I've been thinking about the non-absorbed view of Jhāna again as of late. Very often those who propose it argue that following points In the 1st Jhāna pericope "vivicceva kāmehi vivicca akusalehi dhammehi" should be read as " Quite secluded from sensual desires, secluded from unwhole...

Once you become a Sotapanna, do you still have to learn Dhamma? I suppose there's a difference between being an absolute requirement and it being helpful. There are suttas that describe monastics achieving arahantship right after hearing a Dhamma talk.Training was obviously still useful too. The fo...

It's just that this talk about cessation of breathing in the 4th jhana in a number of suttas (or cessation of the bodily formation in MN44) would seem to me to be a rather superfluous/redundant point if it is not actually experienced by the meditator. If we take that breath ceases "literally,&...

Do I whiff denying the antecedent here? ;) I guess quibbling on which is actually the antecedent! :) Personally I no longer have any doubt regarding the matter, and in terms of the suttas they are quite clear it seems to me. No worries. I 'm not going to argue this ad infinitum . I enjoy the occasi...

It occurs to me, if we believe in dhyāna with one object of cognition exclusively, that being the nimitta, then a literal reading of the cessation of breathing is more likely. The meditator in such a dhyāna would not be able to sense whether they were breathing or not from the first dhyāna onwards,...

The difficulty in them being peculiar to said attainment would be the development of 1 singular perception previously, the abandonment of perceptions of diversity previously, the inability to hear sound and the seclusion from sense objects. All those have to be explained away for it even to be cons...

I would have to disagree. The suttas are quite clear. You are correct that in terms of meditation "perception of diversity" is found next to infinite space etc, but on it's own this doesn't prove anything other than infinite space is without perceptions of diversity. Sure, it doesn't prov...

In case this is a misunderstanding, my username has nothing to do with Caesar. I'm Welsh, and Ceisiwr is welsh for "seeker". Cool! I'm Irish and tried to think of an Irish Gaelic word for a username (though I'm not particularly fluent in the language) that sounded at least somewhat Buddhi...

I can agree that some people make the Dhamma conform to themselves and look everywhere but the Suttas for that confirmation. Do you agree that: A) The Jhanas are being referred to in this sutta. B) Diverse perceptions hold one back from the Jhanas. If no to either, on what basis? Just to interject ...

I take this text to be referring to absorption via ānāpānasati. On such a reading, attendance to the physical breath (rather than the conceptual image) would be a thorn to the attainment since it is a return to diverse conceptual attentions (saññāmanasikārā). As AN. 934 states that saññāmanasikārā ...

*Duplicate post removed*

Without relying upon either the Abhidhamma of the Visuddhimagga we have suttas which state the following: 1. Whilst in any jhānā there is seclusion from the external kāmā. 2. Whilst in any jhānā there is no saññāmanasikārā. 3. Whilst in the 1st jhāna sound is a thorn, like pain is to happiness. Ana...

I suppose that in most places for most of history the warrior class and the noble class were synonymous, e.g. knights and barons in feudal Europe or the samurai in Japan. They held and ruled land and the people living on it, trained at and were skilled in warfare, used its resources to equip themsel...

Suaimhneas wrote  Also, to be contrarian, isn't all current Theravadan meditation practice tradition a relatively modern reconstruction from the last century or two (revivalist pioneers working from texts and their own experiences), sometimes too in the context of Western colonialism? Recent and We...

Driving at? 'Twas more a random musing after reading through a thread full of mentions of body and kaya (I know it's only vaguely and rather loosely related to the debate). Don't think I really had either side of the debate B. Brahm or Brahmali in mind when writing it (so can understand your mystif...