The Venerable Sayalay Daw Vajiranyani (Vajirañāṇi) is American. She was born in Chicago in November 1954. She studied at the University of Massachusetts and then worked in the fields of computer science and accounting. She began meditation in 1980 at the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Barre, Massachusetts and after a few years decided to devote herself to it full-time. In 1991, she was ordained as a nun at the IMS by Sayadaw U Paṇḍita who had been invited there to lead a retreat. She decided to go to Burma and began to study the scriptures assiduously in order to be able to take the Dhammācariya exam in Burmese, which she eventually passed. She currently resides at the meditation centre Paṇḍitārāma in Yangon where she teaches theory and practice. She is fluent in Burmese and has been the translator of Sayadaw U Paṇḍita. For several years now she has been leading a retreat at our centre where her guidance and style are much appreciated.

You can find her teachings here.