ေမတၱာအခါေတာ္ေန႔
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
၁၃၇၂-ခု၊ ၀ါေခါင္လျပည့္ေန႔သည္ ေမတၱာအခါေတာ္(၂၅-၀၈-၁၀)ေန႔ျဖစ္ပါသည္။ သီတဂူဆရာေတာ္ ဦးေဆာင္ေသာ သီတဂူသာသနာျပဳအဖြဲ႕သည္ ၀ါေခါင္လဆန္း(၁၁)ရက္၊ (၂၁-၀၈-၁၀)ေန႔တြင္ အင္းစိန္ေထာင္၌ အက်ဥ္းက်ေနၾကေသာ အက်ဥ္းသာ (၉၇၀၀)ေက်ာ္တုိ႔အား ေမတၱာအခါေတာ္ေန႔ ကရုဏာအလွဴေတာ္ကုိ ျပဳလုပ္က်င္းၿပီး တရားေတာ္မ်ားလည္း ေဟာၾကားၿပီးျဖစ္ပါသည္။ ဤေန႔၌ ဆရာေတာ္သည္ ပုဂံသီတဂူေက်ာင္းေဆာင္ ဖြင့္ပြဲရွိ၍ ႀကိဳတင္က်င္းပခဲ့ျခင္း ျဖစ္ပါသည္။ မိေတၱ ဘ၀ါ ေမတၱာ-တဲ့၊ ေမတၱာဆုိတာ မိတ္ေဆြဖြဲ႔တဲ့ က်င့္စဥ္ျဖစ္ပါသည္။ အဲဒါေၾကာင့္ ေမတၱာကုိ အဘိဓမၼတၳသဂၤဟမွာ အေဒါသလို႔ အရေကာက္ပါသည္။ စိတ္မဆုိးျခင္း၊ အမ်က္မထြက္ျခင္းလို႔ အဓိပၸါယ္ရပါသည္။ ေမတၱာတရားသည္ ပူေလာင္မႈကို ဘယ္ေတာ့မွ မျဖစ္ေစပါဘူး၊ ေအးျမျခင္းကုိပဲ ျဖစ္ေစပါသည္။ ဟိတကာရပ၀တၱိလကၡဏာ ေမတၱာ-တဲ့၊ ဟိတကာမစိတ္လို႔ေခၚပါသည္။ မနာပဘာ၀ဒႆနပဒ႒ာနာ-တဲ့၊ သတၱေလာက၏ ေကာင္းက်ိဳးႏွင့္ယွဥ္ေသာ ျမင္ျခင္းျဖင့္ ၾကည့္ရႈရပါသည္။ သတၱေလာကတစ္ခုလုံး၏ ေကာင္းက်ဳိးကုိ လုိလားတဲ့စိတ္ျဖစ္ပါသည္။ သတၱေလာကတစ္ခုလုံး၏ ေကာင္းက်ဳိးကုိ ကုိယ္စိတ္ႏွစ္လုံးသုံးပါးျဖင့္ ေဆာင္ရြက္ျခင္းျဖစ္ပါသည္။ ေမတၱာနိသာကေရာ ေလာေက၊ သမၼာ ဘာတု သုခံကေရာ၊ ေမတၱာသီတလရံသီဟိ သုခႏၱဳ ဖုသိတာ ပဇာ။ လို႔ ေဟာေတာ္မူထားျခင္းျဖစ္ပါသည္။ အဲဒါေၾကာင့္ ေမတၱာသည္ လေရာင္စမ္းတဲ့ ညခ်မ္းပမာ ေအးျမျခင္းကုိ ခံစားရပါလိမ့္မည္။ ခ်မ္းသာျခင္းကုိ ေပးေဆာင္မွာျဖစ္ပါသည္။ အဲဒါေၾကာင့္ ေမတၱာအက်ဳိး၊ ဆယ့္တစ္မ်ဳိးကား၊ ခ်မ္းသာသုံးမ်ဳိး၊ အိပ္ ႏုိး၊ အိပ္မက္၊ ခ်စ္လ်က္ လူ နတ္၊ ေစာင့္ၾကပ္ နတ္မ်ား၊ မီးကား မေလာင္၊ ဆိပ္ေကာင္ မသင့္၊ မ၀င္လက္နက္၊ စိတ္လည္းၾကည္လင္၊ ၾကည့္ရႊင္မ်က္ႏွာ၊ ေသခါ မေတြေ၀၊ လားေလျဗဟၼာ့ရြာ၊ ဆယ့္တစ္ျဖာတည္း-တဲ့။ ဒါေၾကာင့္ ေမတၱာအခါေတာ္ေန႔ ျဖစ္ေပၚလာရျခင္းအေၾကာင္းကို တင္ျပရမည္ဆုိလွ်င္ ျမတ္ဗုဒၶလက္ထက္ေတာ္အခါက ရဟန္းေတာ္အပါး-၅၀၀-တို႔သည္ ျမတ္ဗုဒၶအထံေတာ္မွ (၀ါဆိုလမတိုင္မီ) အရဟတၱဖိုလ္ေပါက္ နိဗၺာန္ခ်မ္းသာသုိ႔ေရာက္ရွိႏုိင္ေသာ သမထ၀ိပႆနာကမၼ႒ာန္းကို သင္ယူျပီး ယူဇနာ(၁၀၀)ေ၀းေသာ ေတာအုပ္ၾကီးတစ္ခုသို႔ သြားေရာက္ကာ ၀ါဆို၀ါကပ္လွ်က္ တရားအားထုတ္ေတာ္မူၾကကုန္၏။ ထိုရဟန္းေတာ္မ်ား၏ သီလ သမာဓိ ပညာဂုဏ္တို႔ေၾကာင့္ ရုကၡစိုး ဘုမၼစိုးနတ္တို႔သည္ မိမိတို႔ဆိုင္ရာ သစ္ပင္ဘုံဗိမာန္တို႔၌ မေန၀ံ့ၾကေတာ့ေခ်။ ထိုအခါ ရဟန္းေတာ္အပါး (၅၀၀)တို႔အား သူတုိ႔ေတာအုပ္အတြင္း၌ မေနႏုိင္ေအာင္၊ ဌာေနသုိ႔ျပန္သြားေလေအာင္ အမ်ဳိးမ်ဳိး အေႏွာက္အယွက္မ်ား ေပးခဲ့ၾကသျဖင့္ ရဟန္းေတာ္မ်ားသည္ ျမတ္ဗုဒၶထံသို႔ ျပန္သြားခဲ့ၾကရကုန္၏။ ျမတ္ဗုဒၶသည္ အေၾကာင္းအျခင္းအရာတို႔ကို ဆင္ျခင္္သုံးသပ္ျပီး၍ ထိုရဟန္းေတာ္တို႔အား ေမတၱာသုတ္ေတာ္ကို ခ်ီးျမွင့္ေတာ္မူခဲ့ေလသည္။ ထိုရဟန္းေတာ္တို႔သည္လည္း ျမတ္ဗုဒၶခ်ီးျမွင့္ေတာ္မူလိုက္ေသာ ေမတၱာသုတ္ေတာ္ကို (၀ါေခါင္လျပည့္ေန႔တြင္) သူတို႔သီတင္းသုံးခဲ့ေသာ ေတာစပ္မွစ၍ ရြတ္ဆိုပြါးမ်ားကာ ေတာထဲသို႔ ၀င္ေတာ္မူခဲ့ၾက၏။ ေမတၱာဟူသည္ အခ်င္းခ်င္း ရန္မလိုေသာစိတ္ဓာတ္၊ ကူညီရုိင္းပင္းလိုေသာစိတ္ဓာတ္ပင္ျဖစ္ပါသည္။ တစ္နည္းအားျဖင့္ဆိုရလွ်င္ ေမတၱာဟူသည္ ေျခာက္လွန္႔ေသာသေဘာ၊ ျခိမ္းေျခာက္ေသာသေဘာတုိ႔ကို လက္ကမ္းၾကိဳဆိုျခင္းသေဘာထားသို႔ ေျပာင္းလဲေပးျခင္းပင္ျဖစ္သည္။ ထိုအခါ ဘုမၼစိုး၊ ရုကၡစိုးနတ္တို႔သည္ ရဟန္းေတာ္မ်ားႏွင့္ မိတ္ေဆြမ်ားျဖစ္သြားၾကကာ မည္သည့္အေႏွာက္အယွက္မ်ဳိးကိုမွ် မေပးခဲ့ၾကေတာ့ေခ်။ ထို႔အျပင္ ထိုရဟန္းေတာ္တို႔ တရားအားထုတ္ရာတြင္ ကုိယ္စိတ္နွစ္ပါး တည္ၿငိမ္ေအးခ်မ္းစြာ တရားအားထုတ္ႏိုင္ရန္ အကူအညီမ်ား ေပးခဲ့ၾကေလသည္။ ထိုေၾကာင့္ ထို၀ါေခါင္လျပည့္ေန႔ကို ေမတၱာအခါေတာ္ေန႔ဟူ၍ ေမာ္ကြန္းကမၺည္းတင္ထားခဲ့ၾကကုန္၏။ သတၱ၀ါအခ်င္းခ်င္း ေမတၱာထားႏုိင္ၾကပါေစကုန္သတည္း။ ေမတၱာထားႏုိင္ၾကကုန္သည္ျဖစ္၍ ညီရင္းအစ္ကုိ ေမာင္ရင္းႏွမကဲ့သုိ႔ ခ်စ္ခင္ၾကပါေစကုန္သတည္း။ အခ်င္းခ်င္း ခ်စ္ခင္စုံမက္ၾကကုန္သည္ျဖစ္၍ တစ္ဦး၏အက်ဳိးကုိ တစ္ဦးက ေဆာင္ရြက္ႏုိင္ၾကပါေစကုန္သတည္း။ ။
ထုိေန႔၌ ေကာင္းမႈတစ္ခု ျဖစ္ပါေစျခင္းအက်ဳိးငွါ သီတဂူ ေနာင္ေတာ္ ညီေတာ္သုံးပါး တုိင္ပင္ညွိႏႈိင္းလ်က္ ဗာရာဏသီတကၠသုိလ္တြင္ ပညာရည္ႏုိ႔ အတူေသာက္စုိ႔ေနၾကကုန္ေသာ စာသင္သား သံဃာေတာ္ (၁၃)ပါးတုိ႔အား ေန႔ဆြမ္းဆက္ကပ္လုပ္ေကၽြးပါသည္။ ဤကုသုိလ္ေကာင္းမႈ၏ အဘုိ႔ဘာဂကို ပစၥည္းေလးပါး ေထာက္ပံ့ၾကကုန္ေသာ ဒါယကာ ဒါယိကာမအေပါင္းအားလည္းေကာင္း၊ မယ္ေတာ္ႀကီးေဒၚက်င္သိန္း၊ ႀကီးေတာ္ ေဒၚက်င္ျမ၊ အမႀကီး မအုံးျမင့္၊ အစ္ကုိႀကီး ကုိ၀င္းစိန္ႏွင့္ ျမင္အပ္ မျမင္အပ္၊ ေ၀းေန နီးေန၊ ဘ၀ဇာတ္ဆုံး ဘ၀ဇတ္မဆုံး၊ ရွည္ရွည္ တုိတုိ၊ ငယ္ငယ္ လတ္လတ္၊ ပုုပု ၀၀အစရွိေသာ ခပ္သိမ္းေသာ သတၱ၀ါအနႏၱတုိ႔အား ပုညကုသိုလ္ ေပးေ၀လိုက္ရပါသည္ ေကာင္းေထြ သာဓု၊ သာဓု၊ သာဓုေခၚဆုိႏုိင္ၾကပါေစကုန္သတည္း။ သာဓုေခၚဆုိႏုိင္ၾကကုန္သည္ျဖစ္၍ ကုိယ္စိတ္ႏွစ္ျဖာ က်န္းမာခ်မ္းသာၾကပါေစကုန္သတည္း။ ။
သီတဂူစန္းလပမာ ခ်မ္းျမသာယာရွိၾကပါေစ။ ။
ရွင္သုခ(မင္းလွ)
မ်က္စိအေၾကာင္း သိေကာင္းစရာ
Monday, August 16, 2010မ်က္စိမွာ အျပင္ၾကြက္သား၊ အတြင္းၾကြက္သား ဆိုၿပီးရွိပါတယ္ ။အျပင္ႂကြက္သား -၆-ခုက မ်က္စိလွဳပ္ရွားမွဳ ကို ထိန္းထားျပီး မ်က္စိကစားတိုင္း ညီညီညာညာ လွဳပ္ရွားေပးေနရတာ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။
အဲဒီႂကြက္သားတခု အားနည္းျခင္း ခ်ိဳ႕ယြင္းျခင္းမ်ား ရွိေနပါက မ်က္စိ လိုရာကို တည့္မတ္စြာ မၾကည့္ႏိုင္ေတာ့ပဲမ်က္စိ ေစြေစာင္းျခင္း ျဖစ္လာရပါေတာ့တယ္။
ေနာက္အတြင္း ၾကြက္သားတခုကေတာ့ Ciliary Muscle လို ့ေခၚတဲ့ မ်က္စိအတြင္းမွန္ဘီလူးရဲ ့ အခံုးကို လိုရင္လိုသလို ျပဳျပင္ ႏိုင္စြမ္းရွိတဲ့ၾကြက္ သားပါပဲ။ အနီး ၾကည္ ့ရာက အေ၀းကုိ လွမ္းၾကည္ ့ျခင္း၊ အေ၀းၾကည္ ့ရာကအနီး ကိုျပန္ၾကည္ ့ျခင္းဆိုတဲ့ ( Accommodation )လို ့ေခၚတဲ့မွန္ဘီလူးအခံုးကို ေျပာင္းလဲရတဲ့အလုပ္ကိုလုပ္ေပးတဲ့ Muscle ပါ။ Computer Screen ကစာလံုးေသးေသးေတြကို ျပတ္သားစြာ ျမင္ရေအာင္အားျပဳတဲ့ၾကြက္သားပါ။ မ်က္မွန္ပါ၀ါတပ္ဆင္ဖို ့လိုအပ္သူေတြဆိုရင္ ဒီၾကြက္သားအားျပဳရတာ ပိုဆိုးျပီး မ်က္စိကုိက္တာတို ့၊ ဇက္ေၾကာ တက္တာတို ့ျဖစ္လာတတ္ပါတယ္။ ဒီလို မ်က္မွန္တပ္ဖို ့ လိုတဲ့သူတစ္ဦး က Computer Screen ကိုစာလံုးေတြ စိုက္ၾကည္ ့မယ္ဆိုရင္ ဒီဇက္ေၾကာတက္တာ ၊ မ်က္စိ ေညာင္းတာ၊ မ်က္စိ ကိုက္တာေတြဟာ မ်က္မွန္တပ္ဖို ့မလိုသူတဦးထက္ ပိုဆိုးစြာခံစားရတတ္ပါတယ္။
ေနာက္တခုက မ်က္ေတာင္ခတ္ျခင္းပါပဲ ။ ကြန္ျပဴတာၾကည့္ေနတဲ့ကေလးတိုင္းဟာ အာရံုစိုက္ျပီး ၾကည္ ့ေနခ်ိန္မွာ မ်က္ေတာင္ မခတ္ပဲ ၾကာေနတတ္ပါတယ္။ မ်က္ေတာင္ခတ္တယ္ဆိုတာ အေရးမၾကီးလွဘူးထင္ေပမဲ့ ၾကာၾကာမခတ္ပဲ ေနရင္ အေရးၾကီးလာပါေတာ့တယ္။ လူတစ္ဦးဟာ သာမန္အားျဖင့္ တစ္မိနစ္မွာ ၁၆ ၾကိမ္ကေန အၾကိမ္ ၂၀ အထိ ခတ္ေပးရပါတယ္။ အခုေတာ့ ကြန္ျပဴတာၾကည့္ေနတဲ့ ကေလးဟာ တစ္မိနစ္မွာ ၆ ၾကိမ္ေလာက္ေတာင္ မခတ္ၾကေတာ့ မ်က္စိမ်က္ႏွာျပင္ရဲ ့လိုအပ္တာေတြ ၾကည္လင္ေအာင္မလုပ္ေပးႏိုင္ေတာ့ပါဘူး။ မ်က္စိရဲ ့မ်က္ႏွာျပင္ အထူးသျဖင့္ မ်က္ၾကည္လႊာဟာ ( Pre-Corneal Film ) လို ့ေခၚတဲ့ မ်က္ရည္လႊာေလးနဲ ့အျမဲစိုစြတ္ေနရပါတယ္။ အဲဒီမ်က္ရည္လႊာေလး ပံုမွန္ရွိေနဖို ့ လူတစ္ဦးဟာ မ်က္ေတာင္ခတ္ေပးရပါတယ္။ ေနာက္မ်က္စိမ်က္ႏွာျပင္ ေပၚက ျမဴမွဳန္ေလာက္ေသးတဲ့ အမွိဳက္သရုိက္ေလးေတြ ကိုလဲ ဖယ္ခြာေပးဖို ့မ်က္ေတာင္ခတ္ေပးရတာပါ။ ဒီထက္အေရးၾကီးတာ ကေတာ့ မ်က္ေတာင္တခ်က္ခတ္လိုက္တိုင္း မ်က္စိအာရံုဟာ တခ်က္နားလိုက္ရျပီး မ်က္အျမင္အာရံုလႊာ System တစ္ခုလံုးကို ေခတၱအနားေပးလိုက္ရသလို ျဖစ္လို ့ပါပဲ။ ကြန္ျပဴတာ screen နဲ ့နိစၥဓူ၀ အလုပ္လုပ္ေနသူေတြ သတိထားဖို ့လိုပါတယ္ ။ အမ်ားအားျဖင့္ ေလ့လာၾကည္ ့တဲ့အခါ ကြန္ျပဴတာနဲ ့ဆက္တိုက္အလုပ္လုပ္ေနသူေတြမွာ မ်က္ေတာင္ခတ္ႏွဳန္းဟာ တစ္မိနစ္မွာ ေျခာက္ၾကိမ္မွ ရွစ္ၾကိမ္ခန္ ့သာရွိတဲ့ အတြက္ မ်က္စိစိုစြတ္မွဳအားနည္းျပီး မ်က္စိက်ိန္းစပ္ျခင္း၊ မ်က္စိေညာင္းညာျခင္းျဖစ္ရတာပါ။
အားလံုးျခံဳ ေျပာရရင္ေတာ့ CVS လို ့ေခၚတဲ့ Computer Vision Syndrome ဆိုတာ ကြန္ျပဴတာၾကည္ ့သူေတြမွာ မ်က္စိရဲ ့အျပင္ၾကြက္သား၊ အတြင္းၾကြက္သား အာရံုစိုက္ရမွဳမ်ားျပီး မ်က္ေတာင္ခတ္နည္းတာေၾကာင့္ ေပၚလာရတဲ့ မ်က္စိေ၀ဒနာ လို ့အမည္တပ္ခ်င္ပါတယ္။ Asthenopia လို ့လည္းေခၚႏုိင္ပါတယ္။
ဒါေၾကာင့္ ကြန္ျပဴတာ သံုးရတဲ့ လူၾကီးလူငယ္တိုင္းကို ေအာက္ပါအတိုင္း ေဆာင္ရြက္ၾကဖို ့အၾကံျပဳလိုပါတယ္ -
(၁) ကြန္ျပဴတာၾကည္ ့သူတိုင္း မ်က္စိေညာင္းညာျခင္း၊ မ်က္ရိုး ကိုက္ျခင္း၊ မ်က္ရည္ပူက်ျခင္း၊ မ်က္စိနီျခင္းရွိပါက မ်က္မွန္တပ္ဆင္ဖို ့လိုမလို မ်က္စိစမ္းသပ္ပါ။
(၂) မ်က္မွန္တပ္ဆင္ရန္ လိုသူမ်ား မ်က္မွန္တပ္၍သာ ကြန္ျပဴတာကို အသံုးျပဳၾကပါ။ ( အသက္၄၀ ေက်ာ္သူတိုင္း စာၾကည္ ့မ်က္မွန္အသံုးျပဳပါ။ အသက္ ၃၈ - ၄၀ ေအာက္ လူငယ္မ်ား အေ၀းမ်က္မွန္ တပ္ဆင္အသံုးျပဳရန္၊ အေ၀းမ်က္မွန္ ပါ၀ါ မရွိပါက တပ္ဆင္ရန္မလိုပါ။)
(၃) အသက္အရြယ္ၾကီး၍ ကြန္ျပဴတာ သံုးရသူတိုင္း မ်က္စိပူစပ္ပူေလာင္ ျဖစ္ပါက မ်က္ရည္ ခန္းေျခာက္ျခင္းမွ ကာကြယ္ႏိုင္ရန္ မ်က္ရည္တု မ်က္စဥ္း ကိုအသံုးျပဳပါ။
(၄) ကေလးလူၾကီး မည္သူမဆို ကြန္ျပဴတာၾကည္ ့၍ မ်က္စိပူစပ္ပူေလာင္ျဖစ္ျခင္း၊ ခိုးလို ့ခုလု ျဖစ္ျခင္း၊ မ်က္စိနီျခင္း တို ့ျဖစ္ပါက မ်က္စိကို ပြတ္တိုက္ျခင္းမျပဳပဲ မ်က္ရည္တု မ်က္စဥ္းကို ေလးၾကိမ္မွ ေျခာက္ၾကိမ္ အထိ ခတ္ၾကည့္ပါ။ မသက္သာပါက နီးစပ္ရာ မ်က္စိ ဆရာ၀န္မ်ားႏွင့္ ျပသပါ။
အထက္ပါ အခ်က္အလက္မ်ားကို လိုက္နာ ေဆာင္ရြက္ပါမွ ကြန္ပ်ဴတာ သံုး၍ မ်က္စိေ၀ဒနာ ခံစားရမွဳမွ သက္သာရႏို္င္ေၾကာင္း တင္ျပလိုက္ရပါတယ္။
(Dr. ကံညြန္႔)
read more “မ်က္စိအေၾကာင္း သိေကာင္းစရာ”
အဲဒီႂကြက္သားတခု အားနည္းျခင္း ခ်ိဳ႕ယြင္းျခင္းမ်ား ရွိေနပါက မ်က္စိ လိုရာကို တည့္မတ္စြာ မၾကည့္ႏိုင္ေတာ့ပဲမ်က္စိ ေစြေစာင္းျခင္း ျဖစ္လာရပါေတာ့တယ္။
ေနာက္အတြင္း ၾကြက္သားတခုကေတာ့ Ciliary Muscle လို ့ေခၚတဲ့ မ်က္စိအတြင္းမွန္ဘီလူးရဲ ့ အခံုးကို လိုရင္လိုသလို ျပဳျပင္ ႏိုင္စြမ္းရွိတဲ့ၾကြက္ သားပါပဲ။ အနီး ၾကည္ ့ရာက အေ၀းကုိ လွမ္းၾကည္ ့ျခင္း၊ အေ၀းၾကည္ ့ရာကအနီး ကိုျပန္ၾကည္ ့ျခင္းဆိုတဲ့ ( Accommodation )လို ့ေခၚတဲ့မွန္ဘီလူးအခံုးကို ေျပာင္းလဲရတဲ့အလုပ္ကိုလုပ္ေပးတဲ့ Muscle ပါ။ Computer Screen ကစာလံုးေသးေသးေတြကို ျပတ္သားစြာ ျမင္ရေအာင္အားျပဳတဲ့ၾကြက္သားပါ။ မ်က္မွန္ပါ၀ါတပ္ဆင္ဖို ့လိုအပ္သူေတြဆိုရင္ ဒီၾကြက္သားအားျပဳရတာ ပိုဆိုးျပီး မ်က္စိကုိက္တာတို ့၊ ဇက္ေၾကာ တက္တာတို ့ျဖစ္လာတတ္ပါတယ္။ ဒီလို မ်က္မွန္တပ္ဖို ့ လိုတဲ့သူတစ္ဦး က Computer Screen ကိုစာလံုးေတြ စိုက္ၾကည္ ့မယ္ဆိုရင္ ဒီဇက္ေၾကာတက္တာ ၊ မ်က္စိ ေညာင္းတာ၊ မ်က္စိ ကိုက္တာေတြဟာ မ်က္မွန္တပ္ဖို ့မလိုသူတဦးထက္ ပိုဆိုးစြာခံစားရတတ္ပါတယ္။
ေနာက္တခုက မ်က္ေတာင္ခတ္ျခင္းပါပဲ ။ ကြန္ျပဴတာၾကည့္ေနတဲ့ကေလးတိုင္းဟာ အာရံုစိုက္ျပီး ၾကည္ ့ေနခ်ိန္မွာ မ်က္ေတာင္ မခတ္ပဲ ၾကာေနတတ္ပါတယ္။ မ်က္ေတာင္ခတ္တယ္ဆိုတာ အေရးမၾကီးလွဘူးထင္ေပမဲ့ ၾကာၾကာမခတ္ပဲ ေနရင္ အေရးၾကီးလာပါေတာ့တယ္။ လူတစ္ဦးဟာ သာမန္အားျဖင့္ တစ္မိနစ္မွာ ၁၆ ၾကိမ္ကေန အၾကိမ္ ၂၀ အထိ ခတ္ေပးရပါတယ္။ အခုေတာ့ ကြန္ျပဴတာၾကည့္ေနတဲ့ ကေလးဟာ တစ္မိနစ္မွာ ၆ ၾကိမ္ေလာက္ေတာင္ မခတ္ၾကေတာ့ မ်က္စိမ်က္ႏွာျပင္ရဲ ့လိုအပ္တာေတြ ၾကည္လင္ေအာင္မလုပ္ေပးႏိုင္ေတာ့ပါဘူး။ မ်က္စိရဲ ့မ်က္ႏွာျပင္ အထူးသျဖင့္ မ်က္ၾကည္လႊာဟာ ( Pre-Corneal Film ) လို ့ေခၚတဲ့ မ်က္ရည္လႊာေလးနဲ ့အျမဲစိုစြတ္ေနရပါတယ္။ အဲဒီမ်က္ရည္လႊာေလး ပံုမွန္ရွိေနဖို ့ လူတစ္ဦးဟာ မ်က္ေတာင္ခတ္ေပးရပါတယ္။ ေနာက္မ်က္စိမ်က္ႏွာျပင္ ေပၚက ျမဴမွဳန္ေလာက္ေသးတဲ့ အမွိဳက္သရုိက္ေလးေတြ ကိုလဲ ဖယ္ခြာေပးဖို ့မ်က္ေတာင္ခတ္ေပးရတာပါ။ ဒီထက္အေရးၾကီးတာ ကေတာ့ မ်က္ေတာင္တခ်က္ခတ္လိုက္တိုင္း မ်က္စိအာရံုဟာ တခ်က္နားလိုက္ရျပီး မ်က္အျမင္အာရံုလႊာ System တစ္ခုလံုးကို ေခတၱအနားေပးလိုက္ရသလို ျဖစ္လို ့ပါပဲ။ ကြန္ျပဴတာ screen နဲ ့နိစၥဓူ၀ အလုပ္လုပ္ေနသူေတြ သတိထားဖို ့လိုပါတယ္ ။ အမ်ားအားျဖင့္ ေလ့လာၾကည္ ့တဲ့အခါ ကြန္ျပဴတာနဲ ့ဆက္တိုက္အလုပ္လုပ္ေနသူေတြမွာ မ်က္ေတာင္ခတ္ႏွဳန္းဟာ တစ္မိနစ္မွာ ေျခာက္ၾကိမ္မွ ရွစ္ၾကိမ္ခန္ ့သာရွိတဲ့ အတြက္ မ်က္စိစိုစြတ္မွဳအားနည္းျပီး မ်က္စိက်ိန္းစပ္ျခင္း၊ မ်က္စိေညာင္းညာျခင္းျဖစ္ရတာပါ။
အားလံုးျခံဳ ေျပာရရင္ေတာ့ CVS လို ့ေခၚတဲ့ Computer Vision Syndrome ဆိုတာ ကြန္ျပဴတာၾကည္ ့သူေတြမွာ မ်က္စိရဲ ့အျပင္ၾကြက္သား၊ အတြင္းၾကြက္သား အာရံုစိုက္ရမွဳမ်ားျပီး မ်က္ေတာင္ခတ္နည္းတာေၾကာင့္ ေပၚလာရတဲ့ မ်က္စိေ၀ဒနာ လို ့အမည္တပ္ခ်င္ပါတယ္။ Asthenopia လို ့လည္းေခၚႏုိင္ပါတယ္။
ဒါေၾကာင့္ ကြန္ျပဴတာ သံုးရတဲ့ လူၾကီးလူငယ္တိုင္းကို ေအာက္ပါအတိုင္း ေဆာင္ရြက္ၾကဖို ့အၾကံျပဳလိုပါတယ္ -
(၁) ကြန္ျပဴတာၾကည္ ့သူတိုင္း မ်က္စိေညာင္းညာျခင္း၊ မ်က္ရိုး ကိုက္ျခင္း၊ မ်က္ရည္ပူက်ျခင္း၊ မ်က္စိနီျခင္းရွိပါက မ်က္မွန္တပ္ဆင္ဖို ့လိုမလို မ်က္စိစမ္းသပ္ပါ။
(၂) မ်က္မွန္တပ္ဆင္ရန္ လိုသူမ်ား မ်က္မွန္တပ္၍သာ ကြန္ျပဴတာကို အသံုးျပဳၾကပါ။ ( အသက္၄၀ ေက်ာ္သူတိုင္း စာၾကည္ ့မ်က္မွန္အသံုးျပဳပါ။ အသက္ ၃၈ - ၄၀ ေအာက္ လူငယ္မ်ား အေ၀းမ်က္မွန္ တပ္ဆင္အသံုးျပဳရန္၊ အေ၀းမ်က္မွန္ ပါ၀ါ မရွိပါက တပ္ဆင္ရန္မလိုပါ။)
(၃) အသက္အရြယ္ၾကီး၍ ကြန္ျပဴတာ သံုးရသူတိုင္း မ်က္စိပူစပ္ပူေလာင္ ျဖစ္ပါက မ်က္ရည္ ခန္းေျခာက္ျခင္းမွ ကာကြယ္ႏိုင္ရန္ မ်က္ရည္တု မ်က္စဥ္း ကိုအသံုးျပဳပါ။
(၄) ကေလးလူၾကီး မည္သူမဆို ကြန္ျပဴတာၾကည္ ့၍ မ်က္စိပူစပ္ပူေလာင္ျဖစ္ျခင္း၊ ခိုးလို ့ခုလု ျဖစ္ျခင္း၊ မ်က္စိနီျခင္း တို ့ျဖစ္ပါက မ်က္စိကို ပြတ္တိုက္ျခင္းမျပဳပဲ မ်က္ရည္တု မ်က္စဥ္းကို ေလးၾကိမ္မွ ေျခာက္ၾကိမ္ အထိ ခတ္ၾကည့္ပါ။ မသက္သာပါက နီးစပ္ရာ မ်က္စိ ဆရာ၀န္မ်ားႏွင့္ ျပသပါ။
အထက္ပါ အခ်က္အလက္မ်ားကို လိုက္နာ ေဆာင္ရြက္ပါမွ ကြန္ပ်ဴတာ သံုး၍ မ်က္စိေ၀ဒနာ ခံစားရမွဳမွ သက္သာရႏို္င္ေၾကာင္း တင္ျပလိုက္ရပါတယ္။
(Dr. ကံညြန္႔)
A Study of Buddhism in Burma (3rd Century BC to 13th century A.D)
Friday, August 13, 2010Chapter ( I ):
Introduction
(1) 1.Geography of Burma:
Burma, which has a total area of 678,500 square kilometres (262,000 sq mi), is the largest country in mainland Southeast Asia, and the 40th-largest in the world.
It is bordered to the northwest by Chittagong Division of Bangladesh and Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh of India to the northwest. It shares its longest borders with Tibet to the north and Yunnan of China to the northeast for a total of 2,185 kilometres (1,358 mi). It is bounded by Laos and Thailand to the southeast. Burma has 1,930 kilometres (1,200 mi) of contiguous coastline along the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea to the southwest and the south, which forms one quarter of its total perimeter .
In the north, the Hengduan Shan mountains form the border with China. Hkakabo Razi, located in Kachin State, at an elevation of 5,881 metres (19,295 ft), is the highest point in Burma . Three mountain ranges, namely the Rakhine Yoma, the Bago Yoma, and the Shan Plateau exist within Burma, all of which run north-to-south from the Himalayas . The mountain chains divide Burma's three river systems, which are the Ayeyarwady, Salween (Thanlwin), and the Sittaung rivers . The Ayeyarwady River, Burma's longest river, nearly 2,170 kilometres (1,348 mi) long, flows into the Gulf of Martaban. Fertile plains exist in the valleys between the mountain chains . The majority of Burma's population lives in the Ayeyarwady valley, which is situated between the Rakhine Yoma and the Shan Plateau.
Climate:
Much of the country lies between the Tropic of Cancer and the Equator. It lies in the monsoon region of Asia, with its coastal regions receiving over 5,000 mm (196.9 in) of rain annually. Annual rainfall in the delta region is approximately 2,500 mm (98.4 in), while average annual rainfall in the Dry Zone, which is located in central Burma, is less than 1,000 mm (39.4 in). Northern regions of the country are the coolest, with average temperatures of 21 °C (70 °F). Coastal and delta regions have mean temperatures of 32 °C (89.6 °F) .
The country's slow economic growth has contributed to the preservation of much of its environment and ecosystems. Forests, including dense tropical growth and valuable teak in lower Burma, cover over 49% of the country. Other trees indigenous to the region include acacia, bamboo, ironwood, mangrove, michelia champaca coconut and betel palm and rubber has been introduced. In the highlands of the north, oak, pine and various rhododendrons cover much of the land . The lands along the coast support all varieties of tropical fruits. In the Dry Zone, vegetation is sparse and stunted.
Typical jungle animals, particularly tigers and leopards, occur sparsely in Burma. In upper Burma, there are rhinoceros, wild buffalo, wild boars, deer, antelope, and elephants, which are also tamed or bred in captivity for use as work animals, particularly in the lumber industry. Smaller mammals are also numerous, ranging from gibbons and monkeys to flying foxes and tapirs. The abundance of birds is notable with over 800 species, including parrots, peafowl, pheasants, crows, herons, and paddy birds. Among reptile species there are crocodiles, geckos, cobras, Burmese pythons, and turtles. Hundreds of species of freshwater fish are wide-ranging, plentiful and are very important food sources .
(1) 2. History of Burma:
After the First Burmese War, the Ava kingdom ceded the provinces of Manipur, Tenassarim, and Arakan to the British. Rangoon and southern Burma were incorporated into British India in 1853. All of Burma came directly or indirectly under British India in 1886 after the Third Burmese War and the fall of Mandalay . Burma was administered as a province of British India until 1937 when it became a separate, self-governing colony. The country became independent from the United Kingdom on 4 January 1948, as the "Union of Burma".
It became the "Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma" on 4 January 1974, before reverting to the "Union of Burma" on 23 September 1988. On 18 June 1989, the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) adopted the name "Union of Myanmar" for English transliteration. This controversial name change in English, while accepted in the UN and in many countries, is not recognised by opposition groups and by nations such as the United Kingdom and the United States .
Early history:
Archaeological evidence suggests that civilization in the region which now forms Burma is quite old. The oldest archaeological find was of cave paintings and a Holocene assemblage in a hunter-gatherer cave site in Padah Lin in Shan State .
The Mon people are thought to be the earliest group to migrate into the lower Ayeyarwady valley, and by the mid-900s BC were dominant in southern Burma .
The Tibeto-Burman speaking Pyu arrived later in the 1st century BC, and established several city states – of which Sri Ksetra was the most powerful – in central Ayeyarwady valley. The Mon and Pyu kingdoms were an active overland trade route between India and China. The Pyu kingdoms entered a period of rapid decline in early 9th century A.D when the powerful kingdom of Nanzhao (in present-day Yunnan) invaded the Ayeyarwady valley several times.
Bagan (1044–1287):
Tibeto-Burman speaking Burmans, or the Bamar, began migrating to the Ayeyarwady valley from present-day Yunnan's Nanzhao kingdom starting in 7th century A.D. Filling the power gap left by the Pyu, the Burmans established a small kingdom centred in Bagan in 849. But it was not until the reign of King Anawrahta (1044–1077) that Bagan's influence expanded throughout much of present-day Burma.
After Anawrahta's capture of the Mon capital of Thaton in 1057, the Burmans adopted Theravada Buddhism from the Mons. The Burmese script was created, based on the Mon script, during the reign of King Kyanzittha (1084–1112). Prosperous from trade, Bagan kings built many magnificent temples and pagodas throughout the country – many of which can still be seen today.
Bagan's power slowly waned in 13th century. Kublai Khan's Mongol forces invaded northern Burma starting in 1277, and sacked Bagan city itself in 1287. Bagan's over two century reign of Ayeyarwady valley and its periphery was over.
Small kingdoms (1287–1531):
The Mongols could not stay for long in the searing Ayeyarwady valley. But the Tai-Shan people from Yunnan who came down with the Mongols fanned out to the Ayeyarwady valley, Shan states, Laos, Siam and Assam, and became powerful players in Southeast Asia.
The Bagan Empire was irreparably broken up into several small kingdoms:
The Burman kingdom of Ava or Innwa (1364–1555), the successor state to three smaller kingdoms founded by Burmanised Shan kings, controlling Upper Burma (without the Shan states)
The Mon kingdom of Hanthawady Pegu or Bago (1287–1540), founded by a Mon-ised Shan King Wareru (1287–1306), controlling Lower Burma (without Taninthayi).
The Rakhine kingdom of Mrauk U (1434–1784), in the west.
Several Shan states in the Shan hills in the east and the Kachin hills in the north while the north-western frontier of present Chin Hills still disconnected yet.
This period was characterised by constant warfare between Ava and Bago, and to a lesser extent, Ava and the Shans. Ava briefly controlled Rakhine (1379–1430) and came close to defeating Bago a few times, but could never quite reassemble the lost empire. Nevertheless, Burmese culture entered a golden age. Hanthawady Bago prospered. Bago's Queen Shin Saw Bu (1453–1472) raised the gilded Shwedagon Pagoda to its present height.
(1 ) 3.What is Buddhism?
The Buddha has passed away, but the sublime Teaching, which He expounded during His long and successful ministry and which He unreservedly bequeathed to humanity, still exists in its pristine purity. Although the Master has left no written records of His Teachings, His disciples preserved them, by committing to memory and transmitting them orally from generation to generation.
Three months after the Death of the Buddha, in the eighth year of King Ajātasattu’s reign, 500 pre-eminent Arahants concerned with preserving the purity of the Doctrine held Convocation at Rājagaha to rehearse it. The Venerable Ānanda Thera, the Buddha’s beloved attendant who had the special privilege and honour of hearing the discourses from the Buddha Himself, and the Venerable Upāli Thera were chosen to answer questions about the Dhamma (Doctrine) and the Vinaya (Discipline) respectively.
This First Council compiled and arranged in its present form the Pāli Tipitaka, which represents the entire body of the Buddha’s Teaching. Two other Councils of Arahants were held 100 and 236 years later respectively, again to rehearse the Word of the Buddha because attempts were being made to pollute the pure Teaching. About 83 BC., during the reign of the pious Simhala King Vatta Gāmani Abhaya , a Council of Arahants was held, and the Tipitaka was, for the first time in the history of Buddhism, committed to writing at Aluvihāra in Ceylon.
The word Tipitaka (Tripitaka in Sanskrit) means three Basket. They are the Basket of Discipline (Vinaya Pitaka), the Basket of Discourses ( Sutta Pitaka ) and the Basket of Ultimate Doctrine (Abhidhamma Pitaka).
The Vinaya Pitaka, which is regarded as the sheet anchor of the Holy Order, deals mainly with the rules and regulations of the Order of Bhikkhus (monks) and Bhikkhunis (nuns).
The Vinaya Pi¥aka consists of the following five books:
1. Pārājika Pāli Vibhanga (Major Offences)
2. Pācittiya Pāli (Minor Offences)
3. Mahāvagga Pāli Khandaka (Greater Section)
4. Cullavagga Pāli (Lesser Section)
5. Parivāra Pāli (Epitome of the Vinaya).
The Sutta Pi¥aka consists chiefly of instructive discourse delivered by the Buddha to both the Sangha and the laity on various occasion.
The Sutta Pitaka consists of the following five Nikāyas (Collections):
1 Dīgha Nikāya (Collection of Long Discourses)
2 Majjhima Nikāya (Collection of Middle-length Discourses)
3 Samyutta Nikāya (Collection of Kindred Sayings)
4 Anguttara Nikāya (Collection of Gradual Sayings)
5 Khuddaka Nikāya (Smaller Collection)
This fifth is subdivided into fifteen books:
1 Khuddaka Pātha (Shorter Texts)
2 Dhammapada (The Way of Truth)
3 Udāna (Paeans of Joy)
4 Itivuttaka (“Thus said” Discourses)
5 Sutta Nipāta (Collected Discourses)
6 Vimāna Vatthu (Stories of Celestial Mansions)
7 Peta Vatthu (Stories of Petas)
8 Theragāthā (Psalms of the Brethren)
9 Therigāthā (Psalms of the Sisters)
10 Jātaka (Birth Stories of the Bodhisatta)
11 Niddesa (Expositions)
12 Patisambhidā (Book on Analytical Knowledge)
13 Apadāna (Lives of Arahants)
14 Buddhavamsa (History of the Buddha)
15 Cariyā Pitaka (Modes of Conduct).
The Abhidhamma Pitaka is the most important and most interesting of the three containing as it does the profound philosophy of the Buddha’s teaching in contrast to the simpler discourses in the Sutta Pitaka. Abhidhamma, the Higher Doctrine of the Buddha, expounds the quintessence of His profound teachings.
The Abhidhamma Pitaka is composed of the following seven works:
1 Dhammasangani (Classification of Dhamma)
2 Vibhanga (Divisions)
3 Dhātukathā (Discourse on Elements)
4 Puggala Paññatti (The Book on Individuals)
5 Kathāvatthu (Points of Controversy)
6 Yamaka (The Book of Pairs)
7 Patthāna (The Book of Causal Relations)
The Four Noble Truths:
The teaching of the Four Noble Truths was quickly disseminated. The sooner the truths of his teachings are learned, the sooner one would understand his teachings and so could live a life free from sufferings. “Catunnam bhikkave dhammānam ananubodhā appativedhā evamidam dighamaddhānam sandhāvitam samsaritam mamañceva tuhmā kañca"
“Though not understanding, though not penetrating the Four Noble Truths, O Bikkhus That we have wandered on this long journey, you and I.”
The Buddha expounded the Four Noble Truths after he had realized these truths at the feet of the Bodhi tree in 6th century B.C. The Four Noble Truths constitute the central idea of his teaching. They are as follow:
(1) The Noble Truth of the Suffering,
(2) The Noble Truth of the cause of Suffering,
(3) The Noble Truth of the cessation of Suffering, and
(4)The Noble Truth of the Path leading to the cessation of Suffering,
The First Noble Truth:
What is the first noble truth? The first noble truth is very significant and must be correctly interpreted. The Pāli word “Dukkha” and its real meaning and interpretation must be understood. Generally the word “Dukkha" is translated as suffering. According to Daw Mya Tin:“We cannot yet find a single English word that can convey the real meaning of the word "Dukkha" used in the exposition of Four Noble Truths."
Dukkha means sufferings: physical or mental pain, misfortune, unsatisfied evil consequences etc., and rebirth in the lower planes of existences or in the lower strata of human society in the human world.
According to Dr. K. Sri Dhammananda-
“Dukkha contains not only ordinary meaning of suffering, but also includes deeper ideas such as imperfection, pain, impermanence, disharmony discomfort, irritation, awareness of incompleteness and insufficiency."
The inherent charateristics of the First Noble Truths are given in Pali sources. They involve: The characteristic of oppression (Pilanattha), the characteristic of producing causes of suffering (Sankhatattho), incessantly burning heat or fire (Santapattho) and the characteristic of change in the form of suffering (Viparinamattho).
As all casually conditioned physical and mental phenomena have about four characteristics, so all these constitute the Dukkha Saccā, the first noble truth of Dukkha. The main characteristic of the first noble truth is oppression and the remaining three are its adjuncts. This oppression can be found in the following three ways: By the way of production (Sankhata); by way of incessantly burning (Santāpa) and by way of change (Viparināma).
Any casually conditioned phenomenon burdens any being that clings to it by the state of oppressing (Pilanattha) in the following manner; in the beginning; in the middle, and at the end. As we see beings are nothing but made of mind and matter. These are known as the five aggregates (Khandha). In dealing with this, Dhammapada says that “Nathikhandha samā dukkhā." There is no ill as (the burden of) Khandha (the five aggregates).
To attain the five aggregates of the Brahma world, and Deva world, one has to practise meditation for Jhāna (trance) and Samādhi (concentration) respectively in his previous existence. He has to perform the wholesome deeds in the present life. These endeavours to attain such states are the heavy burdens of the five aggregates in the beginning. In the case of human beings too, the mental & physical phenomena in their five aggregates always burden them in one of three ways once the beings enter the bodies of Brahma and Deva planes. In the case of Brahma, the superiority concept of "I am" "I am” arise; and other evils; such as eternalist theory, anihilationalist theory intoxication with sensual pleasure in the Brahma planes are burdening them by way of continuously burning in the middle. The Brahama's life span is so long so that they think that we will last long forever without changing our lives. They also think that there will be no more life for them. These two kinds of thought are not free from extreme.
In the case of Deva, the great fire passions arise from the body and burn the Deva throughout his life. This is how Devas are burdened by way of continuously burning in the middle. The burdens for human beings in the round of life cycle are varied and heavy. The body of human beings burdens them in a manner of burning continuously. The five groups of aggregates belong to Brahma, Deva and men continuously burden till the end of Samsara. This is called purely Dukkha Saccā. This is a realistic way of looking at life but not a pessimistic view; it is a realization of truth of Dukkha Sacca when one proceeds to analyze the cause of Dukkha.
Scholars will ever argue and speculate. These are not recent questions of today or yesterday; they were raised in the time of Buddha. Even Sakuludāyi, the wanderer, for instance, asked about the past and the future and the Buddha reply was categorical.
“Apica Udāyi titthatu pubbanto titthatu aparanto Dhammam te desessāmi imasmin sati idam hoti imassupādā idam uppajjati imasmin asati idam na hoti imassa nirodhā idam nirujjhati” “Let be the past, let be the future, I will teach you Dhamma. When this is, that comes to be, with the arising of this that arises, when this is not, that does not come to be, with the cessation of this that ceases."
This, in a nutshell, is the Buddhist doctrine of condition, and forms the foundation of the four noble truths, the central concept of Buddhism. The venerable Assaji addressed Upatissa, a single verse that embraces the Buddha's entire doctrine of causality-
“Ye dhammā hetuppabhavā, tesam hetum tathāgato āha,
Te sañcaya yo nirodhoti, evamvādi mahāsamano."
“Whatever form a cause proceeds these as the Tathāgata has explained the cause, its cessation too he has explained. This is the teaching of the supreme sage." It includes the second noble truth and the third noble truth.
The Second Noble Truth:
The second one is the noble truth of the cause of Dukkha, what is the cause of Dukkha is craving. Unless we remove the craving through the practice of meditation we cannot overcome the ocean of rebirth. It is said in Dhammapada that-
“Piyato jāyate soko, piyato jāyate bhayam
Piyato vippamuttassa, natthisoko kuto bhayam"
Craving begets sorrow; craving begets fear. For him who is free from craving, there is no sorrow how can there be fear for him. The same as the first noble truth, in the second one, we find the four noble truths as characterized below-
“Dukkha samudayassa āyuhanattho
Nidānattho samyogattho palibodhattho”
“The characteristic of accumulating what would cause suffering (Ayuhanatta); the characteristic of constantly supplying or becoming a constant source of supply of suffering (Nidānatta); the characteristic of causing union or association with suffering (Samyogattha) and the characteristic of obstructing being an obstruct or impediment to free from suffering."
Here craving means the lust of the flesh (Kāmatahnā), the lust of life (Bhavatahnā), and the love for the present world (vibhavatannā). It is a fire, which burns in all beings; every activity is motivated by desire. It is a powerful-means of force present in all forms of life, and is the chief cause of the ills in life. It is the craving that leads to repeated births in the cycle of existence.
Craving leads to ignorance. It doesn’t seek the things as they really are, or it fails to understand the reality of experience and life. Under the delusion of self and not realizing Anatta (non-self), a person clings to things, which are impermanent, changeable, and perishable. It is said that it is the desire for what belongs to the unreal self that generates suffering for it is impermanent, changeable, perishable and that in the object of desire causes disappointment, disillusionment and other forms of suffering to him who desire.
Here, the question may come why the teaching of the Buddha repeatedly refers to craving, and why not the hatred is mentioned in the second noble truth? The answer for that question is the craving for existence is the only foremost cause of becoming of all beings here and hereafter. R.S. Lopleston says - “All desire says the second truth, leads to renewed existence. It leads from birth to birth; it tends to perpetuate the series."
Finally, it should be definitely understood that craving is the origin of all sorts of suffering in the lives of all beings, throughout all of their existences. Thus the first two noble truths are considered to be the interaction between the two as cause and effect.
The Third Noble Truth:
The third truth is the Noble Truth of cessation of Dukkha. It states that these laminations of desire will remove the cause of man-made suffering; for Tahnā is the force, which keeps us in the realm of Samsāra, over which Dukkha holds away. Actually, the third one is unconditioned known as Nibbāna. It is described in Dhammapada that “Paviveka rasam pitvā rasāupasamassaca Niddaro hoti nippāpo dhammapiti rasampitvā." “Having had the taste of solitude and the taste of perfect peace of Nibbāna, one who drinks in the joy of the essence of Dhamma is free from fear and evil”. According to Christmas Humphrey: “For one description of Nirvana is the dying out of the three fires of Lobha, Dosa and Moha, greed, hatred and illusion." Nobody can realize the Nibbāna experience unless one goes through the practice of insight mortification. Nibbāna is beyond intellectual, rational, philosophical knowledge. Therefore, unless one trains ones minds through the practice of meditation and destroys the desire, hatred and illusion, no one can understand in-depth the meaning of the truth. Nibbāna is a state, which is free from suffering and rounds of rebirth.
This is a state, which is not subjected to the laws of birth, decay and death. This state is so sublime that no human language can express it. Nibbāna is uniform, unoriginated, uncreated and unformed. It is beyond logic and reasoning. To understand this third noble truth one must follow the Eightfold Path. Hence, it is necessary to develop spiritual understanding, which will enable to realize this Third Noble Truth.
The Fourth Noble Truth:
The final one is the Noble Truth of the path leading to the cessation of Dukkha. This is known as the "Middle Path" (Majjima-patipadā) because it avoids two extremes: One extreme being the search for happiness through the pleasure of the senses, which is low, common, and unprofitable and the other being the search for happiness through self-mortification in different from the asceticism, which is "painful unworthy and unprofitable."
In “Buddhism in a Nutshell”, the eightfold noble path is described as follow, independent course, avoiding the two extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification. The former retards one’s spiritual progress, and the later weakens one’s intellect.” Having himself first tried these two extremes, and having found them to be useless, the Buddha discovered through personal experience the Middle Path which gives vision and knowledge, which leads to calm Insight, Enlightenment Nibbāna. The Middle Path is generally known as the Noble Eightfold Path, because it is composed of eight categories or divisions: namely,
1. Right Understanding (Sammāditthi)
2. Right Thought (Sammāsankappa)
3. Right Speech (Sammāvācā)
4. Right Action (Sammākammanta)
5. Right Livelihood (Sammāājiva)
6. Right effort (Sammāvāyāma)
7. Right Mindfulness (Sammāsati)
8. Right Concentration (Sammāsamādhi)
According to Dr. K. Sri Dhammānanda, “This path is unique to Buddhism and distinguishes it from every other religion and philosophy. It is the Buddhist code of mental and physical conduct which leads to the end of suffering, sorrow and despair, to perfect peace, Nibbāna"
Dr. W. Rãhula states “Practically the whole teaching of the Buddha, to which he devoted himself during 45 years, deals in some way or other with this path. He explained it in different ways and in different words of those many thousand discourses scattered in the Buddhist scriptures is found in the Noble Eightfold Path."
The Noble Eightfold path is sub-divided into three groups: Ethical conduct (Sila) comprised by Right speech, Right action and Right livelihood; mental Discipline (Samādhi) formed by Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right concentration; wisdom (Paññā) constituted by Right Understanding and Right Thought.
Ethical conduct (Sila) -Right Speech:
Refraining from telling lies (Musāvādavirati) ; back biting and calumny (Pisunavācāvirati) ; using abusive language, harsh words, hurtful speech to others (Pharusavācāvirati) and frivolous talk (Samphapplāpa) such as telling legends and fables or which is fruitless for this world and next known as Right Speech.
Right Action:
Refraining from killing and injuring living beings (Pānātipātavirati) , taking property which is not given (Adinnādānavirati) and taking intoxicant and from unlawful sexual intercourse with those who are still in the care of parents or guardians is called Right Action.
Right Livelihood:
There are four kinds of Right livelihood, they are:
1. In the case of laity, refraining from wrong livelihood by means of immoral physical and verbal action. (Duccaritamicchājivavirati).
2. In the case of monks and hermits, refraining from wrong livelihood, e.g., by means of giving fruits and flowers to the laymen to carry favor (Anesanamicchājivavirati).
3. In the case of Monks and hermits, refraining from trickery and deception by means of working wanders (Kuhanādimicchājivavirati).
4. In the case of monks and hermits refraining from wrong livelihood, e.g., by means of performing base arts such as reading signs and omens, which are against the rule and practice of the order. These three factors of the Eightfold path constitute Ethical conduct. It should be realized that the Buddhist ethical and moral conducts aims at promoting a happy and harmonious life both for the individual and for society. This moral conduct is considered as the indispensable foundation for all higher spiritual attainments. No spiritual development is possible without this moral basis.
Moral Conduct (Samādhi) -Right Effort:
The four kinds of right effort are:
1. Making effort in the practice of the middle path so that those vices that have never arisen during the present existence may not arise for a moment in future existence.
2. Making effort in the practice of the middle path so that those vices that have already arisen or are arising during the present existence may be dispelled and may not arise even for a moment in future existence.
3. Making effort the practice of the middle path so that thirty-seven factors, pertaining to Enlightenment that has never arisen during the present existence may arise here and now.
4. Putting forth effort in the practice of the Middle path so that the virtues, such as morality, that have already arisen and are arising during the present existence may develop unceasingly until the attainment of Anupādisesa Nibbāna.
Right Mindfulness:
Application of mindfulness to the contemplation of the Body-group, such as in-breathing and out-breathing; of the Feeling-group, such as painful and pleasurable feelings; of the consciousness group such as consciousness rooted in lust (Sarāga) or in anger (Sadosa) or in delusion (Samoha) etc., and of the Mind-object, such as sensuous lust (kāmacchanda), these are called Right Mindfulness.
Right Concentration:
It is concentration of the first of fourth Jhāna (trance) produced by fixing one's attention on one of the objects of Samatha tranquil ling such as kasina. Thus, the mind is trained, developed, and disciplined through Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration.
Wisdom (Paññā) - Right Understanding:
According to Buddhism, there are two sorts of understandings: what we generally call understanding is knowledge, an accumulated memory, and intellectual grasping of a subject according to certain given data. This is called “knowing accordingly" (Anubodha). It is not very deep, real deep understanding is called "penetration (Pativedha), seeing a thing in its true nature, without name and label. This penetration is possible only when the mind is free from all impurities and fully developed through mediation. Understanding of the ten kinds of subjects and its result and four noble truths are included in right understanding. Bodhi, Bhikkhu says that “The Buddha himself says that he sees no single factor so responsible for the arising of unwholesome states of mind as wrong view, and no factor so helpful the arising of wholesome states of mind as right view” Majjhima Nikāya mentions that “When a noble disciple understands what is kammically unwholesome and the root of unwholesome kamma, what is kammically wholesome and the root of wholesome kamma, then he has right view.”
Right Thought:
There are three kinds of thoughts they are:
1. Right thought free from greed and sensuous desire aiming at an escape from the round of rebirth (Nekkhammasankappa). According to Bodhi Bhikkhu, he says, “Desire is to be abandoned not because it is morally evil but because it is the root of suffering. Thus, renunciation, turning away from craving and its drive for gratification becomes the key to happiness to freedom from the ill of all.”
2. Right thought for the welfare of all living beings. (Avyāpādasamkappa);
3. Right thought for the non-injury of all living beings (Avihimsasankappa).
It is not necessary to practice one after the other in the numerical order as given in the lists. But they are to be developed more or less simultaneously as far as possible according to the capacity of each individual. They are all linked together and each helps to captivate the other.
With regard to the Four Noble Truths we have four functions to perform: For the first noble truth, our function is to understand it as a fact, clearly and completely (Parinneyya); for the second, our function is to discard it, to eliminate, to destroy and to eradicate it (Pahātabba); for third, our function is to realize it (Sacchikātabba); for fouth, the final one our job is to follow it and stick to it (Bhāvetabba).
(1) 4. A Summary of what I have done
The title of my thesis is A Study of Buddhism in Burma
(3rd Centuary BC to 13th Centuary A.D.)
It is mainly divided into seven chapters. Out of seven Chapters, the first chapter is “Introduction” and it is subdivided into five titles.
In the first title, briefly I mention the “Geography of Burma” with brief presentation of climate of Burma and then the second title is arranged in the subject of the “History of Burma”.
In this regard, I orderly present the situations of historical succession, from by the mid- 900s BC to 1989 AD, as to how, early migration of three tribes (the tribe of Mon, Tibeto-Burma speaking Pyu, and Tibeto-Burman speaking Burmans or the Bamar) to Ayeyarwady Valley, warfare among tribes regarding invasion to the land, etc.
The third title is “What is Buddhism”. In this title, I emphasize on the Four Noble Truth and the Noble Eightfold Path not only because these two teachings are vital essences of Buddhism and but also because these enable to point out the path or way the final liberation or happiness for those who want to come to the end of suffering.
The fourth one is “A summary of what I have done” (i.e., this title), and the title of Research Methodology and Sources comes into the final arrangement of the chapter (I). In that case, I present completely how and why I attempt my research work.
The second chapter is “The Spread of Buddhism in Burma”. In this chapter, I pointed out the background religious history regarding the introducing of Buddhism to Burma (Myanmar): the first one is the history of Tapussa and Ballika, two merchants from Ukkalæ(Yangon in lower Burma), who met the Buddha at the foot of the Rajayatana Tree in the seven week after His Enlightenment, the second one is the story of So¼a and Uttara who also introduced Buddhism to the Suvarnabhumi(Thaton) around 228 BC, the final one is of Anawrahta who brought about Buddhism from the Thaton to Bagan (central Burma) in 11th Century A.D. etc.
The third chapter is the “Buddhist Literature in Burma” which consists of the explanations regarding what the Buddhist Literature was firstly brought into Burma by Sona and Uttara ( Asoka’s Missionaries to Burma) in 3rd Century B C, and, what it was carried by Anawrahta from Thaton to Pagan in 11th Century A.D. Then, I covered this chapter with how Buddhist literatures were compiled by the subsequent Buddhist scholars during this period.
The fourth chapter is “Buddhist Monuments in Burma”. In this chapter, I presented three types of monuments which located in the town of Pagan, Nyaung-oo, Myinkaba, Thiripyitsaya, Minnanthu and Pwasaw: the monuments of Pagoda (Stupa), the monuments of Temple, and the monuments of Image.
The fifth chapter is the “Buddhist Sculpture in Burma” and under this chapter; I mentioned the stone and bronze images of the Buddha with several gestures (mudra) which are representing to the many religious significances, such as, the preaching of the First Sermon in the Deer Park. Apart from the image of the Buddha, I depicted the pagoda or temple which also has other Reminders of the Buddha. Among these are the terracotta plaques found in some pagoda and temples. They had a didactic as well as a decorative function and take the place of the reliefs which are found in such temples as the Borobudur.
The sixth chapter is “Various Buddhist Schools in Burma”. It was attempted to mention about the Buddhist schism which occurred during the reign of the king Narapatisithu in 12th Century A.D.
The seventh chapter is the “Conclusion” which was covered with the salient and remarkable accounts to all respective chapters.
(1) 5. Research Methodology and Sources:
Research Methodology: In the modern age research has acquired a special place. Last twenty years, methodology awareness is increasing day by day. The traditional and modern method is always used to find out issues and analyze them on the basis of available standard primary and secondary sources, documents, literature books, articles and newspapers. All the chapters will be based on historical and social line and often inter linked with the interdisciplinary analytical methods to meet a detailed plan of how the goals of research will achieved.
Sources: The account of Buddhism in Burma and its literature are found in Pali and Sanskrit texts and also in the literatures of China, Tibet, Myanmar, India, Sri Lanka, etc. Myanmar literatures are the most reliable and oldest sources for the account of Buddhism in Burma and its significant books. According to the Myanmar literatures and Pali sources, the entire work of history of the Buddha was rehearsed and unanimously accepted and then complied at the Buddhism in Burma.
The sources are divided into two parts: primary and secondary sources. Original Pali text such as Buddhavamsa will be consulted as the primary sources. As the secondary sources, various significant books such as translation of Pali and other history books written by modern scholars will be used in this work. Especially, the reference of original sources used in this work will follow by Myanmar literature Edition.
Shin Sukha(Minhla)
read more “A Study of Buddhism in Burma (3rd Century BC to 13th century A.D)”
Introduction
(1) 1.Geography of Burma:
Burma, which has a total area of 678,500 square kilometres (262,000 sq mi), is the largest country in mainland Southeast Asia, and the 40th-largest in the world.
It is bordered to the northwest by Chittagong Division of Bangladesh and Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh of India to the northwest. It shares its longest borders with Tibet to the north and Yunnan of China to the northeast for a total of 2,185 kilometres (1,358 mi). It is bounded by Laos and Thailand to the southeast. Burma has 1,930 kilometres (1,200 mi) of contiguous coastline along the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea to the southwest and the south, which forms one quarter of its total perimeter .
In the north, the Hengduan Shan mountains form the border with China. Hkakabo Razi, located in Kachin State, at an elevation of 5,881 metres (19,295 ft), is the highest point in Burma . Three mountain ranges, namely the Rakhine Yoma, the Bago Yoma, and the Shan Plateau exist within Burma, all of which run north-to-south from the Himalayas . The mountain chains divide Burma's three river systems, which are the Ayeyarwady, Salween (Thanlwin), and the Sittaung rivers . The Ayeyarwady River, Burma's longest river, nearly 2,170 kilometres (1,348 mi) long, flows into the Gulf of Martaban. Fertile plains exist in the valleys between the mountain chains . The majority of Burma's population lives in the Ayeyarwady valley, which is situated between the Rakhine Yoma and the Shan Plateau.
Climate:
Much of the country lies between the Tropic of Cancer and the Equator. It lies in the monsoon region of Asia, with its coastal regions receiving over 5,000 mm (196.9 in) of rain annually. Annual rainfall in the delta region is approximately 2,500 mm (98.4 in), while average annual rainfall in the Dry Zone, which is located in central Burma, is less than 1,000 mm (39.4 in). Northern regions of the country are the coolest, with average temperatures of 21 °C (70 °F). Coastal and delta regions have mean temperatures of 32 °C (89.6 °F) .
The country's slow economic growth has contributed to the preservation of much of its environment and ecosystems. Forests, including dense tropical growth and valuable teak in lower Burma, cover over 49% of the country. Other trees indigenous to the region include acacia, bamboo, ironwood, mangrove, michelia champaca coconut and betel palm and rubber has been introduced. In the highlands of the north, oak, pine and various rhododendrons cover much of the land . The lands along the coast support all varieties of tropical fruits. In the Dry Zone, vegetation is sparse and stunted.
Typical jungle animals, particularly tigers and leopards, occur sparsely in Burma. In upper Burma, there are rhinoceros, wild buffalo, wild boars, deer, antelope, and elephants, which are also tamed or bred in captivity for use as work animals, particularly in the lumber industry. Smaller mammals are also numerous, ranging from gibbons and monkeys to flying foxes and tapirs. The abundance of birds is notable with over 800 species, including parrots, peafowl, pheasants, crows, herons, and paddy birds. Among reptile species there are crocodiles, geckos, cobras, Burmese pythons, and turtles. Hundreds of species of freshwater fish are wide-ranging, plentiful and are very important food sources .
(1) 2. History of Burma:
After the First Burmese War, the Ava kingdom ceded the provinces of Manipur, Tenassarim, and Arakan to the British. Rangoon and southern Burma were incorporated into British India in 1853. All of Burma came directly or indirectly under British India in 1886 after the Third Burmese War and the fall of Mandalay . Burma was administered as a province of British India until 1937 when it became a separate, self-governing colony. The country became independent from the United Kingdom on 4 January 1948, as the "Union of Burma".
It became the "Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma" on 4 January 1974, before reverting to the "Union of Burma" on 23 September 1988. On 18 June 1989, the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) adopted the name "Union of Myanmar" for English transliteration. This controversial name change in English, while accepted in the UN and in many countries, is not recognised by opposition groups and by nations such as the United Kingdom and the United States .
Early history:
Archaeological evidence suggests that civilization in the region which now forms Burma is quite old. The oldest archaeological find was of cave paintings and a Holocene assemblage in a hunter-gatherer cave site in Padah Lin in Shan State .
The Mon people are thought to be the earliest group to migrate into the lower Ayeyarwady valley, and by the mid-900s BC were dominant in southern Burma .
The Tibeto-Burman speaking Pyu arrived later in the 1st century BC, and established several city states – of which Sri Ksetra was the most powerful – in central Ayeyarwady valley. The Mon and Pyu kingdoms were an active overland trade route between India and China. The Pyu kingdoms entered a period of rapid decline in early 9th century A.D when the powerful kingdom of Nanzhao (in present-day Yunnan) invaded the Ayeyarwady valley several times.
Bagan (1044–1287):
Tibeto-Burman speaking Burmans, or the Bamar, began migrating to the Ayeyarwady valley from present-day Yunnan's Nanzhao kingdom starting in 7th century A.D. Filling the power gap left by the Pyu, the Burmans established a small kingdom centred in Bagan in 849. But it was not until the reign of King Anawrahta (1044–1077) that Bagan's influence expanded throughout much of present-day Burma.
After Anawrahta's capture of the Mon capital of Thaton in 1057, the Burmans adopted Theravada Buddhism from the Mons. The Burmese script was created, based on the Mon script, during the reign of King Kyanzittha (1084–1112). Prosperous from trade, Bagan kings built many magnificent temples and pagodas throughout the country – many of which can still be seen today.
Bagan's power slowly waned in 13th century. Kublai Khan's Mongol forces invaded northern Burma starting in 1277, and sacked Bagan city itself in 1287. Bagan's over two century reign of Ayeyarwady valley and its periphery was over.
Small kingdoms (1287–1531):
The Mongols could not stay for long in the searing Ayeyarwady valley. But the Tai-Shan people from Yunnan who came down with the Mongols fanned out to the Ayeyarwady valley, Shan states, Laos, Siam and Assam, and became powerful players in Southeast Asia.
The Bagan Empire was irreparably broken up into several small kingdoms:
The Burman kingdom of Ava or Innwa (1364–1555), the successor state to three smaller kingdoms founded by Burmanised Shan kings, controlling Upper Burma (without the Shan states)
The Mon kingdom of Hanthawady Pegu or Bago (1287–1540), founded by a Mon-ised Shan King Wareru (1287–1306), controlling Lower Burma (without Taninthayi).
The Rakhine kingdom of Mrauk U (1434–1784), in the west.
Several Shan states in the Shan hills in the east and the Kachin hills in the north while the north-western frontier of present Chin Hills still disconnected yet.
This period was characterised by constant warfare between Ava and Bago, and to a lesser extent, Ava and the Shans. Ava briefly controlled Rakhine (1379–1430) and came close to defeating Bago a few times, but could never quite reassemble the lost empire. Nevertheless, Burmese culture entered a golden age. Hanthawady Bago prospered. Bago's Queen Shin Saw Bu (1453–1472) raised the gilded Shwedagon Pagoda to its present height.
(1 ) 3.What is Buddhism?
The Buddha has passed away, but the sublime Teaching, which He expounded during His long and successful ministry and which He unreservedly bequeathed to humanity, still exists in its pristine purity. Although the Master has left no written records of His Teachings, His disciples preserved them, by committing to memory and transmitting them orally from generation to generation.
Three months after the Death of the Buddha, in the eighth year of King Ajātasattu’s reign, 500 pre-eminent Arahants concerned with preserving the purity of the Doctrine held Convocation at Rājagaha to rehearse it. The Venerable Ānanda Thera, the Buddha’s beloved attendant who had the special privilege and honour of hearing the discourses from the Buddha Himself, and the Venerable Upāli Thera were chosen to answer questions about the Dhamma (Doctrine) and the Vinaya (Discipline) respectively.
This First Council compiled and arranged in its present form the Pāli Tipitaka, which represents the entire body of the Buddha’s Teaching. Two other Councils of Arahants were held 100 and 236 years later respectively, again to rehearse the Word of the Buddha because attempts were being made to pollute the pure Teaching. About 83 BC., during the reign of the pious Simhala King Vatta Gāmani Abhaya , a Council of Arahants was held, and the Tipitaka was, for the first time in the history of Buddhism, committed to writing at Aluvihāra in Ceylon.
The word Tipitaka (Tripitaka in Sanskrit) means three Basket. They are the Basket of Discipline (Vinaya Pitaka), the Basket of Discourses ( Sutta Pitaka ) and the Basket of Ultimate Doctrine (Abhidhamma Pitaka).
The Vinaya Pitaka, which is regarded as the sheet anchor of the Holy Order, deals mainly with the rules and regulations of the Order of Bhikkhus (monks) and Bhikkhunis (nuns).
The Vinaya Pi¥aka consists of the following five books:
1. Pārājika Pāli Vibhanga (Major Offences)
2. Pācittiya Pāli (Minor Offences)
3. Mahāvagga Pāli Khandaka (Greater Section)
4. Cullavagga Pāli (Lesser Section)
5. Parivāra Pāli (Epitome of the Vinaya).
The Sutta Pi¥aka consists chiefly of instructive discourse delivered by the Buddha to both the Sangha and the laity on various occasion.
The Sutta Pitaka consists of the following five Nikāyas (Collections):
1 Dīgha Nikāya (Collection of Long Discourses)
2 Majjhima Nikāya (Collection of Middle-length Discourses)
3 Samyutta Nikāya (Collection of Kindred Sayings)
4 Anguttara Nikāya (Collection of Gradual Sayings)
5 Khuddaka Nikāya (Smaller Collection)
This fifth is subdivided into fifteen books:
1 Khuddaka Pātha (Shorter Texts)
2 Dhammapada (The Way of Truth)
3 Udāna (Paeans of Joy)
4 Itivuttaka (“Thus said” Discourses)
5 Sutta Nipāta (Collected Discourses)
6 Vimāna Vatthu (Stories of Celestial Mansions)
7 Peta Vatthu (Stories of Petas)
8 Theragāthā (Psalms of the Brethren)
9 Therigāthā (Psalms of the Sisters)
10 Jātaka (Birth Stories of the Bodhisatta)
11 Niddesa (Expositions)
12 Patisambhidā (Book on Analytical Knowledge)
13 Apadāna (Lives of Arahants)
14 Buddhavamsa (History of the Buddha)
15 Cariyā Pitaka (Modes of Conduct).
The Abhidhamma Pitaka is the most important and most interesting of the three containing as it does the profound philosophy of the Buddha’s teaching in contrast to the simpler discourses in the Sutta Pitaka. Abhidhamma, the Higher Doctrine of the Buddha, expounds the quintessence of His profound teachings.
The Abhidhamma Pitaka is composed of the following seven works:
1 Dhammasangani (Classification of Dhamma)
2 Vibhanga (Divisions)
3 Dhātukathā (Discourse on Elements)
4 Puggala Paññatti (The Book on Individuals)
5 Kathāvatthu (Points of Controversy)
6 Yamaka (The Book of Pairs)
7 Patthāna (The Book of Causal Relations)
The Four Noble Truths:
The teaching of the Four Noble Truths was quickly disseminated. The sooner the truths of his teachings are learned, the sooner one would understand his teachings and so could live a life free from sufferings. “Catunnam bhikkave dhammānam ananubodhā appativedhā evamidam dighamaddhānam sandhāvitam samsaritam mamañceva tuhmā kañca"
“Though not understanding, though not penetrating the Four Noble Truths, O Bikkhus That we have wandered on this long journey, you and I.”
The Buddha expounded the Four Noble Truths after he had realized these truths at the feet of the Bodhi tree in 6th century B.C. The Four Noble Truths constitute the central idea of his teaching. They are as follow:
(1) The Noble Truth of the Suffering,
(2) The Noble Truth of the cause of Suffering,
(3) The Noble Truth of the cessation of Suffering, and
(4)The Noble Truth of the Path leading to the cessation of Suffering,
The First Noble Truth:
What is the first noble truth? The first noble truth is very significant and must be correctly interpreted. The Pāli word “Dukkha” and its real meaning and interpretation must be understood. Generally the word “Dukkha" is translated as suffering. According to Daw Mya Tin:“We cannot yet find a single English word that can convey the real meaning of the word "Dukkha" used in the exposition of Four Noble Truths."
Dukkha means sufferings: physical or mental pain, misfortune, unsatisfied evil consequences etc., and rebirth in the lower planes of existences or in the lower strata of human society in the human world.
According to Dr. K. Sri Dhammananda-
“Dukkha contains not only ordinary meaning of suffering, but also includes deeper ideas such as imperfection, pain, impermanence, disharmony discomfort, irritation, awareness of incompleteness and insufficiency."
The inherent charateristics of the First Noble Truths are given in Pali sources. They involve: The characteristic of oppression (Pilanattha), the characteristic of producing causes of suffering (Sankhatattho), incessantly burning heat or fire (Santapattho) and the characteristic of change in the form of suffering (Viparinamattho).
As all casually conditioned physical and mental phenomena have about four characteristics, so all these constitute the Dukkha Saccā, the first noble truth of Dukkha. The main characteristic of the first noble truth is oppression and the remaining three are its adjuncts. This oppression can be found in the following three ways: By the way of production (Sankhata); by way of incessantly burning (Santāpa) and by way of change (Viparināma).
Any casually conditioned phenomenon burdens any being that clings to it by the state of oppressing (Pilanattha) in the following manner; in the beginning; in the middle, and at the end. As we see beings are nothing but made of mind and matter. These are known as the five aggregates (Khandha). In dealing with this, Dhammapada says that “Nathikhandha samā dukkhā." There is no ill as (the burden of) Khandha (the five aggregates).
To attain the five aggregates of the Brahma world, and Deva world, one has to practise meditation for Jhāna (trance) and Samādhi (concentration) respectively in his previous existence. He has to perform the wholesome deeds in the present life. These endeavours to attain such states are the heavy burdens of the five aggregates in the beginning. In the case of human beings too, the mental & physical phenomena in their five aggregates always burden them in one of three ways once the beings enter the bodies of Brahma and Deva planes. In the case of Brahma, the superiority concept of "I am" "I am” arise; and other evils; such as eternalist theory, anihilationalist theory intoxication with sensual pleasure in the Brahma planes are burdening them by way of continuously burning in the middle. The Brahama's life span is so long so that they think that we will last long forever without changing our lives. They also think that there will be no more life for them. These two kinds of thought are not free from extreme.
In the case of Deva, the great fire passions arise from the body and burn the Deva throughout his life. This is how Devas are burdened by way of continuously burning in the middle. The burdens for human beings in the round of life cycle are varied and heavy. The body of human beings burdens them in a manner of burning continuously. The five groups of aggregates belong to Brahma, Deva and men continuously burden till the end of Samsara. This is called purely Dukkha Saccā. This is a realistic way of looking at life but not a pessimistic view; it is a realization of truth of Dukkha Sacca when one proceeds to analyze the cause of Dukkha.
Scholars will ever argue and speculate. These are not recent questions of today or yesterday; they were raised in the time of Buddha. Even Sakuludāyi, the wanderer, for instance, asked about the past and the future and the Buddha reply was categorical.
“Apica Udāyi titthatu pubbanto titthatu aparanto Dhammam te desessāmi imasmin sati idam hoti imassupādā idam uppajjati imasmin asati idam na hoti imassa nirodhā idam nirujjhati” “Let be the past, let be the future, I will teach you Dhamma. When this is, that comes to be, with the arising of this that arises, when this is not, that does not come to be, with the cessation of this that ceases."
This, in a nutshell, is the Buddhist doctrine of condition, and forms the foundation of the four noble truths, the central concept of Buddhism. The venerable Assaji addressed Upatissa, a single verse that embraces the Buddha's entire doctrine of causality-
“Ye dhammā hetuppabhavā, tesam hetum tathāgato āha,
Te sañcaya yo nirodhoti, evamvādi mahāsamano."
“Whatever form a cause proceeds these as the Tathāgata has explained the cause, its cessation too he has explained. This is the teaching of the supreme sage." It includes the second noble truth and the third noble truth.
The Second Noble Truth:
The second one is the noble truth of the cause of Dukkha, what is the cause of Dukkha is craving. Unless we remove the craving through the practice of meditation we cannot overcome the ocean of rebirth. It is said in Dhammapada that-
“Piyato jāyate soko, piyato jāyate bhayam
Piyato vippamuttassa, natthisoko kuto bhayam"
Craving begets sorrow; craving begets fear. For him who is free from craving, there is no sorrow how can there be fear for him. The same as the first noble truth, in the second one, we find the four noble truths as characterized below-
“Dukkha samudayassa āyuhanattho
Nidānattho samyogattho palibodhattho”
“The characteristic of accumulating what would cause suffering (Ayuhanatta); the characteristic of constantly supplying or becoming a constant source of supply of suffering (Nidānatta); the characteristic of causing union or association with suffering (Samyogattha) and the characteristic of obstructing being an obstruct or impediment to free from suffering."
Here craving means the lust of the flesh (Kāmatahnā), the lust of life (Bhavatahnā), and the love for the present world (vibhavatannā). It is a fire, which burns in all beings; every activity is motivated by desire. It is a powerful-means of force present in all forms of life, and is the chief cause of the ills in life. It is the craving that leads to repeated births in the cycle of existence.
Craving leads to ignorance. It doesn’t seek the things as they really are, or it fails to understand the reality of experience and life. Under the delusion of self and not realizing Anatta (non-self), a person clings to things, which are impermanent, changeable, and perishable. It is said that it is the desire for what belongs to the unreal self that generates suffering for it is impermanent, changeable, perishable and that in the object of desire causes disappointment, disillusionment and other forms of suffering to him who desire.
Here, the question may come why the teaching of the Buddha repeatedly refers to craving, and why not the hatred is mentioned in the second noble truth? The answer for that question is the craving for existence is the only foremost cause of becoming of all beings here and hereafter. R.S. Lopleston says - “All desire says the second truth, leads to renewed existence. It leads from birth to birth; it tends to perpetuate the series."
Finally, it should be definitely understood that craving is the origin of all sorts of suffering in the lives of all beings, throughout all of their existences. Thus the first two noble truths are considered to be the interaction between the two as cause and effect.
The Third Noble Truth:
The third truth is the Noble Truth of cessation of Dukkha. It states that these laminations of desire will remove the cause of man-made suffering; for Tahnā is the force, which keeps us in the realm of Samsāra, over which Dukkha holds away. Actually, the third one is unconditioned known as Nibbāna. It is described in Dhammapada that “Paviveka rasam pitvā rasāupasamassaca Niddaro hoti nippāpo dhammapiti rasampitvā." “Having had the taste of solitude and the taste of perfect peace of Nibbāna, one who drinks in the joy of the essence of Dhamma is free from fear and evil”. According to Christmas Humphrey: “For one description of Nirvana is the dying out of the three fires of Lobha, Dosa and Moha, greed, hatred and illusion." Nobody can realize the Nibbāna experience unless one goes through the practice of insight mortification. Nibbāna is beyond intellectual, rational, philosophical knowledge. Therefore, unless one trains ones minds through the practice of meditation and destroys the desire, hatred and illusion, no one can understand in-depth the meaning of the truth. Nibbāna is a state, which is free from suffering and rounds of rebirth.
This is a state, which is not subjected to the laws of birth, decay and death. This state is so sublime that no human language can express it. Nibbāna is uniform, unoriginated, uncreated and unformed. It is beyond logic and reasoning. To understand this third noble truth one must follow the Eightfold Path. Hence, it is necessary to develop spiritual understanding, which will enable to realize this Third Noble Truth.
The Fourth Noble Truth:
The final one is the Noble Truth of the path leading to the cessation of Dukkha. This is known as the "Middle Path" (Majjima-patipadā) because it avoids two extremes: One extreme being the search for happiness through the pleasure of the senses, which is low, common, and unprofitable and the other being the search for happiness through self-mortification in different from the asceticism, which is "painful unworthy and unprofitable."
In “Buddhism in a Nutshell”, the eightfold noble path is described as follow, independent course, avoiding the two extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification. The former retards one’s spiritual progress, and the later weakens one’s intellect.” Having himself first tried these two extremes, and having found them to be useless, the Buddha discovered through personal experience the Middle Path which gives vision and knowledge, which leads to calm Insight, Enlightenment Nibbāna. The Middle Path is generally known as the Noble Eightfold Path, because it is composed of eight categories or divisions: namely,
1. Right Understanding (Sammāditthi)
2. Right Thought (Sammāsankappa)
3. Right Speech (Sammāvācā)
4. Right Action (Sammākammanta)
5. Right Livelihood (Sammāājiva)
6. Right effort (Sammāvāyāma)
7. Right Mindfulness (Sammāsati)
8. Right Concentration (Sammāsamādhi)
According to Dr. K. Sri Dhammānanda, “This path is unique to Buddhism and distinguishes it from every other religion and philosophy. It is the Buddhist code of mental and physical conduct which leads to the end of suffering, sorrow and despair, to perfect peace, Nibbāna"
Dr. W. Rãhula states “Practically the whole teaching of the Buddha, to which he devoted himself during 45 years, deals in some way or other with this path. He explained it in different ways and in different words of those many thousand discourses scattered in the Buddhist scriptures is found in the Noble Eightfold Path."
The Noble Eightfold path is sub-divided into three groups: Ethical conduct (Sila) comprised by Right speech, Right action and Right livelihood; mental Discipline (Samādhi) formed by Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right concentration; wisdom (Paññā) constituted by Right Understanding and Right Thought.
Ethical conduct (Sila) -Right Speech:
Refraining from telling lies (Musāvādavirati) ; back biting and calumny (Pisunavācāvirati) ; using abusive language, harsh words, hurtful speech to others (Pharusavācāvirati) and frivolous talk (Samphapplāpa) such as telling legends and fables or which is fruitless for this world and next known as Right Speech.
Right Action:
Refraining from killing and injuring living beings (Pānātipātavirati) , taking property which is not given (Adinnādānavirati) and taking intoxicant and from unlawful sexual intercourse with those who are still in the care of parents or guardians is called Right Action.
Right Livelihood:
There are four kinds of Right livelihood, they are:
1. In the case of laity, refraining from wrong livelihood by means of immoral physical and verbal action. (Duccaritamicchājivavirati).
2. In the case of monks and hermits, refraining from wrong livelihood, e.g., by means of giving fruits and flowers to the laymen to carry favor (Anesanamicchājivavirati).
3. In the case of Monks and hermits, refraining from trickery and deception by means of working wanders (Kuhanādimicchājivavirati).
4. In the case of monks and hermits refraining from wrong livelihood, e.g., by means of performing base arts such as reading signs and omens, which are against the rule and practice of the order. These three factors of the Eightfold path constitute Ethical conduct. It should be realized that the Buddhist ethical and moral conducts aims at promoting a happy and harmonious life both for the individual and for society. This moral conduct is considered as the indispensable foundation for all higher spiritual attainments. No spiritual development is possible without this moral basis.
Moral Conduct (Samādhi) -Right Effort:
The four kinds of right effort are:
1. Making effort in the practice of the middle path so that those vices that have never arisen during the present existence may not arise for a moment in future existence.
2. Making effort in the practice of the middle path so that those vices that have already arisen or are arising during the present existence may be dispelled and may not arise even for a moment in future existence.
3. Making effort the practice of the middle path so that thirty-seven factors, pertaining to Enlightenment that has never arisen during the present existence may arise here and now.
4. Putting forth effort in the practice of the Middle path so that the virtues, such as morality, that have already arisen and are arising during the present existence may develop unceasingly until the attainment of Anupādisesa Nibbāna.
Right Mindfulness:
Application of mindfulness to the contemplation of the Body-group, such as in-breathing and out-breathing; of the Feeling-group, such as painful and pleasurable feelings; of the consciousness group such as consciousness rooted in lust (Sarāga) or in anger (Sadosa) or in delusion (Samoha) etc., and of the Mind-object, such as sensuous lust (kāmacchanda), these are called Right Mindfulness.
Right Concentration:
It is concentration of the first of fourth Jhāna (trance) produced by fixing one's attention on one of the objects of Samatha tranquil ling such as kasina. Thus, the mind is trained, developed, and disciplined through Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration.
Wisdom (Paññā) - Right Understanding:
According to Buddhism, there are two sorts of understandings: what we generally call understanding is knowledge, an accumulated memory, and intellectual grasping of a subject according to certain given data. This is called “knowing accordingly" (Anubodha). It is not very deep, real deep understanding is called "penetration (Pativedha), seeing a thing in its true nature, without name and label. This penetration is possible only when the mind is free from all impurities and fully developed through mediation. Understanding of the ten kinds of subjects and its result and four noble truths are included in right understanding. Bodhi, Bhikkhu says that “The Buddha himself says that he sees no single factor so responsible for the arising of unwholesome states of mind as wrong view, and no factor so helpful the arising of wholesome states of mind as right view” Majjhima Nikāya mentions that “When a noble disciple understands what is kammically unwholesome and the root of unwholesome kamma, what is kammically wholesome and the root of wholesome kamma, then he has right view.”
Right Thought:
There are three kinds of thoughts they are:
1. Right thought free from greed and sensuous desire aiming at an escape from the round of rebirth (Nekkhammasankappa). According to Bodhi Bhikkhu, he says, “Desire is to be abandoned not because it is morally evil but because it is the root of suffering. Thus, renunciation, turning away from craving and its drive for gratification becomes the key to happiness to freedom from the ill of all.”
2. Right thought for the welfare of all living beings. (Avyāpādasamkappa);
3. Right thought for the non-injury of all living beings (Avihimsasankappa).
It is not necessary to practice one after the other in the numerical order as given in the lists. But they are to be developed more or less simultaneously as far as possible according to the capacity of each individual. They are all linked together and each helps to captivate the other.
With regard to the Four Noble Truths we have four functions to perform: For the first noble truth, our function is to understand it as a fact, clearly and completely (Parinneyya); for the second, our function is to discard it, to eliminate, to destroy and to eradicate it (Pahātabba); for third, our function is to realize it (Sacchikātabba); for fouth, the final one our job is to follow it and stick to it (Bhāvetabba).
(1) 4. A Summary of what I have done
The title of my thesis is A Study of Buddhism in Burma
(3rd Centuary BC to 13th Centuary A.D.)
It is mainly divided into seven chapters. Out of seven Chapters, the first chapter is “Introduction” and it is subdivided into five titles.
In the first title, briefly I mention the “Geography of Burma” with brief presentation of climate of Burma and then the second title is arranged in the subject of the “History of Burma”.
In this regard, I orderly present the situations of historical succession, from by the mid- 900s BC to 1989 AD, as to how, early migration of three tribes (the tribe of Mon, Tibeto-Burma speaking Pyu, and Tibeto-Burman speaking Burmans or the Bamar) to Ayeyarwady Valley, warfare among tribes regarding invasion to the land, etc.
The third title is “What is Buddhism”. In this title, I emphasize on the Four Noble Truth and the Noble Eightfold Path not only because these two teachings are vital essences of Buddhism and but also because these enable to point out the path or way the final liberation or happiness for those who want to come to the end of suffering.
The fourth one is “A summary of what I have done” (i.e., this title), and the title of Research Methodology and Sources comes into the final arrangement of the chapter (I). In that case, I present completely how and why I attempt my research work.
The second chapter is “The Spread of Buddhism in Burma”. In this chapter, I pointed out the background religious history regarding the introducing of Buddhism to Burma (Myanmar): the first one is the history of Tapussa and Ballika, two merchants from Ukkalæ(Yangon in lower Burma), who met the Buddha at the foot of the Rajayatana Tree in the seven week after His Enlightenment, the second one is the story of So¼a and Uttara who also introduced Buddhism to the Suvarnabhumi(Thaton) around 228 BC, the final one is of Anawrahta who brought about Buddhism from the Thaton to Bagan (central Burma) in 11th Century A.D. etc.
The third chapter is the “Buddhist Literature in Burma” which consists of the explanations regarding what the Buddhist Literature was firstly brought into Burma by Sona and Uttara ( Asoka’s Missionaries to Burma) in 3rd Century B C, and, what it was carried by Anawrahta from Thaton to Pagan in 11th Century A.D. Then, I covered this chapter with how Buddhist literatures were compiled by the subsequent Buddhist scholars during this period.
The fourth chapter is “Buddhist Monuments in Burma”. In this chapter, I presented three types of monuments which located in the town of Pagan, Nyaung-oo, Myinkaba, Thiripyitsaya, Minnanthu and Pwasaw: the monuments of Pagoda (Stupa), the monuments of Temple, and the monuments of Image.
The fifth chapter is the “Buddhist Sculpture in Burma” and under this chapter; I mentioned the stone and bronze images of the Buddha with several gestures (mudra) which are representing to the many religious significances, such as, the preaching of the First Sermon in the Deer Park. Apart from the image of the Buddha, I depicted the pagoda or temple which also has other Reminders of the Buddha. Among these are the terracotta plaques found in some pagoda and temples. They had a didactic as well as a decorative function and take the place of the reliefs which are found in such temples as the Borobudur.
The sixth chapter is “Various Buddhist Schools in Burma”. It was attempted to mention about the Buddhist schism which occurred during the reign of the king Narapatisithu in 12th Century A.D.
The seventh chapter is the “Conclusion” which was covered with the salient and remarkable accounts to all respective chapters.
(1) 5. Research Methodology and Sources:
Research Methodology: In the modern age research has acquired a special place. Last twenty years, methodology awareness is increasing day by day. The traditional and modern method is always used to find out issues and analyze them on the basis of available standard primary and secondary sources, documents, literature books, articles and newspapers. All the chapters will be based on historical and social line and often inter linked with the interdisciplinary analytical methods to meet a detailed plan of how the goals of research will achieved.
Sources: The account of Buddhism in Burma and its literature are found in Pali and Sanskrit texts and also in the literatures of China, Tibet, Myanmar, India, Sri Lanka, etc. Myanmar literatures are the most reliable and oldest sources for the account of Buddhism in Burma and its significant books. According to the Myanmar literatures and Pali sources, the entire work of history of the Buddha was rehearsed and unanimously accepted and then complied at the Buddhism in Burma.
The sources are divided into two parts: primary and secondary sources. Original Pali text such as Buddhavamsa will be consulted as the primary sources. As the secondary sources, various significant books such as translation of Pali and other history books written by modern scholars will be used in this work. Especially, the reference of original sources used in this work will follow by Myanmar literature Edition.
Shin Sukha(Minhla)
ပုံျပင္ မဟုတ္ပါ
သီတဂူဆရာေတာ္၏ တာ၀န္ေပးမႈျဖင့္ အိႏၵိယႏုိင္ငံေျမာက္ပုိင္း၊ ေလးဟ္ၿမိဳ႕၊ မဟာေဗာဓိရိပ္သာေက်ာင္း၀ုိင္းအတြင္း၀ယ္ တည္းထားပူေဇာ္ရန္ ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံ၊ ပုဂံၿမိဳ႕ေဟာင္း၏ က်က္သေရေဆာင္ ေရႊစည္းခုံဘုရားပုံတူ ေစတီေတာ္အတြက္ လုပ္ငန္းမ်ား စတင္ေဆာင္ရြက္ေနၿပီျဖစ္ပါသည္။ ထုိၿမိဳ႕၌ အရွင္ကုမာရ(သီတဂူ) ေရာက္ရွိတာ၀န္ယူေနစဥ္ ရာသီဥတုဒဏ္ကုိ ကုိယ္တုိင္ေတြ႕ႀကဳံခံစားပုံကို ဓာတ္ပုံႏွင့္တကြ သူကုိယ္တုိင္္ ေရးပုိ႔ေသာစာေလးပါ တင္ျပလိုက္ပါသည္။
သီတဂူအဓိပတိဆရာေတာ္၏ တာ၀န္ေပးခ်က္အရ အိႏၵိယႏုိင္ငံေျမာက္ပုိင္း Ladakh ေဒသ, Leh ျမိဳ႔ကုိ ဦးကုမာရ ဇူလုိင္ ၁ ရက္ေန႔မွာ ေရာက္ရွိခဲ့ပါတယ္။ အေၾကာင္းက မဟာေဗာဓိတရားရိပ္သာမွာ (တမၸ၀တီ ဦး၀င္းေမာင္ ဆြဲေပးလုိက္ေသာ ျမန္မာပုံစံ) ေက်ာင္းခံေစတီ (ေရႊစည္းခုံ) တစ္ဆူ တည္ေဆာက္လွဴဒါန္းရာမွာ ၾကီးၾကပ္ဖုိ႔ႏွင့္ ကုိရင္ သီလရွင္မ်ားကုိ ဗုဒၶစာေပ သင္ေပးရန္ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။
မေမွ်ာ္လင့္ဘဲ ၾသဂုတ္လ ၅ ရက္ေန႔ည သန္းေခါင္ခ်ိန္မွာ (၁၂ နာရီခြဲ) မွာ မုိးရြာ တိမ္ျပိဳ၍ (Cloudburst) ေတာင္က်ေရႏွင့္ ၾကံဳခဲ့ရပါသည္။ လွ်ပ္စစ္ မီးျပတ္၍ ဘာမွ မျမင္ရေသာေၾကာင့္ ေရက်သံမွာ အလြန္က်ယ္ေလာင္၍ ေတြ႔သမွ်ကုိ သယ္ယူသြားမည့္သေဘာဟု မွတ္ယူႏုိင္ပါသည္။
ဦးကုမာရ သီတင္းသုံးေသာ ေက်ာင္းႏွင့္ ေရက်ေခ်ာင္းမွာ ၁၀ ေပေလာက္ကြာပါသည္။ ကုိရင္ အပါး ၂၀ မွာ ေက်ာင္းေဆာင္အတြင္း ေရမ်ား စ၀င္လာသည္ႏွင့္ ဦးကုမာရ ေနေသာ ေက်ာင္းေဆာင္ အတြင္းသုိ႔ ေအာ္ဟစ္၍ ေျပးလာၾကပါသည္။
ပထမထပ္တြင္ ရွိေသာ ဘုရားရွိခုိးေဆာင္သုိ႔ ဦးကုမာရ က ကုိရင္အားလုံးကုိ စုေဆာင္းေနထုိင္ေစ၍ ေရက်ေနပုံကုိ အျမဲမျပတ္ ဓာတ္မီး ထုိးၾကည့္ေနရပါသည္။ ျမင္ရေသာေရအေနအထားမွာ အလြန္ေၾကာက္စရာေကာင္းပါသည္။ ေက်ာင္းေဆာင္၏ ဘယ္ညာ ႏွစ္ဘက္မွ ေရမ်ားျဖတ္ေန၍ ေျပးစရာ ေျမမရွိပါ။ ကေလးမ်ား ေၾကာက္ေနမွာ စုိး၍ ေခ်ာ့ေမာ့၍ သိပ္ထားရပါသည္။ ၁၄-၁၅ႏွစ္အရြယ္ ကုိရင္မ်ားကုိမူ မိမိႏွင့္အတူရွိေစ၍ ေရက်ေနပုံ၊ ေရတက္ေရဆင္းေနပုံကုိ ဓာတ္မီးျဖင့္ ထုိးၾကည့္ခုိင္းထားရပါသည္။
ေက်ာင္းတုိက္ရွိဆရာေတာ္မွာ တျခားအရပ္ေဒသသုိ႔ ထုိေန႔ ညေနက ခရီးထြက္သြားခဲ့ပါသည္။ လက္ေထာက္ ဦးဇင္းႏွစ္ပါးမွာ သီလရွင္မ်ားကုိ ေတာင္ေပၚသုိ႔ ေျပးတက္ခုိင္းခဲ့၊ ကူညီေနခဲ့ပါသည္။
မိမိတုိ႔ကုိ လာေရာက္ ကူညီဖုိ႔ ေရစီးေၾကာင္းျခားေန၍ မလာႏုိင္ခဲ့ပါ။ တယ္လီဖုန္းျဖင့္သာ ဆက္သြယ္ႏုိင္ခဲ့ပါသည္။ ေက်ာင္းသူမ်ားေဆာင္ႏွင့္ ေက်ာင္းသားမ်ားေဆာင္မွ ေက်ာင္းသူ ေက်ာင္းသား ၂၅၀ ေက်ာ္လည္း နီးစပ္ရာ ေျမျမင့္ရာသုိ႔ ဆရာ ဆရာမမ်ားက ညတြင္းခ်င္း ေျပာင္းေရႊ႔ႏုိင္ခဲ့ပါသည္။ ေက်ာင္းသူေလးမ်ားမွာ ေၾကာက္လန္႔တၾကား ငုိယုိေနၾကသည္ဟု မနက္မုိးလင္းေတာ့ သိခဲ့ရသည္။ ေက်ာင္းသူမ်ားေဆာင္မွ အုတ္တံတုိင္း တခ်ိဳ႔ ေရထဲ ပါသြားခဲ့သည္။
လူအုိေဆာင္ (လူအုိ ၃၀ ေလာက္ရွိ)အတြင္း ရႊ႔ံဗြက္ေတြ၊ မုိးေရေတြ ၀င္လာ၍ ညတြင္းခ်င္း အေဆာင္မွဴးတုိ႔က အခ်ိန္မီ ကယ္ထုတ္ႏုိင္ခဲ့သည္။
ေတာင္က်ေရမွာ နံနက္ သုံးနာရီခန္႔တြင္ က်သြား၍ မဟာေဗာဓိရိပ္သာတြင္ လူအေသအေပ်ာက္ ႏွင့္ ထိခုိက္ဒဏ္ရာရျခင္း မရွိခဲ့ပါ။ သုိ႔ေသာ္ေက်ာင္း၀ုိင္းအတြင္း ရႊ႔႔ံႏြံမ်ားျဖင့္ ဖုံးလႊမ္းသြားခဲ့ပါသည္။ စားနပ္ရိကၡာမ်ား ပ်က္ဆီးခဲ့ပါသည္။
မဟာေဗာဓိတရားရိပ္သာႏွင့္ ၁ ကီလုိမီတာေလာက္သာ ေ၀းကြာေသာ ရပ္ကြက္မ်ားမူ လူေပါင္း ၁၃၀ ေက်ာ္ ေသဆုံး ေပ်ာက္ဆုံးခဲ့ပါသည္။
Leh ျမိဳ႔မွာ မဟာေဗာဓိရိပ္သာႏွင့္ ၈ ကီလုိမီတာသာ ေ၀းပါသည္။ ေတာင္က်ေရဒဏ္ခံရေသာေနရာမ်ားမွာ မဟာေဗာဓိႏွင့္ Leh ျမိဳ႔ အၾကားျဖစ္ပါသည္။ ဓာတ္ပုံမ်ားကုိ ၾကည့္ပါက ေရအေနအထားကုိ ခန္႔မွန္းႏုိင္ပါသည္။
Dear friends of Mahabodhi International Meditation Centre, Leh, Ladakh.
The beautiful valley of Ladakh turns into a valley of horror in minutes. The noisy thunder, torrential rain and swift wave of storm and wind turn the atmosphere dark and gloomy. Suddenly an unprecedented flood created destruction, devastation, havoc and turn the city and valley into ghost city. Hundreds of residential houses are destroyed, several hundreds lives lost, thousand of people are severely injured and effected. Search for lost lives are in search process. Lots of cattle, wealth and crops are destroyed.
“I didn’t witness and heard about such devastation in my entire life” says an 80 years old man. Apart from lost of lives and property, all infrastructures, communication and social welfare installation are affected. Radio station, power supply, mobile phones, hospital are severely effected. There is no telephone, no power and no communication facilities for the last two days. Roads and bridges are cut and totally destroyed.
The Mahabodhi International Meditation Centre also witnessed flood resulting the Old Aged Home, the main secretariat and the hospital are made to non-functional. Drug store, ration store are flooded and water supply is partially destroyed. Thanks to the Triple Gem, there is no lost of life in Mahabodhi. All inmates are busy in cleaning process and revive the vital installation. Inmates of all residential buildings are evacuated to safer places on elevated points.
ရွင္သုခ(မင္းလွ)
ေလးသ္သုိ႔ တစ္ေခါက္
Thursday, August 12, 2010
အိႏၵိယႏုိင္ငံ၊ ေျမာက္ပုိင္း ေလးသ္ၿမိဳ႕သုိ႔ ေရာက္ခဲ့စဥ္က ရုိက္ကူးခဲ့ေသာ ဓာတ္ပုံေလးပါ ခုမွ ရရွိသျဖင့္ အမွတ္တရ ေဖၚျပလိုက္ပါသည္။ ေလးသ္ၿမိဳ႕ကေလးသည္ ေရခဲေတာင္ေတြၾကားထဲမွာ တည္ရွိၿပီး အၿမဲလိုလို ေအးခ်မ္းေသာ ရာသီဥတုရွိပါသည္။ ႏွစ္စဥ္ ေရခဲမ်ား အရည္ေပ်ာ္က်ရာလမ်ားမွာ မတ္ခ်္။ ဧၿပီ၊ ေမလမ်ားျဖစ္ၿပီး၊ ဇြန္၊ ဇူလႈိင္၊ ၾသဂုတ္လေတြသည္ ထုိေလးသ္ၿမိဳ႕ကေလး၏ ေနထုိင္စရာ ရာသီဥတု မွ်တေသာ ကာလဟု သတ္မွတ္ရမည္ျဖစ္ပါသည္။ စက္တင္ဘာလမွစ၍ ေရခဲေတြ ျပန္ျမင္ရေတာ့မည္ျဖစ္ပါသည္။ ထုိ႔ေၾကာင့္ ေလ့လာေရးသမား ႏုိင္ငံျခားဧည္သည္မ်ားသည္ပင္ ထုိဇြန္၊ ဇုလႈိင္၊ ၾသဂုတ္လမ်ားမွာ လာေရာက္ၾကသည္ဟု သိရပါသည္။ ထုိၿမိဳ႕၏ ေထရ၀ါဒဗုဒၶဘာသာေက်ာင္းျဖစ္ေသာ မဟာေဗာဓိရိပ္သာေက်ာင္း၀ုိင္းအတြင္းမွာ သီတဂူဆရာေတာ္ အမွဴးရွိေသာ သီတဂူသာသနာျပဳအဖြဲ႕က ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံ၊ ပုဂံၿမဳိ႕ေဟာင္း၏ က်က္သေရေဆာင္ ေရႊဆည္းခုံဘုရားပုံတူ ေစတီတစ္ဆူကုိ တည္ထားပူေဇာ္မွာျဖစ္ပါသည္။ မည္သူမဆုိ ပါ၀င္လွဴဒါန္းႏုိင္ပါေၾကာင္း သတင္းေကာင္းပါးလိုက္ပါရေစ။
သီတဂူစန္းလပမာ ခ်မ္းျမသာယာရွိၾကပါေစ။
ရွင္သုခ(မင္းလွ)
မေသခင္ ျဖည့္ဆည္းရမည့္ ဘ၀အရည္အေသြးမ်ား
Wednesday, August 11, 2010ျမတ္စြာဘုရားရွင္က “မေသခင္ သုတၱန္” လို႔ အဓိပၸါယ္ရတဲ့ “ပုေရာေဘဒ သုတၱန္” မွာ မေသခင္ ျဖည့္ဆည္းရမယ့္ ဘ၀ အရည္အေသြး ေတြကို တစ္စုတစ္ေ၀းတည္း ေဟာၾကားထား ပါတယ္။ ျမင့္ျမတ္တဲ့ လူသားတိုင္းနဲ႔ ျမင့္ျမတ္လိုတဲ့ လူသားတိုင္း မျဖည့္မျဖစ္ ျဖည့္ဆည္းရမယ့္ စိတ္ဓါတ္ အရည္အေသြး၊ ဘ၀ အရည္အေသြးေတြ ျဖစ္လို႔ အက်ဥ္းဆံုး ခ်ဳပ္ၿပီး ေျပာျပခ်င္ပါတယ္။
မေသခင္မွာ တဏွာကင္းေအာင္ ၾကိဳးစားရပါမယ္။ လံုး၀ မကင္းေတာင္ နည္းႏိုင္သမွ် နည္းရပါမယ္။ အစြန္းထြက္တဲ့ တဏွာမ်ိဳး၊ လြန္ကဲ ေဖာက္ျပန္တဲ့ တဏွာမ်ိဳး လံုး၀မျဖစ္ေအာင္ သတိနဲ႔ ထိန္းသိမ္းႏိုင္ရပါမယ္။
ၿပီးဆံုးခဲ့တဲ့ အတိတ္အေၾကာင္း၊ ျဖစ္မလာေသးတဲ့ အနာဂတ္ အေၾကာင္းေတြကို မလိုအပ္ဘဲ ေတြးေတာေနၿပီး စိတ္ပင္ပန္း မေနသင့္ပါဘူး။ မေသခင္ ကိုယ္တကယ္ပိုင္တဲ့ ပစၥဳပၸန္ တစ္ခဏေလးမွာပဲ စိတ္ကို တည့္တည့္ ခ်ထားၿပီး လုပ္သင့္ လုပ္ထိုက္တာကို အေကာင္းဆံုး ျဖစ္ေအာင္ လုပ္ရပါမယ္။
မေသခင္မွာ ကိုယ့္စိတ္ကိုယ္ ေဒါသမီး မေလာင္ၿမိဳက္ေအာင္ တိမ္းေရွာင္ႏိုင္ရ ပါမယ္။ ထစ္ကနဲရွိ ေဒါသ ထြက္တာမ်ိဳး မလုပ္သင့္ပါဘူး။ သူလည္း တစ္ေန႔ေသ၊ ကိုယ္လည္း တစ္ေန႔ေသမယ့္ကိစၥ ဘာလို႔ေဒါသ ထြက္ေနဦးမွာလဲ။
ေနရာတကာမွာ စိတ္ပူပန္တတ္တဲ့ သူလည္း မျဖစ္သင့္ပါဘူး။ တိုေတာင္းလွတဲ့ ဘ၀ေလးကို စိတ္ ပူေလာင္မႈေတြနဲ႔ ဘာလိို႔ အခ်ိန္ ျဖဳန္းပစ္မွာလဲ။ စိတ္ေအးေအး၊ ေခါင္းေအးေအးနဲ႔ အရာရာကို ေယာနိေသာ မနသိကာရ ထားတတ္ဖို႔ အေရးၾကီးပါတယ္။
ရွိတဲ့ဂုဏ္နဲ႔ပဲ ျဖစ္ျဖစ္၊ မရွိတဲ့ ဂုဏ္နဲ႔ပဲ ျဖစ္ျဖစ္ ၾကြားတတ္၀ါတတ္၊ ဂုဏ္ၿပိဳင္တတ္တာ မ်ိဳးလည္း ေရွာင္ၾကဥ္ရပါမယ္။ ကိုယ္လုပ္တာ၊ ကိုယ္ပိုင္တာ လူတကာ လွည့္ၾကြားေနရတဲ့ အရသာက ေသရင္ ကိုယ့္အတြက္ ဘာမ်ား အက်ိဳးျပဳႏိုင္မွာ မို႔လဲ။
လုပ္သင့္တာ မလုပ္ခဲ့မိ ေလျခင္း၊ မလုပ္သင့္တာ လုပ္ခဲ့မိ ေလျခင္းလုိ႔ ေနာင္တရ စိတ္ ပူပန္ေနတာ မ်ိဳးလည္း မျဖစ္သင့္ပါဘူး။ အသိမွန္၊ သတိမွန္ရတဲ့ အခ်ိန္ကစၿပီး လုပ္သင့္တာလုပ္၊ မလုပ္သင့္တာ မလုပ္ဘဲေနရင္ မေသခင္ ကိုယ့္ဘ၀ဟာ ေက်နပ္စရာ ေကာင္းေနပါၿပီ။
ႏႈတ္ေစာင့္စည္းသူ၊ စကားကုိ ဉာဏ္နဲ႔ ခ်င့္ခ်ိန္ ေျပာသူလည္း ျဖစ္ရပါမယ္။ အပိုစကားေတြ၊ အက်ိဳးမဲ့ စကားေတြကို စိတ္ထင္တိုင္း ေလွ်ာက္ေျပာေနလို႔ ကိုယ့္ပါးစပ္လည္း က်က္သေရ ရွိမလာႏိုင္သလို၊ မေသခင္ ကိုယ့္ဘ၀လည္း က်က္သေရ ရွိမလာႏိုင္ပါဘူး။
မေသခင္ ကာလေလးက တိုတုိေလးမို႔ စိတ္ပ်ံ႕လြင့္ ေတြးေတာၿပီးလည္း အခ်ိန္မျဖဳန္းသင့္ ပါဘူး။ ကုန္သြားတဲ့ အခ်ိန္က ျပန္မရႏိုင္တဲ့ အတြက္ လက္ထဲ ေရာက္လာသမွ် အခ်ိန္တိုင္းကို စိတ္တည္ၿငိမ္မႈ အျပည့္နဲ႔ အက်ိဳးရွိရွိ အသံုးခ်တတ္ ရပါမယ္။
ကိုယ့္ရဲ႕ လက္ရွိဘ၀ကို မေက်နပ္ဘဲ မေရရာ မေသခ်ာတဲ့ အနာဂတ္ဘ၀ကုိ ပံုေဖာ္ တပ္မက္ေနတာမ်ိဳးလည္း လံုး၀ မျဖစ္ေစသင့္ပါဘူး။ ကိုယ္နဲ႔ ထိုက္တန္လို႔ ရလာတဲ့ ကိုယ့္ဘ၀ကို ေက်ေက်နပ္နပ္ လက္ခံၿပီး ေနတတ္ေအာင္ ေနရပါမယ္။ ပစၥဳပၸန္ဘ၀ကို ဖန္တီးေပးလိုက္တဲ့ အတိတ္ကံရဲ႕ ျဖစ္တည္ရာ ဘ၀ေတြကိုလည္း စိတ္နာေနလို႔ အပိုပါပဲ။
ကံ ကံရဲ႕အက်ိဳးမရွိ၊ ေရွးဘ၀၊ ေနာက္ဘ၀မရွိ အစရွိတဲ့ အယူမွား မိစၦာဒိ႒ိ ေတြလည္း ကင္းရွင္းေနရ ပါမယ္။ အယူမွားရင္ အလုပ္မွားမယ္၊ အလုပ္မွားရင္ အက်ိဳးတရားလည္း မွားၿပီး ပစၥဳပၸန္မွာေကာ သံသရာမွာပါ ဆင္းရဲ ဒုကၡေတြ ပင္လယ္ေ၀ရ ပါလိမ့္မယ္။
ကိေလသာ ျဖစ္မယ့္ကိစၥ၊ အကုသိုလ္ ျဖစ္မယ့္ ကိစၥေတြမွာ တြန္႔ဆုတ္တဲ့သူ ျဖစ္ရပါမယ္။ ကိေလသာစိတ္ မျဖစ္ရဲ၊ အကုသိုလ္အလုပ္ မလုပ္ရဲတဲ့သူဟာ သူရဲေကာင္း အစစ္ပါ။
ကိုယ့္ကို သူတစ္ပါးေတြ အထင္ၾကီးေအာင္ မဟုတ္မမွန္ လုပ္ၾကံ လွံဳ႕ေဆာ္တာမ်ိဳး လံုး၀ မျပဳလုပ္ရပါဘူး။ အံ့ဖြယ္ ထူးဆန္းေတြ လိမ္ညာ ဖန္တီးျပၿပီး နာမည္ၾကီး၊ လာဘ္ေပါ၊ ပရိသတ္ မ်ားေအာင္ လုပ္ျခင္းဟာ ကိုယ့္ရဲ႕ မေသခင္ဘ၀ကို အမဲေရာင္ ဆိုးေနတာပါပဲ။
လူသားေတြရဲ႕ မေသခင္ ဘ၀ကို အရုပ္ဆိုး၊ အက်ည္းတန္ေစတဲ့ မနာလို၊ ၀န္တိုမႈ (ဣႆာ၊ မစၦရိယ) ကိုလည္း တြန္းလွန္ႏိုင္ရပါမယ္။ ကိုယ့္ထက္သာ မနာလိုတဲ့စိတ္၊ ကိုယ့္လိုျပည့္စံုမွာ ၀န္တိုတဲ့စိတ္ လႊမ္းမိုးေနတဲ့ သူဟာ မေသခင္က ပုပ္ေနတဲ့ သက္ရွိ အေလာင္းေကာင္ပါပဲ။
ကိုယ္အျပဳအမူ ၾကမ္းတမ္းသူ၊ ႏႈတ္အေျပာအဆို ၾကမ္းတမ္းသူ၊ စိတ္ေန သေဘာထား ၾကမ္းတမ္းသူ မျဖစ္ေစရ ပါဘူး။
ကုိယ္က်င့္တရား မေကာင္းသူ (သီလမရွိသူ) ကို ပတ္၀န္းက်င္က ရြံရွာ စက္ဆုပ္ၾကပါတယ္။ မေသခင္မွာ ပတ္၀န္းက်င္က ရြံရွာစက္ဆုပ္တဲ့ ကိုယ္က်င့္တရား ပ်က္သူ မျဖစ္ပါေစနဲ႔။
ခ်စ္ခင္ေနသူ အခ်င္းခ်င္း၊ အဆင္ေျပေနသူ အခ်င္းခ်င္း ကြဲျပားေအာင္ လွဳံ႕ေဆာ္သူ၊ ကုန္းတိုက္သူ မျဖစ္ပါေစနဲ႔။ သူ႔ေရစက္နဲ႔သူ၊ သူ႔အေၾကာင္းဆက္နဲ႔ သူ၊ ခင္ၾက၊ အဆင္ေျပေန ၾကတာကို မနာလို ၀န္တိုျဖစ္ၿပီး ကြဲျပားေအာင္ ကုန္းတိုက္တဲ့ သူေလာက္ က်က္သေရ ယုတ္တဲ့သူ ေလာကမွာ မရွိေတာ့ပါဘူး။
မ်က္စိ၊ နား၊ ႏွာ၊ လွ်ာ၊ ကိုယ္၊ စိတ္လို႔ ေခၚတဲ့ တံခါး ေျခာက္ေပါက္ကေန အဆင္း၊ အသံ၊ အန႔ံ၊ အရသာ၊ အထိအေတြ႔၊ သေဘာတရားလို႔ ေခၚတဲ့ အာရံု ေျခာက္ပါးဆီကို တဏွာေလာဘ အစရွိတဲ့ ကိေလသာ ေရအလ်င္ေတြ စီးဆင္း မသြားေအာင္ ေစာင့္ေရွာက္ႏိုင္ ရပါမယ္။ ျမင္- ျမင္ကာမွ်၊ ၾကား- ၾကားကာမွ်နဲ႔ ၿပီးေအာင္ သတိပ႒ာန္ တရားကို ပြားမ်ားႏိုင္ရင္ ကိေလသာေရ စီးဆင္းမႈ ရပ္တန္႔သြားမွာပါ။
မာနလြန္ကဲၿပီး ေအာက္ေျခလြတ္ ဘ၀င္ျမင့္ေနတဲ့ သူလည္း မျဖစ္ေစရပါဘူး။ မာနႀကီးတယ္ ဆိုတာ အထင္ႀကီးတာပါ။ ပစၥည္း၊ ရုပ္ရည္၊ ပညာ၊ အာဏာ သူမ်ားထက္ သာတယ္လို႔ ထင္ေနတဲ့ အထင္ႀကီးေန တာပါ။ အထင္ဟာ အထင္ပါပဲ၊ တကယ္မဟုတ္ ပါဘူး။
မေသခင္မွာ တစ္ေန႔ထက္ တစ္ေန႔ ဉာဏ္ပညာ ႀကီးမားသူ ျဖစ္ေအာင္ ႀကိဳးစားေနရ ပါမယ္။ ေလာကီဉာဏ္သာ မက ေလာကုတၱရာ ဉာဏ္ပါရမွ လူ႔ဘ၀ ျဖစ္ရက်ိဳး နပ္ပါတယ္။
ဘယ္အရာမ်ိဳး မဆို ကိုယ္ေတြ႔အသိ မပါဘဲ သူတစ္ပါးအေျပာနဲ႔ ယံုတတ္တဲ့ သူလည္း မျဖစ္ေစရ ပါဘူး။ သိသင့္ သိထိုက္တာ မွန္သမွ် သူတစ္ပါး ပါးစပ္မွာ လမ္းဆံုး၊ သူတစ္ပါး ေျပာတာ ယံုေနရံုေလာက္နဲ႔ မၿပီးဘဲ ကိုယ္တိုင္သိ၊ ကုိယ္တိုင္ ျမင္ေအာင္ ႀကိဳးပမ္း အားထုတ္ရပါမယ္။
ဒါန၊ သီလ၊ သမထ၊ ၀ိပႆနာ ကုသိုလ္ ေကာင္းမႈေတြ ျပဳလုပ္တဲ့ အခါမွာလည္း လာဘ္ေမွ်ာ္တဲ့ စိတ္နဲ႔ မျပဳလုပ္ရပါဘူး။ လူမႈေရး လာဘ္လာဘလို႔ ေခၚတဲ့ ထင္ေပၚ ေက်ာ္ေစာမႈ၊ စီးပြားရာထူး တိုးတက္မႈ၊ သံသရာ ေကာင္းစားမႈေတြကို လံုး၀ မေမွ်ာ္ကိုးဘဲ သံသရာ ၀ဋ္ဆင္းရဲမွ လြတ္ေျမာက္လိုတဲ့ စိတ္၊ သတၱ၀ါအမ်ား ေကာင္းစားေစ လိုတဲ့ စိတ္နဲ႔ ျပဳလုပ္ၾကရပါမယ္။
အေကာင္းအဆိုး ေလာကဓံ အမ်ိဳးမ်ိဳးနဲ႔ ေတြ႔ၾကံဳလာတဲ့ အခါမွာလည္း စိတ္မတက္၊ စိတ္မပ်က္ဘဲ တည္တည္ ၿငိမ္ၿငိမ္နဲ႔ ခံႏိုင္ရည္ ရွိရပါမယ္။
သက္ရွိသက္မဲ့ တစ္ခုခုအေပၚ တပ္မက္စြဲလမ္းတဲ့ တဏွာကို အေၾကာင္းျပဳၿပီး ဘယ္သူနဲ႔မွ ဆန္႔က်င္ဘက္ မျဖစ္ေစရ ပါဘူး။ တဏွာတစ္ခုခုရဲ႕ ေနာက္မွာ ဆင့္ပြား အကုသိုလ္ စိတ္ေတြ၊ မေကာင္းမႈ ဒုစရိုက္ေတြ တြဲပါမလာေအာင္ ထိန္းသိမ္း ႏိုင္ျခင္းဟာ အဆင့္ျမင့္ ပုထုဇဥ္ေတြရဲ႕ အရည္အခ်င္း တစ္ခုပါပဲ။
အစားအေသာက္နဲ႔ ပတ္သတ္ၿပီး ေတာ့လည္း ဒါမစားရ မေနႏိုင္၊ ဒါမေသာက္ရ မေနႏိုင္ တမ္းတမ္းစြဲ မက္ေမာမႈ ကင္းရွင္းရ ပါမယ္။ ရသ တဏွာကို ထိန္းခ်ဳပ္ ေစာင့္စည္းႏိုင္ရ ပါမယ္။
ကိုယ္အျပဳအမူ ျဖစ္သမွ်၊ စိတ္အေနအထား ျဖစ္သမွ်ကို အျမဲ သတိကပ္ ရွဳမွတ္ႏိုင္တဲ့ အတြက္ေၾကာင့္ ၾကံဳလာသမွ် အာရံုေကာင္းဆိုး အမ်ိဳးမ်ိဳးကို မခ်စ္၊ မမုန္းဘဲ ဥေပကၡာျပဳ အညီအမွ် ရွဳႏိုင္တဲ့သူ ျဖစ္ရပါမယ္။
ကိုယ့္အထက္ လူနဲ႔ ႏိႈင္းယွဥ္တဲ့ မာန၊ ကိုယ့္တန္းတူ လူနဲ႔ ႏိႈင္းယွဥ္တဲ့ မာန၊ ကိုယ့္ေအာက္တန္း လူနဲ႔ ႏိႈင္းယွဥ္တဲ့ မာန၊ မာနသံုးမ်ိဳးလံုး ကင္းရွင္းရပါမယ္။
ေသၿပီးရင္ အသက္ေကာင္၊ ၀ိညာဥ္ေကာင္ေလး ေနာက္ဘ၀ လိုက္တယ္ဆုိတဲ့ သႆတ ဒိ႒ိ၊ ေသၿပီးျပတ္တယ္၊ ဘာမွ မျဖစ္ေတာ့ဘူး ဆိုတဲ့ ဥေစၦဒ ဒိ႒ိ၊ ဒီ ဒိ႒ိႏွစ္ပါးလည္း ကင္းရွင္းရပါမယ္။ ဒီ ဒိ႒ိႏွစ္ပါး ရွိေနရင္ မေသခင္ လုပ္ရမယ့္ အလုပ္ေတြ ကေမာက္ကမ ျဖစ္ၿပီး သံသရာမွာ ေခ်ာက္က်ရပါလိမ့္မယ္။
ကိုယ္နဲ႔ ပတ္သတ္ ဆက္စပ္ေနတဲ့ သားသမီးစတဲ့ သက္ရွိ ပုဂၢိဳလ္ေတြ၊ အိမ္၊ ေျမ စတဲ့ သက္မဲ့ အရာ၀တၳဳ ေတြကို ငါ့သား၊ ငါ့သမီး၊ ငါ့အိမ္၊ ငါ့ေျမဆုိၿပီး ငါစြဲႀကီးႀကီး၊ ငါ့ဥစၥာ အစြဲႀကီးႀကီးနဲ႔ သိမ္းပိုက္ထားတဲ့ စိတ္မ်ိဳး ကင္းရွင္းရပါမယ္။
ဘာအလုပ္ပဲ လုပ္လုပ္ ကိေလသာကို ေရွ႕တန္းတင္တဲ့ အလုပ္၊ ကိေလသာကို ဆရာတင္တဲ့ အလုပ္မ်ိဳး မျဖစ္ေအာင္ သတိထားရပါမယ္။
ကိေလသာ အရင္းမခံဘဲ အလုပ္လုပ္ေန ပါရက္နဲ႔ သူတစ္ပါးတို႔က ကိေလသာ အရင္းခံတယ္လို႔ ထင္ေယာင္ ထင္မွား စြပ္စြဲလာရင္လည္း မတုန္မလွဳပ္ သည္းခံႏိုင္ရ ပါမယ္။
“တစ္ေလာကလံုးမွာ ကိုယ္ပိုင္တာ ဘာမွမရွိပါလား” ဆိုတဲ့ အသိ စြဲစြဲျမဲျမဲ ရွိေနရပါမယ္။ အဲဒီအသိ စြဲစြဲျမဲျမဲ ရွိေနၿပီဆိုရင္ ရွိခ်င္တာ မရွိလို႔လည္း မပူပန္ေတာ့ဘူး။ ရွိၿပီးတာ မရွိလို႔လည္း မဆူညံေတာ့ ပါဘူး။
ခ်စ္ျခင္း၊ မုန္းျခင္းစတဲ့ ကိေလသာကို အရင္းခံၿပီး မလုပ္သင့္ မလုပ္ထိုက္တာ လုပ္တဲ့ အဂတိ လိုက္စားမႈလည္း ကင္းရွင္းရပါမယ္။ အဂတိရဲ႕ လားရာဟာ ဒုဂၢတိပါ။
ေလာကမွာ လူသားေတြ မလုပ္သင့္ မလုပ္ထိုက္တာ လုပ္၊ လုပ္သင့္ လုပ္ထိုက္တာ မလုပ္ ျဖစ္ေနၾကတာဟာ အရင္းခံကေတာ့ ကိေလသာပါပဲ။ ကိေလသာ ေခါင္းပါးလာတာနဲ႔ အမွ် မလုပ္သင့္ မလုပ္ထိုက္တာ ေတြလည္း ေရွာင္ၾကဥ္ႏိုင္လာ ပါလိမ့္မယ္။ လုပ္သင့္ လုပ္ထိုက္တာ ေတြလည္း ေဆာင္ငင္ႏိုင္လာ ပါလိမ့္မယ္။
မလုပ္သင့္တာ အားလံုး အၾကြင္းမဲ့ ေရွာင္ႏုိင္ၿပီး လုပ္သင့္တာ အားလံုး အၾကြင္းမဲ့ ေဆာင္ႏိုင္ၿပီ ဆိုရင္ေတာ့ အၾကြင္းမဲ့ ဘ၀လြတ္ေျမာက္မႈကို ရပါၿပီ။ ေသျခင္းတရားက အၾကြင္းမဲ့ လြတ္ေျမာက္ပါၿပီ။ ထပ္တလဲလဲ တစ္ေသတည္း ေသေနရတဲ့ အျဖစ္ဆိုး၊ ဒုကၡဆိုးေတြက ထာ၀ရ လြတ္ေျမာက္ပါၿပီ။ အႏႈိင္းမဲ့ နိဗၺာန္မွာ အၾကြင္းမဲ့ ေပ်ာ္စံႏိုင္ပါၿပီ။
ဒါေၾကာင့္ မေသခင္ လုပ္ရမယ့္ အလုပ္ေတြထဲမွာ အေရးအႀကီးဆံုး၊ ပဓာန အက်ဆံုးကေတာ့ ကိေလသာ ေခါင္းပါးေရး အလုပ္၊ ကိေလသာ အျမစ္ျပတ္ေရး အလုပ္ပါပဲ။
စာဖတ္ပရိသတ္အေပါင္းတုိ႔ ကိေလသာ ေခါင္းပါးေအာင္ က်င့္ႀကံအားထုတ္ႏုိင္ၾကပါေစေသာ္၀္။
သီတဂူစန္းလပမာ ခ်မ္းျမသာယာရွိၾကပါေစ။
(တဆင့္ တင္ျပပါသည္)။
read more “မေသခင္ ျဖည့္ဆည္းရမည့္ ဘ၀အရည္အေသြးမ်ား”
မေသခင္မွာ တဏွာကင္းေအာင္ ၾကိဳးစားရပါမယ္။ လံုး၀ မကင္းေတာင္ နည္းႏိုင္သမွ် နည္းရပါမယ္။ အစြန္းထြက္တဲ့ တဏွာမ်ိဳး၊ လြန္ကဲ ေဖာက္ျပန္တဲ့ တဏွာမ်ိဳး လံုး၀မျဖစ္ေအာင္ သတိနဲ႔ ထိန္းသိမ္းႏိုင္ရပါမယ္။
ၿပီးဆံုးခဲ့တဲ့ အတိတ္အေၾကာင္း၊ ျဖစ္မလာေသးတဲ့ အနာဂတ္ အေၾကာင္းေတြကို မလိုအပ္ဘဲ ေတြးေတာေနၿပီး စိတ္ပင္ပန္း မေနသင့္ပါဘူး။ မေသခင္ ကိုယ္တကယ္ပိုင္တဲ့ ပစၥဳပၸန္ တစ္ခဏေလးမွာပဲ စိတ္ကို တည့္တည့္ ခ်ထားၿပီး လုပ္သင့္ လုပ္ထိုက္တာကို အေကာင္းဆံုး ျဖစ္ေအာင္ လုပ္ရပါမယ္။
မေသခင္မွာ ကိုယ့္စိတ္ကိုယ္ ေဒါသမီး မေလာင္ၿမိဳက္ေအာင္ တိမ္းေရွာင္ႏိုင္ရ ပါမယ္။ ထစ္ကနဲရွိ ေဒါသ ထြက္တာမ်ိဳး မလုပ္သင့္ပါဘူး။ သူလည္း တစ္ေန႔ေသ၊ ကိုယ္လည္း တစ္ေန႔ေသမယ့္ကိစၥ ဘာလို႔ေဒါသ ထြက္ေနဦးမွာလဲ။
ေနရာတကာမွာ စိတ္ပူပန္တတ္တဲ့ သူလည္း မျဖစ္သင့္ပါဘူး။ တိုေတာင္းလွတဲ့ ဘ၀ေလးကို စိတ္ ပူေလာင္မႈေတြနဲ႔ ဘာလိို႔ အခ်ိန္ ျဖဳန္းပစ္မွာလဲ။ စိတ္ေအးေအး၊ ေခါင္းေအးေအးနဲ႔ အရာရာကို ေယာနိေသာ မနသိကာရ ထားတတ္ဖို႔ အေရးၾကီးပါတယ္။
ရွိတဲ့ဂုဏ္နဲ႔ပဲ ျဖစ္ျဖစ္၊ မရွိတဲ့ ဂုဏ္နဲ႔ပဲ ျဖစ္ျဖစ္ ၾကြားတတ္၀ါတတ္၊ ဂုဏ္ၿပိဳင္တတ္တာ မ်ိဳးလည္း ေရွာင္ၾကဥ္ရပါမယ္။ ကိုယ္လုပ္တာ၊ ကိုယ္ပိုင္တာ လူတကာ လွည့္ၾကြားေနရတဲ့ အရသာက ေသရင္ ကိုယ့္အတြက္ ဘာမ်ား အက်ိဳးျပဳႏိုင္မွာ မို႔လဲ။
လုပ္သင့္တာ မလုပ္ခဲ့မိ ေလျခင္း၊ မလုပ္သင့္တာ လုပ္ခဲ့မိ ေလျခင္းလုိ႔ ေနာင္တရ စိတ္ ပူပန္ေနတာ မ်ိဳးလည္း မျဖစ္သင့္ပါဘူး။ အသိမွန္၊ သတိမွန္ရတဲ့ အခ်ိန္ကစၿပီး လုပ္သင့္တာလုပ္၊ မလုပ္သင့္တာ မလုပ္ဘဲေနရင္ မေသခင္ ကိုယ့္ဘ၀ဟာ ေက်နပ္စရာ ေကာင္းေနပါၿပီ။
ႏႈတ္ေစာင့္စည္းသူ၊ စကားကုိ ဉာဏ္နဲ႔ ခ်င့္ခ်ိန္ ေျပာသူလည္း ျဖစ္ရပါမယ္။ အပိုစကားေတြ၊ အက်ိဳးမဲ့ စကားေတြကို စိတ္ထင္တိုင္း ေလွ်ာက္ေျပာေနလို႔ ကိုယ့္ပါးစပ္လည္း က်က္သေရ ရွိမလာႏိုင္သလို၊ မေသခင္ ကိုယ့္ဘ၀လည္း က်က္သေရ ရွိမလာႏိုင္ပါဘူး။
မေသခင္ ကာလေလးက တိုတုိေလးမို႔ စိတ္ပ်ံ႕လြင့္ ေတြးေတာၿပီးလည္း အခ်ိန္မျဖဳန္းသင့္ ပါဘူး။ ကုန္သြားတဲ့ အခ်ိန္က ျပန္မရႏိုင္တဲ့ အတြက္ လက္ထဲ ေရာက္လာသမွ် အခ်ိန္တိုင္းကို စိတ္တည္ၿငိမ္မႈ အျပည့္နဲ႔ အက်ိဳးရွိရွိ အသံုးခ်တတ္ ရပါမယ္။
ကိုယ့္ရဲ႕ လက္ရွိဘ၀ကို မေက်နပ္ဘဲ မေရရာ မေသခ်ာတဲ့ အနာဂတ္ဘ၀ကုိ ပံုေဖာ္ တပ္မက္ေနတာမ်ိဳးလည္း လံုး၀ မျဖစ္ေစသင့္ပါဘူး။ ကိုယ္နဲ႔ ထိုက္တန္လို႔ ရလာတဲ့ ကိုယ့္ဘ၀ကို ေက်ေက်နပ္နပ္ လက္ခံၿပီး ေနတတ္ေအာင္ ေနရပါမယ္။ ပစၥဳပၸန္ဘ၀ကို ဖန္တီးေပးလိုက္တဲ့ အတိတ္ကံရဲ႕ ျဖစ္တည္ရာ ဘ၀ေတြကိုလည္း စိတ္နာေနလို႔ အပိုပါပဲ။
ကံ ကံရဲ႕အက်ိဳးမရွိ၊ ေရွးဘ၀၊ ေနာက္ဘ၀မရွိ အစရွိတဲ့ အယူမွား မိစၦာဒိ႒ိ ေတြလည္း ကင္းရွင္းေနရ ပါမယ္။ အယူမွားရင္ အလုပ္မွားမယ္၊ အလုပ္မွားရင္ အက်ိဳးတရားလည္း မွားၿပီး ပစၥဳပၸန္မွာေကာ သံသရာမွာပါ ဆင္းရဲ ဒုကၡေတြ ပင္လယ္ေ၀ရ ပါလိမ့္မယ္။
ကိေလသာ ျဖစ္မယ့္ကိစၥ၊ အကုသိုလ္ ျဖစ္မယ့္ ကိစၥေတြမွာ တြန္႔ဆုတ္တဲ့သူ ျဖစ္ရပါမယ္။ ကိေလသာစိတ္ မျဖစ္ရဲ၊ အကုသိုလ္အလုပ္ မလုပ္ရဲတဲ့သူဟာ သူရဲေကာင္း အစစ္ပါ။
ကိုယ့္ကို သူတစ္ပါးေတြ အထင္ၾကီးေအာင္ မဟုတ္မမွန္ လုပ္ၾကံ လွံဳ႕ေဆာ္တာမ်ိဳး လံုး၀ မျပဳလုပ္ရပါဘူး။ အံ့ဖြယ္ ထူးဆန္းေတြ လိမ္ညာ ဖန္တီးျပၿပီး နာမည္ၾကီး၊ လာဘ္ေပါ၊ ပရိသတ္ မ်ားေအာင္ လုပ္ျခင္းဟာ ကိုယ့္ရဲ႕ မေသခင္ဘ၀ကို အမဲေရာင္ ဆိုးေနတာပါပဲ။
လူသားေတြရဲ႕ မေသခင္ ဘ၀ကို အရုပ္ဆိုး၊ အက်ည္းတန္ေစတဲ့ မနာလို၊ ၀န္တိုမႈ (ဣႆာ၊ မစၦရိယ) ကိုလည္း တြန္းလွန္ႏိုင္ရပါမယ္။ ကိုယ့္ထက္သာ မနာလိုတဲ့စိတ္၊ ကိုယ့္လိုျပည့္စံုမွာ ၀န္တိုတဲ့စိတ္ လႊမ္းမိုးေနတဲ့ သူဟာ မေသခင္က ပုပ္ေနတဲ့ သက္ရွိ အေလာင္းေကာင္ပါပဲ။
ကိုယ္အျပဳအမူ ၾကမ္းတမ္းသူ၊ ႏႈတ္အေျပာအဆို ၾကမ္းတမ္းသူ၊ စိတ္ေန သေဘာထား ၾကမ္းတမ္းသူ မျဖစ္ေစရ ပါဘူး။
ကုိယ္က်င့္တရား မေကာင္းသူ (သီလမရွိသူ) ကို ပတ္၀န္းက်င္က ရြံရွာ စက္ဆုပ္ၾကပါတယ္။ မေသခင္မွာ ပတ္၀န္းက်င္က ရြံရွာစက္ဆုပ္တဲ့ ကိုယ္က်င့္တရား ပ်က္သူ မျဖစ္ပါေစနဲ႔။
ခ်စ္ခင္ေနသူ အခ်င္းခ်င္း၊ အဆင္ေျပေနသူ အခ်င္းခ်င္း ကြဲျပားေအာင္ လွဳံ႕ေဆာ္သူ၊ ကုန္းတိုက္သူ မျဖစ္ပါေစနဲ႔။ သူ႔ေရစက္နဲ႔သူ၊ သူ႔အေၾကာင္းဆက္နဲ႔ သူ၊ ခင္ၾက၊ အဆင္ေျပေန ၾကတာကို မနာလို ၀န္တိုျဖစ္ၿပီး ကြဲျပားေအာင္ ကုန္းတိုက္တဲ့ သူေလာက္ က်က္သေရ ယုတ္တဲ့သူ ေလာကမွာ မရွိေတာ့ပါဘူး။
မ်က္စိ၊ နား၊ ႏွာ၊ လွ်ာ၊ ကိုယ္၊ စိတ္လို႔ ေခၚတဲ့ တံခါး ေျခာက္ေပါက္ကေန အဆင္း၊ အသံ၊ အန႔ံ၊ အရသာ၊ အထိအေတြ႔၊ သေဘာတရားလို႔ ေခၚတဲ့ အာရံု ေျခာက္ပါးဆီကို တဏွာေလာဘ အစရွိတဲ့ ကိေလသာ ေရအလ်င္ေတြ စီးဆင္း မသြားေအာင္ ေစာင့္ေရွာက္ႏိုင္ ရပါမယ္။ ျမင္- ျမင္ကာမွ်၊ ၾကား- ၾကားကာမွ်နဲ႔ ၿပီးေအာင္ သတိပ႒ာန္ တရားကို ပြားမ်ားႏိုင္ရင္ ကိေလသာေရ စီးဆင္းမႈ ရပ္တန္႔သြားမွာပါ။
မာနလြန္ကဲၿပီး ေအာက္ေျခလြတ္ ဘ၀င္ျမင့္ေနတဲ့ သူလည္း မျဖစ္ေစရပါဘူး။ မာနႀကီးတယ္ ဆိုတာ အထင္ႀကီးတာပါ။ ပစၥည္း၊ ရုပ္ရည္၊ ပညာ၊ အာဏာ သူမ်ားထက္ သာတယ္လို႔ ထင္ေနတဲ့ အထင္ႀကီးေန တာပါ။ အထင္ဟာ အထင္ပါပဲ၊ တကယ္မဟုတ္ ပါဘူး။
မေသခင္မွာ တစ္ေန႔ထက္ တစ္ေန႔ ဉာဏ္ပညာ ႀကီးမားသူ ျဖစ္ေအာင္ ႀကိဳးစားေနရ ပါမယ္။ ေလာကီဉာဏ္သာ မက ေလာကုတၱရာ ဉာဏ္ပါရမွ လူ႔ဘ၀ ျဖစ္ရက်ိဳး နပ္ပါတယ္။
ဘယ္အရာမ်ိဳး မဆို ကိုယ္ေတြ႔အသိ မပါဘဲ သူတစ္ပါးအေျပာနဲ႔ ယံုတတ္တဲ့ သူလည္း မျဖစ္ေစရ ပါဘူး။ သိသင့္ သိထိုက္တာ မွန္သမွ် သူတစ္ပါး ပါးစပ္မွာ လမ္းဆံုး၊ သူတစ္ပါး ေျပာတာ ယံုေနရံုေလာက္နဲ႔ မၿပီးဘဲ ကိုယ္တိုင္သိ၊ ကုိယ္တိုင္ ျမင္ေအာင္ ႀကိဳးပမ္း အားထုတ္ရပါမယ္။
ဒါန၊ သီလ၊ သမထ၊ ၀ိပႆနာ ကုသိုလ္ ေကာင္းမႈေတြ ျပဳလုပ္တဲ့ အခါမွာလည္း လာဘ္ေမွ်ာ္တဲ့ စိတ္နဲ႔ မျပဳလုပ္ရပါဘူး။ လူမႈေရး လာဘ္လာဘလို႔ ေခၚတဲ့ ထင္ေပၚ ေက်ာ္ေစာမႈ၊ စီးပြားရာထူး တိုးတက္မႈ၊ သံသရာ ေကာင္းစားမႈေတြကို လံုး၀ မေမွ်ာ္ကိုးဘဲ သံသရာ ၀ဋ္ဆင္းရဲမွ လြတ္ေျမာက္လိုတဲ့ စိတ္၊ သတၱ၀ါအမ်ား ေကာင္းစားေစ လိုတဲ့ စိတ္နဲ႔ ျပဳလုပ္ၾကရပါမယ္။
အေကာင္းအဆိုး ေလာကဓံ အမ်ိဳးမ်ိဳးနဲ႔ ေတြ႔ၾကံဳလာတဲ့ အခါမွာလည္း စိတ္မတက္၊ စိတ္မပ်က္ဘဲ တည္တည္ ၿငိမ္ၿငိမ္နဲ႔ ခံႏိုင္ရည္ ရွိရပါမယ္။
သက္ရွိသက္မဲ့ တစ္ခုခုအေပၚ တပ္မက္စြဲလမ္းတဲ့ တဏွာကို အေၾကာင္းျပဳၿပီး ဘယ္သူနဲ႔မွ ဆန္႔က်င္ဘက္ မျဖစ္ေစရ ပါဘူး။ တဏွာတစ္ခုခုရဲ႕ ေနာက္မွာ ဆင့္ပြား အကုသိုလ္ စိတ္ေတြ၊ မေကာင္းမႈ ဒုစရိုက္ေတြ တြဲပါမလာေအာင္ ထိန္းသိမ္း ႏိုင္ျခင္းဟာ အဆင့္ျမင့္ ပုထုဇဥ္ေတြရဲ႕ အရည္အခ်င္း တစ္ခုပါပဲ။
အစားအေသာက္နဲ႔ ပတ္သတ္ၿပီး ေတာ့လည္း ဒါမစားရ မေနႏိုင္၊ ဒါမေသာက္ရ မေနႏိုင္ တမ္းတမ္းစြဲ မက္ေမာမႈ ကင္းရွင္းရ ပါမယ္။ ရသ တဏွာကို ထိန္းခ်ဳပ္ ေစာင့္စည္းႏိုင္ရ ပါမယ္။
ကိုယ္အျပဳအမူ ျဖစ္သမွ်၊ စိတ္အေနအထား ျဖစ္သမွ်ကို အျမဲ သတိကပ္ ရွဳမွတ္ႏိုင္တဲ့ အတြက္ေၾကာင့္ ၾကံဳလာသမွ် အာရံုေကာင္းဆိုး အမ်ိဳးမ်ိဳးကို မခ်စ္၊ မမုန္းဘဲ ဥေပကၡာျပဳ အညီအမွ် ရွဳႏိုင္တဲ့သူ ျဖစ္ရပါမယ္။
ကိုယ့္အထက္ လူနဲ႔ ႏိႈင္းယွဥ္တဲ့ မာန၊ ကိုယ့္တန္းတူ လူနဲ႔ ႏိႈင္းယွဥ္တဲ့ မာန၊ ကိုယ့္ေအာက္တန္း လူနဲ႔ ႏိႈင္းယွဥ္တဲ့ မာန၊ မာနသံုးမ်ိဳးလံုး ကင္းရွင္းရပါမယ္။
ေသၿပီးရင္ အသက္ေကာင္၊ ၀ိညာဥ္ေကာင္ေလး ေနာက္ဘ၀ လိုက္တယ္ဆုိတဲ့ သႆတ ဒိ႒ိ၊ ေသၿပီးျပတ္တယ္၊ ဘာမွ မျဖစ္ေတာ့ဘူး ဆိုတဲ့ ဥေစၦဒ ဒိ႒ိ၊ ဒီ ဒိ႒ိႏွစ္ပါးလည္း ကင္းရွင္းရပါမယ္။ ဒီ ဒိ႒ိႏွစ္ပါး ရွိေနရင္ မေသခင္ လုပ္ရမယ့္ အလုပ္ေတြ ကေမာက္ကမ ျဖစ္ၿပီး သံသရာမွာ ေခ်ာက္က်ရပါလိမ့္မယ္။
ကိုယ္နဲ႔ ပတ္သတ္ ဆက္စပ္ေနတဲ့ သားသမီးစတဲ့ သက္ရွိ ပုဂၢိဳလ္ေတြ၊ အိမ္၊ ေျမ စတဲ့ သက္မဲ့ အရာ၀တၳဳ ေတြကို ငါ့သား၊ ငါ့သမီး၊ ငါ့အိမ္၊ ငါ့ေျမဆုိၿပီး ငါစြဲႀကီးႀကီး၊ ငါ့ဥစၥာ အစြဲႀကီးႀကီးနဲ႔ သိမ္းပိုက္ထားတဲ့ စိတ္မ်ိဳး ကင္းရွင္းရပါမယ္။
ဘာအလုပ္ပဲ လုပ္လုပ္ ကိေလသာကို ေရွ႕တန္းတင္တဲ့ အလုပ္၊ ကိေလသာကို ဆရာတင္တဲ့ အလုပ္မ်ိဳး မျဖစ္ေအာင္ သတိထားရပါမယ္။
ကိေလသာ အရင္းမခံဘဲ အလုပ္လုပ္ေန ပါရက္နဲ႔ သူတစ္ပါးတို႔က ကိေလသာ အရင္းခံတယ္လို႔ ထင္ေယာင္ ထင္မွား စြပ္စြဲလာရင္လည္း မတုန္မလွဳပ္ သည္းခံႏိုင္ရ ပါမယ္။
“တစ္ေလာကလံုးမွာ ကိုယ္ပိုင္တာ ဘာမွမရွိပါလား” ဆိုတဲ့ အသိ စြဲစြဲျမဲျမဲ ရွိေနရပါမယ္။ အဲဒီအသိ စြဲစြဲျမဲျမဲ ရွိေနၿပီဆိုရင္ ရွိခ်င္တာ မရွိလို႔လည္း မပူပန္ေတာ့ဘူး။ ရွိၿပီးတာ မရွိလို႔လည္း မဆူညံေတာ့ ပါဘူး။
ခ်စ္ျခင္း၊ မုန္းျခင္းစတဲ့ ကိေလသာကို အရင္းခံၿပီး မလုပ္သင့္ မလုပ္ထိုက္တာ လုပ္တဲ့ အဂတိ လိုက္စားမႈလည္း ကင္းရွင္းရပါမယ္။ အဂတိရဲ႕ လားရာဟာ ဒုဂၢတိပါ။
ေလာကမွာ လူသားေတြ မလုပ္သင့္ မလုပ္ထိုက္တာ လုပ္၊ လုပ္သင့္ လုပ္ထိုက္တာ မလုပ္ ျဖစ္ေနၾကတာဟာ အရင္းခံကေတာ့ ကိေလသာပါပဲ။ ကိေလသာ ေခါင္းပါးလာတာနဲ႔ အမွ် မလုပ္သင့္ မလုပ္ထိုက္တာ ေတြလည္း ေရွာင္ၾကဥ္ႏိုင္လာ ပါလိမ့္မယ္။ လုပ္သင့္ လုပ္ထိုက္တာ ေတြလည္း ေဆာင္ငင္ႏိုင္လာ ပါလိမ့္မယ္။
မလုပ္သင့္တာ အားလံုး အၾကြင္းမဲ့ ေရွာင္ႏုိင္ၿပီး လုပ္သင့္တာ အားလံုး အၾကြင္းမဲ့ ေဆာင္ႏိုင္ၿပီ ဆိုရင္ေတာ့ အၾကြင္းမဲ့ ဘ၀လြတ္ေျမာက္မႈကို ရပါၿပီ။ ေသျခင္းတရားက အၾကြင္းမဲ့ လြတ္ေျမာက္ပါၿပီ။ ထပ္တလဲလဲ တစ္ေသတည္း ေသေနရတဲ့ အျဖစ္ဆိုး၊ ဒုကၡဆိုးေတြက ထာ၀ရ လြတ္ေျမာက္ပါၿပီ။ အႏႈိင္းမဲ့ နိဗၺာန္မွာ အၾကြင္းမဲ့ ေပ်ာ္စံႏိုင္ပါၿပီ။
ဒါေၾကာင့္ မေသခင္ လုပ္ရမယ့္ အလုပ္ေတြထဲမွာ အေရးအႀကီးဆံုး၊ ပဓာန အက်ဆံုးကေတာ့ ကိေလသာ ေခါင္းပါးေရး အလုပ္၊ ကိေလသာ အျမစ္ျပတ္ေရး အလုပ္ပါပဲ။
စာဖတ္ပရိသတ္အေပါင္းတုိ႔ ကိေလသာ ေခါင္းပါးေအာင္ က်င့္ႀကံအားထုတ္ႏုိင္ၾကပါေစေသာ္၀္။
သီတဂူစန္းလပမာ ခ်မ္းျမသာယာရွိၾကပါေစ။
(တဆင့္ တင္ျပပါသည္)။
Outline of Buddhism in early History period of Burma.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010The history of Burma, now officially Myanmar, is long and complicated. Several ethnic groups have lived in the region, the oldest of which are probably the Mon or the Pyu. In the 9th century the Bamar (Burman) people migrated from the then China-Tibet border region into the valley of the Ayeyarwady, and now form the governing majority. The history of the region comprises complexities not only within the country but also with its neighboring countries, China, India, Bangladesh, Laos and Thailand.
Early history of Burma
Humans lived in the region that is now Burma as early as 11,000 years ago, but archeological evidence dates the first settlements at about 2500 BCE with cattle rearing and the production of bronze. By about 1500 BCE, ironworks were in existence in the Irrawaddy Valley but cities, and the emergence of city states, probably did not occur till the early years of the Common era when advances in irrigation systems and the building of canals allowed for yearlong agriculture and the consolidation of settlements.[1]Artifacts from the excavated site of Nyaunggan help to reconstruct Bronze Age life in Burma and the more recent archaeological evidence at Samon Valley south of Mandalay suggests rice growing settlements between about 500 BC and 200 AD which traded with Qin and Han dynasty China
Pyu city-states
The Pyu arrived in Burma in the 1st century BC and established city kingdoms at Binnaka, Mongamo, Siri Khettara, Peikthanomyo, and Halingyi. During this period, Burma was part of an overland trade route from China to India. Chinese sources state that the Pyu controlled 18 kingdoms and describe them as a humane and peaceful people. War was virtually unknown amongst the Pyu, and disputes were often solved through duels by champions or building competitions. They even wore silk cotton instead of actual silk so they would not have to kill silk worms. Crime was punished by whippings and jails were unknown, though serious crimes could result in the death penalty. The Pyu practiced Theravada Buddhism, and all children were educated as novices in the temples from the age of seven until the age of 20.
The Pyu city-states never unified into a Pyu kingdom, but the more powerful cities often dominated and called for tribute from the lesser cities. The most powerful city by far was Siri Khettara(Sare Khettara), which archaeological evidence indicates was the largest city that has ever been built in Burma. The exact date of its founding is not known, though likely to be prior to a dynastic change in A.D. 94 that Pyu chronicles speak of. Sari Khettara(Sare Khettara) was apparently abandoned around A.D. 656 in favour of a more northerly capital, though the exact site is not known. Some historians believe it was Hanlingyi. Wherever the new capital was located, it was sacked by the kingdom of Nanzhao in the mid-9th century, ending the Pyu's period of dominance.
Mon kingdoms
The 6th century Mon kingdom of Dvaravati in the lower Chao Phraya valley in present day Thailand extended its frontiers to the Tenasserim Yoma (mountains). With subjugation by the Khmer Empire from Angkor in the 11th century the Mon shifted further west deeper into present day Burma. Oral tradition suggests that they had contact with Buddhism via seafaring as early as the 3rd century BC and had received an envoy of monks from Ashoka in the 2nd century BC.
The Mons adopted Indian culture together with Theravada Buddhism and are thought to have founded kingdoms in Lower Burma including the Thaton Kingdom circa 9th century AD and Bago (Pegu) in 825. The Kingdom of Raman'n'adesa (or Ramanna) referenced by Arab geographers in 844–8.[1] is believed to be Thaton. The lack of archaeological evidence for this may in part be due to the focus of excavation work predominantly being in Upper Burma.
Pagan Kingdom (1044-1287)
To the north another group of people, the Bamar (Mranma / Myanma), also began to settle in the area. By 849, they had founded a powerful kingdom centred on the city of Pagan (spelled Bagan today) filling the void left by the Pyu.
Bamar tradition maintains that the Bamar were originally of three tribes, the Pyu, the Thet, and the Kanyan. Indeed, Pyu as a language and as a people simply disappeared soon after the Myazedi Inscription of 1113. The word Mranma,in both Mon and Myanmar inscriptions, came into being only at about the same time, lending support to this claim that the Pyu were an earlier vanguard of southward Tibeto-Burman migration who were entirely absorbed into a newly formed identity by later waves of similar people .
The Pagan Kingdom grew in relative isolation until the reign of Anawrahta who successfully unified all of Burma by defeating the Mon kingdom of Thaton in 1057. Consolidation was accomplished under his successors Kyanzittha and Alaungsithu, so that by the mid-12th century, most of continental Southeast Asia was under the control of either the Pagan Kingdom or the Khmer Empire. The Pagan kingdom went into decline as more land and resources fell into the hands of the powerful Sangha (monkhood) and the Mongols threatened from the north. The last true ruler of Pagan, Narathihapate felt confident in his ability to resist the Mongols and advanced into Yunnan in 1277 to make war upon them. He was thoroughly crushed at the Battle of Ngasaunggyan, and Pagan resistance virtually collapsed. The king was assassinated by his own son in 1287, precipitating a Mongol invasion in the Battle of Pagan; the Mongols successfully captured most of the empire, including its capital, and ended the dynasty in 1289 when they installed a puppet ruler in Burma.
Small kingdoms
After the fall of Pagan, the Mongols left in the searing Irrawaddy valley but the Pagan Kingdom was irreparably broken up into several small kingdoms. By the early 15th century, the country became organized along four major power centers: Upper Burma, Lower Burma, Shan States and Arakan. Many of the power centers were themselves made up of (often loosely held) minor kingdoms or princely states. This era was marked by a series of wars and switching alliances. Smaller kingdoms played a precarious game of paying allegiance to more powerful states, sometimes simultaneously.
Ava Kingdom (1364-1555)
Founded in 1364, Ava (Innwa) was the successor state to earlier, even smaller kingdoms based in central Burma: Myinsaing (1298–1312), Pinya (1312–1364), and Sagaing (1315–1364). Ava viewed itself as the rightful heir to the kingdom of Pagan, and in order to reassemble the lost empire, waged continuous wars against Hanthawaddy Pegu and Shan States in the late 14th to early 15th centuries. But by the late 15th century, it was Ava that was under repeated Shan raids. By the early 16th century, hitherto regional princely states like Prome (Pyay) and Toungoo (Taungoo) broke away from Ava. In 1527, Ava fell to a confederation of Shan States led by Mohnyin, which ruled much of Upper Burma from Ava until 1555. The Burmese language and culture came into its own during the Ava period.
Hanthawaddy Pegu (1287-1539)
Founded in Martaban (Mottama), Hanthawaddy was first to emerge out of Pagan's ashes. The capital was shifted to Pegu (Bago) in 1369. As was the case in Upper Burma, the kingdom too consisted of regional power centers in Pegu, Bassein (Pathein), and Martaban. King Razadarit successfully held off Ava in the Forty Years' War. In the second half of 15th century, Hanthawaddy, under Queen Shin Sawbu and her successor King Dhammazedi, entered its golden age. The kingdom, with a flourishing Mon language and culture, became a center of commerce and Theravada Buddhism, making it the strongest and most prosperous of all the post-Pagan kingdoms.
History of Shan States (1287-1557)
The Shans, who came down with the Mongols, stayed and quickly came to dominate much of northern to eastern arc of Burma—from northwestern Sagaing Division to Kachin Hills to the present day Shan Hills. The most powerful Shan states were Mohnyin (Shan: Mong Yang) and Mogaung (Mong Kawng) in present-day Kachin State, followed by Theinni (Hsenwi), Thibaw (Hsipaw) and Momeik (Mongmit) in present-day northern Shan State.[2] Minor states included Kalay, Bhamo, Nyaungshwe and Kengtung. Mohnyin, in particular, constantly raided Ava's territory throughout 15th and early 16th centuries and captured Ava itself in alliance with Prome in 1527. Mohnyin-led confederation of Shan states ruled much of Upper Burma (except for the Toungoo Kingdom) until 1555.
History of Arakan (1287-1784)
Although Arakan had been de facto independent since the late Pagan period, the Laungkrat dynasty of Arakan was ineffectual. Until the founding of the Mrauk-U Kingdom in 1430, Arakan was often caught between bigger neighbors, and found itself a battlefield during the Forty Years' war between Ava and Pegu. Mrauk-U went on to be a powerful kingdom in its own right between 15th and 17th centuries, including East Bengal between 1459 and 1666. Arakan was the only post-Pagan kingdom not to be annexed by the Toungoo dynasty.
How Buddhism was brought to Burma
Tapussa & Bhallika met the Buddha
Burmese people believed that during Lord Buddha life time, the two Burmese merchants named Tapussa and Bhallika from Ukkalapa near Yangon were travelling through the region of Uruvela (These two men were leaders of a large caravan that was passing through Magadha) and were directed to the Buddha by their member. The Buddha had just come out of seven weeks of meditation after his awakening and was sitting under a tree feeling the need for food. They made an offering of rice cake and honey to the Buddha and took the two refuges, the refuge in the Buddha and the refuge in the Dhamma (the Sangha, the third refuge, did not exist yet). Here, Burmese proudly claim that the Buddha's first meal was offered by Burmese Tapussa and Bhallika. As they were about to depart, they asked the Buddha for an object to worship in his stead and he gave them eight hairs from his head. After the two returned from their journey, the king of Okkallapa welcomed them with great honour on their arrival and they enshrined the three hairs in a stupa which is now the great Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon.
It is believed in Myanmar that the hill upon which the Shwedagon Pagoda stands was not haphazardly chosen by Taputta and Bhallika but was, in fact, the site where the three Buddhas preceding the Buddha Gotama in this world cycle themselves deposited relics. Buddga Kakusandha is said to have left his staff on the Theinguttara Hill, the Buddha Konagamana his water filter, and Buddha Kassapa a part of his robe. Because of this, the Gotama Buddha requested Taputta and Bhallika to enshrine his relics in this location. Taputta and Bhanllika travelled far and wide in order to find the hill on which they could balance a tree without its touching the ground either with the roots or with the crown. Eventually, they found the exact spot not far from their home in Lower Myanmar where they enshrined the holy relics in a traditional mound or stupa. The original stupa is said to have been 27 feet high. Today the Shwedagon pagoda has grown to over 370 feet.
The Great Elder, Maha Thera Shin Gavampti invited the Buddha to Thaton in Lower Burma
“The first Indianized peoples in Burma were the Mons, an honour shared with their northern neighbours, the Pyus. The Mons, a people of Malay-Indonesian stock, are related to the early inhabitants of Thailand and Cambodia, who also spoke Mon-Khmer languages. The Mons, who are considered to be the indigenous inhabitants of lower Burma, established their most significant capital at Thaton, strategically located for trade near the Gulf of Martaban and the Andaman Sea.
“Little is known of the early history of the Mon people, how long their various kingdoms flourished and the extent of their domains. For example, it is not definitely known if it was the Mon or the Pyu who controlled the lower delta region. Descriptions in Chinese and Indian texts specify their settlement area as being around the present day cities of Moulmein and Pegu in the monsoonal plains of Southeast Burma. This area was first known as Suvannabhumi (‘Land of Gold’) and later as Ramannadesa (‘Land of Ramanna’), Ramanna being the word for the Mon people. The area known as Suvannanbhumi was often connected with the historical Buddha in the later Burmese chronicles, which credits the Mons with first establishing the Buddhist religion in Burma. Although little is known about actual religious practice, trade connections through the Mon port city of Thaton can be traced to the Indian kingdom of the Buddhist King Ashoka from as early as the 3rd century BC.
Some scholar records that Maha Thera Shin Gavampti was one of the Buddha’s main disciples but he is not frequently mentioned in the Buddhist scriptures. It was believed according to purely Mon tradition that the Buddha himself visited the Kingdom of Thaton after having been entreated by Maha Thera Gavampti, who was later invited to participate in the First Buddhist Council.
The Pali Dictionary wrote that after the conversion of the people of Ramanna to Buddhism there was a constant exchange between the Kingdom of Ramanna and Ceylon to establish the Sangha in Ceylon. The King of Ramanna is said to have made gifts of an elephant to every vessel bringing goods from foreign lands.
Maha Punna from Sunaparanta invited the Buddha to Pagan in Upper Burma
In the chapter entitled, “The Buddha’s Visits to the Region” (in the article Buddhism in Myanmar) Roger Bischoff tells us, “Punna, a merchant from Sunaparanta, went to Savatthi in India on business and there heard a discourse of the Buddha. Having won faith in the Buddha and the teachings, he took ordination as a bhikkhu-monk. After some time, he asked the Buddha to teach him a short lesson so that he could return to Sunaparanta and strive for Arahatship. The Buddha warned him that the people of Sunaparanta were fierce and violent, but Punna replied that he would not allow anger to arise, even if they should kill him.
“In the Punnovada Sutta (‘Advice to Venerable Punna’) the Buddha instructed him not to be enticed by that which is pleasant, and Punna returned and attained Arahatship in his home country. He won over many disciples and built a monastery of red sandalwood for the Buddha. According to some chronicles of Myanmar, the Buddha made the prediction that at the location where the red sandalwood monastery was, the great king Alaungsithu of Pagan would build a shrine. He then sent flowers as an invitation to the Buddha and the Buddha came, accompanied by 500 Arahats, spent the night in the monastery, and left again before dawn”.
Bischoff continued, “The Buddha stopped at the river Nammada close to Saccabandha Mountain. Here the Blessed One was invited by the Naga King Nammada to visit and preach to the Nagas, later accepting food from them”. Furthermore, “Namanta Naga and his friend Hermit came to pay homage to the Buddha and requested to have some kind of his representation for them to worship. Thus, the Buddha left two footprints, one at the foot of the Minbu Hill Range and the other a little higher up on the hill. These footprints are well known far and wide as Shwe Set Taw (‘Golden Footprints’)”. Bischoff reports that these “footprints, still visible today, were worshipped by the Mon, Pyu, and Myanmar kings alike”.
Maha Thera Sona & Uttara taught in Thaton
The Buddha said to the Bhikkhus that “O Bhikkhus, wander forth for the gain of the many, for the welfare of the many, in compassion for the world, for the good, for the gain, for the welfare of gods and men. Proclaim, O Bhikkhus, the Doctrine glorious, preach you a life of holiness, perfect and pure”.
Venerable Dr. Rewata Dhamma wrote: “Two and a half centuries after the passing away of the Buddha, according to the tradition preserved in the Sri Lankan chronicles, Emperor Asoka sent missionaries to preach the teachings of the Buddha outside India. At that time his son and daughter went to Sri Lanka to teach the Buddha-Dhamma. Also two monks named Sona and Uttara were sent to Suwanabhumi (Thaton) to spread the teachings.
“Buddhism was introduced to central Asia 234 years after the passing of the Buddha into Nibbana, i.e., in 240 BC. China received Buddhism for the first time in the first century BC and within a century it was officially recognized as a religion by the state. Buddhist monks began going to China from the end of the first century BC, and Buddhism arrived in Korea and in Japan in the fourth and in the sixth century CE respectively. Tibet received the Teachings of Buddhism in the seventh century while the Buddha-Dhamma has flourished in Thailand from the first or second century CE.
“According to Chinese chronicles and archaeological findings, Cambodia became a Buddhist country from the end of the fifth century CE. A large number of inscriptions discovered in different parts of Malaysia are written in Sanskrit and show that Buddhism was already flourishing in this part of Asia at this time. From this it can be seen that these Buddhist monks travelled to many strange countries without any financial support, facing many hardships during their journeys. They did not know anything about the countries where they were going and relied only on a strong confidence in the teachings of the Buddha.”
The Tipitaka was translated & presented to the King of Thaton
Maha Thera Buddhaghosa stayed in Sri Lanka at the invitation of his mentor Maha Thera Revata in order to translate the Tipitaka. Having completed the translation, Buddhaghosa returned to Myanmar and presented King Dhamapalla of Thaton the translation of the Tipitaka. This event marks the arrival of the Buddha’s Words in Myanmar.
Who was Maha Thera Buddhaghosa? “Bhadantācariya Buddhaghosa was a 5th century Indian Buddhist Theravadin commentator and scholar. Buddhaghosa means ‘Voice of the Buddha’ in the Pali language. He translated extensive Sinhalese commentaries on the Pali Buddhist texts into Pali. Certain commentaries are also attributed to him, including one on the Vinaya and one on the Dhammapada that includes 305 stories for context. His Visuddhimagga Pali, (‘Path of Purification’) is a comprehensive manual of Theravada Buddhism that is still read and studied today. The book is divided into sections on Shila or ‘Ethics,’ Samadhi or ‘Meditation,’ and Pranna or ‘Wisdom.’ This is a traditional division in Buddhist teachings, which suggest that ethics are essential to meditation, and that meditation is essential to developing wisdom. From the Buddhist point of view, this is the ‘path of purification’ because it purifies the mind of the defilements of greed, hatred, and delusion.”
Shin Arahan converted the King of Pagan, who unified Upper & Lower Burma
It is said that the troops of King Anawrahta, who ruled from 1044-77, invaded Thaton in order to acquire the Tipitaka Scriptures and thereby the kingdom was broadened beyond the present-day boundaries. Home Bagan wrote: “The Mon-Myanmar War came about like this. In those days, Lower Myanmar was more advanced in some aspects than Upper Myanmar as it is closer to the sea and had more international contacts and trade. Pure, Theravada Buddhism also flourished there first while Upper Myanmar was following the religious teachings of quack-priests called Aris (who believed in animism). To give an example of the religious practices taught by the Aris: a bride had to offer herself to the Aris on the night of her wedding! A learned monk from Thaton by the name of Shin Arahan went to Bagan – probably to propagate the true Buddhist religion. King Anawrahta did not like the teachings and practices of the Aris and therefore welcomed him with open arms.
“The king was pleased with Shin Arahan’s introductory sermons on Buddhism and expressed his desire to introduce it to his kingdom. The venerable monk informed him that the propagation of Buddhist religion in Bagan would be facilitated if the king could obtain a set of the Three Pitaka, the complete teachings of the Buddha, from Thaton. Accordingly, King Anawrahta sent a mission bearing appropriate gifts to the kingdom of Thaton to request for a set of the Three Pitakas. Regrettably, King Manuha of Thaton turned down the request in undiplomatic terms. As a result, the Myanmar forces of Bagan marched on Thaton, conquered it and took back to Bagan not only sets of the Three Pitakas, but also the royal family and many Mon artisans as prisoners of war. The culture of Bagan was enriched by this infusion of Mon arts and crafts, no doubt, for the Mons are an enterprising race well-known for their industry and creativity. But Thaton's greatest contribution to the culture of Bagan was without any doubt pure; Buddhism.”
As a result, “The Mrammas or Myanmas established a powerful kingdom with its capital at Pagan and gave their name to the whole country in the tenth century CE. At that time Tantric Buddhism was already flourishing amongst them, but King Anawratha was converted to Theravada Buddhism. Since that time, “Burma has been known as a Theravada Buddhist country. It always had a good relationship with Sri Lanka and there was a constant exchange of monks between the two countries to study Buddhist literature and to strengthen the Buddha-Dhamma. There were numerous Burmese contributions to Theravada Buddhism and to Pali literature.”
Tradition reports that the King of Ceylon presented Lord Buddha’s holy tooth to King Anawrahta. He also obtained the sacred collarbone of Gotama Buddha from Thayekhittaya. Chronicles say that when the sacred relics arrived, King Anawrahta descended knee-deep into the river to receive them. Shin Arahan advised the king that for the benefit of men he should enshrine the relics within a stupa so that it might be worshipped for as long as what is called a sasana in Pali, i.e., 5000 years. The king placed the relics on a jewelled white elephant and vowed, “Let the white elephant kneel in the place where the holy relics should rest.” And it was there that the Shwezigon Pagoda (Stupa) was built.
The first arrival of Buddha Sasana in Burma
The first arrival of Buddha Sasana in Burma was associated with the legend of the Shwedagon Pagoda. In accordance with this legend, Buddhism arrived in Myanmar in the lifetime of Buddha. In the Maha Sakarit year 103, while the Buddha. was in a phalasamapatti meditation at the foot of Rajayatana Lin Lun tree in the Uruvela Forest near the Nerajara River, two merchant brothers Taphussa and Bhallika of Ukkalapa village of Ramannadesa came to worship the Buddha .The brothers offered the Buddha honey cakes and the Buddha preached the Dhamma to them. At their request the Buddha gave them eight sacred hairs of His Head as His relics to venerate. On their return home, they enshrined the Sacred Hairs in a ceti (pagoda) they built on the hill then called Tampaguta. That ceti was we now call ShwedagonPagoda.
The second arrival of Buddha Sasana in Burma
In the Maha Era 111 (666 BC), in the 8th Vassa of Buddha, Arahat Maha Thera Shin Gavampti entreated the Buddha to visit Thaton (Sudhammapura) in the Kingdom of Ramannnadesa. The people in that place become Buddhists after hearing the Dhamma.
The third arrival of Buddha Sasana in Burma
In the Maha Era 123 (678 BC), in the 20th Vassa of the Buddha, Maha Punna came and requested the Buddha to visit Sunaparanta Vaniccagama. When Buddha came to that place with 500 disciples, a monastery built of sandal wood was offered to the Buddha to reside. Namanta Naga and his friend Hermit came to pay homage to the Buddha and requested to leave some kind of his Representative for them to worship. Thus, the Buddha left two footprints, one at the foot of the Minbu Hill Range and the other on a little higher up on the hill. These Buddha footprints are well known far and wide as Shwe Set Taw( literally Golden Footprints).
The fourth arrival of Buddha Sasana in Burma
When the Third Buddhist symbol was held during the regime of Emperor Asoka in Buddhist Era 235, foreseeing that the Buddha Sasana would spread to far off places and flourish there, Buddhist missionaries were dispatched to nine countries and nine places. Maha Thera Sona and Uttara accompanied by three arahats came to Suvannabhumi ( Thaton ) in Ramannadesa to carry out missionary work there.
The fifth arrival of Buddha Sasana in Burma
In the Buddhist Era 930 or A.D.386(circa) during the reign of King Mahanama of Sri Lanka who was a contemporary of King Thiligyaung of Bagan of Myanmar Mahar Thera Buddhaghosa who was a native of Gotha village in the Kingdom of Rajagahan came to Sri Lanka at the invitation of his mentor Maha Thera Revata. Mah Thera Buddhaghosa resided in Maha Vihara and he translated into Magadha, Tipitaka written Sri Lankan language. He brought to King Dhamapalla of Thaton in Ramannadesa his translated work. That is the arrival of the Buddha Sasana in Myanmar in the form of written tipitaka.
Arrival of written Tipitaka in Tampadipa ( Bagan )
Buddha Sasana flourished in the Pyu City Kingdoms. By virtue of the artifacts excavated from archaeological sites such as Sri Kestra, Beikthano, and Hanlin show that at that time Mahayana Buddhism co-existed with Theravada Buddhism. Other places where Buddha Sasana flourished were Rakhine Vesali and Ramanna Desa. When Anawrahta became king in A.D. 1044, he was intent upon purifying Buddhism which was prevalent in Bagan. After he met Venerable Shin Arahan and achieved Tipitaka from Thaton Theravada Buddhism flourished in Myanmar.
Theravada Buddhism / Orthodox Buddhism
Just like Roman Catholic and Protestants, there are 2 major churchs in Buddhism: Theravada and Mahayana. Theravada Buddhism is the orthodox church, and it dominates in Myanmar, Thailand, and southeast Asia. Buddhist meditation, the practice of mental concentration leading ultimately through a succession of stages to the final goal of spiritual freedom, nirvana. Meditation occupies a central place in Buddhism and combines, in its highest stages, the discipline of progressively increased introversion with the insight brought about by wisdom. Meditation, though important in all schools of Buddhism, has developed characteristic variations within different traditions.
Emissaries sent by King Ashoka in the third century BCE first brought the Dharma to Burma. By the fifth century, the Theravada was well established, and by the seventh century the Mahayana had appeared in regions near the Chinese border. By the eighth century, the Vajrayana was also present, and all three forms continued to coexist until King Anaratha established the Theravada throughout the land in the eleventh century. Pagan, the royal capital in the north, was adorned with thousands upon thousands of Buddhist stupas and temples, and was the principal bastion of Buddha Dharma on earth until sacked by the Mongols in 1287. In succeeding centuries the Theravada continued strong, interacting closely at times with the Dharma centers of Ceylon [Sri Lanka]. The Burmese form of Theravada acquired a unique flavor through its assimilation of folk beliefs connected with spirits of all kinds known as nats. Today 85 percent of Burmese are Buddhist, and Buddhism is the official religion of the country.
Buddhism was officially adopted by the Burmans, the major racial unit of Burma, as early as the eleventh century. Indigenous tradition, however, takes back this introduction even to the life time of Buddha when, so it is said, the faith came to this country through the good offices of two Mon merchants, Tapussa and Bhallika. The Buddha, so says the tradition, graced them with some hair of his head which they carried and enshrined on the top of the Singuttara hill, at the place where now stands the famous Shwedagon. This pagoda, however, is not the only shrine of which Burma can boast. There are innumerable shrines scattered all over the country, quite a few of them fairly celebrated, the maximum number being clustered within a sixteen square mile area at Pagan, the nerve centre of ancient Burmese Buddhist culture.
Leaving aside the tradition whose authenticity is yet to be proved, it can be said with some definiteness that Buddhism, particularly its Theravada form, was implanted at Pagan for the first time as early as the eleventh century by the Burmese monarch Anawrahta (1044—77). Urged by his spiritual adviser Shin Arahan, the king requested the Mon monarch Manuhal of Suvannabhumi (identified with Taikkala in the Bilin township of the Thaton district) to kindly send him a set of the Pali Buddhist scriptures. Unfortunately the request was rudely turned down whereon Anawrahta waged a fierce war against the Mon king, humbled him, ransacked his capital and brought back to Pagan some thirty huge sets of the Pali scriptures. Fitting honour was extended to the scriptures which were housed with all solemnity at Pagan in a library specially built for the purpose. The people envisaged a new order of life obsessed as they were by the faith of the Aris and other indigenous religious rites and practices, and with this great acquisition opened a new chapter in the religious life of the people.
Incidentally, it is worth recalling that according to the Mahavamsa, a Pali chronicle of the fifth century Ceylon, Buddhism reached Suvannabhumi as early as the third century before Christ when emperor Asoka sent there two Buddhist monks, Sona and Uttara, to preach the teachings of the Master. Though it is somewhat difficult to determine the genuineness of this statement, yet the whole affair does not appear to be just a figment of imagination. It should further be mentioned that researches in archaeology have proved beyond doubt that as early as the sixth century, if not the fifth, of the Christian era, Sanskrit Buddhism had found a fair stronghold at Sriksetra, ancient Prome, which was then the cradle of the Pyu culture.
After Anawrahta had brought over the Pali scriptures to Pagan, its study coupled with the pressure put forth by Shin Arahan, encouraged the king to make Theravada Buddhism the religion of the state. His enthusiasm ushered an era of religious reform. Pagodas rose, a new programme of education was adopted, and the cause of culture was strongly encouraged and advocated. After the death of Anawrahta, his son Kyanzittha (1084-1113) followed his father's programme of reform. According to the Shwesandaw inscription of the year 1093 he sent a mission to India to restore the temple at Buddhagaya, where Gautama had attained Enlightenment, an act which became the first official attempt on the part of a Burmese king at establishing cultural contacts with India. Shin Arahan continued to be spiritual adviser of the king, and it was to him more than to anybody else that Burma owes the establishment of Theravada Buddhism, and the era of pagoda building which he inaugurated was the most creative age in Burmese religious and cultural history. It should be mentioned here thit if Anawarahta and his successors were not able or did not care to exterminate all the other existing cults, they gradually weakened them by unwavering patronage to the Theravada. Having command over the seagirt coast of Burma, they were able to keep in touch with the reigning Buddhist monarchs of Ceylon, to check their Pali Texts with those of the latter and to receive and give help in matters religious.
Towards the end of the thirteenth century, Pagan fell before the onrush of the invading Tartars, and Burma was left in a state of prolonged anarchy and confusion. Buddhism naturally shared in the general decline. Religion languished, the Samgha split up into sects, and though pagodas were built, none of them could rival even the lesser temples of Pagan.
I mentioned things above are about early history of Burma and Outline of Buddhism in early History period of Burma.
kosukha(Minhla)
read more “Outline of Buddhism in early History period of Burma.”
Early history of Burma
Humans lived in the region that is now Burma as early as 11,000 years ago, but archeological evidence dates the first settlements at about 2500 BCE with cattle rearing and the production of bronze. By about 1500 BCE, ironworks were in existence in the Irrawaddy Valley but cities, and the emergence of city states, probably did not occur till the early years of the Common era when advances in irrigation systems and the building of canals allowed for yearlong agriculture and the consolidation of settlements.[1]Artifacts from the excavated site of Nyaunggan help to reconstruct Bronze Age life in Burma and the more recent archaeological evidence at Samon Valley south of Mandalay suggests rice growing settlements between about 500 BC and 200 AD which traded with Qin and Han dynasty China
Pyu city-states
The Pyu arrived in Burma in the 1st century BC and established city kingdoms at Binnaka, Mongamo, Siri Khettara, Peikthanomyo, and Halingyi. During this period, Burma was part of an overland trade route from China to India. Chinese sources state that the Pyu controlled 18 kingdoms and describe them as a humane and peaceful people. War was virtually unknown amongst the Pyu, and disputes were often solved through duels by champions or building competitions. They even wore silk cotton instead of actual silk so they would not have to kill silk worms. Crime was punished by whippings and jails were unknown, though serious crimes could result in the death penalty. The Pyu practiced Theravada Buddhism, and all children were educated as novices in the temples from the age of seven until the age of 20.
The Pyu city-states never unified into a Pyu kingdom, but the more powerful cities often dominated and called for tribute from the lesser cities. The most powerful city by far was Siri Khettara(Sare Khettara), which archaeological evidence indicates was the largest city that has ever been built in Burma. The exact date of its founding is not known, though likely to be prior to a dynastic change in A.D. 94 that Pyu chronicles speak of. Sari Khettara(Sare Khettara) was apparently abandoned around A.D. 656 in favour of a more northerly capital, though the exact site is not known. Some historians believe it was Hanlingyi. Wherever the new capital was located, it was sacked by the kingdom of Nanzhao in the mid-9th century, ending the Pyu's period of dominance.
Mon kingdoms
The 6th century Mon kingdom of Dvaravati in the lower Chao Phraya valley in present day Thailand extended its frontiers to the Tenasserim Yoma (mountains). With subjugation by the Khmer Empire from Angkor in the 11th century the Mon shifted further west deeper into present day Burma. Oral tradition suggests that they had contact with Buddhism via seafaring as early as the 3rd century BC and had received an envoy of monks from Ashoka in the 2nd century BC.
The Mons adopted Indian culture together with Theravada Buddhism and are thought to have founded kingdoms in Lower Burma including the Thaton Kingdom circa 9th century AD and Bago (Pegu) in 825. The Kingdom of Raman'n'adesa (or Ramanna) referenced by Arab geographers in 844–8.[1] is believed to be Thaton. The lack of archaeological evidence for this may in part be due to the focus of excavation work predominantly being in Upper Burma.
Pagan Kingdom (1044-1287)
To the north another group of people, the Bamar (Mranma / Myanma), also began to settle in the area. By 849, they had founded a powerful kingdom centred on the city of Pagan (spelled Bagan today) filling the void left by the Pyu.
Bamar tradition maintains that the Bamar were originally of three tribes, the Pyu, the Thet, and the Kanyan. Indeed, Pyu as a language and as a people simply disappeared soon after the Myazedi Inscription of 1113. The word Mranma,in both Mon and Myanmar inscriptions, came into being only at about the same time, lending support to this claim that the Pyu were an earlier vanguard of southward Tibeto-Burman migration who were entirely absorbed into a newly formed identity by later waves of similar people .
The Pagan Kingdom grew in relative isolation until the reign of Anawrahta who successfully unified all of Burma by defeating the Mon kingdom of Thaton in 1057. Consolidation was accomplished under his successors Kyanzittha and Alaungsithu, so that by the mid-12th century, most of continental Southeast Asia was under the control of either the Pagan Kingdom or the Khmer Empire. The Pagan kingdom went into decline as more land and resources fell into the hands of the powerful Sangha (monkhood) and the Mongols threatened from the north. The last true ruler of Pagan, Narathihapate felt confident in his ability to resist the Mongols and advanced into Yunnan in 1277 to make war upon them. He was thoroughly crushed at the Battle of Ngasaunggyan, and Pagan resistance virtually collapsed. The king was assassinated by his own son in 1287, precipitating a Mongol invasion in the Battle of Pagan; the Mongols successfully captured most of the empire, including its capital, and ended the dynasty in 1289 when they installed a puppet ruler in Burma.
Small kingdoms
After the fall of Pagan, the Mongols left in the searing Irrawaddy valley but the Pagan Kingdom was irreparably broken up into several small kingdoms. By the early 15th century, the country became organized along four major power centers: Upper Burma, Lower Burma, Shan States and Arakan. Many of the power centers were themselves made up of (often loosely held) minor kingdoms or princely states. This era was marked by a series of wars and switching alliances. Smaller kingdoms played a precarious game of paying allegiance to more powerful states, sometimes simultaneously.
Ava Kingdom (1364-1555)
Founded in 1364, Ava (Innwa) was the successor state to earlier, even smaller kingdoms based in central Burma: Myinsaing (1298–1312), Pinya (1312–1364), and Sagaing (1315–1364). Ava viewed itself as the rightful heir to the kingdom of Pagan, and in order to reassemble the lost empire, waged continuous wars against Hanthawaddy Pegu and Shan States in the late 14th to early 15th centuries. But by the late 15th century, it was Ava that was under repeated Shan raids. By the early 16th century, hitherto regional princely states like Prome (Pyay) and Toungoo (Taungoo) broke away from Ava. In 1527, Ava fell to a confederation of Shan States led by Mohnyin, which ruled much of Upper Burma from Ava until 1555. The Burmese language and culture came into its own during the Ava period.
Hanthawaddy Pegu (1287-1539)
Founded in Martaban (Mottama), Hanthawaddy was first to emerge out of Pagan's ashes. The capital was shifted to Pegu (Bago) in 1369. As was the case in Upper Burma, the kingdom too consisted of regional power centers in Pegu, Bassein (Pathein), and Martaban. King Razadarit successfully held off Ava in the Forty Years' War. In the second half of 15th century, Hanthawaddy, under Queen Shin Sawbu and her successor King Dhammazedi, entered its golden age. The kingdom, with a flourishing Mon language and culture, became a center of commerce and Theravada Buddhism, making it the strongest and most prosperous of all the post-Pagan kingdoms.
History of Shan States (1287-1557)
The Shans, who came down with the Mongols, stayed and quickly came to dominate much of northern to eastern arc of Burma—from northwestern Sagaing Division to Kachin Hills to the present day Shan Hills. The most powerful Shan states were Mohnyin (Shan: Mong Yang) and Mogaung (Mong Kawng) in present-day Kachin State, followed by Theinni (Hsenwi), Thibaw (Hsipaw) and Momeik (Mongmit) in present-day northern Shan State.[2] Minor states included Kalay, Bhamo, Nyaungshwe and Kengtung. Mohnyin, in particular, constantly raided Ava's territory throughout 15th and early 16th centuries and captured Ava itself in alliance with Prome in 1527. Mohnyin-led confederation of Shan states ruled much of Upper Burma (except for the Toungoo Kingdom) until 1555.
History of Arakan (1287-1784)
Although Arakan had been de facto independent since the late Pagan period, the Laungkrat dynasty of Arakan was ineffectual. Until the founding of the Mrauk-U Kingdom in 1430, Arakan was often caught between bigger neighbors, and found itself a battlefield during the Forty Years' war between Ava and Pegu. Mrauk-U went on to be a powerful kingdom in its own right between 15th and 17th centuries, including East Bengal between 1459 and 1666. Arakan was the only post-Pagan kingdom not to be annexed by the Toungoo dynasty.
How Buddhism was brought to Burma
Tapussa & Bhallika met the Buddha
Burmese people believed that during Lord Buddha life time, the two Burmese merchants named Tapussa and Bhallika from Ukkalapa near Yangon were travelling through the region of Uruvela (These two men were leaders of a large caravan that was passing through Magadha) and were directed to the Buddha by their member. The Buddha had just come out of seven weeks of meditation after his awakening and was sitting under a tree feeling the need for food. They made an offering of rice cake and honey to the Buddha and took the two refuges, the refuge in the Buddha and the refuge in the Dhamma (the Sangha, the third refuge, did not exist yet). Here, Burmese proudly claim that the Buddha's first meal was offered by Burmese Tapussa and Bhallika. As they were about to depart, they asked the Buddha for an object to worship in his stead and he gave them eight hairs from his head. After the two returned from their journey, the king of Okkallapa welcomed them with great honour on their arrival and they enshrined the three hairs in a stupa which is now the great Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon.
It is believed in Myanmar that the hill upon which the Shwedagon Pagoda stands was not haphazardly chosen by Taputta and Bhallika but was, in fact, the site where the three Buddhas preceding the Buddha Gotama in this world cycle themselves deposited relics. Buddga Kakusandha is said to have left his staff on the Theinguttara Hill, the Buddha Konagamana his water filter, and Buddha Kassapa a part of his robe. Because of this, the Gotama Buddha requested Taputta and Bhallika to enshrine his relics in this location. Taputta and Bhanllika travelled far and wide in order to find the hill on which they could balance a tree without its touching the ground either with the roots or with the crown. Eventually, they found the exact spot not far from their home in Lower Myanmar where they enshrined the holy relics in a traditional mound or stupa. The original stupa is said to have been 27 feet high. Today the Shwedagon pagoda has grown to over 370 feet.
The Great Elder, Maha Thera Shin Gavampti invited the Buddha to Thaton in Lower Burma
“The first Indianized peoples in Burma were the Mons, an honour shared with their northern neighbours, the Pyus. The Mons, a people of Malay-Indonesian stock, are related to the early inhabitants of Thailand and Cambodia, who also spoke Mon-Khmer languages. The Mons, who are considered to be the indigenous inhabitants of lower Burma, established their most significant capital at Thaton, strategically located for trade near the Gulf of Martaban and the Andaman Sea.
“Little is known of the early history of the Mon people, how long their various kingdoms flourished and the extent of their domains. For example, it is not definitely known if it was the Mon or the Pyu who controlled the lower delta region. Descriptions in Chinese and Indian texts specify their settlement area as being around the present day cities of Moulmein and Pegu in the monsoonal plains of Southeast Burma. This area was first known as Suvannabhumi (‘Land of Gold’) and later as Ramannadesa (‘Land of Ramanna’), Ramanna being the word for the Mon people. The area known as Suvannanbhumi was often connected with the historical Buddha in the later Burmese chronicles, which credits the Mons with first establishing the Buddhist religion in Burma. Although little is known about actual religious practice, trade connections through the Mon port city of Thaton can be traced to the Indian kingdom of the Buddhist King Ashoka from as early as the 3rd century BC.
Some scholar records that Maha Thera Shin Gavampti was one of the Buddha’s main disciples but he is not frequently mentioned in the Buddhist scriptures. It was believed according to purely Mon tradition that the Buddha himself visited the Kingdom of Thaton after having been entreated by Maha Thera Gavampti, who was later invited to participate in the First Buddhist Council.
The Pali Dictionary wrote that after the conversion of the people of Ramanna to Buddhism there was a constant exchange between the Kingdom of Ramanna and Ceylon to establish the Sangha in Ceylon. The King of Ramanna is said to have made gifts of an elephant to every vessel bringing goods from foreign lands.
Maha Punna from Sunaparanta invited the Buddha to Pagan in Upper Burma
In the chapter entitled, “The Buddha’s Visits to the Region” (in the article Buddhism in Myanmar) Roger Bischoff tells us, “Punna, a merchant from Sunaparanta, went to Savatthi in India on business and there heard a discourse of the Buddha. Having won faith in the Buddha and the teachings, he took ordination as a bhikkhu-monk. After some time, he asked the Buddha to teach him a short lesson so that he could return to Sunaparanta and strive for Arahatship. The Buddha warned him that the people of Sunaparanta were fierce and violent, but Punna replied that he would not allow anger to arise, even if they should kill him.
“In the Punnovada Sutta (‘Advice to Venerable Punna’) the Buddha instructed him not to be enticed by that which is pleasant, and Punna returned and attained Arahatship in his home country. He won over many disciples and built a monastery of red sandalwood for the Buddha. According to some chronicles of Myanmar, the Buddha made the prediction that at the location where the red sandalwood monastery was, the great king Alaungsithu of Pagan would build a shrine. He then sent flowers as an invitation to the Buddha and the Buddha came, accompanied by 500 Arahats, spent the night in the monastery, and left again before dawn”.
Bischoff continued, “The Buddha stopped at the river Nammada close to Saccabandha Mountain. Here the Blessed One was invited by the Naga King Nammada to visit and preach to the Nagas, later accepting food from them”. Furthermore, “Namanta Naga and his friend Hermit came to pay homage to the Buddha and requested to have some kind of his representation for them to worship. Thus, the Buddha left two footprints, one at the foot of the Minbu Hill Range and the other a little higher up on the hill. These footprints are well known far and wide as Shwe Set Taw (‘Golden Footprints’)”. Bischoff reports that these “footprints, still visible today, were worshipped by the Mon, Pyu, and Myanmar kings alike”.
Maha Thera Sona & Uttara taught in Thaton
The Buddha said to the Bhikkhus that “O Bhikkhus, wander forth for the gain of the many, for the welfare of the many, in compassion for the world, for the good, for the gain, for the welfare of gods and men. Proclaim, O Bhikkhus, the Doctrine glorious, preach you a life of holiness, perfect and pure”.
Venerable Dr. Rewata Dhamma wrote: “Two and a half centuries after the passing away of the Buddha, according to the tradition preserved in the Sri Lankan chronicles, Emperor Asoka sent missionaries to preach the teachings of the Buddha outside India. At that time his son and daughter went to Sri Lanka to teach the Buddha-Dhamma. Also two monks named Sona and Uttara were sent to Suwanabhumi (Thaton) to spread the teachings.
“Buddhism was introduced to central Asia 234 years after the passing of the Buddha into Nibbana, i.e., in 240 BC. China received Buddhism for the first time in the first century BC and within a century it was officially recognized as a religion by the state. Buddhist monks began going to China from the end of the first century BC, and Buddhism arrived in Korea and in Japan in the fourth and in the sixth century CE respectively. Tibet received the Teachings of Buddhism in the seventh century while the Buddha-Dhamma has flourished in Thailand from the first or second century CE.
“According to Chinese chronicles and archaeological findings, Cambodia became a Buddhist country from the end of the fifth century CE. A large number of inscriptions discovered in different parts of Malaysia are written in Sanskrit and show that Buddhism was already flourishing in this part of Asia at this time. From this it can be seen that these Buddhist monks travelled to many strange countries without any financial support, facing many hardships during their journeys. They did not know anything about the countries where they were going and relied only on a strong confidence in the teachings of the Buddha.”
The Tipitaka was translated & presented to the King of Thaton
Maha Thera Buddhaghosa stayed in Sri Lanka at the invitation of his mentor Maha Thera Revata in order to translate the Tipitaka. Having completed the translation, Buddhaghosa returned to Myanmar and presented King Dhamapalla of Thaton the translation of the Tipitaka. This event marks the arrival of the Buddha’s Words in Myanmar.
Who was Maha Thera Buddhaghosa? “Bhadantācariya Buddhaghosa was a 5th century Indian Buddhist Theravadin commentator and scholar. Buddhaghosa means ‘Voice of the Buddha’ in the Pali language. He translated extensive Sinhalese commentaries on the Pali Buddhist texts into Pali. Certain commentaries are also attributed to him, including one on the Vinaya and one on the Dhammapada that includes 305 stories for context. His Visuddhimagga Pali, (‘Path of Purification’) is a comprehensive manual of Theravada Buddhism that is still read and studied today. The book is divided into sections on Shila or ‘Ethics,’ Samadhi or ‘Meditation,’ and Pranna or ‘Wisdom.’ This is a traditional division in Buddhist teachings, which suggest that ethics are essential to meditation, and that meditation is essential to developing wisdom. From the Buddhist point of view, this is the ‘path of purification’ because it purifies the mind of the defilements of greed, hatred, and delusion.”
Shin Arahan converted the King of Pagan, who unified Upper & Lower Burma
It is said that the troops of King Anawrahta, who ruled from 1044-77, invaded Thaton in order to acquire the Tipitaka Scriptures and thereby the kingdom was broadened beyond the present-day boundaries. Home Bagan wrote: “The Mon-Myanmar War came about like this. In those days, Lower Myanmar was more advanced in some aspects than Upper Myanmar as it is closer to the sea and had more international contacts and trade. Pure, Theravada Buddhism also flourished there first while Upper Myanmar was following the religious teachings of quack-priests called Aris (who believed in animism). To give an example of the religious practices taught by the Aris: a bride had to offer herself to the Aris on the night of her wedding! A learned monk from Thaton by the name of Shin Arahan went to Bagan – probably to propagate the true Buddhist religion. King Anawrahta did not like the teachings and practices of the Aris and therefore welcomed him with open arms.
“The king was pleased with Shin Arahan’s introductory sermons on Buddhism and expressed his desire to introduce it to his kingdom. The venerable monk informed him that the propagation of Buddhist religion in Bagan would be facilitated if the king could obtain a set of the Three Pitaka, the complete teachings of the Buddha, from Thaton. Accordingly, King Anawrahta sent a mission bearing appropriate gifts to the kingdom of Thaton to request for a set of the Three Pitakas. Regrettably, King Manuha of Thaton turned down the request in undiplomatic terms. As a result, the Myanmar forces of Bagan marched on Thaton, conquered it and took back to Bagan not only sets of the Three Pitakas, but also the royal family and many Mon artisans as prisoners of war. The culture of Bagan was enriched by this infusion of Mon arts and crafts, no doubt, for the Mons are an enterprising race well-known for their industry and creativity. But Thaton's greatest contribution to the culture of Bagan was without any doubt pure; Buddhism.”
As a result, “The Mrammas or Myanmas established a powerful kingdom with its capital at Pagan and gave their name to the whole country in the tenth century CE. At that time Tantric Buddhism was already flourishing amongst them, but King Anawratha was converted to Theravada Buddhism. Since that time, “Burma has been known as a Theravada Buddhist country. It always had a good relationship with Sri Lanka and there was a constant exchange of monks between the two countries to study Buddhist literature and to strengthen the Buddha-Dhamma. There were numerous Burmese contributions to Theravada Buddhism and to Pali literature.”
Tradition reports that the King of Ceylon presented Lord Buddha’s holy tooth to King Anawrahta. He also obtained the sacred collarbone of Gotama Buddha from Thayekhittaya. Chronicles say that when the sacred relics arrived, King Anawrahta descended knee-deep into the river to receive them. Shin Arahan advised the king that for the benefit of men he should enshrine the relics within a stupa so that it might be worshipped for as long as what is called a sasana in Pali, i.e., 5000 years. The king placed the relics on a jewelled white elephant and vowed, “Let the white elephant kneel in the place where the holy relics should rest.” And it was there that the Shwezigon Pagoda (Stupa) was built.
The first arrival of Buddha Sasana in Burma
The first arrival of Buddha Sasana in Burma was associated with the legend of the Shwedagon Pagoda. In accordance with this legend, Buddhism arrived in Myanmar in the lifetime of Buddha. In the Maha Sakarit year 103, while the Buddha. was in a phalasamapatti meditation at the foot of Rajayatana Lin Lun tree in the Uruvela Forest near the Nerajara River, two merchant brothers Taphussa and Bhallika of Ukkalapa village of Ramannadesa came to worship the Buddha .The brothers offered the Buddha honey cakes and the Buddha preached the Dhamma to them. At their request the Buddha gave them eight sacred hairs of His Head as His relics to venerate. On their return home, they enshrined the Sacred Hairs in a ceti (pagoda) they built on the hill then called Tampaguta. That ceti was we now call ShwedagonPagoda.
The second arrival of Buddha Sasana in Burma
In the Maha Era 111 (666 BC), in the 8th Vassa of Buddha, Arahat Maha Thera Shin Gavampti entreated the Buddha to visit Thaton (Sudhammapura) in the Kingdom of Ramannnadesa. The people in that place become Buddhists after hearing the Dhamma.
The third arrival of Buddha Sasana in Burma
In the Maha Era 123 (678 BC), in the 20th Vassa of the Buddha, Maha Punna came and requested the Buddha to visit Sunaparanta Vaniccagama. When Buddha came to that place with 500 disciples, a monastery built of sandal wood was offered to the Buddha to reside. Namanta Naga and his friend Hermit came to pay homage to the Buddha and requested to leave some kind of his Representative for them to worship. Thus, the Buddha left two footprints, one at the foot of the Minbu Hill Range and the other on a little higher up on the hill. These Buddha footprints are well known far and wide as Shwe Set Taw( literally Golden Footprints).
The fourth arrival of Buddha Sasana in Burma
When the Third Buddhist symbol was held during the regime of Emperor Asoka in Buddhist Era 235, foreseeing that the Buddha Sasana would spread to far off places and flourish there, Buddhist missionaries were dispatched to nine countries and nine places. Maha Thera Sona and Uttara accompanied by three arahats came to Suvannabhumi ( Thaton ) in Ramannadesa to carry out missionary work there.
The fifth arrival of Buddha Sasana in Burma
In the Buddhist Era 930 or A.D.386(circa) during the reign of King Mahanama of Sri Lanka who was a contemporary of King Thiligyaung of Bagan of Myanmar Mahar Thera Buddhaghosa who was a native of Gotha village in the Kingdom of Rajagahan came to Sri Lanka at the invitation of his mentor Maha Thera Revata. Mah Thera Buddhaghosa resided in Maha Vihara and he translated into Magadha, Tipitaka written Sri Lankan language. He brought to King Dhamapalla of Thaton in Ramannadesa his translated work. That is the arrival of the Buddha Sasana in Myanmar in the form of written tipitaka.
Arrival of written Tipitaka in Tampadipa ( Bagan )
Buddha Sasana flourished in the Pyu City Kingdoms. By virtue of the artifacts excavated from archaeological sites such as Sri Kestra, Beikthano, and Hanlin show that at that time Mahayana Buddhism co-existed with Theravada Buddhism. Other places where Buddha Sasana flourished were Rakhine Vesali and Ramanna Desa. When Anawrahta became king in A.D. 1044, he was intent upon purifying Buddhism which was prevalent in Bagan. After he met Venerable Shin Arahan and achieved Tipitaka from Thaton Theravada Buddhism flourished in Myanmar.
Theravada Buddhism / Orthodox Buddhism
Just like Roman Catholic and Protestants, there are 2 major churchs in Buddhism: Theravada and Mahayana. Theravada Buddhism is the orthodox church, and it dominates in Myanmar, Thailand, and southeast Asia. Buddhist meditation, the practice of mental concentration leading ultimately through a succession of stages to the final goal of spiritual freedom, nirvana. Meditation occupies a central place in Buddhism and combines, in its highest stages, the discipline of progressively increased introversion with the insight brought about by wisdom. Meditation, though important in all schools of Buddhism, has developed characteristic variations within different traditions.
Emissaries sent by King Ashoka in the third century BCE first brought the Dharma to Burma. By the fifth century, the Theravada was well established, and by the seventh century the Mahayana had appeared in regions near the Chinese border. By the eighth century, the Vajrayana was also present, and all three forms continued to coexist until King Anaratha established the Theravada throughout the land in the eleventh century. Pagan, the royal capital in the north, was adorned with thousands upon thousands of Buddhist stupas and temples, and was the principal bastion of Buddha Dharma on earth until sacked by the Mongols in 1287. In succeeding centuries the Theravada continued strong, interacting closely at times with the Dharma centers of Ceylon [Sri Lanka]. The Burmese form of Theravada acquired a unique flavor through its assimilation of folk beliefs connected with spirits of all kinds known as nats. Today 85 percent of Burmese are Buddhist, and Buddhism is the official religion of the country.
Buddhism was officially adopted by the Burmans, the major racial unit of Burma, as early as the eleventh century. Indigenous tradition, however, takes back this introduction even to the life time of Buddha when, so it is said, the faith came to this country through the good offices of two Mon merchants, Tapussa and Bhallika. The Buddha, so says the tradition, graced them with some hair of his head which they carried and enshrined on the top of the Singuttara hill, at the place where now stands the famous Shwedagon. This pagoda, however, is not the only shrine of which Burma can boast. There are innumerable shrines scattered all over the country, quite a few of them fairly celebrated, the maximum number being clustered within a sixteen square mile area at Pagan, the nerve centre of ancient Burmese Buddhist culture.
Leaving aside the tradition whose authenticity is yet to be proved, it can be said with some definiteness that Buddhism, particularly its Theravada form, was implanted at Pagan for the first time as early as the eleventh century by the Burmese monarch Anawrahta (1044—77). Urged by his spiritual adviser Shin Arahan, the king requested the Mon monarch Manuhal of Suvannabhumi (identified with Taikkala in the Bilin township of the Thaton district) to kindly send him a set of the Pali Buddhist scriptures. Unfortunately the request was rudely turned down whereon Anawrahta waged a fierce war against the Mon king, humbled him, ransacked his capital and brought back to Pagan some thirty huge sets of the Pali scriptures. Fitting honour was extended to the scriptures which were housed with all solemnity at Pagan in a library specially built for the purpose. The people envisaged a new order of life obsessed as they were by the faith of the Aris and other indigenous religious rites and practices, and with this great acquisition opened a new chapter in the religious life of the people.
Incidentally, it is worth recalling that according to the Mahavamsa, a Pali chronicle of the fifth century Ceylon, Buddhism reached Suvannabhumi as early as the third century before Christ when emperor Asoka sent there two Buddhist monks, Sona and Uttara, to preach the teachings of the Master. Though it is somewhat difficult to determine the genuineness of this statement, yet the whole affair does not appear to be just a figment of imagination. It should further be mentioned that researches in archaeology have proved beyond doubt that as early as the sixth century, if not the fifth, of the Christian era, Sanskrit Buddhism had found a fair stronghold at Sriksetra, ancient Prome, which was then the cradle of the Pyu culture.
After Anawrahta had brought over the Pali scriptures to Pagan, its study coupled with the pressure put forth by Shin Arahan, encouraged the king to make Theravada Buddhism the religion of the state. His enthusiasm ushered an era of religious reform. Pagodas rose, a new programme of education was adopted, and the cause of culture was strongly encouraged and advocated. After the death of Anawrahta, his son Kyanzittha (1084-1113) followed his father's programme of reform. According to the Shwesandaw inscription of the year 1093 he sent a mission to India to restore the temple at Buddhagaya, where Gautama had attained Enlightenment, an act which became the first official attempt on the part of a Burmese king at establishing cultural contacts with India. Shin Arahan continued to be spiritual adviser of the king, and it was to him more than to anybody else that Burma owes the establishment of Theravada Buddhism, and the era of pagoda building which he inaugurated was the most creative age in Burmese religious and cultural history. It should be mentioned here thit if Anawarahta and his successors were not able or did not care to exterminate all the other existing cults, they gradually weakened them by unwavering patronage to the Theravada. Having command over the seagirt coast of Burma, they were able to keep in touch with the reigning Buddhist monarchs of Ceylon, to check their Pali Texts with those of the latter and to receive and give help in matters religious.
Towards the end of the thirteenth century, Pagan fell before the onrush of the invading Tartars, and Burma was left in a state of prolonged anarchy and confusion. Buddhism naturally shared in the general decline. Religion languished, the Samgha split up into sects, and though pagodas were built, none of them could rival even the lesser temples of Pagan.
I mentioned things above are about early history of Burma and Outline of Buddhism in early History period of Burma.
kosukha(Minhla)
A Study of Buddhist Literature in Burma (3rd Century BC to 13th Century A.D)
Prologue
History and culture are interdependent. They cannot exist and prosper isolated. Metaphorically speaking they are two essential parts of a tree - history is the root and culture is the fruit. Culture without history has no root; whereas history without culture bears no fruit. A nation is like a tree. If it has no history it will never survive and grow, and if it has no culture it will never develop and progress. A nation with history and culture alone is a long living and flourishing tree that can weather any storm and withstand any climate. Literature is one element of culture and to study literature historical background is necessary.
It is practically impossible to survey in this Paper the whole range of Burma or (Myanmar) literature of monarchic times, which claim the time-span of nearly a thousand years. For the convenience of our study, we shall trace the origin and development of Burma or (Myanmar) literature according to the period of Burma or (Myanmar) history. Although there are historic periods predating the Pagan or Bagan Period such as the Pyu Period, early Rakhine Period and early Mon Period and Tagaung Period, scholars of Burma or (Myanmar) literature are happy to start with the Pagan or Bagan Period. This is not because that the pre-Pagan or Bagan Periods were literature. Archaeologycal finds with epigraphs and lithic inscription in Sanscrit, Pali, Old Pyu, Old Mon and Old Rakhine have been unearthed proving that literature had already existed in Burma or Myanmar since the early century of the Christian era. But they are fragmentary and most have not been deciphered yet. So the Pagan or Bagan Period is taken as the starting point as it was literally prolific and there is an abundance of literary evidences at and around the site of ancient capital Pagan or Bagan.
Literature of the Pagan or Bagan Period
The Pagan or Bagan Period extended nearly three centuries – from the late 10th century A.D to the late 13th century A.D. but literary evidences become plentiful about the time of King Anawratha (A.D.1044-77) who was the unifier of the first Burma or Myanmar Union, and promoter of Theravada Buddhism.
The literature of Burma or (Myanmar) spans over a millennium. Burmese literature was historically influenced by Indian and Thai cultures, as seen in many works, such as the Ramayana. The Burmese language, unlike other Southeast Asian languages (e.g. Thai, Khmer), adopted words primarily from Pāli rather than from Sanskrit. In addition, Burmese literature has the tendency to reflect local folklore and culture.
Burmese literature has historically been a very important aspect of Burmese life steeped in the Pali Canon of Buddhism. Traditionally, Burmese children were educated by monks in monasteries in towns and villages.
Characteristics of Pāli Language
Pāli is a middle Indo-Aryan language of north Indian origin. It is also known as Magadhi, although it was spoken, or at least well understood in almost the whole of northern India in the Buddha’s time.
Middle Indo-Aryan is comprised of five classes namely;
1. Pāli language,
2. Inscription,
3. External Prakrit,
4. Prakrit and
5. Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit.
Of them, Pāli language is the language of Theravada tradition of Buddhism and has also been the language of the Tipitaka, the cannon. Its first span continues 300 B.C to 500 A.D. The second stage of Pāli when lots of commentaries were written by scholars like Buddhadatta, Buddhaghosa, Dhammapala of Podaratitha etc…. from 500-1100 A.D after that from 12th century to modern time. The term Pāli language is a comparatively modern coinage, whether the credit of this misleading coinage is due to the European Orientalist or to latter day.
Theravada Buddhism of Ceylon, Burma and Siam are still a matter of dispute. It is certain, however, that even up to the sixth or seventh century A.D, the term Pāli does not appear to have gained currency as a nomenclature for any kind of language. Even if we look into the Culavamsa forming a latter supplement to the Mahavamsa, we find that the term Pāli is used in it clearly in the sense of original Buddhist texts, the texts of the canon as distinguished from commentaries.
As a master of fact, the earliest issue of the Pāli can be traced in the commentaries of Buddhaghosa and not in any earlier Buddhist writings. It is again in the commentaries that the term Pāli came to be regarded as a synonym for Buddhavacana Tipitaka, Tantri and Pariyatti.
Canon
The Tripitaka [Sanskrit] [Pali: Tipitaka] is the Canon of the Buddhists, both Theravada and Mahayana. Thus it is possible to speak of several Canons such as the Sthaviravada, Sarvastivada and Mahayana as well as in term of languages like Pali, Chinese and Tibetan. The word is used basically to refer to the literature, the authorship of which is directly or indirectly ascribed to the Buddha himself.
It is generally believed that whatever was the teaching of the Buddha, conceived under Dhamma and Vinaya, it was rehearsed soon after his death by a fairly representative body of disciples.The later systematised threefold division, into Sutta, Vinaya and Abhidhamma is based on this collection. Sharing a common body of Dhamma and Vinaya, the early Buddhist disciples appear to have remained united for about a century.
The Council of Vesali or the second Buddhist Council saw the breakup of this original body and as many as eighteen separate schools were known to exist by about the first century B.C. It is reasonable to assume that each of these schools would have opted to possess a Tripitaka of their own or rather their own recession of the Tripitaka, perhaps with a considerably large common core.
It has long been claimed that the Buddha, as he went about teaching in the Gangetic valley in India during the 6th and 5th centuries B.C.E., used Magadhi or the language of Magadha as his medium of communication. Attempts have been made to identify this Magadhan dialect with Pali, the language in which the texts of the Sthaviravada School are recorded. Hence we speak of a Pali Canon, i.e., the literature of the Sthaviravadins which is believed to be the original word of the Buddha.
At any rate, this is the only complete recession we possess and the Pali texts seem to preserve an older tradition much more than most of the extant Buddhist works in other languages. Further, the Sthaviravadins admit two other major divisions of Pali Buddhist literature which are non-Canonical. They are:
1. Post-Canonical Pali literature including works like Petakopadesa and Milindapanha, the authorship of which is ascribed to one or more disciples.
2. Pali Commentarial literature which includes:
(a) Atthakatha or Commentaries, the original version of which is believed to have been taken over to Sri Lanka by Thera Mahinda, the missionary sent by Asoka and
(b) the different strata of Tika or Sub-Commentaries, contributions to which were made by Buddhist monks of Sri Lanka, India and Burma.
Besides this Pali recession of the Sthaviravada school there are fragmentary texts of the Sarvastivada or of the Mulasarvastivada which are preserved in Sanskrit. A large portion of their Vinaya texts in Sanskrit is preserved in the Gilgit manuscripts. But a more complete collection of the Sarvastivada recension (perhaps also of the Dharmapuptaka and Kasyapiya), i.e., a Sanskrit Canon, must have possibly existed as is evident from the Chinese translations preserved to us. These include complete translations of the four agamas (the equivalent of the Pali nikayas). Of the Ksudraka (Pali: Khuddaka), only some texts are preserved in Chinese. In addition to these, the Chinese translations seem to preserve, to the credit of the Sarvastivadins, a vast Vinaya literature and an independent collection of seven Abhidhamma treatises. Thus what could be referred to as a Sarvastivada Canon ranges between fragments of texts preserved in Sanskrit and the more representative collection of the Tripitaka preserved in Chinese. It may be mentioned here that a version of the Mulasarvastivada Vinaya consisting of seven parts, even more faithful than the Chinese version, is preserved in Tibetan. Of the Abhidharma collection only the Prajnaptisastra appears to have been translated into Tibetan.
Speaking further of the Tripitaka in terms of language we have in Chinese different recessions of the Canon (preserved in part) belonging to different schools. These recessions are primarily based on the Tripitaka of Indian origin. In addition to the ancient texts which these recessions preserve they also contain independent expositions of the early doctrines or commentarial literature on them. The Chinese Canon preserves the Vinaya texts of as many as seven different schools. In place of the division into ‘canonical groups’ of Sutra, Abhidharma and Vinaya, this new arrangement seems to reckon with a live and continuous tradition in accepting as authoritative both the Sutra (or words of Buddha) and Sutra (or commentaries, treatises, etc. of disciples of a later date).
It becomes clear from the foregoing analysis that in speaking of a Buddhist Canon one has to admit that it is both vast in extent and complex in character. While the earlier and more orthodox schools of Buddhism reserved the term Canonical to refer to the Body of literature, the greater part of which could be reasonably ascribed to the Buddha himself, other traditions which developed further away from the centre of activity of the Buddha and at a relatively later date choose to lay under the term Canon the entire mosaic of Buddhist literature in their possession, which is of varied authorship and is at times extremely heterogeneous in character.
kosuka(Minhla)
read more “A Study of Buddhist Literature in Burma (3rd Century BC to 13th Century A.D)”
History and culture are interdependent. They cannot exist and prosper isolated. Metaphorically speaking they are two essential parts of a tree - history is the root and culture is the fruit. Culture without history has no root; whereas history without culture bears no fruit. A nation is like a tree. If it has no history it will never survive and grow, and if it has no culture it will never develop and progress. A nation with history and culture alone is a long living and flourishing tree that can weather any storm and withstand any climate. Literature is one element of culture and to study literature historical background is necessary.
It is practically impossible to survey in this Paper the whole range of Burma or (Myanmar) literature of monarchic times, which claim the time-span of nearly a thousand years. For the convenience of our study, we shall trace the origin and development of Burma or (Myanmar) literature according to the period of Burma or (Myanmar) history. Although there are historic periods predating the Pagan or Bagan Period such as the Pyu Period, early Rakhine Period and early Mon Period and Tagaung Period, scholars of Burma or (Myanmar) literature are happy to start with the Pagan or Bagan Period. This is not because that the pre-Pagan or Bagan Periods were literature. Archaeologycal finds with epigraphs and lithic inscription in Sanscrit, Pali, Old Pyu, Old Mon and Old Rakhine have been unearthed proving that literature had already existed in Burma or Myanmar since the early century of the Christian era. But they are fragmentary and most have not been deciphered yet. So the Pagan or Bagan Period is taken as the starting point as it was literally prolific and there is an abundance of literary evidences at and around the site of ancient capital Pagan or Bagan.
Literature of the Pagan or Bagan Period
The Pagan or Bagan Period extended nearly three centuries – from the late 10th century A.D to the late 13th century A.D. but literary evidences become plentiful about the time of King Anawratha (A.D.1044-77) who was the unifier of the first Burma or Myanmar Union, and promoter of Theravada Buddhism.
The literature of Burma or (Myanmar) spans over a millennium. Burmese literature was historically influenced by Indian and Thai cultures, as seen in many works, such as the Ramayana. The Burmese language, unlike other Southeast Asian languages (e.g. Thai, Khmer), adopted words primarily from Pāli rather than from Sanskrit. In addition, Burmese literature has the tendency to reflect local folklore and culture.
Burmese literature has historically been a very important aspect of Burmese life steeped in the Pali Canon of Buddhism. Traditionally, Burmese children were educated by monks in monasteries in towns and villages.
Characteristics of Pāli Language
Pāli is a middle Indo-Aryan language of north Indian origin. It is also known as Magadhi, although it was spoken, or at least well understood in almost the whole of northern India in the Buddha’s time.
Middle Indo-Aryan is comprised of five classes namely;
1. Pāli language,
2. Inscription,
3. External Prakrit,
4. Prakrit and
5. Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit.
Of them, Pāli language is the language of Theravada tradition of Buddhism and has also been the language of the Tipitaka, the cannon. Its first span continues 300 B.C to 500 A.D. The second stage of Pāli when lots of commentaries were written by scholars like Buddhadatta, Buddhaghosa, Dhammapala of Podaratitha etc…. from 500-1100 A.D after that from 12th century to modern time. The term Pāli language is a comparatively modern coinage, whether the credit of this misleading coinage is due to the European Orientalist or to latter day.
Theravada Buddhism of Ceylon, Burma and Siam are still a matter of dispute. It is certain, however, that even up to the sixth or seventh century A.D, the term Pāli does not appear to have gained currency as a nomenclature for any kind of language. Even if we look into the Culavamsa forming a latter supplement to the Mahavamsa, we find that the term Pāli is used in it clearly in the sense of original Buddhist texts, the texts of the canon as distinguished from commentaries.
As a master of fact, the earliest issue of the Pāli can be traced in the commentaries of Buddhaghosa and not in any earlier Buddhist writings. It is again in the commentaries that the term Pāli came to be regarded as a synonym for Buddhavacana Tipitaka, Tantri and Pariyatti.
Canon
The Tripitaka [Sanskrit] [Pali: Tipitaka] is the Canon of the Buddhists, both Theravada and Mahayana. Thus it is possible to speak of several Canons such as the Sthaviravada, Sarvastivada and Mahayana as well as in term of languages like Pali, Chinese and Tibetan. The word is used basically to refer to the literature, the authorship of which is directly or indirectly ascribed to the Buddha himself.
It is generally believed that whatever was the teaching of the Buddha, conceived under Dhamma and Vinaya, it was rehearsed soon after his death by a fairly representative body of disciples.The later systematised threefold division, into Sutta, Vinaya and Abhidhamma is based on this collection. Sharing a common body of Dhamma and Vinaya, the early Buddhist disciples appear to have remained united for about a century.
The Council of Vesali or the second Buddhist Council saw the breakup of this original body and as many as eighteen separate schools were known to exist by about the first century B.C. It is reasonable to assume that each of these schools would have opted to possess a Tripitaka of their own or rather their own recession of the Tripitaka, perhaps with a considerably large common core.
It has long been claimed that the Buddha, as he went about teaching in the Gangetic valley in India during the 6th and 5th centuries B.C.E., used Magadhi or the language of Magadha as his medium of communication. Attempts have been made to identify this Magadhan dialect with Pali, the language in which the texts of the Sthaviravada School are recorded. Hence we speak of a Pali Canon, i.e., the literature of the Sthaviravadins which is believed to be the original word of the Buddha.
At any rate, this is the only complete recession we possess and the Pali texts seem to preserve an older tradition much more than most of the extant Buddhist works in other languages. Further, the Sthaviravadins admit two other major divisions of Pali Buddhist literature which are non-Canonical. They are:
1. Post-Canonical Pali literature including works like Petakopadesa and Milindapanha, the authorship of which is ascribed to one or more disciples.
2. Pali Commentarial literature which includes:
(a) Atthakatha or Commentaries, the original version of which is believed to have been taken over to Sri Lanka by Thera Mahinda, the missionary sent by Asoka and
(b) the different strata of Tika or Sub-Commentaries, contributions to which were made by Buddhist monks of Sri Lanka, India and Burma.
Besides this Pali recession of the Sthaviravada school there are fragmentary texts of the Sarvastivada or of the Mulasarvastivada which are preserved in Sanskrit. A large portion of their Vinaya texts in Sanskrit is preserved in the Gilgit manuscripts. But a more complete collection of the Sarvastivada recension (perhaps also of the Dharmapuptaka and Kasyapiya), i.e., a Sanskrit Canon, must have possibly existed as is evident from the Chinese translations preserved to us. These include complete translations of the four agamas (the equivalent of the Pali nikayas). Of the Ksudraka (Pali: Khuddaka), only some texts are preserved in Chinese. In addition to these, the Chinese translations seem to preserve, to the credit of the Sarvastivadins, a vast Vinaya literature and an independent collection of seven Abhidhamma treatises. Thus what could be referred to as a Sarvastivada Canon ranges between fragments of texts preserved in Sanskrit and the more representative collection of the Tripitaka preserved in Chinese. It may be mentioned here that a version of the Mulasarvastivada Vinaya consisting of seven parts, even more faithful than the Chinese version, is preserved in Tibetan. Of the Abhidharma collection only the Prajnaptisastra appears to have been translated into Tibetan.
Speaking further of the Tripitaka in terms of language we have in Chinese different recessions of the Canon (preserved in part) belonging to different schools. These recessions are primarily based on the Tripitaka of Indian origin. In addition to the ancient texts which these recessions preserve they also contain independent expositions of the early doctrines or commentarial literature on them. The Chinese Canon preserves the Vinaya texts of as many as seven different schools. In place of the division into ‘canonical groups’ of Sutra, Abhidharma and Vinaya, this new arrangement seems to reckon with a live and continuous tradition in accepting as authoritative both the Sutra (or words of Buddha) and Sutra (or commentaries, treatises, etc. of disciples of a later date).
It becomes clear from the foregoing analysis that in speaking of a Buddhist Canon one has to admit that it is both vast in extent and complex in character. While the earlier and more orthodox schools of Buddhism reserved the term Canonical to refer to the Body of literature, the greater part of which could be reasonably ascribed to the Buddha himself, other traditions which developed further away from the centre of activity of the Buddha and at a relatively later date choose to lay under the term Canon the entire mosaic of Buddhist literature in their possession, which is of varied authorship and is at times extremely heterogeneous in character.
kosuka(Minhla)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
