Practice makes complete. Practice makes perfect. That is true. It is difficult to be perfect and complete without enough practice. That is the difference between me and the others, Thabarwa centers and the other organizations. I don’t emphasize meditation because it is difficult to understand. Thabarwa center is one of the organizations but there are many kinds of good deeds by many people who are always busy in Thabarwa center – Thanlyin. I don’t mention the other Thabarwa centers and I emphasize Thanlyin – the main center. I emphasize only the other organizations like government staves, government affairs institutions, business companies, education institutions, and hospitals. I emphasize especially the groups or organizations which are common in society because I emphasize in daily meditation and meditation daily life. In the present conditions, I emphasize more in daily activities and less in meditation retreat like this. Because of the changing conditions of the country – Myanmar. Especially I am busy with teaching all the time and also studying education, business, healthcare… Because I have to establish monastic schools, Dhamma hospitals, Merit banks, and Goodwill village, animal shelters… That’s why comparing with other meditation centers we cannot emphasize meditation retreat. What I understand practicing meditation is more than what people understand. That’s why if I emphasize meditation retreat only, I will not have time to do the other things which are also in great need of help. All these conditions make me overloaded like traffic jams in doing good deeds seriously.

As I had run my own business within 7 years, because of doing my home business seriously, my life had changed. I have the ability to do and I am not afraid of doing. Before I was not practical although I graduated from university. Because education in the country emphasizes mostly in theory, not practical. That’s why although I had graduated I didn’t have the ability to do something accurately. Because of my own business and living with my family for goods; before when I left my parents I decided not to go back whatever happens. That is also really difficult to make a decision like that. Because in society we have to rely on our family with strong attachments. We don’t know the side effects of living in a family with strong attachments. Only when I can destroy that attachment, I am able to rely on myself fully. Relying on someone is not the best and relying on ourselves is better than the others. But most of the people in Asia are not understand. In Asia, they cannot detach from their family. Because of facing problems every day with my parents, it made me decide. It is better to stay away rather than together with anger, it is right to do. Because of the right decisions and right actions, I had a chance to rely on myself at the age of 33. That made me able to do many things. Because of not staying at home I was free and I was able to make a decision by myself. If I made mistakes, I need to take responsibility only for me. That’s why I needed to be careful not to make mistakes although I was very busy.

In my business, I had to use money all the time, so it made me skillful to use money in the best way to get profit. We must be able to stay together with our family and our friends, with the other members of our organization. Besides, we must be able to depart, to leave our family, and to leave our organization. If we cannot leave them, we cannot detach. That attachment is the cause of problems and suffering. Because I meditate, I can successfully to leave my family and my parents. That makes me detach because of having the ability to leave parents, places, belongings. It is easy to let go and to abandon. If we don’t practice like this, we cannot let go and abandon. Because being able to let go of my parents, I can rely on myself fully. No one can control me and I can do the business as much as I want. That made me practical. That made me a real businessman, a professional in the business. There are also many problems and difficulties. I had to stay for about one month at the police station because of selling the fireworks illegally. That was one of the problems because of making my business freely. That was also one of the car accident and the driver was unable to afford his mistake. I had to pay for the owner of the other cars. And then I had to repair my car by myself. It costs a lot at that time.

But there were also many benefits, I can buy an apartment and run a stable business group by myself with the support of my friends. And then I thought highly of myself, I was unable to control my anger that made me problems in my business. Because of facing problems and difficulties which I was unable to solve, I had a chance to rely on Buddha – Dhamma – Sangha. When I had a chance to meditate, I have to try again and became a real meditator because I had the ability to do professionally. I changed my business skill to practice meditation. That’s why I can practice more than the tradition. I can practice freely and no need to think of anything, anyone.

This was the same when I did my own business, but business and doing good deeds are quite different. When I practiced more and more; my parents, my relatives, my friends have tried to stop me. They thought I was in the wrong way. They didn’t understand that meditation is practicing like this and they didn’t know that meditation needs to be practice seriously like this. That’s why they can not accept it. At that time I had to make a decision again that I lost my parents and my friends or whether I lost my practice which is concerned Buddha – Dhamma – Sangha. But I had the ability to lose my family, that’s why I made a decision again. I hadn’t to listen to them, I had listened to only Buddha – Dhamma – Sangha. That correct my traditional mistakes. Most people cannot correct their mistakes. Even if they are practicing meditation and doing good deeds, they cannot detach from themselves and from their family. They cannot detach from the society. That’s why they cannot continue their practice or doing good deeds. By using the power of detachment I can get success and overcome the difficulties by losing them in my mind. If I cannot lose them, I have to lose doing good deeds.

When practicing meditation, I have to lose not only the living beings but also my belongings and my activities. I had to stop thinking to detach from thinking. I had to stop speaking. I had to stop running my business. I had to stop my job. Although I was able to do many things; I was successfully detached from them by doing nothing, except doing good deeds by keeping precepts and the stable and pure mind. That had changed my life. My abilities, my mind had fully changed; because of the practice. If no one cannot practice like this and cannot abandon like this; you are sure not to understand like me, you are not able to do like me. But when I became a monk, I have to to start doing, teaching every morning, going alms round every day, teaching at the houses of who invited me for lunch and teaching at the hospitals. It was really difficult for me, I became like a new person. Because I had the ability to do but I can let go successfully. That’s why I was able to do nothing, but it was difficult to do something. That’s why I had to try again slowly and steadily to be able to do something more and more, but I didn’t emphasize to do by force. If I do so, it makes me tired. I’ve tried to do naturally and I tried to do together with the other people like the Vietnamese. If they haven’t invited me, I would never try to come here. Because of getting invitations, I made the decision to come and teach here. If not, I will never think of doing something by myself except teaching meditation at the monastery. Because it is not much difficult, I have been teaching every day. But traveling to other towns or countries is really difficult for me because I’m able to do nothing. That’s why it is better not to do something without a big reason.

That is difficult for the others if they don’t do like me, they cannot understand. I myself don’t understand if I don’t practice like this. So everything is really difficult for a new person without the ability to let go of everything. Even thinking is difficult if we are able to stop thinking. Thinking with attachment and by force is easy, but there are many side effects. It is difficult to do something accurately by a professional, a sport man, a movie star, a musician, an artist. If someone becomes professional in his job, it is difficult to be a professional one of the other jobs. Most people are not skillful and not professional. What they understand to do is “do this”, “do that”, “at that time”, ” at that place”, “with that people” like for acting to make film or videos… For practicing meditation at meditation centers, they have limits and without those limits, they cannot do. That’s why they are able to do with limits. That’s not being a professional.

Elli Askew transcribes