Burmese Vipassana Master Sayadaw
U Pandita Dies
Craig Lewis
Buddhistdoor Global | 2016-04-18 |
Revered Burmese monk and influential vipassana meditation teacher
Sayadaw U Pandita died on Saturday morning in Bangkok at the age of
94.
Sayadaw U Pandita had
been hospitalized in Yangon since mid-March, but was transferred to
a hospital in Bangkok for additional treatment two weeks before his
death. The teacher’s disciples have prepared his remains to allow
students and followers to pay their respects at Panditarama Shwe
Taun Gon Sasana Yeiktha, the meditation center Sayadaw U Pandita
established in Yangon in October 1990. On Wednesday his remains
will be moved the Panditarama Hse Mine Gon Forest Center in Bago,
some 50 miles northeast of Yangon. Funeral rites and cremation will
take place on Friday, the seventh day of his
passing.
Born on 29 July 1921,
Sayadaw U Pandita trained in the Theravada Buddhist tradition from
the age of 12, ordaining as a monk when he was 20. He was one of
the foremost living teachers of vipassana meditation and a
successor to the late monk and meditation master Mahasi Sayadaw U
Sobhana (1904–82). Both teachers played significant roles in
popularizing vipassana meditation in the West and throughout
Asia.
Vipassana, or insight
meditation employs mindfulness of breathing, thoughts, and
feelings, and contemplation of impermanence to gain insights into
the true nature of reality, defined in Buddhism as the three marks
of existence: impermanence (Skt. anitya), suffering or dissatisfaction
(Skt. duhkha), and the
realization of non-self (Skt. anatman).
Sayadaw U Pandita began
practicing vipassana under the guidance of Mahasi Sayadaw in 1950,
becoming a meditation teacher at the Mahasi Sasana Yeik Tha
meditation center in 1955. Following Mahasi Sayadaw’s death 1982,
Sayadaw U Pandita became the guiding teacher of the Mahasi
Meditation Center. In 1990, he founded the Panditarama monastery
and meditation center in Yangon, where he was head preceptor. There
are now branch meditation centers in Australia, Nepal, Singapore,
South Korea, the UK, and the US.
Among the many Western
teachers to study under Sayadaw U Pandita were Joseph Goldstein and
Sharon Salzberg, founders of the Massachusetts-based non-profit
Insight Meditation Society. Talks given by Sayadaw U Pandita at the
Insight Meditation Society in 1984 were compiled and published in
the book In This Very Life:
Liberation Teachings of the Buddha.
Sayadaw U Pandita was also a scholar of the
Theravada Buddhist canon, the Tipitaka in Pali (Skt. Tripitaka),
and was renowned for teaching a rigorous and precise method of
self-examination, emphasizing a foundation of moral discipline
(Skt. sila). He served as an
advisor to retreat centers, monasteries, and Buddhist organizations
in a number of countries, and regularly traveled to lead meditation
retreats around the world. Possessing extensive knowledge of both
the theory and practice of samatha and vipassana meditation, he
continued to lead retreats and give Dharma talks until his health
prevented his from doing so.