Mahasi Sayadaw Foundation
- Established June 27, 2019
- Chamber of Commerce registration number: 75258390
- RSIN number: 860211642
- Established Lobith, Transeedijk 2 – 08, 6915 XX. Telephone 00 31 6 204 303 37.
- Bank: IBAN: NL63 RABO 0149 0892 79. BIC: RABONL2U
- Bestuur: Guus Went, chairman, Sanne Schoonbeek, secretary, Jerome Stoel, treasurer.
- Mahasi Sayadaw Foundation has been designated as a Public Benefit Organization (ANBI) from June 27 2019.
Guus Went
(born 1952, see biography), started his practice of the Buddha’s teaching (Mahasi method) in 1980. In 2007 a sense of urgency made him start a quest to deepening, which led him in 2012 to Mahasi Sayadaw’s successor, Sayadaw U Pandita, and his senior students. In seven consecutive winter retreats with them his confidence grew steadily and significantly. Since 2011 Guus has been sharing his experiences in 5-day retreats and since 2016 – assisted by Jerome Stoel (1967, biography here) – also in 10-day retreats. In 2019 he established in Netherland a foundation with the name Mahasi Sayadaw Foundation.
Current Management Plan
Why the name Mahasi Sayadaw Foundation?
The late Burmese monk Mahasi Sayadaw (1904-1982) with the method taught by him from 1950 on did cause a massive revival of Vipassana meditation, notably among lay people. After his passing away his chosen successor Sayadaw U Pandita (1921-2016) caused a large scale further spread, also in the West. Besides – and especially apart from that – the method did also mix up with different other methods. The Mahasi Sayadaw Foundation emphatically prefers to stick to the pure, original Mahasi method, as taught by Mahasi Sayadaw, by his successor Sayadaw U Pandita and by his senior students.
The Foundation has as its aim: (translation)
- To contribute to peace in the world according to the principle ‘improve the world and start with yourself’
- Offering tools for moral behaviour and mental development (meditation)
- Study, practice and teaching of Mahasi method.
The foundation aims to achieve its goals by (translation):
- Study and meditation at Panditarama centres in Myanmar and elsewhere in the world, as well as at other centres, wherever in the world, where the Mahasi method is being taught.
- Offering clarity about the Mahasi method, what it is and what it is not.
- Teaching and spread of the Mahasi method and continuity in it
- Organizing and conducting retreats
- Inviting qualified teachers and facilitating teaching
- Fostering connection among practitioners
- Establishing, administering, maintaining and exploiting (or having exploited) one or more locations
- Lessons and study weeks at high schools
- To stimulate – by giving the example – dana-principle: unconditional giving, that is giving without wishing something in return
- To cooperate with those who have the same aim.
The assets of the foundation consist of:
- gifts
- subsidies and donations
- inheritances, legacies and grants
- all other possible acquisitions and assets
The foundation emphatically doesn’t have making profit as its goal. However, the foundation will build up all possible financial reserves necessary for realising its goal.
Board members will not get paid for their work. However, they deserve compensation for expenses made in excercising their functions.
Annual Accounts: 2019-2020 2021 2022 2023
Annual Reports: 2019-2020 2021 2022 2023
The gift of SECURITY
After you register for a retreat, the facilitator will contact you for a telephonic introductory talk. He wants to be sure that you as a participant have a realistic picture of what awaits you in a retreat. He also wants to be sure that he is willing and able to guide you as a participant. You as a participant also need to be sure that you have confidence in the facilitator. Very occasionally, the facilitator will ask you and/or himself for time to reflect. After the introductory talk, you will receive a link to instructions for the meditation.
Dana or generosity is explicitly mentioned in the Mahasi Sayadaw Foundation’s objectives (see opposite under point 9).
Three forms of generosity are distinguished: material gifts, the gift of security and the gift of Dhamma.
The highest security a person can give – to himself as well as to others – is ethical or moral behaviour.
Ethics has a prominent place in the statutes of the Mahasi Sayadaw Foundation: (Article 2, 1b. providing tools for moral conduct and mental development, meditation).
Ethics is not a pious religious or political talk, but a powerful, compassionate course of action, which can call for an active choice at any moment. This refers to basic ethics, or empathy, as formulated in the Buddhist five precepts and the beneficial mental states hiri and ottappa, or conscientiousness and fear of rebuke by wise persons.
During 5-day and longer retreats, moral precepts are always one of the topics covered. In retreats, utter abstinence from sexual behaviour and from the use of alcohol and drugs is observed, as well as noble silence (the latter apart from daily 15 minutes of individual reporting to the facilitator).
Once the precepts are explained, they are recited daily. This has a significance. Supervisors and staff are accountable for them. And approachability, according to the Buddha, is one of the seven characteristics of a good friend (see note 3, 5th point).
Should it ever happen that you as a participant do not feel safe because of the behaviour of a teacher, supervisor or staff member, we strongly advise you to address this person directly at the earliest possible stage. Of course, this is also possible afterwards. Should this not be satisfactory, we urge you to inform the foundation board. As a last resort, there is the possibility of contacting (one of) the person’s teachers.
The board of the Mahasi Sayadaw Foundation trusts that in this way the two perfections (paramis) of generosity (dana) and virtue (sila) will always prevail over unholy behaviour.