That explanation is not what is in the suttas. You don’t break the four up. You can’t. You observe all foundations because they all occur together. All of the foundations exist in every moment, or you would not exist. You cannot have body arise without feeling it, perceiving it, and cognizing it. You can’t have a mind with no mind objects, body or feelings.
The foundations arise and are observed as being conjoined. They are not separate things. We have a mind and a body dependent on each other, clearly observable in even the earliest stages of the meditation. You can’t observe body without consciousness or perception to cognize what is there, or without feeling to know what feeling is there in the body. It is like disassembling a car down to its parts and observing it running — it can’t be observed in operation without all its parts assembled and running together.
Feeling Is Not Feelings
Let’s stop here for a minute and talk about the feeling foundation. To be clear, we are talking about feeling, not feelings. In the suttas the aggregate of feeling (vedanā) is without the “s;” it is just sensation with a feeling “tone” to it. Just feeling itself, that’s all. The most important part of this feeling is that it is either a pleasant feeling, painful feeling, or neither pleasant nor painful feeling.
“Feelings,” on the other hand, are usually understood to be emotional states which mean there is craving mixed in. If you look at someone who you find attractive, and a pleasant feeling comes up, lust likely will arise. A pleasant feeling with lust (“I like it”) is what we call “emotions” (habitual tendency — bhava). That emotion might be categorized as a pleasant feeling or desire that is taken personally. This feeling with the personalization is commonly known as feelings with an “s” on the end.
For example, “Love,” where referred to romantically, is not loving-kindness. This kind of love in a relationship is much more related to the state of affection, or infatuation, and has craving in it.
Loving-kindness is a pure, non-personal state – a true wish for someone to be happy. Loving-kindness may turn into compassion when it is directed toward someone who is suffering. It doesn’t turn into hatred or sadness. It’s never taken personally. These are not “feelings,” they are just feeling.
The Buddha considered feeling to be anything that was felt; in other words, he considered feeling as any mental or physical experience that was felt. He categorized feeling as either pleasant, unpleasant or neither-pleasant-nor-unpleasant (neutral). He did not use the word sensation here. He did not care whether it was a feeling of heat or a feeling of hardness or the taste of a mango or a banana flavor. He only wanted you to consider whether it was pleasant, unpleasant or neutral; no need to dive deeper.
Why is this distinction important? Why, because feeling leads to craving. The “I like it” or “I don’t like it” states of craving are dependent on feeling and will arise in the untrained mind if not released quickly. The “I like it” mind may lead to thoughts about why you like it, when you last had it, and when you will get it again. With this process, your mind starts to wander away from your object of meditation.
This is the unwholesome mind in which you are watching the five aggregates arise. It becomes muddy with craving leading to thinking and stories. How do we let go of this craving process and what is a clear mind free of craving?
In the next chapter, we will look at what this freed state is and how it arises. We will consider the stages of progress in the meditation that the Buddha called the jhanās. We will examine what they are using the suttas only — and how, as time passed, the original meaning of this word became confused.
Chapter Three: What Is a Jhāna?
More than One Type of Jhāna
If you have ever run across the word jhāna before, then, it is likely a state that you desire to experience. Jhānas are described as levels of concentration. Contained in them can be bliss and deep contentment which, of course, everyone wants. They are important to understand because the suttas explain that you pass through them on the way to Nibbāna. They are the road to Nibbāna.
Actually, there are two types of Jhāna!
Today there are so many methods that are taught in meditation practice. Which is right? How can we find out what the Buddha really taught? In the Digha Nikāya, this same dilemma was addressed by the Buddha.
Digha Nikāya Sutta 21. “Sakka asked the Lord: “Sir, do all teachers and Brahmins teach the same Dhamma, practice the same discipline, desire the same thing and pursue the same goal?”
“No, Ruler of the Gods, they do not. And why not? This world is made up of many and various elements, and people adhere to one or another of these elements, and become tenaciously attached to them, saying: ‘This alone is true, all else is false.’ Therefore, all teachers and Brahmins do not teach the same Dhamma, practice the same discipline, desire the same thing or pursue the same goal.”
In this book, we will try to remain faithful to the sutta material as we explain the differences in the many techniques of the Buddhist Universe.
Yes — there are two types of Jhānas and two major types of meditation practice by which to attain those two types of jhāna.
There is the One-Pointed Concentration Absorption practice and the Tranquil Wisdom Insight Meditation (TWIM) practice.
Later, the first type, one-pointed concentration practice, will be broken further into 1) Straight Concentration-Absorption practice 2) Concentration-Absorption Insight Practice and 3) Dry Insight practice.
The Pāli word jhāna was not used in reference to meditation prior to the Buddha. The Buddha did use it to describe his own experiences during meditation practice.
While the Pāli word jhāna is often translated as a state of "concentration," this is not correct from the viewpoint of TWIM. Pāli experts like Most Venerable Punnaji of Malaysia say that jhāna just means “level.” If you check a Pāli dictionary, it also defines it as “meditation” or “state of meditation.”
Most Venerable Punnaji also offers an alternate definition of the related word samādhi, which is often considered and used to define a state of absorption concentration. The Pāli word sama means “equal or even;” dhi means “state” in this usage. So, Most Venerable Punnaji translates samādhi as “an even state of balance.” The word samādhi implies a collected and unified state, but not deep absorption that suppresses the hindrances. It is a more open and aware state.
Venerable Bhante Vimalaraṁsi defines the word jhāna as “a level of understanding.” Each successive jhāna is an increasingly deeper level of understanding of the workings of dependent origination and the mental process. Bhante Vimalaraṁsi uses “collectedness” to translate the word concentration more accurately.
Additionally, Bhante has found that in Pāli that the word dhi may also be translated as “wisdom” in terms of the levels of understanding. Thus, we put together sama and dhi resulting in “Tranquil Wisdom.”
In the Buddha's description of the jhānas, as you go deeper into the practice, the attainment of each jhāna reflects a deeper level of understanding of what it means to let go of craving. You pass through the jhānas as you progress from gross craving to a finer and finer balance of mind until finally, after the state of neither-perception-nor-non-perception, the highest jhāna, you reach the cessation of craving. This is the gateway to the attainment of Nibbāna. At that moment, the cessation of craving (nirodha samāpatti) occurs. This is the state of no feeling, no perception, and no consciousness arising at all. The mind just stops, and Nibbāna arises.
Again, jhāna never was supposed to mean “absorption.” It means a collected state or a level of understanding in mental development. However, as emphasis shifted away from the Buddha's actual teachings as described in the suttas, to the commentaries like the Vissudhi Magga, the word jhāna was more commonly used to describe the state of one-pointed concentration.
In the Anguttara Nikāya, the book of fives, number 27 we have this quote:
AN 5. 27. “…The knowledge arises that is
personally yours: ‘This concentration is peaceful and sublime, gained by full tranquilization, and attained to unification; it is not reined in and checked by forcefully suppressing the defilements…”
Clearly, this quote indicates an open and aware state and not an absorbed suppressing state.
So there are two kinds of jhāna or two different ways to understand the term. One style is made up of one-pointed absorption jhānas, which are achievable by various concentration methods, including observing the breath, focusing on a colored disc (kasinā), or absorbing yourself in a candle flame. These jhānas are the states achieved by the yogic masters and were learned by the future Buddha when he first started down the path.
The absorption concentration jhānas have been adopted by many of today’s Buddhist monks and are supported by commentaries like the Vissudhi Magga.
Ven. Bhante Vimalaraṁsi explains,
“The Vissudhi Magga was written by Venerable Buddhaghosa Acariya in the fifth century, one thousand years after the Buddha died. Buddhaghosa was asked by his teacher to go to Sri Lanka and translate the commentaries written in Sinhalese back into the Pāli language for a readable translation.
“Venerable Buddhaghosa also had the task of bringing four different sects of Buddhism together so all of the different sects would stop arguing. He was a very good student of the Pāli language, a true scholar, but he didn’t study the suttas. He didn’t practice meditation himself. Before he became a Buddhist monk, he was a Sanskrit scholar who had memorized all the Vedas, the ancient Brahmin texts.
“Unfortunately, because the author wasn’t a practitioner of meditation, he relied heavily on what was in other commentaries for his information about how to do the meditation. He mistakenly divided and pulled apart the Buddha’s teaching into two separate types of practice: Concentration or Samatha, and Insight or Vipassanā. The suttas, on the other hand, will always talk about Samatha-Vipassāna being yoked together.
“Nevertheless, the Vissudhi Magga today, more than the suttas, is considered as the encyclopedia of meditation for Buddhism and has become the basic instructions for the entire system of Theravada Buddhism. It is the ‘Bible,' and textbook for how to practice.”
One of Venerable Bhante Vimalaraṁsi’s teachers told him that to be a Theravada monk; he must subscribe to everything in the Vissudhi Magga. Bhante reflected for a moment and said, “I guess I am not a Theravada monk; I am a Buddhist monk.” Even though he used some of the advice in the Vissudhi Magga, he couldn’t go along with all of it because of the many contradictions and discrepancies with the suttas.
In MN 36, “Mahāsaccaka Sutta,” the Buddha says that he tried concentration-absorption practice and rejected it as not being the way to awakening. This is why we, who are following the suttas, cannot say that we are truly Theravāda. We call ourselves “Suttavāda” (following only the sutta texts) or just plain Buddhists!
The second type of jhāna is the Tranquil Aware Jhāna, which is the jhāna described in the suttas. Bhante Vimalaraṁsi rediscovered these when he studied what had been written texts. By practicing from the sutta texts, Bhante found a step-by-step diminishing of craving while progressing through the tranquil aware jhānas, as it is described in sutta MN 111, the Anupada Sutta.
It is helpful to understand that the jhāna factors — these are the wholesome states that arise when one is in jhāna — in a tranquil aware jhāna or in an absorption concentration jhāna are very similar in nature. The difference is that in a tranquil aware jhāna the hindrances are gently released, and in the concentration state the hindrances are suppressed and pushed aside. The resulting states that arise are similar but definitely not the same.
The chief characteristic of the first jhāna is joy; the second jhāna, deeper joy and confidence; the third jhāna, happiness and contentment; and the fourth jhāna, very deep balance and equanimity.
What is confusing is that both concentration-absorption jhānas and tranquil aware jhānas both have these same qualities. They manifest differently however in each of the two types of jhāna. In the absorption type, they are more pronounced and very intense. In the Aware Jhāna, they are more balanced with more equanimity and not as extreme.
The fourth jhāna is further split into four bases: the Base of Infinite Space, which has the feeling of expansion; the Base of Infinite Consciousness, in which consciousness is seen in its infinite arising and passing away; the Base of Nothingness, in which there is a feeling that there is nothing; and the Base of Neither-Perception-Nor-Non-Perception in which mind is barely noticed at all. Later we will investigate these further.
The fact that similar yet different states arise in both the absorption and aware jhānas speaks to the confusion about the two types of jhānas. How can there be two different jhāna types that have similar characteristics but are attained with different techniques? No wonder after 2500+ years things have become murky.
Before we look at the sutta texts regarding the jhānas, let’s look more deeply at how the two types are generally taught. We’ll start with one-pointed absorption jhānas.
Concentration Absorption Jhāna
Absorption is attained through the powerful concentration of one's mind on a single object, ignoring and pushing any distraction that pulls mind’s attention away. One-pointed concentration jhāna is the so-called yogic state where one reaches a level of absorption in which they have no sense of the outside world. You do not hear or feel anything, and you are only aware of mind. The concentration absorption states are deep and can take years of practice and discipline to achieve.
The meditator is constantly reminded to bring his mind back to his object if it wanders away. You might pull it back, and sometimes you end up pushing so hard you “jerk” it back to the object. There is no real letting go and allowing, soft or hard, forcing of mind to stay with the object.
With the absorption jhānas, the Vissudhi Magga explains the preliminary state of concentration is called upacāra or access concentration; you are still aware and not yet absorbed fully (Note that this term or idea doesn’t appear in the suttas!).
In this access concentration, no hindrance will stick in your mind. Even if you try to bring something up like a thought of anger or lust, it will not stay, and your mind will be clear. Your mind doesn’t wander but just rejects any distraction taking it away from its object of meditation. By practicing this pushing away, mind learns to come back to the home object automatically.
As you progress, you will enter full absorption or appaṇā concentration, in which awareness of the outside world will disappear entirely. You will have attained the first concentration jhāna level. You then work through the rest of the eight jhānas, using the power of the deep concentration to suppress any further hindrances that arise.
This process does work — you do experience concentration states that have similar characteristics to the aware (TWIM) jhānas. But they are not the same and have subtle differences which most just dismiss as not important, yet they are. One has some craving left, and one doesn’t.
This type of jhāna practice may take over a decade in the Thai tradition to develop. The Sri Lankans say they are better and can get you to the first jhāna in less than ten years of practice. Some others say much less, but it takes an incredible effort.
Bhante tells a story about a monk who was asked to go into an absorption jhāna, which he did. The monks who were with him picked up his arm and raised it up above his head. It stayed there just hanging in the air. They asked the monk later if he knew they had done this, and he said no. The meditating monk was completely unaware of his body at that time and was only aware of his object of meditation.
When one is absorbed, one cannot hear sounds, feel anything in the body, or sense anything at the physical five senses — so desire at the physical level is suppressed because it isn’t there. In addition, because one is so tightly focused on their object of meditation, desire is also suppressed at the mental level. At the fourth absorption jhāna and higher,
it is said that the meditator even stops breathing through his mouth and nose, and “breathes” through his ears (This is not the case with the Tranquil Aware jhāna, in which one is aware of the outside world and continues to breathe normally).
The Tranquil Aware Jhāna
In MN 26, “The Noble Search,” and MN 36, “The Greater Discourse to Saccaka,” the Buddha describes his path to awakening. As mentioned in the previous section, he initially believed that the problem of reaching enlightenment was about control — controlling mind with the goal to control desire and thus end suffering.
The suttas go on to describe, in some detail, how the Buddha first tried meditation as the primary way to end suffering. He sought out and studied with the most skilled Indian yogic masters of the time, learning everything they had to teach. He initially trained with the absorption jhanas as most yogis were doing at the time.
When Gautama had attained to the seventh absorption jhāna, the state of Nothingness, his teacher Ālāra Kalama honored him, saying he had learned everything he had to teach. He invited him to stay and teach at his side. Gautama declined, for he knew there was more left to do. He saw that he could go deeper. There was something more than even this very sublime level of meditation. Suffering still existed. Craving was not yet extinguished.
The Path to Nibbana Page 4
