The Notion of Solitude in Pali Buddhist Literature: Finding a Space in the Crowd

(Hardback)

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This book takes the English word solitude as an umbrella concept to explore not only themes of Buddhist meditation such as forest practice and jhana but also relational/attitudinal concepts such as independence, self-reliance and even fearlessness. The book explores how notions of solitude in Pali literature are encompassed in various different literary forms: stock formulae, poetry, narrative and imagery. Each chapter explores examples of these in depth, beginning with renunciation as a Buddhist ideal and touching upon notions of wrong and right conceptions of solitude. The book includes a close analysis of some of the most famous Buddhist verses about solitary practice, as well as reflections on the role of landscape, especially forest, as the place for solitary practice. The author explores how solitude, from the perspective of an interconnected set of concepts within an interconnected set of sources, is valued as one significant aspect of the Buddhist path. This lonely aspect of the path sits alongside the fraternal aspect of the Buddhist teachings which maintains monastic community as well as a social aspect which preserves monasticism within wider society. The book demonstrates how solitude embraces a range of nuanced, complementary and, as yet, not fully appreciated interrelated concepts related to renunciation, physical and mental seclusion and self-reliance/independence voiced through a cross-section of significant primary sources.

Author Bio

Indaka Nishan Weerasekera is an independent scholar of Buddhist Studies, UK.