A Poetic Ode to Saya Thet Gyi

Before each meditation

course that he conducted, Saya U Than led yogis in reciting 12 verses he composed, four of which have been reproduced here. Respectively, these are the first, third, sixth, and tenth verses. The great reverence towards Saya Thet Gyi may be seen with these lines, and they help to further flesh out his character as a teacher.

“Agreeable abode in the village of Pyaw Bwae,
There’s the teaching of the Buddha through Saya Thet;
Alive to the law of inevitable, existing and execution, within seven days;
Assuredly the road of freedom or Maggan as the crow flies.

In transition to the fifth day,
The road of bhāvanā—higher stage,
Especially appeared with mind and matter,
Shattering in phosphorescence,
Felt by oneself as one euphoria [after] another.

Continual itchy sensation in torrent, in two extremes of appearance and disappearance,
Hustling, surging, moving and flutter,
Clearly seen as fireworks in your [body].

Merging and crashing in entity,
The soul knows its flimsiness,
While in meditating that lightens to the wisdom,
As these codes, the scriptures show one is at the stage of sotapanna.”