Published Paper Details:

Abstract This study explores the dynamic relationship between the practice of Buddhanussati meditation and s?la within the context of modern Theravada Buddhism. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and analysis of primary texts, this study reveals how devotional meditation practice enhances the moral development of practitioners, both lay and monastic. This study demonstrates that the engraved suttas of Buddhanussati meditation function as a powerful motivator, not just a contemplative practice. It, in fact, psychologically conditions a practitioner and spiritually inspires them to strengthen their resolve morally. This study also examines how sustained primary meditation on the Buddha's qualities as a person, particularly his supreme moral, intellectual, and compassionate attributes, sows the seeds of powerful motivational drives within practitioners, strengthening their moral discipline and observance. Ethnographic data collected from three Southern Asian Theravada Buddhist meditation communities indicate that practitioners who regularly practice Buddhanussati meditation before insight meditation demonstrate greater adherence to the five precepts than those who practice insight meditation. This relationship affirms the existence of a devotional component in the meditation practice that emotionally and psychologically integrates their moral resolve. The continued investigation focuses on moral collective accountability within community-oriented Buddha-recollection activities. Data on group recitation and collective devotional practices reveal social structures that support personal moral growth while preserving a traditional moral order in a society undergoing modern change. This study advances abidance scholarship by integrating ethical development and community-cultivated contemplative practices within Buddhism, countering the prevailing assumption in the literature that devotional and ethical practices are dissociated. As devotional meditation emerges as prized within moral pluralism, it provides foundational ethical constructs for an ornate, sustainable practice on both the contemporary and diaspora fronts. Such insight helps modern Buddhist communities face ethical challenges.