EDITORS' FOREWORD



Clearing the Path is a work book. Its purpose is to help the user to acquire a point of view that is different from his customary frame of reference, and also more satisfactory. Necessarily, an early step in accomplishing this change is the abandonment of specific mistaken notions about the Buddha's Teaching and about the nature of experience. More fundamentally, however, this initial change in specific views may lead to a change in point-of-view, whereby one comes to understand experience from a perspective different from what one has been accustomed to -- a perspective in which intention, responsibility, context, conditionality, hunger, and related terms will describe the fundamental categories of one's perception and thinking -- and which can lead, eventually, to a fundamental insight about the nature of personal existence.

Such a change of attitude seldom occurs without considerable prior development, and this book is intended to serve as a tool in fostering that development. As such it is meant to be lived with rather than read and set aside. These notions are developed more fully throughout Clearing the Path but it is as well that they be stated concisely at the outset so that there need be no mistaking who this book is for: those who find their present mode of existence unsatisfactory and who sense, however vaguely, the need to make a fundamental change not in the world but in themselves.

Clearing the Path has its genesis in Notes on Dhamma (1960-1963), printed privately by the Honourable Lionel Samaratunga (Dewalepola, Ceylon, 1963 -- see L. 63). 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). Together with the Ven. Ñánavíra Thera's typescript was a cover letter:

To the Prospective Publisher:

The author wishes to make it clear that Notes on Dhamma is not a work of scholarship: an Orientalist (in casu a Pali scholar), if he is no more than that, is unlikely to make very much of the book, whose general tone, besides, he may not altogether approve. Though it does not set out to be learned in a scholarly sense, the book is very far from being a popular exposition of Buddhism. It is perhaps best regarded as a philosophical commentary on the essential teachings of the Pali Suttas, and presenting fairly considerable difficulties, particularly to 'objective' or positivist thinkers, who will not easily see what the book is driving at. From a publisher's point of view this is no doubt unfortunate; but the fact is that the teaching contained in the Pali Suttas is (to say the least) a great deal more difficult -- even if also a great deal more rewarding -- than is commonly supposed; and the author is not of the opinion that Notes on Dhamma makes the subject more difficult than it actually is.

The difficulties referred to in this cover letter gave rise to extensive correspondence between the Ven. Ñánavíra and various laypeople who sought clarification and expansion of both specific points and general attitudes and methods of inquiry. The author devoted considerable energy to this correspondence: some letters run to five thousand words, and three drafts was not uncommon. From one point of view the Ven. Ñánavíra's letters may be seen as belonging to the epistolary tradition, a tradition refined in an earlier era when much serious philosophical and literary discussion was conducted on a personal basis within a small circle of thinkers. On another view many of the letters can be regarded as thinly disguised essays in a wholly modern tradition. Indeed, one of these letters (L. 2) was published some years ago (in the 'Bodhi Leaf' series of the Buddhist Publication Society), stripped of its salutation and a few personal remarks, as just such an essay. The author himself offers a third view of the letters in remarking that at least those letters which contain direct discussion of Dhamma points 'are, in a sense, something of a commentary on the Notes' (L. 53). In this perspective the letters can be seen as both expansions and clarifications of the more formal discussions in the Notes. Those who find the mode of thought of the Notes initially forbidding might profitably regard the letters as a useful channel of entry.


This volume contains the revised and expanded version of Notes on Dhamma in its entirety. It is altered from its author's original scheme (see L. 48, last paragraph) in the following ways:

1) In the author's typescript the English translations of all Pali passages were placed in a separate section, after the Glossary, entitled 'Translations (with additional texts)', which contained the cautionary remark, 'These renderings of quoted Pali passages are as nearly literal and consistent as English will allow; but even so, they must be accepted with reserve.' These translations have now been incorporated into the main body of Notes on Dhamma alongside their respective Pali passages.

2) As a consequence of this, the section following the Glossary has been retitled as 'Additional Texts' and those texts (which are not quoted in the main body of Notes on Dhamma but are indicated therein by superscript numbers) have been renumbered.

3) In 'Shorter Notes' each subsidiary note appears as a footnote at the bottom of its respective page rather than (as the author had intended) at the end of the larger note to which it was attached.

No other alterations have been made from the original typescript. However, the editors wish to point out that

a) in the note on BALA a more likely reading for the Anguttara passage quoted therein would be: Tatra bhikkhave yam idam bhávanábalam sekham etam balam. Sekham hi so bhikkhave balam ágamma rágam pajahati....

b) Additional Text 17 (Majjhima xiv,8) is quoted by the author as it is printed in the Burmese, Sinhalese, and Thai recensions as well as the P.T.S. edition; nevertheless the texts would seem to contain a corruption common to all of them (and therefore probably ancient) involving the word anupádá in both the first and the penultimate sentences quoted. No doubt these should read upádá (and the word 'not' would therefore be deleted from the translation of those lines). Anupádá in Sutta usage refers, apparently, only to the arahat's lack of upádána. A puthujjana failing in his attempt at holding any thing would be described in different terms in Pali -- perhaps as upádániyam alabhamáno, 'not getting what can be held', or some similar construction. A parallel to the Majjhima passage is to be found at Khandha Samyutta 7: iii,16-18, where the reading is upádá, not anupádá. Although it is our place to note such points, it is not our place to alter them, and in this matter the Ven. Ñánavíra's text has been allowed to stand unchanged (as he quite properly allowed the Pali to stand unchanged).

In the editing of the letters (which were collected during the first years after the author's death)[1] no constraints such as those pertaining to Notes on Dhamma apply: considerable material regarded as superfluous has been pared away, and of what remains a certain amount of standardization has been quietly attended to, principally citation of quoted material. In keeping with the less formal structure of the letters Sutta references are cited in a less formal (but self-explanatory) manner than that used in the Notes. Books frequently quoted from are cited in abbreviated form. A key to those abbreviations is to be found at the head of the Acknowledgements.

Where translations of French writings exist we have in most cases quoted the published version. (French passages were quoted in the original in letters to Mr. Brady, but herein English translations have been substituted.) However, the translations provided by the author in Notes on Dhamma have been retained.














ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS



Books frequently cited or quoted in the Letters are indicated therein in abbreviated form. Abbreviations used are as follows:

6ET =
PL =
Myth =
PQM =
B&T =
CUP =
M&L =
B&N =
EN =
MIL =
 Blackham, Six Existentialist Thinkers
Bradley, Principles of Logic
Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus
Dirac, Principles of Quantum Mechanics
Heidegger, Being and Time
Kierkegaard, Concluding Unscientific Postscript
Russell, Mysticism and Logic
Sartre, Being and Nothingness
Sartre, L'Être et le Néant
Stebbing, A Modern Introduction to Logic.

We thank the many publishers who gave permission to use copyrighted material in this book. Publication data on material quoted or discussed in Clearing the Path:


Balfour, Gerald William, Earl of. A Study of the Psychological Aspects of Mrs Willett's Mediumship, and of the Statement of the Communicators Concerning Process. London: Society for Psychical Research, Proceedings, Vol. XLIII (May, 1935).

Blackham, H. J. Six Existentialist Thinkers. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1951; New York: Macmillan, 1952; Harper Torchbooks, 1959.

Bradley, F. H. Appearance and Reality. London: Oxford University Press, (1893) 1962.

________. Principles of Logic. London: Oxford University Press, (1881) 1958.

Camus, Albert. Exile and the Kingdom, translated by Justin O'Brien. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1958; Penguin, 1962; New York; Random House, 1965; Vintage Books, 1965.

________. The Fall, translated by Justin O'Brien. New York: Knopf, 1964; London: Penguin, 1984.

________. Le Mythe de Sisyphe. Paris: Gallimard, 1942.

________. The Myth of Sisyphus, translated by Justin O'Brien. New York: Vintage, 1955.

________. Noces. Paris: Gallimard, 1959.

________. The Rebel, translated by Anthony Bower. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1953; Penguin, 1962.

________. Selected Essays and Notebooks, edited and translated by Philip Thody. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1970; Penguin, 1970; New York: Knopf, 1970.

Connolly, Cyril: see Palinurus (pen name)

Dirac, P. A. M. The Principles of Quantum Mechanics. London: Oxford University Press, (1930) 4th edition, 1958.

Dostoievsky, Fyodor. The Possessed. The Ven. Ñánavíra seems to have had an Italian translation of The Possessed, from which he rendered passages into English.

Einstein, Albert. The World As I See It, translated by Alan Harris. London: John Lane The Bodley Head, 1935; New York: Citadel, 1979.

Eliot, T. S. Poems [1901-1962]. London: Faber & Faber, 1974; New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1963.

Ferm, Vergilius, editor. An Encyclopedia of Religion. New York: Philosophical Library, 1945.

Gallie, W. B. Peirce and Pragmatism. London: Pelican, 1952.

Graves, Robert. The White Goddess. London: Faber & Faber, 1948; New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1960 (rev. & enlgd.).

Grenier, Jean. Absolu et Choix. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1961.

Grimsley, R. Existentialist Thought. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1955.

Heidegger, Martin. Being and Time, translated by J. Macquarrie and E. S. Robinson. London: SCM Press, 1962; New York: Harper & Row, 1962. © Basil Blackwell.

________. What is Philosophy?, translated by William Kluback and Jean T. Wilde. London: Vision Press, 1956; New York: New College University Press, 1956.

Housman, A. E. Collected Poems. London: Jonathan Cape Ltd., (1939) 1960; The Society of Authors as the literary representative of the Estate of A. E. Housman.

Husserl, Edmund. 'Phenomenology' in Encyclopaedia Britannica, 14th edition (1955), 17:669-702.

Huxley, Aldous. Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell. London: Chatto & Windus, 1968; New York: Harper & Row, 1970. © Mrs Laura Huxley.

________. Proper Studies. London: Chatto & Windus, (1927) 1949; © Mrs Laura Huxley.

Jaspers, Karl. Philosophie. Berlin: Springer, 1932.

Jefferson, Prof. Sir Geoffrey, F. R. S. 'Anatomy of Consciousness' in Triangle, the Sandoz Journal of Medical Science, Vol. 5, No. 2, 1961, pp. 96-100. Basle: Sandoz.

Kafka, Franz. The Castle, translated by Willa and Edwin Muir. London: Secker & Warburg, 1930; Penguin, 1957; New York: Knopf, 1968.

________. The Trial, translated by Willa and Edwin Muir. London: Victor Gollancz, 1935; Penguin, 1953; New York: Knopf, 1968.

Kierkegaard, Søren. Concluding Unscientific Postscript, translated by David F. Swenson. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1941; London: Oxford University Press, 1945.

________. Either/Or, translated by David F. and Lillian M. Swenson and Walter Lowrie. London: Oxford University Press, 1941.

________. Journals, translated by Alexander Dru. London: Oxford University Press, 1939.

________. Philosophical Fragments, translated by David F. Swenson. Princeton: Princeton University Press, © 1936, © 1962.

Maugham, Robin. 'I Solve the Strange Riddle of the Buddhist Monk from Aldershot' in The People. London: 26 September 1965.

McTaggart, John M. E. The Nature of Existence. London: Cambridge University Press, 1921-27.

Ñánamoli Thera. Path of Purification. Colombo: A. Semage, 1956.

Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Genealogy of Morals, translated by Horace B. Samuel. Edinburgh: J. N. Foulis, 1910.

________. Beyond Good and Evil, translated by Walter Kaufman. New York: Vintage, 1966.

Oppenheimer, Robert. Science and the Common Understanding. London: Oxford University Press, 1954.

Palinurus. The Unquiet Grave. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1945.

Russell, Bertrand. An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth. London: Allen & Unwin, 1940; Pelican, 1962.

________. Mysticism and Logic. © Allen & Unwin. London: Pelican, (1918) 1953.

________. Nightmares of Eminent Persons, and Other Stories. London: Bodley Head, 1954.

Sartre, Jean-Paul. Being and Nothingness, translated by Hazel E. Barnes. London: Methuen, 1957; New York: Philosophical Library, 1957.

________. L'Être et le Néant. Paris: Gallimard, 1943.

________. Esquisse d'une Théorie des Émotions. Paris: Hermann, 1939.

________. L'Imagination. Paris: Alcan, 1936.

________. Imagination: A Psychological Critique, translated by Forrest Williams. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1962.

________. Troubled Sleep, translated (from La Mort dans l'âme) by Gerard Hopkins. New York: Bantam Books, 1961.

Schopenhauer, Arthur. The Wisdom of Life: Being the First Part of Aphorismen Zur Lebensweisheit, translated by T. Bailey Saunders. London: Allen & Unwin, 1890.

Stcherbatsky, T. The Conception of Buddhist Nirvána. Leningrad, 1927.

Stebbing, L. Susan. A Modern Introduction to Logic. London: Methuen, (1930) 5th edition, 1946.

Tennent, Sir James Emerson. Christianity in Ceylon. London: John Murray, 1850.

Uexküll, Prof. Dr. Thure von. 'Fear and Hope in Our Time' in The Medical Mirror. A Journal for the Medical Profession, No. 6/1963. Darmstadt: E. Merck AG.

Warren, Henry Clarke. Buddhism in Translations. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1896; New York, Athaneum, 1963.

Wettimuny, R. G. de S. Buddhism and Its Relation to Religion and Science. Colombo: Gunasena, 1962.

________. The Buddha's Teaching -- Its Essential Meaning. Colombo: Gunasena, 1969.

________. The Buddha's Teaching and the Ambiguity of Existence. Colombo: Gunasena, 1978.

Wittgenstein, Ludwig. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, translated by D. F. Pears and B. F. McGuinness. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul: 1961; New York: Humanities Press, 1961.

Zaehner, R. C. Mysticism: Sacred and Profane. London: Oxford University Press, 1957









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Footnote:

[1] Since 1965 numerous personal copies of the material contained in this volume have been made by interested individuals. In addition, in 1974-75, the Council on Research and Creative Work of the University of Colorado provided a grant-in-aid for the typing and reproduction (by photocopy) of thirty-five copies of an edition containing Notes on Dhamma and a less-complete version of the Letters than is contained herein. In 1987 the Buddhist Publication Society published a booklet ('The Tragic, the Comic and The Personal: Selected Letters of Ñánavíra Thera', Wheel 339/341) containing excerpts from thirty letters. [Back to text]