Abstract
The pure mind is a key teaching of the Thai Forest Movement. Its characteristics are sentience, luminosity, purity, innateness, natural ordinariness, and release. The pure mind is linked by the Forest Movement to two other key notions: unsupported consciousness and Nibbana. Together, these teachings distinguish the Forest Tradition from mainstream Theravada teachings. The promulgation of this doctrine is traced through the generations of forest teachers. Scriptural support for these ideas was located in classic texts and found to echo Ch’an/Zen notions of natural, original, and ordinary mind. Likenesses to Mahayana concepts were also noted. These lines of thought culminate in a common doctrinal predicament dubbed the “purity conundrum.” Finally, the relevance of the pure mind doctrine to actual practice is investigated.
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Lopez, A.R. (2016). Pure Mind: The Fifth Noble Truth. In: Buddhist Revivalist Movements. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54086-7_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54086-7_7
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