HlaMin

Category: Buddhism

Sayadaws, Suttas, Terms

  • 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
  • U Lokanatha

    U Lokanatha

    by Hla Min

    Updated : June 2025

    ဦးလောကနာထ Venerable U Lokanatha

    ** အီတာလျံ-အမေရိကန် ဘုန်းတော်ကြီး Italian-American monk

    * (ယခင်)

    USA မှာ Chemist

    ခရစ်စမတ် အတွက် supervisor ထံ မှ စာအုပ်တအုပ် လက်ဆောင် ရ Received a book as Christmas present from his supervisor

    ဓမ္မပဒ Chapter ဖတ်ပြီး နောက် ရဟန်းဝတ် ဘို့ ဆုံးဖြတ် After reading the chapter on Dhammapada, he decided to become a monk

    * မြန်မာပြည်၊ အိန္ဒိယ နဲ့ သီဟိုဠ် မှာ သာသနာပြု He did Sasana work in Burma, India and Ceylon

    * မေမြို့ မှာ ပျံလွန် He passed away in Maymyo

  • Process of Consciousness and Matter

    by Hla Min

    Updated : June 2025

    Subtitle : The Philosophical Psychology of Buddhism

    By Sayadaw Rewata Dhamma

    Completed : 2004

    Last book by Sayadaw

    Publisher: Triple Gems Publication

    The book is intended for all serious students of the Abhidhamma.

    It serves as supplement to Bhikkhu Bodhi’s book “A Comprehensive Manual of Abhidhamma”, and treats various important aspect in more detail – in articular the process of consciousness and matter.

    Preface by Sayadaw U Silanandabhivama, Rector of the International Theravada Buddhist Missionary University, Yangon

    Acknowledgement by Sayadaw Dr. Ottaranyana, Birmingham Buddhist Vihara, UK

    Introduction

    Chapter I : CONSCIOUSNESS AND ITS FACTORS

    CHAPTER II : PROCESS CONSIOUSNESS (CITTA VITHI)

    CHAPTER III : MIND-DOOR COGNITIVE PROCESS (MANODVARA VITHI)

    CHAPTER IV : ABSORPTION JAVANA IN THE MIND-DOOR PROCESS (APPANA JAVANAVARA MANODVARA VITHI)

    CHAPTER V : PROCESS OF MATTER

  • TMC

    Sayadaw U Silanandabhivamsa gave a talk “The ten meanings of Tatagatha” at the Tathagata Meditation Center (TMC) at 1215, Lucretia Street, San Jose.

    U Silananda

    History and Activities

    For the history and activities of the meditation center, please visit

    http://www.tathagata.org/

    TMC Dining Hall

    • In the dining hall, there is an album about Sayadaw U Silanandabhivamsa’s early years in the US (e.g. meditation retreat at a church, dhamma classes at a Zen Buddhism Temple).
    • There are also photos about the Summer Camp for children and young adults.
    • There are two cabinets of books: one for dhamma dana distribution, and another for sale.

    Newsletter

    • The “Dhamma Bell Newsletter” was edited by volunteers (U Theikdi & Maureen O’Brien).
    • It was published quarterly.
    • It featured dhamma talks given at TMC and also recipes (e.g. vegetarian spring rolls).
  • Neikban

    Neikban

    by Hla Min

    Updated : May 2025

    Neikban Zaw

    Neikban

    • It is the Burmese term for Nibanna (in Pali) and Nirvana (in Sanscrit).
    • It is translated as “Liberation” or “Enlightenment”.
    • Some associations for Dhamma activities are known as “Neikban Zaw Ah Phwe”.
      The volunteers for Dhamma activities often call themselves “Neikban Zaw”.

    Neikban Zaw

    It is the pen name of my beloved spouse. She wrote articles for Dhammananda Newsletter.

    • A Question and an Answer
    • Ko Seik Kyan Mar Yay
    • Wut Hmar Ah Myair Nga Yair Ah Pa
    • Doctor turned patient
    Article by Neikban Zaw
    Article by Neikban Zaw
  • Samvega

    Samvega

    by Hla Min

    Updated : May 2025

    Urgency

    • It is a Pali word meaning “Sense of urgency”. We’ve heard it many times especially when we attended the last journey of our loved ones.
    • We feel the pain even when the dearly departed are in their 80s. The pain grows when we learn that someone young (not so old) had passed away.
    • We feel shocked and upset when we hear about the untimely demise. My cousin nephew Dr. Peter Tun warned about lack of PPE, but he succumbed to Covid.

    Gone But Not Forgotten (GBNF)

    • The list of GBNF for RIT 69ers is now 128. About 40% of our classmates are no longer with us. Covid claimed about 20.
    • U Sein Win (Win Kyaw, C69) was an expert in Palmistry. His spouse is a professional Palmist. Not sure whether he knew his life span, but he is GBNF.
    • U Myint Sein was a former classmate at PPBRS. He was Principal of BARB. He later founded Idea Astrology. Not sure whether he informed his spouse and son about his life span or his sudden demise, but he is also GBNF.
    • My uncle was sent as a state scholar to Japan during the Second World War. He was in Hiroshima & Nagasaki before both cities were ravaged by the Atomic Bombs. He was lucky. His luck ran out when he was sentenced to seven years by a kangaroo court during the Adhamma Era. The UN Human Rights Rapporteur pleaded with the government to release him. Sadly, he passed away early (because of the harsh environment & treatment). His siblings all lived to be 80+ years. The eldest sister lived to be 94.

    Dr. Khin Tun (Peter)

    Dr. Peter Tun
    • He is the elder son of my cousin U Tin U. He became one of the early doctors in UK to fall victim to COVID-19. He is an MRCP and a former Associate Dean of Oxford University. He at the Royal Berkshire Hospital. His ward needed PPE, but he was told that they would be supplied when there is a case. He replied, “It would be too late”. Sad to say, he passed away on April 12, 2020. Could his life been saved?
    • The news shocked not just his immediately family, but many around the world. BBC and the newspapers in UK have reported several heroes who died in the battle fighting COVID-19.
    • Should Samvega sink in?
  • A Book Changed His Life

    A Book Changed His Life

    by Hla Min

    Updated : May 2025

    U Lokanatha
    • It amazes us that books (and even a book chapter) can change a person’s life.
    • Salvatore Cioffi was working as a Chemist in the USA.
    • He was from a devout Catholic family, and his elder brother was a Priest.
    • He received a book present from his supervisor for Christmas.
    • One of the chapters was “Dhammapada“. After reading the chapter, Samvegha crept in. He quit his job and then went on pilgrimage to the places sacred to Buddhism.
    • In 1925, he was ordained in Burma as a Buddhist monk named “U Lokanatha“.
    • He published a booklet, “Why I became a Buddhist.” He wrote, “I became a Buddhist. My supervisor remained a Christian.”
    • My maternal grand mother offered a monastery for U Lokanatha in Bawdigone (Windermere, Rangoon).
    • U Lokanatha practiced Dhutanga.
    • He also preached and had Dhamma Dhuta missions to India and Ceylon.
    • Sayadaw gave dhamma talks in Mandalay and Maymyo.
      Dr. Soni was a principal supporter.
    • He paid respect to Myingyan Sun Lun Gu Kyaung Sayadaw.
      The event is described in “Sun Lun Sayadaw’s Biography“.
    • He corresponded with B. R. Ambedkar, the Indian Dalit (“untouchables”) leader.
    • Sayadaw passed away in Maymyo on May 25, 1966.
  • Neikban & Neikban Zaw

    Neikban & Neikban Zaw

    by Hla Min

    Updated : May 2025

    Neikban

    • Neikban is the Burmese term for Nibanna (in Pali) and Nirvana (in Sanscrit).
    • It is rendered as “Liberation” or “Enlightenment”.

    Neikban Zaw

    Neikban Zaw
    • It is the pen name of my beloved spouse. She wrote articles for the Dhammananda Newsletter. I have re-posted some of them.
    • Some volunteers for Dhamma activities also call themselves “Neikban Zaw”.
    • Some associations for Dhamma activities may be called “Neikban Zaw Ah Phwe”.