Bhavana
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Bhāvanā (
Etymology
Bhavana derives from the word Bhava meaning becoming or the subjective process of arousing mental states.
To explain the cultural context of the historical Buddha's employment of the term, Glenn Wallis emphasizes bhavana's sense of cultivation. He writes that a farmer performs bhavana when he or she prepares soil and plants a seed. Wallis infers the Buddha's intention with this term by emphasizing the terrain and focus on farming in northern India at the time in the following passage:
I imagine that when Gotama, the Buddha, chose this word to talk about meditation, he had in mind the ubiquitous farms and fields of his native India. Unlike our words 'meditation' or 'contemplation,' Gotama’s term is musty, rich, and verdant. It smells of the earth. The commonness of his chosen term suggests naturalness, everydayness, ordinariness. The term also suggests hope: no matter how fallow it has become, or damaged it may be, a field can always be cultivated — endlessly enhanced, enriched, developed — to produce a favorable and nourishing harvest.[6]
Hinduism
In Hindu literature, bhavana is a concept that is often attributed to deities, such as Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita:[7]
O Puruṣottama, Supreme Person! O Bhūta-bhāvana, creator of beings! O Bhūteśa, father of all created beings! O Deva-deva, God of gods! O Jagat-pati, Master of the universe! You alone know Yourself by Your own potency.
— Attributed to Vyasa, Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 10, Verse 10.15
Buddhism
In the Pali Canon bhāvanā is often found in a compound phrase indicating personal, intentional effort over time with respect to the development of that particular faculty. For instance, in the Pali Canon and post-canonical literature one can find the following compounds:
In addition, in the Canon, the development (bhāvanā) of teachers have made use of the following compounds:
The word bhavana is sometimes translated into English as '
Jainism
In Jainism, bhāvana refers to "right conception or notion" or "the moral of a fable".[2]
See also
- Ānāpānasati (Ānāpānasati Sutta)
- Anussati
- Samatha
- Vipassanā
- Metta Sutta
- Mangala Sutta
- Buddhist meditation
- Self-cultivation
Notes
- ^ a b Rhys Davids & Stede (1921–25), p. 503, entry for "Bhāvanā," retrieved 9 December 2008 from "U. Chicago" at [1].
- ^ a b c Monier-Williams (1899), p. 755, see "Bhāvana" and "Bhāvanā", retrieved 9 December 2008 from "U. Cologne" at http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/MWScan/MWScanpdf/mw0755-bhAvodaya.pdf Archived 2009-03-04 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ See various translations cited in the notes below.
- ^ Matthieu Ricard has said this in a talk.
- ^ a b c Nyanatiloka (1980), p. 67.
- ^ Glenn Wallis, Bhavana: A Guide to Classical Buddhist Meditation, 2009, draft copy, p. 7 "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-27. Retrieved 2011-04-20.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ www.wisdomlib.org (2020-05-08). "Verse 10.15 [Bhagavad-gita]". www.wisdomlib.org. Retrieved 2022-10-25.
- ^ samādhi.
- AN 1.22 and 1.24 (a/k/a, AN I,iii,1 and 3), trans. by Thanissaro (2006) Archived 2009-01-07 at the Wayback Machine; and, AN 1.51–52 (a/k/a, AN I,vi,1–2), trans. by Thanissaro (1995) Archived 2008-12-22 at the Wayback Machine, as well as trans. by Nyanaponika & Bodhi (1999), p. 36.
- ^ See, e.g., Sn 1.8, Metta Sutta, trans. by Thanissaro (2004). Archived 2017-05-13 at the Wayback Machine The compound metta-bhāvanā does not actually exist in this sutta, but the sutta famously mentions that one should "cultivate" (bhāvaye) a limitless heart of metta.
- ^ See, e.g., Iti. 1.27, trans. by Ireland (1997) Archived 2008-12-27 at the Wayback Machine, pp. 169–70.
- DN33.1.10(48), trans. by Walshe (1995), p. 486, referenced in note above regarding citta-bhāvanā.
-
- [LaypersonVisākha:] "Now what is concentration, lady, what qualities are its themes, what qualities are its requisites, and what is its development [samādhibhāvanāti]?"
- [four right exertionsare its requisites; and any cultivation, development, & pursuit of these qualities is its development."
- [
- Nett 91 (Rhys Davids & Stede, 1921–25, p. 503, entry for "Bhāvanā", retrieved 9 December 2008 from "U. Chicago" at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.2:1:3558.pal[permanent dead link]).
Sources
- Ireland, John D. (trans.) (1997). The Udāna & the Itivuttaka. Kandy: ISBN 955-24-0164-X. Retrieved 9 December 2008 from "Access to Insight" (1999, excerpts) at http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/iti/iti.intro.irel.html.
- ISBN 0-19-864308-X. Retrieved 2008-12-09 from "Cologne University" at http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/MWScan/index.php?sfx=pdf.
- Ñāṇamoli, Bhikkhu (trans.) & ISBN 0-86171-072-X.
- Nyanatiloka Mahathera, Buddhist Dictionary: Manual of Terms And Doctrines, Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, Sri Lanka, fourth Edition, 1980
- Nyanaponika Thera (trans.) & Bhikkhu Bodhi (trans., ed.) (1999). Numerical Discourses of the Buddha: An Anthology of Suttas from the Aṇguttara Nikāya. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press. ISBN 0-7425-0405-0.
- Rhys Davids, T.W. & William Stede (eds.) (1921–5). The Pali Text Society’s Pali–English Dictionary. Chipstead: Pali Text Society. Retrieved 2008-12-09 from "U. Chicago" at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/pali/.
- AN 1.49–52). Retrieved 9 December 2008 from "Access to Insight" at http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an01/an01.049.than.html.
- Thanissaro Bhikkhu (trans.) (1997). Samadhi Sutta: Concentration (AN 4.41). Retrieved 11 December 2008 from "Access to Insight" at http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an04/an04.041.than.html.
- Thanissaro Bhikkhu (trans.) (1998a). Culavedalla Sutta: The Shorter Set of Questions-and-Answers (MN 44). Retrieved 11 December 2008 from "Access to Insight" at http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.044.than.html.
- Thanissaro Bhikkhu (trans.) (1998b). Yuganaddha Sutta: In Tandem (AN 4.170). Retrieved 11 December 2008 from "Access to Insight" at http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an04/an04.170.than.html.
- Thanissaro, Bhikkhu (trans.) (2004). Karaniya Metta Sutta: Good Will (Sn 1.8). Retrieved 9 December 2008 from "Access to Insight" at http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/snp/snp.1.08.than.html.
- Thanissaro Bhikkhu (trans.) (2006). Ekadhamma Suttas: A Single Thing (AN 1.21–24). Retrieved 9 December 2008 from "Access to Insight" at http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an01/an01.021-040.than.html.
- Walshe, Maurice (1995). The Long Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Dīgha Nikāya. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications. ISBN 0-86171-103-3.