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Mahasi Sayadaw

Mahasi Sayadaw

1904 CE–1982 CE · Modern · Seikkhun (near Shwebo)

1904–1982 CE

Mahasi Sayadaw (U Sobhana, 1904–1982 CE) was a Burmese monk-scholar whose systematic insight-meditation method became one of the most widely taught forms of vipassanā in the modern world. Born near Shwebo in upper Burma, he combined the highest scriptural credentials with an emphasis on direct 'noting' of bodily and mental phenomena, drawn from the Satipaṭṭhāna teaching. From the Sasana Yeiktha centre in Rangoon (from 1949) and through his role at the Sixth Buddhist Council, his approach spread internationally, shaping lay meditation movements across Asia and the West. He is well documented and treated aniconically.

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Seikkhun (near Shwebo)

What they did here

DOCUMENTED: born in 1904 in upper Burma; ordained young as Shin Sobhana and earned the Dhammācariya (teacher) degree in 1941; developed and taught his satipaṭṭhāna 'noting' method here during the war years.

About Seikkhun (near Shwebo)

Seikkhun is a village in the Shwebo area of the Sagaing region in upper Myanmar (Burma). It was the birthplace, in 1904, of Mahāsi Sayādaw, the monk whose method of insight (vipassanā) meditation became one of the most widely practised in the modern Theravāda world.

See other sages who lived in Seikkhun (near Shwebo)→

In the same place & time

Sages whose lives overlapped with Mahasi Sayadaw’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.

The world in their lifetime

Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Mahasi Sayadaw’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.

Works(2)