Manomayiddhi
Power of Mind Meditation
Abstract
This article discusses Manomayiddhi meditation as taught and popularized by Phra Ratchaphromyan (Wira Thāvaro) (1916–1992), or Luang Pho Ruesi Lingdam, the abbot of Wat Tha Sung, Uthai Thani province, Thailand. The method employs mindfulness of breathing (ānāpānasati), various usages of the mantras “na ma ba dha” and “namo buddhāya,” other traditional techniques and rituals for the practitioner to gain manomayiddhi and project a mind-made body of him/herself to heaven, hell, and other cosmological realms. Mind-made body or what Luang Pho Ruesi Lingdam terms “adissamāna-kāya” (invisible body) is defined as the meditator’s “inner” and “overlapping” body that changes according to his/her mental state and corresponds to the realms (bhūmi) of Buddhist cosmology. The article establishes a connection between Manomayiddhi meditation and the borān kammaṭṭhāna tradition, especially, the meditation manual of Supreme Patriarch Don (1761–1842) of Wat Mahathat, Bangkok. It also incorporates the author’s interview with Phra Khru Phawana Thamnithet (Achin Dhammacitto) (1950–), the head of meditation at Wat Tha Sung and a direct pupil of Luang Pho Ruesi Lingdam.
References
de Bernon, Olivier. 2000. Le manuel des maîtres de kammaṭṭhān (unpublished doctoral thesis, Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales, Paris).
Bizot, François. 1976. Le figuier à cinq branches: Recherche sur le bouddhisme khmer (Paris: École Française d’Extrême-Orient).
______. 1988. Les traditions de la pabbajjā en Asie du Sud-Est: Recherches sur le bouddhisme khmer, IV (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht).
______. 1992. Le chemin de Laṅkā, textes bouddhiques du Cambodge I (Paris: École Française d’Extrême-Orient).
Bizot, François and François Lagirarde. 1996. La pureté par les mot: Textes bouddhiques du Laos I (Paris and Chiang Mai: École Française d’Extrême-Orient).
Bizot, François and Oskar von Hinüber. 1994. La guirlande de joyaux (Paris: École Française d’Extrême-Orient).
Bodhi, Bhikkhu. 2000. The connected discourses of the Buddha: A translation of the Saṃyutta Nikāya (Boston: Wisdom Publications).
______. 2008. The discourse on the fruits of recluseship: The Sāmaññaphala Sutta and its commentaries (Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society).
Braun, Erik. 2013. The birth of insight: Meditation, modern Buddhism, and the Burmese monk Ledi Sayadaw (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
Chai Yasothonrat (Phra Mahājotipañño) (ed.). 1935. Nangsue Phuttharangsi Thritsadiyan wa duai samatha wipatsana kammathan si yuk (Phuttharangsi Thritsadiyan book of samatha and vipassanā meditation of the four periods) (Bangkok: Wat Boromniwat).
Cousins, Lance. 1994-1996. “The origin of insight meditation” in The Buddhist Forum, IV, 35–58.
Crosby, Kate. 2013. Traditional Theravada meditation and its modern-era suppression (Hong Kong: Buddha Dharma Centre).
______. 2019. “Abhidhamma and nimitta in eighteenth-century meditation manuscripts from Sri Lanka: A consideration of orthodoxy and heteropraxy in boran kammaṭṭhāna” in Contemporary Buddhism, 20 (1-2), 111–151.
______. 2020. Esoteric Theravada: The story of the forgotten meditation tradition of Southeast Asia (Boulder: Shambala).
De Notaris, Bryan. 2019. “The concept of manomaya in early Buddhism and Upaniṣads: A study with particular reference to the Pāli Sīlakkhandhavagga” in Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, 42, 47–81.
Gornell, Alistair. 2022. “Pāli: Its place in the Theravāda Buddhist tradition” in Stephen C. Berkwitz (ed.), Routledge Handbook of Theravāda Buddhism (London and New York: Routledge), 43–57.
Gunaratana, Henepola. 1980. A critical analysis of the jhānas in Theravāda Buddhist meditation (unpublished doctoral thesis, Faculty of the College of Arts and Science, The American University).
Harvey, Peter. 1993. “The mind-body relationship in Pāli Buddhism: A philosophical investigation” in Asian Philosophy, 3(1): 29–41.
Igunma, Jana. 2013. “Aksoon Khoom: Khmer heritage in Thai and Lao manuscript culture” in Tai Culture, 23, 25–32.
Kyaw, Pyi Phyo and Kate Crosby. 2022. “Meditation: Technique and process of transformation” in Stephen C. Berkwitz (ed.), Routledge Handbook of Theravāda Buddhism (London and New York: Routledge), 127–139.
Lee, Sumi. 2014. “The meaning of “mind-made body” in Buddhist cosmological and soteriological systems” in Buddhist Studies Review, 31 (1), 65–90.
McMahan, David L. and Erik Braun. 2017. “Introduction – From colonialism to brainscans: Modern transformation of Buddhist meditation” in David L. McMahan and Erick Braun (eds.), Meditation, Buddhism and Science (New York: Oxford University Press), 1–20.
Mettanando Bhikkhu. 1998. Meditation and healing in the Theravāda Buddhist order of Thailand and Laos (unpublished doctoral thesis, Hamburg University).
McDaniel, Justin T. 2011. The Lovelorn ghost and the magical monk: Practicing Buddhism in modern Thailand (New York: Columbia University Press).
Ñāṇamoli, Bhikkhu (trans). 2010. The Path of Purification (Visuddhimagga) (4th edn, Colombo: Buddhist Publication Society).
Phibul Choompolpaisal. 2019. “Nimitta and visual methods in Siamese and Lao meditation traditions from the 17th century to the present day” in Contemporary Buddhism, 20 (1), 1–32.
______. 2021. “Boran Kammatthan (Ancient Theravāda) meditation transmissions in Siam from late Ayutthaya to Rattanakosin periods” in Buddhist Studies Review, 38 (2), 225–252.
Phra Ratchaphromyan. 2011. Manomayitthi lae prawat khong chan (Manomayiddhi and my Biography) (20th edn, Uthai Thani: Wat Tha Sung).
______. 1991. Luang Pho top panha tham chabap phiset lem 2 (Luang Pho answers Dhamma questions: Special edition, book 2) (Uthai Thani: Tham Wimok Group).
Pinit Chanthon (ed.). 2022. Ban thuek prawattisat pramuk song Thai haeng Rattanakosin (Historical records of the head of the Thai sangha of the Bangkok period) (Bangkok: Phetphinit).
Potprecha Cholvijarn. 2019. The Origins and development of Sammā Arahaṃ meditation: From Phra Mongkhon Thepmuni (Sot Candasaro) to Phra Thep Yan Mongkhon (Sermchai Jayamaṅgalo) (unpublished doctoral thesis, Faculty of Arts, University of Bristol).
______. 2021. “Buddha, Dhamma and Saṅgha yantras: An Ayutthaya period meditation manual from Wat Pradusongtham” in Journal of the Siam Society, 109(1), 63–82.
______. 2022. “Meditation Manual of King Taksin of Thonburi” in Journal of the Siam Society, 110(1), 31–47.
Radich, Michael D. 2007. The somatics of liberation: Ideas about embodiment in Buddhism from its origins to the fifth century C.E. (unpublished doctoral dissertation, Harvard University).
Revire, Nicholas. 2022. “Back to the future: The emergence of past and future Buddhas in Khmer Buddhism” in Ashley Thompson (ed.), Early Theravadin Cambodia: Perspectives from art and archaeology (Singapore: SOAS-NUS Press), 231–268.
Schnake, Javier. 2022. “Khom/Mūl script manuscripts from Central Thailand and Cambodia: Colophons with a variable geometry?” in Nalini Balbir and Giovanni Ciotti (eds.), The Syntax of Colophons: A comparative study across Pothi manuscripts (Boston: De Gruter), 209–228.
Sharf, Robert H. 1995. “Buddhist modernism and the rhetoric of meditative experience” in NUMEN, 42, 228–283.
______. 2017. “Is mindfulness Buddhist? (And why it matters)” in David L. McMahan and Erick Braun (eds.), Meditation, Buddhism and science (New York: Oxford University Press), 198–212.
Skilton, Andrew and Phibul Choompolpaisal. 2014. “The Old Meditation (boran kammatthan), a pre-reform Theravāda meditation system from Wat Ratchasittharam: The pīti section of the kammatthan matchima baep lamdap” in ASEANIE, 33, 83–116.
______. 2015. “The ancient Theravāda meditation system, borān kammaṭṭhāna: Ānāpānasati or “mindfulness of the breath” in Kammatthan Majjhima Baeb Lamdub” in Buddhist Studies Review, 32 (2), 207–229.
Skilton, Andrew, Kate Crosby and Pyi Phyo Kyaw. 2019. “Terms of engagement: Text, technique and experience in scholarship on Theravada meditation” in Contemporary Buddhism, 20 (1-2), 1–35.
So Thamphakdi (ed). n.d. Phra Chao ha phra-ong chabap Wiangchan (The Five Buddhas: Vientiane version) (Bangkok: So Thamphakdi).
Sunisa Wongram and Parichat Saenghiran (eds). 2015. Pho son luk: Kham son khong Phradetphrakhun Luang Pho Phra Ratchaphromyan (A father teaches his children: The teachings of Luang Pho Phra Ratchaphromyan) (Uthai Thani: Wat Tha Sung).
Tham Wimok (ed). 1984. Kan fuek manomayitthi (The training of Manomayiddhi) (Bangkok: Yellow Kanphim).
______. 2007. Kan fuek manomayitthi baep tem kamlang (The training of Manomayiddhi, full strength) (8th edn, Bangkok: Yellow Kanphim).
Wira Ṭhāvaro, Phra Maha. n.d. Khumue patibat phra kammathan (Handbook for practicing kammaṭṭhāna) (Uthai Thani: Wat Tha Sung).
______. 1975. Traiphum (Three Worlds) (Uthai Thani: Wat Tha Sung).
Woramat Malasart. 2021. “The Dhammakāya text genre and its significance for Tai-Khmer Buddhism and modern marginalization” in Journal of the Siam Society, 109(2), 79–94.
