Vimt. chinese -> English passage correction: sound is a thorn in first jhana, relation to arupa and alara kalama 500 carts

 

Vimt. Corrections

sound is a thorn in first jhana, relation to arupa and alara kalama 500 carts

2021-January. Correction by Dr. William Chucomment: The translator (Soma Thera) fails to take into account that literary Chinese is often highly abbreviated, and contextual lacuna have to be filled. On a related note, I believe that the classical jhanic scheme (including the one found in Vimuttimagga) is still slightly distinct from the very early suttas, which really defines jhanas broadly. An example would be that, there are archaic traces in the early suttas that maintain that even speech is possible while in jhanas. Whereas in the classical (mature and stabilized) scheme, speech is ceased in first jhana. Also, in the oldest materials, the cessation of bodily sankharas in fourth jhana doesn't seem to denote the cessation of breath (the latter interpretation is found in the MN).

vimt. 8th chapter, after 4th jhana where it starts talking about base of infinite space

以斷故。	"As for bringing to cessation [the form concentrations],
問何 故於彼不修道。	someone might ask, 'why not [continue to] cultivate [the form concentrations]?'
答為厭於色。	Answer: 'That someone has become disenchanted with form, [therefore he does not continue to cultivate the form concentration].'
是故於彼不滅於彼不盡故。	[When one is not disenchanted with a state], then he does not extinguish or bring to an end [that particular state].
入初禪聲是其刺如是。	Just as 'sound is a thorn for the first jhana,' [and vitakka-vicara are thorns for the second jhana, and happiness is a thorn for the third jhana, and pleasure is a thorn for the fourth jhana],
佛所 說於此為厭色以修行道。	so too, the Buddha teaches disenchantment toward form as a way to cultivate the path [of the formless attainments].
是故於此成斷。	In that way, a person would be able to bring to cessation [the form concentrations].
於此斷故。	By bringing to cessation [the form concentrations],
無色定不動行想。	one would attain the imperturbable perception of the formless--
寂寂解脫想。	the perception of [finding] liberation in profound quiescence.
如迦蘭欝頭藍弗入無想定。	[Such quiescence] is like when Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta enter the non-perception attainment,
五百車從前去來不見不聞。	they neither see or hear the five hundred carts that happen to pass by them."

Dr. Chu expands on his comments on 4th jhana body sankhara ceasing

There are sutta instances where one attains jhanas while preaching a sermon; other instances also have people in jhana speaking in a manner that is conducive to disenchantment, dispassion...and not in a vulgar, sensuality-conducing way. These are sutta instances that are in contradiction with the later, formalized suttanta scheme involving the "necessary symptoms" of jhanas. Notice that the [older] suttas that allow for speech in jhanas invariably do not involve a numeric scheme for jhanas (whether there are 4, or 5, or 3, or more rarely, some other numbers, such as 2, in the later, systematized ones). The numerically designated jhana is a later thing. For one, sutta compilers initially did not decide on the number 4, and dabbled with saying that there are 2, 3, or 5 jhanas until settling on 4; the older instances convey no sense of a formal classification system involving first, second...fourth jhanas.--Bodily sankharas, prior to the proto-Abhidhamma period, simply means bodily activities, as opposed to breathing. Only in late suttas like MN44 (where catechistic questions are matched with a definitive, formalized answer) would you have bodily sankharas strictly denoting the breathing activity, and that the cessation of bodily sankhara being strictly interpreted as cessation of breath.Virtually all other suttas would not have bodily sankharas as breath.Some examples: AN4.235: "There is the case where a certain person fabricates an injurious/non-injurious bodily sankharas..." (How can the breath be divided into the ethically injurious or non-injurious kinds? The early notions of bodily sankharas include things like killing/non-killing, stealing/non-stealing...)SN47.10 lists bodily excitation vs bodily relaxation as pertaining to one of the most important objects of mindfulness, and is really what "pacification of bodily sankharas" means.There are other suttas that clearly explain bodily sankharas as things like walking, sitting...--In the feeling-based satipatthana and the 16-step anapanasati, the following practices are listed: "sensitize oneself to happiness; sensitize oneself to pleasure; know mental sankharas; pacify mental sankharas." Notice that this scheme has a direct correlation with the 4-jhana scheme (the fourth jhana involves pacification of happiness and pleasure, among other things; and all the jhanas involve pacifying sankharas of one sort or another). Within this context, mental activities are specifically those pertaining to the following: the way one relates to happiness/pleasure, the way one manufactures, maintains, enjoys/eats said happiness/pleasure, the way one weans off/transcends over happiness/pleasure...My students who understand jhanic progression in such a manner manage to produce way better or much more productive results than those who merely tried to work with generic mental sankharas. My students who understand pacification of bodily sankharas per SN47.10 et al's instructions (deep bodily relaxation) do way better than those who merely tried to pacify their breaths.There's too much that can be said on this subject. I am of the opinion that present-day Theravada's strict interpretation of bodily sankharas, pacification, satipatthana, jhanas...is not very helpful to appreciate the accessibility and potency of the Buddha's meditation system.