Nanavira Thera: EARLY LETTERS: 27. vi. 1959*

SEEKING THE PATH

Early Writings of Ñāṇavīra Thera (1954-1960)

Seeking the Path consists of Ñāṇavīra's extensive correspondence with Ñaṇamoli Thera from 1954-1959. These letters shed considerable light on the relations between the two men and provide a wealth of material on the formation of Ñāṇavīra's thought prior to his 'stream entry'. The remainder of the volume includes two early essays (Nibbana and Anatta and Sketch for a Proof of Rebirth) as well as notes from a Commonplace Book and Marginalia from books owned by Ñāṇavīra.

Introduction to Early Writings

“...With regard to any of my past writings that you may come across..., I would ask you to treat with great reserve anything dated before 1960, about which time certain of my views underwent a modification. If this is forgotten you may be puzzled by inconsistencies between earlier and later writings....”
Ven. Ñánavíra Thera, 22nd March, 1963

Before use is made of these Ven. Ñánavíra Thera’s Early Writings (1950 – 1960), the reader should be familiar with Notes on Dhamma and Collected Writings (1960 – 1965), to which the present collection serves as a supplement.

The major portion of this collection consists of letters written to late Ven. Ñánamoli Thera. With the manuscript letters, which were preserved by the recipient (tied up in bundles, one of which, containing letters written between August and December 1958, was not found), were found draft copies of some of the replies which were sent to Ven. Ñánavíra Thera. These have been included here; it should be remembered, however, that they are only draft copies and not final versions.

Notes

All footnotes indicated by a letter (a, b, c...) are the Ven. Ñānavīra Thera's footnotes. All footnotes indicated by a numeral (1, 2, 3...) are editorial additions. Some of these enumerated footnotes are followed by the notation '--Ñānamoli': this indicates that the note is a comment written in the Ven. Ñānamoli Thera's handwriting on a slip of paper attached to the letter.

In the letters, the following abbreviations are often used:

C. = Camus
K. = Kierkegaard
S. = Sartre
E.B. = Encyclopaedia Britannica
C.O.D. = Concise Oxford Dictionary

27. vi. 1959*

SEEKING THE PATH

Early Writings of Ñāṇavīra Thera (1954-1960)

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