Dear John, Piya and friends,

I am reading these posts on "Jhana" with awe. It seems like there exist
two groups of people within the Theravada tradition. One advocates
Jhana, while the other advocates Vipassana. This is really new to me,
and I am really interested to know more about it.

In Singapore, there are monks of Thai and Sinhalese traditions teaching
Vipassana too, and there is no known conflict of Vipassana and Jhana. I
don't see why one cannot accomodate the other. Or, is it simply about
sowing disharmony. Please enlighten me on that.


metta,
Yong Peng.

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, libris wrote:

However, I sometimes wonder why the "vipassana" monks of Burma hardly
smile (not in their portraits, anyway). Are they happy? The Buddha is
depicted in the Suttas as gently smiling (showing only a bit of his
teeth).