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Ven. Webu Sayadaw in IMC-Yangon
At the International Meditation Centre in Yangon, preparations for the Sayadaw and his followers were quickly made: their living quarters, robes, the toilet facilities, etc.
The Shin Saw Lu Sayadaw, the Webu Sayadaw’s most devoted disciple and his successor as head of the monastery in Kyauksai, liked to tell the story of how Sayagyi U Ba Khin met them at the train station and enthusiastically began to talk to the Webu Sayadaw about very deep meditation experiences. The Webu Sayadaw smiled and told Sayagyi to wait with these profound subjects until they were at the centre. It was not appropriate to discuss such things in front of people who didn’t understand them.
Ven. Webu Sayadaw was brought to the Centre from the train station in a large car. The people who were there to welcome him took their places on either side of the flight of steps leading to the pagoda and on the pagoda platform. When the car stopped at the bottom of the steps, Sayagyi opened the door himself. After he got out of the car, Ven. Webu Sayadaw looked up at the pagoda, which had recently been gilded and crowned with its hti (parasol). It was shining and sparkling in the sunlight. The Sayadaw stopped at the foot of the steps and raised his hands towards the pagoda in veneration. Only after doing this did he slowly proceed up the steps towards the pagoda platform.
When they arrived at the pagoda platform, Sayagyi raised his joined hands in reverence and indicated the way, then Sayagyi invited the Sayadaw to enter the pagoda through the north cell. The Sayadaw entered the central room. Sayagyi U Ba Khin’s disciples were seated in the cells around the central room and all around the pagoda outside, and they raised their joined hands in respect to the Sayadaw.
Sayagyi then said, “This Dhamma Yaung Chi Ceti is a place where the three Noble Gems of the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Saṅgha can be worshipped and our debt of gratitude to them can be repaid. It is a place that we have established in order that it can be the centre of our teaching of the Paths and the Fruition States to the world, making the qualities of sīla, samādhi, and paññā the basis of our teaching. Venerable Webu Sayadaw has made the journey here to give us the necessary strength and protection and to instruct us. After we take the precepts (sīla) from him, we will fix our minds on the aspects of the Dhamma we have realized, we will pay respects to the Buddha, to Venerable Webu Sayadaw, and to the monks accompanying him. May Sakka, the king of the Devas, the Four Guardians of the World, and all the great Devas descend on this place! May they join us in the highest meritorious deed of paying respects to the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Saṅgha, and may they protect us!”
Everyone then took the triple refuge and the moral precepts from Ven. Webu Sayadaw, and this was followed by everyone paying their respects by meditating for five minutes.
Sayagyi gave a talk, relating how he had first met and paid respects to Ven. Webu Sayadaw in 1941. He said he had started to teach after Webu Sayadaw urged him to do so. Sayagyi spoke of how he had founded the Accountant General’s Vipassanā Research Association and of how he taught meditation to the office staff and to foreigners, who had become Buddhists through this. The site on Inya Myaing Road had been acquired after the Association was well established and the Dhamma Yaung Chi Ceti was built there. The International Meditation Centre was founded at this location in order to spread the Buddha-Dhamma throughout the world.
As Sayagyi spoke, Ven. Webu Sayadaw’s face was lit by a smile. It was obvious from his expression that he was happy with what he heard.
After Sayagyi finished, Ven. Webu Sayadaw said, “The practice of the Great Teacher’s Teachings leads to the appeasing of suffering. You all know this for yourselves. It is very noble to pass one’s own Dhamma on to others. This is the noblest gift of all. You know the gratitude you owe to the Buddha. You practise the Dhamma. This practice is the highest practice. You are all doing noble work in an auspicious place. As a result, you will obtain great benefits. The results of your efforts will be in accordance with the strength of your pāramī. Establish yourselves through the power of effort and continue to practise according to the Buddha’s instructions. In this way you will attain everything that should be attained. We came here in answer to your invitation so that we would not be lacking in repaying our debt to the Buddha, so that we could pay back the debt of gratitude we have to the Buddha. In olden days, those who were wise also worked in this way, being constantly mindful, and they attained their goal. In the same way, Noble Ones today succeed through establishing effort and working hard.”
All those present were delighted and said, “Sādhu, sādhu, sādhu,” with great devotion and joyful voices.
Afterwards, Webu Sayadaw was taken to his quarters in a building that had been set up as a temporary monastery, and all the monks with him were given their own accommodation. At six o’clock in the evening, cold drinks were offered to the Sayadaw and the monks, and after that, the Sayadaw gave a talk to the people who had come from Yangon to pay respects. It was only the following day that a multitude of visitors from all over the city came to the centre. The visitors included former President Sao Shwe Thaik, judges, and government ministers. They all brought offerings of food, robes, and other requisites. Ven. Webu Sayadaw gave three discourses each day to the people who came to pay respects.
In this way, the people of Yangon were able to pay respects to and receive the Teachings from Webu Sayadaw for seven days. They had this opportunity thanks to Sayagyi’s concern, loving kindness, and foresight, and thanks to the efforts of the members of the Vipassanā Association. So the people of Yangon are greatly indebted to them for this.
After the seven days were over, Ven. Webu Sayadaw and the monks accompanying him returned to Kyauksai by plane, taking with them the many gifts offered in Yangon.
When people heard that Ven. Webu Sayadaw had visited the International Meditation Centre, they wanted to have him come to their own villages, towns, and regions. In Yangon, former President Sao Shwe Thaik formed an association that was to organize the Sayadaw’s visits to the capital. They invited him to come in May 1954. While staying at the association’s temporary monastery, Ven. Webu Sayadaw went to I.M.C. on May 1st and meditated with Sayagyi and his disciples in the Dhamma Yaung Chi Ceti. That afternoon, he gave them a talk in the centre’s Dhamma Hall at five o’clock, and they made suitable offerings to him at that time.
After that, Ven. Webu Sayadaw came to Yangon each year at the association’s invitation. He visited I.M.C. again on May 10, 1955; Feb. 21, 1957; and April 5, 1958. On each of these visits he meditated with Sayagyi and his disciples in the Dhamma Yaung Chi Ceti and then gave a talk in the Dhamma Hall. The members of the Vipassanā Association always made an offering of robes and the other requisites for monks.
In 1960, seven years after the Sayadaw’s first visit to I.M.C., Sayagyi sent him the following letter:
The Vipassanā Association
Office of the Accountant General, Yangon, Burma
(The 15th day of the new moon of Natdaw, 1321/Dec. 14, 1959)
Maung Ba Khin respectfully addresses Venerable Webu Sayadaw!
Since the month of Wagaung 1302 (August 1940), when your disciple first met the venerable Sayadaw while on a tour in the service of the Railways Accounts Department, your disciple has undertaken many tasks and duties in the service of the Sāsana, following the venerable Sayadaw’s admonition. The venerable Sayadaw has seen for himself the Dhamma Yaung Chi Ceti and the success of our work at our meditation centre. He has seen the many foreigners from all over the world who have been given the Dhamma by his disciple.
In 1315 (June 1953), the venerable Sayadaw came to the meditation centre in Inya Myaing Road and resided there for exactly seven days. During that time, the Sayadaw gave the cooling medicine of the deathless. The Sayadaw will also remember that, having sown very special seeds for the Sāsana, he began to actively spread the Teachings.
Since that time, over six years ago, the venerable Sayadaw has travelled to many places all over Burma and has benefited beings beyond measure. Your disciples can also say that their work has progressed satisfactorily.
As we are entering the seventh year since the venerable Sayadaw first visited us, your disciple requests that you honour the International Meditation Centre with your presence together with your Saṅgha for a period of ten days for the benefit and development of the Sāsana, for the benefit and development of beings, and in order to bring inspiration. If the Sayadaw wishes to come, everything will be according to the Sayadaw’s wishes.
The Sayadaw’s disciples, who are full of hope, respectfully request the Sayadaw to come to I.M.C. for ten days, for this meditation centre is very dear to the Sayadaw, who, out of great compassion and great loving kindness, strives to make the Sāsana continue to grow. If he should come, the disciples under his protection and guidance, both monks and lay people, will have an opportunity to savour the extraordinary taste of the Dhamma (Dhamma-rasa). Therefore, your disciples earnestly and humbly request the Sayadaw to favour us with his visit.
Maung Ba Khin
The International Meditation Centre
Inya Myaing Road, Yangon
Ven. Webu Sayadaw was not able to reside at the centre for ten days, however, as he had accepted other invitations. But he did come for five days (May 13–18, 1960). Once again, those at the centre were able to pay respects to the Sayadaw as they had done before. There was also an American, Dr Hislop, at the centre at that time. He had been meditating there for nearly a month and was able to continue while Ven. Webu Sayadaw was there. Dr Hislop took the Triple Refuge from the Sayadaw. Ven. Webu Sayadaw was very happy about this and urged Sayagyi to teach more foreigners. On the last day of his visit, he made this the main topic of his talk. “I also started teaching at this place,” he said over and over again.
After 1960, no special invitations were extended to the Sayadaw to come and reside at I.M.C., but the meditators there always went to pay their respects to him whenever he came to Yangon. In this way, Ven. Webu Sayadaw continued to encourage Sayagyi’s international mission of spreading the Dhamma.
