The Abhidhamma and transformations in Theravada meditation.
The Many Lives of Insight The Abhidhamma and transformations in Theravada meditation. Erik Braun Insight meditation, often called “mindfulness meditation,” is one of the—if not the —most powerful forces in the development of modern Buddhism. And it has become a worldwide phenomenon. There are, of course, other important sorts of meditation. There are the varieties of practice in Zen and Tibetan traditions, just to name a couple of areas of fervent activity—not to mention practices outside of Buddhism (Transcendental Meditation, for instance). I focus on insight because, first, originating in the early twentieth century as a mass practice in Burma (now called Myanmar), the practice is tremendously important as a force affecting the Theravada Buddhism of the entire region. In those cultural contexts, we can say that insight meditation—known as vipassanā in the Theravada canonical language of Pali—has transformed the very notion of what it means to be a Buddhist. Furthermor
