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THE VENERABLE MAHÆSØ SAYÆDAW (1904-1982) The Venerable Mahæsø Sayædaw was born on Friday, 29th July 1904, to the peasant proprietors U Kan Taw and Daw Shwe Ok at Seikkun village in Shwebo District. He became a novice (Sæma¼era) at the age of twelve receiving the name of Sobhana. On 26th November 1923 he was ordained a Bhikkhu. As a novice he passed pariyatti examinations and later as a Bhikkhu he proceeded to Mandalay to pursue further scriptural education under various Sayædaws of high scholastic fame. He was awarded the title "Sæsanadhaja Siripavara Dhammæcariya" in 1941. The Venerable Mahæsø Sayædaw who was in search of a clear and effective method in the practice of meditation arrive at Thaton in 1931 and placed himself under the guidance of Mingun Jetawun Sayædaw well-known meditation teacher. There he immediately proceeded with an intensive practice which lasted for four months., He then returned to Taung-waing-galay monastery in Mawlamyaing and from there he moved back to Seikkhun Mahæsø Kyaung in 1941. He was requested by the Buddha Sasana Nuggaha Organization to come over to Yangon to teach meditational practice. Mahæsø Sayædaw accepted and started work on 4th December 1949. The Yeiktha also became known as Mahæsø Sæsana Yeiktha. At the historic Sixth Buddhist Council, Mahæsø Sayædaw acted as one of the Final Editors of the Canonical Texts and was the Questioner (Pucchaka) in the sessions of the Council. The answer was expounded by none other than the Venerable Vicittasæræbhivaµsa. Mahæsø Sayædaw was also one of the State Ovædæcariyas. In 1957, he was awarded the title Agga Mahæ Pa¼ðita". The Venerable Mahæsø Sayædaw was a prolific and scholarly writer, producing more than seventy writings and translation from Pæ¹i language, of which the Manual of Vipassanæ Meditation (two Vols) is a great work. Under the guidance of Mahæsø Sayædaw, meditation centres had grown to more than 300 all over the country and abroad. The total number of meditators trained at all these centres had passed the figure of 700,000. Despite the pressure of his immense work at the Yeiktha, Mahæsø Sayædaw took time to under-take several travels abroad for the promotion and propagation of the Theravæda Buddha Sasanæ. Sayædaw's itinerary of travels included India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia and Japan in the East and some European countries, England and United States of America in the West. The Venerable Mahæsø Sayædaw passed away at the Mahæsø Vihæra on 14th August 1982 at the ripe age of 79. "The Fundamentals of Vipassanæ Meditation" is a series of lectures delivered by the Venerable Mahæsø Sayædaw during the New Year Holidays of the Burmese Era 1320 (1959). The lectures first appeared in book form in 1961, and have ever since enjoyed such popularity with the readers that they have run to several editions. This is their first English translation. As the reader will see in the following pages, the lectures were addressed to lay listeners-people to whom the subtle points of Vipassanæ practice were totally new. As such the Sayædaw took great pains to make his language plain, easy and direct to the point, and led his listeners stage by simple stage from such basic facets as differentiation between calm and insight meditations to such intricate aspects of the Dhamma as reality and concept, process of consciousness and thought-moments, stages of progress in mind development and realization of Nibbæna. The listener - or, reader in our case - begins with the very first lesson: what insight is, how it is developed. He is then instructed how to begin his work, how to progress, how to be on his guard against pitfalls in the course of his training, and, most important of all, how to know when he "knows." He is thrilled, encouraged, and made to feel as if he were already on the path to bliss. Buddhism is a practical religion, a creed to live by - not just another system of metaphysical philosophy as most outsiders are wont to imagine it to be. It examines the ills of this sentient life, discovers their cause, prescribes the removal of the cause, and points the Way to the release from all suffering. Any one desirous of liberation can walk along the Way. But he must make the effort to step and walk. No one will pick him up and offer him a free ride to Peace Eternal. You yourself must make the effort. Buddhas only point the way. Those who have entered the Path and who meditate will be freed from the fetter of illusion (Dhammapada. 276) What then is the Way to liberation? The Buddha himself tells us in Satipa¥¥hæna Sutta that there is but One Way - the Way of establishing mindfulness. It is this establishing of mindfulness that serves as the corner-stone of the whole system of insight meditation expounded and popularised by the Ven Mahæsø Sayædaw for half a century now. Here one must not forget the fact that preaching Vipassanæ is quite unlike the preaching of any other aspect of the Buddha's teaching, say, its moral or metaphysical portions. This most scholars versed in the scriptures can do. But Vipassanæ is something which only experience can convince. The Buddha himself (or, more correctly, the Bodhisatta) searched for the Way, found it, traversed it himself, and only then did he teach it to beings from his experience. " Even so have I, monks, seen as ancient way, an ancient road followed by the wholly Awakened Ones of olden times... Along that have I gone, and the matters that I have come to know fully as I was going along it I have told to the monks, nuns, men and women layfollowers ..........." (Sam. ii, 105) The Ven Mahæsø Sayædaw, on his part, took up the Way pointed out to all of us by the Buddha, realized the Dhamma, and then spoke to his disciples from his experience. They, too, have realized the Dhamma. About this the Sayædaw says in his lectures (page 75): " Here in the audience are lots of meditators who have come to this stage of knowledge. I am not speaking from my own experience alone. No, not even from the experience of forty or fifty disciples of mine. There are hundreds of them " One attribute of the Buddha's Dhamma is that "it is a come-and-see thing ( ehipassiko )" Millions came and saw it well over 2500 years ago. And today hundreds of thousands more will follow them, as we can see in the meditation centers the world over. It only remains to the aspirant after liberation to awake and join the multitude in their march. This book sets out the plan of the way that lies ahead of him. It is, as the noted scholar in the foreword to the Myanmar edition remarks, not the kind of book one reads for reading's sake. It is to be his guide as he ventures from one stage of higher wisdom to another. In translating this book, I have tried to reproduce in English all that the Sayædaw has to say in his Myanmar lectures. But I have not attempted a literal translation nor have I turned out an abridged, free version. I have avoided repetitions so characteristic of spoken language, and have left untranslated all the mnemonic verses that accompany the Sayædaw's lectures. Excepting these I have kept the word of the Sayædaw intact and every effort has been made to retain his simple, straight-forward and lucid style. For translation of the Pæ¹i texts quoted by the Sayædaw in his work I have relied mostly on such noted scholars as Dr. Rhys Davids, F.L. Woodward, I.B. Horner, Ñæ¼atiloka, Ñæ¼amoli and Pe Maung Tin, with modifications here and there. I must record my indebtedness to them. M T N
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