Construcci´on de una Red Bayesiana Gaussiana

A Justification for Annotated Translation

Of the eleven Shan versions of satipaṭṭhāna, I shall limit myself focusing on the Mahāsatipaṭṭhān (1875) for the remaining of this chapter, with also an annotated translation of the text in the following chapter. I shall first discuss the different publications and

manuscripts of this text. After that, I shall give an account of the dating of this treatise, followed by a discussion on the popularity and shortcoming of the treatise. At the end of this section, I shall point out some significance of this version and hence became the main reason I have chosen it as the primary resource of this thesis.

Although the Mahāsatipaṭṭhān was written in 1875, it was printed in book form only in 1968, ninety-three years after the work was written. Two reasons come to mind may explain the long delay in its publication. Firstly, the traditional hand-writing system on native handmade papers was highly regarded in Shan society, and secondly, the printing press system was not a popular medium of reproducing texts, for very few press (printing) companies even existed in Shan State until the 1960s. However, it seems that, for that time being, the delay of printing in book was not a problem at all, because people were, of course, familiar with the method of producing books by hand writing system. Of course, there may

88 have been many copies of the Mahāsatipaṭṭhān in manuscript form. Venerable Sobhana of Mueang Naung, the editor of the 1968 publication of the Mahāsatipaṭṭhān, gives an account in his Preface, which indicates that they had access to five manuscripts, more than I have been able to find.¹⁵³

The date of Zao Amat Long’s text is certain, as he mentions the date twice in his work, once in its introduction and again in the conclusion. In the introduction, he explains in detail of how his work ‘Mahāsatipaṭṭhān’ came into being; such as who requested that he wrote it, the nature of their relationship, why he accepted the request, where and when it was written, and so on. The following is a translation of relevant page from the introduction of Amat Long’s Mahāsatipaṭṭhān extracted from the full translation that I provide later in the thesis:

Just by chance, this year, I had left Mueang Naung, which is a pleasant place, my hometown, and then come to Laikha. There I met Pra-Dakar Ugyi who is well known in the whole area. This is in the year of Sakkarāja 1236 (1875 AD), reaching the time of tithi [lunar day] 15 which means a line of the good acts in my previous lives leads me here. I take this opportunity and make a determination to fulfill the perfections for the sake of both myself and others living in this world. Mr Phra-taka Ugyi, aspires to achieve Buddhahood through faith in order to rescue and relieve humans and gods from the rotten mire (saṃsāra). So, to fulfill the wishes of Mr and Mrs Phra-taka Ugyi, I may have come to their house like the appearance of a white elephant. Mr and Mrs Phra-taka are very reliable. Even community seniors are amongst those who respect them. Their words are powerful for what they say is always true. They treat me as their own son or nephew as if we were relatives. So they are pleased to be with me. They really love me like their own first born son who drank his mother’s first breast milk.¹⁵⁴

Again, in the conclusion, he clearly mentions the date and time of completing the work:

Sobhinna, Maung Nge, the tiny man, who is well known as ‘Zare Mueang-Naung’, an expert of Pali grammar, and with the title ‘Ñaṇavajirūpamā Sutāvudha’, has composed the revised version of this extraordinary treatise, rightly and correctly.Let the wise and learned gentlemen read and listen to it, and remember it in mind. In the Sakkarāj year 1237 on 5^th of 8^th month of the rising moon, I have completed this treatise.¹⁵⁵

2.10. Conclusion

In this chapter I have explained that meditation instruction is provided in two, to some extent contrasting contexts in Shan communities, in the traditional way accompanied by the ritual of listening to poetic texts on meditation, which takes place at a monastery, and the

153 Amat Long 1968, Editor’s note.

154 Amat Long 1968, pp. 3-4.

155 Amat Long 1968, pp. 277-278.

89 modern intensive meditation practice, which takes place at specialised meditation centres independent from monasteries. For the former, I have discussed my observation on the ritual of temple sleeping at Wat Piang Luang, a Shan village temple in Northern Thailand, and for the latter, I have outlined some of the history and development of meditation practices of MMG centres. I have then identified a wide range of meditation texts in the form of lik long in a variety of collections around the world, mostly in manuscript form, two of which are published. None of these has ever been translated into a European language before. This brings me to identify Zao Amat Long’s Mahāsatipaṭṭhān as an appropriate text for

translation. I discuss the significance of the text and use it to explain lik long features more thoroughly in Chapter Four. First, in Chapter Three, I provide a full translation, extracting a section, as observed earlier, to Appendix Three, in order to stay within the thesis word limit.

90 CHAPTER THREE

An Annotated Translation of Zao Amat Long’s Mahāsatipaṭṭhān

“The Great Discourse on the Foundations of Mindfulness”¹⁵⁶