Regressus, Embryology and Rebirth: The path of the yogāvacara in meditation texts of Laos, Thailand and Cambodia

Buddhist Khmer and Thai-Lao practitioners have a tradition of meditation that significantly differs from methods depicted in the Pali texts that are today recognized as authoritative on this issue. Although the root of this method can hardly be found in the canonical or commentarial literature of the Mahāvihāra school of Sri Lanka – the cradle of the “Theravāda Buddhism", it mainly rests on a technical vocabulary and notions that are borrowed from the Pali scriptures, in particular that of the Abhidhamma and Buddhaghosa's Visuddhimagga. Some scholars refer to it as the kammaṭṭhān(a) or yogāvacar(a) tradition.

This talk aims to introduce this meditation tradition through texts that have come down to us in the form of manuscripts and the accounts of the rituals and practices associated with them. It will then examine the hypotheses that have been put forward to explain its origins – primarily by François Bizot, who was a pioneer in this field of study – and seek to propose new avenues of investigation.

Gregory Kourilsky is Associate Professor at the École française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO, France), currently in charge of the EFEO center in Bangkok (Thailand). He previously taught History of Thailand and Laos (2008-2009) and Lao Language and Literature (2010-2013) at the National Institute of Foreign Languages and Civilizations (Inalco) in Paris. Between 2013 and 2015, he was a Research Fellow at the University of Bristol (UK). He received his PhD in Religious Anthropology and History of Religions at the École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE), Paris. Gregory Kourilsky specializes in Thai–Lao Buddhism, but also occasionally works on Cambodia, Burma, and Southwest China. His research focuses particularly on how Buddhist populations in Mainland Southeast Asia have maintained religious and cultural identity despite intrusion of non-indigenous doctrines, ranging from Indian classical scriptures to modern Western law. His recent publications focus on Buddhist literature in Pali and vernacular languages in Laos and Thailand, on relations between Thailand and France in the premodern era, and on ancient meditation traditions in mainland Southeast Asia.​​

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