Conceptos b´asicos de grafos mixtos

The Place of Lik Long in Temple Sleeping and Meditation Practice

2.1. Varieties of Shan Meditation Methods and Practices

There is a variety of methods and traditions of meditation practice in Shan Buddhist communities. When studying these traditions, one can see that there are two contemporary traditions of practice existing side by side, led by religious leaders, usually monks from different sects. My discussions in this chapter on these traditions include the ritual of temple sleeping, the Zawti Shan Buddhists, and local traditions of practices, such as the recitation of meditative words in bed before falling asleep. The major difference between the two

traditions can be highlighted by reference to the general way in which they are practised, i.e.

while one is more informal and flexible, the other is more strict and systematic. In other words, one is a more traditional way of practice which is commonly followed and practised by large number of people, and the other is quite unsual and hence often known as reformed or modern way of practice. While this thesis focuses on the first of these two, the Shan Buddhist tradition of temple sleeping, which falls into the category of a more traditional and flexible way of practising meditation, I shall also pay some attention in this chapter to the Mingun Meditation Group (MMG), which falls into the category of a reformed or modern way of practising meditation. I shall first explore Shan practice including aspects of

meditation more broadly before turning my focus to the two specific topics, i.e. the tradition of temple sleeping and the MMG.

A common tradition of Buddhist practice in Shan communities is that both monks and laypeople pay their homage to the Triple Gems in front of the Buddha shrine twice a day, i.e.

once in the morning and another in the evening. The contents of this ritual practice include:

the chanting of Okāsa in Shan poetry, also known as kwam kan taw ratana sam zao in Shan, which is a formula of request for pardon in case one has committed wrong doing toward the Buddha, the Dhamma or the Saṅgha; of Pali words on the qualities of the Triple Gems; of Paritta or texs of protection; and of mental development on loving-kindness toward all living beings (metta bhāvanā). From these contents we can see that several parts of this ritual

58 practice are related to the practice of meditation, namely the buddhānussati and other anussati practices, and mettā bhāvanā.

Another common tradition of practice in Shan communities is that the Shan Buddhists learn to memorise the Pali formula of the three characteristics “anicca, dukkha, anattā”

[‘impermanence, suffering, not-self’] from their parents or senior members of the family from an early age. This is part of the words that they say it every night, as they lie down in bed, before falling asleep.⁸⁸ Nicola Tannenbaum observed in Maehongson that the words Kung Phra, Kung Tara, Kung Sang Kha [Noble qualities of the Buddha, of the Dhamma and of the Saṅgha] are also parts of the formula for chanting in bed, which is also in fact true of the Shan communties in the Panglong area where I was grown up. Perhaps, we can consider it as a daily meditation practice among the Shan Buddhists. In other words, we may call this type of practice as ‘meditation in bed.’ Alternatively, one could see it also as a kind of protection, yet the level of the meditation involved will progress from this ritual as the individual grows up? Usually in their forties and beyond, Shan people will stay overnight in the temple on precept days (Buddhist holy days) to spend more time on practising meditation.

From this time then, they are better known as temple sleepers, as shall be discussed more below and in the next section. Here, the point is that the Shan Buddhists learn the Buddha’s teaching on the Three Characteristics of the Word since their early days. For example, when a boy or a girl sneezes or stumbles while walking, sometimes his or her parents would say

‘anicca’ for him/her or ask him/her to say it.⁸⁹ Although the children learn to memorise and say the word, they would not take its meaning seriously nor make any attempt to understand it. However, as the perception is there throughout their life, they would catch the sense of it at some points and learn more and practise more as they grow and get old. They would not say only the Pali formula of “anicca, dukkha, anattā” but also the meaning in Shan next to each word in poetic style: “anicca am-man-am-mye, dukkha khan-zai-sang-re, anattā to-ha-am-lai-wa.” [‘anicca not steadfast, dukkha being distress and suffering, and anattā not my body’]. This tradition of practice may have initially been passed down orally in one-to-one interactions, i.e. the more experienced people taught the less experienced ones, rather than through listening to haw lik, which is widely discussed throughout this thesis. Tannenbuam observed the custom of taking education or learning the words of recitation through oral

88 Personal contact with Tannenbaum, 2012.

89 From my own experience. This is perhaps similar to what the English people say ‘bless you’ to someone when he/she sneezes.

59 tradition in Thongmaksan area of Maehongson when a friend was going to take up temple sleeping – she talked to more experienced temple sleepers who taught her the words, how to finger beads, what to say, etc.⁹⁰

Next and perhaps the most popular traditional way of practising meditation in Shan Buddhist communities is the tradition of ‘temple sleeping’ (naun kyaung), mentioned above.

It is also the focus of this thesis. The tradition of temple sleeping refers to those that follow the method of transmitting meditation using haw lik (the reading of lik long) in the context of temple sleeping, as had been done by Shan Buddhists for centuries. The British missionary Leslie Milne conducted research into Shan ritual practices in the early 20^th century Shan States, in the context of which she also observed the traditional meditation practices and the associated ritual of listening to poetic texts that she observed.⁹¹ It is interesting that even Shan Buddhist literature 19^th and early 20^th centuries that relates to meditation also comes to us in the form of poetry, lik long, discussed in the previous chapter. In this chapter I shall look more at the importance of poetic recitation, both as a form of meditation in itself and as a method of communication, and how these roles are exemplified in the unique Shan tradition of ‘temple sleeping.’ On temple sleeping occasions, laypeople stay overnight at their local temple and perform the ritual of reading and listening to poetic literature on a variety of advanced religious topics including the subject of meditation. One can say that the practice of temple sleeping is a traditional and flexible Shan way of meditation practice as we shall see more discussion in the next section of this chapter. By flexible, I mean that practitioners do not need to spend certain amounts of time or specific times doing specific practice of following a strict routine, unlike modern intensive vipassanā method. Rather practitioners, after listening to the poetic teaching, have time in which they choose how to take their practice further.

In contrast to the more common or traditional way of practices followed by the majority of Shan Buddhists, there are groups and sects of reformed Buddhists. One of the early Shan Buddhist reforms is known as Zawti sect, named after the sect’s founder Varajoti (joti and zawti are the same word, alternative spelling reflecting the Pali and Burmese/Shan

pronunciation respectively), who lived and taught in the 16^th and 17^th centuries CE.⁹² Varajoti

90 Personal communication with Tannenbaum, 2012.

91 Milne 1910, Shans at Home, p.106.

92 The name Zawti seems to have originated from the Pali word ‘jot’ [light or radiance]. It was recorded by Sangermano (1893: 111) as ‘Zodi’ and most Burman and Shan pronounce it as ‘zawti’ although some would

60 was a son of Shan ruler of Mueang Mao or the Mao Shan Kingdom, now the area along Mao river valley of the present Burma-China borders.⁹³ With its headquarters in Mueang Yang, now in Kachin State but still near Mueang Mao, the Zawti Shans were spread all over the Shan State and other parts of Burma. One of the well known Zawti villages in the present day is the Ninth Mile Shan Village of Mayangon Township in Rangoon. The village temple there, Aung Mye Bon Tha Shan Kyaung, also known among Shan as Wat Tai Kao Lak, has 10 acres of land containing old Buddhist buildings built by the Zawti Shans when they

immigrated from their headquarters, Mueang Yang, to the area over a century ago. Up to the 1930s, when a history of the Zawti sect was written by its committee for a special religious occasion, the temple had a lineage of 21 head-abbots. The history was added, with an

introduction by U Htay Hlaing, to his work Dhammadūta, volume 3.⁹⁴ One of early, if not the earliest, Westerners, to have written about Zawti Shan is Vincenzo Sangermano (1758–

1819), a Roman Catholic priest and member of the Barnabite religious order, who served as a missionary in Burma from 1783 to 1806, as described in his The Burmese Empire a Hundred Years Ago, which was first published in 1833.⁹⁵

Although the Zawti sect still exists it is not as powerful as it was and the numbers of adherents have declined significantly. I therefore refer to them in the past tense, as

observations about their practice are mainly historical, including from my early life. Among the many significant factors of the Zawti sect, i.e. a separate monastic lineage and attendant lay followers, which is associated with meditation practice. The Zawti monks as well as their lay followers are regarded by many Shan people as ‘extremists’ in that they are over strict in their rejection of traditional ritual and their rigorous practice of meditation. One of their meditation focuses is to control the 6 indriya (faculties): eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind.⁹⁶ The monks get up at 4am in the morning to start their daily routines including the chanting of prayers and practising meditation.⁹⁷ Other significant practices of the Zawti include praying to the Nyan-daw, the godlike wisdom, which abides like a mountain of fire in the heavens, invisible to mortal eyes; they also do not follow traditional indications of respect towards

pronounce it ‘zodi’. For more information on the Zawti sect, see Htay Hlaing 1991, pp. 367-386 and Mendelson 1975, pp. 73-77. 231-234.

93 Htay Hlaing 1991, Dhammadūta, vol. 3, p. 370.

94 Htay Hlaing 1991, pp. 371-372.

95 Sangermano 1893, pp. 111-112. The 1993 edition is the 3^rd edition of this work.

96 Mendelson 1975, pp. 231.

97 For details, see Htay Hlaing 1991, pp. 373-385.

61 Pagodas, monks and Buddha statues. These kinds of practices were also found among another range of groups, referre to as the Paramats. This term is derived from the Pali word

paramattha, literally meaning the highest or ultimate truth. On a philosophical level, the term is connect with understand reality through the concept of emptiness or non-self. The use of the term here refers to the certain Buddhist sectarian groups regarded by mainstream

Burmese and some Shan as being on the fringe of orthodoxy, in fact refers to their emphasis of Abhidhamma (so their heightened interest in orthodoxy, from their own own perspective).

Their emphasis was upon intentional action, rather than ritual, which they saw as empty, and their tendency was to de-emphasize the ritual and priestly roles of monks.⁹⁸ In fact, there are many Paramat groups among the Burman Buddhists and this has led some researchers, such as Mendelson (1975: 75), to confuse the Shan Zawti sect with other Paramat groups, when he is referring to Scott’s works (1909: 147149) on the Burman Paramat.

Moreover, the Zawti monks and their followers were strict with rules of moral conduct and practices. The Zawti monks do not have face-to-face contact with women. They strictly follow the ten kusalakammapatha, or good course of conduct, which cover the acts of generosity (dāna), morarity (sīla) and meditation (bhāvanā).

Another interesting point of the Zawti sect is that the Zawti monks and their lay

practitioners were believed to ‘use the canonical Tipitaka texts in Shan.’⁹⁹ It is very likely that the Shan Tipitaka texts here may be referred to the Shan lik long poetic literature, which is extensively discussed in the previous chapter and other parts of this thesis. I know, from growing up in the Shan State, that their had a reputation for using poetry in their practice and many well-known zare were connected with the Zawti sect. Mong Yang village temple, now in Kachin State, is in fact the Headquarters of the Zawti Shan Buddhists. It also is well known place for teaching and learning lik long poetry as well as producing lik long texts.

However, it is beyond the fieldwork research for this thesis.

Beside the Zawti, there are other Shan Buddhist reforming groups, such as the Yuan sect, which was imported from Lanna (now northern Thailand) in the 14^th-15^th century CE and Mingun Meditation tradition, which was originated in Thaton, Mon State (now lower Burma). I shall discuss the Mingun Meditation more in a later part of this chapter. In addition to the reforming groups or sects, there are also individual monks, who are well known for

98 Mendelson 1975, p. 373.

99 Mendelson 1975, p. 231.

62 their exemplary religious way of life and meditation practices. Among them are Udaung Taung Sayadaw, who lived and practised meditation in a cave at the south-west of Inle Lake before he became known as a ‘holy’ monk and Zaokhuwa Bunchum, who has lived his life as a forest monk since his novice-hood and he is highly respected by the Shan, Thai and Lao Buddhists, as shall be discussed more later in this chapter. To sum up, this is my attempt to cover variations in practice in Shan Buddhist communities as far as I am able, but mainly this is about lineage since I am unable to find details of the actual practices due to the lacking resources and difficulties of access to the areas in the Shan State for my fieldwork research. I shall now discuss a more full account of temple sleeping, which is a traditional and flexible way of practising meditation.

2.2. Sleeping Overnight in the Monastery: A Traditional Shan Way of Studying