SN 36.11 vāca is vocalized speech, not mental talk: vocalization ceases in first jhāna, not vitakka

 The Ajahn Brahm, Sujato and Vism. camp have a difficult time explaining what SN 36.11 means when it says speech (vāca) ceases in first jhāna.

(9 gradual vūpasama/stillings, same as nirodho list)

atha kho, bhikkhu, mayā	“And I have also {taught}
Anu-pubba-saṅkhārānaṃ vūpasamo akkhāto.	Step-by-step-co-doings being stilled.

(in 4 jhānas one can perceive rūpa ✅ 🚶)

1. paṭhamaṃ jhānaṃ samāpannassa	1. (with) first jhāna attained,
🚫🗣️💬 vācā vūpasantā hoti.	🚫🗣️💬 vocalization-of-speech has been stilled,
2. dutiyaṃ jhānaṃ samāpannassa	2. (with) second jhāna attained,
🚫(V&V💭) vitakka-vicārā vūpasantā hoti.	🚫(V&V💭) directed-thought-&-evaluation has been stilled,
3. tatiyaṃ jhānaṃ samāpannassa	3. (with) third jhāna attained,
🚫😁 pīti vūpasantā hoti.	🚫😁 rapture has has been stilled,
4. catutthaṃ jhānaṃ samāpannassa	4. (with) fourth jhāna attained,
🚫🌬️😤 assāsa-passāsā vūpasantā hoti.	🚫🌬️😤 in-breath-out-breath has been stilled,

1. Does it need to be said deaf people can't hear sounds in first jhāna?

1. If you're already disembodied in (their corrupt redefinition of) first jhāna, 5 senses shut off and unable to speak, why would the Buddha say in SN 36.11 that speech ceases? 

It's like saying in first jhāna, a deaf man can't hear sounds. A deaf man can't hear sounds anywhere, any time. It's a useless thing to say they can't hear in first jhāna. 

Therefore, the first jhāna is not a disembodied state where the mind is divorced from 5 senses of the body.

2. So what can we do? Let's redefine another important basic term!

2. So what can Sujato and Brahm do, faced with this conundrum? Their usual bag of tricks. 

Redefine vāca to not be vocalized speech, but mental talk, unvocalized verbal thoughts.

If they can redefine body as "not physical body", and "verbal thought (vitakka)" as "not verbal thought, but placing a mind on a visual kasina", that has a cascading effect where they have to start redefining a bunch of other terms.

So now vāca in first jhāna according to them  means verbal thoughts.

This is completely incoherent. 

In an oral tradition, sati memorizes Dhamma in the form of vitakka, a communicable verbal linguistic language communicated by means of vocalization (vāca), hearing, and memorizing. 

AN 5.26 shows all of this going in on, for first jhāna context.

    AN ^5.26 - AN 5.26 Vimuttāyatana: Opportunities for Freedom
        AN ^5.26.1 - First jhāna possible while hearing live dhamma talk
            AN ^5.26.1.7 - (refrain: 7sb☀️ → jhāna → arahantship)
        AN ^5.26.2 - Giving a dhamma talk leads to himself getting jhāna
            AN ^5.26.2.7 - (refrain: 7sb☀️ → jhāna → arahantship)
        AN ^5.26.3 - Reciting memorized dhamma passage leads to jhāna
            AN ^5.26.3.7 - (refrain: 7sb☀️ → jhāna → arahantship)
        AN ^5.26.4 - first jhāna possible while thinking and pondering memorized dhamma
            AN ^5.26.4.7 - (refrain: 7sb☀️ → jhāna → arahantship)
        AN ^5.26.5 - No V&V, undirected samādhi into 2nd jhāna or higher

            AN ^5.26.5.7 - (refrain: 7sb☀️ → jhāna → arahantship) 

You can't have vāca redefined as 'unvocalized mental talk' in SN 36.11 and have it make sense in AN 5.26. Speech needs to be vocal, thought needs to be verbal linguistic mental talk.

Another sutta with first jhāna context, 

● AN ^7.61 Pacalāyamāna: Nodding Off

Buddha teaches Moggallana 7 ways to fight off drowsiness
      (1. don’t attend to the perception that made you drowsy)
      (2. Recall dhamma using V&V💭, thinking and evaluation, and upekkha)
      (3. Recite that dhamma out loud, vocally)
      (4. Pull your earlobes and rub your limbs)
      (5. Stand up, wash eyes with water, look at stars in sky)
      (6. STED ASND 🌕🌟‍: luminosity perception all day all night)
      (7. Start walking meditation)
      (Lie down in lion posture as last resort)
      (don’t sociaize with lay people too much, causes restlessness)
      (don’t say confrontational things)
      (Buddha praises secluded meditation areas)
      (conclusion: brief summary of path to arahantship)

In the 7 ways to ward off drowsiness, #3 involves vāca, vocalized speech, reciting Dharma.

That's distinctly different from #2, mentally reciting the Dhamma, energetically less intensive than vocalization. The 7 steps get progressively more energetic.

Vāca (pāḷi), Vox (latin), Voice / vocalization (English) have common Indo Euro root

Mental speech is not vocalized speech. 

A normal person can't hear mental talk.

Vocal cords need to vibrate and emit sound for someone to hear it.

This is true in pāli, true in latin, true in English, true in any oral tradition using the basic unambiguous fundamental terms to denote the difference between speech, language, and  linguistic mental talk. 

You can't arbitrarily redefine vocal speech to mean mental speech,

and you can't redefine linguistic verbal thought into "no verbal thought, just placing mind on a kasina". 

Suttas and vinaya (monastic rules of discipline) become incoherent and unenforceable

If you allow Sujato and Brahm to have their way of redefining important key words to justify their corrupt redefinition of jhāna, 

The entire collection of suttas and vinaya becomes broken and incoherent.

The Buddha frequently contrasts kāya (physical body) action against the actions of vāca (speech), and mano (mental) action.

They are 3 distinctly different types of actions with 3 distinctly different karmic consequences.

In Sujato and Brahm world, you can't tell what kind of action it is,  you can't enact any kind of monastic rule. 

This article I wrote focused on their ambiguation of kāya, but the same example shows how speech also needs to be differentiated from thought.

MN 56 Bob punches Carl in the face - A Primer on why 3 types of actions are distinct (you can't redefine kāya as 'mind'!)