Beyond the four jhānas lie four higher attainments in the scale of mental unification.
These attainments are collectively known as the four formless or immaterial jhānas (arūpajjhānas); the lower four attainments come to be called, in contrast, the four fine material jhānas (rūpajjhānas) or simply the four jhānas. The immaterial jhānas are individually designated, not by numerical names like their predecessors, but by the names of their objective spheres: the base of boundless space, the base of boundless consciousness, the base of nothingness, and the base of neither perception nor non-perception.1 They receive the designation “formless” or “immaterial” for two reasons: [1] because they are achieved by surmounting all perceptions of material form (rūpa), even of the subtle material form of the counterpart sign which serves as the object for the fine material jhānas; and [2] because they are the subjective counterparts of the immaterial planes of existence.
1. In Pāli: ākāsānañcāyatana, viññā5añcāyatana, ākiñcaññāyatana, and nevesaññānāsaññāyatana.
The terms rūpajjhāna and arūpajjhāna, fine material jhāna and immaterial jhāna, do not appear in the main nikāyas of the Suttapi:aka. The terms rūpāvacara. jhāna. and arūpāvacara. jhāna., “fine material sphere jhāna” and “immaterial sphere jhāna,”
appear occasionally in the Abhidhammapi:aka,1 but it is not until the period of the commentaries that such names became common. In the suttas the formless attainments are referred to sometimes by the collective name āruppa “immaterial states,” or as the cattāro āruppā, “the four immaterial states.”2 They are also called “peaceful emancipa-tions, transcending material form, immaterial” (Wr. tr.) or simply “peaceful abodes”.3 Most often they are merely enumerated in their order of attainment without being brought together under any group label.
Before turning to consider the immaterial jhānas individually, some important remarks are called for concerning their “internal constitution.” We saw in the previous chapter that the movement from any lower jhāna to its successor involves the elimination of the coarser jhāna factors. The refinement of consciousness that occurs through this movement thus hinges upon actual changes being effected in the composition of the states of consciousness corresponding to the jhānas. However, in ascending from the fourth fine material jhāna to the first immaterial jhāna, and then from one immaterial jhāna to another, no changes in the compositional factors of consciousness are required.
In other words, the fourth fine material jhāna and all four formless attainments have precisely the same kinds of factors entering into their internal constitution. The factors in each higher attainment are subtler than those in its predecessors, more peaceful and more sublime, but they do not differ in number or in their essential nature. The climb from one formless attainment to another is brought about by changing the object of concentration, not by eliminating or replacing component factors. For this reason the treatises of the Abhidhammapi:aka, such as the DhammasaKgaLi and the VibhaKga, treat the four āruppas as modes of the fourth jhāna, combining the formula for each with the general formula for the fourth jhāna.4 All five states – the fourth fine material jhāna and the four immaterial jhānas – contain the same basic constellation of mental concomitants (cetasikas) and the same two jhāna factors, namely one-pointedness and neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling. Thence from the standpoint of the Abhidhamma, which defines a class of consciousness (citta) by its components, the four types of consciousness belonging to the four formless attainments are modes of the fourth jhāna consciousness according to the fourfold scheme, and of the fifth jhāna consciousness according to the fivefold scheme.
The First Āruppa: The Base of Boundless Space
The four formless attainments must be achieved in the order in which they are presented in the texts – that is, beginning with the base of boundless space and culminating in the
1. Dhs., p. 145.
2. DN. 3:275.
3. “Santā vimokkhā atikkamma rūpe āruppā,” MN. 1:33. “Santā vihārā.” MN. 1:41.
4. Dhs., pp. 68-69. Vibh., p. 276.
base of neither perception nor non-perception. The motivation which initially leads a yogin to seek the immaterial states is a clear perception of the dangers posed by gross physical matter. As it is said in the Majjhima Nikāya:
It is in virtue of matter that wielding of sticks, wielding of knives, quarrels, brawls and disputes take place; but that does not exist at all in the immaterial state, and in this expectation he enters upon the way of dispassion for only material things, for the fading and cessation of only those.1
He might also become repelled by matter as a result of considering the multitude of afflictions to which the physical body is vulnerable, such as eye diseases, ear diseases, and so forth. Aspiring to escape from these dangers connected with material form, the meditator must first attain the four jhānas of the fine material sphere. He then enters the fourth jhāna, taking as his object any of the kasi5as except the limited space kasi5a.2 The limited space kasi5a is unsuitable because it does not allow for a separation between the kasi5a itself and the space it covers, a separation, we will see, necessary for reaching the first formless jhāna.
By achieving the fourth fine material jhāna the meditator has risen above gross matter but still has not completely transcended all material form. The reason is that the self-luminous counterpart sign, the object of his jhāna, is a subtle type of material form.
To reach the formless attainments he must desire to surmount as well the materiality of the kasi5a. Such a desire can be induced by contemplating the kasi5a materiality as the counterpart of gross matter sharing to some extent its defects. Buddhaghosa illustrates how this is done by means of a simile. If a timid man is pursued by a snake in the forest he will flee from it as fast as he can. If he should later see something resembling the snake, such as a palm leaf with a streak painted on it, a creeper, a rope, or a crack in the ground, he would become fearful and anxious and would not want to look at it. The time the meditator was frightened by seeing the danger in gross matter is like the time the man saw the snake. When the meditator escapes gross matter by reaching the fourth jhāna, this is like the time the man flees from the snake. The time the meditator observes the subtle matter of the kasi5a to be the counterpart of gross matter and wants to surmount it is like the time the man sees the object resembling a snake and is afraid to look at it.3
Once he has generated a strong desire to reach the immaterial jhānas the meditator must achieve the fivefold mastery over the fourth jhāna. Then, after emerging from the fourth jhāna, he perceives the dangers in the jhāna and the benefits in the higher attainment.
The dangers are: [1] that the fourth jhāna has an object consisting in material form and hence is still connected with gross physical matter; [2] that it is close to happiness, a factor of the third jhāna: and [3] that it is grosser than the immaterial attainments. On
1. PP., p. 354. “Dissante kho pana rūpādhikaranaJ daLYādāna satthādāna kaXaha viggaha vivāda, n’atthi kho pan’etaJ sabbaso ārūpeti: so iti patisañcikkhāya rūpānaJ yeva nibbidāya, virāgāya, nirodhāya pa:ipanno hoti.” MN. 1:410.
2. See above, Chapter II, p. 42.
3. PP., pp. 354-55. Vism., p. 272.
the other hand, the meditator sees the base of boundless space as more peaceful and sublime than the fourth jhāna and as more safely removed from materiality. However, there is no effort to eliminate jhāna factors, as both the fourth fine material jhāna and the four immaterial jhānas have the same two factors, as we mentioned.1
By reflecting on its dangers the meditator ends his attachment to the fourth jhāna; he then sets out to reach the base of boundless space. The method for attaining this first formless jhāna is to mentally extend the kasi5a “to the limit of the world-sphere, or as far as he likes,” and then to remove the kasi5a by attending exclusively to the space it covered without adverting to the kasi5a.2
The original kasi5a which provided the preliminary sign (parikammanimitta) for concentration was, as we saw, a disc-like object, in the case of the earth kasi5a a disc filled with reddish-brown clay. When practising preliminary concentration the meditator kept focussing his mind upon this disc until there appeared the learning sign (uggahanimitta), i.e. a mental image apprehended as clearly as the physical object.
Concentration on the learning sign gave rise to the counterpart sign (pa(ibhāganimitta), the conceptualized image used as the object for access concentration and the fine material jhānas. After entering each jhāna, the meditator learned to extend the sign outwards by degrees, making the visualized kasi5a cover increasingly larger areas up to a world-system or more. Now, to reach the base of boundless space, the meditator must remove the kasi5a by attending exclusively to the space it has been made to cover without attending to the kasi5a:
When he is removing it, he neither folds it up like a mat nor withdraws it like a cake from a tin. It is simply that he does not advert to it or give attention to it or review it; it is when he neither adverts to it nor gives attention to it nor reviews it but gives his attention exclusively to the space touched by it [regarding that] as ‘Space, space’, that he is said to ‘remove the kasina’.3
Taking as his object the space left after the removal of the kasi5a, the yogin adverts to it as “boundless space, boundless space,” or simply as “space, space,” striking at it with applied and sustained thought. He cultivates this practice again and again, repeatedly developing it until the concept reaches maturity. When his development is fully matured, then the consciousness pertaining to the base of boundless space arises with boundless space as its object. It is the first wholesome consciousness of the immaterial sphere, and appears in the cognitive series in the same place that the first jhāna appeared in its own thought-process. In the prior moments of the series, the three or four moments of access concentration are always associated with equanimous feeling and pertain to the sense sphere; the fourth or fifth moment, the moment of absorption, pertains to the imaterial sphere.4
1. PP., p. 355. Vism., p. 272.
2. Ibid.
3. PP., p. 355. Vism., p. 272.
4. PP., p. 356. Vism., p. 272.
The standard formula for the base of boundless space, as presented in the suttas, is as follows:
With the complete surmounting of perceptions of matter, with the disappearance of perceptions of resistance, with non-attention to perceptions of variety [aware of] ‘unbounded space’, he enters upon and dwells in the base consisting of boundless space.1
There are four phrases in this formula worth discussing separately:
1. with the complete surmounting of perceptions of matter (sabbaso rūpasaññāna.
samatikkamā);
2. with the disappearance of perceptions of resistance (pa(igha saññāna.
atthagamā);
3. with non-attention to perceptions of variety (nānattasaññāna. amanasikārā);
and
4. unbounded space (ananto ākāso).
Now we will treat each of these phrases in turn.
1. “With the complete surmounting of perceptions of matter” (sabbaso rupasaññāna.
samatikkamā)
The phrase “perceptions of matter”, according to the commentaries, means both the fine-material jhānas and their objects, the kasi5as. The VibhaKga explains “perceptions of matter” as
… the perception, perceiving, perceivedness, in one who has attained a fine-material-sphere attainment or in one who has been reborn there or in one who is abiding in bliss there in this present life.2
Thus the VibhaKga identifies the term with the jhānas. But the commentary holds that the object should also be understood to be included, since the attainment of the first immaterial jhāna requires that the subtle material form of the kasi5as be relinquished.3 We saw that in developing the fine-material jhānas the meditator began with a coarse physical object, shifted his focus to the subtle form of the counter-part sign, and ascended from the first to the fourth jhāna by abandoning various mental factors while retaining the same object. But now he must give up, not only the perceptions of material form belonging to the four jhānas, but also the object of these perceptions – the fine material form of the counterpart sign – since it is impossible to attain the base of boundless space without overcoming all perceptions of material form.
1. PP., p. 356. “Sabbaso rūpasaññānaJ samatikkamā pa:ighasaññānaJ atthagamā nānatta saññānaJ amanasikārā ananto ākāsoti àkāsānañcāyatanaJ upasampajja viharati.” DN. 1:183.
2. PP., p. 357. “RūpāvacarasamāpattiJ samāpannassa vā upapannassa vā di::hadhammasukhavihārissa vā saññā sañjānanā sañjānitattaJ.” Vibh., p. 272.
3. PP., pp. 357-58. Vism., p. 273.
2. “With the disappearance of perceptions of resistance” (pa(ighasaññāna. atthagamā) The word pa(igha, which we translate here as “resistance,” generally signifies aversion, repugnance, or anger. Here, however, it is used to mean sensory impact, the striking (gha = han) against one another (pa(i) of the sense organs and their respective sense objects. Perceptions of resistance are thus sensory perceptions. As it is said in the VibhaKga:
Here, what are perceptions of resistance? Perceptions of visible objects, perceptions of sounds, perceptions of odours, perceptions of flavours, perceptions of tangible objects – these are called ‘perceptions of resistance’.1
The commentaries elucidate this as the non-occurrence of any of the ten types of sense consciousness, five the result of wholesome kamma and five the result of unwholesome kamma:
… with the complete disappearance, the abandoning, the non-arising, of these ten kinds of perceptions of resistance, that is to say, of the five profitable-resultant and five unprofitable-profitable-resultant; causing their non-occurrence, is what is meant.2
It should be noted that only perception through the five physical senses is excluded from the base of boundless space. No mention is made of the disappearance of dhamma-saññā, perception of mental objects, for the reason that this type of perception remains.
Although sensory perceptions are also absent in the four jhānas, their disappearance is accentuated here to emphasize the fading away of attachment to material form and to arouse a greater interest in the formless jhānas.3
3. “With non-attention to perceptions of variety” (nānattasaññāna. amanasikārā) According to the VibhaKga, perceptions of variety are “the perception, perceiving, perceivedness, in one who has not attained and possesses either element or mind-consciousness element.”4 (Wr. tr.). Perceptions of variety are thus the non-sensory perceptions in the states of consciousness of those who are not absorbed in a meditative attainment. The phrase “possesses either mind-element or mind-consciousness element”
excludes the bare sense perceptions, the elimination of which is already covered by
“perceptions of resistance.” When the text lays down non-attention to perceptions of variety as a condition for reaching the base of boundless space, this means that the yogin
1. PP., p. 358. “Tattha katamā pa:ighasaññā? Rūpasaññā, saddasaññā, gandhasaññā, rasasaññā, pho::abbasaññā. Imā vuccanti pa:ighasaññāyo.” Vibh., p. 272.
2. PP., p. 358. “TāsaJ kusalavipākānaJ pañcannaJ, akusalavipākānaJ pañcannaJ ti sabbaso dasannaJ pi pa:ighasaññānaJ atthangamā pahānā asamuppādā; appavattiJ katvāti vuttaJ hoti.” Vism., p. 274.
3. PP., p. 358. Vism., p. 274.
4. “Asamāpannassa manodhātu samaKgissa vā mano viññāLadhātu samaKgissa vā saññā, sañjānanā, san-jānitattaJ.” Vibh., p. 272.
must not advert to these perceptions having various diversified objects, since to attend to them or review them is obstructive to attaining the immaterial jhānas.1
According to the Visuddhimagga, the phrase “with the surmounting of perceptions of matter” signifies the abandonment of all fine material-sphere states, and the other two phrases the abandonment of and non-attention to all sense-sphere consciousness and its concomitants.2
4. “Unbounded space’ (ananto ākāso)
The “unbounded space” which the meditator becomes aware of is the space left by the removal of the kasi5a after the latter has been extended boundlessly. The space is called
“unbounded” or “endless” (ananta) because neither a beginning boundary nor a terminal boundary can be perceived for it. The meditator “enters upon and dwells in the base of boundless space” in the sense that after reaching that attainment he abides in the jhāna which has the base of boundless space as its object.
The Second Āruppa: The Base of Boundless Consciousness (viññā3añcāyatana) To attain the second immaterial jhāna the yogin must gain mastery over the base consisting of boundless space; then he must discern its defects. The first immaterial state is defective, firstly, because it is still close to the fine material jhānas, and secondly, because it is not as peaceful as the base consisting of boundless consciousness. By reflecting on these defects he develops indifference to the attainment and turns his attention to the base of boundless consciousness.
To develop the second āruppa the meditator focuses upon the consciousness that occurred pervading the boundless space of the first āruppa.3 In other words, the second āruppa has as its object the consciousness pertaining to the first āruppa. Since the object of the first āruppa, space, was boundless, the consciousness of this object also contained an aspect of boundlessness, and it is to this boundless consciousness that the aspirant for the second āruppa should advert. He is not to attend to it merely as boundless, but as “boundless consciousness” or simply as “consciousness.” As he does so the hindrances are suppressed and the mind enters access concentration. He continues to cultivate this sign again and again, until the consciousness belonging to the base of boundless consciousness arises in absorption. The cognitive series should be understood as in the previous attainment, with the appropriate changes made to fit the case.
The formula for the attainment of the base consisting of boundless consciousness reads thus: “By completely surmounting the base consisting of boundless space, [aware of]
‘unbounded consciousness’, he enters upon and dwells in the base consisting of boundless conciousness”.4 According to the word-commentary on this passage, the
1. PP., p. 359. Vism., p. 274.
2. PP., p. 359. Vism., p. 275.
3. PP., p. 360. Vism., p. 275.
4. PP., p. 361. “Sabbaso ākāsānañcāyatanaJ samatikkamā, anantaJ viññāLaJ ti viññāLañcāyatanaJ upasampajja viharati.” Vism., p. 254.
phrase “base consisting of boundless space” signifies both the first immaterial jhāna and the object of that jhāna. The surmounting of the base means the overcoming of both the jhāna and its object together, since the base of boundless consciousness is to be entered and dwelt in by passing beyond both aspects of the base of boundless space.
To be aware of “unbounded consciousness” is to give attention to the consciousness that occurred pervading the space left by the removal of the kasi5a. Thus the object of this jhāna is the consciousness that had pervaded boundless space in the previous jhāna. As it is said in the VibhaKga: “He gives attention to that same space pervaded by consciousness, he pervades boundlessly, hence ‘Unbounded consciousness’ is said.”1 And the commentator adds: “What is meant by ‘He pervades boundlessly’ is that ‘he gives attention to that same consciousness which had pervaded that space’.”2 The boundless consciousness which pervaded boundless space is itself the base consisting in boundless consciousness, and the jhāna as well, because it is founded upon this base, derivatively comes to be called by the same name.
The Third Āruppa: The Base of Nothingness (ākiñcaññāyatana)
To attain the next āruppa, the base of nothingness, the meditator who has mastered the base of boundless consciousness in the five ways must perceive this attainment as defective due to its proximity to the base of boundless space and its grossness compared to the next higher jhāna. By recognizing these dangers the meditator removes his attachment to the base of boundless consciousness; then he should advert to the base of nothingness as more peaceful. The way to concentrate on the base consisting of nothingness is to
give attention to the [present] non-existence, voidness, secluded aspect of that same [past] consciousness belonging to the base consisting of boundless space which became the object of [the consciousness belonging to] the base consisting of boundless consciousness.3
In other words, to attain the base of nothingness the yogin has to focus upon the present absence or non-existence of the consciousness belonging to the base consisting of boundless space. He is advised to advert to it over and over, thinking to himself “There is not, there is not” or “void, void,” etc. When his practice matures there arises in absorption consciousness belonging to the base of nothingness, making the non-existence of the consciousness of boundless space its object.
Though both the base of boundless consciousness and base of nothingness are concerned objectively with the consciousness of the base of boundless space, they relate to it in opposite ways. The second āruppa objectifies it positively: it focusses upon the
1. PP., p. 361. “AnantaJ viññāLanti taJyeva ākāsaJ viññāLena phutaJ manasikaroti anantaJ pharati.
Tena vuccati anantaJ viññāLanti.” Vibh., p. 273.
2. PP., p. 362. “AnantaJ pharati, taJ yeva ākāsaJ phu:aJ viññāLaJ manasikarotī ti vuttaJ hoti.”
Vism., p. 276.
3. PP., p. 362. “Tass’eva viññāLañcāyatanārammaLabhūtassa ākāsānañcāyatanaviññāLassa abhāvo, suññatā, vivittākāro manasikātabbo.” Vism., p. 277.