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Southern Esoteric Buddhism and Borān kammaṭṭhāna ("former practices") are terms used to refer to a collection of esoteric practices, views, and texts within Theravada Buddhism. Often known as Esoteric Theravada or Tantric Theravada, these labels highlight its parallel with tantric traditions—though it does not employ actual tantras—and it is also sometimes referred to as Traditional Theravada Meditation.
L.S. Cousins defines this phenomenon as "a type of Southern Buddhism which links magical and ritual practices to a theoretical systematisation of the Buddhist path itself."[1][2] One notable strand within these traditions is the Yogāvacara system. Historically, Yogāvacara was a major current in Southeast Asia and is most widely practiced today in Cambodia and Laos, where it has preserved many unique ritualistic and meditative practices.
Over the past two centuries, the Boran tradition has been marginalized by colonial governments and by the "Protestant Buddhist" movement—reformers who promote a strict "Pali Tipitaka only" sola scriptura approach and dismiss local practices as deviations from orthodox scriptural teachings.[3]
In the West, the study of Southern Esoteric Buddhism was pioneered by professor François Bizot and his colleagues at the École française d'Extrême-Orient. Their research, especially focusing on material discovered at Angkor, has been instrumental in revealing the complex interplay between orthodox Theravada doctrines and these esoteric practices.[4] In essence, Southern Esoteric Buddhism comprises a range of practices derived from the Pali Tipitaka that extend beyond the explicit teachings of the suttas, incorporating devotional, ritual, symbolic, and meditative elements that have been transmitted through local and esoteric traditions.
- ^ Cousins, L.S. (1997), Archived 2015-05-21 at the Wayback Machine, in Peter Connolly and Sue Hamilton (eds.), *Indian Insights: Buddhism, Brahmanism and Bhakd Papers from the Annual Spalding Symposium on Indian Religions*, Luzac Oriental, London: 185–207, 410. ISBN 1-898942-153
- ^ Cousins LS, 1997a 'Buddhism' pp.369–444 in JR Hinnells (ed.) *A New Handbook of Living Religions* Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, cited in Mackenzie, Rory (2007), *New Buddhist Movements in Thailand: Towards an understanding of Wat Phra Dhammakaya and Santi Asoke*, Abingdon: Routledge, ISBN 0-203-96646-5
- ^ Abeysekara, Ananda (2019). "Protestant Buddhism and "Influence": The Temporality of a Concept". Qui Parle. 28 (1): 1–75.
- ^ Crosby, Kate (2000). *Tantric Theravada: A Bibliographic Essay on the Writings of Francois Bizot and others on the Yogavacara-Tradition*, Contemporary Buddhism 1 (2), 141–198