Meanings

Doubt always remains present and it continuously needs fixing. But how to realize the ideal meaning, if not by following what others have done and by fulfilling commonly-accepted techniques and views? What is the real meaning of existence and suffering? Meanings is not a book to give direct answers to such questions. There is nothing here that you can take up as a belief, an empty speculation or a theory. The author, Ven. Ajahn Ñāṇamoli, refrains from explaining Dhamma, an act which he regards as mere psychological investigation and linearly-connected facts. Here is no intent to set up a fixed theory. What the author does do is describe the nature of experience as it is: not about this or that problem or fact in the world, but the experience as such—Dhamma, which has to be investigated with proper attention e.g. seeing the present simultaneous relationship of an arisen thing and its determination. With proper attention, the being of things is gradually revealed—and not understanding the nature of this being, the author says, is the fundamental ignorance. He then describes nothing but the nature, the dhamma, of things—not by looking for the meaning, but understanding meanings. ‘Essays’, the first part of the book, contains just that: descriptions of the experience. This is no doubt difficult material to digest: it demands that the reader recognize those described things in his own experience. Without developed mindfulness and right attention, these writings will be impossible to grasp. The second part of the book, the ‘Correspondence with Mathias’, provides useful support in understanding the essays. This private correspondence has been taking place with a German friend, Mathias, since 2009. The third part, ‘Additional Texts’, contains questions posted on http://www.pathpress.org by people who wanted to understand the essays and sought clarification, with answers by Ven. Ñāṇamoli. (From the Preface) Venerable anavira Thera is today seen as one of the most original Buddhist thinkers, an iconic figure who was able with his attainments and understanding of Dhamma to point out with great confidence the wrongly-grasped interpretation on Dhamma. His fame started only after his death, in 1965. He was a hermit and he never had a great circle of disciples in his lifetime, but only a handful of supporters who were keen to learn from his great intelligence and wisdom. It was only after his death that a group of fellow individual hermits or wandering monks wrote down in their pocket-size notebooks the manuscript of the late teacher, Notes on Dhamma , and carried this in their bags for their daily reflection. These Notes and the letters which were exchanged between anavira and his supporters appeared in print in 1987, with the publishing of a large volume called Clearing the Path . It was forty-five years after his death before Notes on Dhamma (1960-1965) was eventually printed according to the original manuscript, which had been carefully prepared by the late author. The present book is an attempt to compile all that is known about anavira's life and thought, from his birth in an upper-class family in England, serving in World War II in Algeria and Italy, ordaining in the famous Island Hermitage in Sri Lanka, and spending ten years isolated in a jungle retreat at Bundala, where he meditated, reflected on Dhamma, and eventually attained partial liberation. It was there where he was able to recognize that the traditional understanding of Dhamma is not wholly justified by the Suttas, that it does not lead to the end of suffering, the goal of the Buddha's Teaching, but rather blocks further progress. Then due to his chronic illnesses, which plagued his body for more than ten years, he ended this existence by his own hand. The book retells stories from after his death, about controversies, lost or burned letters, his surviving legacy, and the growth of interest in these writings till the present time. The book also includes contributions from well-known writers such as Dr. Helmuth Hecker, Dr. John Stella and Prof. Forrest Williams. The principal aim of these Notes on Dhamma is to point out certain current misinterpretations, mostly traditional, of the Pali Suttas, and to offer in their place something certainly less easy but perhaps also less inadequate. These Notes assume, therefore, that the reader is (or is prepared to become) familiar with the original texts, and in Pali (for even the most competent translations sacrifice some essential accuracy to style, and the rest are seriously misleading). They assume, also, that the reader s sole interest in the Pali Suttas is a concern for his own welfare. The reader is presumed to be subjectively engaged with an anxious problem, the problem of his existence, which is also the problem of his suffering. There is therefore nothing in these pages to interest the professional scholar, for whom the question of personal existence does not arise; for the scholar s whole concern is to eliminate or ignore the individual point of view in an effort to establish the objective truth a would-be impersonal synthesis of public facts. The scholar s essentially horizontal view of things, seeking connexions in space and time, and his historical approach to the texts, disqualify him from any possibility of understanding a Dhamma that the Buddha himself has called akalika , timeless . Only in a vertical view, straight down into the abyss of his own personal existence, is a man capable of apprehending the perilous insecurity of his situation; and only a man who does apprehend this is prepared to listen to the Buddha s Teaching. But human kind, it seems, cannot bear very much men, for the most part, draw back in alarm and dismay from this vertiginous direct view of being and seek refuge in distractions. Clearing the Path is the first volume of the collected writings of anavira Thera. It contains his most important those that originated after he attained sotapatti (Stream-entry) on 27.06.1959. Clearing the Path is supplemented by Seeking the Path , a second volume consisting of his early writings (1954-1960) and marginalia. In March 1963 anavira Thera wrote to one of his 'With regard to any of my past writings that you may come across [...] I would ask you to treat with great reserve anything dated before 1960, about which time certain of my views underwent a modification. If this is forgotten you may be puzzled by inconsistencies between earlier and later writings'. (L. 49) Clearing the Path consists of the final version of the author's principal work, Notes on Dhamma (1960-1965) , faithfully restored from the original manuscript, followed by the letters he exchanged with several interested individuals during the last five years of his life. Part of the correspondence started after Notes on Dhamma was first published and carefully distributed as a private edition of 250 cyclostyled copies, and can be regarded as something of a commentary on the Notes . Notes on Dhamma has been variously described as 'arrogant, scathing, and condescending', as 'a fantastic system', and as 'the best and most important book on Buddhism ever written by a Westerner'. anavira Thera himself remarked of the book that 'it is vain to hope that it is going to win general approval [...] but I do allow myself to hope that a few individuals [...] will have private transformations of their way of thinking as a result of reading [the Notes ]'. Before use is made of Seeking the Path Early Writings of avra Thera (1954-1960), the reader should be familiar with Clearing the Path Writings of avra Thera (1960-1965), to which the present volume serves as a supplement. The major portion of Seeking the Path consists of letters written to aamoli Thera. With the manuscript letters, which were preserved by the recipient were found draft copies of some of the replies which were sent to avra Thera. These have been included here; it should be remembered, however, that they are only draft copies and not final versions. Following the letters to aamoli are a few letters written to avra Theras chief supporters: Mr. and Mrs. Hinton Perera. The two essays following the letters were published (the Sketch was reprinted several times) in abbreviated form: the texts reproduced here are taken from the authors typescripts, which may be regarded as the definitive versions. Following these two essays are the contents of the authors Commonplace Book, and then Marginalia, being the comments the author made in the margins of various book which engaged him (together with the text commented upon, where useful). Finally there is a collection of various papers discovered after authors death: notes, translations, etc. These have been edited only to avoid unnecessary repetition of material already contained in other parts of this work. The Letters to Sister Vajir documents the correspondence of the Ven. avra Thera with Sister Vajir (Hannelore Wolf, 1928-1991) between November 1961 and January 1962. The vivid exchange of letters and postcards starts shortly before Sister Vajirs second and last encounter with avra Thera at the Island Hermitage where they spent the whole day discussing Dhamma, and ends with the turbulent effects of a final breakthrough of right view (sammaditthi). In retrospect avra Thera wrote a few years later to his literary executor: I fully agree with you that the curtain came down on the drama too suddenly. I was hoping for a further letter but was disappointed. And when she was packed off there was no further chance of meeting her and filling in the gaps. But if in fact she really did cease to be a puthujjana (and I see no reason to doubt it), then we are perhaps fortunate in having as much as we do have in the way of a written record of an actual attainment of the magga (and probably also of the phala) as it took place. An account written afterwards from memory would not have the dramatic force of these letters which are so striking. Notes on Dhamma (1960-1965) Letters (1960-1965) Writings.