P'morning - P'morning's P'morning

1. Looking ahead to the journey of life

The beginning of suffering, the ways of working on one's own, the way of imagining while washing diapers, the way of being obsessed even when drowning, running away from home, studying, becoming a Christian monk, going to the beckoning places of the mountains, going to the land of cassava with plums and palm trees, returning to Burma,

The first age I remember is when I was a little girl, sitting on my grandmother's lap, rolling banana leaves in the banana grove in the backyard, while my grandmother blew on the banana leaves. The next age I remember vividly is when I was a child, dancing and eating the bananas that had already been roasted, after the banana grove had burned down to ashes.

While I was having fun and enjoying myself, my grandparents were in a state of misery. The reason was that the big house where my grandparents and I lived happily was burned down by bandits, and both the house and the banana plantation were reduced to ashes. The big house was located in the village of Tsitse.

Then I remembered that my parents and I lived in a small house instead of the big house. That small house was just a hut. That hut turned into a small house. This was the beginning of my misery.

My father was a very handsome man. He was also well-versed in various crafts. However, he did not stick to his job. As handsome as he was, as skilled in crafts as he was, he was a man of many walks of life, traveling from place to place. That is why I only saw my father once every six months or once a year. My mother, however, had to sell everything she could to make a living.

I was the firstborn. So when my mother went out to sell, I had to cook, wash, and clean like a little girl. I helped my mother with all the household chores to the best of my ability.

She also took care of her younger sister, "like a mother, by holding her waist when she went out to sell things."

In the early morning hours, I would wander around the village farms and pick palm fruits, pick mushrooms, and look for vegetables. My parents didn't force me to do this, but I did it on my own. During the rainy season, I would do various tasks like picking shrimp and catching fish. While doing these tasks, my mind would experience a blissful state similar to Nibbana. It was the freedom to move freely and live according to my own will.

One afternoon, I was washing baby diapers in a large basin by the stream. There was no one else around. As I washed the diapers, I saw in my mind

 

* As found in the original, the word "younger sister" was added without editing. It would be correct to use "younger sister". However, nowadays, they are used interchangeably, and readers will understand without this indication.

Master Pi Moe Ning never used such a confusing language. Master Pi Moe Ning's hand trembled, so he could not write the letter himself, but had to have someone else write it down. He would often correct important points later. It is likely that the master did not correct this expression because he did not see it.

Editor.

 

These were the people who often came and went to the house of the chief of my household, the city clerk, and their elegant clothes. Thinking about these things, I admired them and thought that if I could study like them, I would surely live like them one day, and my desire to study grew. As I always do things that I want to do, I quickly washed the diapers, trying to finish them quickly. After washing the diapers, I went home.

When I returned, I immediately began to beg my parents to enroll me in school.

I was overjoyed when my parents promised to send me to school in ten days, despite my constant worry. From that day on, I would write down the dates on the kitchen wall with charcoal while cooking. As the charcoal marks increased, my heart grew happier. I realized that there were six and seven marks.

One day, after washing my diapers, I jumped out of the tub to take a bath, and the water was deep, so I drowned. At that time, I had not thought about death. I thought about it, but I was not afraid. If I died, I would not be able to go to school. If I did not go to school, I would not be able to live like the mayor who came to the house of the mayor. I thought about living like the mayor and going to school, which I was very fond of. At that moment, I appeared on the water for a moment. At that moment, I took a breath of life. At that moment, there was no one nearby to save me. I drowned again, unable to breathe and drowned. Then, frightened, I jumped with all my strength to get to the water. It was not difficult to jump into the water. Therefore, because I jumped, I came back to the water. This time, I had to breathe again to gain strength. If I jumped, I had to come back to the water. The idea that if it appeared, I would be able to breathe suddenly entered my head. That's why I kept jumping. Every time I jumped, it appeared and I had to breathe. The last time I jumped, I was so happy that I didn't know what to do. It was worth the effort and effort of my conscious mind to jump.

Because at that moment, when I jumped and fell back, my nose was no longer submerged. I had reached shallow water. I don't know how long I had been jumping. I don't know, but by the time I reached the shore, I was so tired that I couldn't even walk.

I threw myself on the beach and rested for a while. Before I could finish thinking, "What if I drown?" I was terrified, and my legs started to tremble. But thinking about my future, which would be a day or two from today, my joy completely covered my fear. Then I took the clothes from the basket and ran home. I didn't tell anyone about the drowning because I was afraid of being beaten by the sun while I was in the diapers. I just ran away. Running away in fear like this turned out to be a good fate for my education.

I left there and reached the RC-AM school in Thiruthi at 6 pm. I met my elder sister who was living there and told her that I wanted to stay in school. My elder sister handed me over to the headmaster, Father Pelawa, and I had to stay in the RC-AM school. There were only 40 students in the school. Of these 40 percent, they were poor and had been raised by poor parents. The religion itself had to feed and educate us, the poor. While we were in the school, we had to do things like watering the trees and planting trees every day during school hours. We lived in poverty and misery in the RC-AM school for three years.