Brooke Schedneck on the Birth of Insight: Meditation
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Erik Braun. The Birth of Insight: Meditation, Modern Buddhism, and the Burmese Monk Ledi Sayadaw. Buddhism and Modernity Series. Chicago: University Of Chicago Press, 2013. xvi + 257 pp. $45.00, cloth, ISBN 978-0-226-00080-0. Reviewed by Brooke Schedneck Published on H-Buddhism (July, 2015) Commissioned by Thomas Borchert (University of Vermont) The insight, or vipassanā meditation move‐ But no work has investigated extensively the his‐ ment, has helped to launch Buddhism and medita‐ torical roots of this phenomenon. Erik Braun’s tion into mainstream culture internationally. Its The Birth of Insight places a large piece into this decontextualized nature and portability have al‐ puzzle of answering how and why vipassanā lowed it to be inserted into such arenas as health meditation became so popular and widespread. and well-being, therapy, pain relief, parenting, re‐ Braun argues that we can locate the groundwork lationships, business leadership, and other secu‐ of this significant religious trend in the Burmese lar pursuits. There has been scholarship exploring monk Ledi Sayadaw (1846-1923). The central the modern phenomenon of this movement in claims of the book concern the development of Asia, including Ingrid Jordt’s Burma’s Mass Lay the modern vipassanā movement and Ledi’s role Meditation Movement: Buddhism and the Cultural as the foundational fgure for its emergence. Construction on Power (2007), which focuses on Braun argues that Ledi is so significant not be‐ the Mahasi Sayadaw headquarters in Yangon. cause he created a meditation method for Bud‐ Joanna Cook’s Meditation and Modern Buddhism: dhist laity, which came later with future teachers, Renunciation and Change in Thai Monastic Life but because of his interest in educating the laity (2010) explores the implications of this movement in Buddhist doctrine. This education spawned a for Thailand and modern Buddhism through the model of lay activity that created a space for med‐ window of a Northern Thai meditation temple. itation on a large scale. Through his opening of Moving further outside of Asia, the essays in a the study of Buddhist texts and meditation prac‐ special issue of Contemporary Buddhism reveal tice to the laity, Braun argues, Ledi ultimately fa‐ further how the mass lay meditation retreat mod‐ cilitated the possibility of this movement. el has spread and adapted internationally, espe‐ Braun sees Ledi as a focal point in the history cially as a more secular form of mindfulness.[1] of vipassanā meditation, a history that can be H-Net Reviews traced back to Burma, present-day Myanmar, tation something that could be done in a house‐ where the mass lay meditation movement began. holder’s daily life, this practice became more ac‐ Braun details significant aspects of Ledi’s life, but cessible. Braun argues that the implications of this the author is careful to point out that this is not a opening up of study and practice for laity were biography. Instead he has narrower aims in study‐ tremendous, ultimately initiating a trajectory that ing Ledi’s actions and influence that contribute to would lead to Burma’s mass lay meditation move‐ the development of meditation as a modern phe‐ ment and, although not inevitably, more secular nomenon. Ledi’s life is placed within the contexts applications of the practice seen throughout the of precolonial and colonial Burma, allowing the world today. Braun writes, “Ledi’s career was a reader to see both the religious and political critical starting point that set a path of develop‐ worlds that he emerged from. In this way, he be‐ ment that made this situation possible” (p. 168). comes a mediating fgure between the modern The book is structured mainly chronologically and traditional. This was not only because of his as the introduction recounts Ledi’s life as an intel‐ particular moment in history that spanned major lectual young man who did not depend on a changes in Burmese history, but also because of teacher, but developed his ideas about meditation his ideas and actions, which encompassed both and the role of the laity through independent old and new. For example, Ledi worked within a study. Braun argues that his success with textual traditional Buddhist cosmological worldview and learning within the elite monastic environment gave a more prominent role to the laity, blurring was the basis for Ledi’s propagation of Buddhist the monastic-lay distinction in Theravada Bud‐ teachings and use of Abhidhamma to solve soci‐ dhism. Braun expands on this argument through‐ etal problems. Through this focus on study Ledi out the book through looking closely at Ledi’s life fits within Burmese Buddhist tradition but his di‐ and writings. rection toward teaching the laity was less com‐ Ledi’s influence is apparent today not just in mon. Braun carefully and compellingly argues his legacy of mass lay meditation but also in book‐ that Ledi is both traditional and modern, and that shops, homes, and temples where people keep or these categories depend on contextual and contin‐ sell a well-known image Ledi made as a learning gent factors, pointing to continuities between pre‐ tool of the twenty-four conditional relations, an modern and modern. Ledi was not a modernist important and complex component of one of the who purified Buddhism of all magical elements three parts of the Pali Canon, the Abhidhamma. but sought ways Buddhism could support This image allowed access to the in-depth study of Burmese society, which included laypeople’s re‐ the Abhidhamma for non-scholastics. He propa‐ sponsibilities to maintain and protect the religion. gated this kind of simplified teaching during Bur‐ Chapter 1 continues to describe Ledi’s educa‐ ma’s colonial period, after the British seized all of tion and the beginning of his monastic career in Burma in 1885 and exiled King Thibaw Mandalay until the founding of his own (1859-1916) to India. With no king acting as pa‐ monastery. This chapter not only gives back‐ tron and protector of the religion, many Burmese ground on Ledi’s early career but also puts his life worried that Buddhism was in decline. Because of into historical, societal, political, and religious set‐ this, Ledi’s life was bound up with colonialism tings. Ledi was born during the Konbaung dy‐ and the view that the end of Buddhism was near. nasty (1752-1885) under King Mindon (1808-78). This social disruption, Braun argues, caused Ledi Through the information available, Braun makes to seek to protect Buddhism in various ways, in‐ plausible arguments about Ledi’s influences that cluding educating not just monastics but also laity. would affect his future choices. For example, Through making study feasible for laity and medi‐ 2 H-Net Reviews Braun argues that Ledi’s participation in the Fifth Ledi’s refutation of these earlier works was severe Buddhist Council (1871) in Mandalay, sponsored and generated disagreement and discussion. As a by King Mindon, would have impressed upon him result of British colonialism and the exile of Bud‐ the importance of learning. Braun also notes the dhism’s protector, no one could adjudicate Ledi’s role of Hpo Hlaing, a layman who brought West‐ points of refutation with the authoritative twelfth- ern knowledge to bear on new ideas of medita‐ century Sri Lankan Abhidhamma handbook, so tion. Braun describes how Hpo Hlaing’s writings his piece went to the opinion of the public sphere. on meditation made the practice accessible to Therefore this chapter illustrates the developing laity and how this was likely to presage and in‐ significance and competing claims of the public form Ledi’s concerns later on. These writings sphere related to Buddhist ideas in Burmese soci‐ were not a call to practice nor did they describe a ety. Braun also illustrates the importance of this particular kind of practice. Instead Braun calls work in particular for Ledi’s career, arguing that these “the seeds for innovative ideas” (p. 34). This it helped him become well-known and showed is what Braun does well, tracing these seeds in him the emerging importance and power of print conceivable ways. Another influence he fnds in culture within Burmese society. In addition, Ledi’s early career is his evocative move to the through this debate Ledi was able to see the po‐ forest. Although he did not renounce scholarship tential and interest of laypeople in learning the as other forest monks did, this move is an impor‐ Abhidhamma. Braun continually reminds the tant step in Ledi’s career and is symbolic of the reader of his larger argument concerning Ledi’s isolated, meditating forest-dweller within the influence on the modern mass lay meditation Buddhist tradition. Braun reads this as evidence movement through his efforts to engage Buddhist of Ledi’s ability to take risks that in turn shaped laity. his career as a leading fgure in the Burmese Chapter 3 illustrates how Ledi propagated sangha. Braun helps the reader to imagine what Buddhism nationally. In a practical sense, Ledi was at stake for Ledi and Burmese Buddhists dur‐ made Buddhist study and practice accessible for ing these tumultuous times, the meanings of his laity through the nature of his preaching and use actions and their possible effects. of print culture. Ledi minimized the use of Pali Chapter 2 continues to develop the trajectory and difficult vocabulary, instead speaking plainly of Ledi’s life and career as well as Braun’s larger and simply in his preaching and using simplified argument about Ledi’s role within modern Bud‐ Burmese in cheap and easy to fnd formats. dhism. To this end, this chapter focuses specifical‐ Through these strategies, he changed the way doc‐ ly on Ledi’s 1901 publication of the Paramatthadi‐ trine was enacted and propagated while main‐ pani, a commentary on a twelfth-century Abhid‐ taining orthodoxy.