MN 125 agama parallel MA 198 調御地經 has some fascinating details about first jhana not in MN 125, through elephant similes

MN 125 agama parallel MA 198 調御地經 has some fascinating details about first jhana not in MN 125, through elephant similes. 

This part 1 of the article.

Here is a link to part 2: 

MN 125 agama parallel MA 198 調御地經 comparison, part 2

MA 198 調御地經

• MA 198
  • Discourse on the Stages of Taming
  • (prince J. doesn’t think that teaching can lead to ekagga citta)
  • (simile of well trained elephants)
  • (simile of standing on mountain seeing clearly)
  • (simile of catching and training wild elephant)
  • (Buddha is like the wild elephant trainer)
  • (renounce, shave head, work on sīla)
    • (simile: new monk has 5kg desire, just as elephant still desires pleasures of being wild in forest)
  • (4sp satipatthana nonstop,to subdue thoughts of household and delight in Dharma thoughts)
    • (simile: elephant tied to post to keep it from returning to forest, and grow to like men and fortress)
  • (do 4sp with no kāma-vitakka/thoughts of sensuality)
    • (simile: elephant trained to like and follow commands for good war elephant)
  • (4 jhanas: first jhana here is equivalent to the 4sp instructions immediately preceding)
    • (simile: war elephant following trainer’s instructions on how to be imperturbable in battle)
  • (imperturbability of four jhanas allows monk to withstand hunger, mosquitoes, disease, etc.)
    • (simile: war elephant imperturbable to danger and distractions in battle)
  • (Attained purity, unclear if any supramundane attainments.)
    • (simile: war elephant is excellent, skilled, worthy of king)
  • (Conclusion: Dying having been tamed, or untamed)

(All of the hyperlinks above are the table of contents to that sutta you can click to to jump to the agama sutra with chinese side by side with English translation)

Two major differences between MN 125  and its parallel, 

as far as how vitakka and jhana are explored, is that

1. MA 198 has several more war elephant similes to fill in some nice detail on what vitakka is doing in first jhana, and right before.

2. MA 198 seems to link the resilience of the war elephant to distractive and life threatening sensory data with khanti (patient endurance) while in the four jhanas, from before first jhana all the way through fourth jhana. 

MN 125 links that quality of resilience to imperturbability  (anenja) of just the perfected 4th jhana that is about to realize the 3 higher knowledges culminating in arahantship. MA 198 doesn't mention the 3 higher knowledges, just sort of implies that the 4 jhanas is going to lead to nirvana. 

In summary, whereas MN 125 makes the whole sutta about the gradual training that briefly explains every major stage, up to the realizing of 3 higher knowledges, MA 198 sticks with the original theme asked at the beginning about "what is ekagga citta (mind with singular preoccupation)", which then briefly talks about sila, but then focuses and ends on the nature of the four jhanas with several more elephant similes than is in MN 198.

So basically, the result of my study shows that MN 198 has some partial parallels and connections that are lost in MN 125.

These are the parallels I discovered (not listed on suttacentral) in MN 198:

MA 198 seems to link the same war elephant with khanti during 4 jhanas, rather than anenja (imperturbability). MA 198 seems to incorporate AN 5.139, AN 5.140, AN 4.112 horse, AN 4.114, AN 5.203 thoroughbred horse, whereas in MN 125 they're scattered between different nikayas, and the thematic connection is lost if you don't study and remember the different suttas. 

In  other words, MN 198 reads as an expanded sutta with more commentary on the two very important suttas  AN 5.139 and AN 5.113  (the only sutta entitled ‘sammā samādhi’ in the pali canon), which describe both the process of attaining four jhanas and the actual use of them. While one is abiding in the four jhanas and using it in live battle, one patiently endures (khanti), is resilient, imperturbable to sensory stimuli that are distracting and even life threatening.

Conclusion

MA 198 is an awesome sutra, with some illuminating details that aren't in MN 125. I spent about 8 hours just reading and poring over the details on what it says about satipatthana, jhana, vitakka, and noticed things most people will not.

Just as the 4 famous jhana similes of AN 5.28 (bathman making soap ball, lake fed by spring, lotus pond, man covered in white cloth) give extremely valuable details about jhana practice, the elephant similes in MN 198 (and not in MN 125) elucidate some nuances of vitakka and jhana practice.

I'll dive into some of the details in a follow up article in the future, and explain why B. Analayo draws all kind of wrong conclusions reading the same text (MN 198 that I arranged into Chinese + English is 99% his translation, I only changed a few key meditation terms).