Jhāna According to the Pāḷi Nikāyas

The cultivation of calm or tranquility and the development of concentration
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Nyana
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Re: Jhāna According to the Pāḷi Nikāyas

Post by Nyana »

IanAnd wrote:
Leigh Brasington wrote:This is Piti, which is primarily a physical experience. Physical pleasure this intense is accompanied by emotional pleasure, and this emotional pleasure is Sukha (joy) which is the fourth factor of the First Jhana.
Hi Ian & all,

Leigh's teachings are very good and certainly experiential, and your above descriptions of pīti and sukha are excellent too. But... I so much dislike having to ever add a but after a compliment. It's often understood as a negation of what was just said prior to the but. And I don't want to negate your description or Leigh's teachings at all. Nevertheless... there's another word like but....

Okay, continuing on: From a purely technical perspective, with reference to the earliest commentaries the two terms are actually understood to be the other way around. Pīti is defined as a mental quality of joy or enthusiasm or delight, etc., and sukha, in the context of jhāna is defined as bodily pleasure.

Now this is all kinda academic, I know, because both pīti and sukha are formless mental dhammas. But that is how these phenomena are understood in the traditional texts. This doesn't mean that Leigh is wrong at all, because we all have to map our own inner mental terrain. And these two phenomena are related mental aspects of that terrain.

It reminds me of when I was first learning to play guitar as a kid. I learned a few chords from a local guitar teacher and then my uncle, who was a very good country music guitarist and singer, wanted me to show him what I'd learned. So I got my guitar and played him some chords sequences and when I got to the three main chords in the key of C major, and played them, I was having a bit of a problem playing the F chord (which is a bar chord on guitar). And so when he went to show me an easier way to finger the F chord (as a partial bar instead of a full bar) he called it "C." And I said, "No that's F." And he said, "Oh yeah, it's F, right." Then he explained to me that because he learned to play solely by ear he had somehow learned to call the C chord F and the F chord C. Now he's an excellent musician who's entertained countless numbers of people for over half a century, and not knowing the proper technical names of these two chords never diminished his skill as a musician or the enjoyment of the audiences he's played for.

So it's always a good reminder, that while we have the traditional maps charting our inner mental terrain -- those maps are not the same as the terrain itself. They are descriptions on paper of how to learn to skillfully navigate and develop our inner mental terrain. But they are just that, nothing less, nothing more.

Anyway, there's my but.... :embarassed:

All the best,

Geoff
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Re: Jhāna According to the Pāḷi Nikāyas

Post by Vepacitta »

Intersting posts from all - I don't categorise my meditations into 'steps' .
I just watch - which is what most of the meditation texts I've read tell a person to do.
It's fascinating how these things can be reduced to component parts; and it's never occurred to me to do that.

(Hmm could it be that after all these years, I'm still a zennist at heart?)

My personal advice to Retro (puts on Agony Aunt Hat) is to just watch and not get frigged up over steps. Just watch and do the meditation (breath, Buddho, whatever) that'll take you into it. And it'll do it within 45 minutes - then quicker - then quicker - so you can get there and sit in it longer.

This is more 'touchy-feely' type talk - it's coming from a more personal perspective rather than purely sutta-based - but hopefully it may serve to assist.

(typing quickly as must dash off to wurk so apologies for typos, mis-spellings, bad grammer - the whole lot)

Muchly metta,

V.
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Re: Jhāna According to the Pāḷi Nikāyas

Post by retrofuturist »

Greetings Vepacitta,
Vepacitta wrote:My personal advice to Retro (puts on Agony Aunt Hat) is to just watch and not get frigged up over steps. Just watch and do the meditation (breath, Buddho, whatever) that'll take you into it. And it'll do it within 45 minutes - then quicker - then quicker - so you can get there and sit in it longer.
I appreciate the concern, but I don't think of them as some sequence of linear steps I must trawl through. Rather, they indicate what experiences may be coming up, and how I can progress the depth of the meditation through a timely and subtle transition of emphasis.

Metta,
Retro. :)
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Re: Jhāna According to the Pāḷi Nikāyas

Post by bodom »

It stemmed from the "cutting out" of many of the anapanasati steps and the seeming devaluation of the additional samatha that they might yield.


Not sure why you seem to be taking this whole bit personally. Devaluation? Where? If you had read the whole article Buddhadasa goes on to say it is best and ideal to practice all 16 steps but if are
unable due to household life, which isn't a big stretch here, there is another method.

:anjali:
Liberation is the inevitable fruit of the path and is bound to blossom forth when there is steady and persistent practice. The only requirements for reaching the final goal are two: to start and to continue. If these requirements are met there is no doubt the goal will be attained. This is the Dhamma, the undeviating law.

- BB
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Re: Jhāna According to the Pāḷi Nikāyas

Post by gavesako »

I have always liked the practical way in which Ajahn Chah was talking about meditation, from his own experience, but very much in line with the Suttas (and not so much with Ajahn Brahm's Jhana-theory):
_______________


We practice like this until we become skilled in it and it goes smoothly. The next stage is to focus awareness only on the sensation of the breath at the tip of the nose or the upper lip. At this point we aren't concerned with whether the breath is long or short, but only focus on the sensation of entering and exiting.

Different phenomena may contact the senses, or thoughts may arise. This is called initial thought (vitakka). The mind brings up some idea, be it about the nature of compounded phenomena (sankhārā), about the world, or whatever. Once the mind has brought it up, the mind will want to get involved and merge with it. If it's an object that is wholesome then let the mind take it up. If it is something unwholesome, stop it immediately. If it is something wholesome then let the mind contemplate it, and gladness, satisfaction and happiness will come about. The mind will be bright and clear; as the breath goes in and out and as the mind takes up these initial thoughts. Then it becomes discursive thought (vicāra). The mind develops familiarity with the object, exerting itself and merging with it. At this point, there is no sleepiness.

After an appropriate period of this, take your attention back to the breath. Then as you continue on there will be the initial thought and discursive thought, initial thought and discursive thought. If you are contemplating skillfully on an object such as the nature of sankhāra, then the mind will experience deeper tranquility and rapture is born. There is the vitakka and vicāra, and that leads to happiness of mind. At this time there won't be any dullness or drowsiness. The mind won't be dark if we practice like this. It will be gladdened and enraptured.

This rapture will start to diminish and disappear after a while, so you can take up the initial thought again. The mind will become firm and certain with it - undistracted. Then you go on to discursive thought again, the mind becoming one with it. When you are practicing a meditation that suits your temperament and doing it well, then whenever you take up the object, rapture will come about: the hairs of the body stand on end and the mind is enraptured and satiated.

When it's like this there can't be any dullness or drowsiness. You won't have any doubts. Back and forth between initial and discursive thought, initial and discursive thought, over and over again and rapture comes. Then there is sukha (bliss).

This takes place in sitting practice. After sitting for a while, you can get up and do walking meditation. The mind can be the same in the walking. Not sleepy, it has the vitakka and vicāra, vitakka and vicāra, then rapture. There won't be any of the nīvarana4, and the mind will be unstained. Whatever takes place, never mind; you don't need to doubt about any experiences you may have, be they of light, of bliss, or whatever. Don't entertain doubts about these conditions of mind. If the mind is dark, if the mind is illumined, don't fixate on these conditions, don't be attached to them. Let go, discard them. Keep walking, keep noting what is taking place without getting bound or infatuated. Don't suffer over these conditions of mind. Don't have doubts about them. They are just what they are, following the way of mental phenomena. Sometimes the mind will be joyful. Sometimes it will be sorrowful. There can be happiness or suffering; there can be obstruction. Rather than doubting, understand that conditions of mind are like this; whatever manifests is coming about due to causes ripening. At this moment this condition is manifesting; that's what you should recognize. Even if the mind is dark you don't need to be upset over that. If it becomes bright, don't be excessively gladdened by that. Don't have doubts about these conditions of mind, or about your reactions to them. ...

Question: Are vitakka and vicāra the same?

Ajahn Chah: You're sitting and suddenly the thought of someone pops into your head - that's vitakka, the initial thought. Then you take that idea of the person and start thinking about them in detail. Vitakka is picking it up, vicāra is investigating it. For example, we pick up the idea of death and then we start considering it: ''I will die, others will die, every living being will die; when they die where will they go?'' Then stop! Stop and bring it back again. When it gets running like that, stop it again; and then go back to mindfulness of the breath. Sometimes the discursive thought will wander off and not come back, so you have to stop it. Keep at it until the mind is bright and clear.

If you practice vicāra with an object that you are suited to, you may experience the hairs of your body standing on end, tears pouring from your eyes, a state of extreme delight, many different things as rapture comes.

Question: Can this happen with any kind of thinking, or is it only in a state of tranquility that it happens?

Ajahn Chah: It's when the mind is tranquil. It's not ordinary mental proliferation. You sit with a calm mind and then the initial thought comes. For example, I think of my brother who just passed away. Or I might think of some other relatives. This is when the mind is tranquil - the tranquility isn't something certain, but for the moment the mind is tranquil. After this initial thought comes then I go into discursive thought. If it's a line of thinking that's skillful and wholesome, it leads to ease of mind and happiness, and there is rapture with its attendant experiences. This rapture came from the initial and discursive thinking that took place in a state of calmness. We don't have to give it names such as first jhāna, second jhāna and so forth. We just call it tranquility.

The next factor is bliss (sukha). Eventually we drop the initial and discursive thinking as tranquility deepens. Why? The state of mind is becoming more refined and subtle. Vitakka and vicāra are relatively coarse, and they will vanish. There will remain just the rapture accompanied by bliss and one-pointedness of mind. When it reaches full measure there won't be anything, the mind is empty. That's absorption concentration.

We don't need to fixate or dwell on any of these experiences. They will naturally progress from one to the next. At first there is initial and discursive thought, rapture, bliss and onepointedness. Then initial and discursive thinking are thrown off, leaving rapture, bliss, and one-pointedness. Rapture is thrown off5, then bliss, and finally only one-pointedness and equanimity remain. It means the mind becomes more and more tranquil, and its objects are steadily decreasing until there is nothing but one-pointedness and equanimity.

When the mind is tranquil and focused this can happen. It is the power of mind, the state of the mind that has attained tranquility. When it's like this there won't be any sleepiness. It can't enter the mind; it will disappear. As for the other hindrances of sensual desire, aversion, doubt and restlessness and agitation, they just won't be present. Though they may still exist latent in the mind of the meditator, they won't occur at this time.

http://www.ajahnchah.org/book/Monastery_Confusion1.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Bhikkhu Gavesako
Kiṃkusalagavesī anuttaraṃ santivarapadaṃ pariyesamāno... (MN 26)

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Reductor
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Re: Jhāna According to the Pāḷi Nikāyas

Post by Reductor »

bodom wrote: Not sure why you seem to be taking this whole bit personally. Devaluation? Where? If you had read the whole article Buddhadasa goes on to say it is best and ideal to practice all 16 steps but if are
unable due to household life, which isn't a big stretch here, there is another method.
Well, I didn't read the article, so I don't know what Buddhadasa has to say. I did read Retro's post to imply a certain devaluation, but that is not the same as taking it personally. It is simply the function of my limited intellect as it attempts to interpret the words of another. I certainly wasn't feeling anything except concern for Retro's predicament.
Retrofuturist wrote: Whilst samatha alone may be fun, I think vipassana as taught by the Buddha is the reason for practicing samatha in the Buddhadhamma... it's not simply samatha for samatha sake. If that's all it was, it wouldn't have taken the Buddha to work that out. I'd rather not waste what mental unity I have attained in such a session, as humble as it might be.
If I am wrong, and it seems that I am, then I apologize.

:namaste:
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Re: Jhāna According to the Pāḷi Nikāyas

Post by Reductor »

Vepacitta wrote:Intersting posts from all - I don't categorise my meditations into 'steps' .
I just watch - which is what most of the meditation texts I've read tell a person to do.
It's fascinating how these things can be reduced to component parts; and it's never occurred to me to do that.
No? :smile: Usually I think over the first four steps early on, just to remind myself how its supposed to unfold. But once I really start it comes down to watching closely and responding skillfully - its pretty dynamic. But I've definitely found the first four steps very very important, in that when things aren't going well it almost always means that I'm not paying enough attention to one of them. So consider them a checklist of sorts, so that you don't over look anything.

Then I know that a point should come when things are 'just right', in which case steps 5 and 6 amount to a slight mental 'nudge' by way of reflection/notice; a subtle observation made during meditation. Then I just keep my mind balanced as the results show themselves.
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Re: Jhāna According to the Pāḷi Nikāyas

Post by Vepacitta »

Hey Reductor :smile:

No, it really hasn't occurred to me - it's probably the Ajahn Chah/Ajahn Sumedho influence on me. See the Venerable's post on Ajahn Chah's teaching above.

(Thanks Venerable for that great 'nuts and bolts' meditation teaching from Ven. Chah).

However, I will review the steps - and after the mediation 'calms down' - will analyse it.

tx!

V,
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Re: Jhāna According to the Pāḷi Nikāyas

Post by IanAnd »

Ñāṇa wrote:
Leigh Brasington wrote:This is Piti, which is primarily a physical experience. Physical pleasure this intense is accompanied by emotional pleasure, and this emotional pleasure is Sukha (joy) which is the fourth factor of the First Jhana.
From a purely technical perspective, with reference to the earliest commentaries the two terms are actually understood to be the other way around. Pīti is defined as a mental quality of joy or enthusiasm or delight, etc., and sukha, in the context of jhāna is defined as bodily pleasure.

Now this is all kinda academic, I know, because both pīti and sukha are formless mental dhammas. But that is how these phenomena are understood in the traditional texts. This doesn't mean that Leigh is wrong at all, because we all have to map our own inner mental terrain. And these two phenomena are related mental aspects of that terrain.
Actually, that's a very good catch, Geoff. I agree with the point you're making, as that has been my understanding all along. I quoted Leigh's statement word for word just as he wrote it without editing or qualifying it for accuracy of content because I wanted readers to read the description that I first read. I'm certain that he learned this way of viewing the experience from his teacher Ayya Khema, which perhaps only highlights the personal preference aspect of this whole endeavor at attempting to describe these subtle mental qualities.

Yet, even so, according to the five types of piti which I've seen written about that can be experience, this description may well fall into one of those five categories. In some of those other descriptions, there can be an element of intense physical pleasure (according to the way I've seen them described) which can last for some duration according to the experiencer's desire to hold onto it. This does nothing to diminish the point you have made; it only points to other viewpoints that have come up and been promulgated, which is pretty typical in subjective experience.

The reason I like the word "elation" is that for me (according to how I understand that word and its use; and this may be an entirely personal preference) it is descriptive of those initial moments of delight that arise when one realizes a pleasant outcome whose fruition may have been in doubt. It's like the sudden intake of breath and accompanying affective mental delight or elation when you are told something will occur that you have been hoping would occur but of which there was some doubt would occur. Some people respond to such stimulus with either more or less vigor, which might account for the five types of piti that have been described.
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Re: Jhāna According to the Pāḷi Nikāyas

Post by IanAnd »

Welcome to this discussion, Bhikkhu Gavesako. You're input is valued.

I, too, have benefited greatly from Ajahn Chah's vivid and down-to-earth descriptions of meditation practice. Sometimes, the more examples given, the easier it becomes to discern these subtle qualities and refinements of experience as one's practice matures.
gavesako wrote:I have always liked the practical way in which Ajahn Chah was talking about meditation, from his own experience, but very much in line with the Suttas (and not so much with Ajahn Brahm's Jhana-theory):
_______________

We practice like this until we become skilled in it and it goes smoothly. The next stage is to focus awareness only on the sensation of the breath at the tip of the nose or the upper lip. At this point we aren't concerned with whether the breath is long or short, but only focus on the sensation of entering and exiting. . . .

If you are contemplating skillfully on an object such as the nature of sankhāra, then the mind will experience deeper tranquility and rapture is born. There is the vitakka and vicāra, and that leads to happiness of mind. At this time there won't be any dullness or drowsiness. The mind won't be dark if we practice like this. It will be gladdened and enraptured. . . .

This rapture will start to diminish and disappear after a while, so you can take up the initial thought again. The mind will become firm and certain with it - undistracted.

Then you go on to discursive thought again, the mind becoming one with it.

When you are practicing a meditation that suits your temperament and doing it well, then whenever you take up the object, rapture will come about: the hairs of the body stand on end and the mind is enraptured and satiated.

When it's like this there can't be any dullness or drowsiness. You won't have any doubts. Back and forth between initial and discursive thought, initial and discursive thought, over and over again and rapture comes. Then there is sukha (bliss). . . .

Vitakka is picking it up, vicāra is investigating it. For example, we pick up the idea of death and then we start considering it: ''I will die, others will die, every living being will die; when they die where will they go?'' Then stop! Stop and bring it back again. When it gets running like that, stop it again; and then go back to mindfulness of the breath. Sometimes the discursive thought will wander off and not come back, so you have to stop it. Keep at it until the mind is bright and clear.

If you practice vicāra with an object that you are suited to, you may experience the hairs of your body standing on end, tears pouring from your eyes, a state of extreme delight, many different things as rapture comes. . . .

It's when the mind is tranquil. It's not ordinary mental proliferation. You sit with a calm mind and then the initial thought comes. . . . If it's a line of thinking that's skillful and wholesome, it leads to ease of mind and happiness, and there is rapture with its attendant experiences. This rapture came from the initial and discursive thinking that took place in a state of calmness. We don't have to give it names such as first jhāna, second jhāna and so forth. We just call it tranquility.

The next factor is bliss (sukha). Eventually we drop the initial and discursive thinking as tranquility deepens. Why? The state of mind is becoming more refined and subtle. Vitakka and vicāra are relatively coarse, and they will vanish. There will remain just the rapture accompanied by bliss and one-pointedness of mind. When it reaches full measure there won't be anything, the mind is empty. That's absorption concentration.

We don't need to fixate or dwell on any of these experiences. They will naturally progress from one to the next. At first there is initial and discursive thought, rapture, bliss and onepointedness. Then initial and discursive thinking are thrown off, leaving rapture, bliss, and one-pointedness. Rapture is thrown off, then bliss, and finally only one-pointedness and equanimity remain. It means the mind becomes more and more tranquil, and its objects are steadily decreasing until there is nothing but one-pointedness and equanimity.

When the mind is tranquil and focused this can happen. It is the power of mind, the state of the mind that has attained tranquility.

When it's like this there won't be any sleepiness.
It can't enter the mind; it will disappear.

As for the other hindrances of sensual desire, aversion, doubt and restlessness and agitation, they just won't be present. Though they may still exist latent in the mind of the meditator, they won't occur at this time.

http://www.ajahnchah.org/book/Monastery_Confusion1.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
"The gift of truth exceeds all other gifts" — Dhammapada, v. 354 Craving XXIV
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Re: Jhāna According to the Pāḷi Nikāyas

Post by Agmanellium »

This has helped me greatly in my meditation, especially the part on directed thought towards renunciation, non-aversion, and harmlessness. However I am having problems with harmlessness. I am not a vegetarian. As I meditate my thoughts go to harmlessness and I wrestle with the question of the need to forswear meat in order to be harmless. If i think "what if I try not eating meat?', then the question of wearing leather arises. I know that meat was not forbidden as long as it was not slaughtered specifically for the monks, so my question is this: Since our meat delivery system in the United States is not aimed at any individual, and therefore no animal was slaughtered specifically for me, can I eat it and still consider myself to have done no harm? I have not killed. It was not killed for me, and the killing will continue whether I eat it or not. Most leather is a byproduct of meat slaughter. The skin would only go to waste were it not made into leather. This I have less problem with. To eat a plant is to kill it. To eat a part of a plant is to kill the cells that make up that part. It is not possible to live without killing. Is it therefore the pain that animals suffer that is the harm or are plants merely "second class citizens" of our planet? How do you practice harmlessness?
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Re: Jhāna According to the Pāḷi Nikāyas

Post by Modus.Ponens »

Agmanellium wrote:This has helped me greatly in my meditation, especially the part on directed thought towards renunciation, non-aversion, and harmlessness. However I am having problems with harmlessness. I am not a vegetarian. As I meditate my thoughts go to harmlessness and I wrestle with the question of the need to forswear meat in order to be harmless. If i think "what if I try not eating meat?', then the question of wearing leather arises. I know that meat was not forbidden as long as it was not slaughtered specifically for the monks, so my question is this: Since our meat delivery system in the United States is not aimed at any individual, and therefore no animal was slaughtered specifically for me, can I eat it and still consider myself to have done no harm? I have not killed. It was not killed for me, and the killing will continue whether I eat it or not. Most leather is a byproduct of meat slaughter. The skin would only go to waste were it not made into leather. This I have less problem with. To eat a plant is to kill it. To eat a part of a plant is to kill the cells that make up that part. It is not possible to live without killing. Is it therefore the pain that animals suffer that is the harm or are plants merely "second class citizens" of our planet? How do you practice harmlessness?
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Re: Jhāna According to the Pāḷi Nikāyas

Post by Assaji »

Hi Modus.Ponens,
Modus.Ponens wrote:But I think this demonstrates an important principle: that the first 12 steps in the anapanasati sutta are meant to be a gradual progression through the jhanas (preparing, producing or strenghtning the apropriate jhana factor).

Has anyone here found this 12 steps interpretation to be true?
The exact progression is given, for example, in the Mahanama sutta:

"And when the mind is headed straight, the disciple of the noble ones gains a sense of the goal, gains a sense of the Dhamma, gains joy connected with the Dhamma. In one who is joyful, rapture arises. In one who is rapturous, the body grows calm. One whose body is calmed experiences ease. In one at ease, the mind becomes concentrated."

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .than.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Calm (passaddhi) goes here after rapture (piti).

So the 16 methods of Anapanasati don't form a strict linear progression, and are organized by four satipatthanas.

The connection of the first three tetrads of Anapanasati with jhanas is described, for example, in Vimuttimagga, - for eaxample, piti and sukha are understandably connected with the second and third jhanas.
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Re: Jhāna According to the Pāḷi Nikāyas

Post by Sobeh »

Dmytro wrote:The connection of the first three tetrads of Anapanasati with jhanas is described, for example, in Vimuttimagga, - for eaxample, piti and sukha are understandably connected with the second and third jhanas.
What might we conclude about these three (satipatthana, the jhanas, and the stages of anapanasati) if we restrain ourselves to the Suttapitaka?

1) The satipatthana are the guidelines for establishing mindfulness.
2) Anapanasati fulfills satipatthana. (So does kayagatasati.)
3) It is never said anywhere in the Suttas that the jhanas fulfill satipatthana.

Conclusion) The jhanas are not included in satipatthana.
Result) The jhanas are not a part of any of the 16 stages of anapanasati.

---
In other words:

Given that

sammasati = satipatthana (eg. anapanasati, kayagatasati), and
sammasamadhi = four jhanas (perhaps eight?):

Therefore, since

sammaditthi =/= sammasankappa
sammasankappa =/= sammavaca
...
sammasati =/= sammasamadhi

The conclusion is forced:

{satipatthana =/= jhana}
Last edited by Sobeh on Fri Oct 01, 2010 9:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Jhāna According to the Pāḷi Nikāyas

Post by tiltbillings »

Sobeh wrote:
Dmytro wrote:The connection of the first three tetrads of Anapanasati with jhanas is described, for example, in Vimuttimagga, - for eaxample, piti and sukha are understandably connected with the second and third jhanas.
What might we conclude about these three (satipatthana, the jhanas, and the stages of anapanasati) if we restrain ourselves to the Suttapitaka?

1) The satipatthana are the guidelines for establishing mindfulness.
2) Anapanasati fulfills satipatthana. (So does kayagatasati.)
3) It is never said anywhere in the Suttas that the jhanas fulfill satipatthana.

Conclusion) The jhanas are not included in satipatthana.
Result) The jhanas are not a part of any of the 16 stages of anapanasati.
As much I want to stay out of this, I find your statement interesting and I think you are correct and I really would like to see your textual support for this.
>> Do you see a man wise [enlightened/ariya] in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.<< -- Proverbs 26:12

This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” HPatDH p.723
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