Can We Hear Sound in Jhāna?

The cultivation of calm or tranquility and the development of concentration
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Mkoll
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Re: Can We Hear Sound in Jhāna?

Post by Mkoll »

SarathW wrote:I do not hear sound even when I read a book.
You're still hearing sound, but you're not noticing it because you're engrossed in your book and not paying attention to the background auditory stimuli. It's a form of neural adaptation/habituation. If a sufficiently different and intense auditory stimulus went off near you, say an airhorn, you can bet your butt you'd hear it.

The question here is whether the person in jhana would hear it. My impression is that it depends on what definition of "jhana" we're using.
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SarathW
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Re: Can We Hear Sound in Jhāna?

Post by SarathW »

If a sufficiently different and intense auditory stimulus went off near you, say an airhorn, you can bet your butt you'd hear it.
I think this will be applicable to Buddhist Jhana too.
However I am not sure how this will work for a person in Nirodha Samapatthi as they do not have thoughts.
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SarathW
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Re: Can We Hear Sound in Jhāna?

Post by SarathW »

Buddha Vacana wrote:
SarathW wrote:I do not hear sound even when I read a book.
There you've got your ekaggata!
Yes that may not be the right kaggata. (as per Jhana formula)
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Re: Can We Hear Sound in Jhāna?

Post by Buddha Vacana »

SarathW wrote:Yes that may not be the right kaggata. (as per Jhana formula)
There is no ekaggata in the jhana formula.

Also, in the suttas, ekaggata and its derivatives don't have such a narrow meaning as in the Vsm and as many teach it:

AN 5.151: one should be ekaggacitta while listening to a Dhamma talk
suṇanto saddhammaṃ ... avikkhittacitto dhammaṃ suṇāti ekaggacitto yoniso ca manasi karoti.

while listening to the good Dhamma ... one listens to the Dhamma with an undistracted and one-pointed mind; one attends to it appropriately.
AN 4.12: one should have cittaṃ ekaggaṃ while walking:
“carato cepi ... samāhitaṃ cittaṃ ekaggaṃ, carampi, bhikkhave, bhikkhu ... samitaṃ āraddhavīriyo pahitatto’ti vuccati

if while walking ... his mind is concentrated and one-pointed, then that bhikkhu is said to be ... continuously energetic and resolute while walking.
So it seems that meaning would also apply in the case of your reading a book.
SarathW
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Re: Can We Hear Sound in Jhāna?

Post by SarathW »

So it seems that meaning would also apply in the case of your reading a book.
Yes if you are reading a Dhamma book it will be right concentration.
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Re: Can We Hear Sound in Jhāna?

Post by SarathW »

Good sutta.

"That being the case, Uttara, then a blind person will have developed faculties, and a deaf person will have developed faculties, according to the words of the brahman Parasiri. For a blind person does not see forms with the eye, and a deaf person does not hear sounds with the ear."



http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .than.html
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form
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Re: Can We Hear Sound in Jhāna?

Post by form »

This is the most interesting thread I ever read in this forum. Something I pondered over for years and still have no clear answer.

I would think one of the characteristics of jhanas aside from levels, is stability. So unless one is highly trained, the tendency to slip off is highly likely. The skill of emerging from jhana is another one of the four jhanic skills mentioned in the Nikaya.

I personally consider entering the jhanas as one's consciousness entering the more secluded part of the mind, deeper and deeper into unconscious gradually as the level progress. At that level, language tendency is minimal, probably non existent. Insights appeared in a non language form when one emerge from a jhana. Stepping down from a higher to a lower jhana appears to have some benefits in term of stability for the lower jhana. There is also calming benefits that last for a while after proper meditation. So it is hard to tell if it is jhana or not.
netlava
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Re: Can We Hear Sound in Jhāna?

Post by netlava »

The Mahaparinibbana sutta discusses this topic at length. An excerpt from the sutta:
“Then, Pukkusa, this thought occurred to him, ‘How wonderful it is, and marvellous, that those gone forth should pass their time in a state of mind so calm that though conscious and awake they neither see nor hear torrential rain beating and splashing, and lightning flashing, and thunder crashing.’ After expressing his deep faith in me, and paying homage, he departed.”
Also, poem Sirivaddha (Thag 1.41) from the Theragatha describes how lightning can't shake one in jhana:
Lightning lands on the cleft
between Vebhara & Pandava,
  • but,
having gone to the cleft in the mountains,
he's absorbed in jhana — the son
  • of the one without compare,
    the one who is Such.
LuminousBliss
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Re: Can We Hear Sound in Jhāna?

Post by LuminousBliss »

No, it's definitely not possible to hear any sound in Jhana.

Before absorption you still might be aware of some sounds, but you are not getting distracted by them and they sound really far away.
In jhana you are cut of from the external world.
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Assaji
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Re: Can We Hear Sound in Jhāna?

Post by Assaji »

There's an excellent article by Ven. Thanissaro Bhikkhu:

Silence Isn’t Mandatory
SENSORY PERCEPTION IN THE JHĀNAS

http://www.dhammatalks.org/Archive/Writ ... datory.pdf
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robertk
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Re: Can We Hear Sound in Jhāna?

Post by robertk »

Dmytro wrote:There's an excellent article by Ven. Thanissaro Bhikkhu:

Silence Isn’t Mandatory
SENSORY PERCEPTION IN THE JHĀNAS

http://www.dhammatalks.org/Archive/Writ ... datory.pdf
to me it's anti-Theravada and conveniently ignores the areas of the Tipitaka that disagree with his beliefs
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frank k
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Re: Can We Hear Sound in Jhāna?

Post by frank k »

robertk wrote: Thu Mar 23, 2017 7:21 am
Dmytro wrote:There's an excellent article by Ven. Thanissaro Bhikkhu:

Silence Isn’t Mandatory
SENSORY PERCEPTION IN THE JHĀNAS

http://www.dhammatalks.org/Archive/Writ ... datory.pdf
to me it's anti-Theravada and conveniently ignores the areas of the Tipitaka that disagree with his beliefs
What does 'theravada' mean to you Robert?
vada = sayings, thera = elders. Theravada = sayings of the Elders.
Who's elder, the suttas, or Visuddhimagga? The suttas are somewhere between 500-1000 years older than Vism.

That Thanissaro takes the 'elder' suttas as more authoratative over the 'young' Visuddhimagga and Abhidhamma,
who is anti-Theravada here?
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robertk
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Re: Can We Hear Sound in Jhāna?

Post by robertk »

frank k wrote: Wed Mar 31, 2021 4:51 pm
robertk wrote: Thu Mar 23, 2017 7:21 am
Dmytro wrote:There's an excellent article by Ven. Thanissaro Bhikkhu:

Silence Isn’t Mandatory
SENSORY PERCEPTION IN THE JHĀNAS

http://www.dhammatalks.org/Archive/Writ ... datory.pdf
to me it's anti-Theravada and conveniently ignores the areas of the Tipitaka that disagree with his beliefs
What does 'theravada' mean to you Robert?
vada = sayings, thera = elders. Theravada = sayings of the Elders.
Who's elder, the suttas, or Visuddhimagga? The suttas are somewhere between 500-1000 years older than Vism.

That Thanissaro takes the 'elder' suttas as more authoratative over the 'young' Visuddhimagga and Abhidhamma,
who is anti-Theravada here?
Even in the Tipitaka - from the Kathāvatthu:
0F39A16F-1255-4EDD-94F1-29ABB49E8AF6.png
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pitithefool
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Re: Can We Hear Sound in Jhāna?

Post by pitithefool »

robertk wrote: Wed Mar 31, 2021 5:29 pm
I'll add some psychology perspective here

I think this is similar in semantic to an old debate in the field of cognitive psychology of whether or not there is such a thing as parallel processing.

The science shows that there is indeed a great amount of processing that can occur in the mind without our conscious input.

I believe you can "hear sounds" in the jhanas inasmuch as the brain receives the sensory input signal and processes it accordingly.

"Hearing a sound" can also mean "paying attention to it", "thinking about it" etc. and seems to cover a whole spectrum of sensory processing.

Back to the point about parallel processing, cognitive psych defines two types of processing: conscious, willed, controlled processing and mostly unconscious, automatic processing. The way I see it, controlled processing fits nicely with "vitakka-vicara" and automatic processing fits more with "vipassana". Vitakka-vicara is setting up the conditions for vipassana to occur on a sub-verbal or even sub-conscious level in the higher jhanas.

In this way it is not necessary for one to be aware of processing for it to be taking place, nor is it necessary for one to be unaware of processing for one to be unbothered by it.

Please, let me know if you have critiques or if I can clarify
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robertk
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Re: Can We Hear Sound in Jhāna?

Post by robertk »

pitithefool wrote: Wed Mar 31, 2021 7:33 pm
robertk wrote: Wed Mar 31, 2021 5:29 pm
I'll add some psychology perspective here

I think this is similar in semantic to an old debate in the field of cognitive psychology of whether or not there is such a thing as parallel processing.

The science shows that there is indeed a great amount of processing that can occur in the mind without our conscious input.

I believe you can "hear sounds" in the jhanas inasmuch as the brain receives the sensory input signal and processes it accordingly.

"Hearing a sound" can also mean "paying attention to it", "thinking about it" etc. and seems to cover a whole spectrum of sensory processing.

Back to the point about parallel processing, cognitive psych defines two types of processing: conscious, willed, controlled processing and mostly unconscious, automatic processing. The way I see it, controlled processing fits nicely with "vitakka-vicara" and automatic processing fits more with "vipassana". Vitakka-vicara is setting up the conditions for vipassana to occur on a sub-verbal or even sub-conscious level in the higher jhanas.

In this way it is not necessary for one to be aware of processing for it to be taking place, nor is it necessary for one to be unaware of processing for one to be unbothered by it.

Please, let me know if you have critiques or if I can clarify
This idea of parallel processing has no basis in Dhamma. If taken up as a view it would compound the errors of those believing they hear in mundane jhana.
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