Hi Vuthy,

I would second what Tony said. Sayadaw U Thuzana is also a really lovely monk. Very warm hearted. He is actually quite liberal in many ways which is kinda unusual for Panditarama trained monks. The current abbot of MBMC is very stern and strict and IMO less forgiving to the ways of westerners... chalk and cheese to his predecessor.

If you're not bothered much about conditions (I've not been to Tathagata centre but given it is in the West, I would guess it is probably fairly quiet). MBMC does have quite alot of external noise from a school next door, some kinda work yard on another side (with lorries coming and going) plus it's next to a busy road.
However, if you apply yourself, those sorts of things won't really matter.

To arrange a stay there (MBMC) email: Lindah Toh, lindatoh2001@yahoo.com

Best of Luck,
Piers

No worries, it's a valid question. I think if you're going to go out of your way to fly to a retreat center specifically to do samatha, it would be far better to go to a retreat that's specifically for that than to take your chances that you might get a sympathetic teacher. Where are you located? There are quite a few samatha retreats in the States. If you prefer to go to a retreat in Asia, you may want to consider the Pa Auk Forest monastery in Burma.

You can definitely develop samatha jhana through doing Mahasi-style vipassana, and honestly, it's one of the better ways of doing it, but that still primarily involves doing lots of vipassana and getting good at it.

As for MBMC, I've never been there and other people in this thread have, but their sayadaws are part of the same organization as the ones I've studied with at TMC (I think all or most of the sayadaws I studied with at TMC had taught at MBMC, too). Some of them like U Thuzana are very comfortable with samatha and when faced with a student who has a talent for absorption, can give vipassana instructions that basically amount to samatha instructions with a vipassana flavor. Others might give more bookish, less practical advice about how to do samatha properly, get absorbed and get jhanas. Heavy accents and the odd terminology of teachers who speak English as a second language can also be a major problem. The problem is that if you go to a vipassana retreat with the hope of just using it as a practice space for a different meditative technique, you're depending on your luck with the teachers and how tolerant of and skilled they are in that technique. You may want to call or email in advance and ask them. In the past, on one hand I've heard the teachers say that you can do vipassana or samatha (they teach metta and buddhanusatti, which are styles of samatha, but they're not emphasized) during Mahasi retreats, but I've also heard of retreatants being asked to leave because they weren't following the instructions.

There are a lot of meditative tricks for any particular style of meditation to get particular attainments and they're best gotten from people who specialize at those techniques. You're really much better off getting good samatha instructions from someone who specializes at teaching it rather than a vipassana teacher.

Hi Andy,

Regarding MBMC, I have never been there, so I can't say. However, I know they currently have no Sayadaw in residence there, so all retreats are on hold until they do. 

Regarding concentration access - I am no expert by any means, but I've been able to get to Leigh Brasington's defnition of it (whispy thoughts - occasional 1 liners almost always related to the object or the practice) quickly and reliably by practicing samatha daily for 6 months or so.

Calm/concentration was difficult for me until I stopped trying so hard and "listen" instead. At first, I tried to force myself on to the breath "like a mad dog" and tried to silence me thoughts by force. Then, after reading Shinzen Young's 5 Ways to Know Yourself, I adapted some of his tranquility exercises to chill out. Now concentration access is reached quickly - less than 10 minutes.

Here's what I start doing:

• Start with a very short, simple metta - 5 minutes is enough. Wishing freedom for myself and others was a great way to put me into a very soft-hearted, listening-friendly place.
• Tune into the visual grayish blobby blankness. Note as "See Rest".
• Once that is noted, generally the body has some pleasant sensation or some feeling of releasing tension. Note as "Feel Rest"
• As you do steps 2 and 3 again and again and again, actively listen for mental talk (also known as thoughts) - by listening for it, it tends not to happen. Note the mental silence as "What will it think of next?"
• I'm not particularly visual, but sometimes mental images come up and interfere with "See Rest". Similar to listening for mental sound bites, looking for mental imaginings tends to make them much less frequent. I mentally say "What will it imagine next?" 
• Run through steps 2, 3, 4, and 5 again and again and again. Before you know it, you aren't thinking (imagery/sound bites) and "headspace" feels wide open and quiet. Effort will remain and sometimes it seems like someone is turning the lights up and down. That's what I call access concentration.

Key thing for me was to stop forcing and doing and actively listen to the calm and silence that is already there. Good luck.