mahāvihāra theravāda buddhists

Where can I find more about mahāvihāra theravāda buddhists teachings?

Mahāvihāra theravāda buddhist=The Orally Recited Memorizing Tradition. Tipitaka orally keep from buddha to 1st-3rd saṇgayanā saṇgha. Mahindathera and his students go to singhala island at mahāvihāra. Then in about 450 ABE, tipitaka, that we using nowadays, wrote here in mahāvihāra. And we still keep tipitaka study tradition by orally reciting tradition follow to theravāda's tipitaka and commentary after that wrote, from mahāvihāra teacher to mahāvihāra student, from mahāvihāra teacher (whe has been a student) to burma student and thai student.
Course syllabus of the The Orally Recited Memorizing Tradition that wrote in commentary from 1st saṇgayanā, was translated in this answer: buddhism.stackexchange.com/a/22917/10100 . Also, you can found the rule in mahākhandhaka in mahāvagga of vinayapitaka, too. But no one translated it to english for free, right now.

Every part of tipitaka have their own commentary

Every part of tipitaka have their own commentary. And most of commentaries have their own sub-commentary. All of these commentaries were written by tipitaka-memorizer.

Ancient Buddhist Study System

There are three study types in alagaddūpama sutta.

The pali and it's sequence, of that sutta, same to kīṭāgirisutta, that I re-translated in this answer.

By kīṭāgirisutta, you must choose a right teacher, that I answered in this answer.

Also, there is a layman-beginner course, in this answer, too. But that course is what the skillful teacher, in this answer, will teach you, so you shouldn't do it yourself alone. Why? Because I have doing it for 10 years, but I still not even achieve appanā-jhānā. In comparison, my current teacher from pa-auk, who just started to study buddhism since 6 years ago. However, he is one of pa-auk teacher now, because he study buddhism from a professional teachers who have all qualities in this answer, from pa-auk.

Right way will give you a shortcut way.

taṇhā specify gender, then kamma make it.

You need to recite paṭiccasamuppāda-pāli & ariyasacca-pāli. Everything perfectly and completely taught in tipitaka.
Rebirth (jāti, upattibhava) depend on avijjā & taṇhā (upādāna) & kamma (3 saṅkhāra, kammabhava).
3 taṇhā = kāmataṇhā, bhavataṇhā, vibhavataṇhā (sacca-pabba).
Whatever is good kāma/bhava/vibhava (piyarupaṃ, sātarūpaṃ) such as beautiful nun, is what is attached by kāmataṇhā/bhavataṇhā/vibhavataṇhā such as you love to sense about nun/you love to be a nun/you love to leave your male faculties (purisindriya).
Bhavataṇhā cause of kamma, so the example cases are:

1. Your love (kāmataṇhā) to sense (kammabhava) about nun, will cause a male rebirth.
2. Your love (bhavataṇhā) to be (upattibhava) a nun, will cause a female rebirth.
3. you love (vibhavataṇhā) to leave (upattibhava that cause of the other difference kind of upattibhava) your male faculties, will cause a female rebirth, that is difference kind of male rebirth.

You can receive bad effects in every gender, so tipitaka and commentary never specify the gender as an effects of kamma, except when the gender is a very significant cause of good/bad effects, such as purisindriya/itthindriya. For the example, a woman must release blood every month, so a regular woman often week more than a regular man, in physical body. So in regular case, female rebirth is suffering more than male rebirth.
However, that example doesn't mean that tipitaka of commentary specify the gender as an effects of kamma. That example is just an effect of kamma-bhava that depend on taṇhā. So, if male in the example has an enough strong taṇhā, he will not rebirth as a woman, but he can rebirth as a bloody man instead.

How to find the right Dhamma teacher

I tried to follow everything from the nissayamuccaka-course which I described in this answer, when I was still in a monk-hood by myself; and I had a low-quality teacher for about five years; before I found a perfect teacher from pa-auk forest monastery (this monastery also published other English-language Dharma articles here) who have all of the qualities listed below, that were specified in the tipitaka and commentary.
I met the pa-auk teacher too late, so I am being a layman now. However, it was my previous effort and experience which gave me the confidence to choose pa-auk to be my kammaṭṭhāna teacher.
The qualities of a teacher, and the operating procedure to choose and to apply with the teacher, have been briefly described in Chapter 4 of the Path of Purification.
Furthermore, in my opinion, the significant quality of a teacher is paṭisambhidā: because all ariya must have paṭisambhidā, at least in his kammaṭṭhāna. So he should have these qualities:

1. His teacher descent, he must derived from a tipitaka memorizer (buddha-sāvaka, suta-buddha; V.N. Mahāvagga Nissayamuccnakathā).
2. His enlightenment, he must achieved at least upacāra-samādhi and balava-vipassanā (4 paṭisambhidā; V.N. Mahāvagga Nissayamuccnakathā).
3. His tipitaka memory, he must graduated through at least nissayamuccaka-course (V.N. Pācittiyakaṇḍa Ovādakasikkhāpada's commentary).
4. His tipitaka understanding, he must not cut tipitaka off or make tipitaka conflict each other. Because tipitaka was memorized by single commentary teacher group at 1st saṅgāyanā, so it must be a single package that compatibility with each other (pro in tipitaka relation, dhamma-paṭisambhida&attha-paṭisambhidā).
5. His pali skill, he must understand pali in advance (nirutti-paṭisambhidā).
6. He must be a genius one (paṭibhāna-paṭisambhidā).

Furthermore, in tipitaka and commentary tradition, since mahākhandhaka of vinaya mahāvagga is completed authored by upāli in 1st saṇgāyanā, all layman's teachers must have all of these qualities, that concluded by upāli in bhikkhunovādakasikkhāpada's commentary (which I translate below as follows):

Qualities of nissayamuccaka-bhikkhu (teaching lay people)

1. Proficient to recite pāṭimokkha-pāli and to understand it's commentary.
2. Proficient to recite and to understand 4 bhāṇavāra (~1,000 syllable) of sutta and their commentary, to teach laymen on uposatha day.
3. Proficient to recite and to understand sutta for bhikkhu's life such as andhakavindasutta, mahālahulovādasutta, ambaṭṭhasutta, etc.
4. Proficient to recite and to understand sutta for teaching in 3 chances: banquet for saṅgha by layman (nidhikaṇdasutta), funeral ceremony (tirokuṭṭasutta), and auspicious ceremony (maṅgalasutta).
5. Enough understand to judge/to decide about saṇgha's ceremony such as uposatha, pavāraṇā, etc.
6. Proficient to recite and to understand his kammaṭṭhānā throughout the nibbāna-course.
7. 5 years experience in monk hood as a monk.

Qualities of bhikkuparisūpaṭṭhāpaka-bhikkhu (teaching bikkhus)
If above layman's teachers want to teach bhikkhus (ūpajjhā-ācāriya, nissaya-ācāriya), they must increase their skill level to all of the following qualities.
These are for abhivinaya teaching:

1. Proficient to recite mahāvibhagha and bhikkhunivibhaṅga (first 3 books of thai 45 books pali-tipitaka) of vinaya-pitaka-pali. At least, he can relay with the other 3 bhikkhu. Proficient to understand it's commentary, too.
2. Proficient to recite all saṇgha's ceremony in vinaya-pitaka mahāvagga and julavagga.
3. Proficient to recite 14 vatta in vattakhandhaka.

These are for abhidhamma (kammaṭṭhāna) teaching:

4. Proficient to recite one of this suttanta-pali: mūlapaṇṇassa (1st/3 parts of M.N.) for student in M.N. faculty, mahāvagga (2nd/3 parts of D.N.) for student in D.N. faculty, sagāthavagga+nidānavagga+khandhavāravagga of S.N. or mahāvagga of S.N. for student in S.N. faculty, before half of A.N. or after half of A.N. or ekakanipāta+dukanipāta of A.N. for student in A.N. faculty, jātaka+commentary (because kammaṭṭhāna was described in commentary) for student in jātaka faculty.

Qualities of bhikkunovdaka-bhikkhu (teaching bhikkunīs)
If above layman's teachers want to teach bhikkhunī, they must increase their skill level to all of these qualities:

1. Proficient to recite whole tipitaka-pali and commentary-pali. Or at least, he still must recite whole tipitaka, but he can recite just one commentary of suttanta, first 4 parts of commentary of 7 parts of abhidhamma. However, vinaya-commentary is what he must recite it all.

Reference: tipitaka and commentary of vinaya pācittiyakaṇḍa bhikkhunovādakasikkhāpada and vinaya mahāvagga mahākhandhaka.

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(I still find it difficult to reference the tipitaka and commentary using english resources: there's no translation, very long pages, confused categories, cutting some parts off the tipitaka, cutting commentary off from pali canon, etc.)

Related topic: https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/questions/3163/should-lay-buddhists-teach-the-dhamma

Anicca, dukkha Vs Object of insight meditation Vs Anatta Vs Paññatti

Anicca, dukkha =whole 5 aggregates, both lokiya and lokuttara aggregates. Because they depend on many causes to arise.
Object of insight meditation=just 5 lokiya aggregate, except tanha. Because lokuttara aggregates can't not be attached by tanha, so practitioner must doesn't make vipassana on lokuttara. Another, tanha is samudayasacca, so practitioner must make tanha finish at all, not just make vipassana on tanha.
Anatta=everything and every objects=whole 5 aggregates, nibbana, and paññatti.
Paññatti=imagination (it is not reality, like a dream, never arise, no cause). Aatta (self) is one kind of paññatti, too.

See: abhidhammatthasangaha in 1st and 8th chapter.

What are the 5 cords of sensual pleasures?

The five kāmaguṇa are:

1. color
2. sound
3. smell
4. flavor
5. phoṭṭhabba (=temperature, matter, and vayo).

They tie the kāma-person to live in kāma-bhava.
kāma means "living in kāma loka"; and guṇa means "a binder".
So, the five kāmaguṇa are things that kāma-taṇha (addicting to drug), and bhava-taṇha (addicting to becoming, born to be, future birth).
See the first part of the mahadukkhakkhandhasutta for more information:

Now what, monks, is the allure of sensuality? These five strings of sensuality. Which five? Forms cognizable via the eye — agreeable, pleasing, charming, endearing, fostering desire, enticing. Sounds cognizable via the ear... Aromas cognizable via the nose... Flavors cognizable via the tongue... Tactile sensations cognizable via the body — agreeable, pleasing, charming, endearing, fostering desire, enticing. Now whatever pleasure or joy arises in dependence on these five strands of sensuality, that is the allure of sensuality.