Jhana

The cultivation of calm or tranquility and the development of concentration
Pulsar
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Re: Jhana

Post by Pulsar »

A sutta, with two striking similes! MN 146 Nandakovada.
According to the Pali version, the sutta was a teaching to the nuns by the V. Nandaka. According to the Samyukta-āgama discourse and the (Mūla-)Sarvāstivāda Vinaya, the Buddha taught the similes to the nuns. Once the nuns had left, the Buddha told the monks that he was getting too old to keep on giving talks and asked them to give instructions to the nuns in his stead. This gives us some clues as to when Gotami became an arahant.
Two similes that deserve top billing, if the canonical similes were to be ranked for their noteworthiness, or the impressiveness in their ability to lead to the ending of pain.  According to the Pali version, sutta gives credit to Nandaka for this teaching. Yet when Nandaka begins the sutta, by saying the teaching is in the form of questions and answers, it raises some suspicion. To begin to question, one needs prior info.
In the agama versions, Nandaka was recruited merely to elaborate on Buddha's teaching. Why do compilers take liberties to change the narrative? details details, one must pay attention to details and explore further, and not trust one source completely. 
Yet some Pali commentaries got it right, which means, some in the Pali tradition had access to the correct version, but perhaps not the most powerful (content of the sutta?).
Samyukta-āgama and the (Mūla-)Sarvāstivāda Vinaya, versions, appear closer to the truth.
It is a very powerful teaching, and that power could have only come from a SammaSambuddha, just as in Madhupindika MN 18, Buddha was the originator of the sutta. MahaKaccana was recruited to explain the sutta.
In the great simile, the Arahant is compared to a skilled butcher,
  •  an arahant butchering a cow?
Buddha being Buddha, fetches his similes from the most unlikely sources.
It is a different kind of butchering, however.
  • Butchering of the fetters
or butchering our bondage to samsara. The process of meditation that works towards this enterprise ??
It is not a case of butchering the  eye, ear, nose, etc. not about butchering sounds, odours, tastes etc, neither about blocking them.
Butchering is applied to what connects the sense organ to the object, that fetter or bondage. It is not a case of not hearing sounds, but shutting off the delight or anguish, at such contact.
The teaching is about doing away with the bond that is created between object and sense organ.The ear is connected to the sound via delight. The connection via the auditory nerve is a worldly matter.
In the case of a cow, its outer hide is connected to its inner mass of flesh via tendons, sinews and ligaments.
  • Buddha's advice to Mahapajapathi Gotami, is to develop noble wisdom, like a skillful butcher might sharpen his knife.
But the Arahant uses that knife to cut off the fetters (thing that connects the sense organ to object).
There are some other noteworthy differences between the Pali version and the companion agama versions. I will save them for later.
The simile of the butchered cow, is worth meditating over, over  an entire lifetime. Of all the teachings that Buddha offered with his awesome compassion, if only we can get this one right, the one that he gave his mother, the end of pain is guaranteed. 
My thoughts on a Monday Morning.
With love  :candle:
Pulsar
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Re: Jhana

Post by Pulsar »

A tree and its shadow!
In agama versions of MN 146, (continuing the previous comment), when Nandaka is asked to
elaborate on Buddha's teaching, he directly approaches the
not-self characteristic of all aspects of experience, without resorting to anicca, as in the Pali version. The Nature of feeling experienced, based on the 6 senses is similar to the
nature of light of a lamp which depends on oil, wick and flame.
Each feeling arises in dependence upon its corresponding conditions, eye+object+eye consciousness;
  • consciousness originates as the work of a seamstress, Buddha teaches in the Parayanavagga.
If there is no fuel in a lamp, will there be a flame? In the Arahant there is no fuel for craving. Will he experience that feeling then? Does the Arahant burn with feeling??
  • The simile of the Tree and its shadow, is introduced in this sutta
The tree is elaborated elsewhere in the canon, in teachings of Paticca samuppada.
A fascinating simile! Why does it fascinate? Was Buddha trying to communicate something about the notion of self, ineffable?? ephemeral???
The Nandakovāda sutta and its Chinese parallels agree that the Buddha compared the attainment reached by the nuns to the full moon.
According to Samyukta-āgama discourse and the (Mūla-)Sarvāstivāda Vinaya, all of the nuns had reached the final goal. That the nuns had all reached full liberation also receives support from several Pāli commentaries. Yet the Pali version included in the Sutta pitaka, fails to give this credit to the nuns. In this version, only some nuns become Arahants. Why did the other nuns fail? 
In the Pali commentary that VBB refers to, some nuns wished only to become stream enterers.
  • If you wish to believe this, be my guest!
This discrepancy shows us clearly that some commentaries are flawed, and in this case the Pali version of the sutta, too is flawed.
The content of this sutta is worth visiting repeatedly, each time one sees it in a new light. Every bit of light helps in the path towards ending of pain. 
Why do we hurt? It is because the self we think is stable, breaks up every second.
Subsequently, when we are not mindful, we waste our time trying to put together a self
that never says put.
With love  :candle:
Pulsar
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Re: Jhana

Post by Pulsar »

How the Buddha thought, how the Buddha taught,
and how the Buddha helped us establish our minds, in order to diminish suffering.
Buddha did not think like the Pali compilers of MN 10/DN 22 did. These compilers took some content from Buddha's teachings and mixed and matched it with their innovations.
Ekayana in 7 days? Seriously???
These suttas are more like smoke and mirrors.
One who is sincere about Buddha, or sincere about meeting the Buddha has to figure out the workings of Dependent Origination firstly. This is what Buddha was about,
  • how suffering was created.
He did not stop there, he showed us how to block suffering from arising.
It differentiated Buddha from other teachers of the day. DO is a precise sequence by which suffering arises, and the way to overcome that arising, is outlined in the 8-fold path. 
Keeping the comment minimal, and to the point.
With DO I will restrict the comment to links that can be seen right now.  Dhamma is immediate.
  • We can taste it right now
i leave aside physical birth and physical death. This is not a denial of either.
As for DN 15 The Pali compilers botched it. To understand DO, Snp 4.11 is a great place to start. There are no misconceptions there.
I've written about it in great detail in the past on this thread.
Next best would be the following suttas from Samyutta Nikaya.
Avoid DN 15 at all costs. In Nidanasamyuatta pay attention to SN 12.10, section on Cessation does a fabulous job.
SN 12. 11 brilliantly shows us how we keep on feeding our consciousness, each time we make a contact through six points.
In SN 12. 12 Moliyaphagguna, Buddha rejects the question "Who consumes" 
SN 12.15 Kaccanagotta: Avoid the extremes.
SN 12.17 To the naked ascetic Kassapa Buddha says
"Without veering towards either of the extremes Tathagata teaches Dhamma by the middle. With ignorance as condition we have volitional formations,
with volitional formations as condition we have consciousness.
Our actions are determined by an incessantly arising ignorance, leading to incessantly arising consciousness, that thirsts for more.
This activity reinforces whatever underlying tendency we suffer from.
  • With the arising of consciousness arises the whole mass of suffering.
In SN 47. 42 is a teaching that tells us how to get rid of consciousness/suffering or how to get rid of arising aggregates.
It is only by the cessation of aggregation that we cease to suffer.
Buddha did not think, or teach entirely like the Compilers of The Great Discourse on origination did. 
The suttas quoted from Nidanasamyutta, are more a concise reflection of Buddha's teaching.  These provide us with the necessary tools to work with. A friend wrote on DW
"As such, if all sankharas are based on delusion, then paṭiccasamuppāda itself would be based on delusion"
This is true. Paticca samuppada is not the highest truth. Highest truth or reality would be Nibbana. But how could Buddha teach people immersed in delusion/limited truths, to reach the highest truth, without using instances from the world they are immersed in? A world of limited truths, is all we know.
Thoughts on a clear Wednesday morning!
With love  :candle:
Pulsar
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Re: Jhana

Post by Pulsar »

One in the place of the three. 
There is this one (Madhyama Agama 15) sutta, in place of three of the Anguttara, AN 10. 217, AN 10.218 and AN 2.219. It speaks of Kamma and Brahma Vihara. When does brahma vihara become immeasurable? the jhana that leads to realization of Anatta. If one were to engage in distressing speech or unsettling speech (bad kamma), can jhana help? jhana is part of the 8-fold path. AN attempt at a summary of MA 15.
"If one does karma for a reason, I say that he will receive his retribution, either in this world or in the next; if he does not do karma for a reason, I say that he need not receive retribution. The body has three karmas, and the mouth has four karmas, and the mind has three karmas. These three are not good and have bitter consequences"
"What are the three karmas of the body?"
The first is killing, it is an evil to shed blood, to desire to hurt, and to bear no compassion.
The intention of stealing things owned by others, is unwholesome.
The third evil is sexual indiscretion carried out with those who are protected by guardians.
Brings Hiri ottappa sutta to my mind.
"What are the four karmas of the mouth?"
if one, within his family, or in his other interactions, lies about what he does not know, (the fabricated lie), or he knows, yet says he does not know, (he does not admit truth), it is a delusion.
Speaks of what he does not hear. Speaks harsh words, unpleasant to the ears, he is disliked by all.
Or he distresses others, and makes them unsettled, that is delusion.
Fourthly, he speaks out of time, untruthfully, meaninglessly, unlawfully, and without rest, and he sighs at things that do not stop.
All this is contrary to the good teaching, and is said to be the reason for the four karmas of the mouth.
"What are the three karmas of the mind"
The first is covetousness. (When I see other people's possessions and other living things, I always look for them and want them to be mine.) 
The second is cynicism, the thought of hatred and cynicism: "He should be killed, tied, taken away, spared, and expelled from all sentient beings.
He desires to cause them to suffer infinitely. 
The third is evil vision, which is perverse, such as there is no personal responsibility, no ethical responsibility. Self-knowledge, self-awareness, and self-recognition, are denied. It is said that these three karmas done with intention, bear bitter fruit" 

Bad Kamma is likened to a creepy creature in AN 10.216.
"The holy disciples of the Tathagata give up the bad karma of the body, mouth, and mind
and practice the good karma of the body, mouth, and mind.
The good disciple achieves purity of body, purity of mouth, and mind.
He is free from rage and criticism, is free from lethargy, is free from self indulgence, is free from doubt and slowness, is right-minded and wise, is free from foolishness, has a mind of compassion, and is a tour of fulfillment (a field of merit in pali suttas).
  • If in youth one were to develop the liberation of mind, by loving kindness, karuna, mudita, upeksha? would he resort to a  bad deed?
If a man or woman is at home,  he or she should always practice compassionate liberation, immeasurable liberation!
The bhikkhu should think:
If a person who practices compassion, joy, mind, and surrender,
who is free of knots and grievances,
who is undistracted and undiscriminating, who is very broad and very great, and who has unlimited good practices, who is able to travel through all the worlds,
he cannot be polluted, any more.
"Therefore, men and women, whether at home or anywhere else, one should always be diligent in the practice of renunciation and liberation". 
The bhikkhu should think: "I have been a loose person and have done bad deeds. Anyone who does acts of renunciation and liberation with infinite good practice will attain anatta"
Thus said the Buddha.
And when the bhikkhus heard what the Buddha had said, they joyfully followed it.
These suttas are unique, in the way they warn about kamma, and subsequently point the way to jhana practice via immeasurable Brahma Viharas.
Develop the mind of renunciation gradually, on a daily basis.
SN 47.42 "Origination" provides the preparatory stage for Right Jhana, It teaches the renunciation of rupa, vedana, sanna and mind's objects.
A saying attributed to Buddha in one of the earliest commentaries?
Beings do not engage in the 4 Establishments of Mindfulness, due to their greed.
Greed for what? greed for rupa, vedana, sanna, and mind's objects.
We indulge in our feelings, give priority to our feelings, our views etc. that create bondage.
It takes infinite diligence, to dwell without mental proliferation.
The worldling is in the habit of consuming/feeding constantly, is excited by new food, a novel taste, a novel touch!
A variety of sensory strands bring new food via eye, ear, tongue etc, ie the five touch points.
Resist the irresistible. 
With love   :candle:
Pulsar
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Re: Jhana

Post by Pulsar »

Householder! There are murderers in your house.They are your fondest companions, the forms, sounds, tactillity, cognition! (often presented as seen, heard, sensed, cognized).  
Consciousness is a magician.
Rubbing two sticks together (sense organ and sense object) creates a variety of tricks.  
A magician's whim is this consciousness, SN 22.95 Lump of foam,
also SN 12.64 Painter, SN 22.100.
Rupa aggregate, is a fabrication of the mind, derived from the 4 great elements. 
Worlding has a hard time with the subtlety of the Dhamma MN 26.
Avoiding Rupa? SN 46.42 outlines the scheme, but it cannot be grasped without a sound understanding of DO. Few are those who understand. Form is not the only murderer.
Feeling, perception, volition, and vinnana too exhibt the same skill. What do you do with murderers?
  • Kill them before they kill you.
The narrative regarding the servant in SN 22.85, holds an important message. 
A killer enters the household in the guise of a servant, promising to serve.
His goal is to kill the good master, in a moment when he loses serenity and insight due to forgetfulness.
Aggregates have a way of creeping in stealthily when unwatched. Unwholesome kamma is creepy AN 10.216, creeps in when unwatched.
Pali commentary's take on the "snake" metaphor? slithering away??? Should it not be slithering in????
Key to liberation is the elimination of defilements. AN 10.217 is helpful, but not everything in this sutta is true. A Jain belief has crept into the sutta. 
The take home? 
Be without anger and hostility,
dispel drowsiness, eliminate restlessness and arrogance,
abandon doubt and go beyond
conceit.
 Jhana begins once the murderers have been vanquished,
not until then.
  • Jhana is an emergence from the sense sphere lock up, or the release from imprisoning aggregates.
Kill conditioned form, kill conditioned feeling,  kill conditioned volitional formations, kill conditioned consciousness, SN 22.85, writes.
Be meticulous and ruthless with that killing!!! 
"A Householder" holds on to the house of rupa, house of vedana, house of sanna, and house of sankhara, SN 22. 3, entangles with the aggregates.
That results in the thoughts
"These aggregates are mine"?, "they are my self"?,
carnage sets in when aggregates are allowed entry.
The current comment is inspired by DooDoot. 
He would scatter suttas like seeds on DW. Birds would fly in and peck at those seeds, and do as they pleased. Such is SN 22. 85.
Following suttas are worthy of note.
  • On what has come to be "Questions of Ajitha" SN 12.31, explains aggregates as "what has come to be"
  • SN 12.37  "Not yours" explains "aggregates are not ours"
  • SN 22. 3 quotes from Atthakavagga, antiquity of Atthakavagga!
It is older than Samyutta Nikaya.
Having left home to roam without abode,
In the village the sage is intimate with none;
Rid of sensual pleasures, without
expectations, He would not engage people in dispute
The gatha describes jhana perfectly? Having got rid of the murderers?? means having
got rid of their "abodes", the murderers are made homeless.
Sutta on "origination" SN 47.42, holds instructions on "exiting the sense sphere realm" and "entering the non-sensory realm of 4 jhanas"
Jhana is the stabilizer of gained freedom.
Dearest Doo Doot, thanks for SN 22.85. It reminds me of the  terrors that go within "The Houses of murderers". I miss you.
With love  :candle:
Pulsar
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Re: Jhana

Post by Pulsar »

Another take on Mara.
The great Division (Mahavagga)1 of Vinaya Pitaka, translated by Isaline B Horner, contains this passage:
Lord sat for seven days at the foot of the Tree of Awakening, experiencing the bliss of freedom (Vimuttisukha). Lord spends the first watch of the night in bliss,
like so in the second, like so in the third watch. In all the 3 watches of the night the Lord pays attention to causal uprising in the direct and reverse order.
I leave the Sequence out. Also slight editing in the passage, in order to simplify and minimize the repetition. I focus on something that struck me. Like Vinasp would say (a person who was on DW that caught my fancy), Suttas contain secrets.
The secret of this passage hides in a footnote. At the end of each watch, Vinaya Pitaka writes
"Then the Lord, having understood this matter, at the time uttered this solemn utterance."Truly when things grow plain to the ardent meditating brahmin,
his doubts all vanish in that he comprehends thing-with cause"
What does the word "things" in the first instance mean?
The footnote reports "things are the Dhamma" A commentary to the Vinaya pitaka elaborates on it. They are the thirty seven things helpful to awakening and the four ariyan true things. These 4 ariyan true things are not necessarily the Four Truths, instead the footnote presents the Four Stations of Mindfulness. The 37 factors already contain the 4 establishments of Mindfulness to begin with. We should pay attention when it is emphasized in this manner. 
Wow ...
The 4 Establishments of Mindfulness are of prime importance in realizing conditionality. When presented this way, the liberating intention of the teaching and its associated meditation become clear.
The intention is to get rid of the aggregates or practice the stopping of their emergence.
Are the suttas in the canon such as DN22/MN10 designed to get rid of the aggregates? 
They are not, they are failures. They interpret body as physical body. Neither does Kayagatasati liberate which is mostly an exposition of the physical body with added stuff like jhanas, to jazz it up.
These suttas were concocted by sectarian abhidhammikas. Body in all these suttas are treated as the physical body, this is a dead give away.
But wait there is another sutta, which has a different take on the body.
Body in SN 47.42 refers to the form aggregate, not the physical body.
  • Form aggregate is not a physical thing, it is a mental construction.
Purpose of meditation is to terminate mental construction, or halt papanca.
SN 47.42  instructs the reader, on getting rid of rupa, vedana, sanna, or mind's objects. The passage in Vinaya has no direct reference to the aggregates. However the footnote reveals a connection.
Now some sleuthing.
There is another sutta in SN that confirms the role of aggregates, in genesis of Dukkha SN 22.56.
If you succeed in SN 47.42, you enter jhana, or you leave the sensory world behind. You don't need a jhana formula to inform you how to enter jhana. SN 22.56 implies, rupa will only develop into feeling if you fancy the rupa,it only comes to growth if there is a sprinkling of delight,If you  disengage from form, rest of DO cannot come into play, 
Also from SN 12.63 Putramanasa sutta, we know that
form arises only if it is fed, by physical food, contact, intention and vinnana.
If you withhold the food, what happens to forms that arise in mind? they collapse.
In SN 22.56, Buddha says
 As long as I didn’t truly understand these five grasping aggregates from four perspectives, (suffering, origin, cessation, practice that leads to cessation) I didn’t announce my supreme perfect awakening. But when I did truly understand these five grasping aggregates from four perspectives, I announced my supreme perfect awakening.
With the arising of aggregates, suffering sneaks in at the point of contact, Phassa is the culprit. 
I directly knew form, its origin, its cessation, and the practice that leads to its cessation. I directly knew feeling …  perception … intentions …  consciousness, its origin, its cessation, and the practice that leads to its cessation.
Buddha claims, in this sutta.
And that is how Buddha awakened according to SN 22.56. One has to understand the sequence of DO and how DO is facilitated by the conveyor belt of aggregates, the role they play.
  • Vimutti Sukha is the ease that is felt, when released from the aggregates.
On the night of awakening Buddha became free of the aggregates, thus being released from the sensory world. He became free of 5 murderous enemies (Mara).
He won his battle with Mara.
With love :candle:
Pulsar
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Re: Jhana

Post by Pulsar »

returning to the great tree:
A tree's roots turn away from the light, crawls in the dark, scrounging for food, sending the sap upwards. Nourished by the sap, the tree is sustained
SN 12.55,
Like the great tree, when the self  indulges in sensual  pleasures, (flowing in via sense bases) things that can be clung to, craving increases, suffering increases.
The first section of Dhatu Samyutta describes these events nicely, in detail.
Tree represents an embodiment of self created longing, lodged in the body and mind.
A wise person understands the teaching. He brings in a shovel (wisdom) and a basket (samadhi). 
He cuts down the tree at its foot, digs it up, and pulls out the roots, teases them apart. He drys the slivers in the wind and the sun, burns them in a fire, and does away with the ashes, (reminds me of the 3rd simile in Adze handle, SN 22.101 severing the fetters).

The roots are the six sense bases or salayatana, soaking and sending up the nutrients (food, contact, intention, consciousness). Kamma builds up via the activity of the six sense bases.
The stability of the tree, or its continuation in Samsara is guaranteed by repeatedly built up kamma or intention.
  • How does one avoid kamma or intention?
By getting rid of the 4 stations of mindfulness, as described in SN 47.42 and stabilizing that mode, via the Buddhist Samadhi/Jhana.
The sutta continues,
A man comes in bringing a shovel and a basket.
Man represents the meditator; his ax: his knowledge, the basket: his Samadhi.
  • Cutting up the roots is like the search for the conditions of name and form.
Burning the slivers, is when form disappears in 4th jhana. Sutta on the great tree is very evocative of our samsaric predicament.
Touching base with Nandakovada Sutta (MN 146), there Buddha refers to the
  • shadow of a great tree.
Engagement in the activity of aggregates creates the appearance of a self/shadow. A shadow continuously changes based on conditions. Shadow then is the projected self.
This and the simile of the fire is what Pudgalavadins relied on, to bring their points across.  
They really knew what they were talking about.
With love :candle:
PS I began the comment with "returning to the great tree" simply because I had commented on this sutta on an earlier time.
Pulsar
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Re: Jhana

Post by Pulsar »

Reverence and Salutation! SN 6.2 Garava sutta. The significance of the Garava sutta! The young Buddha reflects shortly after his awakening,
"Who shall I salute, what should I admire"
as a general might honor his king? A conundrum, Buddha himself is now the king. Unsurpassable!
who can he honor? A thought strikes him.
“What if I were to dwell in dependence on this very dhamma to which I have fully awakened, honoring and respecting it?”
He will live in such a manner. But what is that Dhamma?
The release from earthly woe, the state of peace, that can be glimpsed even by the aspirant. Samadhi/jhana when released from rupa, vedana, sanna, sankhara (SN 47.42). Previously in Garava Sutta the Buddha expressed the thought that
it is painful to live without honoring and respecting anyone.
  • To live without deference and reverence, to what he woke up to? would be ignoble?
What is that Dhamma? what exactly did Buddha revere, was it the path that led up to the zenith? Paticca samuppada. How the troubles begin? to be released from rupa, vedana, sanna, sankhara? The ultimate state of Nibbana, the cooling that arrives when all fires are put out?
As for the Buddha, he could see it all. Did he shift his gaze from the beauty of right speech to the clarity of how sorrows are put out? As for those who fail to understand what Right Samadhi is, or the beauty of the Void MN 121, or its relation to Samma Sati, there are simpler teachings that many can relate to. This too is profound Dhamma. Take Mangala sutta for instance.
If when experiencing worldly conditions,
one's mind is not shaken, but remains fearless, free from sorrow and passion;
This is the greatest happiness
To aspire to that is quite noble. Or take Metta sutta for instance.
  • Guarding the quality of metta as a mother might guard her only child.
A simile! That is easy to understand. Metta sutta concludes with:
Not falling into error, virtuous, and endowed with insight;
giving up attachment to sense-desires, 
one is not again subject to birth.
To honor such teachings in our day-to-day lives, on this Xmas,
is this not what Garava sutta is about for mortals lesser than the Buddha? the one that is thus gone.  
Merry Xmas and a heart full of love :candle:  
🎄🎄🤶
Pulsar
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Re: Jhana

Post by Pulsar »

Anapanasati or the Magic of Breath
There is a single method monks, for the purpose of opening the mind's eye. Consider the many things you need to think of and do, for this fabulous entry.
For the body to gain rest, for the mind to gain clarity?
breath is more than enough to arrest the entry of Mara. Mara shatters the restfulness of the mind.
Why would we welcome Mara? Mara brings suffering. The breath that keeps the mind from suffering!
Power of breath! For the sake of sanity, one should keep the mind as peaceful as possible. If a bhikkhu keeps the mind as peaceful as possible, it enables entry into the the 4 foundations of mindfulness, hence the body rests.
When the body rests, the mind has the opportunity to do what needs to be done. "This is my advice to the monks (aspirants), who are keen on an end to suffering. For the sake of cooling the mind, to create harmony, to remove conflict, to overcome the hindrances, rely on breath" Buddha advices.

Minds free of hindrances are unified. The good factors are multiplied over months of practice (37 factors of awakening come into play). Body gains rest, mind awakens. 
You do not need more than one Dhamma. Develop the Dhamma of breath, it is a sure fire way to advance and fall into the path. When the Pali sutta says "tranquilizing bodily formations", applied to right meditation it means "tranquilize mental formations, that lead to mental proliferation". How does mental proliferation or mental agony come about? Rupas/bodies arise at the eye, ear, nose tongue and so forth as eye consciousness, flavor consciousness etc.
The Mind pays attention, names them.
Each newly generated consciousness fetches a new fetter binding us further to Samsara.
This is the foundational activity, that the teacher was concerned with, suffering due to Mental proliferation! This is what Buddha targeted. (nama-rupa -> to consciousness).
Killing the consciousness was the goal, or the transformation of the consciousness.
But commentaries like those of Analayo, or even BB in his comment to SN 54.1, BB relies on VSM explanations of jhana (Foot notes 289, and 290) to explain this sutta. Many entries in VSM assume that Samma Samadhi is not linked to Samma Sati.
A major SNAFU. Commentaries interpret the body in meditation as a physical body. There is evidence in the canon to the opposite. Body can be a collection of mental defilements.
Consider AN 3.133, A warrior who is worthy of the Buddha? is described as "a meditator who splits a great mass of body" meaning the meditator who splits a great mass of ignorance. If the meditator goes about splitting physical bodies??? what happens to the already defiled mind?
Purpose of meditation is to chop up the defilements in the mind, not the physical body.
IN SN 23.2 Buddha advises Radha.
"Scatter form/body/rupa demolish it, put it out of play"
Is he implying Radha should demolish physical bodies?
Comment is based on SN 54.1. Since it is a composite of SA 803 and SA 815, SA 315, I used the content in all these suttas to compose the above text, to the best of my ability. My Chinese may be flawed, but I try.
With love on a Snow covered day :candle:
Pulsar
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Re: Jhana

Post by Pulsar »

Friends, the Venerable Punna Mantaniputta was very helpful to us when we were newly ordained. And when I heard his dhamma teaching I made the breakthrough to the Dhamma.
This excerpt from SN 22.83, tells us that the newly ordained Ananda had become a Sotapanna.
He had made the Breakthrough to Dhamma, before he met the Buddha?
How did that miracle happen? V. Punna Mantaniputta says to Ananda
"Suppose, friend Ananda, a young woman or a man, youthful and fond of ornaments would examine her own facial image in a bowl filled with pure clean water, she would look at it with clinging"
The image in the water is likened to aggregates. Why does the person look? because he/she is fond of his/her own image, in water or in a mirror.
It is by clinging to that image "I am" occurs.
  • The image in the water is likened to form, feeling, perception, intention...
Why do some distinguish form aggregate from other aggregates and call it a physical entity? Is the form aggregate a solid entity??
Likewise is the form/body/rupa of the First establishment of Mindfulness. It is a mental phenomenon.
Is a Breakthrough to Dhamma possible without that understanding, which the newly ordained Ananda had? Is jhana possible without that understanding?
If one makes contact with one's image in a bowl of water, It leads to suffering.
With love :candle:
Protect Dhamma
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Re: Jhana

Post by Protect Dhamma »

What is Jhana?

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Coëmgenu
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Re: Jhana

Post by Coëmgenu »

:thinking:
What is the Uncreated?
Sublime & free, what is that obscured Eternity?
It is the Undying, the Bright, the Isle.
It is an Ocean, a Secret: Reality.
Both life and oblivion, it is Nirvāṇa.
Pulsar
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Re: Jhana

Post by Pulsar »

Protect Dhamma wrote
What is Jhana
and introduced a video.
Do you randomly post videos on other people's threads? Can you pl explain how the content of your video relates to the OP?
Regards :candle:
Pulsar
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Re: Jhana

Post by Pulsar »

Similes, metaphors, fables! mapping Buddha's mind without Abhidhamma. SA 252 caught my attention. Its parallel is SN 35.69 Upasena.
However the Pali compiler left out an important aspect of teaching in the original sutta. I will call it the "Verse of Compassion", the missing gatha. A meditating monk gets bitten by a viper. Its poison is lethal. The monk dies, only in a conventional sense, since Buddhist saints never die.
Buddha's reaction; Buddha asks the monks to recite a  "Verse of compassion" while also incorporating a wonderful teaching regarding the 3 poisons. Its antidote will lead to our liberation. I will summarize the spirit of the gatha.
Compassion for the footless, two footed, four footed,
many footed, those that live on land or water,
compassion for all! both measurable and immeasurable!
"A vicious snake capable of poisoning all beings"
such are the true words spoken by the Supreme Buddha
"Be content, be free from conflict, 
If your inclination is to be virtuous, let nothing be evil"
The vicious serpent, Buddha brings up is not the viper who bit the monk literally.
There is another vicious viper in our minds, an enemy with an invisible body.
It houses greed, hatred and ignorance, the poisons of the world. 
When bitten by the serpent, one could explode with anger or rage or madness.
Consider how Buddha makes use of the opportunity  "death by snake bite" to admonish us
"Do not die due to the bite of greed, hatred and ignorance lodged in the mind"
The body that houses ill will, anger, afflictions is not a physical body, it is a mental body that we have to deal with. Anger of the mental body creates bodies of monsters in our minds.
When Buddha says
"Kill the body"
in some suttas this is his intention.
Heal that part of the mind that creates bodies of monsters.
Kill the lust, anger, and ignorance.
 
If you live a good life, wickedness cannot harm you.
Don't let the snake's poison strike you.
Be at peace with all...A vicious snake, capable of harming all beings 
Such are the true words, spoken by the Supreme Arahant. 
Recite these words, the true words of the Buddha. With its practice 
No evil can harm the body. The poisons of the world: greed, anger, rage, and madness.
The Buddha's treasure, the Dharma treasure, destroys all poisons, it is the antidote.
In terms of this thread "Jhana" and The 10 fold path what is the relevance?
Jhana or Buddhist Samadhi is gained by finessing the 4 Establishments of Mindfulness. (SN 47.42).
Correct understanding of Samma Sati is critical for one's progress. So much so that Anuruddha Samyutta does not refer to the word jhana at all.
The Samyutta contains a teaching on how to succeed in Satipatthana, the 7th step of an 8-fold path. 
If a practitioner is under the impression that the first frame of 4 establishments of Mindfulness is the physical body? What point is that practice?  Does it bear a soteriological significance? How can one be liberated by meditating on a physical body? or the parts of a physical body?
What the meditator requires to do is  to get rid of the "vicious snake of a body" the collection of greed, hate and ignorance lodged in the mind, that gives rise to unsavory rupas/bodies in the mind. Creation of rupa in the mind leads to its naming, that contact gives rise to
feeling.
Love to all, footless, the two footed, and the many footed.  :candle:

links to the suttas:
Upasena and the Viper: https://suttacentral.net/sn35.69/en/suj ... ript=latin Taisho version:  https://suttacentral.net/sa252/lzh/taisho
Pulsar
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Re: Jhana

Post by Pulsar »

With rampant confusion prevailing on what the correct buddhist jhana is? It does not help that a whole bunch of meditations not attributed to Buddha have found their way into the canon, such as Arupa Samapatthis. For now, we shall look into what Buddha meant by Samadhi, or examine the meditative component of the 8-fold path. 
I will bring you a sutta from Samyukta agama that fascinated me and opened my eyes further into the workings of Buddha's mind, as to what the correct approach to Samma Sati and Samma Samadhi is.
Unfortunately it is not found in the Pali canon.
  • SA 80
tucked in between SA 81, which is translated as Mahali sutta SN 22.60, and SA 79  with parallels in the Pali canon named SN 22.9, SN 22.10 and SN 22.11 Nonself.
These belong in the Khanda Samyutta, so I assume SA 80 finds its best fit in Khanda Samyutta?
  • I am puzzled why the Pali compilers left out this sutta.
It is called the
  • Discourse on the Seal of the Dharma
I spent days translating it for myself, but since you would be more comfortable with a translation of the Chinese version by a monastic, here is a link to the sutta translated by Analayo. https://suttacentral.net/sa80/en/analayo.  Excerpts 
It begins like this 
Thus have I heard. At one time the Buddha was staying at Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s Park.
At that time the Blessed One said to the monks:
“I will teach you the seal of the noble Dharma and the reaching of purification of knowledge and vision. Listen and pay careful attention.
“If a monk speaks like this: ‘Without having attained concentration on emptiness, I shall give rise to signlessness (animitta), nothingness, and have knowledge and vision of being free from conceit’,
he should not speak like this.
Why is that? Without having attained concentration on emptiness, it is impossible to claim: ‘I attain signlessness, nothingness, and have knowledge and vision of being free from conceit’
Later this
“Again there is a rightly attending to concentration by contemplating the abandoning of the sign (nimitta) of forms, the abandoning of the sign of sounds, of odours, of flavours, of tangibles, and of mental objects. This is called signlessness. One who contemplates in this way, even though not yet free from conceit, purifies his knowledge and vision"
in conclusion  
“That which is impermanent is a conditioned formation, it has arisen from conditions and it is of a perilous nature, of a nature to cease, of a nature to fade away,  to be abandoned with understanding. This is called the seal of the noble Dharma and the purification of knowledge and vision"
Last excerpt is a reference to the aggregates, all aggregates are mental formations, including the Rupa aggregate.
Regards :candle:
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