Mahasi Sayadaw

Mahasi Sayadaw was born U Sobhana in 1904 in Seikkhun village, near Shwebo in Upper Burma, to a farming family. He became a novice at twelve and was ordained a bhikkhu in November 1923. He passed the government Pali examinations in all three classes, studied in Mandalay and taught the scriptures in Moulmein.

He then turned to practice, training in meditation under U Narada at Thaton. In 1945 he wrote a manual of vipassana meditation, which he is recorded as completing in seven months. In the late 1940s he began teaching at a meditation centre in Rangoon, later known as the Thathana Yeiktha, or Mahasi Sasana Yeiktha. Similar centres followed across Burma and in other Theravada countries.

His approach rests on the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta. Access to Insight describes it as a systematic method of mindfulness practice that combines close knowledge of the scriptures with direct experience, and it is now taught at retreat centres in many countries. It is usually called the Mahasi method, and it is the lineage label for several teachers on this site.

He took a prominent part in the Sixth Buddhist Council held in Burma from 1954 to 1956, and wrote or translated more than seventy works. He also travelled widely to teach, including to America, England and continental Europe.

Two of his works are listed in English at Access to Insight: The Progress of Insight, in Nyanaponika Thera’s translation, and Thoughts on the Dhamma, selected from his discourses.

He died in Rangoon in August 1982.