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Recently I watched a Zoom Lesson conducted by Tipitaka Scholar Venerable Maggavihari at IIT.
During the last part of the lesson he explained about Jhanas.
- In order to achieve Jhanas one must have practiced Sila well and he already requires a higher Wisdom.
- Then he must have seen the Adinava (drawbacks) of Kama very well.
- As long as one can't see the Adinava of Kama, he will not atain the Jhana.
- After attaining jhanas, he achieves very higher level of Wisdom which is called Jhana-panna.
- Jhana-panna is the one that eliminates the Delusion of "hiding the drawbacks of Sensual Pleasures".
- Many people forget to notice the Wisdom in Jhana.
Upasaka: Bhante, now that the jhanas being harder to achieve for a lay person than the Stream-entry, I want to learn about the path to attain Stream-entry , so, my question is ....
Venerable: Wait, wait !, We have to re-correct the question first. ... Are you saying that Jhanas are difficult than Stream-entry?
Upasaka: Yes, having listened to your lesson that explained the difficulty of attaining Jhanas, I think it's better for lay people to try Stream-entry first and then Jhanas.
Venerable: Oh ho, I know, this is how many people think about he Stream-entry.
And I know some people would think I am discouraging the practitioners when I say this.
I'm not speaking this to discourage the Meditators, but the truth should be known.
The Stream-entry is Million times Billion times harder to achieve than Jhana.
That is what the text implicitly says.
(therefore we should practice more and very orderly)
robertk wrote: ↑Sat Oct 01, 2022 11:20 amThere is nothing mystical about the path. However the idea that this path can be easily grasped is wrong:Someone wrote:Mystification is simply another means of self-deception and hiding from the pressure of the obvious and inescapable truth of impermanence - ...
Samyutta Nikaya (V, Mahavagga, Book XII, the Truths, chapter V),The keyhole.and"Now what think you, Ananda? Which which is the harder task : To shoot like that or to pierce one strand of hair, a hundred times divided, with another strand?
Why, lord, of course to split a hair in such a way is the harder, muchthe harder task.
Just so, Ananda, they who penetrate the meaning of: This is dukkha, this is the arising of dukkha, this is the ceasing of dukkha, this is the practice that leads to the ceasing of dukkha, pierce through something much harder to pierce.
Ariyapariyesana Sutta"This Dhamma that I have attained is profound, hard to see and hard to understand, peaceful and sublime, unattainable by mere reasoning,
subtle, to be experienced by the wise.