Most Venerable Upajjhāya Aggamahāpandita
Bhaddanta Rewata Dhamma,
Venerable Members of the Mahā Sangha,
Respected Dāyakas, Ladies and Gentlemen.
What we are experiencing today is a peak in the development of the European Sangha. After 35 years systematically preparing the conditions for this, I am indeed happy to have brought about higher ordination for four chosen European sāmaneras here at the world’s best Theravāda monastery. These new monks have for years studied the Dhamma as laymen and thereafter, as sāmaneras, they learned the monastic discipline in the forest monasteries of Sri Lanka. They come to Myanmar for further training in order to get all necessary competence for their future Dhammadūta work in Europe.
There were European monks ordained in the traditional Theravāda countries from the very start of the 20th century. For example, my teacher Ven. Nyānaponika was ordained in Sri Lanka 1937 and his teacher Ven. Nyānatiloka was ordained in Myanmar in 1902. They were then the only two European monks participating as full members of the Chattha Sangayāna in 1954–1956. Many other monks were ordained for shorter periods. Nevertheless, what we are witnessing here today is an event special in a particular way that I want to explain in more detail.
I first came across Mahāsi Sayadaw’s name 35 years ago in Bodhgaya. At the end of my meditation training there, in November 1967, my teacher Sri Anagārika Munindra gave me a book by the Sayadaw. It was partly in order to answer my questions about the origin of the meditation method in which I and a friend of mine had been instructed. In fact we had been taught two different methods, both leading to similar stages in the progress of insight. I was being led to insight through high concentration on breathing (ānāpāna–jhāna), which had been till that time my main practice. My friend was taught to observe the movements of the abdomen. Our teacher’s analysis of the progress of insight on both these ways of meditation had impressed me so much that I wanted to go to study further with Mahāsi Sayadaw in Myanmar. Instead Sri Munindra asked me to go to Europe and start teaching the Mahāsi method of Satipatthāna–Vipassanā there.
Starting from 1971, Ven. Nyānaponika Mahāthera and I taught the Mahāsi method in short meditation courses every summer in Switzerland. As I was then working as a psychotherapist and a psychology professor at Berne University, most of our pupils were themselves doctors and psychologists. We were also considering what had to be done to create the necessary conditions for the prolonged sojourn of monks in Europe. Yet it took some years still before the visit of Mahāsi Sayadaw to Europe could be realized.
In 1975, after a longer meditation retreat with Ven. Nyānaponika in Sri Lanka, I went to Yangon to see the Most Venerable U Sobhana, the Mahāsi Sayadaw, for the first time. Before that I had visited Sri Munindra in Bodh–Gaya and he introduced me to another senior pupil of Mahāsi Sayadaw living in Benares, the Ven. Sayadaw Dr. Rewata Dhamma. Thus I have enjoyed since that time the best support of three excellent disciples of Mahāsi Sayadaw: Sri Munindra, Ven. Nyānaponika, Ven. Rewata Dhamma.
The Most Venerable Mahāsi Sayadaw questioned me closely about my meditation experience during my retreats with Sri Munindra in 1967 and with Ven. Nyānaponika in 1975. He listened intently to all that was translated for him sentence by sentence. He also answered my questions about the four types of combining samatha and vipassanā, as cited in the Catuka–Nipāta of the Anguttara–Nikāya. And I was very happy to hear from the Most Venerable that he accepted my invitation to come to Switzerland.
The time for it became ripe in 1979. Ven. Sayadaw Rewata Dhamma informed me that Mahāsi Sayadaw had also accepted an invitation to America, financed by the pupils of Sri Munindra there. From America he would proceed to England and then to Switzerland, before sightseeing trips to the other European countries. With the help of Ven. Nyānaponika, we contacted all the European Buddhists groups but found none interested in Satipatthāna–Vipassanā meditation. Only some individuals invited Mahāsi Sayadaw for short visits to the Netherlands, France, and Italy.
The Sayadaw’s program included three main items in Switzerland and several short sightseeing trips. These were to the snow–covered mountains and to several historical towns, as well as visiting the UN area in Geneva and meeting members of the Myanmar community at their Embassy there. The three main items were a two–week meditation course, a public meditation session and the lecture at the University of Zürich.
The Satipatthāna–Vipassanā course at Mont–Soleil in the Swiss Jura Mountains was the only one ever conducted by the Most Venerable Mahāsi Sayadaw in Europe. However, due to the health problems that arose while visiting France, our Most Venerable Teacher was delayed a few days. That is why the yogis started their meditation with instruction by Dr. Mirko Frýba. During the second week, the individual interviews were conducted by Mahāsi Sayadaw and translated by Venerable Sayadaw U Rewata Dhamma. The group interviews were conducted by Venerable Sayadaw U Janaka and translated by Dr. Frýba. At the end of this meditation course, the participants and guests offered alms to the monks at a bigger hotel near the Mont–Soleil meditation house. This whole event was organized by the Dhamma Group of Switzerland, which I had founded in October 1977. Courses in the Mahāsi tradition continued to be organized by this Dhamma Group till my leaving for Sri Lanka in 1983.
After the Most Venerable Mahāsi Sayadaw’s passing away, Venerable Sayadaw U Rewata Dhamma was the doyen of the Mahāsi tradition in Europe. I stayed in contact with him during the 1980s while living near my other teacher, Ven. Nyānaponika Mahāthera, in Sri Lanka. In Switzerland it seemed at first that the Mahāsi tradition would continue without my further help and I therefore devoted my energies to preparing the conditions for the systematic training of European monks in Sri Lanka. When the Central European countries became liberated from Soviet rule, Ven. Nyānaponika asked me to start Dhammadūta in Czechoslovakia because I know the language. Thus I conducted the very first Satipatthāna–Vipassanā retreat in the Mahāsi style near the Czech capital of Prague in November 1990.
Sayadaw Rewata Dhamma gave me his full support in my work in Czechoslovakia. The result of this is now before your eyes. You see here five pupils of the Āyukusala Central European Sangha, four of them having just obtained higher ordination in the Mahāsi Paramparā today. Another four Czech and Slovak monks are at present living in Sri Lanka. All are under the protection of the International Buddhist Foundation, now based in Brno, which operates under the patronage of Aggamahāpandita Bhaddanta Rewata Dhamma.
Allow me now, on closing this Anumodana, to express my thanks to the Most Venerable Sayadaw Dr. Rewata Dhamma who has acted today as the Upajjhāya of Mahāsi Paramparā. Our gratitude is due to all the other Sayadaws present here too. Ven. Sayadaw U Eindaka was especially helpful as the organizer of this auspicious event. We very much appreciate the guidance given to us by Ven. Sayadaw Dr. Sunanda and Ven. Sayadaw U Varasami, which we have enjoyed since our arrival at the Mahāsi Ŝāsana Yeiktha. We thank Ven. Sayadaw U Aggasami, whose help began from the moment of our arrival at the airport. We highly value the support of U Tin Wan, the president, U Win Htain, the vice president, and Dr. Kyaw Myint, the head of the foreign department of the Mahāsi Sāsana Nuggaha organization.
The greatest contribution towards organizing our way to Mahāsi Sāsana Yeiktha, as well as for preparing this auspicious event of Upasampadā, was given by Dr. Mar Mar Lwin from Birmingham. Her sister Daw Phyu Phyu Maw has taken care of all here in Yangon on her behalf. Thus this family, headed by their father U Win Sein, deserves our great appreciation and accrues great merit.
Sādhu, Sādhu, Sādhu!
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