Mahasi Sayadaw

Background

Mahāsi Sayādaw was born in 1904 in Seikkhun village in Upper Burma.

Career

In his style of practice, derived from the so-called "New Burmese Method" of U Nārada, the meditator anchors their attention on the sensations of the rising and falling of the abdomen during breathing, observing carefully any other sensations or thoughts. He became a novice at age twelve, and was ordained at the age of twenty with the name Sobhana. In 1931, U Sobhana took leave from teaching scriptural studies in Moulmein, South Burma, and went to nearby Thaton to practice intensive Vipassana meditation under Mingun Jetawun Sayādaw (also rendered Mingun Jetavana Sayādaw), also known as U Nārada.

U Sobhāna first taught Vipassana meditation in his home village in 1938, at a monastery named for its massive drum "Mahāsi".

He became known in the region as Mahāsi Sayādaw. In 1947, the Prime Minister of Burma, U Nu, invited Mahāsi Sayādaw to be resident teacher at a newly established meditation center in Yangon, which came to be called the Mahāsi Sāsana Yeiktha.

He helped establish meditation centers all over Burma as well as in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand, and by 1972 the centers under his guidance had trained more than 700,000 meditators. When the Mahāsi Sayādaw died on 14 August 1982 following a massive stroke, thousands of devotees braved the torrential monsoon rains to pay their last respects.

Freda Bedi

G. V. Desani

Joseph Goldstein

Anagarika Munindra

Achan Sobin South. Namto

Sayādaw U Paṇḍita (Panditārāma)

Sharon Salzberg

Jack Kornfield

Chanmyay Sayādaw (U Janakabhivamsa)

Rodney Smith

Ashin Jinarakkhita.

Works

• book

  • The Satipatthana Vipassana Meditation

Connections

teacher:

Sagaing Hills