His Principal Teachers

The Venerable Pa Auk Sayadaw

Website: http://www.paauk.org/

About Pa Auk Sayadaw

The Venerable Acinna, commonly referred to as the “Venerable Pa-Auk Tawya Sayadaw” (and, in less formal circumstances, as “Pa-Auk Sayadaw”), is the current abbot and principal teacher at Pa-Auk Forest Monastery. “Sayadaw” is a Burmese honorific title meaning “respected teacher.”

The Sayadaw was born in 1934, in Leigh-Chaung Village, Hinthada Township, in the delta region about one hundred miles northwest of the capital, Yangon. In 1944, at age ten, he ordained as a novice monk (samanera) at a monastery in his village. During the next decade, he pursued the life of a typical scholar-novice, studying the Pali Texts (including Vinaya, Suttas and Abhidhamma) under various teachers. He passed the three Pali language examinations while still a novice.

In 1954, at age twenty, the Sayadaw received the higher ordination as a bhikkhu. He continued his studies of the Pali Texts under the guidance of learned elder monks. In 1956 he passed the prestigious Dhammacariya examination. This is equivalent to a BA in Buddhist Pali Studies and confers the title of “Dhamma Teacher.”

During the next eight years, the Sayadaw continued his investigation into the Dhamma, traveling throughout Myanmar to learn from various well-known teachers. In 1964, during his tenth “rains retreat” (vassa), he turned his attention to intensifying his meditation practice and began to practice “forest dwelling.” Although he continued with his study of the Pali Texts, he now sought out and gained instruction from the revered meditation teachers of those times.

For the next sixteen years, he made forest dwelling his primary practice. He spent these years in the southern part of Myanmar, in Mon State: three years in Mudon Township (just south of Mawlamyine) and thirteen years in Ye Township (approximately one hundred miles down the coast). During this period, he lived a very simple life, devoting his time to meditation and study of the Pali Texts.

In 1981 the Sayadaw received a message from the abbot of Pa-Auk Forest Monastery, the Venerable Aggapañña. The abbot was dying and asked the Venerable Acinna to look after his monastery. Five days later, the Venerable Aggapañña passed away. As the new abbot of the monastery, the Venerable Acinna became known as the “Pa-Auk Tawya Sayadaw.” Although he oversaw the running of the monastery, the Sayadaw would spend most of his time in seclusion, meditating in a bamboo hut in the upper forested area, which covered a deserted range of hills running along the base of the Taung Nyo Mountain Range. This area later came to be known as the Upper Monastery.

Since 1983, both monastics and laity have been coming to study meditation with the Sayadaw. Foreign meditators began to arrive at the monastery in the early 1990’s. As the Sayadaw’s reputation steadily grew, the Upper Monastery gradually expanded from a simple bamboo hut and a handful of disciples to more than two hundred and fifty kutis (meditators’ huts) in the forest; a large two-storey meditation hall for the men; a library (with office, computer room and men’s dormitory on the lower levels); a clinic; a hospital; an almsgiving hall; a two-storey refectory; and a reception hall and dwelling for the Sayadaw. In the Lower Monastery, facilities include more than 180 kutis, a new kitchen and, for the women, a large three-storey meditation hall (with sleeping quarters on the ground floor) and a five-storey dormitory (still under construction).

Currently there are more than one hundred and thirty foreign monks, nuns and lay practitioners residing at Pa-Auk Forest Monastery. During the three-month rains retreat, the total monastic population averages between six and seven hundred. Together with laypeople, the monastery population sometimes tops fifteen hundred during festival times.

In 1997 the Sayadaw published his Magnum Opus, an enormous five-volume tome titled The Practice that Leads to Nibbana, explaining the entire course of teaching in detail and supported by copious quotations from the Pali Texts – it is currently available only in Burmese and Sinhalese. On January 4, 1999, in public recognition of the Sayadaw’s achievements, the government bestowed upon him the title Agga Maha Kammatthanacariya, which means “Highly Respected Meditation Teacher.”

A Dhamma teaching:

Dodrupchen Rinpoche

Website: http://www.rigpawiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Dodrupchen_Rinpoche

About Dodrupchen

He was born in 1927 in the Golok province of Dokham in the eastern part of Tibet. His birth was prophesized by the great Fifth Dzogchen Rinpoche Tubten Chökyi Dorje, who later recognized him. At the age of four, he travelled to the Dodrupchen monastery, where he was enthroned. Up until the age of six or seven especially, he displayed many miraculous signs of attainment, including prescience and visions of the buddhas.

He studied with the great khenpos of Dodrupchen and Dzogchen monasteries, and at the age of eleven, he was given the empowerment and transmission of the Nyingtik Yabshyi and Longchen Nyingtik by Khenpo Kunpal, a disciple of the Third Dodrupchen Rinpoche. Among the many great masters from whom he received teachings were Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö, the Sixth Dzogchen Rinpoche, Shechen Kongtrul, Dzogchen Khenpo Gönpo and Gyalrong Namtrul Rinpoche. From Yukhok Chatralwa, who was a manifestation of Vimalamitra, and from Apang Tertön, he received the final teachings on the meaning of Dzogpachenpo, which he practised under their guidance.

At the age of nineteen, he made a pilgrimage to Central Tibet, and completed a retreat in the room of Jikmé Lingpa at Tsering Jong. At Dodrupchen monastery, he built a Scriptural College, and he provided the woodblocks for printing the Seven Treasures of Longchenpa. He gave many major teachings, especially in the eastern part of Tibet.

On account of the changing political situation, Dodrupchen Rinpoche left Tibet and arrived in Sikkim in October 1957; from then on, he made Gangtok his permanent residence. Once again he subsidized the printing of many books, including Longchenpa’s Seven Treasures and Trilogy of Finding Comfort and Ease. He has given many empowerments, transmissions and teachings in Sikkim, where he has two monasteries, in Bhutan, where he also heads a monastery, and in India and Nepal. Dodrupchen Rinpoche recognized the Seventh Dzogchen Rinpoche, whose enthronement was held in the Royal Temple at Gangtok in 1972.

A master whose quiet, gentle and unassuming demeanour is complemented by a tremendous presence, Dodrupchen Rinpoche attends to the everyday spiritual needs of the people of Sikkim, and personally looks after the welfare of over four hundred monks in his care.

Merta Ada

Website: http://www.balimeditation.com/

The phenomenal Balinese meditation teacher and healer, who has taught 86,000 people in Indonesia in the last 12 years. His understanding of physical sickness and its causes is especially profound. Form more info please see his website.