Meditation centres

Vipassana or insight meditation is a process which enables the student to develop concentration, awareness and, through personal experience, to gain an understanding of the natural characteristics of impermanence, suffering and non-self. Practiced with diligence, the gradual process of mental purification will lead the student to the end of suffering and to full enlightenment or Nibbana.

Most of the Buddhist meditation courses are taken in ten-day retreats and conducted in the practice of Eightfold Noble Path as taught by the Buddha, which comprises three stages of training: morality (sila), concentration or control over the mind (samadi), and wisdom of insight (panna). Instruction in mindfulness of the breath (anapana meditation) is then given for five days, with the aim of quieting and concentrating the mind.

The remaining days are devoted to insight meditation (Vipassana), whereby students can experience at first hand the essential elements of the Buddha's teaching: the impermanence of all physical and mental phenomena (anicca), the unsatisfactory nature of all conditioned phenomena (dukkha), and the absence of a permanent enduring self or ego in beings (anatta).

The following is a list of meditation centres in Myanmar:

Panditarrama Golden Hill Meditation Centre
80/A, Shwetaunggya Road, Yangon
Tel: (951) 531448

The International Meditation Centre
31/A, Inya Myaing Road, Yangon
Tel: (951) 531549

Chan Myae Yeiktha Meditation Centre
55/A, Kaba Aye Pagoda Road, Yangon
Tel: (951) 661479;
Fax: (951) 667050

Mahasi Meditation Centre
16, Sasana Yeiktha Road, Yangon
Tel: (951) 541971, 552501;
Fax: (951) 289960, 289961

Mogoke Vipassana Yeiktha
82, Natmauk Road, Bahan Tsp., Yangon

Nyaunggan Aye Sasana Yeiktha
6, Insein Road, Gyogone, Insein Tsp., Yangon

Saddhammaransi Meditation Centre
7, Zeyar Khaymar Road
8th mile, Mayangon Tsp., Yangon
Tel: (951) 661597

Dhamma Joti Vipassana Centre
Nga Htat Gyi Pagoda Road
Bahan Tsp., Yangon

Pa-auk Tawya Monastery
653, Lower Main Road, Mawlamyaing, Mon State
Tel: (951) 032-22132

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