Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw (1904-82)

Before becoming a leading meditation master, Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw was already known as a learned scholar and teacher of the Pali scriptures. He became a monk on reaching the age of twenty, the earliest age at which full ordination is possible, with the name of Sobhana. In the following years he pursued higher Pali and Buddhist studies, attained the highest scholastic distinctions and devoted himself for some time to the teaching of these subjects.

The day came, however, at the age of twenty-eight, when he felt the powerful need to move on from the sphere of intellectual understanding and exposition to that of intensive practice. Accordingly, taking up the bare requisites of a wandering monk's life, he left the reowned monastery where he has been teaching and set out, like one of the early disciples of the Buddha, in search of a master who could train him in a clear and effective method for the practice of meditation. He found him in the person of the Venerable Mingun Jetawan Sayadaw. Under the guidance of this highly competent master, Mahasi Sayadaw undertook intensive meditation training based on the four foundations of mindulness, the beginning with the contemplation of the body and made considerable progress. In 1941, in the eighteenth year of his ordination, he decided to return to his native village, where he took up residence in a local monastery and began teaching systematic practical courses of Vipassana meditation on the basis of the foundation of mindfulness.

Many people, lay persons as well as monks, came to his course and benefited from his instruction. He soon became well known throughout the country as a very effective teacher of insight meditation.

In the next posting, I will be introducing the method he used for vipassana and the way he practice. So stay tune.