Photo by sasint via Pixabay.
Speaker: Daniel M. Stuart (University of Hamburg)
Date: Monday 5 May 2025
Basement Teaching Room 1 at 5:00pm
Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Pusey Lane, Oxford, OX1 2LE
All Welcome
All enquiries: pyi.kyaw@ames.ox.ac.uk
Glorisun Lecture Series in Buddhist Studies 2024-2025
Kindly supported by Glorisun Global Network for Buddhist Studies
Abstract:
In this paper I extend previous research on the history of mid-twentieth-century Burmese vipassanā (insight) meditation through an exploration of some of the particularities of the meditation-teaching models of the lay meditation master and first Accountant General of Independent Burma, Sayagyi U Ba Khin (1899–1971). While much scholarship has glossed over the charismatic healing modalities of U Ba Khin and his students, I argue here that charismatic healing was at the center of U Ba Khin’s teaching practices. What is more, U Ba Khin’s charismatic approach to meditation and meditation teaching was embedded in a missionary theory that shared thematic elements with esoteric weizzā (wisdom-power) traditions oriented to spiritual practices that might lead to world-domination in a postcolonial Burmese context. Drawing primarily on U Ba Khin’s oral Burmese Dharma talks, I suggest that U Ba Khin’s mission to spread vipassanā in the twentieth century can best be understood as the project of a weizzā-dho (Pāli: vijjādhara), a wizard wielding a particularly powerful form of vipassanā-vijjā (the wisdom-power of insight meditation). I also explore how the post-war context of U Ba Khin’s mission, his concerns around the fallout of the use of nuclear weapons in the Asian theatre, and his attempt to scientize Buddhist theories of matter, influenced how he understood the process of vipassanā meditation.
Speaker:
Prof. Daniel M. Stuart (University of Hamburg)
