Should you sit 12 hours to know that your are in first Jhana?

The cultivation of calm or tranquility and the development of concentration
thepea
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Re: Should you sit 12 hours to know that your are in first Jhana?

Post by thepea »

Zom wrote: Wed Jan 31, 2018 11:42 am
This is why the meaning is: "For seven days I sat in one spot, absorbed in rapture & bliss [of the 1st or 2nd jhanas]".
So what can we conclude about this individual?
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Zom
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Re: Should you sit 12 hours to know that your are in first Jhana?

Post by Zom »

Concerning the topic - is that once you are really in 1st/2nd jhana, you can actually sit in one place for 7 days without interruption because of the absense of pain and lightness of physical body.

And if you are not in jhana, and try to sit that long, you'll get this --> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pressure_ulcer

Also worth reading .) --> http://www.roane-law.com/blog/2013/octo ... -prevent-/
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Re: Should you sit 12 hours to know that your are in first Jhana?

Post by cappuccino »

Ordinary people also sit long on trains, boats, airplanes, etc.
Last edited by cappuccino on Wed Jan 31, 2018 1:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
thepea
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Re: Should you sit 12 hours to know that your are in first Jhana?

Post by thepea »

Zom wrote: Wed Jan 31, 2018 1:36 pm Concerning the topic - is that once you are really in 1st/2nd jhana, you can actually sit in one place for 7 days without interruption because of the absense of pain and lightness of physical body.

And if you are not in jhana, and try to sit that long, you'll get this --> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pressure_ulcer

Also worth reading .) --> http://www.roane-law.com/blog/2013/octo ... -prevent-/
Ok, that’s the direction I thought you have been leaning towards.
Now the trouble that I have with this is that it seems that in order to sit in continuous jhana for seven days one would either have purified the mind to a level where they have complete mastery of this jhana(a very high level of purity) or someone is in a trancelike state and may not have awareness placed on bodily sense doors.

I hold the opinion that on say a meditation retreat one can slip into jhanas for much shorter period of time. Their concentration can build up over continuous work over a few days and they can experience jhanas for a few seconds or minutes or an hour or so.

Do you not feel that what I mention is reasonable and if not, why?
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Re: Should you sit 12 hours to know that your are in first Jhana?

Post by auto »

DNS wrote: Sun Jan 28, 2018 1:25 am
auto wrote: Sun Jan 28, 2018 12:16 am ok, no excuses what ever could be this, but you defenetly doesn't need to sit 7 days if you can do it with lesser. So i don't get it why to cherish persons who sit so long?
Yes, I agree it could probably be done in less time for jhanas. In that passage she was describing her jhanas and then enlightenment attainment, so definitely she is worthy of praise.
the 7 days could be a dhammic meaning. It coems a legend and at some point pupils try to replicate it literally.
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Re: Should you sit 12 hours to know that your are in first Jhana?

Post by Zom »

I hold the opinion that on say a meditation retreat one can slip into jhanas for much shorter period of time. Their concentration can build up over continuous work over a few days and they can experience jhanas for a few seconds or minutes or an hour or so.

Do you not feel that what I mention is reasonable and if not, why?
I don't think this is reasonable simply because jhana is not a state born of "mechanical actions" (yes I know, modern trend is to think this way, but suttas do not support such kind of view). To get jhana, according to suttas, you must lead holy life for a long long time - and then you'll be able to get into it naturally. Jhana is called "a Fruit of recluse life" in DN2 for example. That is, if you live like a recluse, then, if this your life of recluseship is successful, you may get access to jhana, as an outcome of such life. And those different and numerous "special effects" people get on retreats are just "bugs" of overladen nervous system, which they tend (of course) to interpret as "jhanas", "samadhi", "insights", whatever... 8-) (I myself got these hundreds of times, yes .)

If your jhana is genuine - then there must be no problem for you to master it, because, well, your spiritual level is so high then ,) However, if you can't do that - sorry, that was not a jhana.
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Re: Should you sit 12 hours to know that your are in first Jhana?

Post by cappuccino »

It should be said, Jhana is not necessary.

I fear some think too highly of attainment, as if they cannot achieve so high.
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Re: Should you sit 12 hours to know that your are in first Jhana?

Post by Zom »

It should be said, Jhana is not necessary.
Not necessary for what? It is necessary for attainment of non-returning and arahantship - this is said plainly in MN 64.
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Re: Should you sit 12 hours to know that your are in first Jhana?

Post by Saengnapha »

Zom wrote: Wed Jan 31, 2018 11:42 am
Whoever said this was already beyond jhanas and coming out of nirodha samapatti, which is not a jhana and doesn't happen within jhanas. It is a letting go of all states.
Again you've got it wrong, because "piti" and "sukha" mentioned (in which "meditator" is "absorbed") - are jhanic factors which are present in the 1st and 2nd jhanas. And they end in the 3rd (piti) 4th (sukha) jhanas by the way.

This is why the meaning is: "For seven days I sat in one spot, absorbed in rapture & bliss [of the 1st or 2nd jhanas]".
Yes, I did get that wrong. In this case, I haven't a clue what this person is doing for so long in the first two jhanas? Indulging him/herself in feeling rapture? It is an impermanent state. Why linger if there is no attachment? To me, the Buddha's teachings have nothing to do with developing powers. They are possibilities but are not promoted as the point of Dhamma. Yogis have been doing these tricks for centuries. I guess you want to be a yogi. OK with me.
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Re: Should you sit 12 hours to know that your are in first Jhana?

Post by Zom »

Yogis have been doing these tricks for centuries
Those yogis who genuinely did these, as you call it, "tricks" were held in high esteem by the Buddha. For example, his teachers Alara Kalama and Udakka Ramaputta.
I haven't a clue what this person is doing for so long in the first two jhanas? Indulging him/herself in feeling rapture? It is an impermanent state. Why linger if there is no attachment?
Probably, because of the development of the states. The longer you are in them, the better you master them. Buddha himself said that "jhanas should not be feared".

“I considered: ‘I recall that when my father the Sakyan was occupied, while I was sitting in the cool shade of a rose-apple tree, quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, I entered upon and abided in the first jhāna, which is accompanied by applied and sustained thought, with rapture and pleasure born of seclusion. Could that be the path to enlightenment?’ Then, following on that memory, came the realisation: ‘That is indeed the path to enlightenment.’ “I thought: ‘Why am I afraid of that pleasure that has nothing to do with sensual pleasures and unwholesome states?’ I thought: ‘I am not afraid of that pleasure since it has nothing to do with sensual pleasures and unwholesome states.’

https://suttacentral.net/en/mn36
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Re: Should you sit 12 hours to know that your are in first Jhana?

Post by 2600htz »

Hello:

When the suttas talk about long sittings of 7 days they usually are talking about sitting in the cessation of feeling and perception.

Regards.
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Re: Should you sit 12 hours to know that your are in first Jhana?

Post by Zom »

When the suttas talk about long sittings of 7 days they usually are talking about sitting in the cessation of feeling and perception.
Doesn't really matter - still jhanic attainment. The prolonged sitting is possible because of the absense of physical pain and this happens even in the 1st jhana, so in all jhanas you can sit as long as you like if you master them.
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Re: Should you sit 12 hours to know that your are in first Jhana?

Post by 2600htz »

Zom wrote: Wed Jan 31, 2018 5:35 pm
When the suttas talk about long sittings of 7 days they usually are talking about sitting in the cessation of feeling and perception.
Doesn't really matter - still jhanic attainment. The prolonged sitting is possible because of the absense of physical pain and this happens even in the 1st jhana, so in all jhanas you can sit as long as you like if you master them.
Hello:

I disagree. Even the Buddha in his last days had to give special care to physical pain, he had to rest between talks, sit on a different position, have Ananda giving some massages, etc. And he obviously could enter the first jhana at any time. In the first jhana there is still contact and feeling.

DN-16
It is, Ananda, only when the Tathagata, disregarding external objects, with the cessation of certain feelings, attains to and abides in the signless concentration of mind, that his body is more comfortable.
He had to go into the signless concentration (cessation of feeling and perception) to experience full relief of his back pain.

Regards.
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Re: Should you sit 12 hours to know that your are in first Jhana?

Post by Zom »

I disagree. Even the Buddha in his last days had to give special care to physical pain, he had to rest between talks, sit on a different position, have Ananda giving some massages, etc. And he obviously could enter the first jhana at any time. In the first jhana there is still contact and feeling.
First, signless concentration is not a cessation of perception and feeling. Second, Buddha can't contradict himself (see SN 48.40).
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Re: Should you sit 12 hours to know that your are in first Jhana?

Post by thepea »

Zom wrote: Wed Jan 31, 2018 2:27 pm
I don't think this is reasonable simply because jhana is not a state born of "mechanical actions" (yes I know, modern trend is to think this way, but suttas do not support such kind of view). To get jhana, according to suttas, you must lead holy life for a long long time - and then you'll be able to get into it naturally. Jhana is called "a Fruit of recluse life" in DN2 for example. That is, if you live like a recluse, then, if this your life of recluseship is successful, you may get access to jhana, as an outcome of such life. And those different and numerous "special effects" people get on retreats are just "bugs" of overladen nervous system, which they tend (of course) to interpret as "jhanas", "samadhi", "insights", whatever... 8-) (I myself got these hundreds of times, yes .)

If your jhana is genuine - then there must be no problem for you to master it, because, well, your spiritual level is so high then ,) However, if you can't do that - sorry, that was not a jhana.
Your opinion seems to contradict what I’ve been taught in Goenka vipassana retreats.
Mr Goenka on long courses is describing jhanas and guiding students what to focus on what to ignore and giving details and signposts one will be feeling/experiencing as one approaches this levels of concentration.
On retreat students are living the holy life and on long retreats students must have kept up practice for minimum of two years. But I have met and heard of many students reaching these levels on their first retreats and after only a few days of practice. Not many mind you, but some do.

Your statements according to canon as you interpret them seem to go directly against what mr Goenka teaches.
Do you feel that he is mistaken and teaching something other than Buddha was teaching. I’ve also read mahasi sayadaw teachings and his description of passing through insight knowledges and they seem identical to mr Goenkas teachings and they fit very well with my experiential understanding.
What you seem to be saying is both of these teachers are wrong?
Is this so?
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