Venerable Pa-Auk Tawya Sayadaw

Shwekyin Nikāya Rattaññūmahānāyaka Agga Mahā Kammaṭṭhānācariya

The Most Venerable Pa-Auk Tawya Sayadaw Bhaddanta Āciṇṇa

The Most Venerable Pa-Auk Tawya Sayadaw Bhaddanta Āciṇṇa (“The Sayadaw”), is the Abbot and Principal teacher of Pa-Auk Forest Monastery, Mawlamyine, Myanmar. (“Sayadaw” is a Burmese honorific title meaning “Respected Teacher”).

Born in 1934, the Sayadaw was ordained as a novice monk (sāmaṇēra) at age ten. He studied the Pāli Texts under various teachers and passed the three Pāli language examinations while still a novice. At age twenty, the Sayadaw received higher ordination as a bhikkhu. He continued his studies of Pāli Texts under learned elder monks and passed the Dhammācariya examinations at age twenty-two. This is the equivalent to BA in Buddhist Pāli Studies and it confers the title of “Dhamma Teacher”.

In 1964, the Sayadaw intensified his meditation practice and began to practice “forest-dwelling”. While he continued with his studies of the Pāli Texts and investigation into the Dhamma, he sought out and gained instructions from revered meditation teachers of those times.

In 1981, the Sayadaw became the Abbot of Pa-Auk Forest Monastery, at the invitation of Venerable Aggapaññā (the late Abbot). Since 1983, both monastics and laity have been coming to study and practice meditation under the Sayadaw. Foreign meditators began to arrive at the Monastery in the early 1990s.

In 1997, the Sayadaw published his magnum opus, a massive five-volume work titled “The Practice that Leads to Nibbāna”, explaining the entire course of teaching in detail and supported by copious quotations from the Pāli Texts – it is currently available only in Burmese, English and Sinhalese. The Sayadaw’s teachings have been published in several books in English which are highly regarded internationally (see ‘Books by The Most Venerable Pa-Auk Tawya Sayadaw’).

The Sayadaw is both a highly esteemed Dhammācariya (Dhamma Teacher) and an accomplished Kammaṭṭhānācariya (Meditation Teacher). He speaks fluent English and has lectured and led retreats in Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Germany, UK and USA.

In public recognition of his achievements, the government of Myanmar bestowed upon him the title “Agga Mahā Kammaṭṭhānācariya”, which means “Most Highly Respected Meditation Teacher” in 1999. In 2009, the Sayadaw has bestowed the title of “Shwekyin Nikāya Rattaññūmahānāyaka” at the 17th Shwekyin Nikaya Saṅgha Conference in Myanmar.