the elephant in the room
a major problem or controversial issue that is obviously present but avoided as a subject for discussion because it is more comfortable to do so.
"they've steadfastly ignored the elephant in the room: the ever-growing debt burden on graduates"
"they've purposely ignored the elephant and smoking gun evidence in MN 111 where the first 7 perception attainments do not require emerging, and the 8th and 9th attainments require emerging, and then reviewing (explicitly stated) PAST moments that occurred during the meditative absorption."
smok·ing gun
noun: smoking gun; plural noun: smoking guns
a piece of incontrovertible incriminating evidence.
"the trial's long-awaited smoking gun failed to surface"
"the evidence on MN 111 is incontrovertible and conclusive, yet people continue to treat the sutta jhana and visuddhimagga ajahn brahm redefinition of jhana as a legitimate controversy of two valid schools of thought."
What is the definition of red herring?
In literature, the definition of red herring refers to a misleading, or false, clue. It is a common literary device used in mysteries and thrillers that can lead readers down a false path or otherwise distract them from what's really going on in the plot
In MN 111, the red herring is where the sophists desperately avoid explaining the elephant in the room and the smoking gun, hoping you focus your attention on their red herrings instead.
soph·ist·ry
noun: sophistry
the use of fallacious arguments, especially with the intention of deceiving.
"trying to argue that I had benefited in any way from the disaster was pure sophistry"
"famous monks, in using high sounding clever arguments to defend their untenable view of MN 111, are engaging in sophistry. Their arguments are actually based on fallacious circular reasoning."
Now let's stop ignoring the smoking gun and elephant in the room and confront the truth
In previous articles, such as • ⛔B. Anālayo’s mistranslation of V&V, I've already done a detailed audit showing the logical fallacy in their red herring arguments in MN 111. So here we'll walk right up to that elephant and look it in the face.
MN 111 (bookmarked links to pali+english sutta)
- MN 111 anupada
- one after another
- (smd1: 1st jhāna)
- (smd2: 2nd jhāna)
- (smd3: 3rd jhāna)
- (smd4: 4th jhāna)
- (smd 5: infinite space)
- (smd 6: infinite consciousness)
- (smd 7: first 7 perception attainments you do vipassana simultaneously in jhāna/samādhi)
- (smd 8: requires “emerging” from attainment before doing vipassana)
- (smd 9: requires “emerging” from attainment before doing vipassana)
- one after another
smd 8 and smd 9 are the elephants in the room and the smoking gun.
The first 7 attainments, the perception attainments, do not require emerging from that jhana or samadhi atatainment to do vipassana. Vipassana is done WHILE in those attainments.
The first 7 attainments, all follow the same pattern, the only difference being the specific jhana factors specific to that attainment vary. So it will suffice to compare 3rd jhana, with smd8 'neither perception nor nonperception' attainment.
(smd3: 3rd jhāna STED standard EBT formula)
♦ “puna caparaṃ, bhikkhave, sāriputto | “And further, |
🚫😁 pītiyā ca virāgā | 🚫😁(with) Rapture ** fading, |
👁 upekkhako ca viharati | 👁 Equanimously-observing ** (he) dwells, |
(S&S🐘💭) sato ca sam-pajāno, | (S&S🐘💭) (he is a) Rememberer, (a) lucid-discerner, |
🙂🚶 sukhañca kāyena paṭi-saṃ-vedeti, | 🙂🚶 pleasure with-the-body (he) experiences, |
yaṃ taṃ ariyā ācikkhanti — | that those Noble-Ones declare - |
‘upekkhako satimā sukha-vihārī’ti | “(He is an) equanimous-observer (and a) Rememberer, (he has) pleasurable-abiding.” |
🌖 tatiyaṃ jhānaṃ upasampajja viharati. | 🌖 third Jhāna (he) enters, dwells. |
ye ca tatiye jhāne dhammā — | Whatever dharma-[phenomena] there are in the third jhāna— |
sukhañca sati ca sampajaññañc citt'-ek'-aggatā ca, | pleasure, remembering, lucid-discerning, mind's-singular-preoccupation, |
(vipassana while in jhāna refrain)
phasso vedanā saññā cetanā | contact, feeling, perception, intention, |
cittaṃ chando adhimokkho vīriyaṃ | mind,2 desire, decision, vigor, |
sati upekkhā manasikāro — | remembering, equanimous-observation, & attention— |
tyāssa dhammā anupadavavatthitā honti. | he ferreted out those dharmas one after another. |
tyāssa dhammā | those dharmas: |
viditā uppajjanti, | Known to him they arose, |
viditā upaṭṭhahanti, | known to him they became established, |
viditā abbhatthaṃ gacchanti. | known to him they subsided. |
so evaṃ pajānāti — | He discerned, |
‘evaṃ kirame dhammā | ‘So this is how these dharma-[phenomena], |
ahutvā sambhonti, | not having been, come into play. |
hutvā paṭiventī’ti. | Having been, they vanish.’ |
so tesu dhammesu anupāyo anapāyo | He remained unattracted & unrepelled with regard to those dharma-[phenomena], |
anissito appaṭibaddho VAR vippamutto visaṃyutto | independent, detached, released, dissociated, |
vimariyādīkatena cetasā viharati. | with an awareness rid of barriers. |
so ‘atthi uttari nissaraṇan’ti pajānāti. | He discerned that ‘There is a further escape,’ |
tabbahulīkārā atthitvevassa VAR hoti. | and pursuing it, he confirmed that ‘There is.’ |
I picked 3rd jhana for a reason. Standard 3rd jhana formula explicitly confirms that "sampajano" is doing vipassana while in 3rd jhana. (AN 4.41)
This part from MN 111 that I highlighted in yellow,
viditā uppajjanti, | Known to him they arose, |
viditā upaṭṭhahanti, | known to him they became established, |
viditā abbhatthaṃ gacchanti. | known to him they subsided. |
Is exactly what samadhi sutta AN 4.41 explains 3rd jhana's sampajano is doing:
Katamā ca, bhikkhave, samādhi-bhāvanā bhāvitā bahulīkatā | {and} what, *********, undistractible-lucidity-development, when developed (and) pursued, |
Sati-sampajañ-ñāya saṃvattati? | (to) remembering-(and)-lucid-discerning (it) leads? |
Idha, bhikkhave, bhikkhuno | Here, monks, a-monk: |
viditā vedanā uppajjanti, | known (are) Experienced-sensations (as they) arise, |
viditā upaṭṭhahanti, | known (as they are) attended-upon, |
viditā abbhatthaṃ gacchanti. | known (as they) go to disappear. |
viditā saññā uppajjanti, | known (are) perceptions (as they) arise, |
viditā upaṭṭhahanti, | known (as they are) attended-upon, |
viditā abbhatthaṃ gacchanti. | known (as they) go to disappear. |
viditā vitakkā uppajjanti, | known (are) thoughts (as they) arise, |
viditā upaṭṭhahanti, | known (as they are) attended-upon, |
viditā abbhatthaṃ gacchanti. | known (as they) go to disappear. |
Note difference between 3rd jhana and smd8: Smd 8 breaks the pattern from the first 7!
(smd 8: requires “emerging” from attainment before doing vipassana)
♦ 95. “puna caparaṃ, bhikkhave, sāriputto sabbaso ākiñcaññāyatanaṃ samatikkamma nevasaññānāsaññāyatanaṃ upasampajja viharati. | “And further, with the complete transcending of the dimension of nothingness, Sāriputta entered & remained in the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception. |
so tāya samāpattiyā sato vuṭṭhahati. | He emerged mindfully from that attainment. |
so tāya samāpattiyā sato vuṭṭhahitvā | On emerging mindfully from that attainment, |
ye dhammā VAR atītā niruddhā vipariṇatā te dhamme samanupassati — | he regarded the past dharma-[phenomena] that had ceased & changed: |
Third Jhana and the first 7 attainments do not have that 'emerging' clause above. And the 8th and 9th attainments do not have the 3rd jhana excerpt, where it clearly states that while one is in 3rd jhana and perception attainments, one has
phasso vedanā saññā cetanā | contact, feeling, perception, intention, |
cittaṃ chando adhimokkho vīriyaṃ | mind,2 desire, decision, vigor, |
sati upekkhā manasikāro — | remembering, equanimous-observation, & attention— |
tyāssa dhammā anupadavavatthitā honti. | he ferreted out those dharmas one after another. |
If you have intention and decision making power, you can do vipassana while in that attainment.
So the questions you should be asking your teachers are:
1. Why are you avoiding the elephant in the room? Is it because you don't have a logical explanation and reasonable evidence to explain it? It's a pretty big elephant, hard to miss.
2. Why are you using fallacious reasoning and trying to keep our attention focused on red herrings?
3. Since the fallacy of your red herrings have been detailed clearly and proven (⛔B. Anālayo’s mistranslation of V&V), shouldn't you either prepare a counter argument or admit your error, revise your view and publish the correction?
, in reaction to Robert doing exactly what I was complaining about in the article.
It's great. A minor note: I believe that the "9th Jhana" is misnomer.
ReplyDeleteThat is there are the four concentrations (jhanas), the four master rest-houses (bramhaviharas) and the four formless equilibriums.
It's more parsimonious to include neutralization of feeling-perception in the triad of emptyied, uncreated & undirected equilibriums.
A note: emptyied, uncreated & undirected are form equilibriums but the last is a neutralization equilibrium.
A side note: the four master rest-houses are also form equilibriums.
For example, these forms:
1) Being not working for his own or others welfare
2) Being not working for his own welfare, but working for the welfare of others
3) Being working for his own welfare, but not of others
4) Being working for his own and others welfare.
Receptive to each one concurrently obtains a rest place.
Sorry, my statement "It's more parsimonious to include feeling-perception neutralization into emptyied uncreated & undirected equilibriums" is clearly wrong.
DeleteTo explain, I don't believe that non returners can obtain feeling-perception neutralization equilibrium with ease. They obtained it once with great difficulty.
If you are someone who obtains feeling-perception neutralization equilibrium with ease, then you probably can also obtain formless equilibrium with ease. This is not the case with non-returners.
A note on vitaka-vicara: There was this thread where the teacher talks about controlling thoughts:
ReplyDeleteMethod 1 was about commenting on how unskillful those thoughts were
Method 2 was substitution/redirection
M1 is vicara & M2 is vitaka.
(The difference between the two is relevant only for very few, I know)