Welcome to Our Dhamma Blog!

Our blog focuses on Theravada Buddhism, as well as Vipassana insight meditation following the method taught by the late Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw and the late Venerable Sayadaw U Pandita according to the Satipatthana Sutta.

Here you will find Dhamma articles that we have carefully selected, along with translations from Burmese Dhamma books that are not widely available in English. We hope that these materials will provide you with useful guidance, as well as encouragement and inspiration for your practice.

For our first post, we have included seven poems on the Life of the Buddha by the late Venerable Ledi Sayadaw.

The Life of the Buddha

Poems by the late Venerable Ledi Sayadaw

Conception on Thursday

Master of the three kinds of beings,

Whom I hold in highest esteem,

Devas and brahmas from ten thousand universes,

Assembled in unison to request his birth.

During the full moon day of Wāso,

On Thursday, during the fresh and verdant season,

With serenity and joy he took conception,

So that men and devas could find peace.

Birth on Friday

Ten months after conception,

During the sixty-eighth year of the Great Era,

On Friday the full moon day of Kason,

In peaceful and bountiful Lumbinī,

The earth shook and trembled as he was born,

For devas and men now had a path,

To the City of Victory.

Renunciation on Monday

After his birth, at the young age of sixteen,

He inherited three golden palaces.

For thirteen years he dwelt,

Overflowing with power and glory.

Then at the youthful age of twenty-nine,

The devas caused the four signs to appear.

His noble mind became disenchanted,

And spiritual urgency arose.

On the full moon day of Wāso,

On Monday the day of the Tiger,

In the serene forest he took shelter,

His monastery was under the shade of the trees.

Enlightenment on Wednesday

In the deep forest, he practiced for six years,

For enlightenment, for becoming the Buddha.

On the full moon day of Kason,

On Wednesday the day of the Elephant King,

On the throne of the sacred earth,

With the golden Bodhi tree overhead like an umbrella,

Without apathy and with joy he sat.

Even the smallest enemies, the hordes of evil,

He totally conquered and removed.

The light of dawn broke, he shone with power and majesty,

That spread through ten thousand universes,

For the three kinds of beings to find peace.

Teaching the Dhammacakkā on Saturday

After becoming the Buddha, by foot he walked to Migadā,

To the group of five monks, and devas and brahmas

From ten thousand universes and all continents,

Who came and bowed down,

On Saturday the full moon day of Wāso,

He expounded the Dhammacakkā,

Which spread and overflowed.

His teaching was the beating of

The divine drum of the Dhamma.

Entering into Parinibbāna on Tuesday

After beating the drum of the Dhamma,

In the three realms and ten thousand universes,

Devas, men and brahmas, beings worthy of liberation,

He carried to nibbāna’s shore with a raft.

After forty-five vassa, at the ripe age of eighty,

In the great era of one hundred and forty-eight,

In the state of Malla, not inferior in standard,

At Kusinārā, in a grove of Sal trees,

On Tuesday the full moon day of Kason,

He entered into peaceful nibbāna.

The earth of ten thousand universes quaked,

And the tremors spread throughout.

Cremation on Sunday

After entering into parinibbāna,

His body, like pure gold, which one could not tire of seeing,

On Sunday the day of the Garuda,

During the waning moon of Kason,

Was cremated with heat unmixed with smoke,

By the Buddha’s wish, by his will.

After the cremation, which overflowed with splendor,

Eight portions of relics remained.