Mahasi Sayadaw I A Simple Tradition I 1980

Produced by Ellen Pearlman. Incredibly rare footage of Mahasi Sayadaw, who revitalized a style of Vipassana mediation in Burma during the 1970s, influencing well over one million people in Southeast Asia. This footage also shows footage of Sayadaw's main disciple U Silanada, and some of the first Westerners to bring Theravadin Buddhism to the the West including Jack Kornfield, Alan Clements, Joseph Goldstein, and the Indian Anagarika Munindra. This is an essential link in the transmission of the history as Asian thought into Western culture, and ultimately the American arts. Also included is the opening of a meditation retreat at Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Barre, Massachusetts with Mahasi Sayadaw and his monks, hosted by Jack Kornfield. This includes opening instructions, and actual meditation interviews with Sayadaw.