Yangon: Meditating at a Monastery

While in Bangkok with our friends Paul and Julie, we were able to get meditation visas for Burma. So we flew back to Yangon and went to the Shwe Oo Min Monastery. We are shown here with travel agent Kalayar who became a friend during our cycling trip in Burma.



Shwe Oo Min was an accomplished Buddhist monk and scholar who learned from the Burmese teacher Mahasi Sayadaw. Several of our US meditation teachers also studied with Mahasi Sayadaw, and we wanted to "go to the source" in Burma. Shwe Oo Min built this monastery in the early 1990s. When he died in 2002, his kuti (the small hut where he lived) was turned into a memorial hall covered with photos and a life sized statue of him.



We practiced seated meditation in the meditation hall for about six hours each day. On the first floor are the women and nuns.



This is the altar on the second floor where the monks and lay men meditate.



The empty hall shows the mosquito nets. It works well to sit under a net while meditating.





Our beds were also under mosquito nets. We had very basic but adequate accommodations.



During the cool season there are lots of foreigners who come to the monastery. People can stay for up to three months.



The head of meditation at the monastery now is Sayadaw U Tejaniya. He has written a number of helpful books and gives guidance to the lay practitioners. One of his roles is to lead the morning alms rounds. He is at the front of the line of monks who are preparing to leave the monastery.



Here Sayadaw U Tejaniya is touching the offerings of food, which shows he is accepting them and blessing the givers.





It's very important to the Buddhist Burmese people that they give food to monks. They believe this practice of generosity earns them merit.







Everyone is barefoot to show their humbleness and respect for Buddhist tenets.



It was moving to see how sincere and focused the children were as they gave food to the monks. The yellow color on their faces is thanaka, a natural sunscreen









This boy stood on a stool so he would be high enough to reach the monks' bowls. This made both Sayadaw U Tejaniya and the boy laugh.



The man on the left lives at the monastery. He is handing out candy to the kids.





Nuns from a nearby monastery also give rice to the monks. The rice has just been cooked, so it is still hot as it is put into the bowls.





Once the alms bowls are filled with rice, the monks empty them into a giant pot, which is wheeled back to the monastery.





Some Buddhists offer soup or cooked vegetables to the monks. This food is put into smaller pots and brought back to the monastery by one of the attendants.





The alms rounds take place near daybreak. It is mostly a quiet affair, providing an opportunity for reflection.





Some of the monks are from outside of Burma. The man at the front of this photo is American.



Here the monks are returning to the monastery and are passing by a new meditation center that is being built by Sayadaw U Tejaniya. The new center will be for international students who want to stay longer than 3 months.



On Christmas morning, a few of the western students waited for the monks to return to the monastery and gave them special treats.



And some students from France and Vietnam gave the monks milk and honey drinks. We were told that this is a very rich and delicious treat.



There are two meals served each day at the monastery. These soup bowls were part of lunch. No one eats after noon, so lunch is the main meal of the day.



Meals are paid for by people who want to offer food to the Buddhist practitioners.



Christmas lunch included cake for dessert.



The dining hall is segregated. The monks eat by themselves upstairs. Downstairs is where the lay practitioners and nuns eat; This area is also segregated, with the nuns in the center and the male and female lay practitioners on either side of the nuns.





After a meal, everyone washed their own dishes.



Connecting the dining hall, the dorm rooms and the meditation hall are wooden covered walkways. This way we could walk barefoot while at the monastery.



There are quite a few dogs and cats that live there too. These little puppies were so cute and fun to play with when they weren't nursing or sleeping.





One afternoon we visited a nearby nunnery and a school. Our guide was Viranani, a US woman who has been a nun in Burma since 2007. We are wearing our monastery outfits which are baggy and long enough to not show our bodies.





Viranani runs an organization called Metta in Action (MIA) which gives financial support to a dozen nunneries and schools in Yangon. This nun is one of four adults who runs a nunnery for 20 children.



Shown here are the novice nuns who live at the nunnery and go to school. At age eighteen each will decide if she wants to continue being a nun or not. The little boy is one of two orphans living here.



This little girl is the other orphan. She is too young to ordain as a novice nun. Once she is old enough to eat only two meals a day, she will have her head shaved and wear robes. We were told that she is eager to become a nun and to go to school, so she can be like the other female novices there.



The nun on the left is running a secular school to educate the local children. MIA makes donations to help support building new classrooms and housing for the teachers.



We had a wonderful experience during our twelve days at Shwe Oo Min Monastery! Next we fly to Hong Kong.

Similan Islands: Dive, Eat, Sleep, Repeat

We had a great experience staying on a Thai scuba diving live aboard boat. We are happy we took our divemaster Alexia's recommendation for Khao Lak Scuba Adventures. Their logo has a picture of a manta ray and the words "dive, eat, sleep, repeat" which pretty much sums up what we did for three days.



We boarded the Manta Queen l boat in the evening and motored overnight in the Andaman Sea to get to the Similan Islands. We awoke in the morning moored near our first dive site. The boat is quite comfortable and is perfectly equipped for scuba diving.



At the bow is Buddha Point. The crew set off fireworks as we left, a traditional way to protect us on our trip.



Similan means nine in Malay, so named because there are nine islands that were originally part of Malaysia. The islands now belong to Thailand and are part of the Similan Islands National Park. This is island 5 and we dove close by at Anita's Reef dive spot.



Before each dive we would have a dive briefing. Here is the dive leader Julian, who is a Spaniard and an outstanding underwater photographer.



There were seven divemasters on the boat and 20 divers. The divemasters took turns giving the briefings, each wearing the hat when it was their turn. Shown here is Enya, our Australian divemaster.



We were lucky to have Enya as divemaster for all our dives. The three of us saw amazing sea creatures and plants.



We used our Go Pro camera to get this shot of us about to jump in for a dive. It was so much fun.



Here's the Manta Queen I from the water. It sure looked huge as it came to pick us up after a dive.



Here's Pete jumping in for a dive.



He's waving after surfacing from the dive.



And here he is back on the boat.



The dive briefings included whiteboard drawings of the dive site. Richelieu Rock was so named by Jaques Costeau because the horseshoe shaped rock formation is covered in purple anenomes and looked like the collar of Cardinal Richelieu's robes.



Pete used his Go Pro to shoot a lot of underwater movies. We haven't had time to pull many still images from the movies. Instead we are including Julian's photos, like this one that shows some of Richelieu Rock's purple anenomes on the right. As you can tell, it was also teeming with life.



The furthest north dive site we visited was Richelieu Rock (which is technically part of Surin National Park). We were happy we got to dive there three times and we saw lots of lionfish on each dive. This Common Lionfish is hunting, using its side fins to sweep prey towards its mouth. Luckily Julian has a zoom on his camera, as the dorsal fins are poisonous.



This well-camophlaged fish is a Devil Scorpionfish - look for the fins. Scorpionfish is also poisonous, so we kept our distance.



The next two photos show the same octopus as it camophlages itself.





This is a close up of a different octopus - it was looking right at us!



This is a school of Chevron Barracudas.



We saw lots of different kinds of eels. These are tiny Garden Eels.



This Giant Moray eel looks like he's ready to bite. We kept our fingers well away from its mouth.



This eel doesn't look as scary since he was a lot smaller.



This is an Emperor Angelfish that was about 17 inches long.



This tiny Boxfish looks like its fins are too small to swim, but it's surprisingly quick.



Nudibranchs are sea slugs, and there are more than 2,000 species. This Ringed Chromodoris Nudibranch was about 1.5 inches, and they can grow to four inches long.



This is a Peacock Mantis, which looks like a cross between a praying mantis and a lobster.



The Tomato Anenomefish loves and protects its anenome. In return the anenome gives the fish shelter. The fish is coated in a mucous to protect it from the anenome's sting.



Ever since seeing manta rays in Indonesia we've hoped for another opportunity to watch these graceful giants. We got lucky on dive seven at Koh Tachai Pinnacle where we saw this manta ray.



Alongside the manta looked like two sharks. We learned after the dive that they are Cobia fish. Cobias frequently travel with rays and sharks, and eat the leftovers of their hosts.



This photo was taken near sunrise. The island is Koh Ban.



Most of the time we were on the boat or scuba diving. But one afternoon we took the dingy over to Honeymoon Beach on island 6 of the Similans.



The sand was so soft and white.



This photo shows the dingy and part of the Manta Queen's salon where we hung out and ate our meals.



There were two cooks who were busy the whole time making food for us.



All too soon we were back at the dock. We had a lovely time.



Next we go back to Yangon, Burma where we will be on a meditation retreat until December 27th. We send our love and best wishes to all of you for a wonderful holiday season!