# Bhaddanta Āciṇṇa

Part of a series on :
Theravāda Buddhism :
Buddhism :
History
Pre-sectarian Buddhism
Early schools
Sthaviras
Buddhist councils
Vibhajjavāda
Mahāvihāra
Tambapaṇṇiya
Dīpavaṃsa
Mahāvaṃsa
Pali Text Society :
Key figures
Bhāṇaka
Moggaliputta-Tissa
Mahinda
Sanghamitta
Tissa
Buddhaghoṣa
Buddhadatta
Dhammapāla
Parakramabahu I
Mahākassapa (12th century)
Sāriputta (12th century)
Anawrahta
Ram Khamhaeng
Sumangala Thera
Anagarika Dharmapala
Mongkut
Vajirananavarorasa
Ledi Sayadaw
U Nu
U Nārada
Bhaddanta Āciṇṇa
Mahasi Sayadaw
U Ba Khin
S. N. Goenka
Mun Bhuridatta
Ajahn Chah
Maha Ghosananda
Kripasaran
Mahapragya
Pragyananda
K. Sri Dhammananda
Narada Mahathera
Asoka Weeraratna
Walpola Rahula
Jayatilleke
Kalupahana
U Dhammaloka
Nyanatiloka
Nanamoli
Nyanaponika
Bhikkhu Bodhi
Ajahn Sumedho
Ajahn Brahm
Analayo
Varanggana Vanavichayen
Dhammananda Bhikkhuni
Ayya Tathaaloka
Ayya Khema
Kee Nanayon
Dipa Ma :
Literature
Pāli Tipiṭaka
Paracanonical
Commentaries
Sub-commentaries
Paritta
Visuddhimagga
Abhidhammattha-saṅgaha
Vimuttimagga
Abhidhammāvatāra
Yogāvacara's manual :
Orders (Nikāya)
Thailand, Laos, Cambodia
Mahā
Dhammayuttika
Myanmar
Thudhamma
Shwegyin
Mahādvāra
Mūladvāra
Veḷuvana
Anaukchaung-dvāra
Hngettwin
Gaṇavimutti
Dhammayuttika
Sri Lanka
Amarapura–Rāmañña
Siam
Bangladesh
Saṅgharāja
Mahāsthabir :
Traditions
Pariyatti, paṭipatti, paṭivedha
Sādhu
Abhidhamma
Kammaṭṭhāna
Vassa
Pavāraṇā
Vipassana movement
Thai Forest
Pa-Auk Forest
Sri Lankan Forest
Esoteric Theravāda
Dhammakaya :
Festivals
Vesākha Pūjā
Māgha Pūjā
Āsāḷha Pūjā
Kaṭhina
Abhidhamma Day
Uposatha :
Higher education
MBU
MCRU
IBC
ITBMU
SPSU
BPU
Sihanouk
Sihamoni
CSC
Sangha College
Kertarajasa
Syailendra
Nalanda
DDIBU :
vte :
The Most Venerable Bhaddanta Āciṇṇa Mahāthēra (ဘဒ္ဒန္တအာစိဏ္ဏ), more commonly referred to as the Pa-Auk Sayadaw (Burmese: ဖားအောက်ဆရာတော်; MLCTS: Hpa:auk Hca.ratau.), is a Burmese Theravāda monk, meditation teacher and the abbot of the Pa-Auk Forest Monastery in Mawlamyine.
Most Venerable Āciṇṇa Mahāthēra 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, he gradually broadened his scope of attention to include meditation, initially training under Mahasi Sayadaw and U Paṇḍitā. Not long after, he 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".
On July 21, 1981, Most Venerable Āciṇṇa Mahāthēra succeeded the Phelhtaw Sayadaw Aggapañña, at the latter's invitation, as the abbot of the Pa-Auk Forest Monastery. The monastery would then grow into a network of meditation centres across Southeast Asia and beyond, and is currently the largest network in Myanmar.

## Awards and honours

In 1999, the national government awarded Āciṇṇa the title of Aggamahākammaṭṭhānācariya (အဂ္ဂမဟာကမ္မဋ္ဌာနာစရိယ). In 2018, his title was raised to that of Abhidhaja Aggamahā Saddhammajotika (အဘိဓဇအဂ္ဂမဟာသဒ္ဓမ္မဇောတိက). In 2021, he received the title Aggamahāpandita (အဂ္ဂမဟာပဏ္ဍိတ) and in 2024, he received the highest title, Abhidhajamahāraṭṭhaguru (အဘိဓဇမဟာရဋ္ဌဂုရု).
In May 2017, Āciṇṇa was conferred an honorary doctorate of philosophy from Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University in Bangkok, Thailand.