Question about the color of Nilakasina

Meditation
1

Does Nila mean blue or black?
In Myanmar, Nila is usually translated as black or brown.

But anyone else should take flowers such as blue lotuses, girikannika
(morning glory) flowers, etc., and spread them out to fill a tray or a flat basket
completely so that no stamen or stalk shows or with only their petals. Or he can
fill it with blue cloth bunched up together; or he can fasten the cloth over the rim
of the tray or basket like the covering of a drum. Or he can make a kasióa disk,
either portable as described under the earth kasióa or on a wall, with one of the
colour elements such as bronze-green, leaf-green, añjana-ointment black,
surrounding it with a different colour. After that, he should bring it to mind as
“blue, blue” in the way already described under the earth kasina

1 Like
2

I think in English, ‘Nila’ generally means ‘dark’.

663e5fd9d0a9146455d1898d3fb53dc2

I think anything in the top two rows above can be called ‘Nila’.

1 Like
3

Thank you for answering. That’s interesting. I wonder how one would differentiate between those colors when using nila in a conversation in pali. Also, as long as we use one of those colors, can it be considered as nila kasina.

4

DPD:

nīla 1

adj. dark blue; blue-black; indigo [√nīl + a]

nīla 2

nt. blue colour; blue dye; indigo [√nīl + a] ✓

nīla 3

adj. green; dark green [√nīl + a]

1 Like
5

Thank you, Venerable Sir. That’s interesting.

6

My understanding is, it has to be a deep rich dark colour. As opposed to a more vibrant colour like white.

For example the following is a dye made from a plant(Indigofera Tinctoria) that has an ancient history
61IB4KKJ2TL.AC_UF1000,1000_QL80

1 Like
7

I think maybe we have to focus on the darkness of the dark green or dark blue color for example. That’s what I understanding so far if nila means dark. But it’s probably best to just meditate on a fully black color for Nila kasina.

1 Like
8

I think Theras from Myanmar are also correct. It is said that advanced meditators can take the Nila nimitta even from head hair. It’s better to get used to the Pali. Nila probably doesn’t have an exact English equivalent.

PS: I am not an expert in any sense of the word. Just someone with great love and respect for the Theravada tradition.

1 Like