Sayalay Susila is one of the senior international teachers in the Pa Auk Sayadaw lineage, a Burmese Theravada tradition that emphasises the systematic cultivation of the eight jhanas — the deep concentration states of samatha — as the foundation for vipassana insight.
Born in Penang, Malaysia in 1965, she ordained as an eight-precept thilashin in 1991 under the late Pa Auk Sayadaw, Bhante Acinna, the principal architect of the modern Pa Auk meditation system. She trained for over two decades at Pa Auk Tawya Forest Monastery in Mon State, Myanmar — the principal training centre of the tradition, home at any given time to several hundred monastics undertaking the long Pa Auk programme.
The Pa Auk method is unusual in the modern Burmese Theravada world for its rigorous commitment to samatha first: the cultivation of access concentration through anapanasati, then the systematic mastery of the eight jhanas, then the four arupa formless realms, before moving into the analytical insight practice of the Visuddhimagga. The full programme typically requires years of retreat. Sayalay Susila is one of the small number of Western-trained teachers authorised by the lineage to teach the full path.
She is the author of Unravelling the Mysteries of Mind and Body, one of the most clear and substantial English-language guides to the Pa Auk meditation system, and of A Map of the Journey, a presentation of the stages of the path. She teaches extensively in Malaysia, Singapore, the United States, and Europe, with retreats typically running ten to thirty days.
Applications for personal time are received through her teaching schedule on a quarterly cadence. The Pa Auk tradition strongly prefers applicants who have completed at least one Pa Auk retreat of ten days or longer before seeking personal interview.
