Ariya Nani
Venerable Ariya Ñani was born and raised in a small town in Switzerland. She was trained as a music and dance teacher. In 1992, she went to Burma to study with Chanmyay Sayadaw, a senior teacher in the Mahasi Sayadaw tradition. She ordained as a nun at his centre, Chanmyay Yeiktha in Yangon, and has been staying in Burma on and off until now. When the forest centre of Chanmyay Yeiktha opened in 1996, Venerable Ariya Ñani became the guide and teacher for the foreign yogis, looking after their needs as well as translating during interviews, and giving teachings herself.
Since 2006 she is based at Chanmyay Myaing Meditation Centre at the outskirts of Yangon. She has been teaching vipassana and metta meditation retreats worldwide for the last then years.
She has translated several books of her teachers’ discourses from Burmese into English and German, notably Metta, The Practice of Loving Kindness as the Foundation for Insight Meditation Practice and The Bojjhangas, Medicine that Makes All Diseases Disappear by Chanmyay Myaing Sayadaw as well as The Buddha’s Ways to Happiness and Peace by Chanmyay Sayadaw. She is currently working on editing and retranslating a treatise about the practice of vipassana meditation by the Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw.