Tv Ab Kv 18.8 Abhidhamma claims you can not hear sounds in jhāna, but their logic is fallacious

[frank k]

A few more interesting facts I discovered researching the topic.
Tv Ab Kv (book 5 of Abhidhamma pitaka) is relatively late, compared to earlier canonical abhidhamma.
So the whole premise of the OP, based Tv Ab Kv 18.8, really doesn't represent early Abhidhamma thought and we could rightly disregard that anyway. What LBT proponents need to do is show where early strata of Abhidhamma supports a disembodied jhana. I don't think they can.

For example, Vimuttimagga, which is earlier than Vism. and from which it is based, also relies and Abhidhamma and talks about 40 meditation topics.
But unlike Vism., Vimuttimagga has hearing sounds in the 4 jhanas, sensing the body, and they properly distinguish between form and formless attainments.

The sad thing about LBT followers blinded by bias, they still insist you can't walk in jhana even though their own scripture Vism. says it is possible to stand (earlier post by Assaji) and walk while doing LBT "jhana" appana samadhi. I heard this from Pa Auk himself, that Vism. supports walking and doing VRJ (vism. redefinition of jhana).

So if it's possible to do the more difficult LBT jhana, why would anyone even doubt EBT walking jhana is doable?

[Assaji]

“There are, Ānanda, beings who are diverse in body and diverse in perception, such as human beings, some gods, and some beings in the lower realms. This is the first station for consciousness.

There are beings who are diverse in body but identical in perception, such as the gods of the Brahma-order who are generated through the first (jhāna). This is the second station for consciousness."

I found the Commentary, in Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi's translation:

There are, Ānanda, Seven stations for consciousness and two bases.

CY. “Seven” is stated by way of rebirth-linking. “Station for consciousness”: this is a foothold for consciousness.

...

Beings who are diverse in body but identical in perception, such as the gods of the Brahmā-order who are generated through the first (jhāna).

CY. “The gods of the Brahmā-order” (devā brahmakāyikā): the gods of Brahmā’s retinue, the gods of Brahmā’s ministry, and the great Brahmās.
SUB. CY. Those who occupy the position of attendants to the great Brahmā are gods of Brahmā’s retinue; those who occupy the position of the great Brahmā’s ministers are gods of Brahmā’s ministry; those Brahmās who are great in life-span, beauty, etc. are the great Brahmās.
CY. All these are generated through the first jhāna. Among these, the gods of Brahmā’s retinue are generated through a limited (attainment of the first jhāna); their life-span is a third of an aeon. The gods of Brahmā’s ministry are generated through a middling (attainment of jhāna); their life-span is half an aeon and their bodies are more pervasive than the gods of Brahmā’s retinue. The great Brahmās are generated through a superior (attainment of jhāna); their life-span is an aeon and their bodies are extremely pervasive. Thus, since their bodies are diverse but their perceptions identical by way of the first jhāna, they are described as “beings who are diverse in body but identical in perception.”
SUB. CY. A limited (attainment of the first jhāna) is one where the jhāna is merely obtained; a “middling attainment” is one where it is obtained (more firmly) without being well developed; and a “superior attainment” is one where it is well developed and fully mastered.
“More pervasive”: larger in size and more beautiful in quality.

“Identical in perception”: the identity in their perception is due to its being triple-rooted. For there is no difference at all in that perception by way of associated phenomena.

CY. The beings in the four planes of misery are similar. For these beings are of varying sizes and appearances. Yet for all the (rebirth-linking) perception is a rootless unwholesome resultant. Thus the beings in the planes of misery are also reckoned as “diverse in body but identical in perception.”

Beings who are identical in body but diverse in perception, such as the gods of streaming radiance.

CY. “The gods of streaming radiance” (devā ābhassarā): their radiance streams forth from their bodies, flying out after flickering again and again like the flame of a torch.
Those who are reborn as a result of developing the second and third jhānas of the fivefold system to a limited extent become “gods of limited radiance” (parittābhā); their life-span is two aeons. Those who are reborn as a result of developing (those jhānas) to a middling extent become “gods of immeasurable radiance” (appamāṇābhā); their life-span is four aeons. Those who are reborn as a result of developing (those jhānas) to a superior extent become “gods of streaming radiance”; their life-span is eight aeons. By mentioning the most excellent (of these three planes), all three are included here. For all these gods have bodies that are identical in pervasion; but their perception is diverse in that some have (a rebirth-linking consciousness) without applied thought but with sustained thought, while some have (a rebirth-linking consciousness) without either applied thought or sustained thought.