Mindfulness in Early Buddhism_ New Approaches through Psychology and Textual Analysis of Pali, Chinese and Sanskrit Sources

Abstract

The present book is a revised version of my doctoral thesis submitted to the University of Oxford in 2004. I would like to express my deep gratitude to Professor R.F. Gombrich, my supervisor. From 1999 to 2004, while I worked on my thesis, his invaluable guidance and inspirational teaching hugely broadened my horizons on Buddhist studies, and his patient correction of the English in my work was also very helpful to me. I owe a great deal to Mr L.S. Cousins, who read my thesis carefully, provided constructive criticisms and suggestions, and generously directed me to many useful sources. Dr Alexander Wynne also read through my thesis and made valuable criticisms and gave me helpful advice, for which I am very grateful. I am greatly indebted to Dr William Pruitt for proofreading my work, for his many valuable suggestions and for helping me to polish my English. I would also like to thank the following people for their help: Dr Sarah Shaw and Mr Yuwen Yang kindly offered a number of useful suggestions. In the three examinations during the course of my D.Phil. studies, Professor Peter Harvey, Dr R.M.L. Gethin, Professor Brian Bocking, Dr Sue Hamilton and Dr Eivind Kahrs provided helpful comments and advice. Mr Moez Cherif and Mrs Ratiba Cherif translated part of a French book into English. My special thanks are due to Professor Peter Harvey for recommending my thesis to Routledge for publication. I am also grateful to Ven. Analayo, Professor Paul Harrison, Professor Kin-tung Yit, Ms Georgia Vale, Ms Dorothea Schaefter and Mr Tom Bates for varied help. I would like to express my indebtedness to the Chung-hwa Institute of Buddhist Studies, Fakuang Institute of Buddhist Studies and Seeland Education Foundation for their financial support for my studies at Oxford, and to National Cheng Kung University for giving me the grant to revise my thesis for publication as part of my postdoctoral research. Thanks are also due to the SatyAbhisamaya: A Buddhist Studies Quarterly, Springer Science and Business Media, which controls the copyright of my article published in the Journal of Indian Philosophy (vol. 33 no. 3, 2005), and the BJK Institute of Buddhist and Asian Studies, which controls the copyright of my article published in the Indian International Journal of Buddhist Studies (no. 8, 2007), for granting me permission to re-use parts of my articles published therein. Finally, but not least, I would like to thank my mother, Pi-yun Huang, whose care and support were never attenuated even when I studied in England over six thousand miles away from home.