Vipassanā as taught by the Mahāsī Sayādaw of Burma

Vipassana as taught by the Mahasi Sayadaw of Burma
The Mahasi Sayadaw
Its been over two and half thousand years now since the Buddha first expounded the
teachings. As time passes, the teaching becomes dulled. But there are always reformation
movements throughout the history of Buddhism, some large and some small which
revitalise the teachings, the Dhamma. And the Mahasi Sayadaw must be accredited as
one of the key teachers in revitalising the practice of vipassana in Theravada Buddhist
countries.�
U. Sobhana Mahathera was born in 1904 in Upper Burma. So, this year marks the centenary
of his birth. He joined the order as a mature boy and went on to complete the traditional
studies with distinction. He finally returned to his home town, Seikhum, where he became
the abbot of the Monastery, known the Mahasi, The Big Drum. In Burma/Myanmar, monks
are often referred to by the place name where they were born or dwell in, hence he became
known as the Mahasi Sayadaw.
It was after the Second World War that some high-ranking people, including the then prime
minister, U Nu, went looking for a teacher to start a meditation centre in Rangoon/Yangon.
The centre was not to be just a monastery, but a place where lay people would be able to
practise vipassana. This, it seems, was a little revolution since up until then it was generally
presumed that only monastics could gain anything from meditation. This has indeed become
special quality of a Mahasi centre in that there are lay teachers and lay practitioners and
many of the centres are within the city or town boundaries easily accessible to lay people.
It was at this centre, in 1947 situated just on the boundary of Yangon that the Mahasi
Sayadaw, U Sobhana Thera, began to teach a technique which he had developed through
his own renowned teacher, U Narada, known as the Mingun Jetawun Sayadaw in Upper
Myanmar. It has three main characteristics observing the breath at the abdomen, noting
and going very slow.
Observing the Breath at the Abdomen
We observe the breath, or rather the sensations caused by breathing, in order to bring a
moment to moment concentration. It calms the heart-mind because it is a neutral object.
There are various places where people feel these sensations more acutely. Some feel them
at the nostrils or upper lip, others the rising and falling of the chest and still others in the
abdomen. All these places are valid in terms of vipassana mediation. The Mahasi, however,
favoured the abdomen.
The first reason is that it is related to slow walking. Just as we observe and experience
the foot rising and falling, so we experience the abdomen rising and falling. This means
that for the better part of the day, a meditator is aware of the characteristic of transience
in a very obvious way. Transience or impermanence (anicca) is one of the ways in which
the Buddha asks us to investigate ourselves. Is there anything we experience which is not
impermanent? The other two avenues of investigation are unsatifactoriness (dukkha) and
not-self (anatta). It is the insights into these Three Characteristics of Existence that lead to
liberation from all suffering.
The second reason for favouring the abdomen is that when the attention is placed on the
breath at the nostrils, there is a tendency by way of concentration to lose contact with
the body. That is why observing the breath at the nostrils is a popular and effective way
of achieving those higher states of concentration known as the absorptions, jhana. Here,
there is a danger. For when concentration becomes locked into one pointedness on a single
object, the effect is to suppress everything else and this stops the process of purifying the
heart, our emotional life. This is not to say that concentration practice cannot go hand in

hand with vipassana. Indeed, that is well supported in the discourses. Rather, the Mahasi
espoused the direct path of vipassana only (ekayano maggo) as it is taught in the Discourse
on How to Establish Mindfulness (satipatthanasutta MN 10). Nor does this mean that
observing the breath at the nostrils is not a valid technique in vipassana meditation. Indeed,
although the Mahasi preferred the abdomen as a place of primary observation, he did not
ban anyone from observing sensations at the nostrils.
However, when we do centre on the abdomen or the chest (when the breath is shallow),
we remain very much in contact with body. This allows any turbulence in the body caused
by our states of mind to manifest and burn off. This is the psychotherapeutic effect of
vipassana. For our emotions, moods and mental states express themselves through the
body often as blocks, aches and pains and so on and sometimes as raw emotion. All this
mental turbulence has to be allowed to express itself within consciousness and it all has to
be born patiently.
Noting
The second technique, which is specific to the Mahasi Method, is noting. Paradoxically this
is a technique to take a meditator beyond thinking. Its not an end in itself. The Mahasi was
a highly respected scholar. As a young man he had passed Dhammacariya (Teacher of the
Dhamma) examination with distinction. At the Sixth Buddhist Council in 1945, when all the
texts where reviewed and for the first time all the commentarial literature was edited, the
Mahasi Sayadaw was given the task of Pucchaka (Questioner) and Osana (Final Editor) of
the texts. Although a scholar, he was not one to confuse intellectual understanding with true
experiential insight. Indeed he put that intellect to the service of the Dhamma. He wrote
many books on Dhamma and the best introduction to his system still remains his opening
talk to beginners satipatthana vipassana: Discourse on the Basic Practice of the Application
of Mindfulness. A more detailed description will be found in his book: Practical Insight
Meditation.
According to the Buddhas teaching, there are two stages of concentrated thought before
full concentration is established.� The first is a simple noting or naming of the object. This
simple labeling, naming, noting whereby the attention is pointed at the object is known
as vitakka and is likened to a bee flying towards a flower. It is a word which encapsulates
the whole experience. In a child this is very obvious and simplistic. When a two year old is
beginning to speak theyll rejoice at being able to name an object. Car! Car! For that mind
at its level of language the word car simply points at the object. Theres not much thought
around it since language itself, which allows us to think about an object, is not developed
enough for this to happen. For us, the word car conjures up a host of memories and desires.
This is thinking about an object. This mentation is known as, proliferation (papanca), and
the purpose of thinking and daydream is to keep us off the presenting object and distract
the mind.� The Buddha likened this to a monkey, jumping from branch to branch. This is
exactly what we have to bring to a stop. Shrinking thought down to a single word is the
preliminary effort. But at this stage the meditator is forever having to pull the attention out
of wandering and into observing. Indeed this is what the training through a technique is
all about - reconditioning consciousness to be present, to be attentive to whats happening
now.
To be effective, this noting has to be done with precise effort. It has to be an
acknowledgement of what the body, heart or mind are doing. For instance, when one wakes
from a fantasy, there is the first note and then there is a second note and consequent
noting, which is an acknowledgement of what is obsessing the mind. In the same way, if a
sensation or feeling arises in the body, the first note is a recognition and the second note
and all consequent notes are acknowledgements. This is what is really happening now. But
although there is careful noting, the attention is always placed not on the word, but on the
experience - the feeling of a sensation, the feeling of an emotion. (Knowing of a thought or

image is always an , of course.). It is as though the intuitive intelligence sees through the
word and experiences the presenting object directly. In this way the intellectual faculty is
brought into the service of that intuitive intelligence, rather than the intuitive intelligence
being fogged by conceptual thinking.
Now thought itself can be split into two categories conceptual and image making.� At the
breath, for instance, as we note, there will be a concept of rising and falling and also an
image of the abdomen in the mind. We do not try to destroy them or in any way obliterate
them. We just keep pointing the attention at the feeling of movement, the sensations. This
attention, as it grows in strength, will eventually take all the energy out of thinking to the
point where there is just the noting word. This is now the second stage of development. The
meditator is still noting, but the attention instead of wanting to wander off, becomes stuck
as it were on the object. This islikened to a bee landing on and sucking on a flower. This is
the second stage of developing right concentration and is called vicara. If the meditator now
continues to note, placing the attention more and more on the object, really feeling those
sensations, really experiencing them as they arise and pass away, all the energy will be
drawn out of the thinking mind. It will stop.
Thinking is always about something. It is an attempt to categorise. What we experience
is seen in the light of past experience. What we have experienced in the past is filtered
through the way we look at things, our dispositions (sankhara). That is why thought will
not allow us to see things anew. If we really want to experience things as they really are,
then all conceptual thinking about those things must come to en end. When thinking stops,
we must therefore be right there with what is happening. And it is at that point that true
vipassana consciousness, samma sati, right awareness, arises and our intuitive intelligence,
panna, free of the distortion of thought and image, can finally begin to understand and see
the way things really are (nanadassana-yatha-bhutam).
So we dont have to worry about when to stop the noting. It will just stop once we have
arrived at a high enough level of awareness and concentration. Such moments of pure
vipassana are usually of very short duration, but they have great potential for insight.
These moments are known as khanika samadhi, momentary concentration which lengthen
into a moment-to-moment concentrated awareness. This sort of concentration does not
depend on a single object as does absorption concentration (arambana samadhi). It takes
anything that arises within the mind as its object, but for the purpose of seeing the Three
Characteristics of Existence (lakkhana samadhi). In other words, the concentration in
vipassana is only there to support awareness (sati) and that intuitive intelligence (panna).
It is that steady gaze and exploration of impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and not-self that
leads to liberation.
For some meditators noting comes with difficulties. For instance, the word is very loud and
dominates the meditation. This is simply showing the meditator how blocked they are in
conceptual thinking. By patiently pointing the attention at feelings, that intelligence will
extricate itself from the conceptual mind. This is often quite a discovery for such meditators
that there is another way of experiencing the world. Another is the difficulty of finding the
right word. One starts to look for a word as a poet might. But the simplest word is enough
and if one does not arise, a general word, such as , will do.
This noting, of course, is not just limited to the sitting posture. Indeed, it has to become
continuous from the moment we wake to the moment we fall asleep. The Mahasi was
fond of saying, the continuity of awareness is the secret of success. Therefore, it becomes
important to note the most actions of the day, such as opening a door. Indeed, we have to
abandon all hierarchy, thinking that sitting is more important than walking which is more
important than eating and so on.
However, it is not only sensations, emotions, wandering mind and actions that have to be
noted, but also that category of thought that we experience as intentions. An intention is
thought laced with desire and not all desires are unskilful. In fact, we are trying to empower
those intentions that are skilful such as the desire to meditate. The reason we note intention

before we do anything is because all actions of body, speech and thought have as their
instigator an intention. To note an intention gives us the time to acknowledge it as either
wholesome or unwholesome. We can then let go of those intentions we discern will lead us
to dissatisfaction and empower those that will lead is to contentment.
This is the understanding of kamma. And it is the will (cetana) that the Buddha calls
kamma. Will is that power that takes something out of potential into the actual. We have
to empower an intention to realise it. If we take a standing position and note our intention
to walk, we can do so for a long time. Then suddenly the foot moves. The power that has
translated that intention into an action is will and in so doing has committed an act of
kamma.� These actions when repeated create our habits and a compendium of habits
is but our personality. It is this personality that is driving us to our destiny. So noting
intentions becomes an essential part of the progress towards liberation.
Noting then is a technique, a contrivance, whereby we can begin to train the attention to
remain still on the presenting object and more importantly trick the intellect into coming
to a full-stop. For it is all that conceptual thinking that is distorting the way sees. It knows
only by way of categories, memory and concepts. By halting that process of conceiving and
keeping perception in its simplest form at the point of contact, this intuitive intelligence
sees everything again as a child. But not with a childs understanding. Now that intelligence
is primed to observe the Three Characteristics and that is why it liberates itself from the
delusion of a mistaken�� identity and possession of the psychophysical organism. This
body, this heart, this mind is not me, not mine and do not in themselves constitute a self.
Going Slow
Going slow, doing things slowly, refers to all those areas of activity the Buddha talks of
in the Discourse on How to Establish Mindfulness in the section on doing things mindfully
(sampajana-kari hoti), whether looking, dressing, toiletry, eating and so on.� When we
perform these actions very slowly and deliberately, it sharpens our attentiveness and makes
easier to perceive. This is much the same as slowing a film down. The more you slow a film
down the more you can see. The flick of a frogs tongue as it catches a fly. Usually we simply
do not see it. But with this film technique, we can discern the whole process. Indeed, you
can see the process frame by frame. In the same way, the more we slow down movement,
the more easily do we perceive how the body, heart and mind inter-react.
Progress of Insight
Such is the power of this technique that it is possible to guide a meditator through the
classic stages of the Insight Knowledges (vipassana nana). These are the insights that
lead to a direct experience of nibbana, the first time known as Stream-entry (sotapanna).
This whole process is repeated four times to attain the Path and Fruit of the Once-returner
(sakadagami), the None-returner (anagami) and Arahat, the enlightened being. The Mahasi
explains all this in clear detail in his book, The Progress of Insight.
The Mahasi went on to complete tours in Southeast Asia, USA and Europe. In Britain, he
came to lead courses at the Oakenhalt centre near Oxford, owned by the Burmese Saw
family. After him came his chief disciples, Sayadaw U Janaka and Sayadaw U Pandita.
Unfortunately, the Saw family had to sell Oakenhalt on the sad passing of Mr. Saw and the
impetus faded. However, now there are city in London and Manchester where Mahasi monks
dwell and teach this system. It is hoped that the Satipanya Trust will raise enough interest
to establish a Mahasi meditation centre and carry on the work of one of the most eminent
vipassana teachers of the last century, the Mahasi Sayadaw.