Latest News

The date of September monthly food fair has been changed to Saturday, 4th September due to difficulty of hall space . Iit is only affected to the month of September. The updated date, time and venue are as follows:

At the same time, we'd like to announce that 3 days and 10 days meditation retreat will not be temporarily conducted. However, for those who wish to donate daily saun and practice meditation can still be arranged and pleas contact us on 02 9729 2343

The day of Waso marks the day of the Buddha's first sermon and the start of a monsoon season retreat. The full moon day was actually fall on 26th July this year. A simple ceremony of chanting and Dhamma talk had been conducted on this date. 

However, the actual celebration of Waso Day will be conducted by PSMC on Sunday 15th August at Villawood Senior Citizen Hall, so that more dhamma friends could join the ceremony together.  It is the tenth Waso Robe Donation Ceremony.

Agenda

• 11:00am - The ceremony started with food offering to Sayadaws. The generosity and compassion of donors can be witnessed from the varieties of food, the way they were prepared and served. Our dhamma friends took this good chance to have luncheon, sharing and gathering together.
• 12:30pm - The chanting ceremony and it was then followed by a session of Dhamma Talk from  Sayadaw U Pannathami with a message about the benefits of offering Vassa Robe.
• 2pm - The robe offering session - the devotees took this opportunity to do meritorious deeds. Besides robe offering, some devotees had also donated household product and food to monks.

To donate Waso Robe

1 set of Waso Robe - $30

Sayadaw U Pannathami was back to Sydney meditation centre on 24th July from his Dhamma Duta oversea trip. Last 2 months, he spent 3 weeks in Belgium, 2 weeks in Manchester and France, and a few days in Singapore & Malaysia.

This is an another successful Dhamma Duta Trip for Sayadaw. From those countries, a large number of Yogis is participated in meditation retreat and they were happy and practised diligently.

Here I am, having left the land of the Buddha, Burma to arrive thousands miles away to the country of crocodiles and kangaroos. Having crossed borders and oceans, I’m now in Sydney, Australia. Seems like another world. But surprisingly, the atmosphere that I feel at the place I’m staying is very much the same as the one I have just left a few hours ago. The same smile of the Buddha which greets me and fills my heart with much joy and peace; the same kindness stemming from the heart of the Burmese people, food and language.

No wonder, I just came from Panditarama, Bago-Burma to Panditarama, Sydney-Australia. And invited by Sayadaw U Pannathami to stay here a short while, I rejoice to see that such a place dedicated to the happiness and peace of beings exists here, in a Western country like Australia; and that there are kind, devoted, generous and faithful people like the Burmese community who keep on supporting the Sangha. Such a place where spiritual qualities and genuine happiness can be developed and build up is indeed so precious in this modern and materialistic world.

The Four days Easter Meditation Retreat was officially conducted from 2-5 April at PSMC. It managed to attract a total of 26 Yogis. There were 8 men Yogis and 18 women yogis overall. Thus, 5 yogis had completed the four days retreat on daily basis.

The centre was happy to see the Yogis to practice the meditation seriously throughout the retreat session. It was the best rewards to the effort by volunteers and donors who were keen to help and donate food to make the retreat a success.

There were chanting and Dhamma talks during the retreat. We welcome our Dhamma friends to participate in the session though you are unable to attend meditation as the yogis in future retreat. Most of us have beneficiated so much from the Dhamma Talk and we know it is something worth to bring home and share with friends from time to time.

The committee was thankful to all the volunteers and Dhamma friends for their support and help. Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu!

As per decision of Sayadaw and committee members, PSMC will soon be upgraded to 2-storey building.  Here’s our initial plan:

• We will demolish the existing front building, so we are planning to build 2-storey house with 4-5 bed-rooms for the monks. (subject to council approval)
• We are going to have a new building at the back to accommodate Yogis and it will include new kitchen, plenty of storage rooms, dining room, etc (subject to council approval)
• We will also invite Panditarama Sayadaw Gyi from Yangon to visit Australia this year to share our upgrading plan.

We had seen about 10 displayed homes so far.

We’d like to hear your feedback, ideas and recommendations on how we should approach this goal. Please feel free to drop us the comment or come in person to discuss your thoughts.

To all of our Dhamma friends, now you can contribute your donation to support the following at Panditarama Sal-Mile-Kone Meditation Centre:

1. 50 Yogis who practising meditation daily including local and foreigners
2. Running of Buddhist Culture Training Classes
3. (10) Sayadaws who are teaching Dhamma classes
4. Volunteers

What you can donate

• Breakfast - Ks. 100,000
• Lunch - Ks. 200,000
• Drinks - Ks. 50,000

How to donate

Please contact the centre at (+61) 2 9729 2343.

Sayadaw U Pannathami went back to Myanmar early this year to attend 2 months retreat at Panditarama Meditation Centre in Yangon.

During this retreat, Sayadaw guided about 200 meditators from local and foreigners came from 20 different  countries, particularly in the practice of Insight (Vipassana) Meditation. It is just another success retreat like others.

We are pleased to announced that free maths class will be offered to NSW Year 8,9 and 10 students who need to brush up on your maths skills and has some difficulties with that. This 2-hour class will be running from 2-4pm every Saturday at Panditarama Sydney Meditation Centre.

For Year 11 and 12 students, if you have some difficulties in physics, we like to hear from you too.

Please bring your textbook and handouts along with you.

If you'd like to get more information, please feel free to contact us on 02 9729 2343.

Sayadaw U Punnathami has quoted in dhamma talk during the last day of 10 days meditation retreat below:

Depend on yourself, not anyone nor anything else
Depend on Dhamma, not anyone nor anything else
The Dhamma, you need to depend on,
is the four foundation of mindfulness.

1. Mindfulness on the body
2. Mindfulness on the consciousness
3. Mindfulness on the feeling and
4. Mindfulness on the Dhamma.

Yogis who have been practising diligently during the retreat and listen to the Dhamma Talk, would understand about mind and matter, cause and effect. However, the true deep understanding shall come from personal experience in meditation practice and not from reading or book itself.

The insight knowledge from Vipassana Meditation arises from observation from your clear and pure mind. It is not something to search for, but something that you need to experience at your own. The noting mind and the noting object are discussed in the teaching. Sayadaw has personally demonstrated both sitting meditation and walking meditation to ensure Yogis have proper practice and understanding. 

There were an average of 25 Yogis attended the daily meditation. One of the Yogis who spent the 10-days full retreat had quoted in the interview session that “this is the best holidays I have ever spent”. It was not easy to give up shopping spree and party celebration during the December festive season. “But, if you realize the benefits and you would enjoy doing it- and you will do it again!”

Isolate yourself from others during meditation practice, restrain yourself from talking, keeping precepts, stay silence for 10 days and watch your thought of daily activity seems “boring” to some people. Thus, it is not easy for repeating the same activity, sit for one hour and walk for another one hour for a duration of 15 hours daily starting from 4.30am to 9.00pm. It takes a lot of courage, self motivation, effort and “heroic act” to overcome pain during one hour of sitting meditation. However, Yogis managed to put their full effort, overcome it with mental energy and physical energy.

We are very thankful to the Dhamma friends and donors in terms of food, requisites to the Sangha, and volunteering job throughout the retreat. Without their help and support, the 10-days retreat could never be so successful. SADHU! SADHU! SADHU!

During the last day of retreat on 28-Dec, Sayadaw had called upon some Yogis, devotees and committee members such as Dr Lwin Lwin, U Lu Aye, Mr Jason , Mr Masdi, Daw Winnie,  U Sein Win, U Ye Win, Daw Pyone, Ma Ohnmar, Daw Khin San Win, Ms Yong, Ms Katherine,  to deliver their speeches. The feedbacks were positive and points were taken up for future improvement.

We hope the Yogis will carry on their mindfulness in meditation practice from time to time. We welcome new and old Yogis in future retreat in 2010. Again, we share our gratitude to our Dhamma friends for the great support to the centre throughout the year. As Buddha said, “The one who holds and carries the Dhamma, always being protected by the Dhamma”.

The PSMC committee would take this opportunity to wish all the members and Dhamma friends of the centre- HAPPY NEW YEAR and fruitful year in 2010!