Daniel M Stuart
University of South Carolina, Religious Studies, Faculty Member
- Indian Buddhism, Yoga and Meditation Traditions, Sūtra Literature, South Asian Manuscript Cultures, Buddhism, Sanskrit language and literature, and 56 morePali literature & language, Buddhist Sanskrit, Pali/Sanskrit Literature, Buddhist Philosophy, Pali tripitaka, Sanskrit Grammar and Linguistics, Sanskrit Philology, Mindfulness Meditation, Philosophy of Mind, Religious Studies, Theravada Buddhism, early Buddhism, Yogacara Buddhism, Chinese Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism, Central Asian Buddhism, Jainism, Hinduism, Cultural History, History of Art, Hindu Nationalism in Modern India, Hindutva, Hindu Mythology, Buddhism & Hinduism, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Archaeology of Ritual and Magic, Religious and Magical Practices, Mindfulness, Daoism, Chinese Studies, Chinese Language and Culture, Chinese history (History), Chinese Religions, Tibetan Studies, Tibetan and Himalayan societies, Nepal, South Asian Art, Chinese and Southeast Asian Art History and Archaeology, Indian Philosophy, Visual Culture, Yoga Philosophy, Yoga Meditation, Theory of Mind, Buddhist Art, Tantra, Yogacara, Meditation, Visuality, Yoga Psychology, History of Tantra In India, Phenomenology, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Indian studies, Chinese Buddhism (Buddhist Studies), and Islamic Esotericismedit
In a life that saw him evolve from a staunchly religious Hindu to an ecumenical master of Buddhist insight meditation, Satyanārāyaṇ (S. N.) Goenka (1924–2013) emerged as a leader in the spread of lay mindfulness and insight meditation... more
In a life that saw him evolve from a staunchly religious Hindu to an ecumenical master of Buddhist insight meditation, Satyanārāyaṇ (S. N.) Goenka (1924–2013) emerged as a leader in the spread of lay mindfulness and insight meditation practice on a global scale.
Drawing heavily on Goenka’s own autobiographical writings and Dharma talks, S. N. Goenka: Emissary of Insight is the first comprehensive portrait of his life. Stuart incorporates a wide range of primary documents and newly translated material in Hindi and Burmese to offer readers an in-depth exploration of Goenka’s life and teachings. This fascinating addition to the Lives of the Masters series reflects on Goenka’s role in the revival of Buddhism in postcolonial India and his emergence as one of the most influential meditation masters of the twentieth century.
Drawing heavily on Goenka’s own autobiographical writings and Dharma talks, S. N. Goenka: Emissary of Insight is the first comprehensive portrait of his life. Stuart incorporates a wide range of primary documents and newly translated material in Hindi and Burmese to offer readers an in-depth exploration of Goenka’s life and teachings. This fascinating addition to the Lives of the Masters series reflects on Goenka’s role in the revival of Buddhism in postcolonial India and his emergence as one of the most influential meditation masters of the twentieth century.
Research Interests: Religion, Buddhism, Southeast Asian Studies, Buddhist Studies, Mindfulness, and 15 moreMysticism, Globalization And Postcolonial Studies, Secularization, Contemplative Studies, Secularisms and Secularities, Religion and Modernity, Theravada Buddhism, Burma Studies, New Age spirituality, Burma, Western Buddhism, Hindi, Meditation, Insight Meditation, and Vipassana Meditation
Maitreya is the future Buddha, the Buddha who will follow our present Buddha Śākyamuni. For more than two thousand years Maitreya (Pali: Metteyya) has been an inspiration for Buddhist devotees who look forward to his coming and aspire to... more
Maitreya is the future Buddha, the Buddha who will follow our present Buddha Śākyamuni. For more than two thousand years Maitreya (Pali: Metteyya) has been an inspiration for Buddhist devotees who look forward to his coming and aspire to meet him and receive his blessings and teachings. Their devotions have animated art, ritual, meditation practice, and literature across Asia. The Theravaṃsa of Sri Lanka and South-East Asia transmits a ‘Chronicle of the Future’ (Anāgatavaṃsa) in a bewildering number of recensions. Written in Pali, the ‘Chronicle’ is a paean of the golden future that Maitreya will inaugurate for those who practice sincerely. The present volume contains a study, a critical edition, and an annotated translation of a commentary on the ‘Chronicle’, the Amatarasadhārā, or ‘Stream of Deathless Nectar’ composed in Pali by the Sri Lankan elder Upatissa. An appendix gives the Pali Anāgatavaṃsa side by side with two fourteenth-century Tibetan translations. The volume is a significant contribution to research on Maitreya the future Buddha and to the study of the Pali manuscript culture of Thailand.
Research Interests: Buddhism, Southeast Asian Studies, Manuscripts and Early Printed Books, Literature, Narrative, and 46 moreChinese Buddhism, Tibetan Studies, Buddhist Studies, South Asian Studies, Pali literature & language, Rare Books and Manuscripts, South Asia, Manuscript Studies, Southeast Asia, Sanskrit Poetics, Buddhist Sanskrit, Sri Lanka, Tibetan Buddhism, Messianism, Tibetan Literature, Theravada Buddhism, Religious History, Buddhist Narrative Literature, Chinese Buddhism (Buddhist Studies), Millenarianism, Religious Studies, Commentary Traditions, Commentary, History of South Asia, Manuscripts, Edition of Ola Leaf Manuscripts of Pali and Buddhist Studies, Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Buddhology, Classical Indology, Indology, Millennialism, Classical Tibetan Language, Buddha Images, Buddhist iconography, Pali Commentary, Buddha, Bodhisattva, Thai Buddhism, Buddhism in Sri Lanka, Buddhism In Thailand, Maitreya, Religious Studies /Indology, Buddhist Pilgrimage Route, Pali/Sanskrit Literature, Pali Language, Thai Manuscripts, and premodern Southeast Asia
A Less Traveled Path brings to light unique textual evidence of an important transitional moment in Indian Buddhism. In this book, Daniel Stuart introduces the recently discovered Sanskrit manuscript of a third- or fourth-century Buddhist... more
A Less Traveled Path brings to light unique textual evidence of an important transitional moment in Indian Buddhism. In this book, Daniel Stuart introduces the recently discovered Sanskrit manuscript of a third- or fourth-century Buddhist Sanskrit text, the Saddharmasmṛtyupasthānasūtra, which sheds light on the so-called “Middle Period” of Indian Buddhism.
The book argues that meditative practice, rhetoric, and philosophy were intimately tied to one another when the Saddharmasmṛtyupasthānasūtra was redacted, and that it serves as an important historical touchstone for understanding the development of Buddhist mind-centered metaphysics. The text offers perhaps the clearest available evidence for the process in which philosophical developments grew organically out of specific meditation practices rooted in the early canonical Buddhist tradition. It also evidences an emergent historical ideology of cosmic power, one that ties ethical conduct, contemplative knowledge, and literary practice to a spiritual goal of selfless cosmographical sovereignty. This development is historically significant because it marks a major shift in Indian Buddhist religious practice, which conditioned the emergence of fully developed Mahāyāna path schemes and power-oriented tantric ritual traditions in the centuries that followed the text’s compilation.
The study includes a critical edition and translation of the text’s second chapter based on the recently discovered manuscript, the first installment of a series of critical editions of the chapters of the Saddharmasmṛtyupasthānasūtra.
https://verlag.oeaw.ac.at/a-less-traveled-path-saddharmasmtyupasthnanstra-chapter-2
The book argues that meditative practice, rhetoric, and philosophy were intimately tied to one another when the Saddharmasmṛtyupasthānasūtra was redacted, and that it serves as an important historical touchstone for understanding the development of Buddhist mind-centered metaphysics. The text offers perhaps the clearest available evidence for the process in which philosophical developments grew organically out of specific meditation practices rooted in the early canonical Buddhist tradition. It also evidences an emergent historical ideology of cosmic power, one that ties ethical conduct, contemplative knowledge, and literary practice to a spiritual goal of selfless cosmographical sovereignty. This development is historically significant because it marks a major shift in Indian Buddhist religious practice, which conditioned the emergence of fully developed Mahāyāna path schemes and power-oriented tantric ritual traditions in the centuries that followed the text’s compilation.
The study includes a critical edition and translation of the text’s second chapter based on the recently discovered manuscript, the first installment of a series of critical editions of the chapters of the Saddharmasmṛtyupasthānasūtra.
https://verlag.oeaw.ac.at/a-less-traveled-path-saddharmasmtyupasthnanstra-chapter-2
Research Interests: Philosophy of Mind, Buddhist Philosophy, Buddhist Studies, Mindfulness, Yoga, and 19 moreYoga Meditation, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Sanskrit language and literature, Manuscript Studies, Mysticism, Buddhist Sanskrit, Contemplative Studies, Buddhist Psychology, Indian Buddhism, Monasticism, Religious Experience, Tantra, Buddhist Sanskrit Manuscripts, Buddhism especially mahayana Buddhist tradition, Yogacara, Mindfulness Meditation, early Buddhism, Buddhist Meditation, and Pali/Sanskrit Literature
This book presents a treatment and analysis of the meditative practice of the cessation of perception and feeling (saṃjñāved[ay]itanirodha) within the Buddhist canonical tradition, focusing in particular on how this practice is presented... more
This book presents a treatment and analysis of the meditative practice of the cessation of perception and feeling (saṃjñāved[ay]itanirodha) within the Buddhist canonical tradition, focusing in particular on how this practice is presented in the Pṛṣṭhapālasūtra of the Dīrghāgama. Through a comparative analysis of the three extant versions of the Pṛṣṭhapālasūtra — preserved in Sanskrit, Pāli, and Chinese — the study suggests, against the conclusions of a number of European scholars, that the practice of discernment of the four noble truths and the meditative attainment of cessation of perception and feeling are part and parcel of a single early model of Buddhist practice. The study draws on new manuscript evidence from the (Mūla-)Sarvāstivāda Dīrghāgama, evidence which has not been accounted for in previous treatments of the historical development of the concept of cessation.
The book consists of two parts: (I) a study of the Buddhist conception of the meditative practice of cessation based on canonical and commentarial materials, and (II) a synoptic edition and English translation of the three extant versions of the section on the cessation of perception and feeling from the Pṛṣṭhapālasūtra. The first part provides an interpretive context for the textual material presented in the second part, while the second part allows readers to discern the significant connections and discrepancies between the different versions of the sūtra.
https://wstb.univie.ac.at/product/wstb-no-79/
The book consists of two parts: (I) a study of the Buddhist conception of the meditative practice of cessation based on canonical and commentarial materials, and (II) a synoptic edition and English translation of the three extant versions of the section on the cessation of perception and feeling from the Pṛṣṭhapālasūtra. The first part provides an interpretive context for the textual material presented in the second part, while the second part allows readers to discern the significant connections and discrepancies between the different versions of the sūtra.
https://wstb.univie.ac.at/product/wstb-no-79/
Research Interests: Buddhism, Buddhist Philosophy, Buddhist Studies, Pali literature & language, Sanskrit language and literature, and 14 moreManuscript Studies, Buddhist Sanskrit, Buddhist Psychology, Indian Buddhism, Buddhist Sanskrit Manuscripts, Meditation, Pali tripitaka, Indology, Pali Canon, early Buddhism, Buddhist Meditation, Pali/Sanskrit Literature, Contemplative Practices, and Early Indian Buddhism
Many years ago, Robert Buswell observed a key distinction between two key śāstric sources on the Buddhist path. He noted how the *Abhidharmamahāvibhāṣāśāstra (ca 150 CE) is largely retrospective in its outlook, surveying the path as if... more
Many years ago, Robert Buswell observed a key distinction between two key śāstric sources on the Buddhist path. He noted how the *Abhidharmamahāvibhāṣāśāstra (ca 150 CE) is largely retrospective in its outlook, surveying the path as if from the standpoint of its final goal. Conversely, the Visuddhimagga (ca 430 CE) is largely proleptic or developmental in its outlook, presenting the path from the perspective of a practitioner traveling it, as if looking out at the path with the final goal in the distance. He suggested that these different approaches lead to different ways of theorizing the entailments of the path or practically engaging it. In this article, I present an analysis of some aspects of a relatively little-known treatment of the Buddhist path of practice, found in a middle period sūtra attributed to the Buddha, the Saddharmasmṛtyupasthānasūtra (hereafter Saddhsu; ca 150–400 CE or possibly earlier). The text’s historical position and likely connection to on-the-ground meditation practice make it a key source for understanding some of the central dynamics that broadened the scope of theorization on Buddhist practice during the early centuries of the Common Era in South Asia. The path of practice set out in the Saddharmasmṛtyupasthānasūtra walks an interesting line between the two approaches to the path noted by Buswell. It presents a largely developmental model of practice, but its narrative structure also provides for a retrospective stance. And it is this amalgamation of—or perhaps accommodation of— perspectives that provides the Saddhsu with its particular outlook on the path.
I suggest here that this way of framing the Buddhist path should be understood as a key early development that contributed to new and expansive forms of conceptualizing the Buddhist path in history.
I suggest here that this way of framing the Buddhist path should be understood as a key early development that contributed to new and expansive forms of conceptualizing the Buddhist path in history.
Research Interests:
In an early discourse from the Saṃyuttanikāya, the Buddha states: "I do not see any other order of living beings so diversified as those in the animal realm. Even those beings in the animal realm have been diversified by the mind, yet the... more
In an early discourse from the Saṃyuttanikāya, the Buddha states: "I do not see any other order of living beings so diversified as those in the animal realm. Even those beings in the animal realm have been diversified by the mind, yet the mind is even more diverse than those beings in the animal realm." This paper explores how this key early Buddhist idea gets elaborated in various layers of Buddhist discourse during a millennium of historical development. I focus in particular on a middle period Buddhist sūtra, the Saddharmasmṛtyupasthānasūtra, which serves as a bridge between early Buddhist theories of mind and karma, and later more developed theories. This third-century South Asian Buddhist Sanskrit text on meditation practice, karma theory, and cosmology psychologizes animal behavior and places it on a spectrum with the behavior of humans and divine beings. It allows for an exploration of the conceptual interstices of Buddhist philosophy of mind and contemporary theories of embodied cognition. Exploring animal embodiments--and their karmic limitations--becomes a means to exploring all beings, an exploration that can't be separated from the human mind among beings.
Research Interests: Buddhism, Philosophy of Mind, Buddhist Studies, Animal Studies, Asceticism, and 15 moreSouth Asian Studies, Mindfulness, Yoga Philosophy, Yoga Meditation, South Asia, Contemplative Studies, Culture and Cognition, Yogacara, Indology, Animals, Mindfulness Meditation, early Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism, Yoga Psychology, and Philosophy and Sociology of Human/animal Relations
The connection between early yogācāras, or practitioners of yoga, and later Yogācāra-vijñānavāda philosophy has long preoccupied scholars. But these connections remain obscure. This article suggests that a text that has received little... more
The connection between early yogācāras, or practitioners of yoga, and later Yogācāra-vijñānavāda philosophy has long preoccupied scholars. But these connections remain obscure. This article suggests that a text that has received little attention in modern scholarship, the Saddharmasmṛtyupasthānasūtra, may shed light on aspects of early yogācāra contemplative cultures that gave rise to some of the formative dynamics of Yogācāra-vijñānavāda thought. I show how traditional Buddhist meditative practice and engagement with Abhidharma theoretics come together in the Saddharmasmṛtyuasthānasūtra to produce a novel theory of mind that mirrors many of the philosophical problematics that early and late Yogācāra-vijñānavādins confronted and attempted to work out in śāstric detail.
Research Interests: Buddhism, Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Ethics, Philosophy Of Religion, and 60 moreIndian Philosophy, Chinese Buddhism, Tibetan Studies, Mindfulness, Yoga, Yoga Philosophy, Yoga Meditation, Pali, Pali literature & language, Sanskrit language and literature, Embodied Mind and Cognition, Sanskrit, Buddhist Sanskrit, Metaphysics of Mind, Extended Mind, Sanskrit Literature, Tibetan Buddhism, Moral Philosophy, Indian Buddhism, Theravada Buddhism, Buddhist Ethics, Buddhist Sanskrit Manuscripts, Yogacara Buddhism, Yogacara, Sanskrit Philology, Meditation, Early Gandhara Sarvastivada, Tibetan Art, Manuscripts, History of Indian Philosophy, Pali tripitaka, Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Classical Indology, Indology, Insight Meditation, Tantric Buddhism, Religious Studies -Buddhism, Religion and Art, Sanskrit Studies, Sanskrit Aesthetics, Indian Philosophy, Indian Music, Dance and Arts, Indian Philosophy and Religion, Mindfulness Meditation, early Buddhism, Karma, Classical Indian Philosophy, Gandhara, Vajrayana, Mahayana Buddhism, Buddhist Meditation, Gandhara Art, History of yoga, Vipassana Meditation, Yogācāra, Yoga and Meditation Traditions, Yoga Psychology, Indology: Indian Philosophy, Religious Studies /Indology, Pali/Sanskrit Literature, Pali and Sanskrit Studies, Vajrayana Buddhism In Tibet, Kushan and Gandhara, and Kamma and Rebirth
This article fills in a gap in the historiography of modern insight and mindfulness meditation. By providing an account of the role of S. N. Goenka in the formation and dissemination of modern insight meditation (vipassanā), and his... more
This article fills in a gap in the historiography of modern insight and mindfulness meditation. By providing an account of the role of S. N. Goenka in the formation and dissemination of modern insight meditation (vipassanā), and his reframing of Burmese Buddhist meditation in a postcolonial South Asian context, I show how the roots of modern therapeutic forms of mindfulness emerge from magico-religious contexts that have been glossed over in a process of scientization. By presenting two parallel case studies from South Asia, in which insight meditation was appropriated and repurposed by Jain and Hindu communities under the pressure of distinct social, personal, and religious forces, I suggest that modern therapeutic mindfulness is just one instantiation of other similar processes. By understanding the variety of ways in which insight meditation has been encountered by and made available to prospective practitioners in multiple social and historical contexts, historians can better understand the complex of factors that gave rise to the modern category of 'mindfulness'.
Research Interests: Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Globalization, Postcolonial Studies, and 15 moreHistory of Science, Mindfulness, Yoga Meditation, South Asia, Science and Religion, Burma Studies, New Age spirituality, Meditation, Mindfulness and well being, Mindfulness Meditation, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, Buddhist Meditation, Yoga Psychology, Religious Studies /Indology, and Modern Yoga Studies
The early Buddhist disciplinary literature contains some of the oldest data on legal theory and practice available to scholars of South Asia. This literature is also of central importance for understanding the social structures and... more
The early Buddhist disciplinary literature contains some of the oldest data on legal theory and practice available to scholars of South Asia. This literature is also of central importance for understanding the social structures and relations of power within early Buddhist communities—as a set of self-regulating corporate groups—and their place within the broader fabric of premodern South Asian society. This chapter explores some aspects of procedural law in early Buddhist disciplinary literature as an entry point for understanding the operative modes of authority and the underpinnings of legislative thought in Buddhist monasticisms. Through a study of procedures for settling disputes or litigation (adhikaraṇaśamatha), I argue for a vision of power within early Buddhist communities that on the one hand prioritized community cohesion against individual needs, personal rights, or exchange of ideas, and on the other hand created opportunities for the resolution of conflicts and the public performance of community power and participatory ideals. I suggest that these issues get played out around a central tension in Buddhist monastic law and social life in general: the tension between legislative authority as originally unilateral and monocratic—a series of decrees issued by the sovereign Buddha—and a social context in which dissenting forces demand to be allowed expression.
Research Interests: Buddhism, Voting Behavior, Buddhist Studies, South Asian Studies, Ritual, and 50 morePali literature & language, Sanskrit language and literature, Monastic Studies, South Asian History, Buddhist Sanskrit, Deliberative Democracy, Conflict Resolution, Buddhist Psychology, Democracy, Participatory Democracy, Indian Buddhism, Mulasarvastivada Vinaya, Monasticism, Theravada Buddhism, Elections and Voting Behavior, Buddhist Sanskrit Manuscripts, Ritual Studies, Consent Theory, Buddhist monastic code, Dharma, Deviance, Early Buddhism, Pali, Comparative Religion, Rituals, Vinaya, Dharmaśāstras, early Buddhism, Hindu law, Dharmashastra, Textual and Philological Study of Original Buddhist texts in Pali, Sanskrit, Tibetan and Classical Chinese, Indian Political Thought, Monastic literature, Ritual Practices, Monastic Life, Buddhist monasticism, Hindu law, Pali/Sanskrit Literature, Theravāda, Pali/Theravada Buddhism, Sociology of Monastic Life, Dharmaguptaka Vinaya, Mahasamghika Vinaya, Mahisasaka Vinaya, Buddhist Law, Sarvastivada Vinaya, Vinayavastu, Early Indian Buddhism, Indian Buddhist Monasticism, History of Indian Buddhism, History of Governance, and Nikaya Buddhism
The problematic of how mind and materiality interact fundamentally drives much of Buddhist metaphysics. Various concepts emerged within different strands of Buddhist thought—particularly within the Abhidharma traditions—to deal with this... more
The problematic of how mind and materiality interact fundamentally drives much of Buddhist metaphysics. Various concepts emerged within different strands of Buddhist thought—particularly within the Abhidharma traditions—to deal with this problematic and to sort out a range of different practical, exegetical, and philosophical issues in the process. Among these concepts are categories such as the “storehouse consciousness” (ālayavijñāna: a mental substratum undergirding physical life) and “unmanifest materiality” (avijñaptirūpa: a form of karmically produced materiality that is not manifest to the physical senses), both of which are situated between the gross materiality of human bodies and the ethereal and less effable stuff of the mind. Debates about such concepts are directly relevant to traditions of Buddhist practice in its broadest sense—including ethical cultivation (śīla), the cultivation of deep states of concentration (samādhi), and the cultivation of discernment into the nature of reality (prajñā). In this chapter, I explore how engagements with—as well as shifting interpretations and historical understandings of—early Buddhist practice, and the connection of such practices with later śāstric debates about meditation, contributed to the development of such concepts. In this connection, this article is an attempt to understand the following liminal categories of materiality: 1. “unmanifest materiality,” 2. visual objects experienced in meditation, and 3. bodies of intermediate beings as they pass from one life to another in a process of rebirth.
Research Interests: Religion, Buddhism, Metaphysics, Philosophy of Mind, Indian Philosophy, and 48 moreBuddhist Philosophy, Visualization, Buddhist Studies, Idealism, Metaphysics of Consciousness, South Asian Studies, Mindfulness, Ritual, Yoga Philosophy, Yoga Meditation, Theory of Mind, Sanskrit language and literature, Embodied Mind and Cognition, South Asia, Manuscript Studies, Sanskrit, Visionary Literature, Buddhist Sanskrit, Metaphysics of Mind, Cognitive Science of Religion, Ritual (Anthropology), Ritual Theory, Intention, Buddhist Sanskrit Manuscripts, Yogacara Buddhism, Yogacara, Religious Studies, Ritual Studies, Abhidharma, Rituals, Vinaya, Indology, Visions, Indian Philosophy and Religion, Mindfulness Meditation, early Buddhism, Abhidhamma, Gandhara, Buddhist Meditation, Ritual Practices, Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, Buddhist studies, Sanskrit, Tibetan, Yogācāra, Yoga Psychology, Religious Studies /Indology, Kamma and Rebirth, Anthropology of visionary experiences, and Old and New Yogacara
The third-century CE Buddhist Sanskrit text, the Saddharmasmṛtyupasthānasūtra, allows scholars a glimpse into a largely unstudied early cult of Buddhist meditation practitioners (yogācāra). The text’s theoretical engagement with the path... more
The third-century CE Buddhist Sanskrit text, the Saddharmasmṛtyupasthānasūtra, allows scholars a glimpse into a largely unstudied early cult of Buddhist meditation practitioners (yogācāra). The text’s theoretical engagement with the path of Buddhist practice reveals an expansive vision of spiritual power founded on ethical mastery and culminating in powerful forms of insight knowledge. I argue that the text represents an explicit and unique attempt to theorize a Buddha’s omniscience and the path leading to such omniscience. Employing specific Buddhist insight practices as foundational for cultivating such knowledge, the regime of practice outlined in the Saddharmasmṛtyupasthānasūtra allows a Buddhist practitioner to experientially negotiate a variety of epistemological registers, from the ethical to the deconstructive, and to thereby acquire knowledge of the reality that serves as a powerful force in the development of cosmic sovereignty, Buddha-like power. I show how this theorization about Buddhist practice, knowledge, and power is carried out by drawing on traditional canonical textual sources and pushing beyond them in a layered narrative that figures the yogācāra practitioner as a powerful conduit of a Buddhist contemplative metaknowledge approaching omniscience.
Research Interests: Religion, Buddhism, Buddhist Philosophy, Buddhist Studies, Sovereignty, and 17 moreYoga Philosophy, Yoga Meditation, Manuscript Studies, Contemplative Studies, Buddhist Psychology, Indian Buddhism, Buddhist Ethics, Tantra, Meditation, Indology, Tantric Buddhism, Mindfulness Meditation, Karma, Buddhist Meditation, Buddhist monasticism, Vipassana Meditation, and Religious Studies /Indology
This appendix contains four sections from chapter 6 of the Sanskrit manuscript of the Saddharmasmṛtyupasthānasūtra on various Buddhist psychological theories and meditative practices by way of numbered dharmas.
Research Interests: Buddhism, History of Ideas, Indian Philosophy, Buddhist Studies, Indian studies, and 29 moreMindfulness, Yoga Philosophy, Yoga Meditation, Sanskrit language and literature, Manuscript Studies, Sanskrit, Buddhist Sanskrit, Contemplative Studies, Indian Buddhism, Indian Literature, Indian Culture, Buddhist Sanskrit Manuscripts, Yogacara Buddhism, Yogacara, India, Religious Studies, Abhidharma, Meditation, Manuscripts, Indology, Mindfulness Meditation, Abhidhamma, Textual and Philological Study of Original Buddhist texts in Pali, Sanskrit, Tibetan and Classical Chinese, Buddhist Meditation, History of yoga, Vipassana Meditation, Yoga Psychology, Religious Studies /Indology, and Pali/Sanskrit Literature
This appendix contains a section from chapter 6 of the Sanskrit manuscript of the Saddharmasmṛtyupasthānasūtra on the practice of mindfulness of breathing in sixteen aspects.
Research Interests: Religion, Buddhism, History of Ideas, Indian Philosophy, Buddhist Studies, and 28 moreIndian studies, Yoga, Yoga Philosophy, Yoga Meditation, Sanskrit language and literature, Manuscript Studies, Sanskrit, Buddhist Sanskrit, Contemplative Studies, Indian Literature, Buddhist Sanskrit Manuscripts, Yogacara Buddhism, Yogacara, India, Sanskrit Philology, Religious Studies, Meditation, Manuscripts, Indology, Mindfulness Meditation, Textual and Philological Study of Original Buddhist texts in Pali, Sanskrit, Tibetan and Classical Chinese, Buddhist Meditation, Vipassana Meditation, Yoga Psychology, Indology: Indian Philosophy, Religious Studies /Indology, Pali/Sanskrit Literature, and Pali and Sanskrit Studies
This appendix contains a short section from chapter 5 of the Saddharmasmṛtyupasthānasūtra manuscript on the meditative practice of envisioning the four types of food and how various animals sustain themselves thereby.
Research Interests: Buddhism, History of Ideas, Indian Philosophy, Buddhist Philosophy, Buddhist Studies, and 27 moreIndian studies, Mindfulness, Yoga, Yoga Philosophy, Yoga Meditation, Sanskrit language and literature, Manuscript Studies, Sanskrit, Buddhist Sanskrit, Contemplative Studies, Indian Buddhism, Buddhist Sanskrit Manuscripts, Yogacara Buddhism, Yogacara, India, Religious Studies, Abhidharma, Meditation, Indology, Mindfulness Meditation, early Buddhism, Abhidhamma, Textual and Philological Study of Original Buddhist texts in Pali, Sanskrit, Tibetan and Classical Chinese, Buddhist Meditation, Vipassana Meditation, Yoga Psychology, and Pali/Sanskrit Literature
Research Interests:
I want to emphasize the value of Stuart’s work. He approaches with utmost seriousness the formidable tasks of editing, translating, and commenting upon an unusual and difficult text. His book is a reliable basis for further work on... more
I want to emphasize the value of Stuart’s work. He approaches with utmost seriousness the formidable tasks of editing, translating, and commenting upon an unusual and difficult text. His book is a reliable basis for further work on Saddharmasmrtyupasthānasūtra and a provocative contribution to the literature on meditation. Daniel Stuart is a very talented scholar, and his book is a major accomplishment in the field of Buddhist Studies.
Research Interests: Buddhism, Jainism, Indian Philosophy, Buddhist Studies, Indian studies, and 15 morePali literature & language, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Sanskrit language and literature, Sanskrit, South Asian Literature, Indian History, Pali tripitaka, Classical Indology, Indology, Pali Canon, Buddhist Meditation, History of yoga, Indology: Indian Philosophy, Religious Studies /Indology, and Pali/Sanskrit Literature
“In Emissary of Insight, Stuart offers a comprehensive account of Goenka’s life, his work as a teacher, and strategic moments in the development of the global organization he built. Along the way, he takes issue with what he identifies as... more
“In Emissary of Insight, Stuart offers a comprehensive account of Goenka’s life, his work as a teacher, and strategic moments in the development of the global organization he built. Along the way, he takes issue with what he identifies as a one-sided representation of Goenka the person and teacher that reinforces a particularly Euro-American image of the man while overlooking other aspects of his identity. The result is an engaging, informative, and, at times, argumentative book that offers insight into the life and thought of this important teacher while raising questions about the cultural dynamics of Buddhist modernity and the ways in which meditation traditions with roots in particular places and times are taken up by new audiences in a changing world.”
Research Interests:
“Daniel M. Stuart’s S. N. Goenka Emissary of Insight is a welcome addition to understanding the development of secularized meditation and mindfulness. Through the figure of one of the most important popularizers of vipaśyanā meditation,... more
“Daniel M. Stuart’s S. N. Goenka Emissary of Insight is a welcome addition to understanding the development of secularized meditation and mindfulness. Through the figure of one of the most important popularizers of vipaśyanā meditation, Satya Narayan Goenka, Stuart analyzes the tension between modern presentations of global meditation and meditation practices rooted within Buddhist systems of cosmology. Goenka presents his teachings as uncomplicatedly “nonsectarian” dhamma, which expresses the pure teachings of the Buddha. Stuart’s biography reveals how and why Goenka describes his meditation teachings in this modern way, paired with Goenka’s own discipleship in much more esoteric settings.”
Research Interests:
“The book provides a worthwhile read for anyone who has attended a 10-day Goenka course or attended insight meditation retreats (vipassana) in the East or West. Hindus and Buddhists in Burma and India will benefit from reading about his... more
“The book provides a worthwhile read for anyone who has attended a 10-day Goenka course or attended insight meditation retreats (vipassana) in the East or West. Hindus and Buddhists in Burma and India will benefit from reading about his life. Buddhist scholars will also find material in the book showing the development in the West of a major tradition of vipassana with its roots in Theravada Buddhism.”
Research Interests: Buddhism, Hinduism, Buddhist Studies, Indian studies, South Asian Studies, and 13 moreMindfulness, South Asian History, Secularization, Contemplative Studies, South Asian Literature, Burma Studies, Myanmar, Meditation, Indian History, Burma Myanmar, Mindfulness Meditation, Buddhist Meditation, and Vipassana Meditation
“Stuart has elected not to describe the nature of Goenka’s practice and the detailed (and easily accessible) theory that underpins it. … [T]he biographer describes Goenka as ‘dedicated to serving as a powerful channel for his teacher’s [U... more
“Stuart has elected not to describe the nature of Goenka’s practice and the detailed (and easily accessible) theory that underpins it. … [T]he biographer describes Goenka as ‘dedicated to serving as a powerful channel for his teacher’s [U Ba Khin’s] vijjādhātu, . . . the psychic force of the wisdom of vipaśyanā [insight meditation] made available to Goenka and his students by the grace of U Ba Khin and his enlightened nonhuman guides.’”
Research Interests: Buddhism, Hinduism, Buddhist Studies, Indian studies, Mindfulness, and 12 moreSouth Asian History, South Asian Diaspora Literature, Secularization, Contemplative Studies, South Asian Literature, Burma Studies, Myanmar, Meditation, Indian History, Burma Myanmar, Mindfulness Meditation, and Buddhist Meditation
“Stuart, a professor of religious studies at the University of South Carolina, takes us above and beyond Goenka’s fame as a bringer of Vipassana to the West. Using Goenka’s own writings, he successfully shows that Goenka was a much deeper... more
“Stuart, a professor of religious studies at the University of South Carolina, takes us above and beyond Goenka’s fame as a bringer of Vipassana to the West. Using Goenka’s own writings, he successfully shows that Goenka was a much deeper and profounder thinker than supposed, and consequently much more complex in his beliefs. … He does this by giving readers an extremely generous selection of Goenka’s writings, including new translations from Hindi and Burmese; the latter serve to highlight Goenka’s Burmese roots through his lineage and teachings in Burma. … In Stuart’s hands, Goenka emerges as a great meditation master, a man who spent a great deal of time struggling to get his teachings out to the world, eventually succeeding in founding global meditation centres and establishing connections with religious leaders all over the world.”
Research Interests: Buddhism, Hinduism, Buddhist Studies, Indian studies, South Asian Diaspora Literature, and 11 moreSecularization, Contemplative Studies, South Asian Literature, Burma Studies, Burma, Myanmar, Meditation, Indian History, Buddhist Meditation, Indian and South Asian Historiography, and Vipassana Meditation
This paper takes as its starting point a repertoire of protective texts and practices articulated as ritual therapeutics in the early twentieth century by the well-known Burmese scholar-monk, the Ledi Sayadaw. Through an exploration of... more
This paper takes as its starting point a repertoire of protective texts and practices articulated as ritual therapeutics in the early twentieth century by the well-known Burmese scholar-monk, the Ledi Sayadaw. Through an exploration of meditation-practice, meditation-teaching, and meditation-performance contexts in postcolonial Burma and India, I demonstrate the ways in which such texts and practices were adapted and refigured within the teaching models of two important twentieth-century vipassanā meditation masters: Sayagyi U Ba Khin and S. N. Goenka. I argue that these protective texts and practices are constitutive aspects of the meditation modalities developed by these two teachers. I conclude with an exploration of the history of the Black American theologian and student of U Ba Khin, Leon E. Wright. In reflecting on Wright's case, I consider the ways in which modern scholarly practices within Buddhist (modernism) Studies continue to participate in the erasure of historically marginalized worlds and persons.
(This paper is the written version of a talk delivered at a workshop entitled "Performing Theravada" held at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in June of 2022. A shorter version of this paper has been published in Volume 71, issue 2–3 of Numen in the Spring of 2024: https://brill.com/view/journals/nu/71/2-3/article-p256_6.xml?ebody=article%20details)
(This paper is the written version of a talk delivered at a workshop entitled "Performing Theravada" held at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in June of 2022. A shorter version of this paper has been published in Volume 71, issue 2–3 of Numen in the Spring of 2024: https://brill.com/view/journals/nu/71/2-3/article-p256_6.xml?ebody=article%20details)
Research Interests: Southeast Asian Studies, Performance Studies, Buddhist Studies, Ritual, Engaged Buddhism, and 15 moreSouth Asia, Indian Buddhism, Ritual (Anthropology), Ritual Theory, Theravada Buddhism, Burma Studies, Burma, Ritual Studies, Myanmar, Meditation, Mindfulness Meditation, Buddhist Meditation, Vipassana Meditation, Theravada Buddhist Hermeneutics, and Modern Yoga Studies
In this article, I analyze a set of Buddhist meditation practices—tied to a specific theory of mind—found in an obscure but important text that has received very little scholarly attention, the Saddharmasmṛtyupasthānasūtra (Saddhsu). The... more
In this article, I analyze a set of Buddhist meditation practices—tied to a specific theory of mind—found in an obscure but important text that has received very little scholarly attention, the Saddharmasmṛtyupasthānasūtra (Saddhsu). The practices serve as clear examples of the intimate interconnectedness of textual, visual, and contemplative cultures in the history of Indian religious practice in general, and the history of Buddhist yogic practices in particular. In focusing on the representations of practice found in the Saddhsu, I wish to highlight the way in which developments in the practices of visual culture came to serve as a formative conceptual force in the development of the Saddhsu’s textual and contemplative program. I argue that the Saddhsu provides evidence of the continued and innovative use of Buddhist canonical textual material during Buddhism’s middle period, and that a traditional Buddhist analogy of the practice of painting becomes a fundamental reference point for the text’s philosophical and contemplative agenda. I suggest that the text— influenced by burgeoning art-centered practices—serves as pertinent evidence of a historical bridge between early Buddhist contemplative cultures and the more visually elaborate Buddhist practice cultures of the early medieval period.
Research Interests: Indian Philosophy, Visual Culture, Mindfulness, Yoga Philosophy, Yoga Meditation, and 26 moreTheory of Mind, Sanskrit language and literature, Buddhist Art, Visionary Literature, Buddhist Sanskrit, History of Art, Visions And Dreams, South Asian Art, Indian Buddhism, Indian Art, Tantra, Visual Arts, Yogacara Buddhism, Yogacara, Meditation, Indology, Religion and Art, Sanskrit Studies, Sanskrit Aesthetics, Indian Philosophy, Indian Music, Dance and Arts, Visuality, Mindfulness Meditation, Buddhist Meditation, Vipassana Meditation, Yoga Psychology, Pali/Sanskrit Literature, History of Tantra In India, Vipassanā, and Anthropology of visionary experiences
This is a draft of a paper I presented at the "Yoga darśana, yoga sādhana" conference in Kraków in May 2022. The talk was entitled "Agonistic Vision(s): Puranic Mediations of Visionary Buddhist Yoga in the Early Centuries of the Common... more
This is a draft of a paper I presented at the "Yoga darśana, yoga sādhana" conference in Kraków in May 2022. The talk was entitled "Agonistic Vision(s): Puranic Mediations of Visionary Buddhist Yoga in the Early Centuries of the Common Era":
"I’ll be talking to you today about a text I’ve been working on for quite a while. It’s an encyclopedic Buddhist yoga text written in Sanskrit with the title Saddharmasmṛtyupasthāna-sūtra. We might translate this title for today as 'the Teaching on Setting up Awareness of the True Dharma(s).' This text was transmitted along with another text, the *Kāyasmṛtyupasthāna-sūtra or 'the Teaching on Setting up Awareness of the Body', and together these two texts make up a text-complex that contains the practices, ideas, and social imaginary of one group of Buddhist yogācāras or yoga practitioners who likely lived and practiced in Greater Gandhāra sometime between 150CE and 400CE. ... Though these texts have an ascetic orientation, at points they explicitly evoke the attention of a lay audience and provide a rationale for how lay practitioners can bring modalities of ascetic Buddhist yoga into lay life. They take aim at brahmin prognosticators, proscribe the practice of medicine while also demonstrating significant and unique medical knowledge, and they critique Śaiva and Vaiṣṇava visionary ascetics. They also make explicit reference to the production of sectarian textual sources in a dynamic relationship between experiences of visionary yoga and authoritative scriptural sources."
"I’ll be talking to you today about a text I’ve been working on for quite a while. It’s an encyclopedic Buddhist yoga text written in Sanskrit with the title Saddharmasmṛtyupasthāna-sūtra. We might translate this title for today as 'the Teaching on Setting up Awareness of the True Dharma(s).' This text was transmitted along with another text, the *Kāyasmṛtyupasthāna-sūtra or 'the Teaching on Setting up Awareness of the Body', and together these two texts make up a text-complex that contains the practices, ideas, and social imaginary of one group of Buddhist yogācāras or yoga practitioners who likely lived and practiced in Greater Gandhāra sometime between 150CE and 400CE. ... Though these texts have an ascetic orientation, at points they explicitly evoke the attention of a lay audience and provide a rationale for how lay practitioners can bring modalities of ascetic Buddhist yoga into lay life. They take aim at brahmin prognosticators, proscribe the practice of medicine while also demonstrating significant and unique medical knowledge, and they critique Śaiva and Vaiṣṇava visionary ascetics. They also make explicit reference to the production of sectarian textual sources in a dynamic relationship between experiences of visionary yoga and authoritative scriptural sources."
Research Interests: Buddhism, Hinduism, Southeast Asian Studies, Asceticism, History of Science, and 14 moreMindfulness, Yoga Philosophy, Sanskrit language and literature, Buddhist Sanskrit, Indian Buddhism, Religious Studies, Hindu Mythology, Hindu Studies, Indology, Visuality, Mindfulness Meditation, Buddhist Meditation, Buddhist medicine, and Yoga Psychology
This is the handout for a presentation I gave in February of 2020 in Heidelberg at the workshop "Textual and Visual Sources on Buddhist Meditation: 56 Years after the First Publication of the ‘Buddhist Yoga Manual.’" The talk was... more
This is the handout for a presentation I gave in February of 2020 in Heidelberg at the workshop "Textual and Visual Sources on Buddhist Meditation: 56 Years after the First Publication of the ‘Buddhist Yoga Manual.’" The talk was entitled "The Deities of Others: Visionary meditation as inter-tradition critique in the Saddharmasmṛtyupasthāna-sūtra."
Research Interests:
I present here a critical edition, diplomatic edition, and English translation of folios 217a1-218a5 of the only known extant Sanskrit manuscript of the Saddharma-smṛty-upasthāna-sūtra.
Research Interests: Indian Philosophy, Buddhist Studies, Indian studies, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Sanskrit language and literature, and 12 moreBuddhist Psychology, South Asian Literature, Buddhist Sanskrit Manuscripts, Yogacara, Abhidharma, Meditation, Indology, Gandhara, Buddhist Meditation, History of yoga, Puranas, and Yoga Psychology
"[T]his book is a valuable contribution to the field of early Buddhist meditation studies, and should open up many avenues of debate for those invested in understanding the complex world of early Buddhist practice."