Meditation Teachers Research Articles

Menggali Makna Kalyanamitta Peran dan Konteks dalam Sigalovada Sutta dan Visuddhimagga

The concept of kaly namitta, or good friend, is a very important part of Buddhist teachings. Two classic texts in the Buddhist canon, Sigalovada Sutta and Visuddhimagga, highlight the different but no less important role of kaly namitta in the spiritual development of a person. In Sigalovada Sutta, kaly namitta is described as a true friend who influences individual moral progress in everyday life. Sigalovada, the main character in the sutta, was instructed by the Buddha about the importance of choosing friends wisely, who would support the individual in developing good behavior and morality. Visuddhimagga emphasizes Kalyanamitta's role as a meditation teacher. In this context, Kalyanamitta acts as a spiritual guide who guides a person's meditation practice to inner peace and a deeper understanding of true reality. The meditation teacher in the Visuddhimagga is seen as a figure who holds a crucial role in the spiritual journey of a practitioner, guiding them through the various stages of meditation towards enlightenment. The differences in the emphasis on the role of Kalyanamitta in both texts describe different contexts and purposes in the teachings of Buddhism. Sigalovada Sutta emphasizes the importance of true friends in everyday life and their relationship with moral progress, while Visuddhimagga highlights the role of a meditation teacher in a person's spiritual development. However, these two concepts complement each other in one's attempt to a deeper enlightenment and understanding of Dhamma.This study uses a library study method with a Buddhist approach to analyze the differences between the concepts of kaly namitta in the two texts. The results confirm the importance of a proper understanding of these differences to avoid misunderstandings and deepen the depths of Buddhism.

Meditating in Live Stream: An Autoethnographic and Interview Study to Investigate Motivations, Interactions and Challenges

Mindfulness practice has many mental and physical well-being benefits. With the increased popularity of live stream technologies and the impact of COVID-19, many people have turned to live stream tools to participate in online meditation sessions. To better understand the practices, challenges, and opportunities in live-stream meditation, we conducted a three-month autoethnographic study, during which two researchers participated in live-stream meditation sessions as the audience. Then we conducted a follow-up semi-structured interview study with 10 experienced live meditation teachers who use different live-stream tools. We found that live meditation, although having a weaker social presence than in-person meditation, facilitates attendees in establishing a practice routine and connecting with other meditators. Teachers use live streams to deliver the meditation practice to the world which also enhances their practice and brand building. We identified the challenges of using live-stream tools for meditation from the perspectives of both audiences and teachers, and provided design recommendations to better utilize live meditation as a resource for mental wellbeing.

Right Here and Out There: A Phenomenological Interpretation of ajjhattaṃṃ and bahiddhā in the Context of Mindfulness of the Body

According to the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, mindfulness of the body involves seeing the body in a threefold way: ajjhattaṃ, bahiddhā and ajjhattabahiddhā. This paper attempts to show how an investigation of bodily perception, following the approach adopted by the phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty, can serve as the basis for a philosophically grounded understanding of the Pāli words ajjhattaṃ and bahiddhā. The interpretation that emerges is the distinction between ‘right here’ and ‘out there’: two mutually dependent, internally related domains that are experienced as what Merleau-Ponty (1968) called the ‘chiasm’ or the ‘intertwining’. This is different from the standard interpretations found in the Abhidhamma, the Pāli commentaries, the Visuddhimagga and the instructions of most contemporary meditation teachers. It is hoped that the interpretation offered here can give some exposure to a movement within Theravāda Buddhism, initiated by Ñāṇavīra Thera but slowly gaining traction, characterised by a phenomenological reading of the Pāli suttas.

MEDITASI TRANSENDENTAL DI SEKOLAH MENENGAH KEJURUAN (SMK) NEGERI BALI MANDARA DALAM PERSPEKTIF TEOPSIKOLOGI

This research aims to describe the implementation process of Transcendental Meditation (TM) in Bali Mandara State Vocational High School; describe the perception of school members after participating in TM activities; describe the mental state of students after participating in TM from the perspective of Theopsychology; and describe the implications of TM implementation for school members. This research is a qualitative research conducted at Bali Mandara State Vocational High School through an ethnographic approach. The research subjects are school members at Bali Mandara State Vocational High School who practice TM. The data collection methods used include observation, interviews, and documentation. Several research findings can be summarized as follows. (1) The implementation process of TM in Bali Mandara State Vocational High School is through the teaching pattern provided by meditation teachers from Maharishi Global Raam Raj Foundation by applying 7 (seven) steps to learn TM including: socialization, preparation, personal interview, individual teaching, first-day check-up, second-day check-up, and third-day check-up. (2) The perception of school members collectively views that TM provides positive benefits, reduces stress, helps with deeper rest, and improves academic achievement by being calm and stable in learning. (3) The mental state of students after practicing TM from the perspective of Theopsychology is that TM can be a useful tool to help individuals achieve greater spiritual depth and mental health. (4) The implications of TM implementation for school members include: fostering spiritual awareness, improving learning ability, enhancing the relationship with God, academic and non-academic achievement, and strengthening social relationships.

Meditation matters: The politics and networks of yoga and spiritual reform between Indonesia, India and the West, 1900s–1970s

ABSTRACTStarting from sites of yogic and Buddhist learning connecting Indonesia and India this article explores the politics, practices, transformation, dissemination and uses of knowledge on yoga and meditation in late colonial and postcolonial Indonesia, and their relation to moral geographies of Greater India. It follows, across (violent) regime changes, the trajectories of learning of a number of self-made experts and entrepreneurs in this field who were also involved in the postcolonial Buddhist reform movement in Indonesia: the Chinese Indonesians Souw Tjiang Poh (b.1929), better known, also as yoga guru, under his Buddhist name Yogamurti; and his meditation teacher, Tee Boan An (1923–2002), who, as Ashin Jinarakkhita, is more famous as motor behind the Buddhist reform movement in Indonesia from the 1950s onwards. Yogamurti's and Tee Boan An's histories of ‘yogic’ transformation reach back to ‘alternative’ spiritual reform trajectories of the Theosophical Society of late colonial times, and continue, across decolonization and the violent regime change of 1965, to those of the hippie trail of the 1970s. These spiritual and ‘Indic’ religious revivalist entrepreneurs provide alternative perspectives to the grand narratives of political history, yoga, ‘Indian religion’ or ‘Greater India’. Across regime changes, their paths crossed and they exchanged knowledge, thereby changing and reshaping social hierarchies as they moved within an ‘alternative present’ in which spirituality seemed a way to move forward to ‘alternative futures’.

Meditation and psychosis. The comparison of the current knowledge in the light of scientific evidence and the experience of an Eastern meditation teacher.

The aim of the study was to compare the current knowledge on the relationship between the use of meditation techniques and the occurrence of psychosis with the experience of an Eastern meditation teacher, Osho Rajneesh. While searching the PubMed database using the keywords "meditation AND psychosis" 72 research articles were obtained, of which only 17 fully corresponded to the assumptions of the work. They included the case reports of the patients, as well as meta-analyses, and review articles related to both the positive and negative influence of meditation practices on mental health. Additionally, the information contained in 3 books was used. The etiology of meditation-induced psychotic episodes is not clear given the frequent presence of many coexisting factors including fasting, sleep deprivation, or a positive psychiatric history, as well as the limitation of the methodology. In the analyzed studies, only patients who did not meditate in clinical conditions were reported. The analysis of these cases indicates that the risk of a psychotic episode was associated with excessively long practice and lack of adequate supervision. The comparison of current scientific knowledge with the experience of the Eastern meditation teacher made it possible to draw attention to rarely described in literature risk factors of the development of psychosis, which include "specific traits" of the practitioner's attitude. One of its fundamental elements is an incorrect understanding of meditation as a task to perform, instead of an open, passive, and accepting attitude of observing the external and internal world.

A Digital Music-Based Mindfulness Intervention for Black Americans With Elevated Race-Based Anxiety: A Multiple-Baseline Pilot Study.

Race-based anxiety is a substantial health issue for the Black community. Although mindfulness interventions have demonstrated efficacy for alleviating anxiety, three central barriers prevent Black Americans from accessing existing mindfulness treatments: high costs, excessive time commitments, and limited cultural relevance. There is a need for novel mindfulness interventions for the Black community that can overcome these barriers. The goal of this web-based study was to examine the preliminary efficacy, feasibility, and acceptability of a novel digital music-based mindfulness intervention for middle-to-low-income Black Americans with elevated race-based anxiety. This study used a nonconcurrent multiple-baseline design (n=5). The intervention featured contributions from Lama Rod Owens (a world-renowned meditation teacher and LA Times best-selling author) and Terry Edmonds (the former chief speechwriter for President Bill Clinton). We examined the effect of the intervention on state anxiety and assessed its feasibility and acceptability using quantitative and qualitative measures. Results revealed that administration of the intervention led to significant decreases in state anxiety (Tau-U range -0.75 to -0.38; P values<.001). Virtually all feasibility and acceptability metrics were high (ie, the average likelihood of recommending the intervention was 98 out of 100). This study offers preliminary evidence that a digital music-based mindfulness intervention can decrease race-based anxiety in Black Americans. Future research is needed to replicate these results, test whether the intervention can elicit lasting changes in anxiety, assess mechanisms of change, and explore the efficacy of the intervention in real-world contexts.

Examining equity in access and utilization of a freely available meditation app

Digital interventions have the potential to alleviate mental health disparities for marginalized and minoritized communities. The current study examined whether disparities in access and utilization of meditation in the United States (US) were reduced for a freely available meditation app. We analyzed demographic and usage data from US-based users of the Healthy Minds Program (HMP; N = 66,482) between October 2019 and July 2022. College education was associated with a greater likelihood of accessing (65.0% of users vs. 32.9% of the US population) and continuing to utilize the app (β = 0.11–0.17). Conversely, identifying as African American was associated lower likelihood of accessing (5.3% vs. 13.4% of the US population) and continuing to utilize the app (β = −0.02–0.03). African Americans were more likely to access content from an African American meditation teacher, but this did not appear to increase utilization. Additional efforts are warranted to identify factors that might reduce disparities.

Relationships between Religious and Scientific Worldviews in the Narratives of Western Buddhists Reporting Meditation-Related Challenges

Contemporary Buddhist meditators in the West are likely to find themselves engaged in practices with rich associations with both religious and scientific worldviews. Meditation-related challenges can provoke existential concerns that make unexplored relationships between religious and scientific worldviews more important and explicit for Western Buddhist meditators, who may turn to both religion and science for making sense of these challenges. Interviews with 68 meditators and 33 meditation experts were analyzed to examine how meditators and meditation teachers understand the roles of, and relationships between, scientific and religious worldviews in the context of meditation-related challenges. Observed themes included: conflict between science and religion, compatibility between science and religion, nested relationships between science and religion, science and religion as discrete domains, and complementarity between science and religion. These themes suggest an expansion of existing understandings of the relationships between religion and science as they apply to Buddhist meditators, especially in the context of meditation-related challenges. The variety of relationships between religion and science, their existential relevance for meditators, and their interaction with responses to meditation-related challenges suggest that varied relationships between religious and scientific worldviews are important considerations in the scientific study of contemplative practices. Nuanced understandings of how religion and science relate may also benefit practitioners, experts, and their communities when addressing meditation-related challenges.

Mindfulness and compassion training on daily work with patients and within the multiprofessional palliative care team: a retrospective self-assessment study

BackgroundPalliative care teams work under challenging conditions in a sensitive setting with difficult tasks. The multi-professional team can play an important role. Mindfulness and compassion-based practices are used to build resilience. Our aim was to examine (1) feasibility and acceptability, (2) satisfaction and impact, and (3) opportunities and limitations of a mindfulness course.MethodsAn eight-week mindfulness and compassion course was delivered in a university-based specialized palliative care unit. A meditation teacher provided preparatory evening sessions and meditation exercises that could be integrated into daily activities. The scientific analysis of the course was based on a questionnaire developed for quality assessmentThe first two parts consisted of demographic, Likert-type, and free-text items. Part 3 consisted of learning objectives that were self-assessed after finishing the course (post-then). In the analysis, we used descriptive statistics, qualitative content analysis, and comparative self-assessment.ResultsTwenty four employees participated. 58% of participants attended 4 or more of the 7 voluntary mindfulness days. 91% expressed moderate to high satisfaction and would recommend the palliative care program to others. Three main categories emerged in the qualitative content analysis: providing feedback on the course, personal impact, and impact on professional life. The opportunity for self-care in a professional context was highlighted. Learning gains (CSA Gain) were high (38.5–49.4%) in terms of knowledge and techniques, moderate (26.2–34.5%) in terms of implementation of learned skills, and rather low (12.7–24.6%) in terms of changes to attitude.ConclusionOur evaluation shows that the participants of a mindfulness and compassion course considered it as a feasible and welcome tool to familiarize a multi-professional palliative care team with self-care techniques.Trial registrationInternal Clinical Trial Register of the Medical Faculty, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, No. 2018074763 (registered retrospectively on 30th July 2018).

Songs of the Desert Wind: A Musical Improvisation and Meditation Performance

This is a performance score developed by a violinist/mindfulness meditation teacher. It outlines a guided group meditation performed with live, improvisational music. Field recordings of natural environments are included, simulating mindful listening as a way to raise environmental awareness.

Who Sticks with Meditation? Rates and Predictors of Persistence in a Population-based Sample in the USA.

Despite the well-documented psychological benefits of meditation practice, limited research has examined factors associated with meditation practice persistence. Like other health behaviors (e.g., exercise), non-persistence may undermine the effectiveness of meditation. We examined rates and correlates of meditation persistence using a population-based sample (n = 953) in the United States. Persistence was operationalized in two ways: number of lifetime practice sessions (i.e., lifetime persistence) and current practice frequency (i.e., current persistence). Consistent with the National Health Interview Survey, we defined meditation as mindfulness meditation, mantra meditation, and spiritual meditation. We examined factors related to the Reasoned Action Approach (RAA), a theory that has been used to explain adherence to health behaviors. Almost half of the sample (49.3%) indicated lifetime exposure to meditation and a third (35.0%) indicated practice in the past year. Factors positively associated with persistence (lifetime and/or current) included having spoken with a meditation teacher, higher perceived effectiveness of meditation, higher meditation-positive subjective norms, lower perceived barriers, higher conscientiousness, higher wellbeing growth mindset, and retreat experience. Factors negatively associated with persistence included first exposure through various forms of technology and having a mental health motivation for practice. First exposure through a smartphone app and first exposure through friends and family were not associated with lifetime or current persistence. Findings were unchanged after controlling for demographics and applying a false discovery rate p-value adjustment. These findings provide insights into factors that may promote persistence with meditation which can guide the delivery of meditation training. This study was preregistered at the Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/4h86s).

Fear and Terror in Buddhist Meditation

This article explores the extent to which cognitive historiography can be employed to comment on debates concerning the interpretation of meditative experiences in select Buddhist texts. In particular, this article considers references to meditation-related fear and other associated emotional, perceptual, and cognitive changes. Qualitative data from Western Buddhist meditation practitioners and meditation teachers are employed to further illustrate the range of fear-related experiences and how they are interpreted. To account for why certain references to fear in Buddhist literature could plausibly be read as representative of meditation-related experiences, this article develops cognitive models based on neuroscientific research on meditation as well as from cognitive and affective neuroscience more broadly. However, this process reveals some current limitations in the field of neuroscience of meditation as well as other methodological difficulties faced by cognitive historiography when attempting to account for religious experiences from other cultures and from distant times.

The roles and impacts of worldviews in the context of meditation-related challenges.

Previous research has shown that worldviews can serve as a coping response to periods of difficulty or struggle, and worldviews can also change on account of difficulty. This paper investigates the impacts worldviews have on the nature and trajectory of meditation-related challenges, as well as how worldviews change or are impacted by such challenges. The context of meditation-related challenges provided by data from the Varieties of Contemplative Experience research project offers a unique insight into the dynamics between worldviews and meditation. Buddhist meditation practitioners and meditation experts interviewed for the study report how, for some, worldviews can serve as a risk factor impacting the onset and trajectory of meditation-related challenges, while, for others, worldviews (e.g., being given a worldview, applying a worldview, or changing a worldview) were reported as a remedy for mitigating challenging experiences and/or their associated distress. Buddhist meditation practitioners and teachers in the contemporary West are also situated in a cultural context in which religious and scientific worldviews and explanatory frameworks are dually available. Furthermore, the context of "Buddhist modernism" has also promoted a unique configuration in which the theory and practice of Buddhism is presented as being closely compatible with science. We identify and discuss the various impacts that religious and scientific worldviews have on meditation practitioners and meditation teachers who navigate periods of challenge associated with the practice.

Uses and functions of conceptual metaphor in pedagogical meditation discourse

In mindfulness and meditation instructional contexts, conceptual metaphor is a powerful facilitator of intersubjective communication about inner events and first-person experiences. Previous studies in meditation discourse have described space as a productive source domain that is used by meditation teachers to characterise metaphorically inner events and abstract concepts related to the meditative practice (Silvestre-López 2019, 2020). This study examines the discourse manifestations of the space source domain used to metaphorically characterise the most representative metaphorical topics (targets) in a corpus of introductory talks about meditation addressed to an audience of non-expert meditators. The analysis is sensitive to the communicative dimension of the use of metaphors in that it distinguishes between non-deliberate and deliberate uses (Steen 2015) and considers the functions they fulfil in discourse (Semino 2008; Goatly 2011). The corpus was analysed qualitatively following a bottom-up approach. Metaphor identification was carried out using DMIP (Reijnierse et al. 2018). Target and source domain coding was done with the help of dictionary information and the domains already identified in a metaphor compendium created in previous meditation discourse analyses (see Coll-Florit &amp; Climent 2019; Silvestre-López &amp; Navarro 2017; Silvestre-López 2020). This approach allowed different layers of domain specificity to be unveiled, with remarkable differences found between non-deliberate and deliberate metaphor use. Among them, differences in degree of source domain granularity (Langacker 2008) ranging from vaguer notions like undefined space or spaciousness to conceptually richer and finer-grained scenarios like the home and shelter, ocean, landscape, or sky models. The speakers were found to use these source domains consistently with explanatory purposes (explanatory function) to help their audience reconceptualise some of the most frequent target topics in their talks (e.g., the present moment, the meditator, the mind, awareness, or meditation) from more mindfully-oriented perspectives, hence allowing to become aware of and get rid of potential misconceptions. Deliberate uses proved particularly useful in promoting understanding through reconceptualisation, which was in turn facilitated by the vivid imagery evoked through detailed elaborations of source-domain scenery. Besides ideational functions, deliberate metaphors were also found to facilitate positive attitudinal changes towards the practice, as well as to provide for argument structuring and create textual cohesion. Overall, non-deliberate and deliberate uses were found to combine in the speakers’ production to aid them in skilfully achieving their own communicative intentions, which underscores the need for further studies that explore potential ways of applying similar findings to real meditation practice, and in instructional settings.

Seeing Clearly: A Buddhist Guide to Life by Nicolas Bommarito

Reviewed by: Seeing Clearly: A Buddhist Guide to Life by Nicolas Bommarito Jake H. Davis (bio) Seeing Clearly: A Buddhist Guide to Life. By Nicolas Bommarito. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. Pp. xviii + 298. Hardcover $19.95, ISBN 978-0-190887-50-6. In Seeing Clearly, Nicolas Bommarito brings together Buddhist theory and practice with a deceptively simple sophistication that few have managed in the contemporary era. Meditation teachers have contributed to the self-help section an abundance of guides to Buddhism and meditation, many of them elegantly worded and sometimes simple and practical. Yet many of these works also stumble unwittingly into philosophical problems discussed with great care and complexity in footnoted academic volumes read mostly by a small circle of scholars. Bommarito's accomplishment as a philosopher is evident not only in the clarity of his exposition, but also in what he doesn't say, in the many philosophical blunders he does not fall into. Yet the reasons for not saying what he doesn't say are, for the most part, left for elsewhere. This allows his exposition to remain straightforward and accessible, aimed unwaveringly at the practical goal of facing up to the troubling aspects of life and living from that truth. Seeing Clearly offers us an outstanding example of work that is philosophically sophisticated, thoroughly Buddhist, and refreshingly contemporary. The first portion of the book is devoted to Philosophy, the second to Practice. Bommarito is adept at explaining both the distinction and also the connection between the two. Both theoretical understanding and practical transformation aim at solving a single problem, that "our visceral ways of experiencing things misrepresent how the world is" (p. 17). To change this, you need to know some facts about how the world is, and you need to know some facts about what to do in light of how the world is. But knowing these facts is not enough. We can understand and evaluate Buddhist claims as abstract ideas, but seeing the truths that Buddhist teachings are pointing to "isn't just a matter of changing what you think or believe, but also how you perceive, feel, and experience life" (p. 5). In line with this emphasis on experience, Bommarito offers one delightfully apt analogy after another, helping to bring into focus things that might otherwise be too foreign or too familiar to see clearly. The analogies he [End Page 1] offers for relic veneration and Buddhist pilgrimage, for example, opened up for me a new--and more charitable--way of understanding those practices. An Elvis fan might get more excited about listening to Elvis's music after a pilgrimage to Graceland, and you might call your friend more often after visiting a place where you spent time together when you were young. In the same way, making a pilgrimage to a special place or handling a special relic can make you more motivated to actually make changes to how you live your life and to actually do other Buddhist practices. (p. 149) Bommarito also offers a pointed analogy for the modern appropriation of Buddhist mindfulness practices. He asks us to imagine an Asian country where people have started using rosaries to relieve stress and anxiety. They start selling their own brands of rosaries and having conferences where they invite Catholic priests to speak, though they ask them to downplay the role of God and faith in the rosary practice. This is because, they say, they've actually discovered the true essence of Catholicism and it doesn't involve any of the other Catholic practices or beliefs at all. Turns out, Catholics have just been mistaken about what their own religion is really about for thousands of years. (p. 198) Bommarito's point here is that for Buddhists, awareness practices are done with a particular purpose: "if you're trying to solve a fundamental problem in life by retraining your mental habits, it's important to develop a focused awareness of what's really going on in and around you" (p. 198). Using mindfulness meditation for sleep or productivity may well work, "but like using a rosary for relaxation, it's pretty different from how it works in its original context" (p...

Teaching mindfulness in prison settings: a grounded theory of strategies to promote engagement and empowerment

Mindfulness-based interventions have been increasingly recognized as a way to promote the mental health and well-being of individuals experiencing incarceration. However, little is known about the ways in which experienced mindfulness teachers who volunteer in correctional settings facilitate programming. Using a constructivist grounded theory approach, this study explored the teaching practices of volunteers who currently facilitate mindfulness programs in correctional settings. A total of fifteen volunteer meditation teachers along with three former group members were interviewed. The researcher utilized interview data to construct a grounded theory which conceptualizes the systemic barriers volunteers and participants face, empowering facilitation strategies, and facilitator and group characters which impact the learning outcomes of participants. The results of this grounded theory illustrate culturally responsive mindfulness facilitation strategies counselors can use with individuals who are incarcerated. Suggestions for future research and implications are presented.

Creating Technology Worthy of the Human Spirit

Spiritual caretakers have been present in every culture throughout human history. We know them as ministers, rabbis, llamas, shamans, imams, chaplains, gurus, and wise elders. In modern, secular times, they also include therapists, social workers, meditation teachers, and more. These caretakers support us through birth, death, and many of the most intimate and complex parts of the human experience. They use skills honed over many years that require paying radical attention to the humanity of others. Yet where is this expertise to be found in the creation of the digital technologies that have become portals through which we live, love, learn, grieve, and connect with our communities? Those who design and build digital technology must accept that we have become de-facto spiritual caretakers with the power to treat the well-being of humanity with care or with negligence. Unfortunately, caretaking is a role that computer science degrees do not prepare people for, few business models optimize for, and algorithms can not easily solve. This article outlines two concrete best practices that can help foster genuine responsibility and care on the part of technologists and technology companies. First, technologists must recognize that what we create is an expression of our own inner state. Our spiritual and emotional health is inextricably linked with our ability to build technology with responsibility and wisdom. Second, technologists must create an empowered seat at the table for those with the expertise and orientation needed to care for our souls, whether from a religious or secular lens.

Boran Kammatthan (Ancient Theravada) Meditation Transmissions in Siam from late Ayutthaya to Rattanakosin periods

This article investigates three distinct lineages of the transmission of the ancient Theravada meditation, boran kammatthan (Thai, Khmer; Pali, purana kammatthana), in Siam from the late Ayutthaya to the Thonburi and Rattanakosin periods, as well as the survival of two of them as living practices. It traces the Ayutthaya lineage of the Supreme Patriarch Suk Kaitheun (1733–1822) back from Wat Ratchasittharam (Thonburi) in the present to Wat Pa Kaew (Ayutthaya) in the sixteenth century. It also looks at the transmission of boran kammatthan from Wat Choengtha and other temples in Ayutthaya via Wat Hongrattanaram (Thonburi) to Wat Intharam (Thonburi) by King Taksin (r.1767–1782) and the Supreme Patriarchs of Thonburi under his support in the eighteenth century. It finally looks at the continuing transmission at Wat Pradusongtham (Ayutthaya) from the 1750s to the present. Key meditation teachers, covered in this article, include the Supreme Patriarchs of Thonburi and early Bangkok periods, as well as King Taksin. Overall, by documenting more than one transmission from a historical point of view, I argue in this article that there could be various meditation lineages that transmitted diverse practices within the broad framework of boran kammatthan.

First person profile: C. Norman Coleman, MD: A leading radiation and medical oncologist, Dr. Coleman has worked to improve cancer prevention, treatment, and quality of life on a global level.

First person profile: C. Norman Coleman, MD: A leading radiation and medical oncologist, Dr. Coleman has worked to improve cancer prevention, treatment, and quality of life on a global level.