oxford sayadaw biography

Sayadaw Dr. K. Dhammasami

He travels the world both in that capacity and as a teacher and meditation master. He has a key role in the OCBS’ relations with the Sangha and Buddhist Universities in Theravada countries and more widely across Asia.

He served as secretary-general of United Nations Day of Vesak in Bangkok (2006-2010), founder-executive of the two Buddhist universities associations: International Association of Theravāda Buddhist Universities (IATBU) (2007- present) and International Association of Buddhist Universities (IABU) (2007- present). Among academic posts he holds are Fellow and Trustee at the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies (2004- present) and a member of Theology Faculty (2009-present) as well as a Buddhist chaplain at Oxford University (2010-present); professor responsible for research, publication in Pali and international affairs at  International Theravada Buddhist Missionary University, Yangon, Myanmar (2006-present).

Since 2006, he has supervised and examined a few theses for MPhil and Ph.D. in London, Colombo, Bangkok, and Yangon and been a visiting lecturer in India, Indonesia, and Thailand.

He has been teaching mindfulness vipassana meditation since 1996 in Britain, Singapore, Malaysia, Germany, Spain, Thailand, the USA, Canada, Hungary, and Serbia. His book Mindfulness Meditation Made Easy has been translated into Thai, Korean, and Spanish. Apart from running regular retreats, he also organizes some conferences on meditation.

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Venerable Dr. K.Dhammasami

အဂ္ဂမဟာဂန္တဝါစကပဏ္ဍိတ၊ အဂ္ဂမဟာသဒ္ဓမ္မဇောတိကဓဇ၊

အောက်စ်ဖို့ဒ် ကမ္ဘာ့သာသနာပြု

ဆရာတော် ဒေါက်တာ ဓမ္မဿာမိ

DPhill(Oxford), MPhil(Kelaniya)

Chief Abbot Oxford Buddha Vihara (UK) & Oxford Buddha Vihara(Singapore)

ရန်ကုန်မြို့ အပြည်ပြည်ဆိုင်ရာ ထေရဝါဒ ဗုဒ္ဓသာသနာပြု တက္ကသိုလ် ပါမောက္ခ

အပြည်ပြည်ဆိုင်ရာကမ္ဘာ့ဗုဒ္ဓတက္ကသိုလ်များ အသင်းကြီး ကို တည်ထောင်သူ

founder of International Association of Buddhist Universities (IABU) http://www.iabu.org/

အပြည်ပြည်ဆိုင်ရာ ထေရဝါဒ ဗုဒ္ဓတက္ကသိုလ်များ အသင်းကြီး ကို တည်ထောင်သူ (ATBU)

founder of The International Association of Theravāda Buddhist Universities http://www.atbu.org/

ဟောကြားတော်မူသောတရားတော်များ                            

http://www.oxfordbuddhaviharasin.org

***********

Biography of Sayadaw

Argument: A Famous Buddhist Teacher Is Under Fire for Backing Myanmar’s Junta

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A Famous Buddhist Teacher Is Under Fire for Backing Myanmar’s Junta

Sitagu sayadaw once protested for democracy but now preaches nationalism..

Dressed in their green army dress uniforms, Maj. Gen. Tun Tun Naung and his regional commanders took off their shoes and knelt before the bald Buddhist monk in his red-brown robe. Extending their arms and giving the monk dana (gifts and offerings), they listened to him and then praised his wisdom. It was Feb. 4, just three days after the latest military coup consolidated the military’s supreme power in Myanmar, and the junta was paying tribute to one of the most powerful religious figures in the country, Sitagu Sayadaw (also known as Ashin Nyanissara; ashin and sayadaw are both honorifics for Buddhist teachers).

Sitagu Sayadaw’s participation and endorsement in the democratic movement of the late 1980s against the authoritarian Tatmadaw, the Myanmar name for the armed forces, now stands in sharp contrast to his acceptance of military rule during the recent coup.

Pictures of Sitagu Sayadaw, who once championed democracy, repeatedly receiving dana from generals in recent years—including Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the current de facto leader of the military government—demonstrate his shift from protester to power broker. And, more broadly, it demonstrates the movement of many of Myanmar’s elite Buddhist monks from dissent to support of armed nationalism over the past 30 years.

Since his involvement in the protests of 1988, Sitagu Sayadaw has wavered in his allegiance to both democratic and military governments in Myanmar’s decadeslong struggle for democracy. Buddhist nationalism and a desire to maintain Buddhism’s national preeminence has become a dominant ideology for many monks in the country. As we have written previously , Buddhist nationalist monks have often supported military rule due to the military’s hard-line and Islamophobic stance on Buddhist practice and propaganda, in which all non-Buddhists are presented as a threat to Myanmar’s religious identity. Those fears have played a role in Sitagu Sayadaw’s passage from democratic icon to an uneasy supporter of the junta.

Sitagu Sayadaw was born on Feb. 23, 1937, in Thegon Township, a rural portion of British-ruled colonial Burma not far from the eastern banks of the Irrawaddy River. Ordained as a monk in 1957, nine years after the country gained independence, he gradually ascended the ranks of the Buddhist hierarchy. In Myanmar, a country that is overwhelmingly Theravada Buddhist, the daily lives of laypeople are mutually dependent on the sangha , or Buddhist monastic community, through meritorious giving and religious teaching. The sangha has been prominent for centuries in Myanmar, with monastics often playing a role not only as religious figures but also as conduits for sociopolitical change. In 1977, Sitagu Sayadaw established his first monastery and began gathering a following with his charismatic preaching, as well as through charity and development projects that began in the 1980s.

Toward the end of the 1980s, the totalitarian government led by Ne Win and his Burma Socialist Programme Party began to collapse. The momentum culminated in 1988 during nationwide protests and civil disobedience now known as the 8888 Uprising. Students were the primary instigators of the demonstrations, but “monks joined the protest” while “the military tried to divide with the usual tactics,” Tun Myint, an associate professor of political science at Carleton College and a student protest leader at the time, told us in an interview.

During this period, Sitagu Sayadaw, already well known, began speaking out against the government. During one famous speech, the monk criticized the Socialist Party by invoking the Ten Duties of the King set down in early Buddhist texts. By doing so, he questioned not only the authority of the country’s leaders but also their legitimacy as devout Buddhists. It is likely this speech and the subsequent violent crackdown on protesters that led Sitagu Sayadaw to a period of temporary exile in the United States, where he studied world religions. On his return, he found that he retained a substantial following.

Sitagu Sayadaw helped initiate a gradual change in charitable donation practices within Myanmar. Despite his religious role, he has supported secular and socially responsible charitable giving, even to organizations and projects beyond the monastery. While most donations are still given directly to monks and monasteries, this marks a notable change. Matthew Walton, an assistant professor of comparative political theory at the University of Toronto and a prominent scholar of Myanmar’s politics, observed: “People in Myanmar have always done this work on local scales … but Sitagu is one of a few monks who has really changed people’s views on proper donation practices.”

Sitagu Sayadaw’s reputation continued to grow along with the nascent anti-junta movement. In 2007, thousands of monks took to the streets to combat the unfair policies of the Tatmadaw junta in protests known as the Saffron Revolution. However, Sitagu Sayadaw did not join them. Despite the involvement of thousands of other monks, this time he abstained from activism, going so far as to bar monks in his monastery from engaging in the protests themselves.

While many monks at this time protested in favor of democracy, a growing number believed in a Buddhist nationalism in which the 2007 movement was primarily a means to that end. For them, “participation in the 2007 Saffron Revolution did not stem from a belief in fundamental freedoms or universal suffrage,” Melyn McKay, a noted scholar of Myanmar state and society and tutor in social anthropology at the University of Oxford’s Exeter College, said in an interview with us. Rather, it was a belief that “democracy would better enable the Buddhist polity to elect leaders able and willing to ensure the health and well-being of the imagined Buddhist ‘state’” that drove them.

Sitagu Sayadaw’s prestige has expanded in part through his budding role in public life. In 2008, his stature grew further when he sent fleets of boats and trucks with disaster relief to areas impacted by Cyclone Nargis, which killed over 100,000 people in Myanmar. Within a week, he had relief centers set up in the four worst-hit towns. This broadened his popularity and coincided with his increasing connections to political power. Sitagu Sayadaw gained fresh attention with the growing international spotlight on Myanmar and its possible democratization; both U.S. President Barack Obama and Pope Francis met with him during their visits to the country. And when clashes between Buddhists and Muslims began in western Myanmar in 2012, he offered himself as a mediator, taking part in interfaith dialogues aiming to mend the wounds between communities. But, at the same time, he also gave speeches warning darkly about the threat of Islam.

In 2015, Myanmar passed its strictest anti-Muslim laws yet, unprecedented in their intrusion into traditionally private life. They dictate that women must space their pregnancies by three years or more in areas in which the Muslim population is the largest. They require people to gain approval from a local government board to change religions. They ban marital infidelity and polygamy. And they stipulate that marriages may be prevented if a member of the community objects to the marriage. Sitagu Sayadaw did not just cheer the laws—he harkened back to what he saw as a historical precedent to justify religious intervention in politics. Just as the pope had helped form Christian Democratic parties to blunt the spread of communism a century earlier, so now could Buddhist leaders stop the spread of Islamism through the country’s laws, he argued. Since then, despite Buddhist monastic law forbidding it, Sitagu Sayadaw has offered to influence monks to serve in the military and enforce the state’s dictates toward the Muslim community.

When Sitagu Sayadaw unites the military and monks for perceived national interests, he sometimes draws upon the mythic past for inspiration and justification. In a 2017 sermon, for instance, he utilized an important Theravada Buddhist text that depicts the ancient King Dutthagamani of the Anuradhapura Kingdom (which covered a portion of present-day Sri Lanka) to connect Buddhist conceptions of righteousness with violent military conquest. The sermon employed a mythical justification for killing thousands in battle that suggested most of the ancient king’s enemies were not truly human. The bloodiest war was hardly wrong, Sitagu Sayadaw seemed to say, if the enemies were the right ones.

While such arguments have been used before by Buddhist rulers and monks to justify bloodshed, such sermons are also part of the broader dehumanizing efforts by both state and religious figures that actively depict Muslims as an imminent danger to the majority race and religion in Myanmar. This burgeoning religious nationalism occasionally draws criticism. One notable monk called Sitagu Sayadaw’s words “ dangerous .” But these are lonely voices. His narrative of a Buddhism justified in suppressing the Muslim community is the dominant narrative within Myanmar.

Along with Sitagu Sayadaw’s role as a Buddhist nationalist in Myanmar, he has worked to remain a prominent figure in the country’s religious and political life. He often speaks to large crowds and frequently has videographers with him, recording his sermons and interactions for dissemination. Gradually, he has cultivated relationships with figures in politics and the security structure. Myanmar leaders attend his birthday parties. And he has flaunted his international connections. Portraits of him and Obama hang in the schools he founded. But this has also drawn quiet criticism from more nationalistic members of the monastic community, even from the Patriotic Association of Myanmar, a religious extremist group known by the Myanmar abbreviation Ma Ba Tha, of which he was once vice chairman. As McKay told us, “Amongst Ma Ba Tha leadership, for instance, it was not uncommon to hear Nyanissara referred to as an ‘international monk,’ a subtle slight meant to convey that his interests center on his own reputation and building it beyond the countries’ borders and not on protecting and promoting the Myanmar Buddhist polity.”

This year, however, Sitagu Sayadaw’s role has shifted once again. After the military junta began killing protesters, his silence led to criticism , including on his own social media pages. In March, though, he finally spoke out , issuing a statement with other prominent monks that called on the military leader Min Aung Hlaing to restrain security forces and to halt the “violent crushing [of] unarmed civilians immediately.” Just as in 1988, he called upon the leadership to follow the Ten Duties of the King.

The relationship between Myanmar’s faithful and its religious figures is complex. While most households in Myanmar give alms to Buddhist institutions, they have a wide variety from which to choose. Politically outspoken monks run the risk of worshippers choosing other monasteries for their alms. With clear signs that most of the population oppose the Tatmadaw’s violence, it is perhaps not altogether surprising that Sitagu Sayadaw would be pressured to change his stance.

A decade ago, Myanmar was seen as a bright spot of political progress. Since then, amid the global authoritarian revival, its leaders have committed genocide and killed peaceful protesters. No collective international response of significance has come, and the regime’s worst actions have received tacit support from authoritarians in other countries. As Tun Myint said, “The rise of autocracies around the world is a threat to democracy everywhere.” But the public protests and criticism of leaders, including Sitagu Sayadaw, have not been fruitless. This year’s protests have demonstrated an elusive unity across the divisions of Myanmar’s society. The ability of public criticism and demands for accountability from protesters to elicit censure of military violence from Sitagu Sayadaw, one of Myanmar’s most prominent nationalists, offers a faint hope that the threat to democracy may be repulsed.

Brenna Artinger is an independent researcher and holds an MPhil in Buddhist Studies from the University of Oxford.

Michael Rowand is a researcher for the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress. The views expressed in this article are his own and do not represent the views of the Library of Congress or the United States government.

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• Event & Notice
• Convocation 🎓

Shan State Buddhist University (SSBU) founded in 2014 by Ven. Prof. Dr. K. Dhammasami (DPhil. Oxford) is the first Buddhist university established in Shan State, Myanmar. It is located around serene hills which only takes about ten minutes by car from downtown of Taunggyi, the capital of Shan State.

SSBU at present offers BA degree, postgraduate diploma and MA degree programmes. In our unique degree programmes, students can tap into our rich tradition of excellence in textual, philological, philosophical, psychological and doctrinal study and gain perspective on ways in which Buddhism informs and is informed by the contemporary world.

SSBU’s MA programme offers a wide range of courses, including Pali, Tipitaka studies, Meditation, Buddhist Philosophy and Buddhism in Myanmar. The tutors of the students who will also be the MA lecturers of SSBU include Ven. Prof. Dr. K. Dhammasami (Oxford Sayadaw) (Dhammacariya, MA and MPhil. Kelaniya, DPhil. Oxford); Ven. Dr. Senghurng Narinda (MA Kelaniya, PhD Peradeniya); Prof. Peter Koret (PhD SOAS University of London), a specialist on Lao literature and culture; Dr. Susan Conway (BA West Surrey College, MA Goldsmith’s College, PhD Brighton), a Research Associate at SOAS and a specialist on Shan culture; Dr. Aleix Ruiz Falqués (BA Barcelona, MA Pune University, PhD Cambridge), a Pali scholar; Dr. Pyi Phyo Kyaw (BA Oxford, MA SOAS, PhD King’s College, London), a Postdoctoral Fellow of Buddhist Studies at King’s College; Dr. Anuja Ajotikar (MPhil. Pune University, PhD ITT Bombay), a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Sanskrit Library; and Dr. David Wharton (PhD University of Passau), a specialist on the language, orthography and Buddhist manuscript culture of the Tai Nuea ethnic group. More scholar-tutors will join.

Moreover, since 2015, SSBU has been training the teachers of our MA programme. The academic training workshops for our teachers have covered a wide range of areas, including how to teach at a postgraduate level and how to be research-active scholars, all of which are important aspects of good academic practice. We strongly believe that academic excellence comes from continuous academic training and development. Therefore, SSBU provides in-house academic training for our teaching staff to ensure our teachers are of the highest standard.

As part of our commitment to academic excellence, library is an important component of SSBU, supporting the university’s teaching, learning and research activities. SSBU library currently houses over ten thousands of academic books collected from Europe, America and Asia, covering diverse areas of study. In the future, we hope to make SSBU library an outstanding Buddhist library containing books and resources in many different languages.

• Our Mission

Who Was Sayadaw U Pandita?

Burmese meditation master Sayadaw U Pandita had a defining influence on the Western Insight movement of Theravada Buddhism.

By Jake Davis

When Sayadaw U Pandita came to Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, in 1984 to lead a retreat primarily for a small group of Western teachers and senior Western students, most knew him then only as the successor to the Mahasi Sayadaw, who had passed away two years earlier. Yet for many of those who are the most senior teachers in the West today, that retreat provided a singular opportunity to do long-term intensive practice with one whom they came to regard as a true master.

When I was training with him decades later, U Pandita pulled out photo albums from that retreat. I remember his joyous smile as he showed me pictures of Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, Jack Kornfield, and others, glowing from months of intensive practice and of course looking a good bit younger than I remembered them. Over the course of this and subsequent retreats held in the U.S., Australia, and elsewhere, many of these Western teachers describe not only training in  satipatthana (mindfulness meditation) practice with a level of energy and precision beyond what they had previously imagined possible but also for the first time engaging in intensive long-term practice of the brahmaviharas: metta, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity. The profound impact of this pairing—U Pandita’s precise energetic style of mindfulness practice with brahmavihara practice—on the way in which Buddhist meditation is taught in the West is abundantly evident. However, it is not always clear to newer students how many contemporary Western presentations are in large part a legacy of U Pandita’s formative guidance of a generation of Western teachers.

U Pandita was born in Burma in 1921. Losing his mother at age four and his father at ten, he began his primary education in the traditional way, at a monastery, and ordained as a novice monk when he was twelve. At eighteen, he went to study with the great Sayadaw U Kelasa of the Kyauk Tan Mahabodhi Monastery near Bago and ordained as a bhikkhu there at twenty. U Pandita would go on to become a distinguished scholar of the Pali texts in his own right, teaching textual studies in Rangoon, earning the preeminent title of Abhivamsa, and eventually participating, when he was thirty-three, as both Reciter and Corrector of Pali in the Sixth Sangha Council of 1956.

Many contemporary Western presentations of Buddhist meditation are in large part a legacy of U Pandita’s formative guidance.

While teaching Pali in Rangoon in his late twenties, U Pandita also studied English with Saya-gyi U Hpe Thin, and the two of them made an agreement that whoever came to see dhamma first would tell the other. Saya-gyi U Hpe Thin later went to practice at the newly established center run by the Mahasi Sayadaw and, becoming satisfied with his practice and inspired by the teaching there, U Hpe Thin encouraged the young U Pandita to go along as well. Thus it was that at twenty-nine, U Pandita took up the practice of satipatthana as taught by the Mahasi Sayadaw. He too became inspired by the practice and eager to share this taste of dhamma with relatives, friends, and others. Through his own experience, U Pandita had also become firmly convinced that textual study of the Buddha’s teachings needed to be complemented by practical application of meditation practice.

On the strength of this realization, when he was thirty-four, U Pandita left his post teaching Pali textual studies to take up the duties assigned to him by the Mahasi Sayadaw. He guided yogis for over three decades at the Rangoon center, including many of the Burmese monks would who go on to become leading teachers of the Mahasi method in their own right. In addition, a handful of young Westerners such as Alan Clements and Steven Smith came to the center in the early 1980s and practiced under the guidance of U Pandita. It was in large part on the strength of the recommendation of these young Westerners that U Pandita was invited to IMS in 1984 to conduct that historic retreat, which would prove to be a major watershed in the training of Western teachers of mindfulness meditation.

In 1979, at age fifty-seven, U Pandita was appointed as a guiding Nayaka teacher at the Mahasi center and with the passing of the Mahasi Sayadaw in 1982 was appointed to the lead role of Ovadacariya at the center. He served in that role for eight years, then left to found the Panditarama Shwe Taung Gon Center. The new center flourished, and many branch centers were eventually established under his guidance in Burma and around the world. In addition to training many thousands of meditators in his precise, rigorous style of practice, U Pandita dedicated himself to the training of female Anagarika nuns from Nepal, Burma, the United States, and elsewhere, in both textual study and meditative practice to the highest standards. The immense potential of this contribution to the strength of the Buddha’s teachings in the West is only beginning to be felt.

While his mastery of meditation practice is widely recognized, it is less emphasized in the West how U Pandita embodied and insisted on the purity of one’s morality as a foundational and essential means of avoiding suffering for oneself and others. One Burmese monk, now an elder, recalls that when he lived as a young novice under U Pandita, the novices did not dare to so much as look  at the nuns, much less chat with them. Yet this strict observance of sila, which U Pandita held himself to as well, was motivated by a compassionate understanding of the suffering that can follow from a failure to do so .  As the American teacher Michele McDonald relates, it was the great strength of U Pandita’s sila that made her feel safe enough to trust him as a guide through very difficult aspects of practice.

U Pandita embodied and insisted on the purity of one’s morality as a foundational and essential means of avoiding suffering for oneself and others.

For all his many personal strengths, U Pandita tried to include in his teaching as little of himself as possible. American nun and longtime student Daw Vajiranani recalls U Pandita telling her that the Buddha’s teachings recorded in the Pali texts should be given first priority, next the commentaries, and after that the lineage of teachers down to the present; one’s own views and innovations should carry the least weight. For this reason, U Pandita emphasized that in order to guide others skillfully, a meditation teacher needs careful study of the Pali texts, just as textual study must also be completed by practical application of these teachings in meditative practice. Throughout his own teaching career, U Pandita never forgot his great debt to his own teacher, the Mahasi Sayadaw. And he emphasized Mahasi’s immense contribution in making clear how the Pali suttas, beginning from the Buddha’s first teaching in the Dhammacakkapavattana Sutta , offer precise practical guidance for meditation practice.

Sayadaw U Pandita will be remembered as embodying the aspiration to pass on, intact, the purity of the lineage of teaching from the Buddha that he had received. His remarkable energy for this kind of service made him one of the foremost meditation masters of our time and kept him traveling widely and giving daily talks until his final weeks this spring. His passing truly represents the end of an era.

Saraniya Dhamma Meditation Centre

Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw

Dhamma Talks

Photo Gallery

The late Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw was born in the year 1904 at Seikkhun, a large, prosperous and charming village lying about seven miles to the west of the historic Shwebo town in Upper Burma. His parents, peasant proprietors by occupation, were U Kan Taw and Daw Oke. At the age of six he was sent to receive his early monastic eduction under U Adicca, presiding monk of Pyinmana Monastery at Seikkhun. Six years later, he was initiated into the monastic Order as a novice (samanera)  under the same teacher and given the name of Shin Sobhana (which means Auspicious). The name befitted his courageous features and his dignified behaviour. He was a bright pupil, making remarkably quick progress in his scriptural studies. When U Adicca left the Order, Shin Sobhana continued his studies under Sayadaw U Parama of Thugyi-kyaung Monastery, Ingyintaw-taik. At the age of nineteen he had to decide whether to continue in the Order and devote the rest of his life to the service of the  Buddha Sasana  or to return to lay life. Shin Sobhana knew where his heart lay and unhesitatingly chose the first course. He was ordained as a  Bhikkhu  on the 26th of November 1923, Sumedha Sayadaw Ashin Nimmala acting as his preceptor. Within four years Ven. Sobhana passed all three grades of the Pali scriptural examinations conducted by the Government.

Ven. Sobhana next went to the city of Mandalay, noted for its pre-eminence in Buddhist learning, to pursue advanced study of the scriptures under Sayadaws well-known for their learning. His stay at Khinmakan-west Monastery for this purpose was, however, cut short after little more than a year when he was called to Moulmein. The head of the Taik-kyaung monastery in Taungwainggale (who came from the same village as Ven. Sobhana) wanted him to assist with the teaching of his pupils. While teaching at Taungwainggale, Ven. Sobhana went on with his own studies of the scriptures, being especially interested in the  Mahasatipatthana Sutta.  His deepening interest in the  satipatthana  method of  vipassana  meditation took him next to neighbouring Thaton where the well-known Mingun Jetavan Sayadaw was teaching it. Under the Mingun Jetavan Sayadaw’s instruction, Ven. Sobhana took up intensive practice of  vipassana  meditation. Within four months he had such good results that he could teach it properly to his first three disciples at Seikkhun while he was on a visit there in 1938. After his return from Thaton to Taungwainggale (owing to the grave illness and subsequent death of the aged Taik-kyaung Sayadaw) to resume his teaching work and to take charge of the monastery, Ven. Sobhana sat for and passed with distinction the Government-held  Dhammacariya  (Teacher of the Dhamma) examination in June 1941.

On the eve of the Japanese invasion of Burma, Ven. Sobhana had to leave Taungwainggale and return to his native Seikkhun. This was a welcome opportunity for him to devote himself wholeheartedly to his own practice of  satipatthana vipassana  meditation and to teaching it to a growing number of disciples. The Mahasi Monastery at Seikkhun (whence he became known as Mahasi Sayadaw) fortunately remained free from the horror and disruption of war. During this period the Sayadaw’s disciples prevailed upon him to write the ‘Manual of Vipassana Meditation’, an authoritative and comprehensive work expounding both the doctrinal and practical aspects of  satipatthana  meditation.

It was not long before the Mahasi Sayadaw’s reputation as a skilled meditation teacher had spread throughout the Shwebo-Sagaing region and came to the attention of a devout and wealthy Buddhist, Sir U Thwin. U Thwin wanted to promote the  Buddha Sasana  by setting up a meditation centre directed by a teacher of proven virtue and ability. After listening to a discourse on  vipassana  given by the Sayadaw and observing his serene and noble demeanour, Sir U Thwin had no difficulty in deciding that the Mahasi Sayadaw was the meditation teacher he had been looking for.

On the 13th of November 1947, the Buddhasasana Nuggaha Association was founded at Rangoon with Sir U Thwin as its first President, and with scriptural learning and the practice of the  Dhamma  as its object. Sir U Thwin donated to the Association a plot of land in Hermitage Road, Rangoon, measuring over five acres, for the erection of the proposed meditation centre. In 1978, the Centre occupied an area of 19.6 acres, on which a vast complex of buildings and other structures had been built. Sir U Thwin told the Association that he had found a reliable meditation teacher and proposed that the then Prime Minister of Burma invite Mahasi Sayadaw to the Centre.

After the Second World War, the Sayadaw alternated his residence between his native Seikkhun and Taungwainggale in Moulmein. Meanwhile, Burma had regained independence on 4th January 1948. In May 1949, during one of his sojourns at Seikkhun, the Sayadaw completed a new  nissaya  translation of the Mahasatipatthana Sutta.  This work excels the average  nissaya  translation of this  Sutta,  which is very important for those who wish to practise  vipassana meditation but need guidance.

In November of that year, on the personal invitation of the then Prime Minister, U Nu, Mahasi Sayadaw came down from Shwebo and Sagaing to the Sasana Yeiktha (Meditation Centre) at Rangoon, accompanied by two senior Sayadaws. Thus began Mahasi Sayadaw’s guardianship of the Sasana Yeiktha at Rangoon. On 4th December 1949 Mahasi Sayadaw personally instructed the very first batch of twenty-five meditators in the practice of  vipassana.  As the meditators grew in numbers, it became too demanding for the Sayadaw to give the entire initiation talk to all the meditators. From July 1951 the tape-recorded talk was played for each new batch of meditators with a brief introduction by the Sayadaw. Within a few years of the establishment of the Sasana Yeiktha at Rangoon, similar meditation centres were inaugurated in many parts of the country with Mahasi-trained members of the  Sangha  as meditation teachers. These centres were not confined to Burma alone, but extended to neighbouring Theravada countries like Thailand and Sri Lanka. There were also a few centres in Cambodia and India. According to a 1972 census, the total number of meditators trained at all these centres (both in Burma and abroad) had exceeded seven hundred thousand. In recognition of his distinguished scholarship and spiritual attainments, Mahasi Sayadaw was honoured in 1952 by the then Prime Minister of the Union of Burma with the prestigious title of  Aggamahapandita  (the Exalted Wise One).

Soon after attaining Independence, the Government of Burma began plans to hold a Sixth Buddhist Council  (Sangayana)  in Burma, with four other Theravada Buddhist countries (Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos) participating. For this purpose the Government dispatched a mission to Thailand and Cambodia, composed of Nyaungyan Sayadaw, Mahasi Sayadaw and two laymen. The mission discussed the plan with the Primates of the Buddhist Sangha of those two countries.

At the historic Sixth Buddhist Council, which was inaugurated with every pomp and ceremony on 17th May 1954, Mahasi Sayadaw played an eminent role, undertaking the exacting and onerous tasks of  Osana  (Final Editor) and  Pucchaka  (Questioner). A unique feature of this Council was the editing of the commentaries  (Atthakatha)  and sub-commentaries  (tikas),  as well as the canonical texts. In the editing of this commentarial literature, Mahasi Sayadaw was responsible for making a critical analysis, sound interpretation and skilful reconciliation of several crucial and divergent passages.

A significant result of the Sixth Buddhist Council was the revival of interest in Theravada Buddhism among Mahayana Buddhist. In 1955, while the Council was in progress, twelve Japanese monks and a Japanese laywoman arrived in Burma to study Theravada Buddhism. The monks were initiated into the Theravada Buddhist Sangha asnovices while the laywoman was made a Buddhist nun. Then, in July 1957, at the instance of the Buddhist Association of Moji, the Buddha Sasana Council of Burma sent a Theravada Buddhist mission to Japan. Mahasi Sayadaw was one of the leading representatives of the Burmese Sangha in that mission.

Also in 1957, Mahasi Sayadaw undertook the task of writing an introduction in Pali to the  Visuddhimagga Atthakatha,  to refute certain misstatements about its famous author, Ven. Buddhaghosa. The Sayadaw completed this difficult task in 1960, his work bearing every mark of distinctive learning and depth of understanding. By then the Sayadaw had also completed two volumes (out of four) of his Burmese translation of this famous commentary and classic work on Buddhist meditation.

At the request of the Government of Sri Lanka, a special mission headed by Sayadaw U Sujata, an eminent deputy of Mahasi Sayadaw, went there in July 1955 to promote  satipatthana  meditation. The mission stayed in Sri Lanka for over a year doing admirable work, setting up twelve permanent and seventeen temporary meditation centres. Following the completion of a meditation centre on a site granted by the Sri Lankan Government, a larger mission led by Mahasi Sayadaw left Burma for Sri Lanka on 6th January 1959, via India. The mission was in India for about three weeks, during which its members visited several holy places associated with the life and work of Lord Buddha. They also gave religious talks on suitable occasions and had interviews with Prime Minister Shri Jawaharlal Nehru, President of India Dr. Rajendra Prasad and vice-president Dr. S. Radhakrishnan. A notable feature of the visit was the warm welcome received from members of the depressed classes, who had embraced Buddhism under the guidance of their late leader Dr. Ambedkar.

The mission flew from Madras to Sri Lanka on 29th January 1959 and arrived at Colombo on the same day. On Sunday 1st February, at the opening ceremony of the meditation centre named ‘Bhavana Majjhathana’, Mahasi Sayadaw delivered an address in Pali after Prime Minister Bandaranayake and some others had spoken. The members of the mission next went on an extended tour of the island, visiting several meditation centres where Mahasi Sayadaw gave discourses on vipassana  meditation. They also worshipped at famous sites of Buddhist pilgrimage like Polonnaruwa, Anuradhapura and Kandy. This historic visit of the Burmese mission under the inspiring leadership of Mahasi Sayadaw was symbolic of the ancient and close ties of friendship between these two Theravada Buddhist countries. Its benefit to the Buddhist movement in Sri Lanka was a revival of interest in meditation, which seemed to have declined.

In February 1954, a visitor to the Sasana Yeiktha might have noticed a young Chinese man practising  vipassana  meditation. The meditator in question was a Buddhist teacher from Indonesia by the name of Bung An who had become interested in  vipassana  meditation. Under the guidance of Mahasi Sayadaw and Sayadaw U Ñanuttara, Mr Bung An made such excellent progress that in little more than a month Mahasi Sayadaw gave him a detailed talk on the progress of insight. Later he was ordained a  bhikkhu  and named Ven. Jinarakkhita, with Mahasi Sayadaw as his preceptor. After he returned as a Buddhist monk to Indonesia, the Buddha Sasana Council received a request to send a Burmese Buddhist monk to promote missionary work in Indonesia. It was decided that Mahasi Sayadaw, as the preceptor and mentor of Ashin Jinarakkhita, should go. With thirteen other Theravada monks, Mahasi Sayadaw undertook such primary missionary activities as consecrating  simas  (ordination boundaries) ordaining  bhikkhus,  initiating novices and giving discourses, particularly talks on  vipassana  meditation.

Considering these fruitful activities in promoting Buddhism in Indonesia and Sri Lanka, we might describe Mahasi Sayadaw’s missions to these countries as ‘Dhamma-vijaya’  (victory of the Dhamma) journeys.

As early as 1952, at the request of the Thai Minister for Sangha Affairs, Mahasi Sayadaw had sent Sayadaws U Asabha and U Indavamsa to Thailand for the promotion of  satipatthana vipassana.  Thanks to their efforts, Mahasi Sayadaw’s method gained wide acceptance in Thailand. By 1960, many meditation centres had been established and the number of Mahasi meditators exceeded a hundred thousand.

It was characteristic of the Venerable Sayadaw’s disinterested and single-minded devotion to the cause of the  Buddha Sasana  that, regardless of his advancing age and feeble health, he undertook three more missions to the West (Britain, Europe and America) and to India and Nepal in the three years (1979, 1980 and 1981) preceding his death.

Abhidhajamaharatthaguru Masoeyein Sayadaw, who presided over the Sanghanayaka Executive Board at the Sixth Buddhist Council, urged Mahasi Sayadaw to teach two commentaries to the Sangha at Sasana Yeiktha. Ven. Buddhaghosa’s  Visuddhimagga Atthakatha  and Ven. Dhammapala’s  Visuddhimagga Mahatika deal primarily with Buddhist meditation theory and practice, though they also offer useful explanations of important doctrinal points, so they are vital for prospective meditation teachers. Mahæsø Sayadaw began teaching these two works on 2nd February 1961, for one and a half or two hours daily. Based on the lecture notes taken by his pupils, the Sayadaw started writing a  nissaya  translation of the  Visuddhimagga Mahatika,  completing it on 4th February 1966. This  nissaya  was an exceptional achievement. The section on the different views held by other religions  (samayantara)  was most exacting since the Sayadaw had to familiarise himself with ancient Hindu philosophy and terminology by studying all available references, including works in Sanskrit and English.

Up till now Mahasi Sayadaw has to his credit 67 volumes of Burmese Buddhist literature. Space does not permit us to list them all here, but a complete up-to-date list of them is appended to the Sayadaw’s latest publication, namely,  ‘A Discourse on Sakkapanha Sutta’  (published in October 1978).

At one time, Mahasi Sayadaw was severely criticised in certain quarters for his advocacy of the allegedly unorthodox method of noting the rising and falling of the abdomen in  vipassana  meditation. It was mistakenly assumed that this method was an innovation of the Sayadaw’s, whereas the truth is that it had been approved several years before Mahasi Sayadaw adopted it, by no less an authority than the  mula  (original) Mingun Jetavan Sayadaw, and that it is in no way contrary to the Buddha’s teaching on the subject. The reason for Mahasi Sayadaw’s preference for this method is that the average meditator finds it easier to note this manifestation of the element of motion  (vayodhatu).  It is not, however, imposed on all who come to practise at any of the Mahasi meditation centres. One may, if one likes, practise  anapanasati . Mahasi Sayadaw himself refrained from joining issue with his critics on this point, but two learned Sayadaws brought out a book each in defence of the Sayadaw’s method, thus enabling those who are interested in the controversy to judge for themselves.

This controversy arose in Sri Lanka where some members of the Sangha, inexperienced and unknowledgeable in practical meditation, publicly assailed Mahasi Sayadaw’s method in newspapers and journals. Since this criticism was voiced in the English language with world-wide coverage, silence could no longer be maintained and so Sayadaw U Ñanuttara of Kaba-aye (World Peace Pagoda campus) forcefully responded to the criticisms in the pages of the Sri Lankan Buddhist periodical  ‘World Buddhism’.

Mahasi Sayadaw’s international reputation has attracted numerous visitors and meditators from abroad, some seeking enlightenment for their religious problems and others intent on practising meditation under the Sayadaw’s personal guidance. Among the first meditators from abroad was former British Rear-Admiral E.H. Shattock who came on leave from Singapore and practised meditation at the Sasana Yeiktha in 1952. On his return to England he published a book entitled  ‘An Experiment in Mindfulness’  in which he related his experiences in generally appreciative terms. Another foreigner was Mr. Robert Duvo, a French-born American from California. He came and practised meditation at the Centre first as a lay meditator and later as a  bhikkhu.  He subsequently published a book in France about his experiences and the  satipatthana vipassana  method. Particular mention should be made of Anagarika Shri Munindra of Buddha Gaya in India, who became a close disciple of Mahasi Sayadaw, spending several years with the Sayadaw learning the Buddhist scriptures and practising  vipassana.  Afterwards he directed an international meditation centre at Buddha Gaya where many people from the West came to practise meditation. Among these meditators was a young American, Joseph Goldstein, who has written a perceptive book on insight meditation titled  ‘The Experience of Insight: A Natural Unfolding’.

Some of the Sayadaw’s works have been published abroad, such as  ‘The Satipatthana Vipassana Meditation’  and  ‘Practical Insight Meditation’  by the Unity Press, San Francisco, California, USA, and  ‘The Progress of Insight’  by the Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, Sri Lanka. Selfless and able assistance was rendered by U Pe Thin (now deceased) and Myanaung U Tin in the Sayadaw’s dealings with his visitors and meditators from abroad and in the translation into English of some of Sayadaw’s discourses on  vipassana  meditation. Both of them were accomplished meditators.

The Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw is profoundly revered by countless grateful disciples in Burma and abroad. Although it was the earnest wish of his devoted disciples that the Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw might live for several more years and continue showering the blessings of the  Buddhadhamma  on all those in search freedom and deliverance, the inexorable law of impermanence terminated, with tragic suddenness, his selfless and dedicated life on the 14th of August 1982. Like a true son of the Buddha, he lived valiantly, spreading the word of the Master throughout the world and helped many thousands and tens of thousands onto the Path of Enlightenment and Deliverance.

U Nyi Nyi  (Mahasi Disciple and Meditator)

Member of the Executive Committee Yangon, Myanmar Buddhasasana Nuggaha Association 18th October 1978

MAHASHI SAYADAW WORKS – THE COMPLETE DHARMA TEACHING

Hosted on archive.org

Considered as one of the most influential Buddhist figure of the 20th century, Venerable Mahashi Sayadaw contributed to the revival of the practice of Vipassana meditation (Mindfulness).

I am delighted with the privilege of making available an audio recording of his complete Works. A masterpiece of reliable Theravada Burmese pragmatic teaching.

Due to the amount of this materials, they are divided into several parts.

The Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of “universal access to all knowledge.” It provides permanent storage of and free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly three million public-domain books.

MAHASHI SAYADAW WORKS – THE COMPLETE DHARMA TEACHING – PART 1  

If you wish to listen to the whole collection please visit archive.org. The links are found below.

MAHASHI SAYADAW WORKS – THE COMPLETE DHARMA TEACHING – PART 2

MAHASHI SAYADAW WORKS – THE COMPLETE DHARMA TEACHING – PART 3

MAHASHI SAYADAW WORKS – THE COMPLETE DHARMA TEACHING – PART 4

MAHASHI SAYADAW WORKS – THE COMPLETE DHARMA TEACHING – PART 5

MAHASHI SAYADAW WORKS – THE COMPLETE DHARMA TEACHING – PART 6  

MAHASHI SAYADAW WORKS – THE COMPLETE DHARMA TEACHING – PART 7  

MAHASHI SAYADAW WORKS – THE COMPLETE DHARMA TEACHING – PART 8

MAHASHI SAYADAW WORKS – THE COMPLETE DHARMA TEACHING – PART 9

MAHASHI SAYADAW WORKS – THE COMPLETE DHARMA TEACHING – PART 10

MAHASHI SAYADAW WORKS – THE COMPLETE DHARMA TEACHING – PART 11

MAHASHI SAYADAW WORKS – THE COMPLETE DHARMA TEACHING – PART 12

MAHASHI SAYADAW WORKS – THE COMPLETE DHARMA TEACHING – PART 13

MAHASHI SAYADAW WORKS – THE COMPLETE DHARMA TEACHING – PART 14

MAHASHI SAYADAW WORKS – THE COMPLETE DHARMA TEACHING – PART 15

MAHASHI SAYADAW WORKS – THE COMPLETE DHARMA TEACHING – PART 16  

MAHASHI SAYADAW WORKS – THE COMPLETE DHARMA TEACHING – PART 17

MAHASHI SAYADAW WORKS – THE COMPLETE DHARMA TEACHING – PART 18  

MAHASHI SAYADAW WORKS – THE COMPLETE DHARMA TEACHING – PART 19

Collection of eBooks by Mahasi Sayadaw

Most of the books here are compled from talks given by the Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw in different centres and dates. The talks were mostly printed in a Burmese first, then only translated to English and republished in various editions later.

1944 Practical Insight Meditation  PDF  | Epub 1944 The Progress of Insight (BPS Publication)  PDF  | EPUB 1951 Practical Vipassanā Meditation Exercises  PDF  | EPUB 1951 Satipaṭṭhāna Vipassanā (Wheel 370/371)  PDF  | EPUB 1954 Buddhist Meditation and its Forty Subjects  PDF  | EPUB 1959 Fundamentals of Insight Meditation  PDF  | EPUB 1961 A Discourse on the Purābheda Sutta  PDF  | EPUB 1962 A Discourse on the Wheel of Dhamma  PDF  | EPUB 1963 A Discourse on the Anattalakkhaṇa Sutta  PDF  | EPUB 1963 A Discourse on the Hemavata Sutta  PDF  | EPUB 19?? A Discourse on the Ariyāvāsa Sutta  PDF  | EPUB 19?? A Discourse on Dependent Origination  PDF  | EPUB 1964 A Discourse on the Cūḷavedalla Sutta  PDF  | EPUB 1964 On the Nature of Nibbāna  PDF  | EPUB 1965 A Discourse on Worldly Vicissitudes  PDF  | EPUB 1965 A Discourse on the Vammika Sutta  PDF  | EPUB 1965 Brahmavihāra Dhamma  PDF  | EPUB 1966 A Discourse on the Bhāra Sutta  PDF  | EPUB 1967 A Discourse on the Sīlavanta Sutta  PDF  | EPUB 1969 A Discourse on the Sallekha Sutta  PDF  | EPUB 1970 A Discourse on the Dhammadāyāda Sutta  PDF  | EPUB 1971 To Nibbāna via the Noble Eightfold Path  PDF  | EPUB 1972 Exhortations  PDF  | EPUB 1976 A Discourse on the Tuvaṭaka Sutta  PDF  | EPUB 1976 A Discourse on the Mālukyaputta Sutta  PDF  | EPUB 1976 A Discourse on the Sammāparibbājanīya Sutta PDF | EPUB 1977 The Questions of Sakka (A Discourse on the Sakkapañha Sutta)  PDF  | EPUB 1979 / 80 Mahāsi Abroad, Part I, and Part II  PDF  | EPUB 19?? The Problems of Life (Includes Ethical Dilemmas by Bhikkhu Pesala)  PDF  | EPUB 1983 Thoughts on Dhamma (Wheel 298/300)  PDF  | EPUB

The EPUB versions were converted automatically from the PDF files and will contain some errors created in conversion

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mahasi_sayadaw-vipassana_treatise_volume_ii_part_ii

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Mahasi Sayadaw Biography

Satipaṭṭhāna Vipassanā Meditation

Instructions to Insight Meditation

Insight Meditation: Basic and Progressive Stages by Mahasi Sayadaw

Pa Auk Sayadawgyi

Pa auk sayadaw.

The Venerable Āciṇṇa, commonly referred to as the “Venerable Pa-Auk Tawya Sayadaw” (and, in less formal circumstances, as “Pa-Auk Sayadaw”), is the current abbot and principal teacher at Pa-Auk Forest Monastery. “Sayadaw” is a Burmese honorific title meaning “respected teacher.”

The Sayadaw was born in 1934, in Leigh-Chaung Village, Hinthada Township, in the delta region about one hundred miles northwest of the capital, Yangon. In 1944, at age ten, he ordained as a novice monk (*sāmaṇera) at a monastery in his village. During the next decade, he pursued the life of a typical scholar-novice, studying the Pāḷi Texts (including Vinaya, Suttas and Abhidhamma) under various teachers. He passed the three Pāḷi language examinations while still a novice.

In 1954, at age twenty, the Sayadaw received the higher ordination as a bhikkhu. He continued his studies of the Pāḷi Texts under the guidance of learned elder monks. In 1956 he passed the prestigious Dhammacariya examination. This is equivalent to a BA in Buddhist Pāḷi Studies and confers the title of “Dhamma Teacher.”

During the next eight years, the Sayadaw continued his investigation into the Dhamma, travelling throughout Myanmar to learn from various well-known teachers. In 1964, during his tenth “rains retreat” (vassa), he turned his attention to intensifying his meditation practice and began to practise “forest dwelling.” Although he continued with his study of the Pāḷi Texts, he now sought out and gained instruction from the revered meditation teachers of those times.

For the next sixteen years, he made forest dwelling his primary practice. He spent these years in the southern part of Myanmar, in Mon State: three years in Mudon Township (just south of Mawlamyine) and thirteen years in Ye Township (approximately one hundred miles down the coast). During this period, he lived a very simple life, devoting his time to meditation and study of the Pali Texts.

In 1981 the Sayadaw received a message from the abbot of Pa-Auk Forest Monastery, the Venerable Aggapañña. The abbot was dying and asked the Venerable Āciṇṇa to look after his monastery. Five days later, the Venerable Aggapañña passed away. As the new abbot of the monastery, the Venerable Āciṇṇa became known as the “Pa-Auk Tawya Sayadaw.” Although he oversaw the running of the monastery, the Sayadaw would spend most of his time in seclusion, meditating in a bamboo hut in the upper forested area, which covered a deserted range of hills running along the base of the Taung Nyo Mountain Range. This area later came to be known as the Upper Monastery.

Since 1983, both monastics and laity have been coming to study meditation with the Sayadaw. Foreign meditators began to arrive at the monastery in the early 1990’s. As the Sayadaw’s reputation steadily grew, the Upper Monastery gradually expanded from a simple bamboo hut and a handful of disciples to more than two hundred and fifty kutis (meditators’ huts) in the forest; a large two-storey meditation hall for the men; a library (with office, computer room and men’s dormitory on the lower levels); a clinic; a hospital; an almsgiving hall; a two-storey refectory; and a reception hall and dwelling for the Sayadaw. In the Lower Monastery, facilities include more than 180 kutis, a new kitchen and, for the women, a large three-storey meditation hall (with sleeping quarters on the ground floor) and a five-storey dormitory (still under construction).

Currently (March 2007), there are more than one hundred and thirty foreign monks, nuns and lay practitioners residing at Pa-Auk Forest Monastery. During our three-month rains retreat, the total monastic population averages between six and seven hundred. Together with laypeople, the monastery population sometimes tops fifteen hundred during festival times.

In 1997 the Sayadaw published his Magnum Opus, an enormous five-volume tome titled The Practice that Leads to Nibbana, explaining the entire course of teaching in detail and supported by copious quotations from the Pāḷi Texts – it is currently available only in Burmese and Sinhalese. On January 4, 1999, in public recognition of the Sayadaw’s achievements, the government bestowed upon him the title Agga Maha Kammatthanacariya, which means “Highly Respected Meditation Teacher.”

The Sayadaw speaks fluent English and has lectured and led retreats outside of Myanmar since 1997. In December of 2006, he travelled to Sri Lanka to undertake a long-term personal retreat, staying in seclusion and suspending his teaching schedule throughout 2007. As of this printing, his teaching schedule for 2008 includes a four-month retreat in the United States, July – October, to be held at the Forest Refuge in Barre, Massachusetts.

The Sayadaw personally conducted a six-month intensive retreat at Pa-Auk Forest Monastery, Myanamar from January to June of 2010. After the retreat, the Sayadaw joined bhikkhus from Tusita Hermitage in Kullu, Himachal Pradesh, India for Vassa (Rains Retreat). The Sayadaw entered his own personal retreat for the three-month period.