The Great Jhana Debate

The cultivation of calm or tranquility and the development of concentration
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Mkoll
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Re: The Great Jhana Debate

Post by Mkoll »

Saengnapha wrote: Sat Oct 21, 2017 7:56 am
Mkoll wrote: Sat Oct 21, 2017 5:16 am
Saengnapha wrote: Sat Oct 21, 2017 4:51 am How can jhana be anything other than a mental process? It is still in the subject object realm and is not the cause of cessation.
I'm not denying that jhana is a mental process. I'm saying it's brought about via a specific set of conditions, namely the Noble Eightfold Path. The Noble Eightfold Path is only taught by a Buddha. Therefore, it is distinctly Buddhist.
Everything is brought about through conditions. This is what dependent origination is about. Buddha did not invent DO. He did not invent the 8 fold path. He rediscovered something that was lost to the culture at that time. You are thinking about all this in a very narrow way. DO is conditioned in our present state. Anything that is conditioned is not a cause for cessation or whatever you want to call what you think you're after. The ideas of samadhi or jhana being a way to attain the unattainable is for beginners, people that don't understand their own conditioned state. For me, this is a central theme in the Buddhist dialectic, not grasping, non attachment, not becoming.
Judging from your other thread and your posts so far, it seems you're a follower of, or at least very partial to, UG Krishnamurti's teachings who is seeking to fit what you like from the Buddha's teachings into that mold. I've seen enough of UG Krishnamurti's teachings to see that he teaches wrong views that are incompatible with the Buddha's teachings as a whole.

So really there is little room for constructive dialogue here, made doubly so given that you continue to insult my intelligence.
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa
Saengnapha
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Re: The Great Jhana Debate

Post by Saengnapha »

Mkoll wrote: Sat Oct 21, 2017 8:24 am
Saengnapha wrote: Sat Oct 21, 2017 7:56 am
Mkoll wrote: Sat Oct 21, 2017 5:16 am
I'm not denying that jhana is a mental process. I'm saying it's brought about via a specific set of conditions, namely the Noble Eightfold Path. The Noble Eightfold Path is only taught by a Buddha. Therefore, it is distinctly Buddhist.
Everything is brought about through conditions. This is what dependent origination is about. Buddha did not invent DO. He did not invent the 8 fold path. He rediscovered something that was lost to the culture at that time. You are thinking about all this in a very narrow way. DO is conditioned in our present state. Anything that is conditioned is not a cause for cessation or whatever you want to call what you think you're after. The ideas of samadhi or jhana being a way to attain the unattainable is for beginners, people that don't understand their own conditioned state. For me, this is a central theme in the Buddhist dialectic, not grasping, non attachment, not becoming.
Judging from your other thread and your posts so far, it seems you're a follower of, or at least very partial to, UG Krishnamurti's teachings who is seeking to fit what you like from the Buddha's teachings into that mold. I've seen enough of UG Krishnamurti's teachings to see that he teaches wrong views that are incompatible with the Buddha's teachings as a whole.

So really there is little room for constructive dialogue here, made doubly so given that you continue to insult my intelligence.
Perhaps you should thicken your skin if you post publicly. This is not a personal attack on your character. I speak from my own experience with jhana and samadhi. What I'm writing has nothing to do with UG.
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Mkoll
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Re: The Great Jhana Debate

Post by Mkoll »

And you continue. How astounding! No constructive dialogue, indeed.

Please don't bother wasting your time replying further to me here or anywhere else on this forum because you are now on my (still very small) ignore list so I won't see your posts henceforth.

Best of luck.
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Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa
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DooDoot
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Re: The Great Jhana Debate

Post by DooDoot »

Saengnapha wrote: Sat Oct 21, 2017 7:56 amEverything is brought about through conditions. This is what dependent origination is about.
The Pali suttas describe DO as the conditions leading to the arising of suffering (SN 12.2). For example, if the mind clings to jhana, this is material becoming (rūpabhavo; SN 12.2; AN 4.123). DO is not about the pure cultivation of jhana. For example, SN 48.10 says the noble practitioner develops jhana by making "letting go" ("vossagga") the meditation object. "Letting go" is not DO because it does not lead to suffering. Jhana is not conditioned by DO. In the Pali suttas, DO is called "the wrong path" (SN 12.3), where as jhana is a component of the right path (SN 45.8). The idea that "DO is everything" is not Pali but one of the errors of Madhyamaka.
Saengnapha wrote: Sat Oct 21, 2017 7:56 amDO is conditioned in our present state.
DO is only conditioned when the present state of mind is 'dukkha', which includes clinging to jhana as "I speak from my own experience with jhana".
Saengnapha wrote: Sat Oct 21, 2017 7:56 amAnything that is conditioned is not a cause for cessation
The Pali suttas say the noble path is "conditioned", yet this conditioned path leads to the final unconditioned. This has already been discussed before. Pretend/imagine the soil is unconditioned. This unconditioned soil cannot be seen because it is covered by grass. A lawn mower is used to cut the grass. The lawn mowing is conditioned. Using a conditioned process, the unconditioned is uncovered & seen. Nibbana is like this. The element of Nibbana is covered by mental defilements. When the conditioned path cuts the mental defilements, Nibbana is known, always there but previously unknown.
Saengnapha wrote: Sat Oct 21, 2017 7:56 amThe ideas of samadhi or jhana being a way to attain the unattainable is for beginners, people that don't understand their own conditioned state.
The Pali suttas explain correctly jhana is necessary to reach the unconditioned. This is not for beginners. Since jhanas are indicators of mental purity, if the 4th jhana has not been reached, the mind remains conditioned. Jhana is a supernormal state according to Theravada Buddhism. Many people claim they have experienced jhana when they probably have not. I think calling "jhana" something for "beginners" cannot come from the real & genuine experience of jhana.
Saengnapha wrote: Sat Oct 21, 2017 7:56 amFor me, this is a central theme in the Buddhist dialectic, not grasping, non attachment, not becoming.
Mmmm... not grasping, non attachment & not becoming sounds conditioned because these things sound like mental processes or nama dhamma, which, if true, is not the meaning of "unconditioned" because the "unconditioned" is "asankhata dhatu" where as mental processes are 'nama dhatu". Something "unconditioned" probably should exist without any mental input. Nibbana is the unconditioned. Where as non-grasping sounds conditioned. Non-grasping occurs in at least two ways: (i) via an act of will or (ii) clearly discerning the suffering of something; similar to the automatic neurological recoil when touching fire. Not-grasping a burning object, due to the knowledge the burning object will burn, sounds conditioned. Where as the hand remaining unburned due to non-grasping sounds "unconditioned". Although non-grasping allows for the unconditioned to be experienced, non-grasping itself is probably not the unconditioned.
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Re: Monks Average Meditation Routine

Post by aflatun »

mikenz66 wrote: Sat Oct 21, 2017 6:00 am Well, again, speaking as a non-expert, the "deep jhana" teachers say that it is impossible to do insight in jhana, and that those that interpret, for example, MN111, as saying that have a poor understanding of Pali tenses. [Again, I'm no expert, but I will say that the same tense issue applies in some arguments about nibbana.]
Understood, and I have read and contemplated these arguments. Admittedly I wasn't really being clear, but I wasn't quite arguing for "doing insight" within Jhana in the sense that they mean. What I find myself questioning are the very terms of the debate.
I don't think those that subscribe to a deep-jhana model (the teachers mentioned above, and the Theravada commentaries such as the Visudhimagga) would say that jhana is "the pinnacle of the path. They would, instead, say that the purpose of attaining the jhanas is to purify the mind (from hindrances such as lust). After emerging from jhana the mind is in a suitable state for the insights that lead to final liberation.
Yes that is how they frame it, and that was a poor choice of words on my part! Sorry about that.
"People often get too quick to say 'there's no self. There's no self...no self...no self.' There is self, there is focal point, its not yours. That's what not self is."

Ninoslav Ñāṇamoli
Senses and the Thought-1, 42:53

"Those who create constructs about the Buddha,
Who is beyond construction and without exhaustion,
Are thereby damaged by their constructs;
They fail to see the Thus-Gone.

That which is the nature of the Thus-Gone
Is also the nature of this world.
There is no nature of the Thus-Gone.
There is no nature of the world."

Nagarjuna
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mikenz66
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Re: The Great Jhana Debate

Post by mikenz66 »

aflatun wrote: Sat Oct 21, 2017 5:21 pm What I find myself questioning are the very terms of the debate.
:thinking:

It certainly is curious that the description of this key aspect of the path is described in the suttas in such a way that allows such different interpretations:
“And what, bhikkhus, is right concentration? Here, bhikkhus, secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, a bhikkhu enters and dwells in the first jhana, which is accompanied by thought and examination, with rapture and happiness born of seclusion. With the subsiding of thought and examination, he enters and dwells in the second jhana, which has internal confidence and unification of mind, is without thought and examination, and has rapture and happiness born of concentration. With the fading away as well of rapture, he dwells equanimous and, mindful and clearly comprehending, he experiences happiness with the body; he enters and dwells in the third jhana of which the noble ones declare: ‘He is equanimous, mindful, one who dwells happily.’ With the abandoning of pleasure and pain, and with the previous passing away of joy and displeasure, he enters and dwells in the fourth jhana, which is neither painful nor pleasant and includes the purification of mindfulness by equanimity. This is called right concentration.”
https://suttacentral.net/en/sn45.8/11


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Re: The Great Jhana Debate

Post by samseva »

mikenz66 wrote: Sat Oct 21, 2017 7:46 am Hmm, I think we are talking at cross purposes. Quite apart from the summary given above, Ven Thanissaro (among others) certainly talks about being about hear and so on in jhana. Ven Brahm and others claim that that would not be real jhana. I'm not sure why you're not getting my point that different teachers (and posters on this Forum) have different interpretations of what constitutes jhana according to the suttas..
I wasn't really trying to agree with your points, but I was mostly giving my thoughts on Leigh Brasington's interpretations which you gave (not necessarily discrediting them, but just discussing), as well as stating what I considered actual jhāna in relation to it since I think my own interpretation of jhāna was an important part regarding my previous posts. I do get that different teachers and members have different interpretations of jhāna from the Suttas—that's obvious (I hope I wasn't giving the opposite impression).

Cheers.
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Re: The Great Jhana Debate

Post by samseva »

mikenz66 wrote: Sat Oct 21, 2017 7:46 am [...]
But I did make an important point that Ajahn Brahm bases his understanding of jhānas on the Suttas, and while they might not be as deep as say how Buddhaghosa/Visuddhimagga describes jhānas, they are definitely much deeper (no external perceptions) than those who would consider "jhāna-lite" as being the Sutta jhānas.

Therefore, "jhāna-lite" (Leigh Brasington, Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, etc.) might not necessarily be Sutta jhāna; and "jhāna-medium" (Ahahn Brahm, other monks) might not necessarily be Sutta jhāna as well—meaning that even Leigh Brasington, when claiming that his interpretation of jhāna is the Sutta jhānas, is making the same exact mistake.
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Re: The Great Jhana Debate

Post by mikenz66 »

I still don't see the use of the term "sutta jhana". From my reading (and listening to talks) I see little difference in depth between the depth of jhana described by Vens Brahm/Analayo/Sujato/etc and the Visuddhimagga. Whereas the difference between them and Ven Vimalaramsi, for example, is huge.

I have a suggestion. Rather than trying to guess about "depth", it might be more useful to put a dividing line between
those who say that it is possible to develop insight within jhana and those who say that one must emerge from jhana first. That seems like a fairly clear distinction, with Brahm/Analayo/Sujato/Visuddhimagga clearly in the latter category, and the so-called sutta jhana teachers in the former.

I hasten to reiterate that I do not know who is "correct" about this point, since my practice is at nowhere near that level (as far as I can understand it).

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Re: The Great Jhana Debate

Post by pyluyten »

samseva wrote: Sun Oct 22, 2017 3:53 am
mikenz66 wrote: Sat Oct 21, 2017 7:46 am [...]
But I did make an important point that Ajahn Brahm bases his understanding of jhānas on the Suttas, and while they might not be as deep as say how Buddhaghosa/Visuddhimagga describes jhānas, they are definitely much deeper (no external perceptions) than those who would consider "jhāna-lite" as being the Sutta jhānas.

Therefore, "jhāna-lite" (Leigh Brasington, Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, etc.) might not necessarily be Sutta jhāna; and "jhāna-medium" (Ahahn Brahm, other monks) might not necessarily be Sutta jhāna as well—meaning that even Leigh Brasington, when claiming that his interpretation of jhāna is the Sutta jhānas, is making the same exact mistake.
there is indeed a huge issue, origin of many subtopics : we cannot reliably measure states of mind. Some try to find criteria like the time one is able to meditate, light perception (nimitta as in commentaries), hearing of external sounds. This is a workaround, live with it...
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Re: Monks Average Meditation Routine

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mikenz66 wrote: Sat Oct 21, 2017 2:09 am ...Sutta/VM is not a useful division. It seems to have been coined by Leigh Brasington, who writes:
http://www.leighb.com/jhanantp.htm
Leigh, at least in conversations with him on a retreat a couple of years ago, derives “sutta-jhāna” from Rodney Bucknell’s paper “Reinterpreting the Jhānas” (Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies (JIAMS), Volume 16, No. 2, Winter 1993), and Bucknell’s further sources in writings of Paul Griffiths (“Buddhist Jhānas: A Form-Critical Study”, in Religion, Volume 13, Issue 1, 1983) and Martin Stuart-Fox (“Jhānas and Buddhist Scholaticism” in JIAMS, Volume 12, No. 2, 1989). – All of which available on-line, and all having been subject to negatively critical review by a number of more respected scholars.
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Re: The Great Jhana Debate

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mikenz66 wrote: Sat Oct 21, 2017 8:48 pm
aflatun wrote: Sat Oct 21, 2017 5:21 pm What I find myself questioning are the very terms of the debate.
:thinking:

It certainly is curious that the description of this key aspect of the path is described in the suttas in such a way that allows such different interpretations:
“And what, bhikkhus, is right concentration? Here, bhikkhus, secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, a bhikkhu enters and dwells in the first jhana, which is accompanied by thought and examination, with rapture and happiness born of seclusion. With the subsiding of thought and examination, he enters and dwells in the second jhana, which has internal confidence and unification of mind, is without thought and examination, and has rapture and happiness born of concentration. With the fading away as well of rapture, he dwells equanimous and, mindful and clearly comprehending, he experiences happiness with the body; he enters and dwells in the third jhana of which the noble ones declare: ‘He is equanimous, mindful, one who dwells happily.’ With the abandoning of pleasure and pain, and with the previous passing away of joy and displeasure, he enters and dwells in the fourth jhana, which is neither painful nor pleasant and includes the purification of mindfulness by equanimity. This is called right concentration.”
https://suttacentral.net/en/sn45.8/11


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Mike
Yes! Curious and for me sometimes disheartening, as very intelligent, well equipped and well meaning individuals come to different conclusions about what it all means.
"People often get too quick to say 'there's no self. There's no self...no self...no self.' There is self, there is focal point, its not yours. That's what not self is."

Ninoslav Ñāṇamoli
Senses and the Thought-1, 42:53

"Those who create constructs about the Buddha,
Who is beyond construction and without exhaustion,
Are thereby damaged by their constructs;
They fail to see the Thus-Gone.

That which is the nature of the Thus-Gone
Is also the nature of this world.
There is no nature of the Thus-Gone.
There is no nature of the world."

Nagarjuna
MMK XXII.15-16
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Re: The Great Jhana Debate

Post by cjmacie »

.
About the discussion of the relationship of jhāna and samma-samādhi:

Samma” – one of it’s meanings is “tuned”, as in musical instruments. All 8 factors, correctly tuned together and established, constitute the Path that Buddha taught.

On the other hand, that the Buddha used jhāna as samma-samādhi doesn’t mean jhāna can’t be used for other purposes. (To perhaps echo a point made by others here.) There’s good evidence that Vedic/Brahmanic practitioners used it, but sans the integration in a path insight directed at achieving mental liberation in this life, i.e. they used it more or less as temporary escape from suffering, along a path which was fulfilled in post-death merger with some Self-Brahma sort of thing. At least that’s the picture I get from some study of that tradition.

Jhāna is, in Sanskrit, dhyāna, which most generally means sitting still there “meditating”. It would seem perfectly plausible that anyone doing that extensively could happen across full absorption, which is, after all, a distinctive mental capability that can be trained as a skill, independently of any particular religious dhamma system. Using it to hone the mind for penetrative insight into the nature of phenomenal experience (deconstruction of anicca, dukkha, anatta etc.), in integrated partnership with sila and paññā, is another matter, which what distinguishes the Buddha’s discovery.

And vis-a-vis the discussion as to whether sensory stimuli are perceived in jhāna or not, it depends on what’s meant by perception. I find it quite plausible that one can, at least at the earlier (1st to 3rd) stages, be “aware” in some sense that external stimuli are present (the bare mind-moments of passive contact), but the mind, being unified, stilled (some say “frozen”, but that’s a bit extreme), doesn’t react, doesn’t engage and further interact with those stimuli; it’s as if they bounce-off a sort of invisible shell surrounding the absorbed mind. With deeper absorption (4th stage and beyond), the mind is beyond reach of any awareness of contact with external stimuli. Possibly excepting relatively violent intrusions that can knock the mind out of absorption, and for one maybe not having fully mastered the skill.

(Relatively deep psychedelic experience offers a comparison here. There the mind can become artificially disabled from higher-order cognitive processing of sensory stimuli; a forced sort of absorption into more primitive layers of consciousness. Colors, shapes, sounds etc. are there but the mind is incapable of integrating them with memories, associations, concepts, etc. One doesn’t “hear” music, or “see” a painting in the conventional sense, but only fascinating (but otherwise meaningless) swirls of visual and auditory effects. This doesn’t involve skill or understanding, per se, but can lead, upon later reflection, to insight into the distinction between the nervous system functions of receiving sensory stimuli and the activities of the (intact) mental powers of higher cognition; can open the door to realizing the difference between pure phenomena (bare appearance) and “reality” (their meaning as supplied by the mind). )
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Re: The Great Jhana Debate

Post by cjmacie »

.
As boring as jhāna-war debates have become, I’ve come to a perspective that works well in clarifying it all, and which pertains to sub-topics raised here:

Anchoring at perhaps the most important moment in the life of practice – attainment of any of the 4 Paths – it’s been well-presented that at that immediately prior to that moment a practitioner achieves an ultimately intense degree of samādhi; the mind is so trained and concentrated as to be in position to break-through in a fundamental transformation.

The best formulation of this I’ve found in the writings of the Mahasi Sayadaw, though it’s also found in many other variations in the teachings of other authoritative teachers. His formulation is that totally established sammā-samādhi is required to achieve path – i.e. as that factor is the final step in the 8-FNP – and although the Buddha usually spoke of this with reference to jhāna, it’s plausibly interpreted in later (commentarial) tradition, and on the basis of millennia of generations of practical experience in the matter, that the necessary degree of sammā-samādhi can be furnished using any of the three basic forms of samādhi : upacara­-samādhi (“access concentration”), vipassana-khanika-samādhi (“momentary concentration”), as well as appana-samādhi (the absorption of jhāna) – the key ingredient being the consummate intensity which can be achieved with, and can be comparable across any of these three types. With the proviso that whatever the concentration, it’s highly cultivated and intensified. Many of the popular “easy” methods don’t really cut it.

Differentiating factors include the propensity (innate temperament) of the practitioner, and other conditioning such as method taught and extensively trained in. Accepting that different flavors of samādhi work for different people could (but probably not in fact) help to truncate these on-and-on discussions. What generates the debate (samsāra-like, with no determinable beginning or ending) appears to be people taking as dogmatic (ekāyano, so to speak – arguing the “only” way) personal viewpoints related to this or that definition, as well as a large range of depth of actual practical experience. These positions are often supported with detailed interpretations of this or that sutta passage, and quite often influenced by unexamined biases with respect to the meanings of various English words used in the translations.

btw: Appreciating the difference between appana-samādhi (absorbed jhāna) and vipassana-khanika-samādhi (“momentary concentration") could help cut through the confusion as to whether insight happens afterwards (the former), or during (the latter) type of samādhi.
Last edited by cjmacie on Mon Oct 23, 2017 5:33 am, edited 1 time in total.
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mikenz66
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Re: The Great Jhana Debate

Post by mikenz66 »

aflatun wrote: Sun Oct 22, 2017 3:30 pm
mikenz66 wrote: Sat Oct 21, 2017 8:48 pm It certainly is curious that the description of this key aspect of the path is described in the suttas in such a way that allows such different interpretations: ...
Yes! Curious and for me sometimes disheartening, as very intelligent, well equipped and well meaning individuals come to different conclusions about what it all means.
Yes, of course it bothers me less off-line, where nuances of one's practice can be better explored, and there is much less polarization into this or that approach being "right".

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