16APS 🌬️😤 redefined by Pa Auk Sayadaw, ⛔ABRJ, ⛔VRJ

Dhammanando wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 15, 2019 12:55 pm

frank k wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 15, 2019 1:57 am

The method works, but it is definitely not EBT compliant,

"Works" in what sense?

Bhante,
What I mean about Ajahn Brahm , Pa Auk Sayadaw, and VRJ (vism. redefinition of jhana) "working",
is that it is a samadhi/samatha training system that develops samadhi and samatha.
With their method of apanana for example, (different from EBT 16🌬️😤   )

1. if you stay with attention on the breath near the nostril area,
2. wait for visual light nimitta to appear,
3. when the nimitta becomes stable,
drop the physical breath and switch to the nimitta,
4. *(f1) (and if you're pacified/relaxed enough via passaddhi-sambojjhanga and your energy channel blockages have melted sufficiently)
5. when you enter jhana with this method, people usually have a perception of diving into the nimitta, or the nimitta rushes toward them and swallows them up. Just a matter of perspective.
6. the amount of euphoric orgasmic full body bliss varies with individuals, depending on their age, health, and to what capacity and level their jhana battery is charged. (*f2)

This samatha training method works, and it can fit into EBT 7sb (awakening factor) samadhi just fine. The problem is, Vism. and Ajahn Brahm hijack many important key EBT terms and methods like 16 APS, V&V (thinking & evaluation), and turn what is a rich versatile meditation system into a narrow, restricted one.

(*f1) They don't tell you or explain this important part, and many people never progress from nimitta into jhana because they're not relaxed enough, or have too much chronic accumulated knots and tension in the body/mind that require years to dissolve. And most people don't have the patience for that, nor the good fortune to have a knowledgeable teacher to explain the principle to them clearly. 

(*f2) this point is not clearly explained by the EBT, or Vism., one has to figure this out through experience.