Quite frankly sometimes this obsessive focus on jhana tends to be a distraction. While jhana may be for some something fairly easily achieved, for most lay folks, if it is not out of reach, it is very difficult.rowyourboat wrote:I would like to ask the gentlemen here to consider that jhanas (the absorbed type) can arise from both samatha AND vipassana. Sati leads to samadhi. The presence or absence of panna is the difference. I have yet to meet a dry vipassana master who wasn't able to give rise to jhana. There IS only jhana mentioned in the suttas - without the 'samatha' or 'vipassana' qualification.
With metta
Matheesha
What the Burmese vipassana tradition recognizes is that, at least for the attainment of sotapanna, the level of concentration involved is far more accessible and does not require the preoccupation with all the bits a pieces of "attainment" that seems occupy the jhanika's efforts.
An interesting point, however, is that while there are dangers in the vipassana practice, the dangers of jhana practice, especially on one's own, are far greater and far more insidious.
That is not quite so, as has been pointed out by any number of others here at length.There IS only jhana mentioned in the suttas