deegalle, theravada monk as buddhist mystic

8/13/2019 Deegalle, Theravada Monk as Buddhist Mystic

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[Published as Mahinda Deegalle, Theravada Monk as a Buddhist Mystic:Mystical Attainments of a Twentieth-century Sri Lankan Monk,Mysticisms Eastand West: Studies in Mystical Experience , ed. Christopher Patridge andTheodore Gabriel (New York and London: Continuum, 2003), pp. 3443].

Therav da Monk as a Buddhist Mystic Mystical Attainments of a Twentieth Century Sri

Lankan Monk

Mahinda Deegalle

The most beautiful and profound emotion we can

experience is the sensation of the mystical. It is the sower

of all true science.

Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

This essay examines the life of a modern Therav! da monk, Venerable M! tal"

Vanaratana (1889-1981), who had written about his mystical attainments. As a

representative example of a modern Therav! da mystic, Vanaratanas account

deserves attention. By analyzing his account, one can know the life style of a

modern Buddhist mystic, spiritual exercises useful for attainments, obstacles to

ones spiritual path and problems and difficulties encountered in practice while

fulfilling tasks expected from a monk in Sri Lankan society. The analysis of the

accounts of the Buddhist mystic is the central focus of this essay. As a mystic,

Vanaratanas life in his community whether monastic or non-monastic cannot be

separated from his mystical attainments. While placing Vanaratanas account in the


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context of historical and literary genres, some salient features in his mystical

attainments will be analyzed. Vanaratanas account will be examined making

references to one of Therav! da authoritative texts, Buddhaghosas Visuddhimagga

(The Path of Purification). A recently published Sinhala bookK l ! Suvanda (Forest Fragrance)presents the life of the meditative monk Vanaratana who

lived most of his life in the forest. It is an account of mystical life of a twentieth

century Buddhist monk who practiced kasi " a meditation. I want to draw attention

to this modern account of Buddhist mystical experience and explore the possibility

of using it in understanding textual representations and their impact in shaping

the nature of mystical experience within Therav! da Buddhism.

A Modern Therav da Mystic

On February 3, 1889, Venerable M! tal" Vanaratana was born in Matale, Central

Province in Sri Lanka. As he recorded, at a very young age, he was taken away to

Southern Province and ordained as a Buddhist novice on June 6, 1906; Venerable

Saddh! nanda, the abbot of Kum! ra Mah! vih! ra, Dodanduwa and Sunand! ramaya,

Tiranagama, became his preceptor. Venerable Vanaratanas initial attraction to kasi " a meditation occurred

accidentally. On a fullmoon day, when he visited Sunand! ramaya, one of his

preceptors sub-temples, its resident monk Venerable Beruvala Vimalas! ra

happened to be explaining the method of developing kasi " a meditation to a

layman. In that conversation, the emphasis was on Buddhaghosas Visuddhimagga

as a manual for kasi " a meditation practice. By listening to that conversation, theyoung novice got interested in meditation and began the initial practice of kasi " a

meditation (pp. 45-6).1

Many years after Vanaratanas death, the Sinhala book, K l ! Suvanda (Forest

Fragrance), was published in 1999. It was compiled by one of his close lay

associates, Mr. Haritas Varusavitana, building on materials written by Venerable


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Vanaratana during his lifetime. In addition to unpublished works, it also included

a meditation manual that Vanaratana had written in 1950 for the benefit of those

who are interested in practicing meditation. In that publication, Vanaratana

recorded that he wrote about his mystical experiences in meditation after 22 yearsof the initial experience he had in attaining the first jh # na which occurred in 1928

(p. 119).

Vanaratanas booklet, Bh # van # vak piibanda mag ! atdakm (My Experiences in

a Meditation) was printed twice. In 1955, the first printing came with the

direction of Venerable Kotmal" Amarava#sa. Mr. D.S. Kotteg" reprinted it again in

1976. Vanaratana himself recorded that his book was different from that of others

because of the fact that it was based on his own experience in meditation rather

than on accounts written by others (p. 52). He emphasized experiential aspects of

his book and highlighted the priority given to accounts of kasi " a meditation that

he himself experienced. On the whole, Vanaratanas book contains rather unusual

materials: while it describes Vanaratanas experiences in kasi " a meditation

practice, it also contains many episodes of supernatural nature with descriptions of

his mystical attainments.

The a s i a Meditation within Therav da Tradition

The general meaning of the P! li term kasi " a (Skt.krtsn # yatana ) is all, whole,

entire or universal.2 Its mystical and spiritual meanings relate to one form of

Therav! da Buddhist meditation practice, the practice of calm (P. samatha )meditation. As a technical term in Buddhist mysticism, it refers to a meditational

exercise of total and exclusive awareness of, or concentration on, one of the four

elements (earth, water, fire, wind) or one of four colors (dark-blue, yellow, red,

white) or space or consciousness, leading to jh! na.3 On the whole, in the context


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of Buddhist meditation, the kasi " a can be rendered as a device used in calm

meditation practice.

Buddhaghosas Visuddhimagga , a fifth century C.E. post-canonical work

composed in P! li, gives a list of forty subjects of meditation (kammatth # na ) indeveloping the practice of calm meditation (samatha bh # van # ).4 The number of

subjects of meditation used for calm meditation are as many as forty because of

the fact that as a list it attempts to cater to individual differences in human

character and personality. The ten devices (kasi " a ), the first ten items of

Buddhaghosas forty subjects of meditation,5 are suitable for both the preliminary

and more advanced stages of meditation practice. Before Buddhaghosa, an

Abhidhamma text, the Dhammasa $ gani 6 had given a list of only eight kasi " a s

omitting consciousness and space. A text which was in conversation with

Buddhaghosa, UpatissasVimuttimagga also gave a list of ten devices of meditation

but in the enumeration it had followed the list given by the following two

canonical texts.7 Among the canonical sources, the Mah # Sakulud # yi Sutta of the

Majjhima Nik # ya (II.14) and the Jh # na Vagga of the A$ guttara Nik # ya (I.41)

enumerated the ten kasi " a s but differed from the Visuddhimagga by giving

vi # na instead of # loka . The ten kasi " a s, according to Buddhaghosa, are: (i) earth

( pathavi ), (ii) water (# po ), (iii) fire (tejo ), (iv) air (v # yo ), (v) blue ( nla ), (vi)

yellow ( pta ), (vii) red (lohita ), (viii) white (od # ta ), (ix) light (# loka ), and (x)

limited-space ( paricchinn # k # sa ).8 In the Sri Lankan Therav! da tradition as

represented by Buddhaghosa, the ten kasi " a s are accepted replacing vi # na with

# loka . As represented by Yog # vacaras Manual , Sri Lankan tradition considers thefour elements collectively as bh % ta-kasina (1896:48-52). The first four (i-iv) of

the ten kasi " a s, the four elements, are good for all personality types, the four

colors (v-viii) are good for hate type personalities, and the last two (ix-x) are also

good for all personality types. These ten kasi " a s are presented as ways of attaining

to the four jh # na s.


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The ten devices of meditation known as kasi " a-ma "& ala (universal-circles) are

objects such as a blue disc, a circle of earth, or a bowl of water. In the early stages

of meditation practice, kasi " a can be such physical devices (i.e., colored discs) used

as aids for meditation practice. After the initial sight of the colored disc, themeditator concentrates on a circle until one can see a mental image in ones

minds eye. The image of the circle is acquired with closed eyes and develops the

practice until a condition is reached where sense-reaction is suspended. In this

meditation technique, the meditator focuses on a universal quality such as

blueness, earth or water.

Mystical dimensions of religion seem to have played an important role in the

history of Buddhist tradition. While authoritative post-canonical texts like

Buddhaghosas Visuddhimagga presented the preliminary guidelines for Buddhist

mystics in their practice of various meditation techniques, Therav! da traditions in

South and Southeast Asia seem to have had constant engagement in devising novel

meditation techniques. For example, we are now in possession of an eighteenth

century provocative meditation manual called The Yog # vacaras Manual of Indian

Mysticism. The Yog # vacaras Manual of Indian Mysticism (1896) and its translation,

Manual of a Mystic (1916), stand as Therav! da contributions to the study of

mysticism. The original Roman script text appeared from The Pali Text Society in

1896.9 Thomas William Rhys Davids (1843-1922), who edited it considered it as

The unique MS since from his point of view, there were no other work in

Buddhist literature, either Pali or Sanskrit, devoted to the details of Jh! na andSam! dhi.10 The manuscript was found in a temple library in Bambaragala Vih! ra,

Teldeniya, Sri Lanka.11 Sir Don Baron Jayatilaka (1868-1944) recounted his search

for this manuscript in his article to The Buddhist .12 The author of this particular

meditation manual is unknown and its date of compilation is also uncertain.

However, it is considered as a text of the eighteenth century origin. Don Martino


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de Zilva Wickremasinghe (1865-1937) thought it could be that of the seventeenth

or even of the sixteenth century. He acknowledged the existence of jh # na practice

in the eighteenth century. The arrival of Siamese monks in Sri Lanka in 1753 to

revive Buddhism is seen as the possible social and religious contexts for the originof the practices related to jh # na and the birth of this manual. While it is impossible

to be certain on the Siamese influence on the birth of this text, a consensus is built

that the text closely connected with the period during or just after the above-

named religious revival.13

The most important relevant factor for this paper is that the Manual of a Mystic

contains mystic exercises and becomes a representative of a mystic faith. Certai

mystic practices such as wax-taper exercises are rather novel and unusual for

Theravada traditions. The colour-visions in the Sinhala descriptions in the Manual

of a Mystic should be kept in perspective.

The Manual of a Mystic had devoted a section to discuss the ten kasi " a s.14 With

respect to mystical aspects in the language and seeing its ideas from a conventional

understanding of Therav! da practices, Mrs. Rhys Davids asserted that one needed

a catholic intelligence to decipher the meanings and symbolical significance ofthe text and its practices.15

Vanaratanas Method in Practicing a s i a Meditation

Vanaratana believes that before embarking on the meditation practice, a kasi " a

meditator should read the relevant chapter in the Visuddhimagga 16

whereBuddhaghosa presented the forty objects of meditation (kammatth # na ) including

the ten kasi " a s. According to Vanaratana, when Buddhaghosa explained the kasi " a

meditation in the Visuddhimagga , he had left some space for a meditation

instructor to guide the practitioner (p. 69). From his own experience, Vanaratana

asserts the importance of having a teacher before beginning the kasi " a meditation.


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In Therav! da traditions, such a guide in meditation practice is called a good

friend (kaly #" amitta )17 who guides the meditator through the practice. Vanaratana

himself had found a Burmese meditation teacher named Venerable U.

Dhamm! dh! ra as his kaly #" amitta (p. 48).The meditation practice is divided into three stages as (i) parikamma

(preliminary work), (ii) upac # ra (access concentration)), and (iii) appan #

(absorption). According to Vanaratana, the Visuddhimagga did not give an

adequate explanation on appan # . Even when one achieves the first jh # na of

appan # , he or she may not know it. According to him, the Visuddhimagga had not

given any signs to know the attainment. Thus, he believes that it leaves space for a

meditation teacher to guide the practitioner. For Vanaratanas own practice, he had

received instruction from the meditation master and he also had read the relevant

descriptions in the Visuddhimagga .

Vanaratanas book gives information about the preparation for meditation, the

way of receiving kasi " a sign (nimitta ), the way of engaging in meditation, the way

of protecting meditation, the way of developing meditation, the way meditation

generates results, the pleasure of seeing the birth of wholesome states such as

saddh # (faith), the way of achieving the first jh # na , the way of justifying through

an act of truth (saccakiriy # ) that what one has attained is the first jh # na (p. 71).

According to the instructions received from his teacher to Vanaratana, when one

has achieved the first jh # na , following the Visuddhimagga , one can attain the third

and fourth jh # na s even without a teacher. According to Vanaratana, the only jh # na

that one cannot attain without teachers instruction is the first jh # na (p. 71). Vanaratana explains his preparation forkasi " a meditation. As Buddhaghosa

had given a detailed description of the eighteen faults of a monastery and the five

factors related to the resting place,18 Vanaratana also discusses the importance of

the appropriate place for meditation practice. The purity of ones clothes,

appropriate observation of the five or ten precepts by the practitioner, and the


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long practice of loving kindness meditation is equally emphasized. If one does not

have training in meditation practice, prior to embarking on the practice of kasi " a

meditation, one is required to practice the meditation on loving kindness for a

week at least. It is essential to observe silence and cultivate mindfulness from thestart of meditation and during the practice. Reading books, giving sermons and

reciting paritta should be avoided; meeting with people, conversations, looking at

other work, should be avoided; engaging in singing and dancing is also not

appropriate (p. 73). However, daily routine such as the worship service, engaging

in p % j # , chanting paritta and reflecting on the five recollections ( paccavekkhan # )

should be continued. The meditator should pay particular attention to

conversations that distract him or her from meditation practice. Even in alms-

rounds, the practitioner should be careful to avoid distractions. The key factor is

keeping ones mindfulness in the meditation object.

Vanaratana selected tejo (fire) kasi " a for his meditation practice. Giving

directions to the practice of fire kasi " a , Buddhaghosa stated that the practitioner

should apprehend the sign in fire.19 However, Vanaratanas teacher instructed

Vanaratana to take the nimitta (sign) from the sun. It demonstrates that it is notessential that one takes the sign from the fire alone. It seems that the sign can be

taken from any bright object, for example, even from a light bulb. The most

important thing in this process is, however, taking the sign from the same object

whenever one is forced to take the sign several times in the cases when the nimitta

does not remain firmly.

Meditation instructor advised Vanaratana:You are going to practice tejokasi " a . The sun is the most powerful object of

heat in the world. You have to take sign (nimitta ) for mediation from the sun.

You have to make a determination that with the blessings of the three refuges

that your meditation will be successful and five hindrances (nvarana ) will be

removed.


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Rather than looking at the sun directly, Vanaratana was asked to look at sun rays

which appeared through the branches and leaves of Jack fruit trees. He was asked

to look at sun rays for about three minutes without the blinking eyes; instructor

asked him to repeat the word tejo (fire), tejo (fire) continuously. After threeminutes, he was instructed to close the eyes and enter the meditation room

repeating tejo, tejo... Vanaratana sat on a wooden bench covered with a white

cloth. He was facing east and repeated tejo while focusing on the red circle having

his eyes still closed. The color of the circle gradually changed into blue. Without

getting distracted, Vanaratana meditated on the element of fire for two hours.

When one sits for the meditation with closed eyes one should look at the sign of

the kasi " a . If the sign is found, then one should meditate with the wish may it

develop well. If sign is not visible at all, again sign should be acquired as

mentioned previously. When the sign is set, one should meditate thinking that the

sign is three feet away like a picture hanging in the front. When meditated

continuously, the sign became clearer. The sign becomes clearer in the night rather

than the day time. By the fourth day, the sign became larger like a tea cup. When

one meditates, the kasi " a nimitta circulates. One should not allow it to circulate. When tejo is repeated fast, the sign also circulates fast. While other changes

should be allowed, the circulation should be stopped. The repetition of tejo should

not be loud; it should be audible to someone in the room. The focus of mind with

sign gave a sense of pleasure. At the beginning though it was difficult to focus the

mind on the meditation object, now mind gets focused on the meditation object.

By the eighth day, the kasi " a nimitta became larger about 18 inches in diameter.Its corners also became bright. In front of the face, kasi " a nimitta appears bright.

From the circular rim, a pile of fire like a ball of thread came to the center;

however, there was no gathering of fire. With that the shaking of the kasi " a

nimitta also stopped. Pleasure was born. When Vanaratana reported these

developments to his meditation teacher, he praised his success.


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Until the 11th day, Vanaratana continued his meditation concentrating on

parikamma nimitta (preliminary sign). On the 11th day, in the middle of kasi " a

nimitta , a fire was born. It was about four inches in height. While the kasi " a

nimitta does not fluctuate, its size had become about three feet in diameter.

Vanaratanas Mystical Visions

In K l ! Suvanda , Vanaratana explained the nature of mystical experience that

he had during his practice of the kasi " a meditation. Vanaratana recorded that his

courage and pleasure increased with appearance of fire within kasi " a man & ala .

Devotion to dhamma born from his heart increased during the practice and with

sharpened and intensified faith, when Vanaratana meditated for another two days

focusing on that fire, his mental powers got intensified and concentration within

his mind developed. When Vanaratana continued his meditation, pleasure born

from the meditative practice spread within his body like a wave of electricity. His

body experienced a comfortable and pleasurable state. In his visions, he saw a

large group of elephants arriving there with flowers in their trunks and making

flower offerings to him. Following the vision of elephants, there appeared varioustypes of animals who came as groups. As crowds, they came on the road and

passed him as groups without putting their backs towards him. Though they came

from a distance, it did not seem that they went away from his vision. Their

numbers were innumerable and only a few groups that he could identify; most

animals appeared in his vision and he could neither hear their sounds nor

recognize them. For a long time, though he saw many animals in his visions, onlya few were pleasant to be seen; some were extremely fearful; their body, manners,

and performances were a fear and a threat; some were indeed extremely

unpleasant to see; some had deformed physical forms; some could not be

identified whether they were animals. The visions that he had were like continuous

episodes in a film. When the visions of animals faded away, visions of demons,


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dead (P. peta ), and goblins (P. pis # ca ) gradually emerged. While the pleasant

forms appeared first, they were followed by more fearful appearances. The visions

of demons were followed by scenes of the land. A human being enters the road

and goes along the road. Vehicles appeared clearly, so the roads, houses, streets,rivers, ocean, ships and boats, waves in the ocean, small lakes, ponds, etc.

Vanaratana felt that everything on earth appeared in his visions (p. 88).

For six days, Vanaratana continued meditation focusing on the fire that

appeared in the kasi " a man & ala . Around 9:30 pm, saddh # was intensified (p. 93).

Around 10:30 pm, a band of elephants appeared in his vision as previously and

they paid homage to him. After a while, the fire that was burning in the kasi " a

gradually got weakened and completely disappeared. A thing which threatened

Vanaratana happened at that time. A blue bowl with a diameter of six feet

appeared in front of Vanaratanas body and pressed him like hugging. Even though

it was fearful, its appearance was pleasant. With the disappearance of that, his

body became almost like without blood and nerves in his body got tightened. That

blue bowl reappeared again distant from his body about 3 feet away. He had

achieved a pleasure that he had not had before. Vanaratana decided to inform thisto his meditation teacher. The teacher was delighted to hear about those visions

and admitted that they were patibh # ga nimitta and further explained that it was

rare to find such a discovery (p. 94). Again when Vanaratana began meditating on

kasi " a nimitta , blue patibh # ga nimitta appeared again. Vanaratana could see fire

here and there on the man & ala .

Conclusions

This essay has examined in detail an account of a modern Buddhist mystic in Sri

Lankan Therav! da tradition. It has demonstrated that modern Therav! da mystics

like Venerable Vanaratana interpret their mystical attainments in light of textual

descriptions found in authoritative texts such as the Visuddhimagga and emphasize


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the continuity of mystical experience through the guidance of teacher. What the

essay demonstrates is that within Therav! da still there is an eagerness for mystical

attainments and the life story and disruptions presented in Vanaratanas biography

show that modern busy village life style of Buddhist monks is an obstacle forsecluded mystical attainments. As this account demonstrates, the criterion of

judging the level of mystical attainments from the standpoint of the lay observers

is the very simple lifestyle of the mystic.

Cited Sources Manual of a Mystic: Being a Translation from the Pali and Sinhalese Work Entitled

The Yog # vacharas Manual . 1982. Translated by F.L. Woodward. London: ThePali Text Society.

A Buddhist Manual of Psychological Ethics (Dhammasa $ ga " i) . 1974. Translated byC.A.F. Rhys Davids. London: The Pali Text Society.

Buddhaghosa, Bhadant! cariya. 1956.The Path of Purification (Visuddhimagga) .Translated by Bhikkhu !$ amoli. Colombo: R. Semage.

Cone, Margaret. 2001.A Dictionary of P # li . Vol. I. Oxford: The Pali Text Society.

Jayatilaka, D.B. 1982. A Dhy! na Book. InManual of a Mystic: Being a Translationfrom the Pali and Sinhalese Work Entitled The Yog # vacharas Manual , 143-49.London: The Pali Text Society.

Rhys Davids, C.A.F. (ed.). 1920.The Visuddhimagga of Buddhaghosa . Vol. 1.London: The Pali Text Society.

Rhys Davids, T.W. (ed.). 1981.The Yog # vacaras Manual of Indian Mysticism asPreached by Buddhists . London: The Pali Text Society.

Upatissa. 1961.The Path of Freedom (Vimuttimagga) . Translated by N.R.M. Ehara,Soma Thera, Kheminda Thera. Colombo: D. Roland D. Weerasuria.

Varusavitana, Haritas. 1999.K l ! Suvanda . Halavata: Merl Varusavitana.


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References

1Page numbers within the body of this paper refer to K l ! Suvanda compiled by Varusavitana (1999). In understanding Vanaratanas kasi " a meditation and hismystical experiences, this source will be used throughout this essay.2Kasi " a has also been rendered as artifices in A Buddhist Manual of PsychologicalEthics (Dhammasa $ ga " i ) (1974:40). 3Cone (2001:661).4Buddhaghosa (Buddhaghosa 1956). and Rhys Davids (1920:110).5Upatissa (Upatissa 1961) gives only thirty eight subjects of meditation.6A Buddhist Manual of Psychological Ethics (Dhammasa $ ga " i ) (1974:40-53).7Upatissa (Upatissa 1961:63).8Buddhaghosa (Buddhaghosa 1956) and Rhys Davids (1920:118-175).9It is important to note that it was the first time that a Sinhala script text appearedin the Pali Text Society series.10Rhys Davids(1981:vii).11 Jayatilaka (1982:143).12See Jayatilakas account entitled A Dhy! na Book (1982) for more details to placethis manuscript in historical and socio-religious contexts of the eighteenth centurySri Lanka.13Manual of a Mystic (1982:vii).14Rhys Davids (1981:46-53).15Manual of a Mystic (1982:viii).16In chapters III-XI, Buddhaghosa (1956:122-184) explained various aspects ofmeditation. In particular, in chapters IV and V, he discussed the ten kasi " a s.17Buddhaghosa (Buddhaghosa 1956).18Buddhaghosa (1956:122-126).19Buddhaghosa (1956:178).

deegalle, theravada monk as buddhist mystic

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