Katukurunde Nanananda Thera

Katukurunde Ñāṇananda
Religion Buddhism
School Theravada
Sect Ramanna Nikaya
Personal
Nationality Sri Lankan
Born 1940
Galle
Senior posting
Based in Pothgulgala Aranya
Title Mahathera
Religious career
Teacher Matara Sri Nanarama Mahathera
Ordination 1967

Katukurunde Nanananda Thera (spelled Ñāṇananda in Pali, sometimes called Gnanananda in Sinhala) is a Sri Lankan Bhikkhu (Buddhist Monk) and a Buddhist scholar. He is best known for the research monograph Concept and Reality in Early Buddhist Thought and the exploratory study The Magic of the Mind. Ven. Nanananda is the abbot of Pothgulgala Aranya, a small forest monastery in Devalegama, Sri Lanka.

Contents

Early life

Ven. Nanananda was born in 1940 to a Buddhist family in Galle District in Sri Lanka. He received his school education from Mahinda College, Galle.[1] In 1962 he graduated from the University of Peradeniya specializing in Pali Studies, and served as an Assistant Lecturer in Pali at the same University for a brief period of time. He renounced his post in 1967 to enter the Order of Buddhist monks under the name Katukurunde Nanananda in the forest monastic tradition of Sri Lanka.[2]

Monastic life

Ven. Nanananda initially ordained at the Island Hermitage.[1] Three other monks were ordained with him, two of them being Ven. Ñāṇasuci (later Samanera Bodhesako) and Ven. Ñāṇajivako (Prof. Čedomil Veljačić).[3]

After the Meetirigala Nissarana Vanaya was established with Ven. Matara Sri Nanarama Mahathera as the abbot and the meditation master, Ven. Nanananda moved to that monastery in 1972 and re-ordained under Ven. Nanarama.[1] When Ven. Nanarama Mahathera passed away in 1992, Ven. Nanananda moved to Pothgulgala Aranya, where he still resides as the abbot. Ven. Nanananda has continuously maintained a simple and austere way of practice with a strong commitment to strict Vinaya standards.

Scholarly career

Ven. Nanananda′s best known works are Concept and Reality in Early Buddhist Thought, published in 1971, and The Magic of the Mind, published in 1974,[4] both completed during his stay at the Island Hermitage.[3] His latest major work is a collection of sermons on Nibbana that was initially published in Sinhala and later in English translation, titled Nibbana - The Mind Stilled.[2]

Concept and Reality

This penetrative study[5] shed new light on the early Buddhist views on the psychology of perception,[6] the conceptualizing process and its transcending.[7] The discussion focuses upon two important but controversial terms found in the Buddha's discourses: papañca and papañca-saññā-saṅkhā[8] Ven. Nanananda was the first to analyze the unique grammatical shift found in the sections in which the compound papañca-saññā-saṅkhā appears in the Madhupiṇḍika Sutta (MN 18),[9] which he regards as the “locus classicus as it affords us a clearer insight into the problem of papañca”[10]. His radical interpretation of papañca as ‘conceptual proliferation’[11] is now widely accepted and used by modern Buddhist scholars.[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] The book was introduced as “an imaginative interpretation of the Buddhist critique of conceptual thought in the Pali tradition” in the Encyclopedia of Religion.[20]

The Magic of the Mind

This is an exposition of the Kālakārāma Sutta (AN 4.24), a canonical discourse of hallowed tradition that had subsequently fallen into neglect.[21] Ven. Nanananda gives an annotated translation of the sutta prologued by a humorously conceived parable of a magic show.[22] The main theme of the work is the illusory nature of Viññaṇa.[23] The book attempts to draw out the psychological and philosophical implications of the text, centered on a discussion of Paticcasamuppada as a golden mean which freely transcends the dualities of existence and non-existence and mind-and-matter.[24]

Nibbana - The Mind Stilled

While at Nissarana Vanaya, at the invitation of the Ven. Matara Sri Nanarama Mahathera, Ven. Nanananda Thera delivered 33 sermons on the subject of Nibbana, during the period 1998.08.12 – 1991.01.31. This often controversial set of talks were then distributed in cassettes among interested monastics and lay Buddhists.[25] In 1997, a publications trust named Dharma Grantha Mudrana Bharaya (D.G.M.B.) was set up with the public trustee of Sri Lanka to freely distribute Ven. Nanananda's works. The first publications of D.G.M.B. were these sermons in Sinhala, made available in 11 volumes, titled Nivane Niveema.[2] Since 2003 the English translations have been made available in a 7-volume series titled Nibbana – The Mind Stilled.[25]

In these sermons Ven. Nanananda attempted to “trace the original meaning and significance of the Pali term Nibbana based on the evidence from the discourses of the Pali Canon”. This has led to a detailed analysis and a re-appraisal of some of the most controversial suttas on Nibbana. While this collection develops on his earlier works, the Nibbana sermons are presented with a more pragmatic outlook to benefit those who are keen on realizing this ultimate goal of Buddhist practice.[25]

Published Work

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c DSMB.
  2. ^ a b c Nanananda 2003, p. VII.
  3. ^ a b Ñāṇajivako.
  4. ^ "Beyond the Net - a Dhamma Web on the Internet", Daily News (Colombo), 30 May 2002, http://www.dailynews.lk/2002/05/30/fea08.html 
  5. ^ Nanamoli, Bhikkhu; Bodhi, Bhikkhu (2009) [1995], The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha, Wisdom Publications, p. 1204, ISBN 0-86171-072-X 
  6. ^ Kalupahana, David J. (2006) [1992], A History of Buddhist Philosophy, Motilal Banarsidass, p. 276, ISBN 81-208-1197-7 
  7. ^ Walshe, Maurice (1995) [1987], The Long Discourses of the Buddha, Wisdom Publications, p. 527, ISBN 0-86171-103-3 
  8. ^ Nanananda 1997, p. 1.
  9. ^ Hamilton-Blyth, Sue (2000), Early Buddhism: A New Approach, Routledge Critical Studies in Buddhism, Routledge, p. 86, ISBN 978-0700713578 
  10. ^ Nanananda 1997, p. 2.
  11. ^ Nanananda 1997, p. 4.
  12. ^ Nakamura, Hajime (2007) [1980], Indian Buddhism: A Survey with Bibliographical Notes, Motilal Banarsidass, p. 71, ISBN 978-8120802728 
  13. ^ Bodhi, Bhikkhu (2005), In the Buddha’s Words, Wisdom Publications, p. 427, ISBN 978-0861714919 
  14. ^ Nyanaponika, Thera; Bodhi, Bhikkhu (2006) [1999], Numerical Discourses of the Buddha, Vistaar Publications, p. 306, ISBN 81-7036-991-6 
  15. ^ Katz, Nathan (2004), Buddhist Images of Human Perfection, Motilal Banarsidass, p. 206, ISBN 978-8120806474 
  16. ^ Analayo, Bhikkhu (2003), Satipatthana: The Direct Path to Realization, Windhorse Publications, p. 222, ISBN 978-1899579549 
  17. ^ Lusthaus, Dan (2002), Buddhist Phenomenology: A Philosophical Investigation of Yogacara Buddhism and the Ch'eng Wei-shih Lun, Routledge Critical Studies in Buddhism, Routledge, p. 55, ISBN 978-0-7007-1186-4 
  18. ^ Griffiths, Paul J. (1994), On Being Buddha, SUNY Press, p. 223, ISBN 0-7914-2128-7 
  19. ^ Swaris, Nalin (2008), The Buddha’s Way to Human Liberation, Sarasavi Publishers, pp. 194–196 
  20. ^ Eliade, Mircea; Adams, Charles J. (1987), The Encyclopedia of religion, Volume 8, Macmillan Publishers, p. 451, ISBN 978-0029097908 
  21. ^ Nanananda 2007, pp. 1–3.
  22. ^ Nanananda 2007, pp. 6–12.
  23. ^ Nanananda 2007, p. 5.
  24. ^ Nanananda 2007, p. 17–56.
  25. ^ a b c Nanananda 2003, p. IX.

References

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