Meeting with Ven. Ashin Thitzana

Dear Members,

I'm now back from my train trip to Montreal and my meeting with U Thitzana
whom I hadn't seen since 1982.  I had received an email message from him on
Jan. 17 informing me of his upcoming visit and his wish to see me. I was
fortunate to find someone from Toronto to accompany me as my guide and
interpreter. With a significant hearing loss and very poor eyesight it would
have been doubly difficult for me to undertake such a trip alone without
some assistance in such situations as navigating through the subway systems
of Toronto and Montreal during the rush hours. The last time I was in
downtown Montreal was in 1978 on my return from a month long meditation
retreat at IMS in Barre, MA (in the States). In those days I was much more
capable of travelling alone, and even hitch-hiking or cycling on major
highways, e.g., I cycled across Canada to BC in 1971 and again through the
Adirondacks in upper NY state in 1979.

On Feb. 5, we arrived late in the middle of the afternoon at the Montreal
train station and about an hour later, after a meal at a restaurant in the
station, proceeded to make our way to the Pannarama Meditation Center in
Laval just north of Montreal where we were to meet U Thitzana. Two men from
the centre met us at a certain subway station and drove us the rest of the
way. The centre was founded by the Vietnamese monk, Ven. Aggasami, and is
located in a rural area and on the river. Although there are a number of
buildings on the premises, we were only in one of them, presumably, the main
one. This was where we met U Thitzana, slept, ate, and attended two of his
Dhamma talks in the shrine room upstairs. I could smell the incense as soon
as we walked into the building. We were seated at a round table to be soon
greeted by U Thitzana. We talked for maybe an hour during which time tea was
served and U Thitzana went and got Ven. Aggasami to come and meet us.

U Thitzana was giving two two-hour Dhamma talks per day until the start of
the 9-day Vipassanaa retreat on Sat. Feb. 9 which he is now leading. My
guide and I stayed one night at the centre and left at 4:00 PM the following
day after the afternoon Dhamma talk to return to Toronto by train. The theme
of the first talk we attended was: the benefits of a spiritual life, and the
second: samatha and vipassanaa. U Thitzana would give these talks in English
with a woman translating them into Vietnamese to a small audience of about a
dozen, most of whom were Vietnamese. The sound of her translation was quite
pleasant to listen to. I had a lot of contact with U Thitzana who made us
feel very special and welcome. The hospitality and the Vietnamese food was
excellent and everyone was very friendly and some took pictures of us
with U Thitzana. We had some interesting discussions about Pali and
Kaccaayana's grammar and he even gave me some help with Kacc 10 which I will
write about in another message. He says you can learn Pali much more quickly
with a good Pali teacher. Typically, it takes two years to learn Kaccaayana
but a bright student could learn it in one year. He is currently writing a
Pali grammar for Burmese students which he hopes to have translated into
English for English-speaking students. I have offered to help with the
proofreading.

All in all, I think the trip was a great success and some good things could
come out of it in the future such as meeting U Thitzana again, perhaps in
Toronto, and some more Pali lessons too. He will soon be heading to India
for a long stay and then on to Singapore to teach some Abhidhamma. He's 57,
about 3 years younger than myself.

Best wishes,
Jim

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