♥ SO MUCH GOODNESS ♥

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

A happy mother The rice & oil dana A joyful day

Dear friends

“People are generous and have a good heart - that is why they are born human.”
This remark came from a woman at the food-fair in Perth which was organized on July 22 to raise
funds for the cyclone victims in Burma. At that time I was teaching a meditation retreat in Perth
and the organizers invited me to give a blessing.
(By the way: they raised 51'000 Aus $ and donated it to the “Save the Children” fund doing relief
work in Burma.)

When cyclone Nargis hit Burma on 2/3 May, I was one month into teaching a three-month
meditation retreat in the Blue Mountains (near Sydney, Australia). When it became clear that this
natural disaster turned into a much more tragic human disaster, my heart leapt to Burma. I wanted
to help ease the hardships these poor people were facing. As a result, I decided to go to Burma in
the ten days between my retreats in the Blue Mountains and in Perth. After this decision had been
made donations started to pour in from all over the world.

You and your friends have been incredibly generous, it still

makes me feel joyous and happy when I look back what we
could do with all these donations (altogether 52'000 Aus $). I
wish you could have seen the happy smiling faces when people
received either rice & oil, cash, a new house, or had their house
repaired. With that much needed support, the burden of their
lives was eased to at least some degree.

Elderly woman with a bag of
rice and a bottle of oil
On the first day of the rice & oil dana an elderly woman came to
the centre and asked for rice and oil. She said that she was not on
the list and did not get a token to collect her share. Bhante U
Indo said that she should go to the office and put her name down
for the second day. She replied that she had no rice left at home
and in order to eat she needed it now and not tomorrow. Bhante
U Indo gave her a bag of rice and a bottle of oil.
 On the second day of my one-week stay in Burma, Daw Virañani
and myself walked to the Shwe Oo Min Meditation Centre
(SOM), the Nandarama monastery, and the three nunneries
nearby. The SOM was closed due to the damaged roofs on several
of their buildings. During the cyclone the roofs were blown off
and as a result, water entered the buildings and caused much
damage.

In the three nunneries, the loss and

damage included: the loss of a
building at the Pyapon nunnery, a
badly damaged roof and the loss of
Daw Ariya Ñani & Daw the kitchen building at the Yadanar
Vira Ñani with the rice and Man Aung Nunnery, destroyed
oil ready for distribution books in a couple of nunneries, a
leaking dining hall and a well with
muddy water at the Chanmyay Tharya Nunnery. All the three On the board:
nunneries are facing great difficulties to get enough food for their "Donated by Dhamma
nuns. friends from all around
the world"
After considering the damage and the difficulties they face, we
decided to support the three nunneries in proportion to the number
of nuns that live there. A few days later we returned with the
donations. I wish you could have been present at that moment and
see their happy and delighted faces! The nuns at the Chanmyay
Tharya Nunnery did a beautiful chanting that moved our hearts
deeply.

The nuns at Chanmyay On Wednesday Daw Virañani and myself went into Yangon to
Tharya Nunnery distribute those donations that were earmarked by some donors.
The places we went to included: Chanmyay Yeiktha Meditation
Centre, Panditarama Meditation Centre, Sunlun Meditation Centre, Grace Orphanage, a couple of
Burmese lay persons who have connections to the delta and are involved with relief work. This is
how they have used your donations:

Our family went to Pyapon July 7 with my sister and

some friends and Daw Sanda and some of her nuns. This
trip we distributed cash packets to over 600
households, umbrellas, slippers, torches, nail
clippers, clothing, Tiger balm, 700 buns at 2 schools.
We dropped in at the Roman Catholic church in Pyapon
where a friend of my daughter's is a volunteer.
The church here is distributing relief goods,
arranging health care and shelters in more remote
villages accessible only by Sinchayyar village near Laputta boat. My sister's friends in
Malaysia are arranging to (two months after the cyclone!) send 40 more bales of
clothing so we arranged for this church organisation to
distribute the clothing for us, as we are not intrepid or fit enough to travel to the far-flung
villages.
Of the 2,500,000 kyats donated by Ariya Ñani and students
[that is YOU!], we put 600,000 into 120 packets of 5000 for
each household, 100,000 into 100 pkts for donation to
individual nuns in Yangon and Pyapon.

The Sayadaw at a teaching monastery in Pyapon with 90

student monks requested a water filter system to provide
cleaner water, so I will arrange this from Yangon, cost
about 500,000. Any balance will be donated to Daw Sanda
for meals. Sinchayyar village near Laputta

A Sayadaw at another large monastery had received 150 roof sheets from the govt, but still
needed about 100 more, cost about 800,000, so we left 600,000. This monastery is about 20
minutes walk off the road. There is a large sitting
Buddha here facing the river. The pavilion housing the
Buddha was blown down but the Buddha was undamaged.
I am attaching a photo of this, also showing the monastery
roof covered in white plastic sheets.
We have donated 400,000 to Daw Yuzana who has opened
a monastic school with 200 students, of whom 50 have
become nuns. One student is presently hospitalised,
possible dengue fever, and Daw Yuzana has already spent
800,000 on treatment. Providing daily meals for the 50
The destroyed pavillion with the nuns is also a big daily responsibility.
undamaged Buddha statue
Whenever we have visited Daw Sanda's nunnery in Yangon, we have noticed that the nuns eat
very poorly, mostly boiled vegetables with fermented fish paste or gravy ( which is a Burmese
staple). There are 70 nuns in her nunnery in Yangon, up from 50 of last year, mostly from
Pyapon area. We will use 300,000 to provide better meals for the nuns.

To summarise:
600,000 in 120 packets of 5000 each (for households).
100,000 in 100 packets of 1000 each (for nuns in Pyapon and Ygn)
500,000 for water filter system.
600,000 for roof sheets.
400,000 to Daw Yuzana.
300,000 for meals for Daw Sanda's nuns in Yangon.
A meal that the nuns
We are happy we can help in this way, part of the network of can only dream of.....
compassion that unites all humanity. Thank you Daw Virañani, thank
you Daw Ariya Ñani and students [YOU!!!], not only for the donations, but also for the
opportunity to help.

With metta,
U Hla Maung
From the second person:
We don't know how to express our words of thanks to you and all the friends who help us.
Without your support we could do nothing, apart from praying. Today we went for our
distribution work with your presents. We have spent half of your presents already. Next week we
will do more - thank you again for everything.
With metta
Margarette

Sinchayyar village near Laputta (two months after the cyclone)

On Thursday we were invited to have lunch at the Chanmyay Myaing Study Monastery in
Hmawbi, right next to the Chanmyay Yeiktha in Hmawbi (where a number of you have been
meditating or at least visiting). A drive through Chanmyay Yeiktha showed that many kutis
(houses with mostly two rooms) had been badly damaged by falling trees. The kuti in which
Mimmi and myself lived for ten years had been severely hit by falling trees. Before the cyclone it
was sheltered by many big trees, now it stands in the open.

The next day we went again into Yangon to bring some of the donations to the Mahagandhayon
monastery. We spoke to Sayadaw U Kavidhaja who said that right after the cyclone they
collected and then distributed food and clothing to the victims in the delta area. A number of
Burmese doctors volunteered to treat sick and injured people in that area. Sayadaw said that now,
two months later, donations for medicines are much needed. He also said that a foreign
psychologist was training monks to deal with those who had been traumatized. Mahagandhayon
monastery will send five monks each to three towns in the delta area where they have to spend
vassa (the three-month period during the rainy season). In this way, they can arrange and make
sure that all the donations go directly to the affected people.

Saturday and Sunday

were the BIG days at
Chanmyay Myaing
Meditation Centre
(CMMC). U Ba Wun, a
volunteer at the centre,
and Bhante U Indo had
collected the names of
360 poor families in the
Ma Thwet, U Ban Wun, Ma Thuzar: surroundings of the
preparing rice..... centre. They were given
a token to collect their
share of rice and oil on either Saturday or Sunday.
.....and oil
As it turned out there were many more families who thought they were poor enough to get some
rice and oil. Those who came on Saturday were put on a list and told they should come on
Sunday. The helpers of CMMC quickly prepared another 140 bags of rice and bottles of oil on
Saturday night! Their enthousiastic support for this dana was simply wonderful and amazing.

On Sunday afternoon the monastery was again crowded with

expectant villagers – to get a bag of rice (about 20 kg) and a bottle of
oil (1 litre) meant so much to them. I was told that a bag of rice
would last about 12 days for a family of four. This makes about 1.6
kg of rice per day for the family – you must know that they eat rice
for breakfast, lunch, and dinner; and they can eat mountains of rice!

The villagers queuing up Apart from those with a token or having their names on the list, even
to get their share of rice more needy villagers came to the centre on Sunday. We needed to
& oil decided very quickly how to respond to their plight. It was clear that
we wanted to include these 120 families in the dana. In the end, we were able to give all of them a
bag of rice (3.2 kg) and to some of them a bag of rice and a bottle of oil.

Although the Sunday afternoon was a bit hectic, to say the

least, when all was over there were happy and contented faces
everywhere!

During my one week stay in Burma I did not go into the

delta. First of all there was very little time (I was busy enough
with what I had been doing as described above) and secondly,
I did not want to cause any trouble to any Burmese person
who might have been willing to take me, a foreigner, to the
delta area. But even without going to the delta area, I got a
strong impression of the devastation and the resulting
suffering down there. Vira Ñani helping a villager
A monk and a novice from the monastery in Sinchayyar near
the town of Laputta came to stay at CMMC for a few days. This monk was U Chando whom I
knew from my time at the Chanmyay Yeiktha in Hmawbi. After a number of years in Hmawbi he
had gone back to his village monastery in the delta. His village was badly affected not only by the
cyclone but also by the tidal wave that swept away many houses and caused the death of
thousands of people.
When the cyclone hit Sinchayyar village, U Chando was hip-deep in the water for about eight
hours. Two novices were sitting on the beams below the ceiling in the monastery.
The novice who came to CMMC with U Chando was a village boy when the killer storm hit. He
climbed up a tree and firmly hold on to it until the cyclone
abated. Then he came down from the tree to find that much
of the village had been destroyed, including his house. He
then went in search of his parents and siblings. None of them
survived the storm. In a field, he came across the dead body
of his mother floating in the water.
As this thirteen-year-old boy had nobody to look after him, U
Chando took him to the monastery and ordained him as a
novice. I noticed how caring and loving U Chando was with The damaged roof at the
monastery in Sinchayyar
this novice, never losing him out of sight and always giving him the love and care this orphaned
boy needed. The novice was shy and seemed to be a bit absent at times. I spoke to him a few
times and exchanged some words with him. Imagining the trauma this young kid had to go
through I just wanted to give him a big hug and tell him how much I and many people all around
the world love him and care for him! But, of course, etiquette did not allow this.
But at least I wanted to give him something. What could I give to this kid? In Australia, I was
given a little gold-framed picture of the stupa in Bodhgaya, the place where the Buddha attained
enlightenment. I had put it into my suitcase, just in case it could come in handy..... When I gave
this little present to the novice, a shy smile appeared on his face – it moved me to tears. I wish
that this young novice had more smiles since then, and I hope that joy and happiness come back
into his life very soon.
We gave a large amount of money to U Chando, to be used for the repair of the monastery's roof
and to help build houses for the villagers. He said that no help had come to his village so far.

One of Sayadaw U Indaka's devotees comes from Waydaung village near the town of Bogalay.
The village monastery lost a building and had no toilet. We donated some money for the
reconstruction of that building.
We also donated some money to fix the electricity supply in the neighbourhood of CMMC.

CMMC before the cyclone..... .....and after the cyclone

Here is what Daw Virañani wrote after our week of distributing your donations (some of you
already got this report):

"A deep, deep, bow of gratitude to each of you who so generously offered money for cyclone
relief through Ariya and I - the dana from the IMS community was one of the largest single
donations we received. It was a joyful task last week to distribute what was sent from all around
the world (a total of about 47 million kyats plus about 7000 US$!) to people who so desperately
need help.

Here is how we allocated the dana, after specific bequests had been honored:
62%: Relief to the Irrawaddy Delta
18%: To 3 Nunneries (Mingaladon Township)
16%: Rice and Oil dana for 620 households (Mingaladon Township)
3%: Electricity restoration for villages (Mingaladon Township)
1%: Shelter and general relief (Mingaladon Township)
We felt very fortunate to be able to send such a substantial amount to the Irrawaddy Delta,
through 5 very reliable private or monastic sources. The better part of that relief will go to
outlying villages near Bogalay and Laputta where no help has arrived from outside, even now 2
months after the cyclone. This money will be used for medicine, shelter, infrastructure, and food.

The offering to nunneries here in Mingladon will support almost 50 nuns, allowing them to repair
their buildings, to fix wells, to buy mosquito nets, blankets, and medicines, and to replace
destroyed Dhamma books. It will also allow them to enter the Vassa period knowing there will be
enough to eat!
Since the storm, they have received only a small fraction of the dana they would normally get for
rice and food.

Through Chanmyay Myaing

Monastery, we gave rice and oil
to villagers nearby, many of
whom are struggling to make
ends meet after the storm. As
the word got out, the extent of
the dana snowballed - from 280
households, to 380, then 480.
There was enough left after that
had been given out to offer a
smaller amount of rice to an
additional 140 people who just
showed up on the day of the
dana without tickets. There is
great need here, more than any
of us knew.

A makeshift tent and badly damaged houses near CMMC Chanmyay Myaing Sayadaw
and the Village heads have
arranged to pay for power poles and electricity, and we were also happy to be able to support
that, making people's lives just a little bit more comfortable. (I no longer complain to myself
about the village jukebox when I hear it blaring in the night, knowing that now people have a
small source of happiness that has been missing - the silence has been very strange!)

The remaining 1% for shelter and general relief will build 6 bamboo homes in the village, and
help another 6 people (helpers here at the monastery) whose homes were destroyed or badly
damaged in the storm.

We have held some dana in reserve, to use for ongoing rice and oil dana, or for any other needs
that may become apparent.

All of you have made many many people happy - and have made their lives just a little bit easier
in very hard times. May you rejoice in your generosity and kindness, as we have been doing!
Again, immense thanks - and much hearfelt metta to you all."
 The umbrella-repair-man's
makeshift tent after the cyclone
destroyed his home
In front of his new home with his wife and one
daughter
Among the people in the nearby village whose home had been completely destroyed was the
'umbrella-repair-man' and his family. With a family of seven he lived in a small makeshift plastic
tent. Now he and his family have again a proper bamboo house to live in.
Ma Yu is a mother of a twelve-year-old daughter. Her husband abandoned her and his daughter
five years ago, not to be seen since then. She comes to the centre in the afternoon to help with the
cleaning up of the kitchen or does any other work that needs to be done. She lost her house in the
cyclone and found temporary shelter in the little house of a friend in the neighbourhood. But as
the husband of that friend is an alcoholic, the situation is intolerable and living with them is very
distressing. One day she and another of the
village volunteers, Ma Toe, came to my
room. With tears in her eyes she told me her
'story' and then said, sobbing, “I depend on
you, Daw Ariya Ñani.” I comforted her and
told her that she need not worry – that soon
she would be living in a new house! When
Daw Virañani and U Ba Wun went to her
new house to take a picture, she was not at
home. Instead of Ma Yu you see the two of
them in front of Ma Yu's new home.

In a separate attachment, you can see the

Daw Vira Ñani and U Ba Wun in front of Ma Yu's exact amount of the donations to the
new home different people or institutions.

As I write this report in sunny warm Switzerland, I am still overcome with awe in regard to the
amount of the donations that came together with the generous and spontaneous support of YOU!
May you derive as much joy and happiness as I did. May you rejoice in your own goodness and
the fact that at least a number of people's lives in Burma have been eased to some degree. For
each of these victims this is not small or insignificant thing but a much needed support and relief.

May all living beings be healthy and well, happy and peaceful.
With metta
Ariya Ñani
(1 August 2008)