Path Press
Encyclopedia
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 Buddhist philosophy
, and writings of Ven. Ñāṇavīra Thera
and Samanera Bodhesako
. It has office in United Kingdom
.
The Path Press is also a society whose goal is to explain and spread the doctrine of the Buddha
. It was founded in Sri Lanka
in 1987 by Samanera Bodhesako
. Originally conceived as a limited effort to publish Clearing the Path but later become an entity who is lolding copiright of writing of Ñanavíra Thera and it consist of the small group of 5 bhikkhu
s and 3 layman (upāsakas
) who are aspiring to make late Ven. Ñanavíra Thera's teachings more available for those who are interested.
to issue other volumes to the present work; and there are a few other writings, unpublished or now out of print, which, like Clearing the Path, are of high quality, worthy of publication or reprinting. Therefore it was established a publishing house, called 'Path Press Publications'.
These writings are probably not commercially viable; nor do they represent the views of any established sect, school or university which might sponsor their publication. The idea has been put forward that inasmuch as Path Press has already published one book of this type it could use that experience as a basis for issuing those occasional writings which are of exceptional merit and yet do not attract established publishers.
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".
And 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 recognizes 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.
Nanavira Thera
Ñāṇavīra Thera born Harold Edward Musson was an English Theravāda Buddhist monk, ordained in 1950 in Sri Lanka...
'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 Buddhist philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
, and writings of Ven. Ñāṇavīra Thera
Nanavira Thera
Ñāṇavīra Thera born Harold Edward Musson was an English Theravāda Buddhist monk, ordained in 1950 in Sri Lanka...
and Samanera 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...
. It has office in United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
.
The Path Press is also a society whose goal is to explain and spread the doctrine 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...
. It was founded 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...
in 1987 by Samanera 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...
. Originally conceived as a limited effort to publish Clearing the Path but later become an entity who is lolding copiright of writing of Ñanavíra Thera and it consist of the small group of 5 bhikkhu
Bhikkhu
A Bhikkhu or Bhikṣu is an ordained male Buddhist monastic. A female monastic is called a Bhikkhuni Nepali: ). The life of Bhikkhus and Bhikkhunis is governed by a set of rules called the patimokkha within the vinaya's framework of monastic discipline...
s and 3 layman (upāsakas
Upasaka
Upāsaka or Upāsikā are from the Sanskrit and Pāli words for "attendant". This is the title of followers of Buddhism who are not monks, nuns, or novice monastics in a Buddhist order, and who undertake certain vows...
) who are aspiring to make late Ven. Ñanavíra Thera's teachings more available for those who are interested.
About
Path Press was a name of convenience, originally intended to include those who, through the years, have contributed their various talents to bring Clearing the Path to realization. Path Press was not planned to be an ongoing publishing house. However, it now turns out that there remains sufficient worthwhile materials from the writings of the Venerable Ven. Ñāṇavīra TheraNanavira Thera
Ñāṇavīra Thera born Harold Edward Musson was an English Theravāda Buddhist monk, ordained in 1950 in Sri Lanka...
to issue other volumes to the present work; and there are a few other writings, unpublished or now out of print, which, like Clearing the Path, are of high quality, worthy of publication or reprinting. Therefore it was established a publishing house, called 'Path Press Publications'.
These writings are probably not commercially viable; nor do they represent the views of any established sect, school or university which might sponsor their publication. The idea has been put forward that inasmuch as Path Press has already published one book of this type it could use that experience as a basis for issuing those occasional writings which are of exceptional merit and yet do not attract established publishers.
Clearing the Path (1960–1965)
Clearing the Path was the most important work for Path Press.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".
And 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.
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
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
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
.
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
Existence
In common usage, existence is the world we are aware of through our senses, and that persists independently without them. In academic philosophy the word has a more specialized meaning, being contrasted with essence, which specifies different forms of existence as well as different identity...
. His life as a Buddhist monk in a remote jungle abode is not incidental to the philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
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 recognizes 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 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.
Books
- 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 (forthcoming)
- Seeking the Path, Path Press Publications, 2011, ISBN 987 94 6090 003 7 (forthcoming)
- The Tragic, the Comic, and Personal, BPS, 1987, ISBN 978 955 24 0000 1
- The Hermit of Bundala, by Bhikkhu H. Ñāṇasuci (forthcoming)
Websites
- www.nanavira.org - Ñāṇavīra Thera Dhamma Page
- www.pathpress.org - Path Press
- www.pathpresspublications.com - Path Press Publications
- www.nanavira.top-talk.net - Ñāṇavīra Thera Dhamma Page - Forum