Re: Nimitta

From: Nyanatusita
Message: 4792
Date: 2016-09-26

Dear Bryan,

Although I wrote that the practice of following the breath is not found in the Patisambhidamagga, etc, it was not my intention to imply that it is not efficacious, at least in respect of developing samadhi. The instructions in the suttas on mindfulness of breathing are quite scanty and there is no mention of where exactly the breath should be observed.
Some meditators, especially beginners, find it hard to concentrate on the nose area since the touch there can be too subtle. That is why following the breath into the body, or observing it in another body part, can be useful as a starting practice, although I don't think that it is necessary to go into such detail as Ajahn Lee does. Perhaps Buddhaghosa objected to the following of the breath into the body because it might not give rise to the right type of nimitta or because it was not mentioned in the Patisambhidamagga and the old commentaries.
Most of what is practised in the popular meditation traditions nowadays such as the body sweeping and observation of body 'sensations' in the Goenkaji tradition, or the super slow moving and observing the rise and fall of the breath in the abdomen area, as practised in the Mahasi tradition, etc., is not found in the Tipitaka, but arose out of, or is justified by, interpretations of them, and, mainly, the commentaries on them.
 The whole modern  therapeutic mindfulness movement is based on restatements of an interpretation of sati by a modern Buddhist interpreter, who himself felt that he was misunderstood.

Best,
          Nyanatusita



On 9/26/2016 7:48 AM, Bryan Levman bryan.levman@... [palistudy] wrote:
 
Dear Bhante,

Thanks very much. That clarifies where meditation instructions of this kind  are coming from. I had suspected they were not canonical, as I've never run across anything like the "Five Bases" that Ajahn Lee talks about, in the suttas or the commentaries,

Metta,

Bryan





From: "Nyanatusita nyanatusita@... [palistudy]" <palistudy@yahoogroups.com>
To: palistudy@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sunday, September 25, 2016 2:04 PM
Subject: Re: [palistudy] Nimitta

 
Dear Bryan,

There is not one standard method of 'tantric Theravada' (or 'Boran Kammatthana' as Crosby calls it since 'tantric can have different connotations). Each Thai meditation teacher has his own take on how to practise and uses his own idioms. Ajahn Lee was no doubt influenced by various practices in Thailand and would have adapted them as he saw fit.
To focus on the tip of the nose when doing mindfulness of breathing is described in the Patisambhidamagga and Visuddhimagga, etc.   The other points not. The Visuddhimagga discourages following the breath into the body.
However, in works connected to the Sarvastivada school, yogacaras are to follow the breath into the body, and even out of it.
 So perhaps the meditation practices in Thailand and Burma were influenced by the Sarvastivada, which had some influence in the north as shown in a work by Ray on Sanskrit Buddhism in Burma and by John Strong on the cult of Upagupta, a Sarvastivada teacher, in northern Thailand. And there was a strong Vajrayana presence in Cambodia .
In the Vimuttimagga, Upatissa says that the nimitta of the breath can be extended from the tip of the nose, from it being established at the glabella, forehead, head, until the whole body is pervaded. However, this is the nimitta, not the physical breath.
Ajahn Lee mentions in the book Keeping the Breath in Mind that males should follow the breath through the right side, while females through the left side. This has not to do with different nervous systems as Ajahn Geoff notes, but with the energy channels or nadi of yogic and tantric traditions, and also the Chi of Chinese medicine and Taoism.

Best,
            Nyanatusita


On 9/25/2016 10:34 PM, Bryan Levman bryan.levman@... [palistudy] wrote:
 
Dear Ven. and Dmytro,

Now that you mention the "tantric Theravada" practices of focusing on the chakras, I'm wondering about Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo's meditation instructions (Keeping the Breath in Mind and Lessons in Samādhi) where he talks about focusing on the Five Bases: tip of the nose, centre of the forehead (ūrṇā?), top of the head (uṣṇīṣa?), centre of the brain and heart area. Is any of this canonical? as I'm not familiar with it, or even from Buddhaghosa? or is it "tantric"?

Mettā,

Bryan


From: "Dmytro Ivakhnenko aavuso@... [palistudy]" <palistudy@yahoogroups.com>
To: palistudy@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sunday, September 25, 2016 11:30 AM
Subject: Re: [palistudy] Nimitta

 
Dear Bhante,

Thank you very much!

Such mantric invocations allow to reconstruct gradual transformation of Dhamma practice.

If we'd imagine a slow degradation of medicine as a body of knowledge, it will gradually dissipate into various medicine-men practices, with techniques being transmitted without any theoretical explanations or methodological context.
Medicine-man would don a white mask and shout: "Give me a lancet, assistant! Give me a lancet!" And he may do something useful like pulling a tooth with handmade tools, holding them in fire beforehand for some mystical reasons.
After a long period of time, with techniques often becoming dangerous due to incorrect transmission, they would have been lost or banned.

I can easily imagine a slow transfromation of abstract, heuristic factor-based methodology, with diagnostics, to more embodied, specific (and hence commonly understandable) methodology, focusing on body centers, and then to mantric invocations.



As for SOAS manuscripts digitization, Erich Kesse currently makes the funding case. He'd appreciate testimonials on usage of this manuscript, so that he would be able to include them in funding case.
https://www.soas.ac.uk/staff/staff91157.php

Best wishes,
                       Dmytro



2016-09-25 8:16 GMT+03:00 Nyanatusita nyanatusita@... [palistudy] <palistudy@yahoogroups.com>:
 
Dear Dmytro,

Giving some more thought to the odd contents of kammatthana manuals such as the one translated as Manual of a Mystic, it seems to me that they are not to be taken as instruction treatises that are to be read and studied like the Visuddhimagga, but rather as mantric invocation treatises that are to be recited.
In Thailand, where these works originated from, there is a strong belief in the power of mantras. The sound of the syllables in words such as araha.m, and the way they are arranged and rearranged, are believed to have a special power.  In the Manual of a Mystic one finds this when the yogavacara is to recite the word 'araham' as preparation. It seems to me that the passages starting with Okaasa and 'May perception of these things arise in me' (medhammasaññaapaaturahotu as translated  in the Manual of a Mystic) and "Thus aspiring, let him produce ...  Thus aspiring ... will appear to him' are magic mantric invocations that lead to immediate results.
I have personal experience with some of these teachings. One teacher in northern Thailand, a monk with yantra tatoos, whose disciples I met, is teaching the entering of 'spheres' by way of focussing on chakras on the forehead, throat and heart while araham and buddho are to be recited, depending on the chakra.
Because of these magic and esoteric elements, these kind of practices are sometimes called Khmer Tantric Theravada.
Best,
             Nyanatusita

 





On 9/24/2016 9:12 PM, Dmytro Ivakhnenko aavuso@... [palistudy] wrote:
 
Dear Pali friends,

Having found a description of Kasiṇa-bhāvanā manuscript in the University of London SOAS library, with all my self-assuredness, I straightforwardly wrote to SOAS.
And, surprise, Mr. Erich Kesse, Digital Library Project Officer, digitized the manuscript in half an hour:

http://digital.soas.ac.uk/AA00 000305

And, surprise, it's not written in Cyrillic alphabet.

I would very much appreciate being surprised once again by generous help of someone who knows Sinhala well enough to tell me an abstract of precious knowledge this manuscript contains.

More amazing surpises coming up, - Mr. Kesse wrote me that the Internet Archive has launched a project in the United Kingdom to digitize all of the palm leaf manuscripts in British collections, with emphasis on Pali manuscripts.  It is currently digitising the holdings of the British Library, with SOAS holdings hopefully following in the future.

Best wishes,
                    Dmytro











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