Esoteric Theravada - Kate Croby

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mikenz66
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Esoteric Theravada - Kate Croby

Post by mikenz66 »

A new book by Kate Crosby, who has a history of research in this area. See, for example the references here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_ ... c_Buddhism

Esoteric Theravada
The Story of the Forgotten Meditation Tradition of Southeast Asia

By Kate Crosby
https://www.shambhala.com/esoteric-theravada.html

The front matter and the first chapter, The Colonial Gaze - The Invisibility of Pre-Modern Theravada Meditation, can be read on the site: https://en.calameo.com/read/000039257a0b7b568f3b3

$22.95 - Paperback
PREORDER: Expected to ship after 12/22/2020.


Details
A groundbreaking exploration of a practice tradition that was nearly lost to history.


Theravada Buddhism, often understood as the school that most carefully preserved the practices taught by the Buddha, has undergone tremendous change over time. Prior to Western colonialism in Asia—which brought Western and modernist intellectual concerns, such as the separation of science and religion, to bear on Buddhism—there existed a tradition of embodied, esoteric, and culturally regional Theravada meditation practices. This once-dominant traditional meditation system, known as borān kammaṭṭhāna, is related to—yet remarkably distinct from—Vipassana and other Buddhist and secular mindfulness practices that would become the hallmark of Theravada Buddhism in the twentieth century. Drawing on a quarter century of research, scholar Kate Crosby offers the first holistic discussion of borān kammaṭṭhāna, illuminating the historical events and cultural processes by which the practice has been marginalized in the modern era.

News & Reviews
"This book is one of the most important works on the history of Southeast Asian and Southern Buddhist meditation for decades. It shows how a whole tradition of practice, meditation, and mindfulness was lost—almost—in the wave of interest in Buddhism for its 'scientific' and rational elements over the last hundred and fifty years. The Borān Kamaṭṭhāna is the living meditative tradition of Cambodia and Thailand. Until only a few decades ago, it was taught throughout these regions. Crosby’s book shows how this expressive, embodied system of samatha/vipassanā meditation constitutes the oldest documented lineage of Buddhist practice in South and Southeast Asia. Belittled by modernist impulses, the system offers a complete path of spiritual development that works on principles found in South and Southeast Asian generative grammar, medicine, yantra, and the Abhidhamma. This account of how Borān Kamaṭṭhāna originated as an enactment of Asian generative systems is brilliant, concise, and revelatory. Borān Kamaṭṭhāna is scientific, but in ways steeped in highly sophisticated ancient models of grammar and medicine colonialists did not understand. Reformist agendas, still active today, undermined its rich meditative line: Crosby’s work is essential reading for anyone interested in a true picture of traditional Buddhist practice in these regions. Esoteric Theravada rewrites the recent history of Southern Buddhist meditation." —Sarah Shaw, author of Mindfulness: Where It Comes From and What It Means

"Professor Crosby’s book sheds new light on a vitally important yet neglected—at times even suppressed—system of meditative practice in South and Southeast Asia. Her work reveals forms of meditation, once widely practiced though now nearly extinct, that diverge sharply from the techniques and even the mindset of the insight practices (vipassanā) dominant today. Deeply researched and lucidly written, Esoteric Buddhism is necessary reading for anyone interested in Theravada Buddhist philosophy (Abhidhamma), the interfaces of scientific learning and practices of self-cultivation, and the history of Buddhist meditation." —Erik Braun, author of The Birth of Insight and coeditor of Meditation, Buddhism, and Science

"Dr. Crosby’s new book on traditional Theravada meditation signals a new direction in the history of South and Southeast Asian Buddhism. She has uncovered, through an intense interrogation of rare materials, an entire lineage of meditation teachers, methods, and existential ratiocinations that have been neglected by scholars. She effectively cauterizes a wound in the field and will lead a new generation of scholars to a fuller and more nuanced understanding of the relation between the body and the mind in regional Buddhist practice" —Justin Thomas McDaniel, Professor of Buddhist studies, University of Pennsylvania

"Crosby’s acribic detective work has uncovered the principles of a hitherto almost forgotten meditation tradition that was called ‘the old practices’ (Borān Kamaṭṭhāna). The principles of Borān Kamaṭṭhāna are hidden in texts abounding with metaphors and substitutions. Crosby unravels and explains these texts by entering thought modes of preindustrial times, mapping correspondences between parts of the body and mystical ideas, and using letter, sound, and number symbolism. By showing us ‘the old practices,’ Crosby lays to rest the myth of a pure authentic original Theravada tradition, a myth that too long obscured the diversity of the past." —Barend Jan Terwiel, Emeritus Professor of Thai and Lao Languages and Literatures, Hamburg University

"Kate Crosby’s Esoteric Theravada is a fascinating and wide-ranging treatment of traditional Borān Kammaṭṭhāna style meditation in Theravada Buddhism. Readable and accessible to anyone interested in meditation and an absolute goldmine for historians of Buddhism, this remarkable study of a meditation tradition, its texts, technologies, and the history of its decline gives us insight into the profound thought worlds of Buddhists who were on the ‘losing’ side of the modernist reforms of Buddhism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Crosby’s rare combination of painstaking historical research, linguistic prowess, and engrossing ethnographic interviews in combination with her own experience as a practitioner of Borān meditation deftly opens up an important strand of the Theravada tradition that has too often been lost from view." —Anne Hansen, Professor of Southeast Asian History & Religious Studies, University of Wisconsin–Madison

"Crosby’s careful and robust study will be eye-opening for Western Buddhist circles." —Publishers Weekly

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Re: Esoteric Theravada - Kate Croby

Post by Sabbe_Dhamma_Anatta »

May be not contained in the Book. But, similar name is found in Burma.



My opinion is:
Esoteric "Theravada" Buddhism in Burma:
  • is Not Theravada.
  • should be valued, if at all, only as a cultural history.
  • a well-known now-quite-weakened pollutant to Theravada Buddhism, fortunately.

Esoteric Theravāda Buddhism in Burma/Myanmar
  • https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... ion_detail
    Abstract
    The achievement of independence in 1948 was in many ways a watershed in Burma’s history. At this time, a variety of Buddhist movements emerged that were part not only of a ‘Burmese Buddhist revival’, in which even the government was involved, but also a general re-enchantment of Asia. In the period following World War II, projects of nation-building and further modernization were implemented in many newly independent Asian nation states. The theories of modernization adopted by the rulers had presupposed that a new, rationalized and secularized order that had set them on the path of ‘progress’ would entail a decline of religion. However, instead there was a widespread resurgence of religion, and a variety of new, eclectic religious movements emerged in Southeast Asia. In the thriving religious field of postcolonial Burma, two lay Buddhist movements associated with two different meditation techniques emerged, viz.; the insight meditation movement and the concentration meditation movement. The latter consisted of a variety of esoteric congregations combining concentration meditation with esoteric lore, and some of these were characterized by fundamentalist trends. At the same time, the supermundane form of Buddhism became increasingly influential in the entire field of religion. The aim of the present article is to discuss how this supermundane dimension has reshaped the complex religious field in Burma, with particular emphasis on the esoteric congregations; to present the Burmese form of esoteric Theravāda Buddhism, and to situate the fundamentalist trends which are present in these contexts.
    Here "the concentration meditation movement" is not the usual ones. Example ... ((“I am the Buddha, the Buddha is Me”: Concentration Meditation and Esoteric Modern Buddhism in Burma/Myanmar.)) please see point 5 below.






The followings are some of my conversations with someone on the internet [slightly edited]:
  1. These are not theravada even in cultural sense. They may seem and even be "actually" powerful.But, this powerfulness comes not from them, but it comes from one's powerful mind due to faith and some kind of "mind training". They are generally regarded as dangers on the true path. When one have immense faith, the points mentioned in these faith become very real for him. The experiences become more real than reality, which in itself is not dangerous. But, they can have power to deviate one from the path. The term "weizza" comes from Myanmar pronunciation of "vijja". In that sense, Buddha is the most supreme weizza, because of the quality "vijja-carana-sampanno".I found the followings on the internet:
    ((Bo Bo Aung got into his possession an ancient writing of Inns by chance. That was how he became a weizzar.
    .....
    For these reasons, it had been the custom in Burma to write inscriptions about important subjects such as talismanic magic (Inn and Sama) on copper parabaiks.))
    It is deeply related to some cultural aspects of some Burmeses, but it is not part of Theravada Buddhism and the followers of these practice don't call their path Theravadan anymore, at least outspokenly. That's why they can peacefully coexists in , Burma, as long as those weizzas and their followers don't try to exploit innocent lay people.


    .
  2. http://www.chinabuddhismencyclopedia.co ... c_Buddhism
    • Many in Burma might wonder whether there is any Tantric Buddhism exists in Burmese Buddhism? There was a Tantric Buddhism practiced by Tibetan Lama that came to Burma through the Northern border, in Pre-Theravada era or pre-Bagan era. Ari Gyi monks that belong to Mahayana practiced Tantric Buddhism. When King Anawratha launched the religious cleansing, the Tantric Buddhist sect had to integrate with the Theravada sect and it thus remained and prospers to this day within Theravada Buddhist sect as Weizza Lan Zin. Thus, our Burmese Theravada has become a mix of Mahayana and Theravada in practices; but in name, we still called our belief as orthodox Theravada Buddhist School.‬
    ‪I decline the author's view of saying weizzalan a part of orthodox theravada. I'm sure it simply is not there in the burmese tipitaka and accepted commentaries.‬


    .
  3. http://usamyanmar.net/Buddha/Article/Pr ... nal%29.pdf
    Their prayers:

    "........
    .........
    Are five Guru Masters Beginning with Ven. Shin Ma Hti Ven Shin Itzagawna Mahazedi Mingaung
    U Aung Ya Te & U Pyinnyawontha The lineage then written in Gold tablet Ven. Thudhammasari Shin Ma Hti Handed to the next generation
    Yetkanzinthaung Sayadaw U Aw Batha Wonna Lingara Ya Te San Shae Ko Daw Eight million other Guru Masters This new generation of Master Guru’s
    Master in Medicinal Herbs
    Master in Philosopher stones Master in Mercury
    Master in Iron
    Master in Auditory
    Master in formulating Ein (Talisman)
    Master in Symbolic Sign (Sama)
    Master in Physical formation
    Master in Samatha Practice
    Master in Vipassana Practice
    Master in Kamatthanna (Meditation)
    I most humbly would enjoy
    Praying daily
    Receiving your blessing and loving kindness In whatever way
    Physical, Verbal or Mental.
    ........
    ........"
    For my personal view, these are distractors from, and dangers to, one's progress in noble eight fold path.


    .
  4. Weizzar Lan

    http://weizzarlan.blogspot.com‬
    ((((There has been some misunderstanding in Myanmar and among Myanmar communities in the USA and other countries about the Weizzar Lan or Weizzar Path.

    At the outset, let me make it clear that the Weizzar Lan is not a path that is intended to send you straight to Nivarna. If that is your goal, it is better for you to do vipassana and listen to what many Burmese learned Sayadaws are teaching.

    How long will it take for a person to get to Nivarna, that is a good question. No one can give you a definite answer. It depends on whether you have a good Insight Meditation teacher and your enthusiam and diligence in following the Noble Eightfold path.

    Having said this, let me talk more about the Weizzar Path.

    This path is for people who wish to get to Nivarna, eventually but who wish to accumulate more knowledge and wisdom along the way so that they could help other beings.

    The Weizzar Lan that I follow bow down to the Tri Ratna - the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha. We do not preach anything against the teachings of the Buddha.

    However, we believe that there are many secret teachings left by the holy weizzars of the past such as Bo Bo Aung and Bo Min Gaung. These teachings in the field of "sacred writings" or "Inns" and in the field of "alchemy" or "Aggiya Pyinnya" are not for those who are following the Lawkauttara path - this is the path the leads to Nivarna in the shortest possible time.

    Let me be clear about this point. Those who are on the Weizzar Path practice both Samahta or "Concentration meditation" as well as Vipassana or "Insight Meditation".))))
    He is trying to say weizza lan (path) is not contradictory to Buddha's teachings; but their methods are not in Buddha's teachings and accepted commentaries.


    .
  5. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/936b/d ... 641628.pdf

    “I am the Buddha, the Buddha is Me”: Concentration Meditation and Esoteric Modern Buddhism in Burma/Myanmar
    Niklas Foxeus
    Abstract
    In postcolonial Burma, two trends within lay Buddhism — largely in tension with one another — developed into large-scale movements. They focused upon different meditation practices, insight meditation and concentration meditation, with the latter also including esoteric lore. An impetus largely shared by the movements was to define an “authentic” Buddhism to serve as the primary vehicle of the quest for individual, local, and national identity. While insight meditation was generally considered Buddhist meditation par excellence, concentration meditation was ascribed a more dubious Buddhist identity. Given this ambiguity, it could be considered rather paradoxical that concentration meditation could be viewed as a source of “authentic” Buddhism.
    The aim of this article is to investigate the issue of identity and the paradox of authenticity by examining the concentration meditation practices of one large esoteric congregation and tentatively comparing its practices with those of the insight meditation movement. It will be argued that the movements represented two varieties of so-called modern Buddhism (rationalist modern Buddhism and esoteric modern Buddhism) drawing on different Buddhist imaginaries and representing two main trends that are largely diametrically opposed to one another. They therefore represent two ways of constructing an individual, local, and national identity.




Key point:
  • just a cultural thing, specific to some.
  • It is not Theravada.
:heart:
𝓑𝓾𝓭𝓭𝓱𝓪 𝓗𝓪𝓭 𝓤𝓷𝓮𝓺𝓾𝓲𝓿𝓸𝓬𝓪𝓵𝓵𝔂 𝓓𝓮𝓬𝓵𝓪𝓻𝓮𝓭 𝓣𝓱𝓪𝓽
  • Iᴅᴇᴀ ᴏꜰ Sᴏᴜʟ ɪs Oᴜᴛᴄᴏᴍᴇ ᴏꜰ ᴀɴ Uᴛᴛᴇʀʟʏ Fᴏᴏʟɪsʜ Vɪᴇᴡ
    V. Nanananda

𝓐𝓷𝓪𝓽𝓽ā 𝓜𝓮𝓪𝓷𝓼 𝓣𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝓣𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮 𝓘𝓼
  • Nᴏ sᴜᴄʜ ᴛʜɪɴɢ ᴀs ᴀ Sᴇʟғ, Sᴏᴜʟ, Eɢᴏ, Sᴘɪʀɪᴛ, ᴏʀ Āᴛᴍᴀɴ
    V. Buddhādasa
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Re: Esoteric Theravada - Kate Croby

Post by rhinoceroshorn »

Sabbe_Dhamma_Anatta wrote: Sun Dec 20, 2020 12:59 pm
:heart:
Thanks for this. :anjali:
Eyes downcast, not footloose,
senses guarded, with protected mind,
not oozing — not burning — with lust,
wander alone
like a rhinoceros.
Sutta Nipāta 1.3 - Khaggavisana Sutta
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See, Ānanda! All those conditioned phenomena have passed, ceased, and perished. So impermanent are conditions, so unstable are conditions, so unreliable are conditions. This is quite enough for you to become disillusioned, dispassionate, and freed regarding all conditions.
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Re: Esoteric Theravada - Kate Croby

Post by coconut »

I've read her earlier papers on Boran Kammathana, is this just the same but more polished?
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Re: Esoteric Theravada - Kate Croby

Post by SDC »

It is profoundly ironic that in an attempt to prioritize culturally Eastern meditation traditions, someone would apply culturally Western scholarship. 🤦🏼‍♂️

Once again we have a tremendous effort on behalf of the WEST to belittle the gold standard described in the Pali Canon, the most ancient of any tradition found in the EAST. Perhaps it is the fact that the Buddhist tradition in India was interrupted that makes it so easy for people to pretend that it was never there.

PhD. Oxford. Bravo. :|
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Re: Esoteric Theravada - Kate Croby

Post by Sabbe_Dhamma_Anatta »

This is from introduction:
  • In chapters 4 and 5 we seek to account for these features by looking at technologies of the material world that were important in the pre-modern Theravada context. These help explain ideas about how transformation is brought about, ideas found in the somatic aspects of boran-kammatthdna practice. First, in chapter 4, we look at ideas of language and generative grammar, which inform the use of potent language in boran kammatthdna. Then, in chapter 5, we turn to the medicine, particularly ayurvedic obstetrics, as well as the chemistry of the purification of mercury, to see how these too relate to meditation practice. They indicate shared understandings of how transformation may be brought about. I suggest that it was the suppression and disappearance of these resonating technologies that left bordn kammatthdna isolated and vulnerable to being misunderstood at times of Buddhist reform.
These are clearly related to those mentioned in my post above about Burmese esoteric whatever buddhism. And, that's one of the many reasons why I call them Non-Theravada.

I don't understand why so many people these days tend to enjoy appropriating and identifying with the name "Theravada" while not even trying to learn and understand the essence of its teachings with a little bit of open mind and able heart. If not willing to learn Theravada beyond the name, it's better for them to stick to their "big vehicle", or whatever.

:heart:
𝓑𝓾𝓭𝓭𝓱𝓪 𝓗𝓪𝓭 𝓤𝓷𝓮𝓺𝓾𝓲𝓿𝓸𝓬𝓪𝓵𝓵𝔂 𝓓𝓮𝓬𝓵𝓪𝓻𝓮𝓭 𝓣𝓱𝓪𝓽
  • Iᴅᴇᴀ ᴏꜰ Sᴏᴜʟ ɪs Oᴜᴛᴄᴏᴍᴇ ᴏꜰ ᴀɴ Uᴛᴛᴇʀʟʏ Fᴏᴏʟɪsʜ Vɪᴇᴡ
    V. Nanananda

𝓐𝓷𝓪𝓽𝓽ā 𝓜𝓮𝓪𝓷𝓼 𝓣𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝓣𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮 𝓘𝓼
  • Nᴏ sᴜᴄʜ ᴛʜɪɴɢ ᴀs ᴀ Sᴇʟғ, Sᴏᴜʟ, Eɢᴏ, Sᴘɪʀɪᴛ, ᴏʀ Āᴛᴍᴀɴ
    V. Buddhādasa
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Re: Esoteric Theravada - Kate Croby

Post by salayatananirodha »

https://legacy.suttacentral.net/en/dn16 wrote:The Teaching has been taught by me, Ānanda, without having made a distinction between esoteric and exoteric, for the Realised One there is nothing, Ānanda, of a closed teacher’s fist in regard to the Teaching.
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Re: Esoteric Theravada - Kate Croby

Post by 48vows »

Sabbe_Dhamma_Anatta wrote: Sun Dec 20, 2020 3:59 pm These are clearly related to those mentioned in my post above about Burmese esoteric whatever buddhism. And, that's one of the many reasons why I call them Non-Theravada.
I think the reason why people would use the term Theravada is because any monks practicing this would have left home with the Therevada vinaya.
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Re: Esoteric Theravada - Kate Croby

Post by JohnK »

coconut wrote: Sun Dec 20, 2020 2:13 pm I've read her earlier papers on Boran Kammathana, is this just the same but more polished?
Fairly quick to read the introduction linked to in OP where she briefly explains what's different from previous -- she suggests more than polish.
https://en.calameo.com/read/000039257a0b7b568f3b3
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Re: Esoteric Theravada - Kate Croby

Post by coconut »

JohnK wrote: Sun Dec 20, 2020 10:41 pm
coconut wrote: Sun Dec 20, 2020 2:13 pm I've read her earlier papers on Boran Kammathana, is this just the same but more polished?
Fairly quick to read the introduction linked to in OP where she briefly explains what's different from previous -- she suggests more than polish.
https://en.calameo.com/read/000039257a0b7b568f3b3
thanks
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Re: Esoteric Theravada - Kate Croby

Post by Sam Vara »

Just read the first chapter via the link. Ayurvedic obstetrics??!!

That goes straight on my Christmas list!
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Re: Esoteric Theravada - Kate Croby

Post by mikenz66 »

SDC wrote: Sun Dec 20, 2020 3:50 pm Once again we have a tremendous effort on behalf of the WEST to belittle the gold standard described in the Pali Canon, the most ancient of any tradition found in the EAST. Perhaps it is the fact that the Buddhist tradition in India was interrupted that makes it so easy for people to pretend that it was never there.
Do you think this is really the intention? Clearly "Theravada" is a development that took place over many centuries, millennia in fact. Furthermore, the invocation of "western belittlement" is a little strange, given that modernisation movements in Thailand, Burma and Sri Lanka during colonial appear to be, at least in part, a reaction to Colonial pressures and ideas.

Of course, one could reject all interpretations and developments beyond the early parts of the Pali and other Canons, but that wouldn't really be "Theravada". And that approach seems to be llargely western led... Ooops... :thinking:

:heart:
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Re: Esoteric Theravada - Kate Croby

Post by Dhammanando »

In their Saturday morning zoom sessions the UK-based Samatha Trust has recently hosted a series of talks on yogāvacara meditation / borān kammaṭṭhāna by Dr. Paul Dennison, a student and practitioner of this approach since the 1960s. The talks have now been uploaded to youtube.

Contents

Talk 1: Invocation
Talk 2: The 1st & 2nd Rupa Jhanas
Talk 3: The 3rd & 4th Rūpa Jhānas
Talk 4: 1st and 2nd Arūpa Jhānas
Talk 5: The 4th & 5th Arūpa Jhanas
Talk 6: The Path


Yena yena hi maññanti,
tato taṃ hoti aññathā.


In whatever way they conceive it,
It turns out otherwise.
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Re: Esoteric Theravada - Kate Croby

Post by coffeendonuts »

...Crosby lays to rest the myth of a pure authentic original Theravada tradition, a myth that too long obscured the diversity of the past." —Barend Jan Terwiel, Emeritus Professor of Thai and Lao Languages and Literatures, Hamburg University
And it will not be missed.
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Re: Esoteric Theravada - Kate Croby

Post by mikenz66 »

Dhammanando wrote: Mon Dec 21, 2020 1:21 am In their Saturday morning zoom sessions the UK-based Samatha Trust has recently hosted a series of talks on yogāvacara meditation / borān kammaṭṭhāna by Dr. Paul Dennison, a student and practitioner of this approach since the 1960s. ...
Thanks for that, Bhante.

I've no knowledge or experience of these practices, but I'm a little surprised that almost all of the reactions to this book are along the lines of : "Whatever was being practised in SE Asia before the reforms of the 19th and 20th C was a load of rubbish...."

Having taken up Theravada specifically because I came across it as a living tradition, I have some interest in what may or may not have been lost in what has been communicated, though no particular stake in this particular area (since I have no personal experience with it).

:heart:
Mike
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