ABSTRACTThis article focuses on a range of meditation practices in Siam and Laos from the early sixteenth century to the present, using primarily published materials from the early twentieth century, especially a survey of traditional or boran meditation published in 1936 by the Thammayut monk Phramahachoti Jai Yasothararat. The works he compiled stem from high-ranking Lao and Siamese clerics including three Supreme Patriarchs: Sivisuddhisom, Suk and Don. All are examples of what might be called the boran kammatthan, i.e. a traditional (...) and somewhat technical form of meditation that had flourished widely prior to the encroachment of monastic and social reforms, eventually losing out to Burmese Vipassana and Thai Forest tradition meditation techniques. To facilitate the comparison, the study focuses on nimitta and other visual aspects of meditation in the systems, revealing considerable diversity even within boran kammatthan. Continuities with contemporary meditation systems amongst three living traditions are then explored. These include meditation lineages at Wat Ratchasittharam, Wat Pradusongtham and the network of temples that adopt Sodh Candasaro’s Dhammakaya meditation method. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThe Nevill Collection of manuscripts from Sri Lanka housed in the British Library includes seventeen texts, in eleven manuscripts, related to a type of Theravada Buddhist meditation referred to here as boran kammaṭṭhāna, ‘the old meditation method.’ This article offers the first detailed survey of these texts and finds a close correlation between the practices they advocate and commentarial Abhidhamma, a surprising finding given the modern reputation of these practices as heteroprax. It is less surprising when we observe that the (...) texts represent the form of Buddhism introduced into the Kandyan kingdom from Ayutthaya, the then capital of Siam, in the mid-18th century at the time of the revitalization of Buddhism and the Sangha in Sri Lanka. A distinguishing feature of boran kammaṭṭhāna is the use of nimitta, ‘signs’, experienced in meditation or as omens of death, previously taken as an indication of heterodoxy. However, a close examination reveals that the interpretation of nimitta corresponds with Abhidhamma. Moreover, the lengthy meditation manuals formulate an extensive and detailed realization of the Abhidhamma path to becoming an arhat, harnessing the Abhidhamma understanding of progression through sequential substitution of lower citta, states of consciousness, and cetasika, mental factors that attend consciousness, with increasingly pure citta and cetasika. The nimitta function as diagnostic tools and as means to guide the embodiment of the increasingly purified states of consciousness within the practitioner’s body. The findings present a new understanding of the system of transformation underlying boran kammaṭṭhāna and also challenge the understanding of Abhidhamma as merely scholastic or descriptive. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThis paper argues that the multiple orientalist expressions that flowed from British pens in nineteenth century Sri Lanka are of use to the scholar of Buddhism, in that they can not only shed light on the growth of Buddhist modernism and the use of the term ‘meditation’ within it, but also on Sri Lankan Buddhist practice on the ground. It first surveys the preconceptions of the British about the concept of ‘meditation’. It then examines the writings of a representative selection (...) of scholar civil servants and Christian missionaries who were resident in Sri Lanka within the century. This data reveal that a vibrant culture of Buddhist devotion and preaching existed throughout the century, together, among the laity, with the practice of ‘meditation’ on objects related to insight into reality. Additionally, it suggests that the jhānas, although hard for westerners to understand, were an important part of Buddhist self-understanding. The paper, therefore, argues that the priority given to vipassanā as the essence of meditation within Buddhist Modernism is a reduction of the diversity within traditional practice and a distortion of the traditionally recognised interrelationship between the jhānas and other forms of mental culture. (shrink)

ABSTRACTDharmapala was the son of a pious Buddhist family, although educated in missionary schools where he acquired knowledge of English and Christian scripture. English gave him access to Western scholarship on Buddhism and made him a useful member of the Theosophical Society, which arrived in Sri Lanka in 1880. Wanting to be a religious worker, Dharmapala served as Colonel Olcott’s translator, and he soon came to be influenced by Madame Blavatsky’s highly imagined interpretation of Buddhism. The upshot was that Dharmapala’s (...) lifelong practice of meditation was shaped by Theosophical interest in esoteric Buddhism and the moral course of the advanced spiritual seeker. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThis article explores how meditation is inculcated throughout the life of Shan Buddhists using poetic phrasing and texts, culminating in several forms of meditation as part of the practice of temple-sleeping undertaken by lay Buddhist seniors from the age of 40 upwards. I look at how the poetic texts, lik loung, that form the basis of temple-sleeping practice, may have shifted in content in the 19th to 20th centuries to focus on meditation topics, in a move parallel to the development (...) of vipassanā in lowland Burma in reaction to the threat colonialism posed to Buddhism. I then document the rise of separate vipassanā meditation centres in Shan regions from the 1930s and their ambiguous status as either representatives of Burmese hegemony or drivers of Shan revival. I note the influence of Shan lik loung on practice at such centres, as well as a more recent development, the uptake of vipassanā within temple-sleeping contexts. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThis article examines the term kammaṭṭhāna discussed in the Visuddhimagga and the Jiĕ tuō dào lùn or *Vimuttimagga. Although these two texts provide similar lists and expositions for the kammaṭṭhāna, the Visuddhimagga also offers different views and criticisms. The first noticeable difference is in the 10 kasiṇas, which differ in relation to the last two kasiṇas. Furthermore, the Visuddhimagga systematises its own discussion by simplifying or specifying that of the Jiĕ tuō dào lùn and raises some criticisms of views found (...) in the Jiĕ tuō dào lùn in the process. All of these features imply that the discussion of meditative practice, especially of the kammaṭṭhāna, has been diverse within the Theravāda tradition. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThis article explores the changing treatment of a meditation practice, the contemplation of the repulsiveness of food, āhārepaṭikūlasaññā, from its presence in lists of saññā in canonical texts to its detailed explanation in post-canonical texts of the first millennium CE. We observe two main developments: the limitation in the benefits attributed to the practice within commentarial-period Theravada, and two entirely divergent branches in the way the practice is treated. In the Visuddhimagga of Theravada Buddhism, we see a somewhat practical approach (...) that identifies the unpleasant aspects of the monk’s experience of seeking, eating, digesting and excreting food, and takes them as the focus of a 10-stage meditation practice. In the Sarvāstivāda texts, we see a conceptual aversion created by the association of specific food items with other items treated as impure within meditation practice. This articles explores all these divergences, drawing conclusions about what this says in terms of the understanding of food in these two branches. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThis article explores the popular Sunlun and Theinngu meditation traditions in Myanmar. The founders, Sunlun Sayadaw Ven. U Kavi and Theinngu Sayadaw Ven. U Ukkaṭṭha, both led a lay life until in their mid-40s and only then took up meditation, going on to become highly respected meditation teachers. Their meditation techniques are similarly distinctive in employing rapid, strong and rhythmic breathing. They combined this with the contemplation of the intense, usually unpleasant, bodily sensations that are thus induced. I document their (...) techniques and application in detail, highlighting their complexity and diversity. I draw contrasts between the use of sati, mindfulness, in their methods and the way it is used in the modern Mindfulness movement. Finally, I discuss the ways in which the practices and experiences of both masters had to be authorised to survive where other meditation traditions have been outlawed. Senior members of the Burmese Sangha catechised both masters separately, using Pāli canonical and post-canonical texts as a benchmark to verify the popular belief amongst Burmese people that they were arahants. I locate this testing within the context of the concerns, sense of duty and status experienced by Burmese lay people in relation to defending Buddhism from decline. (shrink)

ABSTRACTTheravāda Buddhism has travelled. This article gives some history of the practice of samatha breathing mindfulness, in the Theravāda tradition, in the UK. It first gives some background in Britain to the arrival of the meditation in the 1960s, then summarises the life of Nai Boonman Poonyathiro, who introduced this method into the UK, a story that is not generally known. The paper describes some aspects of the development of the Samatha Trust in the UK, attempting to show ways a (...) system that was popular in Thailand when it arrived in a new region has prospered, even while becoming markedly less prominent in its own regions. As I am a practitioner in this tradition, before the conclusion I make some personal comment. To conclude, I speculate about features which appear to characterise Buddhist groups in general in the UK, before considering ways that this specialised tradition has adapted in a new setting. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThis article examines the term kammaṭṭhāna in three contexts. It begins by looking at the rare usage in the Pali canon where it denotes secular work, but is extended to include the work of the ascetic. It then looks at its usage in the commentarial period to denote the meditation subjects for samatha meditation, and where extensions of this to include vipassanā also occur. Finally, the article looks at kammaṭṭhāna in early modern Southeast Asia in the context of a variety (...) of pre-modern meditation, boran kammathan, where the number of meditation subjects is increased, the patterns of their usage has changed with a new emphasis on experiencing nimitta, and kammathan is employed as a general term for meditation per se. The article also considers some ancillary features of boran kammathan texts, offering suggestions to enhance the search for new boran kammathan texts in manuscript archives and libraries. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThis article examines the term kammaṭṭhāna in three contexts. It begins by looking at the rare usage in the Pali canon where it denotes secular work, but is extended to include the work of the ascetic. It then looks at its usage in the commentarial period to denote the meditation subjects for samatha meditation, and where extensions of this to include vipassanā also occur. Finally, the article looks at kammaṭṭhāna in early modern Southeast Asia in the context of a variety (...) of pre-modern meditation, boran kammathan, where the number of meditation subjects is increased, the patterns of their usage has changed with a new emphasis on experiencing nimitta, and kammathan is employed as a general term for meditation per se. The article also considers some ancillary features of boran kammathan texts, offering suggestions to enhance the search for new boran kammathan texts in manuscript archives and libraries. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThroughout its long history, Buddhist meditation has been a lasting source of happiness, and its ultimate goal has been the imperturbable stillness of mind after the fires of desire, aversion and delusion have been finally extinguished. This state is called in Pali nibbāna, the place of perfect peace and happiness. In his classical book on Thai painting, Jean Boisselier confidently states: ‘Artists are of course unable to depict any aspect of nibbāna, since that world is by nature without form’. This (...) article will show that more than two centuries ago Thai artists did just that which Boisselier proclaimed to be impossible. Thai artists drawing the cosmos in Picture Books of the Three Worlds did indeed depict nibbāna. Some drew an ‘empty space’, but among the older manuscripts most drew a complex ‘City of Nibbāna’. It will be determined what this elaborate City of Nibbāna stands for. Finally, the question is raised whether or not the City of Nibbāna is part of a type of Buddhism that was suppressed in early modern times. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThe Tai Nuea ethnolinguistic group is found on the periphery of Theravāda Buddhist influence in parts of southwestern China, northern Myanmar, and in small communities in northwestern Laos. Their relative isolation from mainstream reform movements indicates that they may have much to contribute to the understanding of pre-modern local, and especially lay, Buddhist practices in mainland Southeast Asia. This article focuses on weekly days of lay practice during the annual rainy season retreat in a Tai Nuea village in Mueang Sing, (...) northwestern Laos. The practice is undertaken with an awareness of ageing and approaching death by both women and men who are mainly over 50 years of age. It is distinctly lay oriented and takes place with minimal input from the monastic community. There is extensive use of litany and Pāli phrases to request and to take leave of specific activities throughout the day, and during formal meditation small kammaṭṭhāna manuals are worn on the head and the entire body is covered with a white cloth. Within a holistic framework of devotion to the Triple Gem and the practices of generosity and morality, meditation is seen as one important component of meritorious activity rather than as a tool for personal transformation. (shrink)