Meditation Practice - Buddhispano

explores some variations in approach and method. Making a survey rst of the available literature
on different aspects of the subject, the author scrutinizes rst vipassan methods and then Chan,
before addressing a comparison between the two and their differing views, for instance, on
the reading of texts or the traditional axis of ‘gradual’ and ‘sudden’ enlightenment. She nds some
real differences of approach between these two methods, but emphasizes the success both have had
in attracting interest in Buddhism.
‘Pragmatic Benets and Concentration through npnasati Meditation’, by Kanae
Kawamoto, discusses the popularity of a meditation system that has come to be known as ‘vipassan’
in the West, that the author suggests has found more success than samatha and breathing mindfulness
practice. The author argues that the early texts, however, accord samatha a central and integral place
within Buddhist practice, noting that the second jhna of internal peace is also often recommended
to the Buddha’s followers after their enlightenment. The paper contends that many gradual teachings
(anupubbikath) within the canon, often to laypeople, are obscured by the ellipses and peyyla of
PTS editions, which often leave out key passages referring to the practice of meditation. Citing for
instance the example of Subhaddha, the leper (Ud 38ff), whose mind is described in terms suggesting
attainment of the fourth jhna, the author argues that samatha practice is constantly advocated and
taught within the canon, and that there is no justication for the recent appropriation of the word
vipassan from its traditional usage within canon and commentary, to become a term used to describe
a complete meditative path.
Dr. Tadeusz Skorupski in ‘Consciousness and Luminosity in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism’
invokes the juxtaposition of the phenomenal world of sasra and the perfected state of nirvana,
noting that they reect and essentially correspond to the dynamic operating in the Buddhist analysis
of consciousness and the propensities of the human mind: the mind produces the factors contributing
to rebirth, but is also the primary vehicle in the attainment of salvation. He identies several key
features that permeate early Buddhist doctrine: the pre-eminence of mind, the notion of inherent
radiance, the alien nature of the delements that contaminate the mind, and the interplay of the image
of purication and corruption. Starting with a close reading of Buddhaghosa’s interpretations of
the nature of luminosity, the author extends his discussion to include the Mahsagikas, who
emphasize the inherent radiance of a mind obscured by adventitious delements, and the Sarvstivda
Vaibhikas, who aver that an inherently radiant mind could not be obscured, for to them it has
a propensity, rather than an innate disposition, to luminosity. Delineating various attributes of
the description of consciousness according to different schools, the author moves from Pli
Abhidhamma to Mahyna and Vajrayna sources and Bodhicitta doctrine. Alighting on subsequent
Indian Tantric theories that posit a fourfold luminosity of consciousness as four kinds of emptiness,
he notes that such an understanding of consciousness and luminosity was applied in the Tibetan
understanding of the processes occurring during death, as described in the work known as The Tibetan
Book of the Dead. The author describes this account of death, as involving the transition through
four kinds of luminosity, as unique to Tibet, in particular to the Nyingma and Kagyu traditions.
He concludes that although varied schools often disagree in certain features, all concur in the possibility
of and access to a puried mind. Tracing the continuity between early Abhidhamma through to
the various Mahyna schools, the author avers, provides an insightful range of perspectives on
luminosity and nature of the mind itself.
Some papers, such as the following, provide exposition of early exegetes and their
interpretation of traditional doctrine within the parameters of what were at the time more recent
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