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

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2

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

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

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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]

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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

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61IB4KKJ2TL.AC_UF1000,1000_QL801000×1000 103 KB

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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.

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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.

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9

I think the picture you sent is the right color for nīla. Nīla is probably this color instead of pure black.
I just found out there is a specific pali word for black which is kāḷa.

According to the Digital Pali Dictionary, nīla is dark blue, blue-black, indigo, blue color, green, or dark green, whereas kāḷa is dark or black.

I think nīla could also refer to pure blue and green but I’m not sure. I don’t know of any other pali words for blue and green. I wonder if it’s possible to attain jhana by meditating on pure blue and green.

10

‘nīla’ is also used to refer to the colour of eyeliner. Which used soot among other things, I think.

11

Maybe black also works as a kasina object.
I think it’s possible to attain jhana with it.

image
image1024×1024 206 KB

I think this is Nila.

12

Pa-auk way (classical way) is to do 32 parts and then to take a body part color used as a kasina.

In other languages… it is possible to have one color name to mean 2 different colors. Usually with blue and green, especially Japan. But that does not matter. You cannot translate across cultures and time.

Best to follow the commentary here on this website rather speculate when it is already defined. Also, if you give a reference for sutta centra. Please use the link icon found in the editor screen so we don’t get spammed every time. I found this link here: (this is a circular reference to our site and topic here)

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