    sayadaw u pandita (, ;also ; born 29 july 1921) is one of the foremost living masters of vipassana meditation. he trained in the burmese theravada buddhist tradition. a successor to the late mahÄsi sayÄdaw, he has taught many of the western teachers and students of the mahÄsi style of vipassana meditation. he is the abbot of  meditation center in yangon, myanmar. ==brief biography== u pandita was born in 1921 in insein in greater yangon during the british colonial rule. he became a novice at age twelve, and ordained at age twenty. after decades of study, he passed the rigorous series of government examinations in the theravÄda buddhist texts, gaining the dhammÄcariya (dhamma teacher) degree in 1952. u pandita began practicing vipassana under the guidance of mahÄsi sayÄdaw beginning in 1950. in 1955, he left his position as a teacher of scriptural studies to become a meditation teacher at the mahÄsi meditation center. soon after mahasi sayÄdaw died in 1982, u pandita became the guiding teacher (ovÄdacariya) of the mahasi meditation center. in 1991, he left that position, founding  meditation center in yangon. there are now  branch centers in burma, nepal, australia, united kingdom and the united states. u pandita became well known in the west after conducting a retreat in the spring of 1984 at the insight meditation society (ims) in barre, massachusetts in the united states. many of the senior western meditation teachers in the mahÄsi tradition practiced with u pandita at that and subsequent retreats. the talks he gave in 1984 at ims were compiled as the book "in this very life." as of 2005, he continues to lead retreats and give dharma talks, but rarely conducts interviews himself. a
1921_births Burmese_Buddhist_monks Burmese_Theravada_Buddhists Living_people People_from_Yangon Theravada_Buddhist_monks