HlaMin

Category: Buddhism

Sayadaws, Suttas, Terms

  • Patthana

    by Hla Min

    Updated : Apr 2026

    ပဌာန်း

    7th text in Abhidhamma အဘိဓမ္မာ

    Ashin Nandamalabhivansa

    Pathan 1

    Book of Conditional Relations

    1. Root Condition
    2. Object Condition
    3. Predominance Condition
    4. Proximity Condition
    5. Contiguity Condition
    6. Co-nascence Condition
    7. Mutuality Condition
    8. Dependence Condition
    9. Strong-Dependence Condition
    10. Pre-nascence Condition
    11. Post-nascence Condition
    12. Repetition Condition
    13. Kamma Condition
    14. Resultant Condition
    15. Nutriment Condition
    16. Faculty Condition
    17. Jhana Condition
    18. Path Condition
    19. Association Condition
    20. Disassociation Condition
    21. Presence Condition
    22. Absence Condition
    23. Disappearance Condition
    24. Non-Disappearance Condition

    Patthana in Daily Life

    Patthana in Daily Life

    Subtitle : An introduction to the Law of Conditionality
    Author : U Hla Myint
    Publisher : Tathagata Meditation Center, 2010

    CONTENTS

    Introduction

    Root condition : Hetu-paccayo
    Fascination (Sense-object) condition : Arammana-paccayo
    Predominance condition : Adhipati-paccayo (sahajata, arammana)
    Continuity condition : Ananatara-paccayo
    Contiguity condition : Samanantara-paccayo
    Co-nascence condition : Sahajata-paccayo
    Mutuality condition : Annamanna-paccayo
    Dependence condition : Nissaya-paccayo (shajata, purejata)
    Strong-dependence condition : Upanissaya-paccayo (aramana, anantara, pakatupa)
    Pre-nascence condition : Purejata-paccayo (vatthu, araammana)
    Post-nascence condition : Pacchajata-paccayo
    Repetition condition : Asevana-paccayo
    Kamma condition : Kamma-paccayo (shahajata, mamakkhanika)
    Resultant condition : Vipaka-paccayo
    Nutriment condition : Ahara-paccayo (sahajarta, kabalikara)
    Faculty condition : Indriya-paccayo (shajata, rupajivita, vatthu-purejata)
    Jhana condition : Jhana-paccayo
    Path condition : Magga paccayo
    Association condition : Samapyutta-paccayo
    Disassociation condition : Vipayutta-apccayo (sahajata, pacchajata, vatthupurejata)
    Presence condition : Atthi-apccayo (sahajata, pacchajata, vatthupurejata)
    Non-disappearance condition : Avigata-paccayo
    Absence condition : Natthi-paccayo
    Disappearance condition : Vigata-apccayo

    Conclusion

    Resources

    • Patthana Theikpan (College)
    • Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced Courses on Patthana
    • A Manual of Abhidhamma
    • Charts, illustrations, mnemonics
    • Computer programs to study Patthana
    • Tri-lingual book (in Pali, Myanmar, and English)

    TBSA Publication

    Pathan 2

    Ashin Janakabhivsmsa

    Mahagandayone Sayadaw

    Mahagandayone Sayadaw
    Pathana 3

    U Ohn Kyaw (EP73)

    Pathan Lecturer

    U Ohn Kyaw 1
    U Ohn Kyaw 2

    Posts

    • Abhidhamma
    • Dhamma Books
    • Sayadaws
    • Tipitaka

  • Memories of Sagaing

    by Hla Min

    Updated : Apr 2026

    Ma Ma Mi (Daw Khin Khin Latt) is from Sagaing. She wanted Saya Chit (Dr. Chit Swe) to be a Yahan (temporary monk) at a monastery in Sagaing Hills. Some monastery compounds are named after the towns in Irrawaddy Delta.

    Ko Myint Oo and I offered to be temporary monks with Saya Chit.

    Ordination

    There are two phases to become a monk :

    (a) Novitiation (ရှင်ပြု Shin Pyu) or “Lower Ordination” to become a “Ko Yin” (ကိုရင် novice)

    (b) “Thane Wyn” or “Higher Ordination” in a Sima (သိမ် Thane) to become an Upazin ဥပဇင်း

    At least five monks are needed to conduct the “Higher Ordination”.

    In Yangon, the ceremony takes 15 – 30 minutes.

    The final part is an Exhortation by the Preceptor. As Mentor to the newly ordained monk, the Preceptor shares his knowledge and gives advice.

    When the Preceptor learned that Saya Chit is a renowned Professor and the Founder/Director of UCC, he gave “extra” attention by exhorting for “close to three hours”. Sayadaw enjoyed illuminating Saya Chit.

    Since I could barely squat, I was “offered” a pillow to rest my knees and I was allowed to “kneel down” on the pillow.

    Tourist Guide for a day

    After a week of monk hood, we returned to our lay life sans (without) our hair.

    Ko Myint Oo is a social animal. He knew two Guides from “Tourist Burma”. At least one of them was new. They had a reasonably tough assignment. They had to guide an American student (in his senior year at a New York University) trying to write a first-hand report about the Buddhist artifacts in Mandalay and Sagaing.

    The Guides requested help from Ko Myint Oo. Ko Myint Oo shunted and in a moment I became a volunteer tourist guide explaining (to the best of my knowledge) Buddhism & rites and rituals.

  • Payeik Kyee Pali Theik Kha

    by Hla Min

    Updated : Mar 2026

    • Payeik Kyee aka Paritta Pali and Protective Verses
      Collection of eleven Protective Verses
      is recited in part or full by monks, novices, and lay people.
    • Pali
      Language of discourse in Theravada Buddhism
    • Theik Kha
      Practice
    • Thamane Kyaw : Pen name of Sayadaw U Dhammika, who won the prestigious award of Thamane Kyaw (Distinguished novice scholar) in his youth.
    • Payeik Kyee Pali Theik Kha
      The book discusses Pali terms, phrases & grammar.
    Payeik Kyee Pali Theik Kha
    • For a comprehensive treatment on Protective Verses, refer to the epic work by “Thabyekan Sayadaw”
      and a treatise by U Jotalankara (Dhammanda Vihara, Half Moon Bay, California, USA).

  • Dhamma Books

    by Hla Min

    Updated : Mar 2026

    စွန်းလွန်း ဝိပဿနာ
    Sunlun Vipassana

    • မြင်းခြံစွန်းလွန်းဆရာတော် ဦးကဝိ
      Myingyan Sunlun Sayadaw U Kavi
    • ကမ္ဘာအေးစွန်းလွန်းဆရာတော် ဦးဝိနယ
      Kaba Aye Sunlun Sayadaw U Vinaya

    လယ်တီ ဆရာတော်
    Dhamma Lineage of Ledi Sayadaw

    • ဆရာ သက်
      Saya Thet
    • ဆရာ ဦးဘခင်
      Saya U Ba Khin
    • S N ဂိုအင်ဂါ
      S N Goenka

    ပဏ္ဍိတရာမ ဆရာတော်
    Dhamma Lineage of Panditarama Sayadaw

    • Sayadaw U Pandita
    • ဦးပညာဒီပ (ဘီးလင်း) — နာယက ဆရာတော်
      U Pannadipa (Beelin) – – Patron

    ဓမ္မဘေရီ အရှင်ဝီရိယ (တောင်စွန်း)
    Dhammaberi Ashin Viriya (Taung Soon)

    ရုပ်စုံ ဗုဒ္ဓ သာသနာဝင်
    The Illustrated History of Buddhism

    • မဟာဂန္ဓာရုံဆရာတော် ဦးဇနကာဘိဝံသ
      Author : Mahagandayone Sayadaw U Janakabhivamsa
    • ပန်းချီဆရာ ဦးဗကြည်
      Illustrator : Saya U Ba Kyi
    • Reprint : ဦးသီလာနန္ဒာဘိဝံသ နဲ့ အလှူရှင်များ
      Reprint : Sayadaw U Silanandabhivamsa and Devotees / Donors

    Mahagandayone Sayadaw

    U Silananda

    U Silananda

  • Vinaya

    by Hla Min

    Updated : Feb 2026

    Training Rules

    • The Viniya (monastic rules of conduct) describes 227 rules.
    • The offenses range from irremediable, heavy, to light.

    4 Parajika (Irremediable) Offenses

    They are heavy offenses for which there is no remedy.

    • Sexual act
    • Stealing
    • Killing any human being
    • False statement about supernormal attainment

    The penalty is ex-communication from the Sangha of monks.

    13 Samghadiesa (Heavy) Offenses

    • Heavy offense that must be dealt by Sangha meetings
    • Must undergo probation and penance imposed by the Sangha to receive rehabilitation

    Light Offenses

    2 Indefinite rules

    • No fixed penalties for the transgressions
    • However, there are procedures by which the Sangha may assess appropriate punishment

    30 rules entailing expiation with forfeiture

    • forfeit something as a penalty

    92 rules entailing expiation [without forfeiture]

    4 rules entailing confession

    75 monastic rules of discipline

    • minor precepts regulating the conduct of the novice or the monk
    • mode of dress, deportment, eating, …

    7 dispute-settlements

    Posts

    • Abhidhamma အဘိဓမ္မာ
    • Buddhist Council သံဂါယနာ
    • Sutta သုတ္တန်
    • Tipitaka တိပိဋက
    • Vinaya ဝိနည်း

  • Monastic Exams & Awards

    by Hla Min

    Updated : Feb 2026

    Exams taken by most monks and/or novices

    • Pathama Nge ပထမ ငယ် : Lower grade
    • Pathama Latt ပထမ လတ် : Middle grade
    • Pathama Gyi ပထမ ကြီး : Higher grade
    • Dhammacariya ဓမ္မာ စရိယ : Dhamma teacher (e.g. Sasanadhaja Dhammacariya)

    Awards & Titles

    • Pathama Kyaw ပထမ ကျော် : First in the Pathama pyan examination
    • Alankara အလင်္ကာရ : Completed the Lanakra examination as a novice
    • Thamane Kyaw သာမဏေ ကျော် : First in the Lankara examination
    • Abhivamsa အဘိဝံသ : Completed the Set Kyar Thiha Dhammacariya before the age of 26
    • Wunthaka ဝံ သ က: First in the Dhammacariya examination
    • Thiromani သိ ရော မ ဏိ : Passed all subjects for Dhammacariya in one stroke
    • Pali Paragu ပါ ဠိ ပါ ရ ဂူ : Answered the Dhammacariya examination in Pali

    Tipitaka Exams

    Vinaya

    • Vinaya (oral)
    • Vinya (written)

    Sutta

    • Sutta (oral)
    • Sutta (written)

    Abhidhamma

    • Abhidhamma Part I (oral)
    • Abhidhamma Part I (written)
    • Abhidhamma Part II (oral)
    • Abhidhamma Part II (written)

    Tipitaka Awards & Titles

    • Tipitakadhara တိပိဋကဓရ Bearer of the Tipitaka (‘recitation or oral’)
    • Tipitakadhara Tipitakakawida : တိပိဋကဓရ တိပိဋကကောဝိဓ Bearer of the Tipitaka (‘oral’ and written’)
    • Tipitakadhara Dhammabhandagarika : တိပိဋကဓရ ဓမ္မ ဘဏ္ဍာ ကာရိက Keeper of the Dhamma Treasure
    Tipitaka Sayadaw

  • Metta (Talk)

    by Hla Min

    Updated : Aug 2025

    Video Broadcast on January 10, 2021

    Four 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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    Buddhist Dictionary

  • Karuna, Mudita, Uppekha (Talk)

    Karuna, Mudita, Uppekha (Talk)

    by Hla Min

    Updated : Aug 2025

    Video Broadcast on January 11, 2021

    Four Byamaso Taya

    • Metta
      Unbounded Love / Loving Kindness
    • Karuna
      Compassion
    • Mudita
      Altruistic Joy or Sympathetic Joy
    • Uppekkha
      Equanimity

    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
  • Dhammapada

    Dhammapada

    by Hla Min

    Updated : June 2025

    Prelude

    • Collection of Pali verses (that refer to Buddha’s teachings).
    • Translated by several Pal Scholars.
    • Some Dhammapada books also cover short stories related to the verses.

    Narada Thera

    This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is dhammapada-3.jpg
    • The Dhammapada
    • Subtitle: Pali text & translation with stories & notes
    • Author : Narada Thera
    • Preface

    Chapters

    • The Twin Verses
    • Heedfulness
    • Mind
    • Flowers
    • Fools
    • The Wise
    • The Worthy
    • Thousands
    • Evil
    • The Rod or Punishment
    • Old Age
    • The Self
    • The World
    • The Buddha
    • Happiness
    • Affection
    • Anger
    • Impurities or Taints
    • The Just or Righteous
    • The Way or the Path
    • Miscellaneous
    • Woeful State
    • The Elephant
    • Craving
    • The Bhikkhu or the Mendicant
    • The Brahmana

    Venerable Buddharakhitta

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    The following verses are from the book by Venerable Buddharakkhita.

    Verse 182

    Hard it is to be born a man;
    hard is the life of mortals.
    Hard is it to gain the opportunity
    of hearing the Sublime Truth,
    and hard to encounter
    is the arising of the Buddhas.

    Verse 183

    To avoid all evil,
    to cultivate good,
    and to cleanse one’s mind —
    this is the teaching of the Buddhas.

    Verse 184

    Enduring patience
    is the highest austerity.
    “Nibbana is supreme,” says the Buddhas.
    He is not a true monk
    who harms another,
    nor a true renunciate
    who oppresses others.

    Myanmar & English

    • U Thittila’s Translation (in Burmese)
    • Venerable Buddharakkhita’s Translation (in English)
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    Frequently Quoted Verse

    • The following Dhammapada verse is frequently quoted by Sayadaws and writers.

    “Not to do any evil, to cultivate good, to purify one’s mind, – this is the Teaching of the Buddhas.”

    • It seems simple (at the basic level), but it also has a deeper meaning (at the metaphysical level).
    • The explanations may refer to Abhidhamma to expound what “kusala” (wholesome deeds) and “akusula” (unwholesome deeds) are.
    • References may also be made to the three “Seikhas” : sila (morality), sammadhi (concentration), and panna (wisdom).
    • Bhavana practices such as samatha (tranquility meditation) and vipassana (insight meditation) are needed to calm and purify the mind.

    U Lokanatha – Italian Buddhist Monk (1897-1966)

    U Lokanatha
    • Chemical Analyst in the US
    • Received a book from his supervisor as Christmas present. The book had a chapter on Dhammapada.
      After reading the verses, a deep impulse (which resonated with his scientific inquiring mind) led him to pursue Buddhism & become a Buddhist monk.
    • He was from a devout Catholic family. His elder brother was a Priest.
    • Sayadaw spent considerable time at the Bawdigone monastery (donated by my paternal grandmother) on Windermere Road, Rangoon, Burma.
    • He practiced Dhutanga.
    • He also preached. Sunlun U Vinaya was interpreter for some of the talks.
    • Dhamma Dhuta missions to India and Ceylon
    • His booklet, “Why I became a Buddhist”, had considerable influence on the leader of the “Untouchables” in India.
    • His dhamma duta work can be found in the articles in Wikipedia and some Buddhist web sites.
  • Visuddhimaggarasa

    Visuddhimaggarasa

    by Hla Min

    Updated : June 2025

    Vissudimagga

    ဝိသုဒ္ဓိမဂ္ဂ

    • The Path of Purification
    • Translated from Pali into English by Bhikkhu Nyanamoli

    Vissudimaggasara

    ဝိသုဒ္ဓိမဂ္ဂသာရ

    • The Essence of the Path of Purification
    • It is an abridged version of Vissudimagga
    • By Dr. Ottara Nyana

    THE PATH OF PURIFICATION

    • Vissudhimaggarasa
    • An abridged edition of Bhikku Nyanamoli’s translation by :
    • Dr. Ottara Nyana
    • Head of the Birmingham Buddhist Vihara, UK
    • Publisher : Triple Gems Publication
    • First edition : 2011
    • PART I : VIRTUE (Sila)
    • Chapters 1 – 2
    • PART II : CONCENTRATION (Samadhi)
    • Chapters 3 – 13
    • PART III : UNDERSTANDING (Panna)
    • Chapters 14 – 23
    • Index

    Posts

    • Buddhism
    • Dhamma Books
    • Pali
    • Sayadaws