April 28th, 0930 – 1015: Prof Kate Crosby, University of Oxford
Visual Experience and the Body in Pre-modern Meditation Manuals from Sri Lanka
The visual phenomena experienced in meditation have received scant attention in Buddhist studies and related fields. This talk begins with a brief consideration of this gap in the field and highlights some recent contributions that have begun to alter this picture. We then turn to the function of visual experience in a family of Theravada meditation practices that were found in mainland Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka in the pre-modern period. Firstly, the talk provides an overview, summarising how the reporting of visual experience functions as the basis of diagnostic and didactic engagement between teacher and pupil, and also how it forms the basis for interactions with non-human and no-longer-human beings. Secondly, the talk focuses on the function of visual experience in incorporating meditative attainments in these practices, so that the practitioner cumulatively embodies the qualities of enlightenment. Instructions for these practices of embodiment are found in meditation manuals from Sri Lanka that belong to the teaching lineage introduced from Siam in the mid-18th century. We conclude with assessing how these manuals relate visual experience to a detailed breakdown of the different stages of the path following the structure of Theravada Abhidhamma.
