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BUBODDHANETOK LIBRA'SRY

E-mail: bdea@buddhanet.net Web site: www.buddhanet.net

Buddha Dharma Education Association Inc.

in Theravada Buddhist Meditation

Henepola Gunaratana

A Critical Analysis of the Jhanas

A Critical Analysis

of the Jhanas

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A Critical Analysis of the Jh A Critical Analysis of the Jh A Critical Analysis of the Jh

A Critical Analysis of the Jhã ã ãnas ã nas nas nas in Therav

in Therav in Therav

in Theravã ã ã ãda Buddhist Meditation da Buddhist Meditation da Buddhist Meditation da Buddhist Meditation

by by by by

Henepola Gunaratana Henepola Gunaratana Henepola Gunaratana Henepola Gunaratana

submitted to the

Faculty of the College of Arts and Science of the American University

in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree

of

Doctor of Philosophy in

Philosophy

1980

The American University Washington, D.C. 20016

THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

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This book is dedicated to my dear parents and teachers.

Bhante Gunaratana was born in 1927 in a small village in Sri Lanka and was ordained at the age of 12 as a Buddhist monk. At the age of 20 he was given higher ordination in Kandy in 1947. At the invitation of the Sasana Sevaka Society, Bhante Gunaratana went to the United States in 1968 to serve as Hon. General Secretary of the Buddhist Vihara Society of Washington, D.C. He has also pursued his scholarly interests by earning a B.A., an M.A., and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from The American University.

He is the author of Come and See, The Path of Serenity and Insight, The Jhanas and Mindfulness In Plain English. Venerable Gunaratana is the abbot and the president of the Bhavana Society, a Forest Monastery and Retreat Centre in West Virginia, U.S.A.

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A Critical Analysis of the Jh A Critical Analysis of the Jh A Critical Analysis of the Jh

A Critical Analysis of the Jhã ã ãnas ã nas nas nas in Therav

in Therav in Therav

in Theravã ã ã ãda Buddhist Meditation da Buddhist Meditation da Buddhist Meditation da Buddhist Meditation

by by by by

Henepola Gunaratana Henepola Gunaratana Henepola Gunaratana Henepola Gunaratana

ABSTRACT

This work provides an analytical study of the jhānas, an important set of meditative attainments in the contemplative discipline of Theravāda Buddhism. Despite their frequent appearance in the texts, the exact role of the jhānas in the Buddhist path has not been settled with unanimity by Theravāda scholars, who are still divided over the question as to whether they are necessary for attaining nibbāna. The primary purpose of this dissertation is to determine the precise role of the jhānas in the Theravāda Buddhist presentation of the way to liberation.

For source material the work relies upon the three principal classes of authoritative Theravāda texts – the Pāli Tipi:aka, its commentaries, and its sub-commentaries. To traditional canonical investigations modern methods of philosophical and psychological analysis are applied in order to clarify the meanings implicit in the original sources.

The examination covers two major areas: first the dynamics of jhāna attainment, and second, the function of the jhānas in realizing the ultimate goal of Buddhism, nibbāna or final liberation from suffering.

Regarding the first issue it is shown that Theravāda Buddhism treats the process of jhāna attainment from a philosophical perspective which views the mind as a complex of factors alterable by methodical training. The eight attainments of jhāna – four fine material jhānas and four immaterial jhānas – are examined individually in terms of their components and in their progressive scale of development. Also discussed are the supernormal powers of knowledge (abhiññās) resulting from jhāna and the connections between the jhānas and rebirth.

Regarding the second issue, the work brings to light several significant findings concerning the soteriological function of the jhānas. Fundamental to the conclusions in this area is the discovery that the Theravāda tradition distinguishes two kinds of jhāna, one mundane (lokiya), the other supramundane (lokuttara). Mundane jhāna, comprising

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the eight attainments, belongs to the concentration group of the threefold Buddhist discipline – morality, concentration, and wisdom. Supramundane jhāna is the mental absorption immediately concomitant with the higher realizations called the supramundane paths and fruits, which issue from the full threefold discipline.

Theravāda Buddhism regards the mundane jhāna as neither sufficient nor indispensable for reaching liberation. They are insufficient as they only suppress the defilements and must be supplemented by wisdom. They are optional rather than indispensable since they need not be developed by all practitioners. Meditators belonging to the “vehicle of serenity” utilize jhāna to produce the concentration required as a basis for wisdom, meditators belonging to the “vehicle of bare insight” can employ a lower degree of concentration without achieving mundane jhāna. But supramundane jhāna pertains to the experience of all meditators who reach the paths and fruits, since these latter always occur at a level of jhānic absorption.

The dissertation also explains the two approaches to meditation and shows how they lead by stages to the higher realisations. The supramundane jhānas are examined analytically both in themselves and in comparison with their mundane counterparts.

Also discussed are two additional attainments connected with the jhānas – fruition and cessation.

Finally, by means of a canonical sevenfold typology, the relation of the various grades of liberated individuals to the accomplishment of mundane jhāna is investigated. The conclusion emerges that though liberation from suffering, the ultimate goal of the discipline, is attainable by wisdom with or without mundane jhāna, Theravāda Buddhism places additional value on liberation when it is accompanied by mastery over the jhānas and skill in the modes of supernormal knowledge.

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CONTENTS

Abstract...4

Preface ...7

Chapter one ... 10

Introduction ...10

Chapter Two ... 25

The Preliminaries to Practice...25

Chapter Three... 37

The Conquest of the Hindrances...37

Chapter Four ... 68

The First Jhāna and its Factors ...68

Chapter Five ... 99

The Higher Jhānas ...99

Chapter Six... 129

Beyond the Four Jhānas ...129

Chapter Seven ...161

The Way of Wisdom ...161

Chapter Eight ...191

Jhāna and the Noble Attainments ...191

Conclusion ...221

Glossary 234

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PREFACE

The teaching of the Buddha is essentially a path leading to the cessation of suffering.

Central to this path is the practice of meditation. Meditation may be considered the heart of applied Buddhism, to which all the preliminary stages of the path lead and out of which the higher stages flow. One of the most important aspects of Buddhist meditation is a set of attainments called, in Pāli, the jhānas. The jhānas are encountered repeatedly in the scriptural texts of early Buddhism. They were instrumental in the Buddha’s own achievement of enlightenment and recurrently enter into the course of training he formulated for his disciples – in the stage of the path preparatory to the higher insights, in immediate association with the liberating wisdom, and again in the end as a spiritual endowment of the fully liberated man.

It is the purpose of the present work to examine the jhānas in order to determine their role in the Buddhist spiritual discipline. The perspective from which they are viewed is that of Theravāda Buddhism, the Buddhist school to which the author belongs as a fully ordained monk. Theravāda Buddhism is probably the oldest continuous Buddhist tradition, maintaining the most accurate record of what the Buddha himself actually taught. Theravāda Buddhist meditation, inclusive of the jhānas, has been reliably treated by several contemporary writers of scholarly stature. The present work, however, approaches the jhānas from a different angle. Whereas most scholars deal principally with the topics of meditation and only incidentally with the jhānas themselves, in our dissertation we focus primarily upon the jhānas as they are in their own nature, treating the topics of meditation only in a summary way. Our approach is psychological and analytical, our intent to look into the inner constitution of the jhānas, lay bare their inner dynamics, and see how they contribute to the purification and liberation of mind which is the goal of the Buddhist discipline.

Our work draws principally upon the scriptures and exegetical literature of Theravāda Buddhism. These sources, composed almost entirely in Pāli, fall into three primary layers of differing degrees of authoritative weight. The first and most authoritative is the Pāli Canon. This is the Tipi:aka – the three “baskets” or collections of scripture: the Vinayapi:aka, the collection of monastic discipline; the Suttapi:aka, the collection of the Buddha’s discourses; and the Abhidhammapi:aka, the collection of psycho- philosophical treatises. The texts in these collections belong to different chronological strata, but a good portion, particularly of the Vinaya and suttas, can be reasonably ascribed to the Buddha himself.

The Suttapitaka was the most useful of the three for our purposes. This collection is divided into five sections: the Dīgha Nikāya (long discourses), the Majjhima Nikāya (middle length discourses), the SaJyutta Nikāya (topically related discourses), the AKguttara Nikāya (numerically arranged discourses), and the Khuddaka Nikāya (miscellaneous discourses). We have relied most heavily on the first four and parts of the fifth as being the most ancient parts of the Pāli Canon.

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The Abhidhammapi:aka gives the appearance of being a somewhat later scholastic attempt at systematization, but its teachings are fully consistent with the suttas and help shed light on many points requiring precise analysis and fine definition. We have found particularly helpful the first two books of the Abhidhamma, the DhammasaKgaLi and the VibhaKga, which in conjunction with their commentaries clarify a number of knotty points concerning the jhānas. The difference between the suttas and the Abhidhamma is that between a practical pedagogical approach and a philosophically rigorous one. But the two standpoints are found to harmonize and to repeatedly illuminate each other.

The second layer of Pāli literature is the commentaries (a((hakathā). The commentaries were composed for the purpose of elucidating the words of the Tipi:aka and for drawing out their implications. Their origins go back to very ancient times but they were edited and cast into final standardized versions in the 5th century A.C. by the great Buddhist commentator Bhadantācariya Buddhaghosa, who came from India to Sri Lanka expressly for that purpose. Fundamental to the entire commentarial collection is Bhadantācariya Buddhaghosa’s own original work, the Visuddhimagga (Path of Purification), a massive masterpiece which orders the complex field of Buddhist meditation into an organic comprehensive whole.

The third class of Pāli texts we drew upon is the )īkās. The )īkās are subcommentaries, composed with three principal purposes in view: to elucidate difficult points in the commentaries, to explore important side issues, and to systematize still further the material of the Tipi:aka. The most useful of these has been the great )īkā to the Visuddhimagga, the Mahā(īkā called Paramatthamañjūsā, composed by Ācariya Dhammapāla who lived in South India in the 6th century A.C. This same teacher is also the author of the )īkās to the Dīgha Nikāya, the Majjhima Nikāya, and the SaJyutta Nikāya.

For passages from the Suttapi:aka we have principally relied upon the editions of the Pali Text Society. For the commentaries and subcommentaries we have used the editions of the Burmese Buddha Sāsana Samiti, which started its work in connection with the Sixth Buddhist Council held in Burma in 1956. Sinhalese and Devanāgari editions were also consulted when available. Our secondary sources were English and Sinhalese treatises relating to the subject. For the sake of easy cross-reference we refer to commentaries and subcommentaries by their full scriptural titles rather than by their individual names; e.g. we refer to the commentary to the Majjhima Nikāya as Majjhima Nikāya A((hakathā rather than as Papañcasūdani, to the )īkā to the Visuddhimagga as Visuddhimagga Mahā(īkā rather than as Paramatthamañjūsā, etc. Both names for commentarial works can be found in the list of abbreviations of works used.

Some words are called for concerning the translation of material from the original Pāli sources. Whenever a Pāli text was available in English we have consulted the translation, but in a large number of cases we have found the English renderings unsatisfactory, due either to inaccurate translation or to the use of archaic language. Therefore we have often preferred to give our own translations indicated by the phrase “writer’s translation”

(Wr. tr.). Fortunately this procedure was not necessary in the case of the Visuddhimagga, which has been excellently translated by the Venerable Bhikkhu Ñānamoli under the title

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The Path of Purification. In some instances, where we present a passage translated by another writer using different renderings for technical terms than those we prefer, we give either our own preference or the Pāli terms in brackets following the other’s rendering; but where the context makes it clear what term is intended we leave the passage as it stands. In all cases of doctrinally important passages translated from the Pāli, by ourselves or others, we give the Pāli original below in the footnotes. For the convenience of the reader a Pāli-English Glossary is provided in the back giving our usual preferred renderings of technical terms connected with Buddhist meditation appearing in the text.

Footnote and bibliographical references to books published in Sri Lanka use “Ceylon” or

“Sri Lanka,” as indicated on the title page; the latter is used when no country is mentioned. The systems of transliteration used in citations of Pāli texts in the Sinhalese and Burmese scripts are based upon those used by the Pali Text Society.

Our sincere thanks are due to Professor David F. T. Rodier, Director of the Dissertation, Department of Philosophy and Religion, The American University, and to the other readers, Professor Charles S. J. White of The American University and Professor Cornelia Dimmitt of Georgetown University, for reading the dissertation and for making valuable suggestions. We are also sincerely grateful to the Venerable Dr. Bhikkhu Bodhi who made many very valuable suggestions and helped polish the style and structure of the work. Last but not least we must sincerely thank Dr. Hazel Marie Griffin for her kind hospitality and valuable suggestions in arranging the footnotes and bibliography.

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Chapter One Chapter One Chapter One Chapter One

INTRODUCTION

The Doctrinal Context of Jhāna

In the discourses the Buddha says that just as in the great ocean there is but one taste, the taste of salt, so in his doctrine and discipline there is but one taste, the taste of freedom (vimuttirasa).1 The taste of freedom that flavors the Buddha’s doctrine and discipline is the taste of spiritual freedom and it is to the full experience of this taste that the entire teaching of the Buddha is directed. Spiritual freedom, from the Buddhist perspective, means freedom from suffering. The problem of suffering is the wellspring out of which the whole current of Buddhist teaching arises; freedom from suffering is the end towards which it moves. Thus the Buddha could say throughout his ministry:

“Previously, monks, as also now I make known only suffering and the cessation of suffering.”2 (Wr. tr.).

This focal concern with the issue of suffering is evident from the formula of the four Noble Truths.3 The doctrine of the Four Noble Truths deals entirely with the problem of suffering, looked at from four different angles. The first Noble Truth exposes the forms and the range of suffering. It shows suffering to be an inextricable ingredient of life itself, tied on the physical side to the vital processes of birth, aging, sickness and death, cropping up on the psychological side as sorrow, grief, dejection, and despair. Suffering, moreover, in the Buddha’s picture of the world, becomes multiplied to infinite proportions due to the fact of rebirth. The cycle of pain and sorrow does not turn only once; for all but the enlightened it turns over and over through beginningless time in the form of sa.sāra, the round of repeated becoming.

1. Richard Morris and E. Hardy, eds. The A/guttara-Nikaya. [Pt. 1: Ekanipāta, Dukanipāta, and Tikanipāta, edited by Richard Morris. 2d ed. Revised by A. K. Warder; pt. 2: Catukka-Nipāta, edited by Richard M orris; pt. 3: Pañcaka-Nipāta and Chakka-Nipāta, edited by E. Hardy; pt. 4: Sattaka-Nipāta, A((haka-Nipāta, and Navaka-Nipāta, edited by E. Hardy; pt. 5: Dasaka-Nipāta and Ekādasaka-Nipāta, edited by E. Hardy; pt. 6: Indexes by Mabel Hunt; Revised and edited by C. A. F. Rhys Davids]. (Pali Text Society [Publications], vols. 10, 20, 35, 44, 46, 66. 6 vols. 1885-1910; reprint ed., London: Luzac &

Co., 1956-67), 4:203 (hereafter cited as AN.).

2. “Pubbe cāhaJ bhikkhave etarahi ca dukkhañceva paññapemi dukkhassa ca nirodhaJ.” V. Trenckner and Robert Chalmers, eds., The Majjhima-Nikāya. [Vol. 1: edited by V. Trenckner; vols. 2-3: edited by Robert Chalmers; vol. 4: Index of Words, edited by Mrs. Rhys Davids]. (Pali Text Society [Publications], vols. 17, 39, 45, 47, 51, 99. 6 vols in 4, 1888-1925; reprint, 4 vols.; London: Luzac & Co., 1960-64) 1:140 (hereafter cited as MN.).

3. Hermann Oldenberg, ed. The Vinaya Pi(akam: One of the Principal Buddhist Holy Scriptures in the Pali Language. (Pali Text Society [Publication Series], vols. 147-48, 160-62. 5 vols., London:

Luzac & Co., 1879-1964), 1:10ff (hereafter cited as Vinp.).

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Having exposed the range and modes of suffering in the First Noble Truth, in the remaining three the Buddha points out the cause of suffering, its cessation, and the way to its cessation. The cause is craving, the insatiable drive for enjoyment and existence that keeps the wheel of rebirths in constant motion. The cessation of suffering is the reversal of this genetic relation, the complete abandoning and destruction of craving.

The way to the end of suffering is the middle way of ethical and mental training that avoids all extremes of conduct and views – the Noble Eightfold Path made up of right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mind- fulness, and right concentration.

Whereas the first three truths provide the doctrinal perspective of the Buddha’s teaching, the fourth truth, the truth of the path, prescribes its practical regimen. This regimen focusses upon personal experience. The Buddha does not come into our midst as a savior descended from on high. He comes as an enlightened teacher, a man who has found the way to the end of suffering and who points the way out to others. The path itself every man must follow for himself. It is each man’s own delusions and defilements that chain him to the cycle of suffering, and again each man’s own efforts at inner purification that pave the road to his deliverance. Since bondage ultimately springs from ignorance (avijjā) the key to liberation, for Buddhism, is found in wisdom (paññā), a wisdom which must be generated inwardly as an immediate personal understanding of the basic truths of existence. The Dhamma is paccata. veditabbo viññūhi, (to be realized by the wise within themselves).

It is because personal realization of truth is needed to reach the end of suffering that meditation assumes a position of such crucial importance in the Buddhist formulation of the liberating path. Meditation, for Buddhism, is the means of generating the inner understanding required for deliverance from suffering. Its diversity of techniques stems from the differences in the people to be taught, but its purpose and procedure is the same for all: to produce that purity of mind and clarity of vision needed for the liberating wisdom to arise.

The methods of meditation taught in the Pāli Buddhist tradition are based on the Buddha’s own experience, forged by him in the course of his own quest for enlight- enment. They are designed to re-create in the disciple who practices them the same essential discovery the Buddha himself made when he sat beneath the Bodhi tree – the discovery of the Four Noble Truths.

The various subjects and methods of meditation expounded in the Pāli scriptures divide into two inter-related systems. One is called the development of serenity (samatha- bhāvanā), the other the development of insight (vipassanābhāvanā). The former also goes under the name of the development of concentration (samādhibhāvanā), the latter under the name of the development of wisdom (paññābhāvanā). The practice of serenity-meditation aims at developing a calm, concentrated, unified state of conscious- ness as a means of experiencing inner peace and for generating wisdom. The practice of insight-meditation aims at gaining direct understanding of the real nature of phenomena.

Of the two, the development of insight is regarded by Buddhism as the essential key to liberation, the direct antidote to the ignorance underlying bondage and suffering.

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Whereas serenity-meditation is recognized as common to both Buddhist and non-Buddhist contemplative disciplines, insight meditation is held to be the unique discovery of the Buddha and an unparallelled feature of his path. However, because the growth of insight presupposes a certain degree of concentration (samādhi), and serenity-meditation serves to secure this concentration, the development of serenity claims an incontestable place in the Buddhist meditative process. Together the two types of meditation work to make the mind a fit instrument for enlightenment. With his mind unified by means of the development of serenity, made sharp and bright by the development of insight, the meditator can proceed unobstructed to reach the end of suffering.

Focal to both systems of meditation. though belonging inherently to the side of serenity, is a set of meditative attainments called the four jhānas. The Pāli word jhāna has been rendered by translators into English in various ways. The Venerable Bhikkhu Ñānamoli and I. B. Horner have used “meditation,” which to us seems too general. T. W. Rhys Davids offers “rapture” and “ecstasy,” which suggest a degree of elation and exuberance inappropriate to the higher jhānas. F. L. Woodward’s “musing” is too weak and archaic, while Edward Conze’s “trance” misleadingly implies a sub-normal state, quite the opposite of jhāna. The word “absorption,” used by the Venerables Soma Thera, Nyānaponika Thera, and others, is the most suitable of the lot, but that is needed for the Pāli appa5ā, which includes the jhānas and corresponds closely to “absorption” in literal meaning. For obvious reasons, therefore, we prefer to leave the Pāli jhāna untranslated.

The jhānas themselves are states of deep mental unification characterized by a total immersion of the mind in its object. They result from the centering of the mind upon a single object with such a degree of attention that inner verbalization, the discursive function of thought, is arrested and eventually silenced, brought to a stop.

The members of the fourfold set of jhānas are named simply after their numerical position in the series: the first jhāna, the second jhāna, the third jhāna, and the fourth jhāna. The four appear repeatedly in the suttas described by a stock formula showing their process of attainment:

Here, bhikkhus, a bhikkhu, quite secluded from sense pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states of mind, enters and dwells in the first jhāna, which is accompanied by applied thought and sustained thought with rapture and happiness born of seclusion.

With the subsiding of applied thought and sustained thought he enters and dwells in the second jhāna, which has internal confidence and unification of mind, is without applied thought and sustained thought, and is filled with rapture and happiness born of concentration.

With the fading away of rapture, he dwells in equanimity, mindful and discerning; and he experiences in his own person that happiness of which the noble ones say: ‘Happily lives he who is equanimous and mindful’ – thus he enters and dwells in the third jhāna.

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With the abandoning of pleasure and pain, and with the previous dis- appearance of joy and grief, he enters and dwells in the fourth jhāna, which has neither-pain-nor-pleasure and has purity of mindfulness due to equan- imity.1 (Wr. tr.).

As this passage indicates, the mind entering upon the jhānas draws inwardly more deeply into itself – away from the sense objects impinging on the senses from the external world, upwards to a level of heightened awareness, calm, and purity far surpassing that of discursive thought.

The Importance of Jhāna

The importance of the jhānas in the Buddhist path to deliverance can readily be gauged from the frequency with which they are mentioned throughout the suttas. The jhānas figure prominently both in the Buddha’s own experience and in his exhortations to disciples. In his childhood, while attending an annual ploughing festival, the future Buddha spontaneously entered the first jhāna. It was the memory of this childhood incident, many years later after his futile pursuit of austerities, that revealed to him the way to enlightenment during his period of deepest despondency.2 After taking his seat on the banks of the Nerañjarā, the Buddha entered the four jhānas immediately before directing his mind to the threefold knowledge that issued in his enlightenment.3 Throughout his active career the four jhānas remained “his heavenly dwelling”

(dibbavihāra) to which he resorted in order to live happily here and now.4 His understanding of the corruption, purification and emergence in the jhānas, liberations, concentrations, and meditative attainments is one of his ten powers which enable him to turn the matchless wheel of the Dhamma.5 Just before his passing away the Buddha entered the eight attainments in direct and reverse order; the passing away itself took place directly from the fourth jhāna.6

The Buddha is constantly seen in the suttas encouraging his disciples to develop jhāna.

The four jhānas are invariably included in the complete course of training laid down for disciples.7 They figure in the training as the discipline of higher consciousness (adhicittasikkhā), right concentration (sammā samādhi) of the Noble Eightfold Path, and

1. T. W. Rhys Davids and J. Estlin Carpenter, eds., The Dīgha-Nikāya. [Vols. 1-2: edited by T. W. Rhys Davids and J. Estlin Carpenter; vol. 3: edited by J. Estlin Carpenter]. (Pali Text Society [Publications], vols. 22, 52, 67. 3 vols. 1880-1910; reprint, London: Luzac & Co., 1960-67), 2:314-15 (hereafter cited as DN.). MN. 1:182.

2. MN. 1:246-47.

3. Ibid.

4. DN. 3:220.

5. MN. 1:68-83.

6. DN. 2:156.

7. DN. 1:47-86. MN. 1:175-84, 256-80

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the faculty and power of concentration (samādhindriya, samādhibala). Though a vehicle of dry insight can be found, indications are that this path is not an easy one, lacking the aid of the powerful serenity available to the practitioner of jhāna. The way of the jhāna attainer seems by comparison smoother and more pleasurable.1

The Buddha points to the bliss of the jhānas as his alternative to sense pleasures. He says:

There are, Cunda, four pursuits of pleasure which lead to ultimate dis- enchantment, dispassion, cessation, peace, direct knowledge, enlightenment, and nibbāna. Which four? Here, Cunda, secluded from sense pleasures, a bhikkhu enters and dwells in the first jhāna... the second jhāna... the third jhāna... the fourth jhāna.2 (Wr. tr.).

His own disciples live devoted to these four pursuits of pleasure, and for them four fruits and benefits are to be expected, namely, attainment of the four stages of deliverance – stream-entry, once-returning, non-returning, and arahatship.3 Just as the river Ganges slopes, inclines and flows to the east, a bhikkhu who develops and cultivates the four jhānas slopes, flows, and inclines to nibbāna.4 The Buddha even refers to the four jhānas figuratively (pariyāyena) as a kind of nibbāna; he calls them immediately visible nibbāna (sandi((hikanibbāna), final nibbāna (parinibbāna), a factor of nibbāna (tada/ganibbāna), and nibbāna here and now (di((hadhammanibbāna).5

1. AN. 2:150-52.

2. “Cattāro’me Cunda sukhallikānuyogo ekanta-nibbidāya virāgāya nirodhāya upasamāya abhiññāya sambodhāya nibbānāya saJvattanti. Katame cattāro? Idha Cunda bhikkhu vivicc’eva kāmehi… pa:hamaJ jhānaJ upasampajja viharati… dutiyaJ jhānaJ… tatiyaJ jhānaJ… catutthaJ jhānaJ…” DN. 2:131-32.

4. Ibid.

5. M. Léon Feer, ed. The Sa.yutta-Nikāya of the Sutta-Pi(aka. [Pts. 1-5: Sagātha-Vagga, Nidāna-Vagga, Khandha-Vagga, Salāyatana-Vagga, and Mahā-Vagga, edited by M. Léon Feer; pt. 6: Indexes, by Mrs.

Rhys Davids], (Pali Text Society [Publications], vols, 8, 19, 25, 31, 42, 56. 6 vols. 1884-1904, reprint.

London: Luzac & Co., 1960-70), 5:308 (hereafter cited as SN.).

6. AN. 4:453-54.

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Overview

Although the jhānas claim a place of such overriding importance in the Theravāda Buddhist system of meditation, works on Theravāda Buddhist meditation, beginning even with the commentaries, generally subordinate their accounts of the jhānas to the subjects of meditation intended to induce them. Thence the jhānas have received little detailed attention in their own right. The present work attempts to correct this deficiency by a close-up examination of the jhānas themselves. Our primary objective is to determine the precise role played by the jhānas in the Buddhist spiritual discipline directed to final deliverance from suffering. Since the jhānas have the immediate aim of producing a progressive purification of the mind, our handling of this general topic proceeds via the working out of solutions to two inter-connected problems. One is the question of how the jhānas bring about this purification of consciousness, the other the question of the way and the degree to which this purification contributes to the ultimate goal of Theravāda Buddhism, the attainment of nibbāna. Let us consider each of these in turn.

1. The solution to the first problem requires reference to the analytical and psychological standpoint of early Buddhist thought, prominent in all the strata of the Theravāda Buddhist tradition. As is well known, Buddhism dispenses with the notion of an enduring self as a unifying principle of experience. Instead of positing a self-identical cognizer behind the workings of the mind, the Buddhist thinkers prefer to treat consciousness as a complex of mental factors coming together in momentary com- binations. The jhānas, as states of consciousness, are therefore regarded in Theravāda Buddhism as congeries of evanescent factors. The task confronting us is to investigate this analytical approach to the understanding of the jhānas. We must see how these meditative states have been dissected into multiple components, scrutinize the internal relations obtaining between their factors, and determine how the jhānas link together to purify and refine the level of conscious awareness.

These issues are addressed principally in Chapters II through VI of our treatise. In these chapters we will see the attainment of jhāna to be a dynamic process by which the mind is gradual1y purified of its taints. In Chapter II we take a look at certain preliminaries which must be fulfilled as preparation for the practice of meditation. Then in Chapter III we turn to examine the process of jhāna attainment itself. The attainment of jhāna, we will see, starts with the elimination of the defilements obstructing mental collectedness, grouped together as the five hindrances, (pañcanīvara5a): sensual desire, ill will, sloth and torpor, restlessness and worry, and doubt.1 In this chapter we will examine the five hindrances both collectively and individually, determine the extent to which they must be overcome as a prerequisite for entering the jhānas, and discuss the methods laid down in the Pāli texts for bringing about their elimination.

1. In Pāli: Kāmacchanda, byāpāda, thīnamiddha, uddhaccakukkucca, vicikicchā.

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In Chapter IV we consider the first jhāna in terms of its positive factors of endowment.

These are principally the five components – applied thought, sustained thought, rapture, happiness, and one-pointedness1 – called the jhāna factors because they lift the mind to the level of absorption and remain in the first jhāna as its defining constituents. The five factors will be examined individually in detail, then we will see how, together with the other mental phenomena present in the jhāna, they function to bring about the mind’s absorption in its object.

After reaching the first jhāna the ardent meditator can go on to reach the higher jhānas.

This is done by eliminating the coarser factors in each jhāna, those that remain being in each case the defining factors of the successive jhānas. In Chapter V we will explore at length the dynamics of this gradual purification of consciousness, discussing not only the jhāna factors present in each higher jhāna but also the new elements that come to prominence with the ascending refinement of awareness. Having discussed the higher jhānas and their factors, we will close this chapter with some remarks on the relation between the tetradic scheme of jhānas found in the suttas and a pentadic scheme found in the Abhidhamma.

Beyond the four jhānas lies another fourfold set of higher meditative states which deepen the element of serenity developed in the jhānas. These attainments, known as the immaterial states (āruppā) because they correspond ontologically to the immaterial realms of existence, are the base of boundless space, the base of boundless con- sciousness, the base of nothingness, and the base of neither perception nor non-per- ception.2 In the Pāli commentaries this set comes to be called the four immaterial jhānas (arūpajjhāna), the four preceding stages being renamed, for the sake of clarity, the four fine material jhānas (rūpajjhāna). Often the two sets are joined together under the collective title of the eight jhānas or the eight attainments (a((ha samāpattiyo).

In the first part of Chapter Vl we examine the immaterial jhānas, viewing them in terms of their internal structure and sequence of attainment. The second part of the chapter deals with certain super-normal powers of knowledge, called the abhiññās, that become available with the mastery of the eight jhānas. Then we close the chapter with some remarks on the cosmological implications of the jhānas, considered in connection with the doctrines of kamma and rebirth.

2. Since the refinement of consciousness produced by the jhānas is not pursued as an end in itself, but remains subordinated to the goal of liberation from suffering, the investigations of these early chapters lead directly into our second area of concern, the precise function the jhānas exercise in accomplishing the goal of the Buddhist path. The question whether or not the jhānas are needed to attain nibbāna is a problem which has long vexed scholars of Theravāda Buddhism. Some insist that they are absolutely necessary, others that they can be entirely dispensed with; both sides claim equal canonical support for their positions. The controversy has been further complicated by the recognition the Theravāda tradition gives to two approaches to the development of

1. In Pāli: Vitakka, vicāra, pīti, sukha, ekaggatā.

2. In Pāli: Ākāsānañcāyatana, viññā5añcāyatana, ākiñcaññāyatana, nevasaññānāsaññāyatana.

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the path – one, the “vehicle of serenity” (samathayāna), emphasizing the attainment of the jhānas, the other, the “vehicle of insight” (vipassanāyāna), apparently de-emphasizing them. In the light of this distinction of vehicles it becomes incumbent upon us to determine exactly to what extent jhāna is required to fulfill the development of the path. We must clarify the differences between the two vehicles, show the different-kinds of jhāna, define the place of the jhānas in each vehicle, and explain why, to the extent that jhāna is not absolutely necessary, its attainment should still be regarded in Theravāda Buddhism as desirable and worthy of the effort required.

These issues will be dealt with principally in Chapters VII and VIII. The practice of serenity meditation, as we mentioned already, has the primary purpose of providing a basis for the development of wisdom, which alone has the power to actually eradicate the fetters.

In Chapter VII, therefore, we consider the nature of wisdom and its relation to the cultivation of the jhānas. We will here deal with the two vehicles of serenity and insight and the way concentration is developed in each. Then we will outline the seven stages of purification in terms of which the Theravāda tradition has ordered the successive stages of the path to liberation.

In Chapter VIII we turn to the relation between the jhānas and the higher attainments that result when wisdom reaches full maturity. Here we bring to the fore a distinction between two levels at which the jhānas can occur – the mundane (lokiya) and the supramundane (lokuttara). This distinction, we will see, is of paramount importance for resolving the controversy over the question as to whether or not the jhānas are needed for the attainment of deliverance.

Briefly, the mundane jhānas are states of deep concentration and serenity pertaining to the preliminary stage of the path, helping to provide the base of concentration needed for wisdom to arise. The supramundane jhānas are the levels of concentration pertaining to the four stages of enlightenment called the supramundane paths (lokuttaramagga) and to their consequent stages of deliverance resulting from them, the fruits (phala).1 In this chapter we will explore in detail the differences between the two kinds of jhāna and the relations of both to the paths and fruits. Then we will take a look at two special higher meditative attainments – the attainment of fruition and the attainment of cessation – available only to noble persons standing on the higher planes of liberation. Finally we turn to another question long debated in Theravāda Buddhist circles – the extent to which the noble persons possess the jhānas in their mundane form. We will close our examination with some remarks on the place of the jhānas among the accomplishments of the arahat, the fully liberated man. This final discussion will enable us to evaluate the position assigned to the jhānas in the spiritual discipline of Theravāda Buddhism.

1. The four paths are the path of stream-entry (sotāpattimagga), the path of the once-returner (sakadāgāmimagga), the path of the non-returner (anāgāmimagga), and the path of arahatship (arahattamagga) they will be explained at length below. The fruits are named after their respective paths, i.e. the fruit of stream-entry, etc.

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Etymology of Jhāna

The great Buddhist commentator Bhadantācariya Buddhaghosa traces the Pāli word jhāna (Skt. dhyāna) to two verbal forms. One, the etymologically correct derivation, is the verb jhāyati, meaning to think or to meditate. Buddhaghosa explains: “By means of this yogins meditate, thus it is called jhāna... The meaning is that they cognize a given object.”1 (Wr. tr.). The commentator offers in addition a more playful derivation of jhāna, intended to illuminate its function rather than its verbal source. This derivation traces the word jhāna to the verb jhāpeti meaning “to burn up”, the reason being: “It burns up opposing states, thus it is called jhāna.”2 (Wr. tr.). The purport of this second account is that jhāna “burns up” or eliminates the mental obscurations preventing the development of serenity and insight. In this connection a later Pāli commentator, Ācariya Mahānāma, writes with specific reference to supramundane jhāna: “He who has this jhāna born in himself burns up the passions; thus he destroys and eradicates them”

hence this state (lokuttara jhāna) is said to be jhāna in the sense of ‘to burn’.” 3

Buddhaghosa says that jhāna has the characteristic mark of contemplation (upanijj- hānalakkha5a). Contemplation, he states, is twofold: the contemplation of the object (āramma5ūpanijjhāna) and the contemplation of the characteristics of phenomena (lakkha5ūpanijjhāna). The former type of contemplation is exercised by the eight attainments of serenity together with their access, since these contemplate the object taken as the basis for developing concentration. For this reason these attainments, particularly the first four, are given the name “jhāna” in the mainstream of Pāli meditative exposition. However, Buddhaghosa also allows that the term can be extended loosely to insight, the paths, and the fruits, on the ground that these perform the work of contemplating the characteristics. The commentator explains:

Here, insight contemplates the characteristics of impermanence, [suffering and selflessness]. Insight’s task of contemplation is perfected by the path, thus the path is called the contemplation of characteristics. The fruit contemplates the

1. “Iminā yogino jhāyanti ti pi jhānaJ… gocaraJ vā cittentī ti attho.” Buddhaghosa, [Vinaya-A((hakathā (Samanta Pāsādika)], [Vols. 1-2:] Pārājikaka5da A((hakathathā [vol. 3:] Pācityādi A((hakathā; [vol. 4:]

Cu8avaggādi A((hakathā. [Pāli Text in Burmese script]. 4 vols. (Rangoon, Burma: Buddhasāsana Samiti, 1961), 1:116 (hereafter cited as Vin.A.).

2. “Paccanikadhamme jhāpeti ti.” Ibid.

3. Saddhammappakāsanī, cited in VajirañāLa Mahāthera, Buddhist Meditation in Theory and Practice: A General Exposition According to the Pali Canon of the Theravāda School, (Colombo, Ceylon: M. D.

Gunasena & Co., 1962), pp. 24-25 (hereafter cited as BMTP.). “AjātaJ jhāpeti jhānena jhānaJ tena pavuccati ti attano santāne pātubhūtena tena tena lokuttarajjhānena taJ samaKgipuggalo ajātameva taJ taJ kilesaJ jhāpeti dahati samucchindati. Tena kāraLena taJ lokuttaraJ jhānanti pavuccati ti attho.”

Mahānāma, [Pa(isambhidāmagga A((hakathā Saddhammapakāsinī Nāma Pa(isambhidāmagga((hakathā.

[Pāli Text in Burmese script], 2 vols. (Rangoon, Burma: Buddhasāsana Samiti, 1958), 1:257-58 (hereafter cited as Pts.A.).

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actual characteristic of cessation, thus it is called the contemplation of characteristics.1 (Wr. tr.).

In brief the twofold meaning of jhāna as “contemplation” and “burning up” can be brought into connection with the meditative process as follows. By fixing his mind on the object the meditator reduces and eliminates the lower mental qualities such as the five hindrances and promotes the growth of the higher qualities such as the jhāna factors. These, as they emerge, fix upon the object with increasing force, leading the mind to complete absorption in the object. Then, by contemplating the characteristics of phenomena with insight, the meditator eventually reaches the supramundane jhāna of the four paths. With this jhāna he burns up the defilements and attains the liberating experience of the fruits.

Jhāna and Samādhi

In the vocabulary of Buddhist meditation the word jhāna is closely connected with another word, samādhi, generally rendered as “concentration.” Samādhi derives from the prefixed verbal root sa.-ā-dhā, meaning to collect or to bring together, thus suggesting the concentration or unification of the mind. The word samādhi is almost interchangeable with the word samatha, “serenity”, though the latter comes from a different root, sam (Skt. śam), meaning “to become calm.”

In the suttas samādhi is defined as mental one-pointedness, cittass’ekaggatā,2 and this definition is followed through with technically psychological rigor in the Abhidhamma.

The Abhidhamma treats one-pointedness as a distinct mental factor (cetasika) present in every state of consciousness. It is a universal mental concomitant with the function of unifying the mind upon its object, ensuring that each state of consciousness takes one and only one object. Those occasions of one-pointedness which go beyond the bare stabilizing of the mind on an object to give the mind some degree of steadiness and non-distraction are subsumed under the name samādhi. Thus the DhammasaKgaLi equates these more prominent types of one-pointedness with a string of synonyms inclusive of serenity (samatha), the faculty of concentration (samādhindriya), and the power of concentration (samādhibala). From this strict psychological standpoint samādhi can be present in unwholesome states of consciousness as well as in wholesome and neutral states. In the former it is called “wrong concentration”

(micchāsamādhi), in the latter “right concentration” (sammāsamādhi).3

As a technical term in expositions on the practice of meditation, however, samādhi is limited to one-pointedness of the wholesome kind. Bhadantācariya Buddhaghosa, in the

1. “Ettha hi vipassanā aniccalakkhaLādīni upanijjhāyati. Vipassanāya upanijjāyanakiccaJ pana maggena sijjhatīti maggo lakkhaLūpaniijhānanti vuccati. PhalaJ pana nirodhassa tathalakkhaLaJ upanijjhāyatī ti lakkhaLūpanijjhānanti vuccati.” Vin.A. 1:116.

2. MN. 1:301.

3. Dhammasa/ga5ipāli, [Pāli Text in Burmese script], (Rangoon, Burma: Buddhasāsana Samiti, 1961), pp. 19, 92 (hereafter cited as Dhs.).

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Visuddhimagga, defines samādhi as wholesome one-pointedness of mind (kusala- cittass’ekaggatā), and even here we can understand from the context that it is only the wholesome one-pointedness involved in the deliberate transmutation of the mind to a heightened level of calm that is intended by the word samādhi.1 Buddhaghosa explains samādhi etymologically as “the centering of consciousness and consciousness concomitants evenly and rightly on a single object.”2 He calls it “the state in virtue of which consciousness and its concomitants remain evenly and rightly on a single object, undistracted and unscattered.”3

Despite the preciseness of this definition, the word samādhi is used in the Pāli literature on meditation with varying degrees of specificity of meaning. In the narrowest sense, as defined by Buddhaghosa, it denotes the particular mental factor (cetasika) responsible for the concentrating of the mind, namely, one-pointedness. In a wider sense it can signify the states of unified consciousness that result from the strengthening of concentration, i.e. the meditative attainments of serenity and the stages leading up to them. And in a still wider sense the word samādhi can be applied to the method of practice used to produce and cultivate those refined states of concentration, here being equivalent to the development of serenity (samathabhāvanā).

It is in the second sense that samādhi and jhāna come closest in meaning, sharing to a large extent the same reference. The Buddha equates right concentration (sammāsamādhi) with the four jhānas, and in doing so allows concentration to encompass the meditative attainments signified by the jhānas. However, even though jhāna and samādhi can overlap in denotation, certain differences in their suggested and contextual meanings prevent unqualified identification of the two terms. Firstly, behind the Buddha’s use of the jhāna formula to explain right concentration lies a more technical understanding of the terms. According to this understanding samādhi can be narrowed down in range to signify only one factor, the most prominent in the jhāna, namely one-pointedness, while the jhāna itself must be seen as encompassing the state of consciousness in its entirety, or at least the whole group of mental factors individuating that meditative state as a jhāna.

In the second place, when samādhi is considered in its broader meaning it involves a wider range of reference than jhāna. The Pāli exegetical tradition recognizes three levels of samādhi.4 The first is preliminary concentration (parikammasamādhi), which is

1. Buddhaghosa, The Path of Purification (Visuddhimagga), translated from the Pāli by Bhikkhu Ñānamoli. (Colombo, Ceylon: R. Semage, l956), p. 84 (hereafter cited as PP.).

2. Ibid., p. 85. “EkārammaLe cittacetasikānaJ samaJ sammā ca ādhānaJ.” Buddhaghosa, Visuddhimagga, edited by Henry Clarke Warren, and revised by Dhammānanda Kosambi, Harvard Oriental Series, vol. 41 (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1950), p. 68 (hereafter cited as Vism.).

3. PP. p. 85. “Tasmā yassa dhammass’ānubhāvena ekarāmmaLe cittacetasikā samaJ sammā ca avikkhepamānā avippakinnā ca hutvā ti::hanti, idaJ samādhānanti veditabbaJ.” Vism., p. 68.

4. Anuruddha, A Manual of Abhidhamma, Being Abhidhammattha Sangaha of Bhadanta Anuruddhā- cariya, edited in the Original Pali Text with English Translation and Explanatory Notes, translated by Nārada Mahāthera. (Colombo, Ceylon: Vajirārāma, 1956. Rev. 3d ed. Kandy, Sri Lanka (Ceylon): Buddhist Publication Society, 1975) pp. 389, 395-96 (hereafter cited as Nārada, Manual).

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produced as a result of the novice meditator’s initial efforts to focus his mind on his meditation subject. The second is access concentration (upacārasamādhi), marked by the suppression of the five hindrances, the manifestation of the jhāna factors, and the appearance of a luminous mental replica of the meditation object called the “counterpart sign” (pa(ibhāganimitta). The third is absorption concentration (appanāsamādhi), the complete immersion of the mind in its object effected by the full maturation of the jhāna factors. Absorption concentration is equivalent to the eight attainments, the four jhānas and the four āruppas, and to this extent jhāna and samādhi coincide. However, samādhi still has a broader scope than jhāna, since it includes not only the jhānas themselves but also the two preparatory degrees of concentration leading up to them. Further, samādhi also covers a still different type of concentration called “momentary concentration”

(kha5ikasamādhi), the mobile mental stablization produced in the course of insight-contemplation on the passing flow of phenomena.

Jhāna and the Constituents of Enlightenment

The principles of meditative training expounded by the Buddha during his teaching career were organized by him into seven basic categories comprising altogether thirty-seven partly identical factors. These factors are known as the thirty-seven bodhipakkhiyā dhammā, “states pertaining to enlightenment” or “constituents of enlightenment”. The seven categories among which they are distributed are: the four foundations of mindfulness, the four right endeavors, the four bases of success, the five spiritual faculties, the five spiritual powers, the seven enlightenment factors, and the Noble Eightfold Path.1 The four jhānas enter either directly or implicitly into all these sets of training principles, and to appreciate their significance in the Buddhist discipline it will be of value to see how they do so. We will consider first the place of the jhānas in the Noble Eightfold Path, the most important and inclusive of the seven groups; then we will go on to note briefly their relation to the other sets.

The eight factors of the Noble Eightfold Path are right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentra- tion. These eight are frequently divided into three broader categories: the group of moral discipline (sīlakkhandha), the group of concentration (samādhikkhandha) and the group of wisdom (paññākkhandha).2 The group of moral discipline comprises the factors of right speech, right action, and right livelihood; the group of concentration the factors of right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration; the group of wisdom the factors of right view and right intention. Though wisdom is seen as emerging fully only after concentration has been established its two factors are placed at the beginning of the path because a certain modicum of right understanding and right intentions are needed to embark upon the threefold discipline of morality, concentration and wisdom.

1. Note: the original Pāli names for these categories and their members can be found in Appendix 1.

2. MN. 1:301. DN 2:291-315. MN. 3:71-78.

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Of the three factors in the morality group, right speech is abstinence from false speech, slander, harsh speech, and idle talk; right action is abstinence from killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct; and right livelihood is avoiding a wrong means of earning one’s living and following a righteous occupation. The Eightfold Path operates at the two levels previously referred to, at the mundane level in the preliminary stages of self-cultivation and at the supramundane level with the attainment of the four supramundane paths. This twofold modality of the path applies to each of its eight factors. The morality factors, considered in the Abhidhamma as three distinct cetasikas or mental concomitants, arise at the mundane level whenever a person deliberately abstains from some case of moral transgression. At the supramundane level the three factors occur simultaneously in the states of supramundane path-consciousness, performing the function of cutting off the tendencies towards their opposites.

The three factors of the concentration group also receive an analytical breakdown in the suttas. Right effort is explained as four right endeavors: the endeavor to prevent the arising of unarisen unwholesome mental states, to eliminate unwholesome states already arisen, to cultivate unarisen wholesome mental states, and to increase wholesome states already arisen. Right mindfulness consists in mindful contemplation of the four

“foundations of mindfulness” (satipa((hāna), namely, the body, feelings, states of mind, and mental objects. Right concentration is the unification of the mind into one-pointedness through the four jhānas. At the supramundane level right effort becomes the energy factor in the paths and fruits, right mindfulness the factor of attention, and right concentration the factor of mental unification. As we will see, according to the Theravāda commentators concentration in the mundane portion of practice need not be developed to the degree of the four jhānas. However, because the stronger the degree of concentration the stabler the basis for insight, the jhānas are still commended as guaranteeing the most reliable groundwork of mental calm. And when the supramundane paths and fruits are attained, consciousness occurs with a force of absorption tantamount to the four (or five) jhānas. Thence the jhānas are included as components of the Noble Eightfold Path, entering via the group of concentration.

Since the concentration group includes the three factors of right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration, the question might arise about the exact inter-relationship of these factors. In the CūXavedalla Sutta the Bhikhunī Dhammadinnā states:

The four foundations of mindfulness are the bases for concentration, the four right endeavors are the requisites for concentration, the repetition, develop- ment, and cultivation of those same states [i.e. mindfulness and effort] are the development of concentration.1 (Wr. tr.).

The commentary to the sutta explains why the three factors are grouped together under the heading of the last member of the triad:

Concentration cannot become absorbed in its object with one-pointedness entirely through its own nature. But it can do so when it gains the assistance of

1. “Cattāro satipa::hānā samādhinimittā, cattāro sammappadhānā samādhiparikkhārā, yā tesaJ yeva dhammānaJ āsavanā bhāvanā bahulīkammaJ ayaJ tattha samādhibhāvanā ti.” MN. 1:301.

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energy accomplishing its function of exertion and of mindfulness accomplishing its function of non-forgetfulness... Therefore concentration alone is included in the concentration group by virtue of its own genus; effort and mindfulness are included by virtue of their functions.1 (Wr. tr.).

Concentration functions as a basis for wisdom. As the Buddha says: “Develop your concentration: for he who has concentration understands things according to their reality”.2 The wisdom group comprises the two factors of right view and right intention, the former being an equivalent term for wisdom proper, the latter its accompaniment.

Right view is explained as the undistorted comprehension of the basic laws and truths structuring actuality. At the mundane level it consists in an understanding of the law of kamma, indicating the moral efficacy of action, as well as of the doctrinal contents of the Dhamma – the three characteristics, dependent arising, and the Four Noble Truths.

At the supramundane level right view is the wisdom which directly penetrates the Four Noble Truths by “seeing” nibbāna, the unconditioned element. Right intention, its companion in this group, consists in thoughts of renunciation, of benevolence, and of non-injury. At the supramundane level right intention becomes the purified mental function free from lust, ill will, and cruelty, which directs the mind towards nibbāna and fixes it upon this object.

The three groups of path factors lock together as inter-related stages of training which work in harmony to accomplish the goal aspired to by the discipline, full liberation from suffering. From this angle the groups are designated the three training (tisso sikkhā).

The morality group makes up the training in the higher morality (adhisīlasikkhā), the concentration group the training in the higher consciousness (adhicittasikkhā) and the wisdom group the training in the higher wisdom (adhipaññāsikkhā).3 Each of these trainings arises in dependence on its predecessor and provides the support for its successor. Moral training provides the foundation for concentration, since mental composure can only be established when the coarser impulses towards ethical transgressions are controlled and restrained. Concentration provides the foundation for wisdom, since clear perception of the true nature of phenomena requires the purification and unification of the mind. Wisdom reaches its climax in the four paths and fruits, which uproot the subtlest strata of defilements and issue in final liberation from suffering.

From the Noble Eightfold Path we can now turn briefly to the other groups to see how jhāna fits in with their constituents of enlightenment. The four foundations of mind-

1. “Samādhi attano dhammatāya ārammaLe ekaggabhāvena appetuJ na sakkoti. Viriye pana paggahakiccaJ sādhente satiyā ca apiXāpanakiccaJ sādhentiyā laddhūpakāro hutvā sakketi… tasmā samādhiyevattha sajātito samādhikkhandhena sangahito; vāyāmasatiyo pana kiriyato sangahitā honti.” MN.

2:261.

2. Nyanatiloka, Com., trans., The Word of the Buddha: An Outline of the Teaching of the Buddha in the Words of the Pali Canon, (Kandy, Ceylon: Buddhist Publication Society. 1959), p. 93 (hereafter cited as Word of the Buddha). “Samadhim bhikkhave bhavetha. Samahito bhikkhave bhikkhu yathabhutam pajanati.” SN. 3:13.

3. AN. 1:235-36.

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fulness and the four right endeavors are identical, respectively, with right mindfulness and right effort of the Eightfold Path. Insofar as these are called the bases (nimitta) and requisites (parikkhāra) for concentration, and concentration includes the four jhānas, jhāna can be seen to arise from the training in these two groups of principles. The four bases of success are the base of success consisting in zeal, the base consisting in energy, the base consisting in consciousness, and the base consisting in inquiry.1 Since these four constituents of enlightenment are said to be supports for obtaining concentration, and to be directed towards the abbhiññās and the supramundane attainments, their connection with the jhānas is evident.2 The five faculties and powers comprise the five identical factors – faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom.3 These are each classified as a faculty (indriya) in that they exercise dominance in a particular sphere of spiritual endeavor and as a power (bala) in that they cannot be shaken in confrontation with their opposites.4 The faculty and power of concentration are said to be found in the four jhānas.5 The seven enlightenment factors are mindfulness, investigation of phenomena, energy, rapture, tranquility, concentration, and equanimity.6 Jhāna can be fitted into this group explicitly as the enlightenment factor of concentration; it is also closely associated with the factors of rapture, tranquility, and equanimity, which each rise to prominence in the course of developing the jhānas.

1. SN. 5:249-93.

2. Ibid., 268.

3. Ibid., 193-252.

4. Dhs., pp. 162-67.

5. SN. 5:196.

6. Ibid., 63-140.

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Chapter Two Chapter Two Chapter Two Chapter Two

THE PRELIMINARIES TO PRACTICE

The jhānas do not arise out of a void but in dependence on the right conditions. They are states of mind which can come to growth only when provided with the nutriments conducive to their development. Therefore, prior to beginning meditation, the aspirant to the jhānas must prepare a groundwork for his practice by fulfilling certain preliminary requirements. He first has to purify his moral virtue, since virtue forms the irreplaceable support for concentration. Then he must sever the outer impediments to practice and place himself under a qualified teacher. The teacher will assign him a suitable subject for developing jhāna and explain to him the methods of contemplation. After learning the methods the disciple must then seek out a congenial dwelling and diligently strive for success. In this chapter we will examine in order each of the preliminary steps which have to be fulfilled before commencing to develop jhāna.

The Moral Foundation for Jhāna

A disciple aspiring to the jhānas first has to lay a solid foundation of moral discipline.

As the Buddha says;

If a monk should wish ‘May I be one who obtains at will, without trouble or difficulty, the four jhānas pertaining to the higher consciousness, dwellings in happiness here and now’ – he should fulfill the observance of moral discipline.1 (Wr. tr.).

And again:

For one who is morally corrupt, lacking moral discipline, right concentration is deprived of its supporting condition... But for one who is morally virtuous, endowed with moral discipline, right concentration possesses its supporting condition.2 (Wr. tr.).

From these two statements we can see that any effort to develop jhāna in the absence of moral purity is doomed to failure, while when moral discipline is fulfilled the condition is laid for the practice to bear successful fruit.

1. “ĀkaKkheyya ce bhikkhave bhikkhu: catunnaJ jhānānaJ abhicetasikānaJ di::hadhamma- sukhavihārānaJ nikāmalābhī assaJ akicchalābhī akasiralābhī ti – sīles’ev’assa paripūrakārī.” MN. 1:33.

2. “Dussīlassa bhikkhave sīlavipannassa hatūpaniso hoti sammāsamādhi… sīlavato bhikkhave sīlasampan- nassa upanisāsampanno hoti sammāsamādhi.” AN. 3:19-20.

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