HlaMin

Author: Hla Min (Lifelong Learner)

  • U Myint Sein (M69, GBNF)

    RIT Badminton Selection

    • Member of RIT Badminton team which won the Inter-Institute Championship

    Obituary

    Last Journey

  • 1969 Engineering Graduates

    1969 အင်ဂျင်နီယာ ဘွဲ့ရ များ

    • တင်တင်
      Tin Tin (Anne)
    • လင်းလင်းအောင်
      Lin Lin Aung
    • အောင်မင်း
      Aung Min
    • စိုင်းခမ်းပန်
      Sai Kham Pan
    • စိန်ထွန်း
      Sein Tun
    • …
    • လှမြင့်
      Hla Myint
    • Fred သက်ကြီး
      Frederick Thetgyi
    • ထွန်းအောင်ကျော်
      Tun Aung Gyaw
    • လှမင်း
      Hla Min
    • စောယုတင့်
      Saw Yu Tint (Alice)
    • ထွန်းအောင်ကျော်
      Tun Aung Gyaw
    • မောင်သောင်း
      Maung Toung (Tom Liu)
    • ခင်မောင်ဦး Ivan
      Khin Maung Oo (Ivan Lee)
    • ငွေထွန်း
      Ngwe Tun
    • ဦးဇင်း မျိုးထွန်း
      Uzin Myo Tun (Bobby, Ashin Pannagavesaka)
    • မြင့်မြင့်
      Myint Myint

  • Balance

    Definitions

    • Weighing machine / Scale
    • Zodiac sign for Libra
    • Difference between income and expenditure, dues and payment
      e.g. Balance Sheet,
      Balance of a back account
    • Control
    • Moderation / Avoiding extremes

    Aerial Artists

    • Aerial artists usually employ safety nets.
    • The Flying Wallendas (seven family members) performing the Human Pyramid were the exception. One fateful night, a member lost balance causing tragedy.

    Dhammacakkapavatna Sutta

    Buddha’s First Sermon mentioned the avoidance of two extremes :

    • Indulgence of pleasures
    • Self-mortification.

    Moderation

    • With mental lapse, middle aged and elderly can lose balance easily.
      e.g. slip beside the bed
    • Moderation is the key to health and happiness.
    • Blood thinner helped a friend get back his health.
    • Overuse of blood thinner sent another to the hospital.

    The following may be detrimental to one’s health

    • Over-exercise
    • Lack of exercise
    • Extreme diet
    • Over-eating
    • Over-sitting
      In some meditation retreats, the practitioners alternate sitting meditation and walking meditation
    • Not much sleep
    • Over-sleeping

    It is important to maintain a balance for most things (especially work and family).

    • Several astronauts had success with the flights, but had family problems.
    • Some entrepreneurs had success with the business, but had family issues.
  • Veda and Yadaya

    Veda and Yadaya

    by Hla Min

    Updated : May 2025

    Veda ဝေဒ

    BARB (Burma Astro Research Bureau)

    Myint Sein
    • Taught Veda courses
      U Myint Sein was the Principal.
      U Khin Aung Bo, U Than Htay and U Myint Lwin were some of the early Sayas.
    • Published monthly Veda magazine
    • Most founders and/or Executive Committee members are GBNF (Gone But Not Forgotten).
    • Saya U Min Wun (former Vice President) is a survivor. Saya’s expertise include Western and Eastern Astronomy and Astrology. For many years, he served as a member of the Myanmar Pyeik Ka Dein Ah Kyan Pay Ah Phwe.

    MARB (Myanmar Astro Research Bureau)

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    With Veda Sayas
    • U Khin Aung Bo (GBNF) was a teacher.
      He taught Veda subjects at BARB and MARB along with U Than Htay and U Myint Lwin.
      He was President of MARB.
    • U Than Htay taught Veda subjects at BARB and MARB along with U Myint Lwin and U Khin Aung Bo. He is a Vice President of MARB.
      Due to health, he declined to succeed U Khin Aung Bo as President. He is now GBNF.
    • U Myint Lwin (GBNF) taught Veda subjects at BARB and MARB along with U Khin Aung Bo and U Than Htay. He was Vice President of MARB. He passed away several years ago.
    • U Kyaw Myint (T72) is an expert on Veda and Traditional Medicine. He taught Veda subjects at BARB and MARB. He is a Associate Member of “Myanmar Pyeikkdadein Ah Kyan Pay Ah Phwe.” He succeeded U Khin Aung Bo as President of MARB. His elder brother Dr. Kan Nyunt is a Patron of MARB.
    • U Hla Win (M73) is busy not only with his work, but also with SPZP and “History of University Engineering Education in Burma/Myanmar”. He taught Veda subjects at BARB and MARB. He served several positions (Secretary, Vice President) of MARB. He is a Member of “Myanmar Pyeikkdadein Ah Kyan Pay Ah Phwe.”
    • Several (e.g. U Soe Thein and U Thein Aung) took courses at BARB. They later taught courses at BARB and MARB.
    • Dr. Aung Myin Bo uses and teaches Veda software.
      He is an organizer of the weekly Zoom meetings.
    • I was requested to give a guest lecture during my visits to Yangon.
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    Lunch with Veda sayas

    Yadaya ယတြာ

    • Stands for Change.
    • Similar to fire
    • Can be a good servant or a bad master.

    U Myint Sein (BARB)

    • According to U Myint Sein (GBNF), former Principal of BARB, ladies are excellent at Yadaya.
    • They change their appearance (e.g. with the aid of cosmetics).

    Folklore

    According to folk lore, a student went to study at Tekkatho (Tekka Sila) to study under Ditha Par Mauk Kha (Professor). The professor was an expert in Veda. He saw that some calamity (probably death) will fall soon on the student. So, he told the student to return to the village for a while and come back at a later date.

    The student did some good deeds on the way back. He moved some fishes from an almost empty pond to nearby stream. He pruned the hanging branches and righted some bent trees. He used some planks to create a make-shift bridge.

    On his subsequent visit, the student told the Professor about his actions on the way back to his village. The Professor was pleased to know that the student’s Yadaya had thwarted the ill effects.

    Extreme belief in Yadaya

    The following may be attributed to some then higher authorities who believe too much in the power of Yadaya.

    • A classmate told us that there was a night walk on Minn Lann by the high authorities. The lights were out during the walk.
      Some other events (e.g. the construction of Karaweik) allude to a Kingdom.
    • The change to Nyar Lann Maung without making revisions to the road and the vehicles may be a Yadana to simulate a change to the right (from left [or Socialist]).
    • The issue of bank notes such as 45 Kyats and 90 Kyats may be due to the belief of Nawin or “Nines”.
    • The issue of bank notes honoring Saya San and Thakin Po Hla Gyi may be a Yadana to simulate the revolutionaries throughout the nation, and thereby thwart revolutions.

  • BAPS Newsletter

    BAPS

    • BEA (Burmese Engineers Association) and BASTS (Burmese American Science and Technology Society) merged to form BAPS (Burmese American Professional Society).
    • Past Presidents include Saya Dr. Nyo Win (M65), Benny Tan (M70) and Maurice Chee (M75).

    BAPS Newsletter

    • I was a Contributing Editor.

  • Prome Hall Sportsmen

    အများစု မှာ RU Faculty of Engineering

    ရန်ကုန်တက္ကသိုလ် အင်ဂျင်နီယာမဟာဌာန မှ ကျောင်းသားများ

    ဘော်လုံး

    အဆောင်လိုက် ပြိုင်ပွဲ ဒိုင်းဆု Inter-Hall Tournament ကို သုံးနှစ် ဆက်တိုက် ဆွတ်ခူး

    Inter-Hall Football Winners

    (1950 -51), (1951 – 52) & (1952 – 53)

    ကစားသမား (တချို့)

    U Chan Tha — ဦးချမ်းသာ

    • Captain of Prome Hall Soccer Team
      1950 – 51, 1951 – 52
    • Captain & Gold of RUBC (Rangoon University Boat Club)
    • (နောက်) City Engineer from Rangoon City Council
    • SAMB ဘော်လုံးအသင်း

    Si Brothers

    • Members of Prome Hall Soccer Team
    • Tennis Doubles Champions

    Tin Si (C1) — ဦးတင်စီ

    • ဘော်လုံး၊ တင်းနစ်၊ ကြက်တောင်
    • (နောက်) Taught at Natmauk ကျောင်း
    • and Adult Education

    Khin Si (C2) — ဦးခင်စီ

    • ဘော်လုံး၊ တင်းနစ်
    • (နောက်) စက်ရုံမှူး၊ ပုလိပ်ချည်စက်

    U Saw Taik Ain— ဦးစောတိတ်အိန် (မုဒုံ)

    • Member of Prome Hall Soccer Team
    • RU Tennis Champion for Singles and Doubles
    • Rowing, Swimming, Volleyball
    • (နောက်) SE of CC

    U Tin Swe

    • Member of Prome Hall Soccer Team
    • Retired as Lecturer, RIT Electrical Engineering

    Tint Swe (Jimmy Sein) — ဦးတင့်ဆွေ (မော်လမြိုင်)

    • RU ဘော်လုံး
    • (နောက်) DyDG of Vocational Inst.

    Mg Thaung — ဦးသောင်း (တောင်ကြီး)

    • ဘော်လုံး အသင်း Captain (1951 – 52)
    • (နောက်) SE of CC

    Win Kyu — ဦးဝင်းကြူ (တောင်ကြီး)

    • ဘော်လုံး
    • (နောက်) SE of CC

    Mahindar Singh (မော်လမြိုင်)

    • ဘော်လုံး
    • ညီ — B Singh (RU ဂိုးသမား)
    • (နောက်) SE of CC

    အထွေထွေ

    * ဦးအေး (စက်မှု62)

    • Volleyball
    • provided some details

    * မြတ်မွန်

  • RIT Departments

    ရန်ကုန်စက်မှုတက္ကသိုလ် ဌာနများ

    (ကနဦး) Engineering ဌာနများ

    • Architecture ပိသုကာ
    • Chemical ဓာတု
    • Civil မြို့ပြ
    • Electrical လျှပ်စစ်
    • Mechanical စက်မှု
    • Metallurgical သတ်တုဗဒေ
    • Mining သတ္တု ရှာဖွေ ထုတ်လုပ်
    • Textile ချည်မျှင် နဲ့ အထည်

    Supporting ဌာန (တချို့)

    • Burmese မြန်မာစာ
    • Chemistry ဓာတုဗေဒ
    • English အင်္ဂလိပ်စာ
    • Library စာကြည့်တိုက်
    • Mathematics သင်္ချာ
    • Physics ရူပဗေဒ

    အမျိုးသမီး ဌာနမှူး (တချို့)

    * ဒေါ်သောင်းခင် — Chemistry

    • ကနေဒါ McGill တက္ကသိုလ် က ပါရဂူဘွဲ့ ရ

    * ဒေါ်ရင်ရင်မြ — English

    • ဩစတြေးလျား သို့ ရွှေ့

    * ဒေါ်မြင့်မြင့်ခင် (ကွယ်လွန်) — Library

    • Indiana တက္ကသိုလ် က မဟာသိပ္ပံ ဘွဲ့ ရ

    * ဒေါ်ငြိမ်း (ကွယ်လွန်) — Physics

    • ငယ် ရွယ်စဉ် USA က မဟာသိပ္ပံ ဘွဲ့ ရ
    • အသက် 90 ကျော်အထိ ဆရာပူဇော်ပွဲ တက်
    • အသက် 102 ဝန်းကျင် မှာ ကွယ်လွန်

  • Burmese

    Rangoon University

    Department of Oriental Studies

    • The Department of Oriental Studies taught Pali.
    • Per request of Sayagyi U Pe Maung Tin, the Burmese Department was formed as a Sub-department of the Department of Oriental Studies.
    • A few years later, Burmese became a separate Department.

    Burmese Department

    • Saya U E Maung
      Pen name; Maung Thant Sin
      Saya U E (pronounced “Aye”) Maung served as its first Professor.
      His compilation “Garland of Kabyars (Poems)” was a prescribed text for my elder siblings.
      Spouse : Daw Khin Mya Mu is an expert in reading and transcribing Kyauk Sar (Inscription).
    • U Chan Mya
      Pen name : Mya Ketu
    • U Toe Aung
      Pen name: Kutha
    • U Hla Maung
      Taught Abhiddhama
      Member of Myanmar Sar Ah Phwe
    • U Sunn Tun (Mandalay)
      Wrote “Shay Tho” series
    • U Kyaw Yin
      Pen name: Kahtika U Kyaw Yin

    Outstanding Alumni

    Sayagyi U Pe Maung Tin was proud of his students — Theikpan Maung Wa, Zawgyi and Minthuwun — for founding the “Khit San Sar Pay”.
    He would express Mudita (Altruistic Joy) for their talents and achievements.

    • ICS U Sein Tin (Theikpan Maung Wa)
      Sad victim of a botched robbery
      We had to study his “Wut Htu Saung Par”
    • U Thein Han (Zawgyi)
      Laureate Poet
      Chief Librarian, Rangoon University Central Library
    • U Wun (Minthuwun)
      Head of the Translation Department of Rangoon University
      Compiler of “Myanamr Abhidan”
      For a short period, served as Professor
      Visiting Professor at Osaka University for four years
      Son : U Htin Kyaw (Former President)
    • Daw Khin Saw Mu
      Spouse : ICS U Ba Tint
      Children : Daw Khin Saw Tint (Bilingual writer), U Nay Oke Tint (Nay Oke St. Paul’s)
    • U Tin Aye (Shan Pyay)
      Succeeded U Wun as Head of Translation Department
    • U Kyaw Aung
      Editor of the Translation Department
      Author

    Burmese Texts

    • “Kabyar Pan Kone” (Garland of Flowers)
      compiled by Saya U E Maung (which was prescribed for High School before our days)
    • “Myanmar Thadda” (Burmese Grammar)
      by Saya U Pe Maung Tin (which we studied in Middle School)
    • “U Pon Nya Wutthu Paung Kyote”
      compiled and annotated by Saya U Wun (which we studied in High School)
    • Poems by U Kyin U
    • Selections from Zat Taw Gyi Hse Bwe (e.g. Mahosadha)
    • Pyazat (e.g. Deva Gomban)

    Burmese Language

    • Spoken language (Myanmar Sagar)
    • Written language (Myanmar Sar).
    • The spoken language predates the written language, which first appeared as the fourth and final language of the Mya Zedi Kyauksar (stone inscription).
    • An early Indo-Tibetan script was used to write Burmese.

    Myanmar Sar Ah Phwe

    • The BSPP Government formed the Myanmar Sar Ah Phwe (Burmese Language Commission)
    • Bohmu Ba Thaung, Head of Burmese Department at DSA, served as early Head of the Commission
    • In the 1980s, several History Commission members were assigned to the Myanma Sar Ah Phwe.

    Decline of formal Burmese

    • The Commission revised the Burmese spelling twice.
      Some revisions were ill-advised.
    • Authors and publishers were fined ten pyas for each violation of the spelling rules dictated by the Commission.
    • Many classic texts were ruined when every occurrence of TA had to be replaced with TIT to please the whims of the higher authorities.
      The rhyme and rhythm of the beloved texts were lost.
    • The rise of the Internet was sadly accompanied by the decline of Burmese usage and the adoption of slangs and abbreviations in messages, blogs and even articles.

  • Bojjhanga Sutta

    Seven Factors of Enlightenment

    • Mindfulness
    • Investigation of dhammas
    • Effort (or energy)
    • Zest
    • Tranquility
    • Concentration
    • Equanimity

    Bojjhanga Sutta

    • 10th Sutta in “Paritta Pali”
    • Gatha (Pali Verse)
    • For protection against and getting free from sickness and disease
    • Reference the three occasions when Venerable Mogallana, Venerable Kassapa, and Lord Buddha felt sick but were cured after listening to and contemplating on the “Seven factors of Enlightenment”
    • This is one of the Suttas that is not only for chanting but also for practice

    Bojjhanga Suttas (in Pali Prose) in the Scriptures

    • Mogallana Bhojjhanga Sutta
      Recited by Lord Buddha
    • Kasapa Bojjahanga Sutta
      Recited by Lord Buddha
    • Buddha Bojjhanga Sutta
      Recited by Venerable Cunda

    Pali (in Burmese Script)

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  • Byamaso Taya

    • Metta
      Unbounded Love / Loving Kindness
    • Karuna
      Compassion
    • Mudita
      Altruistic Joy or Sympathetic Joy
    • Uppekkha
      Equanimity
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    Book by U Thu Kha

    Metta

    • Pali term
      Written in Burmese as Myitta
    • Rendered as
      Unbounded Love
      Loving Kindness
    • One of the four Bhamaso Taya or Bhama Vihara (along with Karuna, Mudita, and Uppekha)
      
    • Practiced as a form of meditation
    • U Silananda‘s book on Protective Verses has a section on how to practice Loving Kindness Meditation.
    • Tipitaka Mingun Sayadawgyi recited the Two Methods of sending Metta.
      As mentioned in Metta Sutta
      Alternative: 528 “Metta” (13 x 4 x 12)
      They can be found on YouTube and CDs.
      
    • “Metta Sutta” is one of the eleven Suttas in “Paritta Pali” (Protective Verses).
      Also known as Karaniya Metta Sutta
      Chanted at most Buddhist ceremonies.
    • Myitta is covered along with Thitsar (Truth) in Dr. Min Tin Mon‘s book “Myitta and Thitsar“
    • U Thu Kha wrote a book on Metta Sutta.
    • U Jotalankara‘s book explains the 528 Metta.
    • A Physics teacher said, “Myitta So Dar Ah Hlyar Ah Nan Ma Shee Bay Mei Ah Thwar Ah Pyan Shee Bar Thay Dae.”
    • Metta is also used as a name or part of a name.
    • Metta is a Myanmar comedian.
    • Mettananda Vihara is a monastery in Northern California.
      Moved from Central Avenue, Fremont to Castro Valley.
    • Metta Vihari is an association that performs Chanting, and also offers food dana at selected gatherings.

    Practicing Metta

    By Way of LOCATION:

    • May I be well, happy and peaceful.
    • May all beings in this house be well, happy and peaceful.
    • May all beings in this area be well, happy and peaceful.
    • May all beings in this city be well, happy and peaceful.
    • May all beings in this country be well, happy and peaceful.
    • May all beings in this world be well, happy and peaceful.
    • May all beings in this universe be well, happy and peaceful.
    • May all beings be well, happy and peaceful.

    By Way of PERSONS:

    • May I be well, happy and peaceful.
    • May my teachers be well, happy and peaceful.
    • May my parents be well, happy and peaceful.
    • May my relatives be well, happy and peaceful.
    • May my friends be well, happy and peaceful.
    • May the indifferent persons be well, happy and peaceful.
    • May the unfriendly persons be well, happy and peaceful.
    • May all meditators be well, happy and peaceful.
    • May all beings be well, happy and peaceful.

    Metta Sutta

    • Third sutta in “Paritta Pali”
    • also referred to as Karaniya Metta Sutta
    • Desirable qualities of a Practitioner
    • Loving Kindness Meditation
    • Formal
      Translation from Pali into Burmese/Myanmar and English
    • Informal
      Books by Saya U Thu Kha and Saya Dr. Mehm Tin Mon

    Chanting

    Two ways (as per Mingun Tipitaka Sayadawgyi)

    • Referred in Metta Sutta
    • 528 “Metta” (13 x 4 x 12)
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    Karuna

    • Pali term
    • Rendered as Compassion
    • One of the four Bhamaso Taya
    • Buddha is called “The Compassionate One”
    • Mahayana Buddhists emphasize the importance of Compassion
    • Sayadaw U Sobhana (GBNF) had four Indonesian siblings as his students.
      Named one of them Karuna.
      She was present at Sayadaw’s Last Journey.
    • U Moe Myint (M76) and several alumni are members of the “Karuna Ah Thinn” in Singapore.
      One activitiy is to help the needy for the Last Journey of their loved one.
    • We saw an outpouring of Karuna in the relief efforts for Disaster Recovery (e.g. Cyclone Nargis)

    Practicing Karuna

    • May suffering ones be suffering-free
    • And the fear-struck fearless be
    • May the grieving shed all grief
    • And all beings find relief

    Mudita

    • Pali term.
    • Rendered as Altruistic Joy or Sympathetic Joy
    • One of the four Bhamaso Taya
    • One should feel joyful when one hears good news about others.

    Myanmar Mudita Sar Saung

    • Saya U Nyunt Htay (Met73) is Chief Editor
    • Contributor : Tekkatho Moe War (U Moe Aung)
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    Upekkha

    • Pali term
    • Rendered as Neutral [Feeling]
    • Also translated as Equanimity
    • One of the four Bhamaso Taya

    In a loose usage in Burmese, “Upekkha Shu” means “ignore”. It is not representative of the importance of Upekkha, which provides a balance of life and avoids the two extremes stated in the Dhammacakka Sutta

    It is non-trivial to sense Upekkha while practicing Vipassana (Insight) Meditation.

    Feelings may be be categorized as

    • Pleasant Feeling
    • Unpleasant Feeling
    • Non-Pleasant and Non-Unpleasant Feeling

    Upekkha is synonymous with “Non-Pleasant and Non-Unpleasant Feeling”.

    Buddhist Dictionary