Nyanadassana Mahathera

Bhikkhu Nyānadassana Mahāthera (born 1959, Serres) is a Theravāda Greek Buddhist monk, scholar, and teacher.

Early life and education Bhikkhu Nyānadassana Mahāthera was born Ioannis Tselios in 1959 in Karperi, Serres, Greece, and completed his high school education in Thessaloniki. He studied sociology at the Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany for two years but left before completing his degree.

Ioannis Tselios traveled around South Asia during the 1980s. He first went to India in 1981 and visited key Buddhist sites, including Kushinagar and Lumbini. Later on, he traveled to Sri Lanka.

For sixteen years, he studied Pali, the Tipiṭaka (Buddhist Triple Canon), and commentarial literature at the Gnānārāma Dharmāyatanaya monastery in Mītirigala. In 1997, he earned the title of Vinayācariya (Teacher of Monastic Discipline) after completing rigorous examinations. and spent over three years at the Pa-Auk Meditation Centre in Myanmar, receiving training under Pa-Auk Sayadaw. Between 2008 and 2018, he was regularly invited by Buddhist centres in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Taiwan to deliver Dhamma talks and meditation classes. From 2011 to 2019, he resided at Nā Uyana Forest Monastery and International Meditation Centre in Kurunegala, Sri Lanka.

Return to Greece In 2019, Nyānadassana Mahāthera received an invitation to teach Theravāda Buddhism in Greece from Michail Xynos, who at the time was directing the Theravada Centre for Study and Practice in Greece.

During this period, he authored several books. PaliVerse presentation at FICAC Conference, February 2026, by the Hon. Consul of Sri Lanka in Greece, Michael Xynos

PaliVerse Project Ñāṇadassana Mahāthera served as the primary spiritual inspiration for PaliVerse , an AI-assisted platform initiated in 2024 to produce the first complete English translation of the Pali Canon, including the Tipiṭaka, commentaries (Aṭṭhakathā), sub-commentaries (Ṭīkā), and related texts — a corpus of approximately 10 million words.

The project was founded by Michael Xynos , the President of Athens Vihara, and Honorary Consul of Sri Lanka in Greece, who credited his six years of study under Ñāṇadassana in Athens (2019–2025) as the formative experience behind the undertaking. Prior to PaliVerse, no complete English translation of the full canonical corpus had been achieved despite over 150 years of scholarly effort by institutions including the Pali Text Society.

Ñāṇadassana contributed directly to the project's translation methodology. His prior terminology work formed the foundation of the master glossary used across the platform, to which he added translation of key Pali terms into both English and Greek. Where his translations of a given term overlapped with those of the Concise Pali-English Dictionary (Buddhadatta Mahāthera), preference was given to his rendering.

Publications Nyānadassana Mahāthera has authored and translated numerous works in multiple languages, including English, German, Greek, and Sinhala. His publications include:

Wisdom and the Seventy-Three Kinds of Mundane and Supramundane Knowledge (2003) Karaṇīya Metta-sutta — The Message of Peace and Universal Friendliness (2010) Ratana Sutta — The Buddha's Discourse on The Three Superb Jewels and Their Intrinsic Power (2011) When is Dawn (aruṇa)? When is Dawnrise (aruṇuggamana)? (2013) Mode of Veneration of the Buddha (2016) Bhikkhu-Pātimokkha — Das Hauptregelwerk der Buddhistischen Mönche (2008) (a German translation and explanation of the monastic code) Meditation: Liberation or Attachment (2025), The Historical Buddha and His Teaching (2025),

Greek books Διαλογισμός: Απελευθέρωση ή Προσκόλληση (2025), Ο Ιστορικός Βούδας και η Διδασκαλία του (2025),

Greek translations Karaṇīya Metta-sutta — Το Μήνυμα της Ειρήνης και της Παγκόσμιας Φιλικότητας (2020) Αυτά που ο Βούδας Δίδαξε (2022), (a translation of What the Buddha Taught by Walpola Rahula) Dhammapada, Η Σοφή Διδασκαλία του Βούδα σε Στίχους (2024),