Maps of Awakening

The phenomenon of awakening is beyond our ability to frame, deconstruct or analyse; however, we can observe the path taken and psychological changes that take place as one walks towards this ineffable experience. To understand the psychology of spiritual growth it is important to frame the meaning of awakening within the context of the tradition which is analysed. The context is the path, soteriology, textual and historical framework. Within the early Buddhist community, we often find reference to the path of insight or panna as a means to awakening through the popular practice of Vipassana. Although this is the key ingredient to the permanent psychological change involved in radical freedom, the path of jhana is often overlooked as an integral practice which supports insight. This paper focuses on the phenomenological attributes of jhanas and the importance of concentration or calm abiding on the path to awakening within the early Buddhist context. To contextualise the practices, we must first understand the early Buddhist notion of what awakening is and what are its phenomenological attributes. We can do this by examining how the jhanic states act as a support for insight to arise. Through the analysis of the definitions used in early textual sources such as the Pali Canon and Buddhaghosa’s Visuddhimagga to describe the phenomenological outcome in each jhana we can understand how different meditative practices create appropriate conditions for awakened states to arise.

This essay has two sections, each with its own distinct goal, forming an interrelated whole. The first introduces “locus of awakening,” and applies it to the relative success in America of Zen and Tibetan Buddhisms, compared to Pure Land Buddhism. The explanatory power of the concept is demonstrated by also considering Soka Gakkai. The difference between popular culture treatments of Zen and Tibetan Buddhisms, and Pure Land Buddhism was the problematic leading to identifying locus of awakening as an aspect of Buddhist thought. The second section locates it in the history of Buddhist thought, demonstrating that it is not a modern conceptualization of the path, not one created in response to Euro–American religio-therapeutic culture. Locus of awakening is, instead, part of the continuity of the Buddhist tradition, and does not fall on one side or the other of the sometimes overdrawn dichotomy between Asian and American Buddhisms.

2021

This book series publishes original monographs and edited volumes in the humanities on issues specific to Asia, as well as general issues in the humanities within the context of Asia, or issues which were shaped by or can be enlightened by Asian perspectives. The emphasis is on excellence and originality in scholarship as well as synergetic interdisciplinary approaches and multicultural perspectives. Books exploring the role of the humanities in our highly connected society will be especially welcomed. The series publishes books that deal with emerging issues as well as those that offer an in-depth examination of underlying issues. The target audience of this series include both scholars and professionals who are interested in issues related to Asia, including its people, its history, its society and environment, as well as the global impact of its development and interaction with the rest of the world. The Humanities in Asia book series is published in conjunction with Springer under the auspices of the Hong Kong Academy of the Humanities (HKAH). The editorial board of The Humanities in Asia consists of HKAH fellows as well as leading humanities scholars who are affiliated or associated with leading learned societies for the humanities in the world.

Global Intellectual History , 2024

The Sapience: International Journal of contemporary research in Humanities and Social Sciences, 2019

From time immemorial, India has rich tradition of philosophies helping in breaking the bondages of sensuous enslavement and attains peace and tranquility. India has successfully maintained its reputation of being pioneer in spiritual emancipation. The diversity of different traditions existing together, acts as the key feature which enhances the deliverance character of Indian Philosophy. The presence of contrasting schools of thought in Indian Philosophy, such as Charavakas-the hedonists and Jainas-the ascetics is the unparallel stance in any philosophical traditions. In addition to that, existence of Aastika Schools, having faith in Vedic knowledge, along with Nastika Schools, disapproving with the Vedic knowledge, endures together. People from around the world, have benefited from this prolific heritage of Indian tradition. Among these traditions, a non-Vedic (Aastika) tradition, Buddhism, is still enhancing the lives of people, globally. Buddhist apparatus for emancipation catapults one from worldly conventions to the moral liberation. The truth Buddha had penetrated after getting enlightened was the fourfold division of knowledge, expressed as the Four Noble Truths. These Four Noble Truths forms the first step in the Buddhist philosophy and all other concepts of the school follow from these four noble truths. As an apparatus for emancipation, Buddha does not include contemplation of any type of absolute knowledge but he simply employs the technique of uncomplicated meditation, using ordinary objects of meditation. This plain path, avoiding extremes, helps one to break the bondages of ignorance and attain the ultimate knowledge i.e.: Nibbana. According to his model of purification, the process starts with its conceptual development with the acknowledgement of Ignorance (Avijja) as the root cause of all sufferings, in one's life. He further conceptually develops the 12 links of cause and effect-Paticcasamutpada which explains the development of ignorance into mind and body. Further Buddha prescribes the usage of Pragya-wisdom, as a primary tool to eradicate suffering from the lives of people. Buddha's meditation, based on his philosophy of Four Noble Truths, starts with observing Panchsila i.e.: moral precepts along with the practice of the eight fold path and eventually dwelling in Metta i.e.: compassion. His method is potent enough to Trans mutate ignorant beings to the enlightened ones. The main factor responsible for its worldwide acceptance is its non-metaphysical and non-sectarian nature of deliverance, as Buddha's method is independent of any race, region, culture and religion. Buddha's model of Deliverance integrates the worldly knowledge into a classical prototype to convert suffering into bliss. It is the emancipatory nature of Buddhist Philosophy which makes it agreeable to majority of people around the world. In this paper, an attempt has been made to analyze the uniqueness of the philosophy propounded by Buddha which is used as a tool to alleviate suffering from the lives of masses. Further in this paper the different elements existing in Buddhist Philosophy are analyzed, which are responsible for its emancipatory disposition.

Printed with support from the Holzhausen-Legat of the Austrian Academy of Sciences Diese Publikation wurde einem anonymen, internationalen Begutachtungsverfahren unterzogen.

Subtle Energies Energy Medicine Journal Archives, 2003

A tendency to all-or-none thinking, you're either enlightened or you're not at all enlightened, confuses our understanding of possible aspects of spiritual growth. These ordinary state reflec tions begin with the difficulties of defining enlightenment, showing how it is dearer to consider endarkenment and work away from that all too common condition. Using the author's model that ordinary (and altered states) of consciousness are biological-psychological virtual realities, analogous with compurer-generated virtual realities, various continuous dimensions of enlight enment can be considered. The primary nvo discussed herein are the available (altered) states ofconsciousness dimension--what ASCs can a person access that are appropriate to various situations?-and the within states dimension of intelligence-given you are in ASC N, how effectively, in how relatively enlightened a way, are you using it? A tool analogy clarifies this line of thinking, where the various tools available are analogous to the available states dimension and the skill in using individual tools is analogous to the within states dimension. The importance of individual differences is stressed, for a person might be relatively enlightened within one particular stare, e.g., bur not have useful ASCs available, or a person might have access to many ASCs but function neurotically in all of them. As a reminder that this kind of reasoning can only take us SO far, even if a llseful distance (relative enlightenment within ordinary consciollsness), a case of Cosmic Consciousness is briefly described and suggestions for research are put foward.