Luang Por Teean Cittasubho

Luang Por Teean Cittasubho was born Pann Intapew on 5 September 1911 in Chiang Khan, in the north-eastern province of Loei. He was a novice at eleven and ordained as a monk for about six months at twenty, then returned to lay life. He married, had three sons and worked as a river trader on the Mekong.

According to the account on Wikipedia, in 1957 he left home to look for an end to his anger, which years of merit-making and different meditation methods had not removed. At a temple in Nong Khai he practised simple body movements, and instead of reciting a word with each movement he watched the movement itself and the mind. He taught what he found to his wife and relatives for nearly three years as a layman. On 3 February 1960 he ordained again, aged 48, so that he could teach more widely. He died on 13 September 1988, aged 77.

The method he left is usually called Mahāsati. In its basic form the practitioner moves the hands in a set sequence of slow, plain movements, such as turning a hand, raising it and resting it on the abdomen. Each movement is followed by a pause and by awareness of it, without naming it in words. The same attention is carried into walking and into daily life. Phra Paisal Visalo, who trained with him at Wat Sanamnai, recalls the instruction: whether walking or making the rhythm of hand movements, just feel the movement and do not get caught up in thinking; whenever you notice you have drifted into thought, come back to the body. He also writes that because Luang Por Teean had found the truth by his own method, his way of teaching broke with convention.

Wat Sanamnai, in Nonthaburi, was revived as a practice centre by Luang Por Teean and his students in the mid-1970s, and today presents itself as a place to develop mindfulness in his way. Its website has a section on teaching abroad by his successor, Luang Por Thong Arpakaro.

Most sources for his life are in Thai or are brief summaries, so this page gives only the outline. What the method is said to lead to is the tradition’s own claim, not an outcome DharmaBase can promise.