have a full account of the tree's life. In this case as well, only with an account of Sayadaw's childhood will we have the whole story of his life, and I want to write the whole story. However, when I didn't meet those who could describe Sayadaw's childhood, it was difficult to write. So I had to put it off while I awaited such an opportunity. While waiting, I had to make use of the material which was within reach.
During the rainy season of 1996, Sayadaw came to give Dhamma talks every Saturday to the eight foreign monks, two foreign nuns, two foreign women and local yogis who were practicing at the Panditarama Forest Meditation Center. To honor Sayadaw's presence on one of these Saturdays, the midday meal was donated by Sayadaw's cousin U Hte Myaing, who is responsible for the ongoing construction at the Forest Meditation Center. Assuming that Sayadaw would be coming, Sayadaw's relatives had also been invited. Unfortunately, Sayadaw had already come and gone on the Uposaka (Sabbath), the day before that Saturday.
I had seen the relatives who came that day when they had come before to the
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