The ''Yogāvacara's manual'' is a

Theravada Buddhist ''Theravāda'' () ( si, ථේරවාදය, my, ထေရဝါဒ, th, เถรวาท, km, ថេរវាទ, lo, ເຖຣະວາດ, pi, , ) is the most commonly accepted name of Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school' ...

meditation manual with unique and unorthodox features such as the use of mental images of the elements, the

mantra A mantra ( Pali: ''manta'') or mantram (मन्त्रम्) is a sacred utterance, a numinous sound, a syllable, word or phonemes, or group of words in Sanskrit, Pali and other languages believed by practitioners to have religious, ...

"A-RA-HAN", and the use of a candle for meditation. It has been loosely dated from the 16th to the 17th century.

Overview

The text is addressed to a "Yogāvacara", referring to any practitioner of

Buddhist meditation Buddhist meditation is the practice of meditation in Buddhism. The closest words for meditation in the classical languages of Buddhism are ''bhāvanā'' ("mental development") and '' jhāna/dhyāna'' (mental training resulting in a calm and ...

and hence it is a practical meditation manual. The text covers Buddhist meditation material such as the ten recollections (

anussati ( Pāli; sa, Anusmriti, italic=yes; ; ) means "recollection," "contemplation," "remembrance," "meditation", and " mindfulness". It refers to specific Buddhist meditational or devotional practices, such as recollecting the sublime qualities of ...

), the

brahmavihara The ''brahmavihārās'' (sublime attitudes, lit. "abodes of brahma") are a series of four Buddhist virtues and the meditation practices made to cultivate them. They are also known as the four immeasurables (Sanskrit: अप्रमाण, ''apr ...

s, the five kinds of

piti Piti may refer to: * Pīti, a mental factor in Buddhism * PITI, the principal, interest, taxes, and insurance sum of a mortgage payment * Piti (food), a soup dish of Central Asia * Piti (footballer) (born 1981), Spanish footballer * Piti, Guam * Pi ...

(joy), the four formless realms ( arūpajhāna), the nimittas, and 10 vipassanā-ñāṇas. It teaches a form of breath meditation in which one cultivates a bright perception of a nimitta at the tip of the nose and moves it down the body to the heart and then to the navel. It also includes many other exercises such as meditation using a candle flame, and the use of mental images of the elements (

mahābhūta ''Mahābhūta'' is Sanskrit and Pāli for "great element". However, very few scholars define the four mahābhūtas in a broader sense as the four fundamental aspects of physical reality. Hinduism In Hinduism's sacred literature, the "great" ...

). The single rare Pali and Sinhalese manuscript was discovered in 1893 at Bamabara-walla Vihara in Sri Lanka by

Anagarika Dharmapala Anagārika Dharmapāla (Pali: ''Anagārika'', ; Sinhala: Anagārika, lit., si, අනගාරික ධර්මපාල; 17 September 1864 – 29 April 1933) was a Sri Lankan Buddhist revivalist and a writer. Anagarika Dharmapāla is not ...

T.W. Rhys Davids Thomas William Rhys Davids (12 May 1843 – 27 December 1922) was an English scholar of the Pāli language and founder of the Pāli Text Society. He took an active part in founding the British Academy and London School for Oriental Studies. ...

of the

Pali Text Society The Pali Text Society is a text publication society founded in 1881 by Thomas William Rhys Davids "to foster and promote the study of Pāli texts". Pāli is the language in which the texts of the Theravada school of Buddhism are preserved. The ...

translated the text into English in 1896. It was later translated by F.L. Woodward as "Manual of a Mystic". The manuscript has no information on the author and has no title. Some scholars like Francois Bizot have argued that this work is influenced by the esoteric Theravada tradition, though other such as Justin Thomas McDaniel find this assertion dubious. Caroline Rhys Davids notes that in the 16th and 17th centuries monks from Siam were invited by the Kandyan kings to revive Buddhism in the island and states it is possible that the manual derives from this tradition.F.L. Woodward, 1916, page vi.

Notes

References

* Rhys Davids, T.W. (1896),
The Yogavacara's Manual of Indian Mysticism
London, Oxford University Press.'' *Woodward, EL. (1916)
Manual of a Mystic being a translation from the Pali and Sinhalese Work entitled The Yogavachara's Manual
Pali Text Society, London, reprint 1982, . {{Buddhism topics Pali Buddhist texts Theravada Buddhist texts Buddhist meditation

Overview

See also

Notes

References