Gathering Leaves and Lifting Words: Histories of Buddhist Monastic Education in Laos and Thailand

8 Philosophical Embryology

8 Philosophical Embryology Different Dhammapada have been used in a variety of ways in sermons and lectures. The content, verses, or commentarial narratives are used by different teachers in different mediums to communicate different messages. However, these are not the only ways texts are changed in the pedagogical process. Not only do content and format change, but the purported raison d’être of a text can be changed by teachers as well. For example, texts containing ethical lessons can be used for protective house blessings and chronicles can be used for grammar lessons. These changes are common. Often there is a disjuncture between the contents and the purposes of texts in monastic education. However, it is only a disjuncture if one values texts only for their semantic meaning and not for their usefulness in ritual transformation. In this chapter I offer one example of this disjuncture—the Abhidhamma. Different texts in the Abhidhamma genre have been used for funerary rites and for the magical generation of new ephemeral fetuses despite their semantic content. The Nissaya atthakath1 m1tik1, the Abhidhamma chet kamphi , and the Abhidhammatthasaãgaha (three commentaries on the canonical Abhidhamma—the “philosophical” section of the Theravada Buddhist canon) offer instructions of how to ensure favorable rebirth through refined and ritually protected new fetuses.1 In this way, in ritual and in the classroom , Buddhist philosophy moves from the realm of cerebral reflection, physical description, epistemological taxonomies, and ethical/psychological speculation to ritual technology and physical transformation. It demonstrates a unique way in which Abhidhamma texts are read, transformed, taught, and applied in matters of life and death by Southeast Asian Buddhists. 228 n The Abhidhamma Genre Scholars have long argued over the dating, canonical status, mode of compilation , method of recording, and provenance of the Abhidhamma. There is no doubt among practitioners that they represent the pinnacle of the Buddha ’s own insight into the complexity of the human mind. According to most scholarly and traditional descriptions of the Abhidhamma, there are seven sections (alternatively called “groupings,” “treatises,” or “volumes”), which are listed in different sequences depending on the school of Buddhism. These seven sections (DhammasaãgaâE, Vibhaãga, Dh1tukath1, Puggalapaññatiipakara âa, Kath1vatthu, Yamaka, and [Mah1]pa••h1na) comprise the third “basket” of the Tipi•aka. These sections or groupings were most likely compiled over several centuries by a diverse group of commentators. Traditional accounts (found in manuscripts and still found in most major introductory textbooks) state that the Buddha proclaimed the seven sections while residing in the T1vatiÅsa heaven over a period of three months. The Buddha’s audience for this exposition was his mother and the worlds of the deities. The seven sections are characterized by long taxonomic lists that cover a wide range of subjects generally relating to the relationships between the sense receptors, emotions, mental states, analytical modes, physical elements, the nature of perception, and conditional relationships between thought, sense, and action and the genesis and result of these conditional relationships . They also include early Buddhist debates, the refutation of various opinions , and specific commentaries on passages from other sections of the Tipi•aka. Quite simply, these massive tomes attempt to describe in detail the psychological nature of the individual and to link that nature to virtuous/nonvirtuous actions and soteriological potentials. Their mastery, if possible, is a mark of intellectual, ethical, and social prestige for teachers and students. The content of these sections has been the subject of commentary and debate in Southeast Asia. Commentaries composed or transmitted in Burma, Laos, and Thailand include the Atthas1linE, MohavicchedanE, SammohavinodanE , G[{hatthadEpanE, Pañcappakaraâa••hakath1, LEnatthavaââan1, Abhidhhamm1vat1ra, Abhidhammatthasaãgaha, Maâis1ramañj[s1, N1mar[papariccheda , and Saccasaãkhepa, among others. Not surprisingly, considering the content of the seven source texts, none of these commentaries includes 229 philosophical embryology instructions on how to generate ephemeral fetuses. None promotes the recitation of Abhidhamma texts at cremation ceremonies or states that individual syllables from the Abhidhamma can be used for ritual protection. However, despite the content of the Abhidhamma and its major commentaries , Lao and Thai monastic teachers have used the Abhidhamma in just these ways. An education on the Abhidhamma in Laos and Thailand is an education not only on the ethical and mental nature of the individual but also on ritual birth and death.2 Mātikā / Matrix / Mother I first came across the ritual and embryological...