SN 21.1, KN Thag 14.1 noble silence, B. Sujato has freudian slip and "misplaces his mind"?

A Freudian slip 

is a verbal or memory mistake that is believed to be linked to the unconscious mind. These slips supposedly reveal the real secret thoughts and feelings that people hold. Typical examples include an individual calling his or her spouse by an ex's name, saying the wrong word,  misinterpreting a written or spoken word,

Or fraudulently translating vitakka of first and second jhana as "placing the mind", and then elsewhere in the canon in other suttas forget about your fraudulent agenda and [correctly] translate vitakka as "thought"? 

Here in this article, I take a snapshot of suttacentral containing B. Sujato's translation mishap on 9/17/2020, to record for posterity. His mistake is highlighted in yellow. A related but different error, also relevant to what thought means in noble silence of second jhana, is highlighted in orange and I disect the absurdity of that error in another article on another day. But do try to see if you can untangle the puzzle yourself first.

SN 21.1 Mahā-moggallāna giving explicit definition of noble silence as second jhana

https://suttacentral.net/sn21.1/en/sujato

Venerable Mahāmoggallāna said this:Āyasmā mahāmoggallāno etadavoca:

“Just now, reverends, as I was in private retreat this thought came to mind:“idha mayhaṃ, āvuso, rahogatassa paṭisallīnassa evaṃ cetaso pari-vitakko udapādi:‘They speak of this thing called “noble silence”.‘ariyo tuṇhībhāvo, ariyo tuṇhībhāvoti vuccati.What then is this noble silence?’Katamo nu kho ariyo tuṇhībhāvo’ti?

It occurred to me:Tassa mayhaṃ āvuso, etadahosi:‘As the placing of the mind and keeping it connected are stilled, a mendicant enters and remains in the second absorption, which has the rapture and bliss born of immersion, with internal clarity and confidence, and unified mind, without placing the mind and keeping it connected.‘idha bhikkhu vitakka-vicārānaṃ vūpasamā ajjhattaṃ sampasādanaṃ cetaso ekodibhāvaṃ avitakkaṃ avicāraṃ samādhijaṃ pītisukhaṃ dutiyaṃ jhānaṃ upasampajja viharati.This is called noble silence.’Ayaṃ vuccati ariyo tuṇhībhāvo’ti.

And so, as the placing of the mind and keeping it connected were stilled, I was entering and remaining in the second absorption, which has the rapture and bliss born of immersion, with internal clarity and confidence, and unified mind, without placing the mind and keeping it connected.So khvāhaṃ, āvuso, vitakkavicārānaṃ vūpasamā ajjhattaṃ sampasādanaṃ cetaso ekodibhāvaṃ avitakkaṃ avicāraṃ samādhijaṃ pītisukhaṃ dutiyaṃ jhānaṃ upasampajja vihariṃ.

While I was in that meditation, perceptions and attentions accompanied by placing the mind beset me.Tassa mayhaṃ, āvuso, iminā vihārena viharato vitakka-sahagatā saññā manasikārā samudācaranti.

KN Thag 14.1 an arahant is describing the same explicit noble silence as SN 21.1

https://suttacentral.net/thag14.1/en/sujato

Having entered a meditation state without-thought,A-vitakkaṃ samāpanno,

a disciple of the Buddhasammā-sam-buddha-sāvako;
is at that moment blessedAriyena tuṇhībhāvena,
with noble silence.

 

Suttacentral is missing parts of KN Thag 17.2, Sariputta also in noble silence

So we'll have to wait with anticipation to see how B. Sujato translates the "no vitakka" of second jhana for Sariputta's verses. Is he going to be consistent (as he should) with "placing his mind"? Or make another Freudian slip and accurately describe the vitakka of first and second jhana as "thought"?

https://suttacentral.net/thag17.2/en/sujato

But here's how I translate that section:

♦ “rukkha-mūlaṃva nissāya, muṇḍo saṅghāṭipāruto.	(at a) tree-root (he) sits, bald-ascetic covered-in-robe,
♦ paññāya uttamo thero, upatissova VAR jhāyati.	(with) discernment (of) highest [quality], (this) elder, [named] Upatissa does jhāna.
♦ “a-vitakkaṃ samāpanno, sammā-sam-buddha-sāvako.	[meditation] Without-thought (he is) engaged (in), (this) righteous-Buddha’s-disciple.
♦ ariyena tuṇhībhāvena, upeto hoti tāvade.	(in) noble silence, endowed instantly

The Liar's Dilemma

In the normal world of common folk, the liar has this problem. If he tells lies, many of them, and expects to survive and coexist in his community, he has a difficult problem. He needs a spreadsheet or a team of assistants to keep track of all the various lies he told to what people, so he can keep that web of lies coherent as much as possible, and minimize the damage or avoid getting exposed when the recipients of his lies confer with each other and notice blatant discrepancies. It's an impossible task of course. It really isn't that hard for anyone who is genuinely seeking to find the truth and tear down that web of lies to do some research and fact checking and expose the lies and deceit. It's not just for Karmic reasons and being a good citizen, even incorrigible criminals and liars find out through painful experience that lying is a bad policy, because it's really hard work and stressful to keep all the lies consistent. 

B. Sujato, B. Analayo, Ajahn Brahm's Dilemma

Here's their dilemma. As leading figures in the EBT (Early Buddhist Texts) movement, they claim to base their interpretation of jhāna on the EBT, giving EBT primacy over competing contradictory jhana interpretations from late Buddhist texts (LBT). Yet, their interpretation of EBT jhāna is nearly identical to LBT. So they end up having to torture the EBT reading in how they translate and interpret it, kind of like this:

Since they are popular and beloved teachers, their followers accept their tortured explanation of "jhana" without question. The problem is, they use fallacious arguments that are easily exposed, and  B. Sujato in his translation of the canon, has numerous inconsistencies that are there for anyone with eyes to see. 

Eventually, hopefully, even the meek sheep will see the web of deceit and start to ask their leaders the tough questions.

Meanwhile, defenders of genuine EBT will continue to blow the whistle and expose fraud whenever we come across it. It's a good bet we'll keep finding more over time.

So here's the dilemma. Do you double down on the deceit and fraudulence, making your web ever more expansive, complex, and stressful to maintain? Do you want to live the rest of your life like that? Stressed? Conscience bothering you? Sleep well? 

Or do you want to do the right thing, admit your mistakes, make restitution,  move on with your life, and sleep easy at night?

B. Sujato, B. Analayo, Ajahn Brahm, were all heroes of mine. I really looked up to them, and still do. The positive things they've done, still stand, but the negative things, which are grievous, don't get erased by the positive, as they themselves know. Karma doesn't work that way. 

This is just an educated guess, but  internally they probably view their deceitful agenda to redefine Jhana as a harmless white lie, a way to uphold strict standards for stream entry and jhana. 

The big problem is (among many), to accomplish your white lie agenda, you destroy the coherence of the EBT. By re-defining important fundamental terms like "mind", "body", "think", you make the entire corpus of texts ambiguous and impossible to coherently interpret. You need specially trained elite clerics to promulgate the white lie version of EBT, and as we see in this article, even the elite B. Sujato can't keep his own white lie straight regarding noble silence/second jhana! So how do you ever hope to succeed? 

Whistleblowers and genuine defenders of the EBT will continue to expose and tear down your web of deceit. Fallacious logic will be disected and taught to your followers. 

Here, I explain how even a small child can understand the fallacy of B. Analayo's argument of vitakka in noble silence:

Fake "logic": When B. Sujato, B. Analayo, and Vism...

It's never too late for redemption. Do the right thing, admit your mistakes, come clean, and make restitution by publicizing the corrections. I don't enjoy raking my former heroes over the coals, but the alternative of keeping silent while heinous crime is being committed is unacceptable.

Make no mistake, this is heinous crime, not hyperbole. Jhana meditation is the crucial key that unlocks the door to nirvana. Your white lie redefinition of jhana, one in a million people can do, as Vism. estimates. A straightforward ockhams razor sensible reading of the suttas, anyone who can keep the 5 precepts can do first jhana, as some suttas cited in this article show:

🔗Don't give up on jhāna, till you drink from the sutta cup

(500 followers with Anathapindaka, and millions of lay followers in DN attained first jhana following easy to do genuine EBT jhana instructions cited in article)

As followers of other religions say, "the road to hell is paved with good intentions."

You may think redefining jhana is a harmless white lie with good intentions, but do you really want to play dice with your karma? Have you really considered what the karmic consequences are if you're wrong and you continue down the path you've gone?

Do the right thing. Come back to EBT, we'll welcome you with open arms. Everyone makes mistakes. Admit your wrong doings, atone, and all will be forgiven.