boran kammaṭṭhāna

Introduction Supreme Patriarch Suk Kai Thuean (1733–1822), or Somdet Suk, is one of the towering figures in the burgeoning field of boran kammaṭṭhāna (Thai: kammathan baep boran), the premodern esoteric Theravāda meditation tradition. Prior to the 19th-century monastic reform, his lineage was the dominant form of meditation in Bangkok, practiced by kings, heads of the…