The Twilight Language

Roderick Bucknell, Martin Stuart-Fox

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN:
  9780700702343
  9781138405899
• eBook ISBN:
  9781136774409
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Buddhism

Explores the nature of Buddha's enlightenment and the meaning of Buddhist symbolism, discussing the relationship between Buddhist meditative techniques and examples of Buddhist symbolism found in early Pali texts and in the twilight language of the tantras.

Notes

Notes to Chapter I

1	On transpersonal psychology and meditation, see Roger N. Walsh and Frances Vaughan, Beyond Ego (Los Angeles: Tarcher, 1980), pp. 15 – 24; and Roger N. Walsh, ‘Meditation Research: An Introduction and Review’, Journal of Transpersonal Psychology 11 (1979), pp. 161 – 74. Also see Michael Murphy and Steve Donovan, ‘A Bibliography of Meditation Theory and Research’, Journal of Transpersonal Psychology 15 (1983), pp. 181 – 228.
2	In this book Buddhist technical terms are generally cited in Pali, less often in Sanskrit or Japanese depending on the context.
3	On awareness as the only true meditation, see J. Krishnamurti, Freedom from the Known, ed. Mary Lutyens (London: Gollancz, 1969), pp. 114 – 17.
4	On the importance of this, see Alan Richardson, Mental Imagery (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1969), pp. 109 – 17; and T. Tart, ‘Scientific Foundations for the Study of Altered States of Consciousness’, Journal of Transpersonal Psychology 3 (1971), pp. 93 – 124. The case for recognizing inner experience, in particular imagery, as a valid object of psychological study is presented in Alan Richardson, The Experiential Dimension of Psychology (St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1984). For a very readable discussion of imagery, a topic particularly relevant to insight meditation, see Stephen M. Kosslyn, Ghosts in the Mind’s Machine (New York: Norton, 1983); and for a more technical state-of-the-art overview of the same topic, see Anees A. Sheikh, Imagery: Current Theory, Research, and Application (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1983).
5	For example Roger N. Walsh, ‘Initial Meditative Experiences: Part I’, and idem ‘Part II’, Journal of Transpersonal Psychology 9 (1977), pp. 151 – 92, and 10 (1978), pp. 1 – 28; and Rod Bucknell, ‘Experiments in Insight Meditation’, Australian Journal of Transpersonal Psychology 3 (1983), pp. 96 – 117.
6	Attempts have been made to determine the nature of this ‘original Buddhism’; e.g. Kōgen Mizuno, Primitive Buddhism, transl. Kōshō Yamamoto (Ube: Karin Bunko, 1969). Other scholars, however, have questioned whether this is possible. See André Bareau, ‘Recherches sur la biographie du Buddha dans les Sūtrapiṭaka et les Vinayapiṭaka anciens’, vol. I (de la quête de l’éveil à la conversation de Śāriputra et de Maudgalyāyana) and vol. II (les derniers mois, le Parinirvāṇa et les funérailles). Publications de l’École Française d’Extrême-Orient vol. 53 (1963) and vol. 77, part 2 (1971). See also David L. Snellgrove, ‘Śākyamuni’s Final Nirvāṇa’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 36, part 2 (1973), pp. 399 – 411. And for a study of the biography of the Buddha, see Frank E. Reynolds, ‘The Many Lives of Buddha’, in The Biographical Process: Essays in the History and Psychology of Religion, ed. by Frank E. Reynolds and Donald Capps (The Hague: Mouton, 1976), pp. 37 – 61; and Edward J. Thomas, The Life of Buddha as Legend and History, 3rd rev. ed. (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1949).
7	See e.g. D ii 311 – 313. All such references are to volume and page numbers in the Pali Text Society’s edition of the Tipiṭaka; D = Dῑgha, M = Majjhima, S = Saṃyutta, A = Añguttara. Quoted translations from the Pali Tipiṭaka are, unless otherwise stated, from the Pali Text Society’s English versions.
8	Many equate right view with the final liberating insight; e.g. Nyanatiloka, The Word of the Buddha (Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1971), pp 26 – 7. This opinion, first expressed by the nun Dhammadinnā (M i 301), assumes the Path sequence is without significance. For evidence against it see Chapter VIII, and Rod Bucknell, ‘The Buddhist Path to Liberation: An Analysis of the Listing of Stages’, Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 7 (1984), no. 2, pp. 7 – 40.
9	For example, D ii 312 – 313. This path is clearly both sequential (simpler, more basic practices precede more difficult and advanced ones), and cumulative (earlier stages are maintained as later ones are taken up). See M iii 71 – 77, and our discussion in Chapter VIII.
10	D ii 217, iii 271, etc. For an analysis of the Tenfold Path and other important variations on the Eightfold Path (including the ‘footprints of a Buddha’, discussed below), se...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Dedication
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Plates
• Preface by R.B.
• Preface by M.S-F.
• Acknowledgements
• I: Meditation and Symbolism
• II: The Twilight Language in Historical Context
• III: Concentration
• IV: Insight Meditation
• V: The Three Knowledges
• VI: The Five Symbolic Groups
• VII: The Mandala and Cakras
• VIII: Doctrinal and Historical Implications
• IX: Conclusion
• Notes
• Index