Nanavira Thera
Encyclopedia
Ñāṇavīra Thera born Harold Edward Musson (5 January 1920 – 5 July 1965) was an English Theravāda Buddhist
monk, ordained in 1950 in Sri Lanka
. He is known as the author of Notes on Dhamma, which were later published by Path Press
together with his letters in one volume titled Clearing the Path.
, a small town in the Hampshire Downs and was equally influenced by the nearby town of Aldershot
. His father, Edward Lionel Musson, was Captain
in the 1st Manchester Regiment and it is very likely that young Harold spend some time in India
or Southeast Asia while Lionel Musson was on his assignments.
He went to Wellington College
, Berkshire followed by Magdalene College, Cambridge
, in 1938, and spent that summer learning Italian in Perugia
, Italy. In June 1939, he sat for Mathematics
, and in 1940, for Modern Languages (in which he earned a "Class One"). Immediately after the outbreak of war, in 1939, he enlisted in the Territorial Royal Artillery
. In July 1941, he was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in the Intelligence Corps, where his knowledge of modern languages was an important asset (he was an interrogator). In October 1942, he was promoted to Lieutenant, and in April 1944, to Temporary Captain. His overseas service with the British Eighth Army was spent primarily in Italy
, from 1943 to 1946. Despite his military background, a family acquaintance spoke of him as having "completely resented warfare", a sentiment borne out in one of his letters, written in 1964 in Ceylon. Included in the letter were some sardonic comments to the effect that he had much enjoyed travel before his wartime service, and that he agreed with the classification of intelligence into three classes; "human, animal, and military". He received a B.A. degree in Modern and Medieval Languages from Cambridge University for six terms of university study together with three terms allowed for military service.
When the war ended Musson was, according to his own account, in no special need of money and very dissatisfied with his life. In 1948 he was living in London, sharing a flat with a good friend and onetime fellow-officer, Osbert Moore
, who felt similarly dissatisfied. They decided to settle their affairs in England, put society behind them, and go to Ceylon to become Buddhist monks. In 1949 they received Novice Ordination at the Island Hermitage
, Dodanduwa (from Ven. Ñāṇatiloka
), and in 1950 the Higher Ordination as bhikkhus at the Vajirārāma monastery, Colombo
. Osbert Moore
was given the monastic name of Ñāṇamoli
, and Harold Musson that of Ñāṇavīra.
Ñāṇavīra Thera inclined to solitary life and after few years at the Island Hermitage he went to a remote section of southeast Ceylon, where he lived alone for the rest of his life in a one-room, brick-and-plaster kuti (hut) with a tile roof, not far from the village of Bundala, on the edge of a large bird sanctuary. Not long after arriving in Ceylon, he contracted a severe case of amoebiasis
which continued to plague him for the next fifteen years. The tropical climate
and the local food must have been taxing for the physically ailing Westerner. Bhikkhus only accept food which is offered to them by laypeople, and this custom often leaves them with few options concerning their diet. He died on 5 July 1965, by his own hand and deliberate decision. Ñāṇavīra Thera wrote extensively and carefully on the question of suicide, which arose in him because of the severity of the amoebiasis
and satyriasis.
Ñāṇavīra Thera's writings fall into two periods: from 1950 until 1960 (the Early Writings), and from 1960 until 1965 (included in Clearing the Path).
The early texts show a man who, in his own thinking and discussion with others, earnestly searches a way to approach the essence of the Buddha's Teaching by repeated trial-and-error. This search has finally yielded its fruit when, though suffering from amoebiasis
, Ñāṇavīra Thera apparently attained sotāpatti
, or stream-entry
, on 27 June 1959. The one who has "entered the stream" has ipso facto
abandoned personality-view (sakkāya-ditthi), which is the self-view implicit in the experience of an ordinary worldling not free from ignorance, and understood the essential meaning of the Buddha's teaching on the Four Noble Truths
. Ñāṇavīra Thera's writings after 1960 express this very kind of certainty: no more wandering in the dark, no more doubt or speculative guessing.
(including quantum mechanics
). This correspondence lasted until 1960, the year of Ñānamoli Thera's death. Gradually they discovered that the Western thinkers most relevant to their interests were those from the closely allied schools of phenomenology and existentialism
, to whom they found themselves indebted for clearing away a lot of mistaken notions with which they had burdened themselves. These letters make clear the nature of that debt; they also make clear the limitations which Ñāṇavīra Thera recognised in those thinkers. He insists upon the fact that while for certain individuals their value may be great, eventually one must go beyond them if one is to arrive at the essence of the Buddha's Teaching. Existentialism
, then, is in his view an approach to the Buddha's Teaching and not a substitute for it.
Along with the manuscript
letters, which were preserved by the recipient, were found draft copies of some of the replies which were sent to Ñāṇavīra Thera. A few letters written to Ñāṇavīra Thera's chief supporters, Mr. and Mrs. Perera are also included. The two essays following the letters were published: Nibbāna and Anattā and Sketch for a Proof of Rebirth in abbreviated form. In the end there are also the contents of the author's Commonplace Book, Marginalia and a collection of various papers discovered after their author's death (notes, translations, etc.).
The influence of Notes on Dhamma on Buddhist thinkers continues to increase more than three decades after its publication. This book has aroused extreme interest and controversy. The Notes "attempt to provide an intellectual basis for the understanding of the Suttas without abandoning saddhā (faith)"; that they "have been written with the purpose of clearing away a mass of dead matter which is choking the Suttas"; and that, above all, "the Notes are designed to be an invitation to the reader to come and share the author's point of view". The Notes assume that the reader's sole interest in the Pali
Suttas is a concern for his own welfare. However, the Notes, with their admitted intellectual and conceptual difficulties, are not the only way to discuss right view or to offer right-view guidance.
Letters are a selection of 150 letters written by Ñāṇavīra Thera from his kuti in the Bundala Forest Reserve to local and foreign readers of the Notes who had requested explanation and clarification. Some are thinly disguised essays in a wholly modern idiom. The letters which are collected and published in Clearing the Path are not only something of a commentary on the Notes; they are, independently, a lucid discussion of how an individual concerned fundamentally with self-disclosure deals with the dilemma
of finding himself in an intolerable situation, where the least undesirable alternative is suicide.
With openness, calmness, and considerable wit Ñāṇavīra Thera discusses with his correspondents (including his doctor, a judge, a provincial businessman, a barrister, a British diplomat, and another British citizen) the illnesses that plague him and what he can and cannot do about them, and about his own existence. His life as a Buddhist monk in a remote jungle abode is not incidental to the philosophy he expounds: the two are different aspects of the same thing, namely a vision that penetrates into the human situation both as universal and as particular, and recognises that it is this situation which it is the business of each of us to resolve for ourselves. In presenting this view Ñāṇavīra Thera offers a contemporary exposition of the Teaching of the Buddha
. In living this view he evokes a dramatic situation wherein an individual resolutely faces those questions which every lucid person must eventually face. The letters are in language
, idiom
and quotations from a galaxy of thinkers such as Camus
, Heidegger, Kierkegaard, Sartre, Kafka. Though familiar to a Western reader, it can be incomprehensible in part, to anyone without such background.
Most of the editorial work connected with Ñāṇavīra Thera's writings was performed by the late Sāmanera Bodhesako
(Robert Smith), who died in Kathmandu in 1988. During the last years of his life in Sri Lanka
he founded Path Press
which published Clearing the Path: Writings of Ñāṇavīra Thera (1960–1965). He also worked as editor for the Buddhist Publication Society
in Kandy
which published The Tragic, The Comic & The Personal: Selected Letters of Ñánavíra Thera (Wheel 339/341) in 1987. Prof. Forrest Williams of the University of Colorado
also participated as the co-editor of Clearing the Path. It is now out of print. The Buddhist Cultural Centre
decided to issue it in its two constituent parts, Notes on Dhamma and Letters.
Ven. Kheminda Thera – 1964,
Ven. Ñānamoli
– 1945–1960,
Sister Vajirā
– 1961–1962,
Mr. N. Q. Dias
– 1962,
Mrs. Irene Quittner – 1964,
Mr. Wijerama – 1964,
Dr. M. R. de Silva – 1961–1964,
Mr. R. G. de S. Wettimuny
– 1962,
the Honourable Lionel Samaratunga – 1963–1965,
Mr. Ananda Pereira – 1964–1965,
Mr. Robert Brady – 1964–1965,
Mr. G. – 1964.
German:
About Ven Ñāṇavīra:
Theravada
Theravada ; literally, "the Teaching of the Elders" or "the Ancient Teaching", is the oldest surviving Buddhist school. It was founded in India...
monk, ordained in 1950 in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
. He is known as the author of Notes on Dhamma, which were later published by Path Press
Path Press
Path Press is a non-profit entity, which handles legal matters and holds the copyrights of all Ven. Ñāṇavīra Thera's writings together with some the writings from others; Path Press Publications is an independent for-profit publisher of books, Nanavira Thera Dhamma Page, and databases in the...
together with his letters in one volume titled Clearing the Path.
Biography
Harold Edward Musson was born in the military barracks in England. He spend his youth in the environs of AltonAlton, Hampshire
Alton is a historic market town and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of the English county of Hampshire. It had a population of 16,584 at the 1991 census and is administered by East Hampshire district council. It is located on the source of the River Wey and is the highest town in...
, a small town in the Hampshire Downs and was equally influenced by the nearby town of Aldershot
Aldershot
Aldershot is a town in the English county of Hampshire, located on heathland about southwest of London. The town is administered by Rushmoor Borough Council...
. His father, Edward Lionel Musson, was Captain
Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)
Captain is a junior officer rank of the British Army and Royal Marines. It ranks above Lieutenant and below Major and has a NATO ranking code of OF-2. The rank is equivalent to a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy and to a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force...
in the 1st Manchester Regiment and it is very likely that young Harold spend some time in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
or Southeast Asia while Lionel Musson was on his assignments.
He went to Wellington College
Wellington College, Berkshire
-Former pupils:Notable former pupils include historian P. J. Marshall, architect Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, impressionist Rory Bremner, Adolphus Cambridge, 1st Marquess of Cambridge, author Sebastian Faulks, language school pioneer John Haycraft, political journalist Robin Oakley, actor Sir Christopher...
, Berkshire followed by Magdalene College, Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
, in 1938, and spent that summer learning Italian in Perugia
Perugia
Perugia is the capital city of the region of Umbria in central Italy, near the River Tiber, and the capital of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome. It covers a high hilltop and part of the valleys around the area....
, Italy. In June 1939, he sat for Mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
, and in 1940, for Modern Languages (in which he earned a "Class One"). Immediately after the outbreak of war, in 1939, he enlisted in the Territorial Royal Artillery
Royal Artillery
The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery , is the artillery arm of the British Army. Despite its name, it comprises a number of regiments.-History:...
. In July 1941, he was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in the Intelligence Corps, where his knowledge of modern languages was an important asset (he was an interrogator). In October 1942, he was promoted to Lieutenant, and in April 1944, to Temporary Captain. His overseas service with the British Eighth Army was spent primarily in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, from 1943 to 1946. Despite his military background, a family acquaintance spoke of him as having "completely resented warfare", a sentiment borne out in one of his letters, written in 1964 in Ceylon. Included in the letter were some sardonic comments to the effect that he had much enjoyed travel before his wartime service, and that he agreed with the classification of intelligence into three classes; "human, animal, and military". He received a B.A. degree in Modern and Medieval Languages from Cambridge University for six terms of university study together with three terms allowed for military service.
When the war ended Musson was, according to his own account, in no special need of money and very dissatisfied with his life. In 1948 he was living in London, sharing a flat with a good friend and onetime fellow-officer, Osbert Moore
Nanamoli Bhikkhu
Ñāṇamoli Bhikkhu, born Osbert Moore, was a British Theravada Buddhist monk and Pali scholar, educated at Exeter College, Oxford....
, who felt similarly dissatisfied. They decided to settle their affairs in England, put society behind them, and go to Ceylon to become Buddhist monks. In 1949 they received Novice Ordination at the Island Hermitage
Island Hermitage
Island Hermitage on Dodanduwa Island, Galle District, Sri Lanka is a famous Buddhist forest monastery founded by Ven. Nyanatiloka Mahathera in 1911. It has an excellent English and German library...
, Dodanduwa (from Ven. Ñāṇatiloka
Nyanatiloka
Nyanatiloka Mahathera , born as Anton Gueth, was one of the earliest westerners in modern times to become a Bhikkhu, a fully ordained Buddhist monk.-Early life and education:...
), and in 1950 the Higher Ordination as bhikkhus at the Vajirārāma monastery, Colombo
Colombo
Colombo is the largest city of Sri Lanka. It is located on the west coast of the island and adjacent to Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte, the capital of Sri Lanka. Colombo is often referred to as the capital of the country, since Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte is a satellite city of Colombo...
. Osbert Moore
Nanamoli Bhikkhu
Ñāṇamoli Bhikkhu, born Osbert Moore, was a British Theravada Buddhist monk and Pali scholar, educated at Exeter College, Oxford....
was given the monastic name of Ñāṇamoli
Nanamoli Bhikkhu
Ñāṇamoli Bhikkhu, born Osbert Moore, was a British Theravada Buddhist monk and Pali scholar, educated at Exeter College, Oxford....
, and Harold Musson that of Ñāṇavīra.
Ñāṇavīra Thera inclined to solitary life and after few years at the Island Hermitage he went to a remote section of southeast Ceylon, where he lived alone for the rest of his life in a one-room, brick-and-plaster kuti (hut) with a tile roof, not far from the village of Bundala, on the edge of a large bird sanctuary. Not long after arriving in Ceylon, he contracted a severe case of amoebiasis
Amoebiasis
Entamebiasis is a term for the infection more commonly known as amoebiasis.It became the preferred term in MeSH in 1991, but the term amoebiasis is used by the World Health Organization and by those working in the field of amoebiasis research....
which continued to plague him for the next fifteen years. The tropical climate
Tropical climate
A tropical climate is a climate of the tropics. In the Köppen climate classification it is a non-arid climate in which all twelve months have mean temperatures above...
and the local food must have been taxing for the physically ailing Westerner. Bhikkhus only accept food which is offered to them by laypeople, and this custom often leaves them with few options concerning their diet. He died on 5 July 1965, by his own hand and deliberate decision. Ñāṇavīra Thera wrote extensively and carefully on the question of suicide, which arose in him because of the severity of the amoebiasis
Amoebiasis
Entamebiasis is a term for the infection more commonly known as amoebiasis.It became the preferred term in MeSH in 1991, but the term amoebiasis is used by the World Health Organization and by those working in the field of amoebiasis research....
and satyriasis.
Writings
The early texts show a man who, in his own thinking and discussion with others, earnestly searches a way to approach the essence of the Buddha's Teaching by repeated trial-and-error. This search has finally yielded its fruit when, though suffering from amoebiasis
Amoebiasis
Entamebiasis is a term for the infection more commonly known as amoebiasis.It became the preferred term in MeSH in 1991, but the term amoebiasis is used by the World Health Organization and by those working in the field of amoebiasis research....
, Ñāṇavīra Thera apparently attained sotāpatti
Sotapanna
In Buddhism, a Sotāpanna , Srotāpanna , or "stream-winner" is a person who has eradicated the first three fetters of the mind. Sotapanna literally means "one who entered the stream ", after a metaphor which calls the Noble Eightfold Path, 'a stream'...
, or stream-entry
Sotapanna
In Buddhism, a Sotāpanna , Srotāpanna , or "stream-winner" is a person who has eradicated the first three fetters of the mind. Sotapanna literally means "one who entered the stream ", after a metaphor which calls the Noble Eightfold Path, 'a stream'...
, on 27 June 1959. The one who has "entered the stream" has ipso facto
Ipso facto
Ipso facto is a Latin phrase, directly translated as "by the fact itself," which means that a certain phenomenon is a direct consequence, a resultant effect, of the action in question, instead of being brought about by a subsequent action such as the verdict of a tribunal. It is a term of art used...
abandoned personality-view (sakkāya-ditthi), which is the self-view implicit in the experience of an ordinary worldling not free from ignorance, and understood the essential meaning of the Buddha's teaching on the Four Noble Truths
Four Noble Truths
The Four Noble Truths are an important principle in Buddhism, classically taught by the Buddha in the Dharmacakra Pravartana Sūtra....
. Ñāṇavīra Thera's writings after 1960 express this very kind of certainty: no more wandering in the dark, no more doubt or speculative guessing.
Early Writings – Seeking the Path (1950–1960)
The main portion of the Early Writings consists of letters written to late Ñānamoli Thera, where the two English monks explored many modes of Western thoughtWestern thought
The term Western thought is usually associated with the cultural tradition that traces its origins to Greek thought and the Abrahamic religions...
(including quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics, also known as quantum physics or quantum theory, is a branch of physics providing a mathematical description of much of the dual particle-like and wave-like behavior and interactions of energy and matter. It departs from classical mechanics primarily at the atomic and subatomic...
). This correspondence lasted until 1960, the year of Ñānamoli Thera's death. Gradually they discovered that the Western thinkers most relevant to their interests were those from the closely allied schools of phenomenology and existentialism
Existentialism
Existentialism is a term applied to a school of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual...
, to whom they found themselves indebted for clearing away a lot of mistaken notions with which they had burdened themselves. These letters make clear the nature of that debt; they also make clear the limitations which Ñāṇavīra Thera recognised in those thinkers. He insists upon the fact that while for certain individuals their value may be great, eventually one must go beyond them if one is to arrive at the essence of the Buddha's Teaching. Existentialism
Existentialism
Existentialism is a term applied to a school of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual...
, then, is in his view an approach to the Buddha's Teaching and not a substitute for it.
Along with the manuscript
Manuscript
A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...
letters, which were preserved by the recipient, were found draft copies of some of the replies which were sent to Ñāṇavīra Thera. A few letters written to Ñāṇavīra Thera's chief supporters, Mr. and Mrs. Perera are also included. The two essays following the letters were published: Nibbāna and Anattā and Sketch for a Proof of Rebirth in abbreviated form. In the end there are also the contents of the author's Commonplace Book, Marginalia and a collection of various papers discovered after their author's death (notes, translations, etc.).
Later Writings – Clearing the Path (1960–1965)
In 1963, Ñāṇavīra Thera completed a book called Notes on Dhamma (1960–1963), which was privately published by the Honourable Lionel Samaratunga in the same year (250 copies). Following production of that volume, the author amended and added to the text, leaving at his death an expanded typescript, indicated by the titular expansion of its dates, (1960–1965). Notes on Dhamma has been variously described as "arrogant, scathing, and condescending", as "a fantastic system", and as "the most important book to be written in this century". Ñāṇavīra 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 them".The influence of Notes on Dhamma on Buddhist thinkers continues to increase more than three decades after its publication. This book has aroused extreme interest and controversy. The Notes "attempt to provide an intellectual basis for the understanding of the Suttas without abandoning saddhā (faith)"; that they "have been written with the purpose of clearing away a mass of dead matter which is choking the Suttas"; and that, above all, "the Notes are designed to be an invitation to the reader to come and share the author's point of view". The Notes assume that the reader's sole interest in the Pali
Páli
- External links :* *...
Suttas is a concern for his own welfare. However, the Notes, with their admitted intellectual and conceptual difficulties, are not the only way to discuss right view or to offer right-view guidance.
Dilemma
A dilemma |proposition]]") is a problem offering two possibilities, neither of which is practically acceptable. One in this position has been traditionally described as "being on the horns of a dilemma", neither horn being comfortable...
of finding himself in an intolerable situation, where the least undesirable alternative is suicide.
With openness, calmness, and considerable wit Ñāṇavīra Thera discusses with his correspondents (including his doctor, a judge, a provincial businessman, a barrister, a British diplomat, and another British citizen) the illnesses that plague him and what he can and cannot do about them, and about his own existence. His life as a Buddhist monk in a remote jungle abode is not incidental to the philosophy he expounds: the two are different aspects of the same thing, namely a vision that penetrates into the human situation both as universal and as particular, and recognises that it is this situation which it is the business of each of us to resolve for ourselves. In presenting this view Ñāṇavīra Thera offers a contemporary exposition of the Teaching of the Buddha
Gautama Buddha
Siddhārtha Gautama was a spiritual teacher from the Indian subcontinent, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. In most Buddhist traditions, he is regarded as the Supreme Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama (Sanskrit: सिद्धार्थ गौतम; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual teacher from the Indian...
. In living this view he evokes a dramatic situation wherein an individual resolutely faces those questions which every lucid person must eventually face. The letters are in language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
, idiom
Idiom
Idiom is an expression, word, or phrase that has a figurative meaning that is comprehended in regard to a common use of that expression that is separate from the literal meaning or definition of the words of which it is made...
and quotations from a galaxy of thinkers such as Camus
Albert Camus
Albert Camus was a French author, journalist, and key philosopher of the 20th century. In 1949, Camus founded the Group for International Liaisons within the Revolutionary Union Movement, which was opposed to some tendencies of the Surrealist movement of André Breton.Camus was awarded the 1957...
, Heidegger, Kierkegaard, Sartre, Kafka. Though familiar to a Western reader, it can be incomprehensible in part, to anyone without such background.
Most of the editorial work connected with Ñāṇavīra Thera's writings was performed by the late Sāmanera Bodhesako
Samanera Bodhesako
Sāmanera Bodhesako was an American Buddhist monk. Born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1939, he studied at the University of Iowa, specializing in Literature and Creative Writing...
(Robert Smith), who died in Kathmandu in 1988. During the last years of his life in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
he founded Path Press
Path Press
Path Press is a non-profit entity, which handles legal matters and holds the copyrights of all Ven. Ñāṇavīra Thera's writings together with some the writings from others; Path Press Publications is an independent for-profit publisher of books, Nanavira Thera Dhamma Page, and databases in the...
which published Clearing the Path: Writings of Ñāṇavīra Thera (1960–1965). He also worked as editor for the Buddhist Publication Society
Buddhist Publication Society
The Buddhist Publication Society is a charity whose goal is to explain and spread the doctrine of the Buddha. It was founded in Sri Lanka in 1958 by two Sri Lankan Buddhist laymen, A.S. Karunaratna and Richard Abeyasekera, and a European-born Buddhist monk, Nyanaponika Thera...
in Kandy
Kandy
Kandy is a city in the center of Sri Lanka. It was the last capital of the ancient kings' era of Sri Lanka. The city lies in the midst of hills in the Kandy plateau, which crosses an area of tropical plantations, mainly tea. Kandy is one of the most scenic cities in Sri Lanka; it is both an...
which published The Tragic, The Comic & The Personal: Selected Letters of Ñánavíra Thera (Wheel 339/341) in 1987. Prof. Forrest Williams of the University of Colorado
University of Colorado at Boulder
The University of Colorado Boulder is a public research university located in Boulder, Colorado...
also participated as the co-editor of Clearing the Path. It is now out of print. The Buddhist Cultural Centre
Buddhist Cultural Centre
Buddhist Cultural Centre in Sri Lanka was founded by Sri Lankan Kirama Wimalajothi Thero, after dedicated religious service in Malaysia, Singapore and the US for nearly 20 years. It was opened on January 2, 1992 under the patronage of Dr. K. Sri Dhammananda, chief Sanghanayake of Malaysia and...
decided to issue it in its two constituent parts, Notes on Dhamma and Letters.
Correspondents
The receivers of Ven. Nanavira's letters which are available were:Ven. Kheminda Thera – 1964,
Ven. Ñānamoli
Nanamoli Bhikkhu
Ñāṇamoli Bhikkhu, born Osbert Moore, was a British Theravada Buddhist monk and Pali scholar, educated at Exeter College, Oxford....
– 1945–1960,
Sister Vajirā
Sister Vajira
Sister Vajirā was a dasa sil mata, a Buddhist ten precept-holder nun in Sri Lanka.-Lay Life:Hannelore was looking for religious meanings and in early summer 1949 she came across the teachings of the Buddha...
– 1961–1962,
Mr. N. Q. Dias
N. Q. Dias
Neil Quintus "N.Q." Dias, CCS was a Sri Lankan civil servant. He was the former Permanent Secretary of Defence and Foreign Affairs and the Registrar General. Dias served as the Ceylon's High Commissioner to India from 1970 to 1972. He was the founding President of the Government Services Buddhist...
– 1962,
Mrs. Irene Quittner – 1964,
Mr. Wijerama – 1964,
Dr. M. R. de Silva – 1961–1964,
Mr. R. G. de S. Wettimuny
R. G. de S. Wettimuny
- Writings :He was attracted to the Dhamma from his young days and, in the later stages of his life, he practically gave up wordily activities and devoted himself entirely to Dhamma....
– 1962,
the Honourable Lionel Samaratunga – 1963–1965,
Mr. Ananda Pereira – 1964–1965,
Mr. Robert Brady – 1964–1965,
Mr. G. – 1964.
Published Books
English:- Notes on Dhamma, Path Press Publications, 2009, ISBN 987 94 6090 001 3
- Letters to Sister Vajirā, Path Press Publications, 2010, ISBN 987 94 6090 002 0
- Clearing the Path, Path Press, 1987 (out of print)
- Clearing the Path, Path Press Publications, 2011, ISBN 987 94 6090 004 4
- Seeking the Path, Path Press Publications, 2011, ISBN 987 94 6090 003 7
- The Tragic, the Comic, and Personal, BPS, 1987, ISBN 978 955 24 0000 1
German:
- Notizen zu Dhamma, Verlag Beyerlein-Steinschulte, ISBN 978-3-931095-63-5
About Ven Ñāṇavīra:
- The Hermit of Bundala, by Bhikkhu H. Ñāṇasuci (forthcoming)
Websites
- Ñāṇavīra Thera Dhamma Page – An archive of Ñāṇavīra Thera's writings.
- Path Press – Copyright holder of works by Ñāṇavīra Thera, Bodhesako, etc.
- Path Press Publications – Publishers of works by Ñāṇavīra Thera, Bodhesako, etc.
- Ñāṇavīra Thera Dhamma Page – Forum