The Origin of Buddhist Meditation

The historic authenticity of the early Buddhist sources is a much disputed topic. Although many modern scholars of Indian Buddhism are highly sceptical about the possibility of identifying and recovering authentic early teachings, this book maintains that such an objective is possible. Having identified early material that goes back to the Buddha himself, the author argues that the two teachers of the Buddha were historical figures. Based on the early Brahminic literature, namely the early Upanisads and Moksadharma, the author asserts the origin of the method of meditation learned by the Buddha from these teachers, and attempts to use them to identify some authentic teachings of the Buddha on meditation.

Alexander Wynne is a Junior Research Fellow at St John's College, Oxford

Acknowledgements	p. ix
Abbreviations	p. x
Introduction	p. 1
The problem of the earliest form of Buddhism	p. 1
The study of Buddhist origins	p. 4
Texts and conventions	p. 7
A note on terminology	p. 8
Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta	p. 9
Textual sources and the historical problem	p. 9
Arguments for the historical authenticity of the biographical account in the Mahisasaka Vinaya	p. 10
Further texts on the two teachers	p. 12
Uddaka Ramaputta and Rama	p. 14
Other peculiarities in the Ariyapariyesana Sutta	p. 16
The APS as a description of the Buddha's awakening	p. 24
The terms 'nothingness' and 'neither perception nor non-perception' as epithets of liberation	p. 25
Conclusion to Chapter 2	p. 26
Formless meditation and early Brahminism	p. 27
Verses on meditation in the Mahabharata and early Buddhist literature	p. 27
The elements and formless spheres	p. 29
The kasinayatana-s	p. 31
Element meditation and early Brahminism	p. 34
Element meditation in the Moksadharma	p. 37
Cosmology and meditation in early Brahminism	p. 39
The goals of the two teachers: early Upanisadic parallels	p. 42
The aphorism passan na passati	p. 45
Conclusion to Chapter 3	p. 49
The philosophy of early Brahminic yoga	p. 51
Cosmogony in the Vasistha-Karalajanakasamvadah (Mbh XII.291)	p. 52
Cosmogony in the Nasadiyasukta	p. 57
Cosmogony in the Sukanuprasnah (Mbh XII.224)	p. 64
Conclusion to Chapter 4	p. 66
Appendix to Chapter 4: the early yogic doctrine of karman	p. 67
Meditation in the Parayanavagga	p. 72
The antiquity of the Parayanavagga	p. 73
The Upasivamanavapuccha (Sn 1069-76)	p. 75
Sn 1071-72: vimutto/'dhimutto	p. 78
Sn 1071-72: ananuyayi	p. 80
Sn 1073-74: sitisiya	p. 84
Sn 1073-76: the metaphors 'becoming cool' (siti + [square root]bhu) and 'going out' (attham + [square root]gam)	p. 90
The indefinability of the sage	p. 95
The historical significance of the Upasivamanavapuccha	p. 98
The Udayamanavapuccha (Sn 1105-11)	p. 100
The Posalamanavapuccha (Sn 1112-15)	p. 103
Conclusion to Chapter 5	p. 106
Conclusion: the origin of Buddhist meditation and early Buddhism	p. 108
The relationship between early Buddhism and Brahminism	p. 113
An early Buddhist controversy: meditation or intellectualism?	p. 117
The intellectual tendency in early Buddhism	p. 120
The four jhana-s and their development	p. 122
The identification of authentic teachings of the Buddha	p. 125
Notes	p. 129
Bibliography	p. 159
Index	p. 165
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The Origin of Buddhist Meditation

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