(The Conversation) — Silent retreats have become increasingly common in the United States in recent years. To calm down and reset their nervous systems, people relinquish their phones and reading materials and commit to speaking at a bare minimum to learn practices of self-awareness. Silent meditation and silent prayer have shaped spiritual lives within a variety of religious traditions for thousands of years. Today, however, those practices are often being offered in secular settings. One particular form of meditative silence, the 10-day mindfulness retreat, has had an outsized impact. Research I have carried out over the past two decades sheds light on the role of the Burmese meditation master Sayagyi U Ba Khin in popularizing mindfulness meditation. The term “sayagyi” means “respected teacher.” Sayagyi U Ba Khin at his meditation center in Rangoon in 1961.Pariyatti Ba Khin was one of a small number of prominent Buddhist lay meditation teachers in late colonial and early postcolonial Burma. His silent, 10-day retreat became a model for a wide range of intensive meditation traditions. Three of Ba Khin’s …