Question: Sayadaw! It has been few of us coming to the meditation night on the last night of the year that you had took us to the cemetery. We hope to get a little bit of what you’ve been teaching in Burmeres during that night. I think it’s probably connected with death, right?

“Most of the people here are afraid of death. So they don’t want to go to the cemetery. Only when one of their family member dies, they will go to the cemetery. And If they don’t meditate, they can’t control their feelings. So they feel sad. They can’t accept losing their life. Here in this country, we have a strong attachment of our belongings. We also have strong attachment of our family members. Therefore, we don’t want to lose each other. The cemetery is the place for the dead body, where destroys the body which we love very much, Because of strong attachments of our life and belongings. We afraid of death and losing our belongings. To solve that problem, I have to go to the cemetery to practice meditation, to do good deeds by sharing our merits. By doing this, people are changing their view as [there is] the place to do what is good. The more we meditate at the cemetery, the more we are familiar with the cemetery but for meditation, not for funeral. If we don’t meditate at the cemetery, it is difficult to not being afraid of the cemetery and dead body. Only when we meditate at the cemetery, we can control our fears, worries, sorrows… because of the power of meditation on mindfulness and detachment.

It’s really effective. Meditation is necessary in everywhere. In this way we can detach from the places. I often teach at hospitals. In this way, the patients can detach from the diseases, they can endure sickness, old aged. Meditation is useful for everyone. It can solve the problem of both material and mind. The fears of death or cemetery or ghost are serious for most people. In Malaysia and Singapore, we have chance to stay at the cemetery for 2 or 3 weeks by a group of hundreds people. That’s really effective. Even the children can detach from the fear of death and cemetery by practising meditation at the cemetery. If we are not doing this, the fears of death and cemetery or ghost are serious. We don’t know how to overcome from that fear but by teaching in anywhere with anyone, we can solve the problem. We can solve many problems which concern with the mind and material. Meditation at the cemetery is one of the biggest good deeds we can do for all.

Beside we can also guide the other unseen beings. At the cemetery, there are living beings which are unseen. Not human beings, they are living beings but they can not do good deeds by themselves. They are in need of help because of their atachments . So by doing good deeds at the cemetery, we can share our merits to those unseen beings. In this way, they can also get benefits to change their life. They can get a better life because of doing good deeds at the cemetery and sharing the merits. Meditation is really powerful, it can solve even the greatest fear of death, it can solve the attachments from ourselves, our jobs, our family . The more we meditate, the more the mind will be free and powerful. So in this way, nothing is difficult for us. We can get what we want. We can be safe and do many things if we emphasize in meditation. But meditation should be not only for us, but also for the others.

We should emphasize the right view when we mediate. If we are using the wrong view, meditation is not very effective. Most of my teachings are about the truth or right view. The more you listen, the more you can have the right view. In this way, the more powerful your mind, your life will be.”