The Loss of Sayadaw U Pandita

Friends,

We have just received the sad news of the death of Sayadawgyi U Pandita-bhivamsa, our beloved teacher and perhaps the last of this great generation of Dhamma masters. We want to express our immeasurable gratitude to him for the depth of his wisdom and metta, the power and beauty of his teachings, and the force of his being as a true disciple of the Buddha.

His unbounded generosity and dedication to the Dhamma was something that benefited all of Vipassana Hawai’i’s teachers and therefore impacted all of their students to a degree that is beyond measure. We are saddened by his death but are boundlessly inspired by his life and we aspire to help continue the dispensation of the Buddha’s Dhamma in accordance with his transmission to us.

We offer our deepest compassion to his many centers and communities around the world that will feel the painful loss of their great teacher. We hope that anyone who knew him or was touched by his teaching make sure to spend time in the coming days practicing diligently to honor the gift of this incredible practice of vipassana and its power to create the conditions of liberation from greed, hatred, and delusion in all of our hearts.

We bow three bows of the deepest gratitude to our beloved teacher,

The Vipassana Hawai’i Ohana