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9/11/07
Comment on Enlightenment
and Levels of Jhana
I haven't read many accounts of jhana and
how the Buddhists view jhana.
What I've read up until today seemed to be telling me that jhana was
necessary in order to reach enlightenment. While glancing through
Buddhadassa Bhikku's book, "Handbook for Mankind" I learned
otherwise. It says explicitly that insight is necessary in order to
reach liberation... Insight can be had two ways:
1.) Meditation and
jhana states. or,
2.) The natural method of introspection which is
what most people use since jhanas seem rather elusive to most
people.
For me - jhana came rather easily...
not without effort, but within a couple months I was experiencing
jhana 1-4 rather often. A couple months after that I had spent
time in all the jhanas. I knew little of Buddhism and didn't
care to know much about it. I was experimenting with my meditation.
I wanted to take the bare minimum physical activities: mindfulness
and meditation on the breath and see where it led. Where it
led was in a track that mirrors the levels of jhana that I read
today in Bhante Vimalaramsi's Dhamma talk in 2006 in Joshua Tree,
California.
To say I'm surprised is an
understatement. My meditation was an experiment really. I wanted to
take as little of the religion of Buddhism into my meditation and
mindfulness experiment. I wanted to do what the Buddha was said to
have done. I wanted to see if religionless meditation and
enlightenment was possible. I was pretty clueless when jhana
started coming. I hadn't read of anyone's jhana experiences and so I
had nothing to compare to. I had asked Theravadin monks in Florida
where I lived what they could tell me about these experiences - were
they normal or was I losing it? I didn't get an answer. They
were completely unfamiliar with the states of jhana. Living in
Thailand for 3 years now and seeing very few monks practicing
meditation at the maybe hundreds of temples I've visited, I
understand that Thai monks don't really use meditation much as a
tool.
So - as I sat and focused on the breath
I started reaching these jhana states... I'll provide video or audio
here shortly - describing the states as best I can. They defy words
really, but I'll give it my best. You won't have a 5% understanding
of what the state was really like, but at least you'll see 5%!
They are so hard to put into words - impossible really.
In 2004 I went to see the Australian
abbot at Wat Pah Nanachat in Warin Chamrap, in the northeast (Isaan
or e-sarn) region of Thailand to see what he thought. As I talked to
him and he asked me many qualifying questions... he said that it
sounded like I was experiencing what all the monks at Wat Pah were
trying to reach... levels of jhana...
He gave me a couple pamphlets and
invited me to stay at the wat for as long as i wished - but the
desire wasn't there and I left the next morning. As I read the
pamphlets, wow, yes, it seemed that I'd had many if not all of the
jhana states as Buddhists believe them to exist.
Today as I read through the vivid
description of jhanas by Bhante Vimalaramsi I couldn't believe that
FINALLY I was reading a very similar account of my own jhana
experiences. It was really cool to see it after so many years - and
knowing, "wow, someone else believes this is how it happens".
Not only did the levels correspond very well to what happened to me,
but some other things he said were RIGHT ON and what I believed from
the start about meditation.
One of the things he said was that in
order to progress in meditation and in jhana is to just note every
experience and let it go. Everything must be let go. There's nothing
else to do during the states except watch, note, and let them go
like every other piece of mind-candy that appears. Other
Buddhists seem to teach that certain ideas need to be focused on
while in jhana. I don't think so - because I didn't, and it
appears that I've seen all of the 8 jhanas... It was just nice to
see someone else collaborate my belief. Better still that he's a
well-respected Buddhist monk.
Well, I could write about this all
night. I'm sure I'll get some audio up here and comment directly on
the statements he made and make my own comments sometime.
:)
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