Pali. Text Society *
Manual of a Mystic
BEING
A TRANSLATION FROM THE PALI AND
SINHALESE WORK ENTITLED
THE YOGAVACHARA’S MANUAL
BY
F. L. WOODWARD, M.A. Canvas.
PRINCIPAL OF MAMINDA BUDDHIST COLLEGE, GALLE, CEYLON
EDITED, WITH INTRODUCTORY ESSAY, BY
MRS. RHYS DAVIDS
London
PUBLISHED FOR le eae TEXT SOCIETY
HUMPHREY MILFORD
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE, AMEN CORNER, E.C.
1916EDITOR'S PREFACE
Iv his Introduction to the edition he published twenty years
ago of the original of this little work, my husband describes
that original as follows: “The unique MS. on which the
following edition is based is at Bambara-galla Wiharé, in
Teldeniya, Ceylon.” Its existence there was ascertained by
the Anigarika H. Dharmapila in the spring of 1892. Mr.
D. B. Jayatilaka, now barrister of Colombo, accompanied by
the late Mr. T. B. Parnatella, visited the Wihara and obtained
permission to borrow the palm leaf MS. and havea copy made,
A scribe was engaged by Mr. Jayatilaka, with the result that,
in August of the following year, H. Dharmapala placed the
copy in my husband’s hands at a Kentish village, and went
on his way to the Parliament of Religions at Chicago. This
loaned copy was returned to Ceylon after the P.'T.S. edition
was published,
Rhys Davids analyzed the text of the MS. and found it
unsatisfactory, both as to the copy and as to its source. The
former showed signs of hasty and inaccurate work; the latter
suggested the work of an earlier scribe, conversant, no doubt,
with Singbalese, but unfamiliar with Pali. ‘To obtain from
other Wihira libraries other MSS. of this unnamed and un-
known work was impracticable. Nevertheless my husband
thought it worth while to bring out a P..S. edition on the
PLS. principle that, in pioneer work, not to wait on counsels
‘of perfection is the more intelligent method. “ There is little
doubt,” he wrote, “as to the great interest and importance,
both from the historical and from the psychological point of
view, of the subject treated in this manual. We have no
other work in Buddhist literature, either Pali or Sanskrit,
devoted to the details of Jhina and Samadhi. It is highly
v