Re: Muulakamma.t.thaana: lost Pali text "found" in Lao -- Sinhalese Esoteric Vidarshana Meditation Manuals

Dear Justin,

A few remarks with regards your message of a few
days back,

>
> As for Saddatissa, be very careful of this
> article in general (you are right he is mostly
> copying Coedes withoug review or new research).
>  Also, what he calls "Laos" is actually
> No.Thailand (this was common). Still, it is a
> very useful guide and he did add to Coedes (he
> just did not improve on what Coedes has already
>  done).
>
Do you think that it is worthwhile to republish
Saddhatissa's collected essays called Buddhism in
Southeast Asia?
I have a digital file with it and it would be easy
for the BPS to republish it. I was thinking about
republishing it together in one volume with the
Pali Literature of Burma (Bode) and
Pali Literature of Ceylon (Malalasekera)
or Handbook of Pali Literature by Somapala
Jayawardhana. All these are somewhat outdated and
to be replaced, but until someone comes forth to
write new ones it might be worthwhile to reprint
them.

> As for the Manual of a Mystic, Eisel is right,
> they are different texts, but the problem does
> not stop there. These texts can't be compared
> one-to-one, but they are, one could say, part
> of a genre of texts related to forms of
> "esoteric" meditation (which is a code word for
>  non-Vippassana meditation it seems
> --Vippassana has become "orthodox" over the
> past 150 years in much of urban SE Asia).

I am not sure whether it is so new. The Siamese
teacher Visuddhacaara who came to teach
meditation to the Asgiriya monks in 1756 was
called a vidars~ana aacariya. Some of the
esoteric kamma.t.thaana manuals composed around
that period are called vidars~ana pot.

> These meditation texts are more prevalent in SL
>  it seems than Laos, ... The SL tradition may
> have been influenced by Siamese monks in the
> mid-18th century.

This seems quite likely. Before vidars~ana
aacariya Visuddhacaara gave his first public
sermon, during which the king was to be
assasinated, a book he had brought from Siam was
paraded through the streets of Kandy. Maybe this
book was a Vidarsana Pot.
According to the colophon of of the Asgiriya
copy of the Vidars~anaPota/Karma.s.thaana-
dhyaana-bhaavanaa, its compiler, Rambukavele
Ratanajoti was asked to do so by the Siamese theras.
The monasteries where these esoteric vidars~ana
manuals are found are Asgiriya branch Siam Nikaya
monasteries. After the revival of the Upasampadaa
the Asgiriya vihara monks specialised in
meditation and founded forest meditition
monasteries like Bambaragala
where the MS of the ``Yogaavacara Manual'', i.e.,
Bambaragalee Vidars~ana Pot, was
found. However, Somadasa notices in the Catalogue
to the Hugh Nevill Collection that some words used
in the text are archaic and there might be an
influence from the Kurunegala period. Bechert,
Sinhalesischen Handschriften II p. 53ff, notices a
Burmese influence in the Pali formulas at the
start of the Bambaragalee Vidarsana Pota.
An little known meditation manual written in the
12th century by Sariputta Mahaasaami is
called Kamma.t.t.haana Diipanii or Kamma.t.thaana
Sangaha. It is mentioned in the Pi.taka
Samuin and the Lankaawee Puskola Pot Naamavaaliya,
but, as far as I know, no edition exists nor
has any research been done on it. It might be
identical with the Duvidha-kamma.t.thaana which
appears to be a condensed version of the
Dvidha-vutta-kamma.t.thaana, which in turn is a
prose version of the
Ratana-amatakara.na-va.n.nanaa/
Yogajanakanta-vimuttimagga.
There is also a Sinhalese work on meditation
called Vimukti-san.graha, written in the
14th century by Lan.kaasenavirat Pirivena
Adhipatti, and a Pali work called
Vimutti-san.gaha. I am wondering whether I am the
first one to draw the link between Sariputta's
work and the other kamma.t.thaana works. Bechert,
Somadasa, and Nevill don't mention anything about
it. It would be worthwhile for some Sinhalese
scholar to find out which one is Sariputta's work,
if it still exists, but there is little interest
in doing MSS research here.

I was wondering why the Duvidhaa Kamma.t.thaana MS
is called so and it occured to me that in the
British Library MS, Or. 6601(85), two texts are
given: the first is the Amatakara.nava.na.naa in
13 chapters of Pali verse which is followed by a
prose Pali text which follows exactly the same
chapter division. Thus duvidhaa, written as
dvidhaa vutta in the colophon of this MS, might
refer to the text or topic being said both in
verse and prose, the latter being an illucidation
of the first.

Bechert has written an article called
``Vimuttimagga and Amataakarava.n.nanaa'', Amaala
Praj~naa: Aspects of Buddhist Studies, Prof. P.V.
Bapat Felicitation volume, ed.
N.H. Samtani, Delhi 1989, p. 11-14.
I hope to find this article some time.

My excuses if the format of my messages appears
funny. I have not figured out yet how to set the
margins on my Thunderbird e-mail editor and
apparently they are much too wide. I
now put manual linebreaks, but that might come out
funny too.

Best wishes,
                    Bh. Nyanatusita

>
>
>
>
>
>