The Sunlun method

The Sunlun method comes from Sunlun Sayadaw U Kavi (1878–1952), a farmer from Upper Myanmar who became a monk. It uses a firm, unchanging posture and strong, rapid breathing with close attention to the touch of the breath, and then turns to bodily sensation, especially unpleasant sensation, observed without mental labels. The tradition's own text presents it as a method for busy city people with little time. Its website is run from the Kaba Aye Sun Lun Monastery in Yangon.

This page describes the method as the tradition publishes it. Meditators at the monastery practise under an instructor, and that is where it is learnt.

Where it comes from

Sunlun Sayadaw was born Maung Kyaw Din in Sunlun village, in the Myingyan district of Upper Burma. The monastery's biography, which dates events by the Burmese calendar, gives his birth as March 1878. He had little schooling, worked as an office boy in the Deputy Commissioner's office at Myingyan, and left at about thirty to farm his family's land. The tradition's own site calls him barely literate.

In October 1919, the biography says, he made a wish at a village pagoda to become a monk and teach the Dhamma. A friend, U Shwe Lok, told him to stay aware of whatever he was doing, and he practised this while he farmed: the touch of the breath at the tip of the nose, each touch of his foot on the ground, and the painful sensations that arose in his body. A year later, in October 1920, he became a novice monk named Shin Kavi. The tradition holds that he became an arahant, a fully awakened person, that same year, and later received full ordination.

According to the biography he taught for thirty-one years and died in May 1952. His remains lie in the Than-Tha-Yar-Aye Pagoda. The biography was written in Burmese by Sayadaw U Sobhana, principal monk of the Sunlun Gu Kyaung (the Sunlun cave monastery) at Myingyan, who looked after him for more than thirty years. Its English translation was edited at the Kaba Aye Sun Lun Meditation Centre in Yangon, by Sayadaw U Wara and Daw Aye Aye Mon. The tradition's other website, sunlun.com, credits Sunlun Shin Vinaya with making the method available to city dwellers who lack the founder's endurance.

How the method works

The method is set out in The Sunlun Way of Mindfulness, published on the tradition's website. As that text describes it:

• Posture. The meditator sits firmly, cross-legged with the back straight and the arms close to the body, holding the right fist in the left hand. The posture is meant for hard work, not relaxation, and it is not changed until the session ends. The text quotes the founder: "If cramped, don't move; if itchy, don't scratch; if fatigued, don't rest."
• Strong breathing. The meditator breathes strongly, firmly and rapidly, keenly aware of each touch of the breath at the nostril tip or upper lip, without following the breath into the body or counting it. The text says this shuts out noise, quickly clears away the hindrances (nīvaraṇa) and builds concentration. The breathing goes on until enough unpleasant sensation has built up; in the text's words, sensation is the clock.
• Sensation. The breathing then stops, the body is held still, and attention goes to the most pronounced sensation, such as pain, heat, cold, cramp or numbness. The meditator stays with it as it arises and passes, without naming it and without thinking of it as "my leg" or "my pain", using just enough effort to hold the attention and no more.

The text explains why it works with unpleasant rather than pleasant sensation (vedanā): pleasant sensation easily slides into desire, while unpleasant sensation is harder to get lost in and shows the unsatisfactory nature of experience (dukkha) plainly. It describes the meditator staying with a painful sensation until it subsides, ends or breaks off, and it presents the method as a fast way to establish the four foundations of mindfulness (The four foundations of mindfulness).

There are no set times for practice. The text says an intensive first session of an hour or so works better than the few minutes a day some Western books suggest for beginners, that a normal session should last at least an hour or two, and that those practising intensively sit through the whole day or night.

Retreats and cost

The Kaba Aye Sun Lun Monastery publishes written rules for meditators who stay there. As of September 2026 they say:

• residents meditate three times a day, in two-hour sessions in the morning, around midday and in the evening, in the meditation hall only, for the whole session;
• everyone follows the instructor who looks after the session;
• no cushions or thick blankets are allowed to sit on, only a thin mat or towel;
• breakfast and lunch are provided, and the dining hall closes at noon;
• women wear a longyi or long skirt, and men do not wear shorts in the hall;
• residents ask the presiding Sayadaw's permission to go out, and alcohol and drugs are forbidden.

The monastery's website does not state how long a stay lasts or what it costs. Its schedule page lists meditation camps at three Sunlun monasteries in Myanmar, all with dates still to be announced. The format varies, so ask the monastery directly before planning a stay; its address and telephone number are on its website.

How it differs, and what to consider

Force rather than ease. Sunlun deliberately asks for vigorous breathing, a tight posture and sitting through pain without moving, and its text says mindfulness should be rigorous, not relaxed. It argues that people today face more noise and distraction, have less time and are slower to gain insight, and so need a method that works quickly. Other methods on this site take the opposite approach to the breath: Anapana, as taught on Goenka courses, observes the natural breath without controlling it.

No labels. Sunlun's text rejects mental labelling. It argues that noting an ache as "aching, aching" puts a concept between the meditator and the experience, and asks instead for direct contact with the sensation as it happens. The Mahasi method labels experience silently on purpose, though Mahasi himself stresses that knowing the object matters more than the word.

Health. This site found no medical guidance in the tradition's texts on strong, rapid breathing or on sitting through pain. Anyone with a heart or lung condition, who is pregnant, or who has had panic attacks should talk to a doctor and to the monastery's instructors before trying it. Difficult experiences on meditation retreats covers the wider question.

Where to learn it

The Kaba Aye Sun Lun Monastery is in Mayangone Township, Yangon. The founder's monastery, the Sunlun Gu Kyaung, is at Myingyan in central Myanmar. This site found no Sunlun centre in Nepal or India; centres of other traditions are listed on Vipassana centres in Nepal.

The monastery's website offers the founder's biography and a guide to the method in English, Burmese and Chinese, along with videos and audio recordings. The Sunlun Way of Mindfulness is on sunlun.com.