A Visit with my Meditation Teacher in Upper Burma and The Reclining Buddha on Mandalay Hill

"My hut lies in the middle of a dense forest; Every year the green ivy grows longer. No news of the affairs of men, Only the occasional song of a woodcutter. The sun shines and I mend my robe; When the moon comes out I read...poems.
I have nothing to report, my friends. If you want to find the meaning [of life], stop chasing after so many things."
—Zen Master Ryokan

Our friend Maybelle drove us to Kyaswa Monastery, an hour from Mandalay to visit with my esteemed meditation teacher, Michele McDonald who was just about to complete leading a three week meditation retreat. She was kind enough to create a half hour window for us to meet, which wasn’t easy, as I contacted the retreat manager last minute. I hadn’t seen Michele for eight years, yet she remembered me. Over the years Cecile and I have supported the local nunneries and school affiliated with the monastery. This year was no different. One of the highlights of doing a meditation retreat at the monastery is the opportunity after the retreat to give out uniforms to the kids in their classrooms and having the young nuns sing loving kindness chants just before the last sit of the evening. 

With over 30 years as an insight meditation teacher, Michelle was the first woman to teach a formal silent meditation retreat along side senior monastic figures at Kyaswa. I was fortunate to have her as one of my main lay teachers several times in Myanmar (Burma) and the US. I found her down to earth style of teaching to be accessible, incisive, compassionate and illuminating. She definitely assisted me to find entry points into stillness and find peace no matter what challenges came my way both in the meditation hall and in everyday life. The last time I sat a retreat with her was around 2010. 

In the early evening Maybelle took me to see the gilded majestic looking reclining Buddha, housed in an old museum type building on the lower part of Mandalay Hill not to far from our hotel. It appeared to be closed. The door was locked and the lights were out. That didn’t stop Maybelle as she is as persistent as she is kind, and she managed to find the custodian of building who is a young monk who also lives there. The pleasant monastic is pretty handy. Apparently, all the donations visitors place in the glass container are used to maintain the statues and the pedestals they sit on. This is the Burma I know, based on the wisdom of kindness and generosity. 

Speaking of generosity, I have learned a lot from Maybelle. In a country that is 90% Buddhist, she makes it a regular practice to help people that are hungry, disabled, elderly at any given opportunity, no matter what their religious preference. She is also a part of a sisterhood who make small seed loans to women for small opportunities.

Photos: With the exception of the reclining Buddha, all photos were taken at the monastery on this trip and in 2010. The wrap around dress is called a longyi and along with a white shirt is required clothing for men at these monastery retreats. The four story building with the stone steps to the right is the meditation hall. The hut I was assigned has a bed, closet, desk and bathroom. I was quite happy there.

Getting Ready to go on "The Road to Mandalay (Burma)

“The Road to Mandalay” and Burma in general conjures up images of Asia at its most Traditional and Timeless. To me, it represents that and much more.

My last trip to Myanmar (Burma) was in 2010. I had gone on several three week silent meditation retreats at Kyaswa Monastery outside of Mandalay from 2005-2010. Few Americans could be seen traveling there. That has all changed since Obama eased US sanctions against the country in 2016 to reward their recent moves toward democracy after decades of military rule. I can’t wait to share the experience Burma with Cecile, our first stop before continuing on to Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Southern Vietnam.

My daughter Michelle and son—in-law Kyle, visited Myanmar last October. Local resident and friend Maybelle escorted them around Mandalay and took them to visit Kyaswa Monastery, overlooking the great Irrawaddy River, where I spent all those years in meditation. Our good friends Jimi and Jennifer Hunter recently returned from Myanmar, declaring it one of their best overseas trips of all time. 

Yesterday, our friends and yoga buddies for many years Dee Blumenthal and Kathy Ramos, emailed me this photo taken of them in front of the 2500 year old Shwedagon Pagoda (aka the Great Dragon Pagoda and/or the Golden Pagoda, located in Yangon (formerly Rangoon). It is a 326-foot tall gilded stupa that enshrines strands of the Buddha’s hair and other relics). It used to be my first stop-must see-must experience pilgrimage before flying to Mandalay. Dee described it aptly as a “feast for the eyes.” it is adorned with 27 metric tons of gold leaf and thousands of diamonds and other precious gems. After dark, when the pagoda is all lit up, it takes on even more of mystical quality than it does in the light of day when the grand dome glistens in the sun. It is no wonder it is referred to as the “Crown of Burma.” 

When I was younger the only thing I knew about Burma (aka Myanmar since the ruling military junta changed its name) was the Burma Shave commercials, old British war movies, and Bob Hopes movie: "The Road to Mandalay). Later, I knew it to be a place where short-story writer, poet and novelist, Rudyard Kipling (The Jungle Book and The Man Who Would be King) had visited the Shwedagon Pagoda and Mandalay in the late 1800s when he was 24 years old. Kipling wrote a poem called “Mandalay" that illustrated his nostalgia and longing as a soldier of the British Empire for Asia’s exoticism.

American Composer, Oley Speaks, best hit song “On the Road to Mandalay,” took the lyrics from Kipling’s poem and it became his first million-selling single.

What awaits us when we arrive in Mandalay is the exotic Mandalay Hill Hotel (photo) where we will stay for four nights before we go on to visit the ancient temple city of Bagan.

Photo with the children was taken in Mandalay in 2010

My Coincidental Encounter with Jack Kornfield, one of the most Influential Mindfulness Meditation Teachers of our Time

“When you live your life with an appreciation of coincidences you connect with the underlying field of infinite possibilities.”
—Deepak Chopra

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I spotted Jack Kornfield near the pool at the Wailea Beach Resort. I had recently purchased a copy of his latest book: “No Time Like the Present, Finding Freedom and Joy Right Where You Are."
I first met Jack in the dining room of the Sedona Hotel in Mandalay, Burma (Myanmar) in 2009. I was planning to participate in a three week meditation retreat at a monastery overlooking the great Irrawaddy River that welcomed westerners (Photos). 

I was having breakfast with Crystal who was also attending the retreat. We had met at the airport for the first time and I arranged for my friend Maybelle, a native of Myanmar to offer her a ride with us to the Hotel, where some attendees like myself were staying prior to the retreat. It was Crystal’s first time in Burma and my 4th. I looked up from our table, and caught a glimpse of a familiar face walking towards us. I realized it was Jack Kornfield. I have to admit I was a bit star struck. Anyone familiar with the practice of mindfulness meditation called Vipassana has heard the name. For those who haven’t, he is a former Peace Corp. volunteer who later trained as a Buddhist monk in Thailand, Burma and India. He is an author, activist, psychologist and a cofounder of Spirit Rock Meditation Center in West Marin County. Spirit Rock is a 411 acre secluded retreat center that provides a supportive environment to quiet the mind, soften the heart and see life in a more skillful and peaceful way. 

I got up, walked toward the former monk as if I was meeting a longtime friend and said: “Jack?” I introduced myself, and told him I was attending the meditation retreat. He had invited a group of generous donors from the United States including some of his students, to visit local monasteries, Pagodas, schools, hospitals, to serve those in need through their financial contributions, in a country of limited resources that given him so much in his early years.

I asked him if we could take a photo together and he said, “Sure!” I asked Crystal if she would take the photo. What impressed me was when the soft spoken teacher and scholar said, “Why don’t we have someone take the photo so Crystal can join us.” It was a skillful, kind, and inclusive gesture. 

Here we were, many years later, at the Wailea Beach Resort and I found myself being part of a repeat performance—a synchronicity in the making. Jack was seated at a table near the pool reading his emails. I approached him as he was getting up and once again said: “Jack?” He looked at me inquisitively as I introduced myself. I reminded him when we first met in Burma eight years ago and we took a photo together with Crystal. I introduced him to my wife Cecile who was laying on a lounge chair overlooking the pool. “Cecile, this is Jack Kornfield,” I said with a hint of excitement. I was going to have her take a photo of Jack and I when in true form, he suggested we all take a “selfie” together. As the great Yogi Berra once said: “It was like De Ja Vu all over again.” 

Postscript: Kornfield was one of the presenters at the 10th Anniversary “Open Your Heart in Paradise,” with friends of spiritual teacher Ram Das at the Napili Kai Beach Resort on the other side of Maui. He was spending a couple of days at the Wailea Beach Resort with his wife before heading back to California when we reconnected.

Photo of the Pagoda of my and abbot, the late Sayadaw Lakkhana as seen in the meditation hall and from my hut at sunrise during the retreat in 2009.

Photo of my friend Maybelle and Crystal having lunch prior to the retreat.

https://jackkornfield.com/