A spirit house is a shrine to the protective spirit of a place that is found in the Southeast Asian Buddhist countries of Thailand (Siam), Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia (Khmer Kingdom), Laos, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. They are normally in the form of small, roofed structure mounted on a pillar or a dais. They can range in size from small platforms to houses large enough for people to enter. Spirit houses are intended to provide a shelter for spirits that could cause problems for the people if not appeased. More
The nats (နတ်) are spirits, deities, god-like ancestors, poltergeists, unseen (invisible) beings venerated in Burma (aka Myanmar) and neighboring Southeast Asian Buddhist countries in conjunction with Theravada Buddhism.
Nats are divided between the 37 Great Nats, who were given that status by King Anawrahta when he formalized the official list of nats. Most of the 37 Great Nats were human beings who met violent deaths [1].
There are two types of nats in Burmese belief, nat sein (နတ်စိမ်း), which are humans who were deified after their deaths, and all other nats, which are spirits of nature (like the kami of Japan, elementals, spirits of water, trees, etc.)
Much like sainthood, nats can be designated for a variety of reasons, including those only known in certain regions in Burma. Nat worship is less common in urban areas than in rural areas and is practiced among ethnic minorities of Burma as well as in mainstream Bamar society.
However, it is among the Theravada Buddhist Bamar that the most highly developed form of ceremony and ritual is seen [2]. More: Nat (deity)
Folk Magic, Mahayana Buddhism, and Chinese Taoist syncretism
(Benebell Wen) Mahayana Buddhism and Taoism in Asian Folk Magic and Religion explained
This former U.S.-ruined Asian colony known as the Khmer Republic was illegally bombed by the U.S. in a massive genocidal campaign during the U.S. War on Vietnam in Operation Menu and Operation Freedom Deal. Neighboring Buddhist Laos was also bombed along with Vietnam as it suffered CIA subterfuge in Laos as The Company (the CIA) destabilized the impoverished the poor post-colonial nation with the Laotian Civil War.
Why the imperial Americans saw fit to follow on France's colonialism with a genocide during the U.S. War on Vietnam only the U.S. government and CIA know. Three innocent Buddhist countries had to be ethnically cleansed and horrifically abused to make the world safe for American disaster capitalism and the threat of equitable improvements in the name of socialism or the dreaded C-word communism.
Is vipassana really Buddhist? The truth about the world's most popular meditation
(Buddha's Wisdom) 🔍 IS VIPASSANA REALLY BUDDHIST? THE HIDDEN STORY BEHIND THE WORLD'S MOST PRACTICED KIND OF INSIGHT MEDITATION
Millions of people have practiced Buddhist vipassana meditation, but very few know what the word vipassanā originally meant, or how the modern movement transformed one of Buddhism's oldest insights into a global meditation phenomenon.
What is insight (vipassana) meditation actually for? This word doesn't mean "meditation" at all. And the practice millions know from Goenka's free 10-day silent retreats was born not in the Buddha's proto-India, but in [George Orwell's] colonial Burma, the day an empire stopped protecting the Theravada Dhamma.
This is the true story of insight meditation: what vipassanā really means, how it nearly vanished, and how a monk, a farmer, an accountant, and a businessman carried it to the modern world.
📿 DISCOVER:
The original meaning of vipassanā and why it never simply meant "meditation"
How the fall of the Burmese kingdom sparked the modern Vipassana Movement
Why meditation was rare even among Buddhist monastics for nearly 1,000 years
Why many Buddhist teachers say today's vipassana is both ancient and surprisingly modern
The unlikely relay that saved insight practice: from Buddhist monk Ledi Sayadaw to a rice farmer to S.N. Goenka's flight home in 1969
What today's vipassana retreats, the mindfulness movement, and scientific research gained... and what may have been left behind.
🙏 If this changed what viewers thought meditation was, subscribe. The next episode uncovers the other half the world forgot: the deep stillness of jhana ("meditative absorption" as samma-samadhior "right stillness," "coherent unification of mind") the Buddha paired with insight.
Disenchantment with the Mundane World: Conversation with former Theravada Buddhist nun
Disenchantment: Untold Tales
(The Theory of Samsara) Jan. 8, 2026: In this in-depth conversation on Ultimate Meaning: The Theory of Samsara, I speak with British Buddhist meditation teacher Beth Upton, a former fully ordained Theravāda Buddhist nun (Sayalay Anuttara) in Burma who spent nearly ten years training under Pa Auk Sayadaw (Ven. Bhaddanta Āciṇṇa) in the Burmese forest meditation tradition.
She shares her journey from ordination at age 25, through years of rigorous monastic training in calm-and-insight (samatha-vipassanā), to her decision to disrobe and teach as a lay practitioner in the West.
Together, we explore some of the most misunderstood questions in contemporary Buddhism, including:
Let go until success then go teach the world.
What truly leads someone to renounce samsaric life
Disenchantment vs. curiosity on the path to liberation
The lived meaning of renunciation beyond philosophy
Tranquility versus insight (samatha vs. vipassanā) — and why “vipassanā” is often a misused term
Ultimate reality, momentariness (moment-to-moment presence), and non-self
Why deep meditation can feel fragile outside the context of monastic life
The role of community, wise friends, and authentic teachers
Commercialization of Dharma vs. teaching by donation
Sectarianism between Theravāda, Mahāyāna, and Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism
Why liberation is not just for “other cultures” or monastics
Canadian interviewer Lama Choga
This dialogue is not about spiritual abstract beliefs or spiritual ideals, but about what actually works when confronting disappointment (dukkha, suffering), impermanence, and the [impersonal] realities of samsara in modern life.
Chapters/Timestamps
00:00 – Intro: Beth Upton and Path [to End] Samsara
02:18 – Why she chose ordination as a British Buddhist nun at age 25
05:10 – Meeting authentic Buddhist teachers and the power of sangha [community]
08:32 – Experimenting with life and early renunciation
12:45 – Discovering liberation as a real possibility
16:40 – Is enlightenment possible for lay practitioners?
19:55 – Stream entry, arahantship, and Theravāda views
24:10 – Did Beth Upton meet enlightened beings?
27:05 – Why she disrobed after 10 years as a forest nun
33:40 – Fragility of meditation outside monastic life
37:55 – Teaching the Dharma authentically in the West
41:50 – Disenchantment with samsara: knowing it in the bones
47:30 – Cycles of renunciation and returning to the world
52:15 – Creating long-term retreat communities in Europe
56:40 – Teaching by donation rather than selling the Dharma
1:01:30 – Can deep meditation be practiced while working?
1:06:55 – Permanent retreatants and Western monastic models
1:10:40 – Environmental ethics in Buddhist practice
1:15:25 – Sectarianism: Southeast Asian Theravāda vs. Tibetan [Vajrayana] Buddhism
1:21:10 – Personal liberation vs. compassion for all beings
1:26:30 – Shamatha vs. vipassanā: clearing the confusion
1:33:10 – Ultimate reality and momentariness explained
1:45:20 – Reflexive awareness and observing mind moments
1:52:10 – How to find wise friends and authentic teachers
1:57:30 – Final advice for Western practitioners
2:00:10 – Closing reflections and future conversations
Lama Choga and a Canadian Buddhist Sangha
If serious about meditation, renunciation, and understanding liberation beyond romantic [New Age] spirituality, this conversation offers rare clarity and lived insight.
How this was made: Auto-dubbed. Audio tracks for some languages were automatically generated.#DharmaTalk #Samsara #Buddhism #Theravada #Vipassana #MeditationPractice #Renunciation #Liberation #Enlightenment #BuddhistNun #PaAuk #NonSelf #FourNobleTruths #EightfoldPath #SpiritualPractice #Mindfulness #Jhanna #EasternPhilosophy #ultimatemeaning
For the entire month following the Rains Retreat or Vassa, the super meritorious Kathina ceremony is performed at Theravada Buddhist temples (viharas) across Buddhist countries. Los Angeles has countless Buddhist temples from all parts of the world -- on par with the most concentrated number of different Buddhist temples on earth, Bodh Gaya ("Enlightenment Grove"), Bihar, India. But that is an anomaly with spiritual embassies sent from around the Buddhist world (Buddhadom) and only tiny communities to look after them or receive visitors during the high season when weather allows. Los Angeles, however, has Buddhist communities from all over the world and not all of them with their own temples yet built. This week, beginning Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025, the Sarathchandra Buddhist Vihara of North Hollywood, has all night paritta chanting. This is with its Mexican American monk (bhikkhu), Ven. Los Angeles Sanatha Vihari Bhikkhu. Their larger Kathina ceremony is on Sunday, with hundreds in attendance, providing free food and dana (charitable support) to the resident and visiting Theravada Buddhist monks. FREE. Wear white as is the Sri Lankan island custom. Lunch and refreshments served. There is also a big Burmese celebration in the San Gabriel Valley on Sunday, Oct. 26, 2025:
Burmese Theravada tradition: Pa Auk Tawya, L.A.
The most meritorious giving for lay Buddhists
Buddhism and dana made it to ancient Greece in Gandhara, Bactria, and other outposts.
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Kathinais a Theravada Buddhist festival that comes at the end of the Rains Retreat or "Buddhist Lent" (Vas or Vassa), the three-month rainy season intensive practice period for Theravada Buddhists in South and Southeast Asia:
Burma (Myanmar)
Sri Lanka (Ceylon)
Thailand (Siam)
India
Bangladesh (where it is known as Kaṭhina Cībar Dān)
Cambodia
Laos
Vietnam
Malaysia
Singapore [2][3].
The Rainy Season during which a monastery may hold its culminating Kathina ceremony is one month long, beginning after the full moon of the 11th month on the Lunar calendar (usually October).
It is a time of practicing letting go, generosity, giving, sharing (dana, donating), a time for lay Buddhists to express gratitude and support to Buddhist monastics (bhikkhus and bhikkhunis) [4][5].
Lay practitioners bring donations (requisites such as robes, food, medicines, necessities) to Buddhist monasteries, nunneries, and temples, especially premade new robes or cotton cloth and dyes for monastics to sew new patchwork robes.
The gift of the Eight Requisites [6] (aṭṭha parikkhārā or atapirikara in Sri Lanka) is also part of the offerings [2][4][5].
Origins at the time of the Buddha
Kaṭhina (also Kaṭina) is a Pali word referring to the sturdy wooden frame used to measure the length and width by which Buddhist monastic robes are cut [7].
As the legend goes, 30 monks were journeying with the intention of spending the Rains (Vassa) with the Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama) [2]. However, the Rains began before they reached their destination and they had to stop at Saketa [2][8].
According to the Buddha's guidelines for Vassa, mendicant (wandering ascetic) monastics should not travel during the rainy season, as this may cause unintentionally harm to crops and insects during the journey [9]. This is an ancient custom that preceded the Buddha but to which the Buddha agreed.
As such, wandering Buddhist monastics had to stop [2][8]. They passed their time together without conflict, intensively practicing the Dhamma (the Buddha's Teachings). So afterwards, the Buddha rewarded them by demonstrating a way to practice sharing and generosity.
A lay Buddhist disciple had previously donated pieces of cotton cloth to the Buddha, so he gave these pieces to the group of monks and told them to make it into a sturdy outer robe then offer it as a gift to the one of them who had practiced most in line with the monastic rules.
The frame, called the Kathina, was used to hold those pieces while they were being made into one robe [2][8]. This ancient tradition continues to this day in Theravada monasteries and nunneries around the world. More
40 people dead after paraglider drops bombs on festival
(AFP via MSN)
At least forty people have died after a paraglider dropped bombs on a festival in Burma (which the military junta renamed Myanmar). Hundreds of people were gathered in the Chaung U Township for the Thadingyut full moon festival on Monday evening when the military dropped bombs on the crowd, according to a member of the committee that organized the event. 40 people dead after paraglider drops bombs on festival
Horror in Myanmar: Paraglider drops bombs on festival crowd, killing at least 40
(New York Post) Oct. 8, 2025: At least 40 people, including children, were killed and 80 injured after a Burmese military paraglider dropped bombs on a religious festival in Burma’s Chuang U Township. The attack targeted attendees marking the Thadingyut full moon festival, many of whom were protesting the junta’s dictatorial rule. Footage shows the devastating aftermath as survivors search through debris. #myanmar #Burmese #Thadingyut
What is the Buddhist Rainy Season or Rains Retreat (Vassa)? What is the Rains Retreat or "Buddhist Lent"?
Understanding the Vassa and Kaṭhina ceremonies
Each year, Theravāda Buddhist monastics all over the world make a determination to stay in a single monastery for a three-month period of the Rainy Season also known as the Vassa, the Rains Retreat. This year it begins July 10th.
One will hear the term “Vassa” often in this article, so please bear it in mind. Traditionally, it starts the day after the Full Moon Day in July or the day after the Āsāḷha full moon as it is known in the Pāḷi language.
If monks move around a lot and one needs to rely on a teacher, one can at least expect monks to stay at a single monastery for a full three months without moving around. Some make determinations to practice harder, while others who already follow a steady practice simply continue their daily routine as usual.
In this article, let's look at the origins of Vassa, the different types, the allowances to leave the Vassa on business or emergencies, if it affects the age of a monastic, and what happens at the end of the Vassa.
The Origins of Vassa
During the Buddha’s time, monastics (samanas or "wandering ascetics") wandered on foot between different monasteries (viharas), forests, groves, and villages. They would wander during all times of the year, even during the period or season of heavy rains. However, laypeople—especially farmers—began to complain:
“How can the Sakyan [Scythian, Saka, Shakyian] monastics go wandering in the winter, in the summer, and even during the rainy season? They’re trampling down the green grass shoots, oppressing one-sensed living being, and destroying many small creatures. Even the monastics of other doctrines (religions), with their flawed (imperfect) teachings, settle down for the rainy season. Even birds make a nest in the top of a tree and settle down for the rainy season. But not so the Sakyan monastics.”
Out of compassion and to match the culture of the time, the Buddha responded with a new instruction: Anujānāmi, bhikkhave, vassaṁ upagantun'ti.
“I allow you, monastics, to enter the rains residence.”*
This rule brought the monastics the Rains Retreat period of three months that met the expectations of the lay communities during the time of the Buddha. It now inspires the practice and striving of monastics, as it has for generations, all the way to the present. Moreover, it inspires laypeople in the present.
Two Kinds of Vassa
The Buddha allowed for two entry points into the Rains Residence: Dvemā, bhikkhave, vassūpanāyikā: purimikā ca pacchimikā ca:
“There are two entries, the earlier and the later.”
Purimikā (First Vassa) begins the day after the Āsāḷha full moon.
Pacchimikā (Second Vassa) begins one month later.
Sometimes referred to as “Second Vassa.”
This allowance for two Vassas shows the Buddha’s practical wisdom and compassion because not everything goes right the first time, as will be discussed later. It should be noted that the determination to stay in one monastery for three months is actually the day after the full moon day. This is when the new month starts.
Although most monasteries have the Vassa ceremony on the full moon day and it is a time for a large gathering, that is just for laypeople because they have that day off. Monastics really make the official determination the next day. Most of laypeople will probably never know it really happens on the next day.
Leaving during Vassa: seven-day business rule
Monastics are expected to remain in their Vassa location for the full three months. However, issues may come up where a monastic needs to leave. The Buddha allowed what is called, Sattāhakaraṇīya or “seven-day business.”
Some of the many valid reasons include: More
Bhante Subhuti (US student of Pa Auk Sayadaw), American Monk.org, July 10, 2025; Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
Thou shalt not read (any unapproved materials or else face prosecution and imprisonent).
Smart phones, now attached by virtual-Neuralink, serve as Big Brother. The're always listening.
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Mark is a good boy working for US.
Eventually George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four will be banned for fanning the fires of paranoia that the government ever bans information, deceives us, incites war, and enslaves whole populations (not to mention democide).
Orwell was born in British-ruled Buddhist Burma, then treated as a part of British-occupied India. seeing authoritarian forces spreading terror and colonialism. He noted how the same sort of things were happening in England but in a subtle way most people were not noticing. An imperial war culture is that way.
Anyone who thinks 1984 happened in 1984 hasn't read the book or didn't read it carefully. Winston Smith didn't know what year it really was. The title came about in 1948, so it seemed like a good way of saying "in the not-too-distant future" It might have been titled Winston and Julia in Love as when Pygmalion got a title reworking to the more inviting My Fair Lady. What is it really about? Orwell goes to pains how thinking is being reduced in the population by a systematic shortening, dumbing down, and contraction of the language. Instead of Standard English, people are using Newspeak, kind of the way we have replaced English sentences with texts, slogans, icons, and emojis. Newspeak leads to a new way of thinking where no one questions authority because no one even thinks to question it. If an "expert" said so, what is there to think about?
We have a world to police.
We live in it now, as the US War Machine and Empire, but as greater Rome at its height and the beginning of its decline, no one really notices. We rule, and everything's okay. We don't even rule that well. Look how other puppet states resist us.
Hey, wrap it up! This is unapproved. It's not just books that are banned. In Orwell's novel, the whole of his job was disappearing people on paper, removing them from the record. Of course, there were soldiers, police, neighbor-spies feeding police information, even drone-like helicopters peering in windows, but the main character, Winston Smith, didn't know why other than for show or to mislead the population to think this was the only thing of which to be wary.
Gov't propaganda is mainstream "news"
In fact, the main source of spying and privacy deprivation was known as the "telescreen," screens of all kinds today. There are cameras everywhere, with AI to automate monitoring, and key words to scour and search for on posts, articles, videos, TikToks... -- all for our "safety," of course. It's never for population control by the truism, "If you think the System is working, you must be working for the System" without even realizing it.
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