Dear Alexander,

Your question reminded me of my own hesitations, when i first got to know the so called "vipassana nyanas" as they did not SEEM to play such an important role in the SuttaPitaka, as they play in contemporary insight meditation practise. However, much later, i had to revise my "opinion" and for me (now) they seem to be partially a formula which may have originated well after the time of the Buddha but they nevertheless appear here and there in the Sutta Pitaka although in different terms:

Lets take the udayabbaya nyana. This knowledge of the rising and passing, which marks the begin of a successful development in insight, appears time and again as "udayatthagaaminiyaa paññaaya samannaagato,"

In the Samyutta Nikaya (and many other places) you will have noticed the following formula which appears not isolated but reoccurs everywhere in the Sutta Pitaka:

Yadaniccam tam dukkham; yam dukkham tadanattaa. Yadanattaa tam:

'netam mama, nesohamasmi, na meso attaa'ti

evametam yathaabhuutam sammappaññaaya datthabbam.

(this first part is different from sutta to sutta. It contains the kammatthana)

Evam passam, bhikkhave, sutavaa ariyasaavako ruupesupi nibbindati, saddesupi nibbindati, gandhesupi nibbindati, rasesupi nibbindati, photthabbesupi nibbindati, dhammesupi

nibbindati. (lit. "does not find (anything) in it" - adiinava anupassana nyana)

Nibbindam virajjati; (up to here Nibbidanupassana nyana)

viraagaa vimuccati; (patisankanupassana nyana)

vimuttasmim vimuttamiti ñaanam hoti. 'Khiinaa jaati, vusitam brahmacariyam, katam karaniiyam, naaparam itthattaayaa'ti pajaanaatii"ti

Here, i found a concise description of the same development one undergoes while proceeding on the road of the vipassana nyanas. Thus i found them to be either a description of meditation experience which never got into the canon (that is into the Sutta Pitaka - accept for the Patisambidhamagga) or a detailed outline of some very very ancient meditation masters (at most a few centuries after Buddhas Parinibbana) which luckily survived up to this day. For me, these nyanas beautifully describe all those stages which one happens to accounter while realising that what the Buddha summarises in the above mentioned formula,

mettaya,

Lennart

PS: There is a very good book on the Nyanas, from the Most Ven. Nyanarama Mahathera (the "grand sire" of modern Sinhalese insight meditation)

it can be ordered from the BPS (Sri Lanka http://www.beyondthenet.net/bps/bps_main.htm)
The Seven Contemplations of Insight
Matara Sri Ñånåråma Mahåthera
This is an advanced work, a profound examination of the "seven contemplations" of classical Pali Buddhism and of the way they are experienced in the actual course of meditation.
Forthcoming mid-1997; 5.5" x 8.5"; To be announced; BP 512S

----- Original Message -----
From: "Alexander Genaud" <alexgenaud@...>
To: <Pali@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 16, 2004 6:39 AM
Subject: [Pali] Nana Nyanas


> I practiced Burmese meditation in northern Thailand in order to
> gain insight by way of nanas (knowledges). I've searched sutta
> to find reference to these (such as Udayabbhaya Nana) and came
> up blank. As I understand it, they're shrouded in a bit of
> mystery because preconceptions could ruin the experience. Is
> this a system developed long after the Buddha? Did he only
> allude to it?
>
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