U Pandita

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In this Burmese name, U is an honorific.

Panditarama Sayadaw ပဏ္ဍိတာရာမ ဆရာတော်
Religion	Buddhism
School	Theravada
Lineage	Mahasi
Dharma name(s)	Pandita ပဏ္ဍိတာ
Personal
Nationality	Burmese
Born	(1921-07-29) 29 July 1921 Insein, Pegu Province, British Burma
Senior posting
Based in	Yangon, Myanmar
Title	Sayadaw
Religious career
Teacher	Mahasi Sayadaw
Website	www.panditarama.net

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The Venerable Sayadaw U Pandita (Burmese: ဆရာတော် ဦးပဏ္ဍိတာ, pronounced: [sʰəjàdɔ̀ ʔú pàɴdḭta̰];also Ovādacariya Sayādaw U Paṇḍitābhivaṃsa; born 29 July 1921) is one of the foremost living masters of Vipassana meditation. He trained in the Burmese Theravada Buddhist tradition. A successor to the late Mahāsi Sayādaw, he has taught many of the Western teachers and students of the Mahāsi style of Vipassana meditation. He is the abbot of Paṇḍitārāma Meditation Center in Yangon, Myanmar.

Brief biography

U Pandita was born in 1921 in Insein in greater Yangon during the British colonial rule. He became a novice at age twelve, and ordained at age twenty. After decades of study, he passed the rigorous series of government examinations in the Theravāda Buddhist texts, gaining the Dhammācariya (dhamma teacher) degree in 1952.

U Pandita began practicing Vipassana under the guidance of Mahāsi Sayādaw beginning in 1950. In 1955, he left his position as a teacher of scriptural studies to become a meditation teacher at the Mahāsi Meditation Center.

Soon after Mahasi Sayādaw died in 1982, U Pandita became the guiding teacher (Ovādacariya) of the Mahasi Meditation Center. In 1991, he left that position, founding Paṇḍitārāma Meditation Center in Yangon. There are now Paṇḍitārāma branch centers in Burma, Nepal, Australia, United Kingdom and the United States.

U Pandita became well known in the West after conducting a retreat in the spring of 1984 at the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Barre, Massachusetts in the United States. Many of the senior Western meditation teachers in the Mahāsi tradition practiced with U Pandita at that and subsequent retreats. The talks he gave in 1984 at IMS were compiled as the book "In This Very Life."

As of 2005, he continues to lead retreats and give dharma talks, but rarely conducts interviews himself.

A complete biography by Thāmanay Kyaw is available at http://vmc128.8m.com/contents/index.html under the title "One Life's Journey".

Method and style of teaching

U Pandita is known for teaching a rigorous and precise method of self-examination. He teaches Satipaṭṭhāna or Vipassana meditation, emphasizing sīla or moral discipline as a requisite foundation. He is also an erudite scholar of the Pāli Tipiṭaka or Theravāda Buddhist canon.

Quotations

On the first trip abroad the author accompanied Sayadaw on, we stayed one night at the cousin of the King of Thailand. At the Bangkok airport, she asked Sayadaw a question,

"If you were to give the most concise, the most clear explanation of the nature of vipassanâ possible, how would you do it?"

Sayadaw had the king's cousin open her palm and then make a fist. "What do you perceive?" he asked.

"I perceive tension and hardness, Bhante," the king's cousin answered.

Sayadaw had her spread her hand, "What do you perceive?" he asked again.

"I perceive loosening and movement, Bhante," she answered.

Sayadaw told her to slowly, minutely and mindfully make a fist and open it. "What do you perceive?" he asked again. She answered, "Other than coming to perceive even more the tension and hardness, looseness and movement, I came to perceive hardness and softness, warmth and coolness."

"That kind looking to perceive the natures which are, as they are, is the work of vipassanā," Sayadaw said. When he said that, she understood well the nature of vipassanâ. She was extremely pleased with Sayadaw's ability to give such an immediate and experiential explanation. Most people think that vipassanā is extremely difficult work. It seemed that the Thai king's cousin had thought that way, too. Apparently, she concluded that though she had thought it difficult work before, now that Sayadaw had explained it, it was quite easy.

Excerpt from "One Life's Journey", chapter on Vipassana.

Teachings

In This Very Life - The Liberation teachings of the Buddha (Wisdom Publications, 2002) ISBN 0-86171-311-7, also available in full at: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/pesala/Pandita/

Timeless Wisdom - Teachings on the Satipatthana Vipassana Meditation Practice

available as a Vipassana Fellowship Digital Edition at http://www.vipassana.com/meditation/upandita/

On The Path to Freedom

available as a free e-book in PDF format at http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/path-free.pdf

available as a free e-book in PDF format at panditarama.net

http://www.panditarama.net/ebooks/onelifejourney.pdf

http://www.panditarama.net/ebooks/dhammadiscussion.pdf

http://www.panditarama.net/ebooks/greatgiftsandgivingwell.pdf

http://www.panditarama.net/ebooks/guideformeditation.pdf

http://www.panditarama.net/ebooks/inthisverylife.pdf

http://www.panditarama.net/ebooks/kalarnamata.pdf

http://www.panditarama.net/ebooks/ownersasana.pdf

http://www.panditarama.net/ebooks/practicalway.pdf

http://www.panditarama.net/ebooks/questionsnanswers.pdf

http://www.panditarama.net/ebooks/satipatan.pdf

http://www.panditarama.net/ebooks/satipatan2.pdf

http://www.panditarama.net/ebooks/thewaytopractise.pdf

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Persondata
Name	Pandita
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	29 July 1921
Place of birth	Insein, Pegu Province, British Burma
Date of death
Place of death

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