Pa-Auk Sayadaw

The Practice Which Leads to Nibbana

a book cover with gold text

The method of practicing meditation that is taught at Pa Auk Tawya Monastery is based on the explanation of meditation found in the Visuddhimagga commentary. Because of that the method involves several stages of practice which are complex, and involved.

These stages include a detailed analysis of both mentality and matter according to all the categories enumerated in the Abhidhamma and the further use of this understanding to discern the process of Dependent Origination as it occurs in the Past, Present, and Future. Therefore people who are unfamiliar with the Visuddhimagga and the Abhidhamma will have difficulty in understanding and developing a clear picture of the practice of meditation at Pa Auk Tawya. For foreigners who cannot speak Burmese this problem is made even more difficult.

This introduction has been written to help alleviate these difficulties by presenting a simplified example of a successful meditator’s path of progress as he develops his meditation at Pa Auk Tawya. This we hope will enable the reader to understand a little better the more detailed sections of the book which are the actual instructions for those who are practicing meditation. It also must be stressed from the beginning that this book is intended for use by people who are actually undergoing a course of meditation at the center under the guidance of Pa Auk Sayadaw.


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About Pa-Auk Sayadaw

The venerable Bhaddanta Āciṇṇa, more commonly referred to as the Pa-Auk Sayadaw is a Burmese Theravāda monk, meditation teacher and the abbot of the Pa-Auk Forest Monastery in Mawlamyine. He ordained as a novice in 1944, receiving full ordination in 1954.

Immersed in the study of the Pāli Canon from his days as a novice, Āciṇṇa gradually broadened his scope of attention to include meditation, initially training under Mahasi Sayadaw and U Paṇḍitā. Not long after, Āciṇṇa would also decide to become a forest monk. In the months and years to follow, he would deepen his meditation abilities under the Kathitwaing, Thanlyin and Shwetheindaw sayadaws, eventually developing his own set of meditation methods, often collectively referred to as the "Pa-Auk method".

You yourselves must strive, the Buddhas only point the way

Buddha, Dhp 276