The Venerable Chanmyay

Sayadaw A sayadaw (, ; , and alternatively spelled ''hsayadaw'', ''sayado'', ''sayāḍo'' or ''sayāḍaw'') is a Burmese Buddhist title used to reference the senior monk or abbot of a monastery. The word is a combination of Sanskrit word "acharya" (te ...

U Janakābhivaṃsa, (, ; born 24 July 1928) is a

Theravada Buddhist ''Theravāda'' (; 'School of the Elders'; ) is Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school's adherents, termed ''Theravādins'' (anglicized from Pali ''theravādī''), have preserved their version of the Buddha's teaching or ''Dhamma'' in th ...

monk A monk (; from , ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a man who is a member of a religious order and lives in a monastery. A monk usually lives his life in prayer and contemplation. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many reli ...

from

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

Life

Early life and studies

He was born in Pyinma village,

Taungdwingyi Township Taungdwingyi Township () is a Townships of Myanmar, township of Magway District in the Magway Region of Myanmar. The principal town is Taungdwingyi. People have inhabited this area for thousands of years, and one of the earliest civilizations of ...

, British Burma, on Tuesday, 24 July 1928. His parents were U Phyu Min and Daw Shwe Yee. He started to study the

Buddhist scriptures Buddhist texts are religious texts that belong to, or are associated with, Buddhism and its traditions. There is no single textual collection for all of Buddhism. Instead, there are three main Buddhist Canons: the Pāli Canon of the Therav ...

at the age of fifteen as a novice monk. He received the higher upasampada ordination in 1947 and continued advanced studies of Buddhist scriptures. He practised Vipassana

meditation Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique to train attention and awareness and detach from reflexive, "discursive thinking", achieving a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state, while not judging the meditat ...

under the instruction of the most Venerable

Mahasi Sayadaw Mahāsī Sayādaw U Sobhana (, ; 29 July 1904 – 14 August 1982) was a Burmese Theravada Buddhist monk and meditation master who had a significant impact on the teaching of vipassanā (insight) meditation in the West and throughout Asia. In ...

from 1953 to 1954. He was then invited by the State Buddha Sasana Organization to be an editor of the Buddhist scriptures in

Pali Pāli (, IAST: pāl̤i) is a Classical languages of India, classical Middle Indo-Aryan languages, Middle Indo-Aryan language of the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pali Canon, Pāli Can ...

for reciting Buddhist scriptures at the

Sixth Buddhist Council The Sixth Buddhist Council (; ; ) was a general council of Theravāda Buddhism, held in a specially built Mahā Pāsāṇa Guhā (Great Cave) and pagoda complex at Kaba Aye Pagoda in Yangon, Burma. The council was attended by 2500 monastics f ...

in Myanmar. Starting from 1957, the Venerable Sayadaw spent six years in

Colombo Colombo, ( ; , ; , ), is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. The Colombo metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 within the municipal limits. It is the ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

, where he continued his studies of English,

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

and

Sinhalese language Sinhala ( ; Sinhala: , , ), sometimes called Sinhalese ( ), is an Indo-Aryan language primarily spoken by the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka, who make up the largest ethnic group on the island, numbering about 16 million. It is also the first l ...

s. He returned to Myanmar in June 1963. At the invitation of the state Buddha Sasana Organisation, he took up residence at Kaba-Aye where he edited the publications of Pali Texts.

Teaching career

In 1967, he was appointed by the Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw as a meditation teacher at Mahasi Sasana Yeiktha,

Yangon Yangon, formerly romanized as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar. Yangon was the List of capitals of Myanmar, capital of Myanmar until 2005 and served as such until 2006, when the State Peace and Dev ...

. In 1977 Sayadaw Ashin Janakabhivamsa took up residence at Chanmyay Yeiktha Meditation Center which was donated to him by some devotees and became the

abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the head of an independent monastery for men in various Western Christian traditions. The name is derived from ''abba'', the Aramaic form of the Hebrew ''ab'', and means "father". The female equivale ...

of the center. He has been since then well known as Chanmyay Sayadaw. In 1979–1980, Chanmyay Sayadaw accompanied the Mahasi Sayadaw's Dhamma Mission to Europe and the USA. He has undertaken many Dhamma missions to countries in Asia, Europe, and the United States. As recently as July 2015, at the age of 87, he travelled to the UK, Ireland, and Canada giving Dhamma Talks.

References

Biography of Chanmyay Sayadaw

External links

Chanmyay Meditation Centre

Chanmyay Meditation Centre Myaing

Chanmyay Meditation Centre (USA)

Chanmyay Meditation Centre Singapore

Chanmyay Meditation Centre Pretoria, South Africa
1928 births Living people Chanmay Sayadaw Burmese Buddhist monks People from Magway Division Recipients of Abhivaṃsa {{Theravada-stub