This is a new book by Kate Crosby which addresses Esoteric Theravada. Southern Esoteric Buddhism - Wikipedia
Though, of course, this is not about Early Buddhist Texts, arguably it is relevant to understanding the creation of the modern meditation movements that many of us have learned from and been influenced by.
Esoteric Theravada - The Story of the Forgotten Meditation Tradition of Southeast Asia
By Kate Crosby
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 Asiaâwhich brought Western and modernist intellectual concerns, such as the separation of science and religion, to bear on Buddhismâthere existed a tradition of embodied, esoteric, and culturally regional Theravada meditation practices. This once-dominant traditional meditation system, known as borÄn kammaášášhÄna, is related toâyet remarkably distinct fromâVipassana 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 borÄn kammaášášhÄna, illuminating the historical events and cultural processes by which the practice has been marginalized in the modern era.
Wat Dhammakaya spends a lot of money getting academics to link its practices to Yogavacara Buddhism and other kinds of minority âesotericâ Theravada. Itâs a shame, because they are obfuscating important scholarship.
Thanks for that comment @Coemgenu. The history of Theravada is very confusing, given the various reforms and movements over the past couple of centuries. Clearly, practices on the ground in Thailand and other countries are extremely varied. The difficulty is determining which practices (and which versions of the history) are useful.
Thanks for the link, this is an important and often misunderstood field. Itâs too easy to think of âTheravadaâ as the doctrinal orthodoxy of the Pali canon, but the reality is far more complex.
Living in Thailand, you come to know of all sorts of weird and wonderful meditation traditions. Itâs a hugely creative culture.
FWIW, Richard Dixey, who has spent much of his life among Tibetan lamas and gurus, once told me that traveling in Theravada countries convinced him that Theravada was the only true esoteric Buddhism left. In the Tibetan tradition, all the so-called âesotericâ practices are codified, written down, and incorporated in the mainstream. In Theravada they are still in the oral tradition, unknown except for those in the region.
Is it just me or has the before-linked Wikipedia article for âdharmakÄyaâ changed a lot recently? I donât remember the Pali Canon sections being so polemical and seeming to have something to prove.
Looking at the page history, on Nov 9, a user added some detail connecting Wat Phra DhammakÄya to the Wikipedia page for âDharmakÄyaâ as well as changed material in the âTheravÄdaâ subsection for that page. There was a previous round of editing to do with Wat DhammakÄya from the same user earlier on that page in September.
Oh come on. Even the official Dhammayut (reform) order chanting book has visualization practices, mandalas, protection spells, deity invocationsâŚ
Dhammakaya has a full-time team to manage their Wikipedia articles, create fake sites, etc. To keep up their credibility in the Wikipedia community, they also go around adding to other articles about Buddhist topics too, so just be careful out thereâŚ
I live in Chiang Mai now, for part of the year. This creativity and vibrance has become such an important part of my life, and antidote to so much of my life that is wearying in the west. At Wat Umong I have the history and the ancient traditions, and one of the best walking meditation salas in Thailand. I can go then on the way home to the Maya mall, and see the large Ganesh shrine at the entrance. And now with a partner in Chiang Mai, she is from a Hill Tribe community with deity, animist, and other ancient practices as part of her traditional wat- based Buddhism. The meditation scene in Chiang Mai is diverse and there are just so many interesting people involved in variants of Buddhism, yoga and meditation to make the scene in Thailand just so exciting.
I have noticed this. I have so far refrained from wading into this fight, preferring to stick to editing wikipedia articles that I actually find interesting. But it is troubling, wiki is the sixth most visited site and it is an authority for many. Even though there is much criticism of Dhammakaya, the wiki article on Wat Phra Dhammakaya has little to nothing about it. It cites a lot of papers in Thai though and it sounds objective but clearly has a pro Dhammakaya stance.
It might be prudent to do it over PM in case they are watching this site waiting to put their efforts into cancelling any public figures who comment negatively.
They almost owned the Thai State Samgha, as Iâm sure people are aware. Like Scientology, SGI, and Waharakists, they are not to be triffled with if you are in a position to be canceled. The most dangerous dog rules the junkyard with the threat of his teeth.
How many dangerous dogs are reborn as gods? None. How many dangerous dogs acheive nibbÄna? None. But they rule the junkyard.
When the mind is concentrated at the center of the body, the pathama-magga, or dhamma sphere (duangtham), may be seen by a wholesome person, but is not seen by an unwholesome person or those who lack sufficient concentration powers, according to Dhammakaya teachings.[68] The first sighting of this âbright crystal sphereâ is considered as an important first step.[68] The first stage of this path Luang Pu Sodh simply called the âbeginning of the pathâ (Thai: ŕ¸ŕ¸ŕ¸Ąŕ¸Ąŕ¸Łŕ¸Łŕ¸, romanized: pathommamak).[53] The meditation teachers state that with sufficient skill, or if there is an adequate store of merit, the meditator sees this path as a âglowing sphereâ.[58] According to Tanabe, this state is also described as the arising of bright light at the center of the body.[70] According to Skilton and Choompolpaisal, this practice sometimes leads to the pÄŤti state, or the temporary experience of goosebumps or other physical responses.[71]
âFrom this arises a brighter sphere, the sila sphere, followed by an even brighter and more refined sphere of samadhi (mental concentration). According to Jayamaáš ggalo, the former abbot of Wat Luang Phor Sodh Dhammakayaram, this is the first stage of absorption, from which insight meditation can be started.[68] Next comes the paùùa (wisdom, insight) sphere, and then the sphere of liberation (vimutti). Finally, the âsphere of knowledge and vision of liberationâ (vimutti-Ăąanadassana) arises â a term normally used for Arahatship, according to the Dhammakaya meditation teachings.[72]ââWikipedia
Itâs from a series of illustrations commissioned by King Taksin to accompany his edition of the TraibhĹŤmikathÄ, a Thai cosmological treatise. It consists in a stylized depiction of the eight kinds of ariyapuggala.
Yes but itâs related to Boran Kammathana and seems to read from bottom to top, ie the figure holding a white object at the abdomen is the arahant, the horizontal bars representing fetters.
"When the practitioner concentrates further on the vimutti-Ăąanadassana, a series of eight inner bodies arise from this sphere, which are successively more subtle, and come in pairs, starting with âa crude human formâ (panita-manussakaya).[73][58][74][note 6] Each of these bodies is preceded by several spheres of light.[76][73] The eight inner bodies begin in a form identical to the meditator, but are more refined.[77][78] After the crude human body, there arises the ârefined human bodyâ and then the âcrude celestial bodyâ and the ârefined celestial bodyâ. After the meditator attains the refined celestial body, this gives way to the âcrude form Brahma bodyâ. This is followed by ârefined form Brahma bodyâ, âcrude formless Brahma bodyâ and ârefined formless Brahma bodyâ. Once again, like previous inner bodies, these bodies have a normal and refined form.[79]
According to Mackenzie, â[t]his series of [four] bodies seems to broadly correspond to the meditative development up to the four jhanasâ, through them, and then the four formless meditation attainments.[80] The final four of these inner pairs are called the Dhammakayas and are equated with the four stages of enlightenment, leading to the final stage of enlightenment (arahant).[78] In between is the âchange-of-lineageâ (Pali: gotrabhĹŤ) intermediary Dhammakaya state.[73][81][note 7] According to Newell, quoting Jayamaáš ggalo, this state is the ninth inner body and is characterized by âthe lap width, height and sphere diameter [of] 9 meters.â[78] The size of the Dhammakaya bodies increase, as the meditator progresses through these intermediate stages, from a height and lap-width of 9 meters or more to 40 meters or more.[83] According to Harvey, the visualized inner bodies in Dhammakaya teachings are said to appear like Buddha-images,[note 8] followed by bodies of Noble persons, finally that of an arahantâs radiant Dhammakaya form within allowing the experience of Nirvana.[84]"âWikipedia
Can I ask for the basis for this? Not doubting, it seems exactly like what Dhammakaya would do, just curious.
One of the many problems with them is that they are one of the few sources of funding for Buddhist academic studies overseas, and western academics can be very naive about the actual role and nature of Dhammakaya. Which, in case anyone is unclear, is a creepy criminal pyramid scheme masquerading as a Buddhist temple.
I notice from the wikipedia page that their abbot Dhammajayo is still on the run, since 2017.
When I was staying there (and didnât yet know their deal but started to get suspicious) I tried looking up info online⌠and noticed a ⌠biased tone. After digging around the Wikipedia edit history, I identified a few accounts that seemed to be doing this polishing work. Wondering how they got trusted by the Wikipedia mods, I stalked their history and noticed many months of edits all over Buddhist Wikipedia.
I later, tactfully, asked my host (a longtime Dhammakaya member) about their digital marketing and he confirmed that they have a team dedicated to âcorrecting misinformationâ online.
I didnât keep good notes and donât particularly feel like digging through the Wikipedia logs again, but that part at least is publicly available online.
Thanks, thatâs interesting. This isnât wikipedia, original research is not discouraged! But yeah, this is exactly the kind of thing they do all the time, and why in any superficial look itâs easy to frame them as just a reformist group unfairly attacked.
How many people here have read âThe Esoteric Teaching of Wat Phra DhammakÄya?â by the former Ven Mettanando â now Dr. Laohavanich?
All this business about âspheresâ is discussed in there, including the crystal sphere of nibbÄna. Then comes the DhammakÄyas of Light and Darkness etc.
Wat DhammakÄyaâs esoterica resembles Manichaeism moreso than any VajrayÄna-like Buddhism they may or may not have inherited from pre-reform times.
Their threefold world is arguably more indebted to Gnosticisms than anything. Lightworld, darkworld, in-between grayworld, etc. Evil materiality, good disembodiment, etc.
Iâve read the above article, and what strikes me the most is the absence of the Buddha Dhamma.
What does the Buddha teach about esoteric practices? My impression is that the EBTâs are quite explicit about investing Right Effort into only those mind states that are conducive to the path, that lead to abandoning the unwholesome and fostering the wholesome.
While the MInd may be a beguiling playground, it is full of cul-de-sacs, wrong turns, dead ends etc. If you want to move beyond the labyrinth, skillful means are required. Skillful means in this instance are really about knowing where to place attention and expend effort, thus following the path to Liberation.
Regarding Mind states, this involves the 8 jhanas⌠a very explicit process, that conditions the Mind states, leading to Nibbana.
