Mahasi Sayadaw
Mahasi Sayadaw ( born July 29, 1904 in Seikkhun, Myanmar, † 14 August 1982 Myanmar ) was a Buddhist monk in the Theravada tradition. As a teacher of Vipassana meditation, he was instrumental in the reform of Theravada in the 1950s in Burma.
Life
Mahasi Sayadaw came from a poor peasant family. At the age of 6 years he went to the village monastery school, at age 12, he was ordained as a novice in the name Sobhana. At the age of 20 he was ordained to the regular monks and successfully completed the traditional Pali canon and studies. At 24, he moved to Mandalay to continue his Buddhist studies at the leading scholastic doctrines and teach yourself.
At the age of 28 he left the monastery Taung waing - Taik Galay kyaung to search as a traveling monk for a clear and simple method of meditation. He found the master and monk U Narada ( Mingun Sayadaw Jetawun, 1868-1955 ), who had developed a form of insight meditation ( vipassana - bhavana ), which should be under trademark names such as " Rename " or " labeling" Mahasi Sayadaw to. After ten years of learning time Mahasi Sayadaw returned to his hometown Seikkhun, where he took the first own students and also many lay people, including children and women, taught in insight meditation.
In 1941 he was appointed abbot of the monastery Mawlamyaing and passed the state examination for academic Pali teaching license. A little later the Second World War reached the monastery. It was used as a military airfield. Mahasi Sayadaw went back to his home village Seikkhun. There he wrote in 1945 a two-volume Handbook of Vipassana meditation, which later became an excerpt under the title "Practical Insight Mediation: Basic and Progressive Stages" was translated into English.
The method of " naming "
In the " Name " (English labeling, labeling ') in the Mahasi Sayadaw tradition is taken as the anchor object of insight meditation up and down movement of the abdominal wall at each inhalation and exhalation. On the basis of this main object, the range of the observed phenomena is gradually expanding ( the stronger sensations in the body, the noise and finally the perceptual, intellectual or affective processes in the mind), until gradually a " Indiscriminate awareness " occurs. The primary means of getting more conscious consideration are here on a whim in the mind emerging " labels ". They have the function of internal snapshots. They are, as intuitive " flashes " of understanding, not of thought in the strict sense. Just a small part of the attention to flow in the labels so that they are not specifically " produced ". To the extent that manages the connection to the processes of body and mind as in this way, they fall away, and a liberating it develops " Indiscriminate awareness ".
Work
After the war, sought on behalf of the Prime Minister U Nu of highly respected in Burma Sir U Thwin a meditation teacher who could help him in his goal to strengthen Buddhism in Myanmar again, and found him in the Mahasi Sayadaw. 1947 in Yangon founded the Buddha Sasana Nuggaha Organization, with Sir U Thwin as founding president, to promote the study ( pariyatti ) and practice ( patipatti ) of Buddhism.
In 1948, the foundation stone was laid for a new large retreat center in Yangon, the modern " Mahasi Sasana Yeiktha ". Mahasi Sayadaw in 1949 was asked by Sir U Thwin and U Nu to take up the teaching in Yangon in the first meditation center. Within a few years originated in Myanmar and neighboring Theravada countries, Thailand and Sri Lanka many such centers.
At the 6th Buddhist Council ( 1954-1956) in Yangon the Mahasi Sayadaw played an important role in the final editing of the revised version of the Pali canon. Mahasi Sayadaw has authored numerous books, of which only a few have been translated into Western languages.
Western students
Mahasi Sayadaw's training in Myanmar were also visited by Western laymen. For example, Joseph Goldstein and Sharon Salzberg have written about their experiences there books. There were also Western students who invited him in 1979 as one of the first major Theravada master to a longer teaching Journey to the West. Thus he had a great impact, but also to the Western Vipassana movement not only to the re- renewal of Buddhism in Myanmar.
Works
- Manual of Vipassana meditation. 1945
- Practical Insight Meditation. Buddhist Publication Society, 1991. ISBN 955-24-0089-9 ( Online)
- Satipatthana Vipassana: Insight through Mindfulness
- The Progress of Insight: A Treatise on Satipatthana meditation.