healing through insight meditation

8/13/2019 Healing Through Insight Meditation

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Healingthrough

Insight Meditation

Printed for ee Dis ibution byASSOCIATION FOR INSIGHT MEDITATION3 Cli on Way Alperton Middlesex HA0 4PQWebsite: aimwell.org Email: [email protected]

HealingthroughInsight Meditation

Printed for ee Dis ibution byASSOCIATION FOR INSIGHT MEDITATION3 Cli on Way Alperton Middlesex HA0 4PQWebsite: aimwell.org Email: [email protected]


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The Story of Sister Hla Myint 13

4 Healing Through Insight Meditation The Story of Sister Hla Myint 9

the mind and body going. So, one must bear the burden of physical pain and mental suffering.

Only through the practice of insight meditationcan one develop an equanimous mind, which is lessaffected by the ups and downs of life. If one becomesan arahant, one will be totally unaffected by thevicissitudes of life. One may have physical suffering,

but one will be unaffected mentally, since the mindremains calm and peaceful.

The aim of insight meditation is not, of course,to cure bodily diseases, but to cure the mentaldisease of greed, ha ed and delusion. Once thesedelements are eradicated, the mind will becomepure and peaceful. That will be our last life, andthere will not be any further rebirth. So, sufferingin the cycle of birth and death will come to an end.

When concen ation has been sustained for aconsiderable period, some meditators experiencecures of diseases. Some patients suffering omcritical or chronic illnesses resorted to insightmeditation and got cured. If a disease is severe andthe side-effects of drugs are odious, people withs ong faith in meditation may be prepared tomeditate unto death. They might recover miracu-lously or they might die. However, a person withs ong faith knows that to die while meditating is

day long. (Of course, we are not asking meditators torefuse medicine if they are ill. They have to exercisetheir discretion. Not everybody can be like Sister HlaMyint. Besides, one has to be in intensive meditationand use concen ation to overcome an ailment. It maynot be easy for all meditators to persevere in practiceand to get powerful concen ation. So it would beprudent for them to take medicines.)

Sister Hla Myint then told me about her owns uggle with a tumour, which she believed to bemalignant. Later, when I got be er, I interviewedher to get the whole story, which I present here.

Sister Hla Myint was born on 22nd September,1936. She became a nurse at the age of 21. In 1967she was sent to Germany where she underwent aone and a half year course in cardiology. On herreturn, she was appointed the sister-in-charge of thecardiac unit at Rangoon General Hospital.

Her rst experience with intensive insight medi-tation was in May 1970 when she was 34. She thenhad some personal problems and was feelingdepressed. She went to the Mahs Yeikth andmeditated for 50 days. A er that, she said, she feltvery much be er. She did not feel oubled aboutthe problem any more. Ever since then, she had rmfaith in meditation. Whenever she had leave, she

it would disappear. At other times the pain startedom her shoulder blades and moved to the head,

ear and down to her tumour. She noted all the painas calmly as she could. It could be a very sharp pain but she could note and tolerate the sensations.

She reported her experiences to Mahs Saydawwho encouraged her to carry on practising. TheSaydaw told me not to relax but to keep on ying.He urged me to be patient and assured me that I wouldget be er, she said. (When Mahs Saydaw passedaway in August 1982, Sister Hla Myint had already been cured of her tumour for about three months.)

In April 1981, she went to Taung Song, a smallvillage near Thaton in Lower Burma, to continueher practice. The abbot of a monastery gave her ahut in an isolated and distant area. Apart om a nunwho stayed a short distance away in another hut,she was alone. There was no elec ici and at rstI felt quite ightened, she recalled, but later I began to enjoy the solitude. One night I sat for sevenhours om 7.00 p.m. to 2.00 a.m. When I openedmy eyes, the room was all bright. I thought it wassunrise, but when I went to the window, I found itwas still dark outside.

She had several other interesting experiences atTaung Song. One night she saw a giant-like gure

Sister Hla Myint atPaitrma, Rangoon 1991


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12 Healing Through Insight Meditation


HealingT I M

This is the story of a Burmese meditator, and of howshe used insight meditation to cure a tumour in herthroat. At that time she was the sister-in-charge of thecardiac unit in the General Hospital in Rangoon. Thedoctor suspected the growth to be cancerous andwanted to do a biopsy. Sister Hla Myint, then aged 37

and although herself a nurse, refused all further medicalexamination or eatment, and took leave to practiseintensive insight meditation.

For her it was a simple decision. She thought that if the tumour was malignant, a biopsy might furtherstimulate its growth. She herself believed it to bemalignant, and if this was conrmed she would notwant to undergo medical eatment. Why not? Thereis no guarantee of a cure, she said. Even a er anoperation or radiation eatment, the cancer may spreadagain. The side-effects can be worse than the cure. I

didnt want to go through the agony I have seen otherpatients endure. I want to keep my mind intact, fullymindful and alert. I do not want any drugs to obscurethe clari of my mind. The way I regard it is simple. If I undergo eatment, I may or may not be cured, but Iwill denitely have to put up with serious side-effects.If I meditate, I may or may not be cured, but theside-effect is nibbna the cessation of all suffering. If

Yeikth to serve as a nurse to monks, nuns, andmeditators. Since 1980, she has been observing eightprecepts, which include abstaining om food a ermidday. In November 1990 when Saydaw UPaitabhivasa moved to Paitrma, a newmeditation cen e, she followed to offer her servicesto meditators there.

Sister Hla Myint has dedicated her life to theservice of the Buddhas teaching. Since she has been

ained as a nurse, she is helping by offering hermedical services. She also has a great desire topromote and spread the Dhamma, especially insightmeditation. Wherever she goes, she encouragespeople to meditate and to a end the meditationcen e for re eats. One day she hopes to organisere eats in small villages throughout Burma. Somevillages have no meditation teacher so she hopes toarrange for meditation teachers to conduct re eatsin such villages.

I think every meditator should y to be at leasta sotpanna, she said. If one a ains to that levelduring practice, one has seen nibbna and will becertain to have no more than seven rebirths. Nottaking rebirth means permanent eedom omsuffering. Being born means that one has to growold and die; and to live, one has to s uggle to keep

At one village in Moulmein dis ict, she practisedfor about a month, doing six hours of continuousstanding meditation daily. For about a month atanother cen e in Pegu, she took one meal a day anddid walking meditation daily for six hours at as etch om 11.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. Sometimes shefelt very light, as if she was walking on clouds, whileat other times there was a lot of pain.

Initially, the tumour continued to grow until itreached the size of a betel nut. It was hard and round.Her hearing was affected so that she had to startusing a hearing aid. While she was practising atMahs Yeikth, some iends who were doctorswould urge her to go to the hospital to have thegrowth removed. They warned me that my tumourwas growing bigger, she said. Sometimes peoplewould touch the hard lump on her throat andcomment on how big it was.

She experienced a lot of pain during her practice, but never gave up. She was determined to practiseuntil her tumour subsided. During meditation shesometimes felt the tumour throbbing with pain. Thepain would move down to her chest. She feltnauseous and vomited. Sometimes the pain would begin om the top of her head. It would shi to herforehead, ears, jaw and down to her tumour where

would go to the Mahs Cen e at Moulmein andpractise with Saydaw U Paita who was then incharge of that cen e.

In 1973, she felt a growth in her throat. She couldfeel it when she swallowed. The doctor examined herthroat with an oesophagus scope. It was a painful20-minute examination as the scope had to be insertedinside her throat. They saw a growth, about the size of a tamarind seed. They gave her antibiotics and anti-inammatory drugs, but a er ten days, they foundthat the growth, instead of subsiding, had grown even bigger. They wanted to do a biopsy to conrm whetherit was malignant or not. She did not want to undergothe biopsy and instead took two months leave andwent off to a meditation cen e in a rural area tomeditate. She had heard about various cures, even of cancer, through insight meditation, and she wascondent that meditation could cure her disease too.(For records of various kinds of cures through insightmeditation, please refer to the book Dhamma Therapywri en by Mahs Saydaw and anslated by BhikkhuAggaci a. There, it is said that when the mind hasa ained a certain level of concen ation, the blood becomes puried and a er a consistent period of practice, cures of diseases can take place.)


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by 1st May, 1982, she found that it was completelygone. There was no ace of any lump or hardnessin her throat. She was completely cured.

S angely, she did not feel exceptionally happy,even though her objective had been reached a ernearly three years of arduous practice. Towards theend of the practice her mind had become quite

equanimous so that she was not very much con-cerned about the tumour any more. Unpleasantsensations did not bother her either as she couldobserve them as merely sensations.

When she reported to Mahs Saydaw about thedisappearance of her tumour, he commented that itwas because of her good practice. He remarked thatshe had great energy in meditation. She told MahsSaydaw that she would spend her life om nowon in the service of the Buddhas teaching. Headvised that when she came out of intensive practice,she should continue to nd time for meditation.

During her practice, her faculties were sharp.Whenever she got up om si ing she could hearquite well without any hearing aid. However, a erstopping intensive practice, her hearing defectreturned and she had to use her hearing aid.

A er her cure in May 1982, she emerged omintensive practice, but remained at the Mahs

I dont a ain nibbna, I will at least get nearer to it.Besides, I have absolute faith in insight meditation.

So began a long ba le with the tumour. Althoughthe growth subsided a er an initial short re eat, itwas to re-emerge some years later. For the la er part,she meditated intensively for nearly three years beforethe tumour completely disappeared. This is the story

of her faith, perseverance, determination and effort.However, before I start om the very beginning,

I should perhaps explain how I got to know SisterHla Myint. I rst met her in June 1987 when Ia ended the Mahs Yeikth Meditation Cen e inRangoon. She was tall, of a dark complexion ands ong. I was at the meditation cen e until October1988. She was also staying there, a ending to themedical needs of monks, nuns and meditators. Shehad been staying and serving at the cen e since hertumour was cured in May 1982, always on call todispense medicine or to eat minor ailments.

I did not learn her story until my second ip toBurma in July 1989. That was when I fell ill towardsthe end of my stay in early 1991. I had moved omMahs Yeikth to follow my teacher, Saydaw UPaita, to Paitrma, a new meditation cen e.Sister Hla Myint also came along to stay and serveat the new cen e.

During her two months of practice, she notedmany painful sensations. She felt very hot sensationscoming out om her mouth. The sensations eventu-ally disappeared and she felt comfortable. At theend of the two months she felt that the growth inher throat had become very small. It no longerirritated her, so she returned to work.

However, the tumour emerged again some sixyears later in 1979, this time pro uding outward sothat a prominent lump of about one inch in diametercould be seen on her throat. Sister Hla Myint againresorted to meditation.

Before I describe her second and longer ba lewith the tumour, let me record here another ailmentshe suffered om in 1976 and cured through medi-tation. It was a severe backache. She had X-raystaken of her back, but they did not show up anythingwrong. The doctors suspected that the pain could be originating om the kidneys and wanted to doan injection kidney X-ray. Sister Hla Myint declinedfurther investigation. She decided to meditate. Shecould not take leave om her work then. So everyday a er work she would meditate for four hours

om 5.00 p.m. to 9.00 p.m. at the Mahs Yeikth.Although her back ached throughout the day, she

did not take any painkillers, even when the pain became acute.

She practised for about one month, going dailyto the meditation cen e a er work. Then one nighta er returning home, she went to the toilet to urinate.As she ied to urinate, she felt an acute pain. A erseveral minutes, a calcium-white milky uid cameout. Simultaneously with the discharge, her back-ache disappeared. She believed that the pain hadcome om her kidneys and that she was curedthrough meditation.

In mid 1979, she was planning to resign her jobto work abroad when her tumour started growingagain. I had wanted to work abroad so that I couldsend money back to support a meditation cen e,she said. However, the re-emergence of the tumourput paid to her plans. Instead she resigned and wentinto intensive meditation. From then on, for nearlythree years, apart om a few brief intervals, shemeditated intensively practising si ing andwalking meditation and maintaining mindfulnessthe whole day and night. She did most of her practicein Mahs Yeikth. From time to time, she avelledto remote areas, spending a total of about 12 monthsaway om the cen e.

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