Synopses & Reviews
Insight meditation, which claims to offer practitioners a chance to escape all suffering by perceiving the true nature of reality, is one of the most popular forms of meditation today. The Theravada Buddhist cultures of South and Southeast Asia often see it as the Buddhaand#8217;s most important gift to humanity. In the first book to examine how this practice came to play such a dominantand#8212;and relatively recentand#8212;role in Buddhism, Erik Braun takes readers to Burma, revealing that Burmese Buddhists in the colonial period were pioneers in making insight meditation indispensable to modern Buddhism.
Braun focuses on the Burmese monk Ledi Sayadaw, a pivotal architect of modern insight meditation, and explores Lediand#8217;s popularization of the study of crucial Buddhist philosophical texts in the early twentieth century. By promoting the study of such abstruse texts, Braun shows, Ledi was able to standardize and simplify meditation methods and make them widely accessibleand#8212;in part to protect Buddhism in Burma after the British takeover in 1885. Braun also addresses the question of what really constitutes the and#8220;modernand#8221; in colonial and postcolonial forms of Buddhism, arguing that the emergence of this type of meditation was caused by precolonial factors in Burmese culture as well as the disruptive forces of the colonial era. Offering a readable narrative of the life and legacy of one of modern Buddhismand#8217;s most important figures, The Birth of Insight provides an original account of the development of mass meditation.
Review
and#160;andldquo;The Birth of Insight represents an important addition to current scholarship on modern Burmese Buddhism, which has broader implications for our understanding of contemporary Buddhism in South and Southeast Asia and global Buddhism generally. Engaging and challenging, it restores the study of andlsquo;textsandrsquo; to the repertoire of tools at our disposal for the critical examination of Burmese tradition.andrdquo;
Review
and#8220;Insight meditation (vipassana) is increasingly central to the modern practice of Buddhism, worldwide; mindfulness practices (sati) are ever more widely used in contemporary western psychotherapies. Tracing the genealogy of these developments takes us to nineteenth- and twentieth-century Burma, and Erik Braunand#8217;s fascinating and lucid account of Ledi Sayadaw provides a detailed and illuminating historical context, notably in relation to colonialism, for the beginnings of the whole process. A final chapter describes Lediand#8217;s influence on other teachers in Burma, and through them on the American disciples who brought the techniques to the West.and#160; A very fine book.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Erik Braunand#8217;s superbly researched, elegantly crafted, and eminently accessible book is the most authoritative study to date of Ledi Sayadaw and the origins of the modern Buddhist meditation revival in Burma. But its significance goes well beyond the confines of twentieth-century Burmese history. Ledi Sayadaw and his followers laid the foundation for and#8216;Buddhist modernism,and#8217; and by the last quarter of the twentieth century their innovativeand#8212;if sometimes controversialand#8212;approach to Buddhist doctrine and practice had spread to the rest of Asia, as well as to Europe, America, and beyond. Braunand#8217;s account of their achievements should be required reading for anyone interested in the roots of modern and#8216;insightand#8217; (or and#8216;mindfulnessand#8217;) meditation practice.and#8221;
Review
andldquo;This is an exemplary work within the history of religions with its careful argumentation and substantial evidence for the foundation ofandnbsp;
vipassanaandnbsp;meditation to be located within the ideas of an important nineteenth-century Burmese monk. This book will be important reading for students in the history of religionsandnbsp;and Southeast Asian studies, and those interested in meditation and Buddhism.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Masterful. . . . This is an excellent study, one that will deservedly become a classic in the field and make possible many other studies of the history of Burmese Buddhism.andrdquo;
About the Author
and#160;Erik Braun is assistant professor in the Religious Studies Program at the University of Oklahoma.
Table of Contents
Preface and AcknowledgmentsNote on TransliterationIntroduction: Ledi Sayadaw and the Gifts of the Buddha
1. The Best of Times and the Worst: Ledi Sayadaw's Formative Period2. The Great War of the Commentaries: Ledi Sayadaw's Abhidhamma Controversy3. andldquo;In the Hands of All the Peopleandrdquo;: Ledi Empowers the Laity4. andldquo;In This Very Lifeandrdquo;: Lay Study of the Abhidhamma5. The Birth of Insight
Conclusion: The Death of Ledi and the Life of Insight
GlossaryNotesBibliographyIndex