Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of map and figures
- Notes on language
- Map 1 Map of Thailand
- 1 Meditation and monasticism: making the ascetic self in Thailand
- 2 Meditation and religious reform
- 3 The monastic community: duty and structure
- 4 Meditation as ethical imperative
- 5 Language and meditation
- 6 Monastic duty, mindfulness and cognitive space
- 7 Money, mae chee and reciprocity
- 8 Hierarchy, gender and mindfulness
- 9 Monasticization and the ascetic interiority of non-self
- Appendix: Ordination transcript for an eight-precept nun (mae chee)
- Bibliography
- Index
5 - Language and meditation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 May 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of map and figures
- Notes on language
- Map 1 Map of Thailand
- 1 Meditation and monasticism: making the ascetic self in Thailand
- 2 Meditation and religious reform
- 3 The monastic community: duty and structure
- 4 Meditation as ethical imperative
- 5 Language and meditation
- 6 Monastic duty, mindfulness and cognitive space
- 7 Money, mae chee and reciprocity
- 8 Hierarchy, gender and mindfulness
- 9 Monasticization and the ascetic interiority of non-self
- Appendix: Ordination transcript for an eight-precept nun (mae chee)
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In the last chapter we considered meditation as a practice in ethical self-formation. In this chapter I want to examine in more detail the cognitive impact of meditative and ritual experiences and the way in which they are understood in Wat Bonamron. I will do this by examining the use of Pali language in both the retreat process and in ritual. As we have seen, Pali is used to induce the spontaneous experience of dap during intensive meditation. Here I explore how this might be understood and the effects that Pali language is thought to have upon individuals. I examine understandings about language in the monastery more broadly to highlight the significance of the use of Pali. I argue that the effects of Pali language reveal that beliefs or belief systems may not always be accorded causal primacy in religious experience. We have examined the method by which the meditation technique is taught to beginners. I will now focus upon the structure of the advanced retreat, a structure that is repeated on each consecutive retreat. All people in this monastery follow the retreat structure that I present here each time that they do retreat, be they laity, novices, mae chee or monks.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Meditation in Modern BuddhismRenunciation and Change in Thai Monastic Life, pp. 96 - 115Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010