Ajahn Maha Bua

Ajahn Maha Bua Ñāṇasampanno (1913–2011), widely called Luang Ta Maha Bua, was born in Baan Taad village in Udon Thani province, north-east Thailand. He was ordained on 12 May 1934 at Wat Yothanimit and went on to pass the third level of Pali studies, with the highest level in Dhamma and vinaya. He then set out to find Ajahn Mun and met him in 1942.

He stayed with Ajahn Mun until the older teacher’s death in 1949, spending long stretches in solitary retreat in the forests and mountains and returning to Ajahn Mun for guidance. Access to Insight records that Ajahn Mun told him to put his academic knowledge aside and concentrate on meditation.

In 1955 he began building a monastery on land donated near his home village. This became Wat Pa Baan Taad, which he led for the rest of his life. He is known for the directness of his Dhamma talks, often given to monks and to lay visitors in the evening, and he wrote a biography of Ajahn Mun that is distributed free by the monastery. Several of his books exist in English, including Straight from the Heart, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.

The monastery’s own policy page also describes the public-benefit work he led, which supported hospitals and schools from donations made to the monastery, and collected gold and foreign currency for the national reserves. He died on 30 January 2011.

English-subtitled recordings of his talks are on the YouTube channel linked from luangta.eu, an English-language site about his teaching.