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Re: Ref. for "all 8 factors can be present simultaneously"?

Posted: Tue Aug 06, 2013 4:08 am
by Kumara
fifthson wrote:There are two types of Arahants - one who attained Arahantship through vipassana (then he or she had no need to gain jahna for the enlightenment), and the one who attained the enlightenment started with samadhi, then vipassana.

So if that Arahant (or the lower level of attainment) is the latter then he or she had the jahna. Jhana is not the requirement for arahantship. The word sammasamadhi=right concentration, vipassana that leads to arahantship is also sammasamadhi by itself (vipassana has no need to have right concentration to the level that gain one of the four jahna).
I understand what you're saying. That's what I was taught to believe many years ago.

As I now understand, the concept of Arahant without jhana is acceptable if we are referring to the kind of jhana Visuddhimagga talks about, which is not the same as the 4 jhanas in the Suttas. If you can find any reference in the Suttas on Arahants without jhanas (the Sutta type of course), please let me know.

Re: Ref. for "all 8 factors can be present simultaneously"?

Posted: Tue Aug 06, 2013 4:21 am
by SarathW
Is this any help? :)
------------------------
Samādhi and these supernormal powers, it may be mentioned,
are not essential for the attainment of Arahantship,
though they would undoubtedly be an asset to the possessor.
There are, for instance, dry-visioned Arahants (sukkhavipassaka)
who, without the aid of the jhānas, attain Arahantship
straightway by merely cultivating Insight. Many men
and women attained Arahantship in the time of the Buddha
Himself without developing the jhānas.

http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/buddh ... gsurw6.pdf

http://what-buddha-said.net/library/Bud ... .htm#sukha

Re: Ref. for "all 8 factors can be present simultaneously"?

Posted: Tue Aug 06, 2013 4:33 am
by Kumara
SarathW wrote:Is this any help? :)
------------------------
Samādhi and these supernormal powers, it may be mentioned, are not essential for the attainment of Arahantship, though they would undoubtedly be an asset to the possessor. There are, for instance, dry-visioned Arahants (sukkhavipassaka) who, without the aid of the jhānas, attain Arahantship straightway by merely cultivating Insight. Many men and women attained Arahantship in the time of the Buddha Himself without developing the jhānas.
Thanks, but that's not from the Suttas. "Sukkhavipassaka" is a commentarial concept.

Re: Ref. for "all 8 factors can be present simultaneously"?

Posted: Tue Aug 06, 2013 7:35 am
by Sylvester
Kumara wrote:My purpose to start this topic is already achieved. But now a new thing came up.

Going by this sutta, samma samadhi (which is usually defined as the 4 jhanas) is happening together with other factors. It contradicts the Theravadin notion that one needs to emerge from the jhanas to practice satipatthana.
Bhante, how about MN 78 which suggests that the 2nd Factor ceases without remainder in the 2nd jhana and upwards? Does not appear that every factor needs to be present simultaneously.

I think the simultaneity interpretation is the outcome of the Commentarial adoption of the momentariness model, probably from some pre-Theravada, pre-Sarvastivada stock. Both Abhidharmic traditions have a description of the "supramundane" citta. How that is presented in the Dhammasaṅgaṇī is gramatically capable of being interpreted in 2 ways - one of temporal disjunction and the other of temporal coincidence. The Commentaries adopt the 2nd interpretation, fitting nicely with the development of the khaṇika model.

I think AN 5.28 is useful in pointing towards post-jhanic development of insight. Take a look at how the key term "review" (paccavekkha) is used elsewhere, eg Ud 7.7.

Re: Ref. for "all 8 factors can be present simultaneously"?

Posted: Tue Aug 06, 2013 11:05 am
by Kumara
Sylvester wrote:Bhante, how about MN 78 which suggests that the 2nd Factor ceases without remainder in the 2nd jhana and upwards? Does not appear that every factor needs to be present simultaneously.
Interesting... It seems somewhat odd to me. So, I looked up the Agama equivalent http://www.cbeta.org/cgi-bin/goto.pl?li ... 6_p0721b15 and found that it says nothing of 2nd and 3rd jhana. In asking 善念何處滅無餘 (where skillful thought cease without remainder), it goes on to say upon attaining 4th jhana. ???

Re: Ref. for "all 8 factors can be present simultaneously"?

Posted: Tue Aug 06, 2013 4:34 pm
by santa100
MN 78 raised some interesting points. For example, "wholesome habits cease without remainder", does that mean the Factors of Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood just cease for an arahant? No, they're there but the arahant no longer associate a "self" with them. Ven Bodhi commented:
the arahant, who maintains virtuous conduct but no longer identifies with the self. Since his virtuous habits no longer generate kamma, they are not described as wholesome

Similar logic could be applied to Right Intention and other Factors..

Re: Ref. for "all 8 factors can be present simultaneously"?

Posted: Tue Aug 06, 2013 5:25 pm
by fifthson
I am not capable of finding reference in Sutra for you guys. I can only reply from what I read and heard of. In general, jhana is difficult to attain but very easy to lose it. Jhana is difficult to have, then also difficult to maintain it. Before the Buddha, jhana had been practiced but those who attained the highest level of jhana had never attained enlightenment (as they didn't know the way) except paccekabuddha. In order to contemplate (vipassna) the facts of dhamma, khanika samadhi (momentary concentration) is sufficient. That is why there are much more sukkhavipassaka arahants than those with jhana and vipassana.

But this does not mean to discourage practice of concentration. It is in each own nature. If anyone feels like practicing concentration as the step for vipassana, it is his/her accumulation from previous life. It is what he/she used to do and willing to do it.

Re: Ref. for "all 8 factors can be present simultaneously"?

Posted: Wed Aug 07, 2013 3:04 am
by Sylvester
Kumara wrote:
Sylvester wrote:Bhante, how about MN 78 which suggests that the 2nd Factor ceases without remainder in the 2nd jhana and upwards? Does not appear that every factor needs to be present simultaneously.
Interesting... It seems somewhat odd to me. So, I looked up the Agama equivalent http://www.cbeta.org/cgi-bin/goto.pl?li ... 6_p0721b15 and found that it says nothing of 2nd and 3rd jhana. In asking 善念何處滅無餘 (where skillful thought cease without remainder), it goes on to say upon attaining 4th jhana. ???

Yup, that's correct. Ven Analayo addresses this in his Comparative Study of the MN. Using "lower criticism", he opines that that section of MA 179 appears to have suffered a textual error, given that other sutras in the Sarva collection in the MA and SA employ the usual formula that the speech formation disappears in 2nd jhana.

It could be a simple transcription error, or it could also be due to another textual difference between MN 78 and MA 179. The former posits Right Effort as the cause for the cessation of unskillful intentions, while the latter posits Right Mindfulness as the cause. This might have something to do with how the nascent-sectarian "Commentarial" material treat the "cease without remainder" passages. These are increasingly tied to the 4 Fruits, and also marks the coming of age of "Right Mindfulness" as an insight/vipassana practice leading to the Fruits, rather than a samatha practice that leads to temporary liberation. You see a hint of this in the Pali Commentary to MN 78 which identifies the jhanic locus of the remainderless cessation of unskillful intentions as being the fruit of Non-Return, a method echoed in the Commentary to MN 44's discussion of the abandonment of the anusayas. I'm not au fait with the Sarva Abhidharma, but it would not surprise me if the Sarvas, like the Theravada, linked specific supramundane jhanas to specific Fruits.

Re: Ref. for "all 8 factors can be present simultaneously"?

Posted: Wed Aug 07, 2013 3:39 am
by Sylvester
santa100 wrote:MN 78 raised some interesting points. For example, "wholesome habits cease without remainder", does that mean the Factors of Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood just cease for an arahant? No, they're there but the arahant no longer associate a "self" with them. Ven Bodhi commented:
the arahant, who maintains virtuous conduct but no longer identifies with the self. Since his virtuous habits no longer generate kamma, they are not described as wholesome

Similar logic could be applied to Right Intention and other Factors..

That's a good observation. However, there is at least one sutta that would go much further than BB about the utter inability of an Arahant to generate a meritorious, demeritorious or impertubable saṅkhara , eg SN 12.51. That sutta drives home the imperative for saṅkhara to be the necessary condition of consciousness; the guarantee for the impossibility of any post-mortem arising of an Arahant's consciousness stems for the assertion that the Arahant does not generate any of the 3 kinds of volition.

The word "generate" is abhisaṅkharoti, something that the Buddha might have chosen specifically in response to the magical position occupied by abhisamskaroti in Vedic thought. It seems that perhaps the Abhidhamma is correct in infering that Arahants are essentially experiencing kamma in a sort of auto-drive fashion, rather than actively making kamma.

Re: Ref. for "all 8 factors can be present simultaneously"?

Posted: Wed Aug 07, 2013 8:00 am
by Kumara
Sylvester wrote:It seems that perhaps the Abhidhamma is correct in infering that Arahants are essentially experiencing kamma in a sort of auto-drive fashion, rather than actively making kamma.
"Auto-drive"? Sounds like a robot to me.

As far as my experience goes, when my mind is overwhelmed by defilements, it's on "auto-drive"! :-)

Re: Ref. for "all 8 factors can be present simultaneously"?

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2013 6:09 am
by Sylvester
Bhante, you're probably right.

Perhaps the absence of abhisaṅkharoti in SN 12.51, AN 3.23 and AN 4.233 should very plainly and simply interpreted as per AN 4.33 - http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .than.html

This would mean, as Tilt has been arguing all this while, that the sankhāra in DO refers to those motivators tainted by greed, aversion and delusion.

How then should this intersect with the sankhāra in the 5 Aggregates scheme?

Re: Ref. for "all 8 factors can be present simultaneously"?

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2013 8:07 am
by Kumara
Sylvester wrote:Bhante, you're probably right.

Perhaps the absence of abhisaṅkharoti in SN 12.51, AN 3.23 and AN 4.233 should very plainly and simply interpreted as per AN 4.33 - http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .than.html
Quite thorough, aren't you? Anyway, the link is to 3.33, not 4.33.

By "auto-drive" I meant automatically driven by defilements. When w/o defilements, actions still occurs but not generated by defilements. An undefiled mind is not incapable of doing anything, but without the defilements, it naturally rests of among the 4 brahmaviharas, and can only act out of that, which is alobha, adosa and amoha.
This would mean, as Tilt has been arguing all this while, that the sankhāra in DO refers to those motivators tainted by greed, aversion and delusion.
That seems reasonable.
How then should this intersect with the sankhāra in the 5 Aggregates scheme?
That would be interesting to try figure out, but not my cup of tea. Anyway, just to give you something to think about: How about abhisankhara is necessarily sankhara, but sankhara is not necessarily abhisankhara? Happy Abhisankhara!

Re: Ref. for "all 8 factors can be present simultaneously"?

Posted: Fri Aug 09, 2013 4:56 am
by Sylvester
Kumara wrote: That would be interesting to try figure out, but not my cup of tea. Anyway, just to give you something to think about: How about abhisankhara is necessarily sankhara, but sankhara is not necessarily abhisankhara? Happy Abhisankhara!

Not here, Bhante, not here. We should indulge our heresies in another section of DW.

Re: Ref. for "all 8 factors can be present simultaneously"?

Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2014 2:12 pm
by Ananda26
Kumara wrote:In Bhikkhu Bodhi's book on N8P, he says that "with a certain degree of progress all eight factors can be present simultaneously". Is that just his view or is there a sutta reference on that?
Noble Right Concentration with its bases and requesites: Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right LIvelihood, Right Effort, and Right Mindfulness.