“Even reading and studying only Chapter 5 will enable you to practice insight meditation in a straightforward way, and you will be able to realize (enlightenment of) path knowledge, fruition knowledge, and nibbāna.” – Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw, from Manual of Insight
The first English translation available to Westerners of the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw’s two-volume Manual of Insight might sound at first like something of interest mostly to scholars—or to Buddhist Geeks. Originally completed in seven months by the vipassana master in 1945 even as Japanese bombers dropped their fiery payloads on the nearby Burmese city of Shwebo, the approximately 700-page tome is a rare example of the legendary Sayadaw’s personal research into the Pali suttas, commentaries and sub-commentaries. It is also a straightforward meditation manual with a detailed exposition of the Progress of Insight, the specific stages of the path of awakening as meticulously observed within the Burmese Theravada tradition. It is this latter aspect of the text—its potential ability to help struggling yogis progress and to give Western meditation teachers additional tools to do a better job—that has Steve Armstrong so committed to seeing it available in the West.
“Most of the early generations of vipassana teachers in the West chose not to expose students to the Progress of Insight,” says Armstrong, a veteran vipassana teacher who is spearheading the translation project, which should be ready to submit to publishers by the end of the year. “That is partly because many of us who were coming to practice in the 1970s were enthusiastic, diligent and spiritually ambitious. For us Western seekers, there was a danger that the Progress of Insight could have led to excessive striving and imbalanced effort as well as misevaluation of one’s practice.”
More than three decades later, however, the unintended consequences of deemphasizing what is known about the stages of the path have become all too clear in Western vipassana, Armstrong says. For example, practice sometimes uncovers extremely unpleasant, destabilizing or counterintuitive mental terrain that advancing meditators can easily misunderstand. Armstrong, who was a monk for five years under the guidance of Sayadaw U Pandita at the Mahasi Meditation Center in Rangoon, cites an example of what can happen when Western dharma teachers fail to properly understand the emerging insight knowledge of dukkha (unsatisfactoriness) and anatta (not-self or impersonality), two of the three universal characteristics of all phenomena.
“A good student of mine several years ago was undertaking a three-month retreat—she had already been practicing a few years—and was at a stage in her practice where her sense of self was very porous and destabilized,” he recalls. “However, she was gaining insight knowledge into the way things are. At the end of her retreat, when she went back home, she felt extremely ill-at-ease. She went to her local dharma teacher for advice, who told her, ‘You need therapy.’ ”
Nonetheless, the yogi’s inner voice told her she had come this far by relating to all meditative objects—mental, physical, good, bad or indifferent—on a sensate, rather than psychological level. She had enough resolve to choose the cushion over the couch, Armstrong says. “She went to Burma, ordained as a nun, and through intensive practice over the course of the next year attained the first of the Four Paths of Enlightenment,” he says. “That was fortunate for her, but it also illustrates the limitations of teachers who have not yet experienced the first path, and then offer teachings from a perspective which might be more about psychology than vipassana.”
Western dharma students have long been accustomed to Buddhist books and talks that amount to an admixture of inspirational poetry, psychological analysis, riffs on current events, and freestyle borrowing from any number of spiritual traditions. In 1990, when Armstrong returned to the West still in robes from his studies with U Pandita—who teaches the Mahasi method in the traditional and intense style that is characteristic of Burma—he was struck by the contrast. “I could not offer the teachings in as orthodox a way as they do in Burma because the Western scene was so modified, with a lot of psychological understandings and influences from other spiritual traditions like Krishnamurti and other non-dual teachings, as well as the Tibetan influence,” he recalls. “There was a kind of potpourri, as U Pandita would call it.”
While this integrative approach certainly offers benefits, it also carries rarely discussed risks—such as the possibility of losing touch with the practical knowledge and specific instructions that give traditional lineages their effectiveness and power, Armstrong says. “There are those who complain about the watering down of the dharma, the misrepresentation of the Mahasi technique and tradition, and just a general confusion on the part of many western Buddhists as to what vipassana practice is all about,” he says.
That is part of the reason Armstrong and his colleagues have taken such care to preserve the Sayadaw’s voice throughout the translation, perhaps at the risk of alienating some western readers who are more accustomed to contemporary presentations of the dharma. “We have aimed to find a balance between the authentic Mahasi voice and Western use of the English language,” Armstrong says. “Mahasi Sayadaw was certainly very orthodox and almost fundamentalist at times, and that can be pretty daunting for people who remain bestseller Buddhists, not yet dig-to-the-depths Buddhists. If anything, we have erred on the side of literal Mahasi voice because we are intent on keeping this his teachings, not our interpretations of them.”
In fact, the translation will include nearly 100 pages of the actual Pali script the Sayadaw referenced. Vira Ñani, an American nun based in Burma, spent a year tracking down these references and putting together a glossary for the book. This was necessary because the Sayadaw’s references to Pali texts notated the Burmese editions. Now, all Pali quote citations are to the Vipassana Research Institute’s CSCD Pali Canon database, readily available to Westerners. “It took a lot of research, but for those who want to confirm for themselves what Mahasi Sayadaw has either written or referenced, the Pali will now be there,” Armstrong says.
Armstrong got involved in the project about 10 years ago after having a casual conversation with his friend Hla Myint, a former Burmese monk. “I went back to Burma in 2000,” he explains. “I met Hla Myint and inquired, ‘Well, what are you doing now?’ He responded, ‘Oh, I am translating Mahasi Sayadaw’s two-volume book Manual of Insight.’ I said, ‘You are? Hasn’t that been translated into English yet?’ ”
Immediately enthusiastic about the project, Armstrong began funding Hla Myint’s work. Ariya Ñani, a Swiss nun in Burma, later re-read the original in Burmese and suggested substantial improvements in the English translation. Armstrong, along with his wife, the senior vipassana teacher Kamala Masters, and dhamma teacher Deborah Ratner-Helzer, edited the text.
Now finishing up the footnotes, Armstrong hopes to bring these teachings to a wider audience by submitting Manual of Insight to a major American publisher like Wisdom Publications. While Mahasi Sayadaw might be considered the grandfather of Western vipassana—a primary teacher of the likes of Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg and Jack Kornfield—his original works are still scarce in the West, Armstrong notes. “About 30 of his books have been translated into English, but they are very difficult to find,” he says. Indeed, some of these rarer titles list for up to $150 on Internet auction sites. A couple of the Sayadaw’s works are available for free on Google Books, but hard copies often must be obtained in Burma or ordered from Sri Lanka.
Manual of Insight, moreover, is different from the Mahasi Sayadaw books with which some students may be familiar. “This is one of the few books he did that is pure research and written manual,” Armstrong notes. “Most of the other books are transcriptions of talks he has given.” With its richness of detail and clear instructions, Manual of Insight also offers useful information for practitioners at any level. Chapter 5, for example, lays out the preparatory as well as the advanced practice needed in order to establish mindfulness and make progress in developing insight. Throughout, the text elucidates important subtleties of Mahasi Sayadaw’s understanding of the Buddha’s teaching and insight practice, Armstrong says. “Even as I was reading and editing this book, I kept coming across things where I said, ‘Holy sheesh—I never realized that.’ Or ‘That really answers a question I never knew I had.’ ”
The material on the states and stages of the path could be of particular help to beginning students, retreatants and advanced yogis alike, so long as they keep the Progress of Insight in perspective and resist any temptation to, as the saying goes, confuse the map with the journey, Armstrong says. Interestingly, several of the founders of Western vipassana have encouraged Armstrong’s efforts to make the Progress of Insight better known. “Today, there are a lot of experienced and maturing students in vipassana who could benefit from a subtler explanation and refinement of understanding of what is going on in their practice,” he says. “Some Western vipassana teachers may not know this information, either from textual sources or personal experience, and may offer students inappropriate or ineffective guidance. Many Western dharma books are coming from the same place, frankly. They are from the same level of understanding. The Mahasi book is definitely from a different level of insight.”
The map also points to territory traversed by students of Zen, Dzogchen—any contemplative tradition—and thus this translation will be of interest to non-Theravadins as well. “It is the continuity of mindful awareness that deepens concentration, that reveals the true characteristics of phenomena and develops liberating insight,” Armstrong says. “Liberation is possible. Don’t be satisfied with rearranging your psychological patterns. Comfort is not a goal worthy of your sincerest efforts.”






