Sayalay Susila has been a Theravada nun for the last 20 years. Sister started her vipassana insight meditation during her university days, while obtaining a degree in Mass Communications (1988) at USM in Malaysia. Before ordination, she practiced as a full-time practitioner for one and a half years. After her ordination, in 1991, she practiced under the guidance of the well-known Venerable Sayadaw U Pandita in Panditarama Monastery, Myanmar, until 1994, at which time she began to practice under the guidance of the Venerable Pa Auk Tawya Sayadaw at the Pa Auk Meditation Centre, Myanmar, where she remains today.
Sayalay Susila was born in 1963, in the state of Pahang, Malaysia, and was ordained as a nun at the age of 28, at the Malaysian Buddhist Meditation Centre (MBMC) in Penang, Malaysia. She speaks fluent English, Hokkien, Chinese, Malay, and Burmese. Beginning in 2000, with the encouragement of her teacher Pa Auk Sayadaw, Sayalay Susila began to teach the Abhidhamma in Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, and Australia.
Since 2002, when she conducted a 10-day Abhidhamma course in Toronto, Sayalay Susila has traveled extensively in the U.S. and Canada, teaching Suttas, Abhidhamma and Meditation. Sister Susila’s dhamma talks, which have been widely praised as lucid and precise, have been given at North American Buddhist centres such as Spirit Rock (California) and the Barre Centre for Buddhist Studies (Massachusetts).
In July 2009, she conducted a 10-day meditation course, Concentration and Insight, at Bhavana Society monastery in West Virginia, as well as a Women’s Retreat in July 2011. She has published the books "Unravelling the Mysteries of Mind and Body Through Abhidhamma" in English and "The Nine Attributes of the Buddha in Chinese."
Mind is a powerful element that affects our whole being. However, the power of it is almost unknown. This talk will reveal to you how a wholesome mind can overcome obstacles that arise, while an unwholesome mind hastens the ripening of unwholesome results.
The object of this two-day retreat is to first calm your mind and then to understand your various states of mind.
On Saturday, we will practice concentration using anapanasati, mindfulness of breath, in order to develop calmness and serenity of the mind so that the dharma can manifest itself. As Buddha said: “develop concentration, one with concentration sees things as they really are.”
On Sunday, we will use this more concentrated mind to practice contemplation of mind, cittanuppassana. All defilements arise from the mind, so learning how to watch one’s own mind is the “key to happiness.” You are encouraged to attend this retreat as Sayalay Susila will show us the profound way to train ourselves to be mindful of our own mind, gradually liberating it from
all defilements — in other words — freedom of the mind.
The object of this two-day retreat is to first calm your mind and then to understand your various states of mind.
On Saturday, we will practice concentration using anapanasati, mindfulness of breath, in order to develop calmness and serenity of the mind so that the dharma can manifest itself. As Buddha said: “develop concentration, one with concentration sees things as they really are.”
On Sunday, we will use this more concentrated mind to practice contemplation of mind, cittanuppassana. All defilements arise from the mind, so learning how to watch one’s own mind is the “key to happiness.” You are encouraged to attend this retreat as Sayalay Susila will show us the profound way to train ourselves to be mindful of our own mind, gradually liberating it from
all defilements — in other words — freedom of the mind.
