the story of the forgotten meditation tradition of Southeast Asia Crosby, Kate (Religion scholar) creator author. text bibliography cou Boulder, Colorado Shambhala Publications, Inc. [2020] 2020 First edition. monographic eng

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xi, 303 pages ; 22 cm. "Discover the esoteric branch of Theravada meditation in the first English-language exploration of a practice tradition nearly lost to history. In this groundbreaking book, scholar Kate Crosby illuminates the once-dominant traditional Theravada meditation system known as borān kamahāna. Theravadan Buddhism, though often understood as the school that most carefully preserved the practices originally taught by the Buddha, has in fact undergone tremendous change over time. Prior to Western concerns with the separation of science and religion that influenced Asian Buddhist modernizers, there existed a tradition of embodied, esoteric, and culturally regional Theravadan meditation practices. These meditation systems differ radically from the reformed, text-based meditations that are now taught in Theravada Buddhism, including Vipassana and Insight Meditation, as well as Buddhist and secular mindfulness. Drawing on a quarter century of research, Crosby offers the first holistic discussion of borān kamahāna in the context of historical events and cultural processes by which the practice has been marginalized in the modern era. Readers of Esoteric Theravada will never see Theravada Buddhism in the same light again"-- The colonial gaze : the invisibility of premodern Theravada meditation -- Abhidhamma and practice : the path in Theravada meditation systems -- Documenting the esoteric : the production and survival of evidence for premodern Theravada meditation -- Technologies of transformation : grammar, mathematics and the significance of substitution -- Transformation of the body : meditation, medicine and chemistry -- From centre to periphery : the changing place of borān kammaṭṭhāna under Thai influence -- Meditation in modern revivals. Kate Crosby. Includes bibliographical references (pages [271]-286) and index. as----- Borān kammaṭṭhāna Theravāda Buddhism Southeast Asia History BQ5630.B67 C76 2020 294.3910959 9781611807943 2020011074 DLC 200317 20240227152322.0 21471399 eng