The Maha Gandayone Response
Maha Gandayone has issued the following statement on the military coup. The rough translation is below.
1) We absolutely do not accept the unlawful military coup which is against the will of the people of Myanmar. It is wrong and against the universal truth (a-Dhamma). We denounce and protest.
2) We stand with the people that want the fairness and justice.
Signed : Sangha committee members, Mahagandayone, Buddhist monastery and university, Amarapura, Mandalay.
While there is not space here to tell the history and importance of Maha Gandayone Sayadaw and the Amarapura monastery, I think it is very important that meditators understand this is not just some other monastery who is taking a courageous stand to be on the right side of history. This is an incredibly important monastic school with a highly respected past, and the Sayadaw would go on to influence a who’s who of the great Burmese monks and meditation teachers to follow. In the Meditator’s Guidebook, a full 15 pages were devoted to his teaching and legacy. I cannot reprint it all here, so I choose to offer the following short quotes to give some idea:
Mahāgandhayon U Janakabhivaṃsa gained respect and appreciation from across the country. This included the lay meditation teacher, Sayagyi U Ba Khin, who recommended this Amarapura site to those of his students wishing to deepen their pariyatti. As Daw Onmar notes, “Mahagandhayone Sayadaw's work was chiefly aimed at the Bhikkhu Saṅgha, while U Ba Khin spread the Dhamma chiefly among the laity including non-Buddhist foreigners… U Ba Khin was very selective in his appreciation of Buddhist monks, respecting not just their robe, but chiefly their practice.” Similarly, one of U Ba Khin’s disciples, Mother Sayama, encouraged at least one of her own students, Roger Bischoff, to ordain and attend classes here for several years. Fellow IMC student Sayagyi U Goenka was also greatly enamored with Mahāgandhayon Sayadaw. The lay meditator often invited him to his Rangoon home on Mogul Street, and he remembered being “highly influenced not only by his great intellect, but also by his simplicity, humility, and capacity for hard work.” As told in the Sayagyi U Ba Khin Journal, U Goenka admired the “scores of books on Dhamma in simple Burmese” that the monk had written, although he still “did not have even a trace of ego. I observed not one iota of intellectual pride. I found him to be the incarnation of simplicity, honesty, and egolessness.”
Thārmanay Kyaw, who spent time here a monk, recalls the personal habits of the sayadaw in his biography of the great teacher, One Life’s Journey, “You wouldn’t find a wide, luxurious mattress atop the bed Mahāgandāyone Sayadaw slept in. It was just a simple, tidy, compact one. The sheets on his mat, too, were clean and neat…It is said that once some foreigners who came to the Mahāgandāyone wondered how such an extensive monastery was kept so clean and neat. When they asked the Mahāgandāyone Sayadaw, he replied, ‘By working in accord with the advice of the Buddha.’ It's quite true. In the Vinaya, the Buddha laid down rules of conduct for keeping monasteries clean.” The author goes on to note how Sayadaw U Paṇḍita was influenced by his time here, later ensuring that his Shwe Taung Gone Monastery had similar austerity and cleanliness at all times.
The Australian meditator Marie Byles visited Mahāgandhayon Monastery in 1957, and describes meeting the sayadaw. “After our lunch we went to pay our respects to the abbot or Sayadaw, bowing to the ground before him on the shining polished floor. The paintwork was in delicate pastel shades…He was a genial kindly man and graciously accepted one of the yellow handkerchiefs I had had specially dyed before leaving home, and which ought to have been orange.”
Author Jason Carbine’s book Sons of the Buddha is in fact titled after U Janakabhivaṃsa’s call for Burmese monks from all orders to unite for the benefit of the Sāsana. In this in-depth exploration of the complex history of the Shwegyin monastic order, Carbine carefully examines U Janakabhivaṃsa’s discourses, concluding that his main goal was to “attempt to help people cross the vast ‘ocean of repeated rebirth’ (saṃsāra-sāgara) with the ‘ocean of method’ (nāga-sagara)” to attain nibbāna. More specifically, Carbine noted four recurring elements in the talks. The first is faith in the Buddha, which overarches everything. The subsequent three relate to the Patthanas: recognizing their importance for one’s spiritual strivings, understanding them, and developing pīti (joy) through their study. Significantly, concerning this latter point, Carbine points out that while other monks stressed the importance of saṃvega, or a disillusionment with the world, U Janakabhivaṃsa instead emphasized the joy that arises from a deep understanding of the Dhamma.
“While I was studying at the Mahāgandhayon Monastery in Amarapura, male and female supporters came from all areas of the country to visit. Some of them came because their son was either a novice or a monk; some came because they wanted to offer things, and some came because of the monastery’s excellent reputation, its pleasant atmosphere, its superior discipline, and the integrity of its monks. As the saying goes, ‘The wind carries the scent of the flowers while people carry the news of other people.’ Very often, I heard the voices of the supporters who came for these different reasons. For instance, they would say, ‘Since I entered this monastery, my heart has become so peaceful. It seems that the sayadaw and monks are spreading mettā all over this monastery.’ As a matter of fact, Sayadaw [U Janakabhivaṃsa] himself practiced mettā meditation, and every morning the monks were encouraged to take every opportunity to practice mettā…They used to practice mettā meditation at least twice a day, one time in the morning and one time in the evening during chanting.” Chan Myay Myaing Sayadaw U Indaka, Metta: The Practice of Loving-Kindness as the Foundation for Insight Meditation Practice
U Janakabhivaṃsa was certainly more recognized for his academic prowess, but his wisdom was also a source of inspiration for Burma’s growing paṭipatti movement. Among the many paṭipatti teachers who admirered him were Sayagyi U Ba Khin, as noted above, and Sayadaw U Paṇḍita, who referred to him constantly when preparing Dhamma talks. In the end, his great legacy may be best summarized by Carbine, who wrote, “He wants wisdom, joy, and satisfaction to grow in the continuum of sons and daughters of the Buddha as their minds increasingly comprehend why and how impersonal phenomena are conditionally related. Sometime in the future, many lives away perhaps, his own efforts as a monastic son of the Buddha specializing in the Abhidhamma may pay off, when the light of wisdom really shines bright in the mental continuities of those whom he once taught.”