Re: June Retreat with Sayadaw U Thitzana

Wow, what a story of strong determination, but of patience too.
Jim, thank you for sharing this with us.

Best wishes for your retreat and lot of Metta
Branko



________________________________
  From: Jim Anderson <jimanderson_on@...>
To: palistudy@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2012 11:39 AM
Subject: [palistudy] June Retreat with Sayadaw U Thitzana


 
Dear List-members,

A Theravada retreat for June 15-24, 2012 with Sayadaw U Thitzana has now
been officially announced by the Dharma Centre of Canada and to be held near
Kinmount, in central Ontario. Details can be found on their website at the
following URL:

http://www.dharmacentre.org/programs/bringing-out-sparkle

Needless to say, I'm very much involved as the main organizer and the one
who first suggested the idea of having such a retreat to the Dharma Centre
in October 2010 following the Sayadaw's earlier visit in August of the same
year to see me while he was in Montreal.

Most of my involvement with the Dharma Centre occurred on and off from 1979
to 1992. The Centre was founded in the mid-1960s by the late Namgyal
Rinpoche formerly known as Ananda Bodhi, a bhikkhu who trained under Sayadaw
U Thilawuntha, the Burmese pagoda-builder. In the early 1960s Ananda Bodhi
was supported by the English Sangha Trust and was instrumental in helping
the Tibetan lamas establish a base in the UK with Samye-Ling in southern
Scotland. It was in 1982 at the Dharma Centre when I first met U Thitzana
the young Burmese monk who accompanied Namgyal Rinpoche's teacher. I had
began studying Pali in 1976 and in 1982 upon meeting this monk, I was so
impressed by his Pali learning that I couldn't help but invite him to teach
me Pali and help me learn the Tipitaka to which he immediately accepted but
I'd have to wait for another five years until after he'd finished his
studies in Yangon. That opporutnity came but I was simply in no condition to
take on the big responsibility of bringing him back to Canada and supporting
him on my own and couldn't rely on the Dharma Centre to help in view of the
dominance of the Vajrayana there. It is only now that my original 1982
invitation is finally coming to be realized.

U Thitzana is in Singapore preparing his comprehensive grammar of Pali for
publication by the Ministry of Religious Affairs in Myanmar. It's in Burmese
but he plans to translate it into English.

Best wishes,

Jim Anderson




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]