Thank you, all, so much for your continuing contributions to this topic. No, I have no idea how to respond. I can only try my best to absorb your compassionate sharings into my daily practise.

Many, many thanks, IanAnd. I have read both books that you recommend and will dig them out for re-reading. Yes, with continued practise comes insight. This experience is familiar to me. Regarding looking at the on-and-on-ness of the stars when I was little, perhaps reverie is a useful term. It let m...

Thank you, IanAnd - I reviewed the section from Mind Like Fire Unbound that you recommended. I read this a long time ago. This time, it made sense. Whaddyano 'bout that! :P I didn't describe my experiences/feelings/impressions when gazing at the on-and-on-ness of the stars because I find it nearly i...

Ah, IanAnd - The Wings to Awakening - I have tried so often to make my way through this most profound of Dhamma texts. Sadly, it appears I'm short a brain cell or three! It's so difficult. That said, I am very grateful for the discussion you have presented. My own childhood memory of something vague...

Hi Sudarsha, Though the practise I do is not oriented towards jhana, my teachers have never been negative about developing high degrees of concentration. Their only warning is that when I find myself in a blissful or equanimous state I should be sure to remain conscious of the bliss, equanimity, et...

Thanks, Ben I am thinking of one of Thanissaro Bhikkhu's essays ( One Tool among Many http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/onetool.html ). I remember very clearly the first time I read this and felt very surprised that the Buddha wasn't teaching two separate things or two different ...

Thanks, Ben

I want to apologize for being unclear and causing some disruption in the smooth flow of things.

HI, Ben Where to put it??? I think it is an "absolute" that experience and "writing" go hand in glove. Which is the hand and which the glove may not always be clear. But, at least in my experience, commentary and experience, sutta and experience, sutta and commentary - are insepa...

Thanks, AdvaitaJ, for a more accessible link to Ajahn Sona's very useful essay. I attended a teaching session with Leigh Brasington here in Toronto. I was surprised at how easy he made at least the first jhana seem. My own experience is that, yes, settling down, becoming content and tranquil is inde...

Thanks, Ben

I'll look in there ... but great scholarship is hardly my forte.

If I may, for the moment, return to thereductor's initial inquiry, I wonder if some of the problematic area is down to the Visuddhimagga itself. The doubt expressed by yes, no, neither, could be, maybe and so forth might be arising from too much dependence upon the cataloging done by Buddhaghosa him...

I have noted what I consider a profound and positive change in my meditation since joining this discussion forum. I do not have any idea how to articulate this beyond saying that, however. One of the advantages of having a teacher/sangha is discussion, something that has been in omission from my dai...

To paraphrase Browning: a person's reach should exceed his/her grasp, or what's jhana for? Thanks, mikenz66, for the reference to MN111 Anupada Sutta: One After Another. At University, a friend quipped that God was like a dancer with 7 veils. Six had fallen away, but one remained, which is what made...

Hello, again, thereductor My tuppence, for what it might be worth, isn't generally along the lines of thought expressed by others here. Yes, if the first time you tried to meditate you fell into jhana, I suppose it would be quite surprising. But let us not neglect to remember that this is exactly wh...

Hello, thereductor I have only just joined but I'm going to leap in, anyway, and we can see what it might be worth. You say you are in the boon docks which I take to refer to some location in Australia :thinking: , only because of the mention of Ajahn Brahmavamso's web site. I have been practising f...