Mettābhāvanā in Traditional and Popular Buddhist Contexts

Some have referred to relatively recent forms of popular Buddhism as an ‘engaged’ Buddhism that has revived or redirected traditional Buddhist ideas and practices found in meditation texts to reflect a greater social or worldly emphasis than suggested in earlier historical moments. One of these ideas is the quadripartite framework of the ‘immeasurable states’ (aprameya/appameya) or ‘divine abidings’ (brahmavihāra), the most prominent of which in popular Buddhism is mettā (friendliness/loving-kindness). This article traces the philosophy of the ‘immeasurable states’ found in meditation texts from various Indic traditions (Buddhist, Jain, and Hindu) and then presents the ways in which these traditional ideas (especially mettā) have informed popular Buddhist movements in the twentieth century. Points of discussion include: ‘engaged’ Buddhism's relationship with traditional Buddhist ethics; arguments concerning the coalescence of monastic-centred meditation practices with popular Buddhist notions of social service; and the distinct utilization of mettā in contemporary Buddhist societies in contrast to the mobilizing impulses of comparable religious communities (Hindu and Jain) with a similar heritage of mettā discourse in South Asia.     

Ananda Metteyya: Controversial Networker,Passionate Critic

Ananda Metteyya (Charles Henry Allan Bennett 1872–1923), according to some representations of Buddhism's transmission to the West, was a respectable member of an elite group of converts to Buddhism at the beginning of the twentieth century, who, in effect, stole recognition from a non-elite group. Whilst not contesting this basic premise, I first suggest in this paper that Ananda Metteyya was neither elite nor always, at least in the eyes of the Buddhist Society of Great Britain and Ireland, ‘respectable’. In fact, he came to pose a threat to the identity that the Society sought to create for itself. I then turn to three contexts within which Ananda Metteyya placed himself: international networks for the spread of Buddhism; anti-missionary networks within Sri Lanka and Burma; antiimperialist networks. His main vehicle within the first was the Buddhasāsana Samāgama, the international Buddhist organisation he founded in 1902 and the journal that accompanied it, which was sent to between 500 and 600 libraries throughout the world. Also significant was Ananda Metteyya's call for five men from four countries to come to Burma to be trained for higher ordination. Ananda Metteyya's anti-missionary agenda was realized through the promotion of Buddhist education in Burma and through a ruthless written critique of Christianity and Christian proselytisation. An anti-imperialist agenda was implicit within this and is extended in his writing. This paper argues, therefore, that Ananda Metteyya was a central figure in the global networking of a substantial number of those interested in Buddhism in the early years of the twentieth century. He was also an early Engaged Buddhist, a critic of the West and a robust promoter of the East.     

THE ‘UNIVERSAL DHARMA FOUNDATION’ OF MINDFULNESS-BASED STRESS REDUCTION: NON-DUALITY AND MAHĀYĀNA BUDDHIST INFLUENCES IN THE WORK OF JON KABAT-ZINN

ABSTRACT

The discussion on the Buddhist roots of contemporary mindfulness practices is dominated by a narrative which considers the Theravāda tradition and Theravāda-based ‘neo-vipassanā movement’ as the principal source of Buddhist influences in mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and related mindfulness-based programmes (MBPs). This Theravāda bias fails to acknowledge the significant Mahāyāna Buddhist influences that have informed the pioneering work of Jon Kabat-Zinn in the formation of the MBSR programme. In Kabat-Zinn’s texts, the ‘universal dharma foundation’ of mindfulness practice is grounded in pan-Buddhist teachings on the origins and cessation of suffering. While MBSR methods derive from both Theravāda-based vipassanā and non-dual Mahāyāna approaches, the philosophical foundation of MBSR differs significantly from Theravāda views. Instead, the characteristic principles and insights of MBSR practice indicate significant similarities and historical continuities with contemporary Zen/S?n/Thi?n and Tibetan Dzogchen teachings based on doctrinal developments within Indian and East Asian Mahāyāna Buddhism.     

Offering the body: The practice of gCod in Tibetan Buddhism

The use of the body as a vehicle for spiritual transformation as exemplified in the Tibetan Buddhist meditation practice known as gCod (‘cutting’) is discussed. The principal feature of this form of meditation is its stress on the contemplative offering of the body as a technique for generating the compassion and wisdom crucial to the attainment of buddhahood according to Mahāyāna Buddhism. In the first part of this paper a brief definition of the principal features of gCod is given, and then the practice is situated in its historical setting by relating its development as a distinct practice in the eleventh century and briefly surveying its subsequent transmission. This introductory material will be followed by a discussion of the theoretical underpinning of gCod, as located primarily in the confluence of the Prajñāparamitā doctrines and the techniques of the Vajrayāna. The third and final part of the paper focuses on one particular example of a gCod meditation-text, outlining the fundamental structure of the practice, and at the same time endeavours to show how it is designed to provide existential realisation of the various doctrinal affirmations of Mahāyāna Buddhism.     

Spacious Awareness in Mahāyāna Buddhism and Its Role in the Modern Mindfulness Movement

This paper investigates a particular understanding of ‘awareness’ in Mahāyāna Buddhism and its relevance for secular mindfulness. We will focus on the Zen and Mahāmudrā traditions which share a view of awareness as an innate wakefulness, described using metaphors of space, light and clarity. These traditions encourage practices in which the meditator rests in this spacious ‘non-dual’ awareness: Zen’s ‘just sitting’ and Mahāmudrā’s ‘open presence’. We explore the role of this approach within secular mindfulness, in particular Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT). We see how Jon Kabat-Zinn brought influences from Zen into the creation of MBSR, in his approach of ‘non-doing’, and in the practice of ‘choiceless awareness’, akin to Zen’s ‘just sitting’. We then examine how ‘open presence’ meditation is developed in the Tibetan Mahāmudrā tradition, using a sixteenth-century text Mahāmudrā: The Moonlight as our focal point. Turning to interviews with leading UK mindfulness teachers with Tibetan Buddhist training, we explore how this understanding of awareness can infuse meditation with a sense of ‘space’, and how that manifests in their teaching. We argue that a willingness to explore the ‘space of awareness’ can help mindfulness to offer a transformative path beyond stress reduction and therapy.     

Traditional and Modern Meditation Practices in Shan Buddhist Communities

ABSTRACT

This 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.     

Buddhist functionalism—Instrumentality reaffirmed

This article seeks to determine if Buddhism can best be understood as primarily a functionalist tradition. In pursuing this, some analogies arise with various Western strands—particularly James’ ‘pragmatism’, Dewey's ‘instrumentalism’, Braithwaite's ‘empiricism’, Wittgenstein's ‘language games’, and process thinkers like Hartshorne and Jacobson. Within the Buddhist setting, the traditional Theravāda framework of sila (ethics/precepts), samādhi (meditation) and pañña (wisdom) are examined, together with Theravāda rituals. Despite some ‘correspondence’ approaches with regard to truth claim statements, e.g. vipassanā ’insight’ and Abhidharma analysis, a more profound functionalism seems present. This is even more clear with the Mahāyāna. Apart from the basic and explicit Mahāyāna underpinning of upāya, the Mādhyamika, Tantras and Ch'an (Zen) schools are clearly functionalist. Moreover, despite initially seeming more ‘absolutist’ in their positions, other strands like the Pure Land and Nichiren faith traditions, and Dharmakirti's Vijñānavāda epistemology can also be tied into this functionalist setting.     

VARIATIONS IN THE CONTEMPLATION OF THE REPULSIVENESS OF FOOD, ĀHĀREPATIKŪLASAÑÑĀ: CANONICAL,THERAVĀDA,SARVĀSTIVĀDA AND MAHĀYĀNA FORMS

ABSTRACT

This article explores the changing treatment of a meditation practice, the contemplation of the repulsiveness of food, āhārepa?ikūlasaññā, 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.     

MENTAL FREEDOM AND FREEDOM OF THE LOVING HEART: FREE WILL AND BUDDHIST MEDITATION

In Buddhism, Meditation and Free Will: A Theory of Mental Freedom, Rick Repetti explains how the dynamics of Buddhist meditation can result in a kind of metacognition and metavolitional control that exceeds what is required for free will and defeats the most powerful forms of free will skepticism. This article argues that although the Buddhist path requires and enhances the kind of mental and volitional control Repetti describes, the central dynamic of the path and meditation is better understood as a process of habituation. This not only involves the dis-identification from mental and emotional content that Repetti discusses—and is commonly emphasized in modern presentations of mindfulness or insight (vipassanā) meditation—but also a transformation of the heart that is effected through the complementary psychological and somatic qualities associated with calm abiding (samatha) and concentration (samādhi) and emphasized in the Pali Nikāyas and commentaries.     

Modern Maṇḍala Meditation: Some Observations

In recent decades, Buddhist ma??alas have become increasingly popular. The creation of the Kālacakra (‘Wheel of Time’) ma??ala from coloured grains of sand by Tibetan monks can be seen in museums around the world. Ma??ala colouring books, part of the recent adult colouring book trend, are on display in many bookstores. Ma??alas are now perceived as ‘aids’ or ‘tools to meditation’ and designated as ‘meditation diagrams’ and ‘meditational art’. In this paper, I will discuss modern applications of (Buddhist) ma??alas in meditation practice. I will also highlight some aspects that set this modern usage apart from traditional functions of ma??alas in Buddhist tantric ritual.     

MEDITATION IN TAI NUEA LAY BUDDHIST PRACTICE

ABSTRACT

The 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 kamma??hāna (meditation) 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.     

The Body in Spiritual Exercise: A Comparative Study between Epictetan Askēsis and Early Buddhist Meditation

The paper explores the role of body in Epictetus’s Discourse and Buddhist Satipa??hāna Sutta and underscores the importance of embodied practice in Epictetan askēsis (‘training or exercise’). It argues that the important but unrecognized role of the body in Epictetan askēsis can be better understood if we introduce in some perspectives of early Buddhism. From the angle of spiritual exercise, early Buddhism maintains that the meditator ought to experience the body directly and contemplate the body as an impermanent physical object, and not identify oneself with it. And based on the insight into the reality of the body and the cultivation of bodily awareness, the meditator can detach himself from the transient phenomenon and remove the unwholesome states of mind. Similarly, for Epictetus, by training our impression on the body and regarding the body as an indifferent thing but not the true self, one may successfully attain the truth of the body conditioned in various social contexts and then realize detachment and freedom. Therefore, in both early Buddhist meditation and Epictetan askēsis, the embodied practice of contemplating the body as it actually is, is also a spiritual exercise to understand the phenomenal world and detach from external things and to examine and tranquilize the internal world.     

The Concept of Intermediate Existence in the Early Buddhist Theory of rebirth

This article investigates the concept of intermediate existence in the early Buddhist theory of rebirth. The main sources investigated for this article are the Pāli canonical and commentarial literature. My main thesis is that early Buddhist discourses contain instances that suggest a spatial-temporal gap between death and rebirth known as ‘intermediate existence’ (antarābhava), in contrast to the idea of Theravāda Buddhist theory that rebirth takes place immediately without a spatial-temporal gap. In order to prove this, I argue that the ‘one who liberates in interval’ (anarāparinibbāyī) attains Nibbāna in the intermediate existence and the concept of gandhabbā in early Buddhist discourses refers to a being in intermediate existence, not to a dying consciousness (cuti-viññāna), and there are indirect inferences to an spatiotemporal gap between death and rebirth in the early Buddhist discourses.     

Buddhist Conceptual Rhyming and T.S.Eliot's Crisis of Connection in TheWaste Land and ‘Burnt Norton’

In this essay, I elaborate a reading of the Buddhist allusions throughout T.S. Eliot's poetry as being not confessions of Buddhist faith or merely syncretic experiments, but rather ‘conceptual rhymes’ with the crisis of personal connection that preoccupies Eliot across multiple texts. In the Buddhist concepts of pratītya-samutpāda, ?ūnyatā, sa?sāra, and the pretas, Eliot finds thematic resonances with his own emotional and psychological concerns and so alludes to these concepts in ‘The Fire Sermon’ section of The Waste Land and ‘Burnt Norton’ of Four Quartets as part of his characteristic poetic collage. By examining the connection between Eliot's personal poetic practice and the cross-cultural traditions upon which he drew, my argument intervenes in a long-standing debate regarding the meaning of Asian religio-philosophical influences in the poet's key texts. Moreover, by close reading the third movement of ‘Burnt Norton’ for Buddhist allusions, I attempt to refocus scrutiny of Buddhism in Eliot from the oft-discussed ‘Fire Sermon’ section of The Waste Land to Eliot's later Four Quartets, which remains under-examined for its Buddhist influences by scholars who instead attend to the latter text's more pronounced Vedic references.     

Bad gifts,community standards,and the disciplining of Theravāda monks

ABSTRACT

The act of giving is among the most fundamental acts within the Buddhist world, particularly in the Theravāda communities of Southeast Asia. In many of these communities, lay followers give food and other dāna (merit-making gifts), providing monastics with the ‘requisites’ that they need to survive. Yet there is relatively little discussion within Buddhist or scholarly communities about what should be given, with formulaic lists representing the majority of discussions about these gifts. However, sometimes, the gifts given to monastics are not always appropriate, even bad. What to do in those cases is not always clear. In this article, I explore the ways in which monks in Thailand and Southwest China think about gifts that are not good. What becomes clear is that, despite the prevailing view that discipline is a universal process based on the vinaya (disciplinary code of Buddhism), monks have different views about what constitutes a ‘bad gift’ and what to do about it. I argue that paying attention to bad gifts allows us to see that lay communities have significant voice—although this is often implicit rather than explicit—about what constitutes ‘proper’ monastic behavior.