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 boran kammatthana, 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 boran kammatthana, illuminating the historical events and cultural processes by which the practice has been marginalized in the modern era.
Esoteric Theravada: The Story of the Forgotten Meditation Tradition of Southeast Asia, Kate Crosby, Shambhala Publications, Paperback, 320 pp, $22.95
KATE CROSBY is professor of Buddhist Studies at Kings College London. Her work focuses on Sanskrit, Pali, and Pali-vernacular literature and on Theravada practice in the pre-modern and modern periods. Her other publications include Theravada Buddhism: Continuity, Diversity, Identity and The Bodhicaryavatara.
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CONTENTS: Esoteric Theravada
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Acknowledgments
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ix
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Transliteration
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xiii
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Introduction
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1
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1.
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The Colonial Gaze: The Invisibility of Pre-Modern Theravada Meditation
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9
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2.
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Abhidhamma and Practice: The Path in Theravada Meditation Systems
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29
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3.
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Documenting the Esoteric: The Production and Survival of Evidence for
Boran Kammatthana Meditation
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67
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4.
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Technologies of Transformation: Grammar, Mathematics, and the Significance of Substitution
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105
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5.
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Transformation of the Body: Meditation, Medicine, and Chemistry
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141
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6.
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From Center to Periphery: The Changing Place of
Bran Kammatthana under Thai Influence
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173
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7.
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Meditation in Modern Revivals
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203
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Conclusion
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235
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Notes
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241
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Bibliography
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271
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