Sayadaw U Paá¹Âá¸Âita (, ; also OvÃÂdÃÂcariya SayÃÂdo à ª Paá¹Âá¸ÂitÃÂbhivaá¹Âsa; 28 July 1921 â 16 April 2016) was one of the foremost masters of VipassanÃÂ. He trained in the Theravada Buddhist tradition of Myanmar. A successor to the late MahÃÂsi SayÃÂdaw, he has taught many of the Western teachers and students of the MahÃÂsi style of Vipassanàmeditation. He was the abbot of Meditation Center in Yangon, Myanmar.
U Paá¹Âá¸Âita was born in 1921 in Insein in greater Rangoon (now Yangon) during 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 TheravÃÂda Buddhist texts, gaining the DhammÃÂcariya (Dhamma teacher) degree in 1952.
U Paá¹Âá¸Âita began practicing Vipassana under the guidance of MahÃÂsi SayÃÂdaw beginning in 1950.
In 1955, he left his position as a teacher of scriptural studies to become a meditation teacher at the MahÃÂsi Meditation Center. Soon after Mahasi SayÃÂdaw died in 1982, U Paá¹Âá¸Âita became the guiding teacher (OvÃÂdacariya) of the Mahasi Meditation Center. In 1991, he left that position, founding Meditation Center in Yangon. There are now branch centers in Myanmar, Nepal, Australia, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States.
U Paá¹Âá¸Âita 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 MahÃÂsi tradition practiced with U Paá¹Âá¸Âita at that and subsequent retreats. The talks he gave in 1984 at IMS were compiled as the book In This Very Life.
Until his death at age 94 in 2016, he continued to lead retreats and give Dhamma talks, but he rarely gave interviews.
U Paá¹Âá¸Âita was known for teaching a rigorous and precise method of self-examination. He taught or VipassanÃÂ, emphasising Buddhist ethics as a requisite foundation. He was also an erudite scholar of the Pali , the TheravÃÂda Canon.
Judson Brewer a meditation researcher, uses Paá¹Âá¸Âita's quote to illustrate the difference between dopamine secretions and joy: "In their quest for happiness, people mistake excitement of the mind for real happiness."