which suttas to study for getting first jhana

37 seconds to nirvana

✴️SN 46.3 -real-bojjhanga-paritta
You should memorize (either pali or whatever your preferred language is) of that condensed passage.
It only takes 37 seconds to recite, by interesting coincidence.  Every meditation method in the EBT falls under this 7sb causal sequence.
https://audtip.blogspot.com/2019/02/

suttas in sequence often have important relationship to each other

✴️MN 18 Madhupiṇḍika: honey cake simile. Notice the hierarchy and where vitakka/thoughts fits in. 
Cakkhu + rūpe + viññāṇaṃ → phasso → vedeti (vedanā) → sañjānāti → vitakketi → papañceti
eye + forms + consciousness → contact → feel → perceive → think → proliferate

✴️MN 19 Dve-dhā-vitakka: two-sorts-of-thinking: prior to first jhana, remove all akusala thoughts and replace with kusala thoughts. First jhana is accomplished by reducing the frequency and intensity of kusala thought, enough for  kaya-passadhi, body-pacification/relaxation to become established, and slide you in.  

✴️MN 20 Vitakka-saṇṭhāna: Thought-composition. 5 ways to remove unwanted thoughts: replace, see danger, forget, slow down, mind crush. Notice that MN 19 is just type of method 1, "replace". 

How / Technique

✴️SN 47.8 sūda: 👩‍🍳 🍳 The cook: simile of cook: how to use 4sp (learning the sign (nimitta))to take you into jhanas. Obtaining pleasant abiding here and now is a code phrase for the first 3 jhānas (AN 6.29), or all 4 jhānas (AN 4.41).

✴️SN 47.10 bhikkhun-upassaya: Nuns-quarters: How to use 4sp (and 7sb) to take you into first jhāna using V&V. Once that skill is mastered, V&V not needed to bring you into jhāna, you directly jump to "undirected development", which is equivalent to jumping to step #5 of 7sb to enter samādhi.


✴️AN 3.101 AN 3.100a Paṃsudhovaka: Dirt-washer purifying gold simile. misconduct in body, speech, & mind. = gross impurities, wrong intention/thoughts = moderate, thoughts of family/caste = fine impurities, thoughts of Dhamma remain, in the grey zone between doorway of first jhana and just plain 4sp. With mind purified, the 6 abhiñña easy to get. 

✴️AN 9.35 Gāvī-upamā [Gāvī] : cow simile
You really want to make sure you read a correct translation of V&V for this sutta, like the one based on B. thanissaro given here. If you read a bad translation, you're screwed, vainly searching for a redefined VRJ "jhāna" that only one in a million people can do.
❓why-foolish-cow-is-doomed

Imperfect, impure, learner's first jhana

AN 9.41: is a good example of what a normal, imperfect jhana is like, and what is the fundamental attitude and difference between how a worldling has a harder time with first jhana than a renunciant. Other suttas talking about impure-jhana .

Big Picture

✴️AN 7.67 nagar’-opama: An excellent sutta that shows how 5ind, 7sb factors holistically work together to support the samadhi of jhana. 

✴️🐴🐎💭 You can lead a horse to first jhāna, but you can't make him think.

A comprehensive study on V&V in the EBT.

A picture is worth a thousand words:

✴️In pictures: ✅☸ sammā samādhi, 4 jhānas vs. ⛔VRJ and ⛔ABRJ

• ✴️Guide to First Jhāna

Misc.

Undecided on whether these suttas are of great enough importance to be included above.

AN 3 . 256 (6) First Jhāna
“Bhikkhus, without having abandoned these five things one is 
incapable of entering and dwelling in the first jhāna. What five? 
Miserliness with regard to dwellings, miserliness with regard 
to families, miserliness with regard to gains, miserliness with 
regard to praise, and miserliness with regard to the Dhamma. 
Without having abandoned these five things, one is incapable 
of entering and dwelling in the first jhāna.