| Background: |
|
| Honorific-Prefix: | Bhaddanta |
| Dharma Name: | Pali: အာစိဏ္ဏ |
| Other Name: | Pa-Auk Sayadaw |
| Birth Date: | 24 June 1934[1] |
| Birth Place: | Hinthada Township, Ayeyarwady, Myanmar |
| Mother: | Daw Saw Tin |
| Father: | U Phyu |
| Nationality: | Burmese |
| Religion: | Buddhism |
| School: | Theravāda |
| Order: | Shwekyin Nikāya |
| Dhammācariya (1956), Aggamahā Kammaṭṭhānācariya (1999), Hrwekyang Nikāya Rattaññūmahānāyaka (2009), Abhidhaja Aggamahā Saddhammajotika (2018), Aggamahāpaṇḍita (2021), Abhidhajamahāraṭṭhaguru (2024) [2] | |
| Location: | Mawlamyine, Mon State; Pyin U Lwin, Mandalay |
| Occupation: | Monk |
| Initiation Date: | May 2, 1944 |
| Initiator: | U Soṇa |
| Ordination: | May 10, 1954 |
| Teacher: | Mahasi Sayadaw, U Paṇḍitā |
| Predecessor: | Aggapañña |
| Students: | Most Ven. Nauyane Ariyadhamma Mahāthēra, Shaila Catherine |
| Works: | The Practice That Leads to Nibbāna |
| The Most Venerable Bhaddanta Āciṇṇa Mahāthēra | |
The Most Venerable Bhaddanta Āciṇṇa Mahāthēra (Pali: ဘဒ္ဒန္တအာစိဏ္ဏ), 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.[3] [4]
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.[1] 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,[1] eventually developing his own set of meditation methods, often collectively referred to as the "Pa-Auk method".[5]
On July 21, 1981,[6] Most Venerable Āciṇṇa Mahāthēra succeeded the Phelhtaw Sayadaw Aggapañña,[6] at the latter's invitation, as the abbot of the Pa-Auk Forest Monastery.[2] The monastery would then grow into a network of meditation centres across Southeast Asia and beyond, and is currently the largest network in Myanmar.
In 1999, the national government awarded Āciṇṇa the title of Aggamahākammaṭṭhānācariya (Pali: အဂ္ဂမဟာကမ္မဋ္ဌာနာစရိယ). In 2018, his title was raised to that of Abhidhaja Aggamahā Saddhammajotika (Pali: အဘိဓဇအဂ္ဂမဟာသဒ္ဓမ္မဇောတိက). In 2021, he received the title Aggamahāpandita (Pali: အဂ္ဂမဟာပဏ္ဍိတ) [7] and in 2024, he received the highest title, Abhidhajamahāraṭṭhaguru (Pali: အဘိဓဇမဟာရဋ္ဌဂုရု).[8]
In May 2017, Āciṇṇa was conferred an honorary doctorate of philosophy from Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University in Bangkok, Thailand.[9]