Early Buddhist Meditation
Title | Early Buddhist Meditation PDF eBook |
Author | Keren Arbel |
Publisher | Taylor & Francis |
Pages | 235 |
Release | 2017-03-16 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN | 1317383990 |
This book offers a new interpretation of the relationship between 'insight practice' (satipatthana) and the attainment of the four jhànas (i.e., right samàdhi), a key problem in the study of Buddhist meditation. The author challenges the traditional Buddhist understanding of the four jhànas as states of absorption, and shows how these states are the actualization and embodiment of insight (vipassanà). It proposes that the four jhànas and what we call 'vipassanà' are integral dimensions of a single process that leads to awakening. Current literature on the phenomenology of the four jhànas and their relationship with the 'practice of insight' has mostly repeated traditional Theravàda interpretations. No one to date has offered a comprehensive analysis of the fourfold jhàna model independently from traditional interpretations. This book offers such an analysis. It presents a model which speaks in the Nikàyas' distinct voice. It demonstrates that the distinction between the 'practice of serenity' (samatha-bhàvanà) and the 'practice of insight' (vipassanà-bhàvanà) – a fundamental distinction in Buddhist meditation theory – is not applicable to early Buddhist understanding of the meditative path. It seeks to show that the common interpretation of the jhànas as 'altered states of consciousness', absorptions that do not reveal anything about the nature of phenomena, is incompatible with the teachings of the Pàli Nikàyas. By carefully analyzing the descriptions of the four jhànas in the early Buddhist texts in Pàli, their contexts, associations and meanings within the conceptual framework of early Buddhism, the relationship between this central element in the Buddhist path and 'insight meditation' becomes revealed in all its power. Early Buddhist Meditation will be of interest to scholars of Buddhist studies, Asian philosophies and religions, as well as Buddhist practitioners with a serious interest in the process of insight meditation.
Early Buddhist Meditation Studies
Title | Early Buddhist Meditation Studies PDF eBook |
Author | Anālayo |
Publisher | Createspace Independent Publishing Platform |
Pages | 0 |
Release | 2017-03-10 |
Genre | Buddhist meditations |
ISBN | 9781540410504 |
In this book, Bhikkhu Analayo, scholar and meditation teacher, examines central aspects of Buddhist meditation as reflected in the early discourses of the Buddha, based on revised and reorganized material from previously published articles. The main topics he takes up are mindfulness, the path to awakening, absorption, and the brahmaviharas. He compares parallel versions of the discourses in a variety of languages which offers a window on the earliest stages in the development of these Buddhist teachings.
The Origin of Buddhist Meditation
Title | The Origin of Buddhist Meditation PDF eBook |
Author | Alexander Wynne |
Publisher | Routledge |
Pages | 171 |
Release | 2007-04-16 |
Genre | Body, Mind & Spirit |
ISBN | 1134097417 |
Based on the early Brahminic literature, the author asserts the origin of the method of meditation learned by the Buddha from his two teachers and identifies some authentic teachings of the Buddha on meditation.
Compassion and Emptiness in Early Buddhist Meditation
Title | Compassion and Emptiness in Early Buddhist Meditation PDF eBook |
Author | Analayo |
Publisher | Windhorse Publications |
Pages | 163 |
Release | 2015-07-27 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN | 1909314625 |
Analayo investigates the meditative practices of compassion and emptiness by examining and interpreting material from the early Buddhist discourses. Similar to his previous study of satipaa'-a'-hana, he brings a new dimension to our understanding by comparing Pali texts with versions that have survived in Chinese, Sanskrit and Tibetan. The result is a wide-ranging exploration of what these practices meant in early Buddhism.
Mindfulness in Early Buddhism
Title | Mindfulness in Early Buddhism PDF eBook |
Author | Tse-fu Kuan |
Publisher | Routledge |
Pages | 252 |
Release | 2007-12-18 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 1134074522 |
This book examines ‘mindfulness’ in early Buddhism, and explores its central role in early Buddhist practice and philosophy. Using textual analysis and criticism, it takes new approaches to the subject through a comparative study of Buddhist texts in Pali, Chinese and Sanskrit.
Rebirth in Early Buddhism and Current Research
Title | Rebirth in Early Buddhism and Current Research PDF eBook |
Author | Bhikkhu Analayo |
Publisher | Simon and Schuster |
Pages | 343 |
Release | 2018-04-23 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN | 1614294623 |
Join a rigorous scholar and Buddhist monk on a brisk tour of rebirth from ancient doctrine to contemporary debates. German Buddhist monk and university professor Bhikkhu Analayo had not given much attention to the topic of rebirth before some friends asked him to explore the treatment of the issue in early Buddhist texts. This succinct volume presents his findings, approaching the topic from four directions. The first chapter examines the doctrine of rebirth as it is presented in the earliest Buddhist sources and the way it relates to core doctrinal principles. The second chapter reviews debates about rebirth throughout Buddhist history and up to modern times, noting the role of confirmation bias in evaluation of evidence. Chapter 3 reviews the merits of current research on rebirth, including near-death experience, past-life regression, and children who recall previous lives. The chapter concludes with an examination of xenoglossy, the ability to speak languages one has not learned previously, and chapter 4 examines the particular case of Dhammaruwan, a Sri Lankan boy who chants Pali texts that he does not appear to have learned in his present life. Rebirth in Early Buddhism and Current Research brings together the many strands of the debate on rebirth in one place, making it both comprehensive and compact. It is not a polemic but an interrogation of the evidence, and it leaves readers to come to their own conclusions.
Mindfulness in Early Buddhism
Title | Mindfulness in Early Buddhism PDF eBook |
Author | Bhikkhu Anālayo |
Publisher | Windhorse Publications |
Pages | 311 |
Release | 2020-09-22 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN | 1911407562 |
An invaluable resource for Buddhist scholars, meditation teachers, and practitioners wishing to deepen their own practice of mindfulness. In this in-depth guide, the author examines all aspects of mindfulness practice, explores the history of mindfulness in the Buddhist tradition, and provides instructions for meditation practice, all supported by translations of the early Buddhist canonical texts.