TMC’s Brief History
In 1979, when the late Mahasi Sayadaw and his entourage were about to return to Burma from a trip to the U.S.A., he granted the request of the Burmese Community in the San Francisco Bay Area to leave behind Sayadaw U Sīlānanda for their spiritual benefits. Since then, Sayadaw U Sīlānanda had been teaching the original Buddhism and guiding Vipassana meditation until he passed away in 2005.
We, the Vietnamese meditation students who individually practice Vipassana meditation under the late Sayadaw U Sīlananda’s guidance based on the original teachings of the Buddha and systematized by the late Mahasi Sayadaw as of 1984 and later formed a Buddhist Group in 1987. As a group, we met once a month on Sunday at one of our residences to continue to practice meditation according to Sayadaw U Sīlananda’s instructions and guidance. We moved from house to house every month. Then we organized longer retreats ranging from one week to ten days once or twice a year not only with Sayadaw U Sīlānanda but also with other venerable Sayadaws such as Sayadaw U Pantida of Panditarama and Sayadaw Khippa Pañño. They are all disciples of the late Mahasi Sayadaw. In the meantime, we started to contribute monies on a voluntary basis to a fund for establishing a meditation center in the future.
In 1991, we bought a property at 1215 Lucretia Avenue, San Jose, California, and officially founded Tathāgata Meditation Center (Như Lai Thiền Viện in Vietnamese) with Sayadaw U Sīlānanda as our Chief Meditation Teacher until 2005 and with the late U Dhammapiya as the first Abbot. About five years after 1991, we bought an adjacent property at 1235 Lucretia Avenue, San Jose, California.
Later on, Beelin Sayadaw became our second Abbot. Since the center was founded in 1991, we have been so fortunate to have Sayadaw U Lakkhana, Sayadaw U Nanujjotabhivamsa, and other Sayadaws coming to lead retreats at our center. All these Sayadaws just mentioned are disciples of the late Sayadaw U Pandita. We also had the opportunity to welcome Sayadaw U Kundañña and Chanmay Sayadaw, Mahasi Sayadaw’s great disciples, to our center to visit and give Dhamma talks.
And then, about ten years afterward, we bought two more adjacent properties on the back of the center at 1138 and 1148 Roberts Avenue, San Jose, California. Currently, Sayadaw U Thuzana is our Abbot. In this capacity, Sayadaw U Thuzana has guided short and long retreats. We have also invited Sayagyi Vimala from Kathmandu, Nepal, to lead retreats at our center. Both Sayadaw U Thuzana and Sayagyi Vimala are the late Sayadaw U Pandita’s disciples.
We have been legally operating according to the federal and state of California laws.
