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JOURNEY INTO BURMESE SILENCE

By MARIE BEUZEVILLE BYLES

AUTHOR`S FOREWORD

This is the account of the search for a quiet retreat in which to learn the art of meditation, that is, of how to still the thoughts and find the insight that lies beyond intellect. It tells of the ultimate finding of such a retreat at the Maha Bodhi Meditation Centre in Burma, and of life at this and other Burmese meditation centres.

Although the quest did not bear fruit until the end of 1957, it probably unconsciously started nearly twenty years before, when Burma was visited in quest, not of meditation, but of mountains. So the book begins with this, and also tells of an unsuccessful search both in Burma and India in 1953 and 1954.

The type of meditation practiced in Burma is known as Vipassana or insight meditation, and the people who practise it are known as yogis. This use of the term “yogis” is etymologically correct, although not commonly found in Buddhist text books.

The last chapter is an attempt to examine some aspects of Vipassana meditation in relation to Jung`s theories, and also in relation to innate egoism. It concludes with examination as to whether a teacher is necessary in order to learn Vipassana meditation and a simple preliminary exercise suitable for Westerners.

Grateful thanks are tendered to the Burmese friends to whom this book is the dedicated and whose kindness made the adventures possible, also to my old friend. Erika Whohlwill, to whom foot-prints of Gautama the Buddha was dedicated and who read the present MS as she read the earlier one, and thereby greatly improved it; to Beryl Ross who helped in a similar  way; to Dorothy Hasluck who improved the spelling and to Jean Maddocks who planned the dust cover. The best of the photos are the work of U Aye Bo, who adopted me as his elder sister. I am deeply grateful to him for having taken them and allowed them to be used. That the order photos are better than I have been taking of recent years, is due to my friend, Alan Hull, and his advice concerning cameras and photography generally.

Finally I record my gratitude to Clem Cleveson who read the proofs and to Gerald Yorke who painfully read a preliminary draft MS and offered suggestions which radically altered and improved it.

CONTENTS

AUTHOR`S FOREWORD

1-     The Quest

2-     Into the Silence

3-     The Vipassana Meditation Centre

4-     Life at the Centre

5-     Progress and Distractions

6-     Other Meditation Centres

7-     Living Gods

8-     Learning the Lesson of Mohnyin

9-     Mohnyin Villagers and Meditation

10-   The Hermit

11-   Maha Bodhi Meditators

12-   Distractions

13-  Reflections of the Intellect

APPENDIX Vipassana Meditation: the Ledi Sayadaw Method. Translation by Sayalay Daw Saranawati

GLOSSARY

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

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