Phra Lakkhaṇa Dhamma: A Unique Siamese Meditation Text of the Late 18th Century

Abstract

The present article is the product of ongoing research by the present authors into pre-reform meditation traditions in Siam. Historical and textual circumstances indicate that the Phra Lakkhaṇa Dhamma (lit., the honorable characteristics of Dhamma) the meditation manuscript under our study here, was copied during the reign of King Taksin (r.1767–1782), the founder of Thonburi, post-Ayutthaya Siam. The manuscript has, until now, been kept unstudied at Wat Hongrattanaram, one of the most important temples during Taksin’s reign, located adjacent to this palace in Thonburi city. The authors, while engaged in researching manuscript collections in Thonburi, were shown this important manuscript. Its contents clearly show this to have been aligned with what some contemporary authors have designated the boran kammatthan (“old-” or “traditional meditation”) or yogāvacara (“meditation practitioner”) tradition that flourished in pre-modern Siam and has been the subject of recent research by the present authors and others. In this article, the manuscript is described, summarily translated, and contextualised, and its meditational contents are analysed.