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Seinfeld jokes about jhāna, vitakka and vicāra

Seinfeld jokes about jhāna, vitakka and vicāra

I heard this joke from Seinfeld, I'm paraphrasing from memory:

What's with 'grape nuts' * ?
You pour it out of the box into a bowl,
there are no grapes,
and there are no nuts.

People can just redefine words into whatever they want now?
What's next?
'Shoes' are 'milk'.
You put socks on your feet,
and then you pour 'shoes' all over them.

* 'grape nuts' = the product name of an American breakfast dry cereal that you pour into a bowl, add milk, and eat.

pic for goldcraft
Seinfeld might as well have been joking about Visuddhimagga and Ajahn Brahm redefining jhāna.
What's with 'vitakka' and 'vicāra' * in first jhāna,
according to Ajahn Brahm and Visuddhimagga?

There's no thinking,
there's no evaluation,
nothing that resembles vacī-sankhāra,
linguistic labels or communicable speech.

You pour first jhāna into a bowl,
and there's no vitakka and vicāra to be found.

Just placing your mind and keeping it in a frozen stupor for a predetermined amount of time.

So monks can just redefine fundamental words with established meaning
into anything they want now?

What's next?
Redefining 'body' as
a 'body of mental factors completely devoid of a body?'⏹️




Comments

  1. BSRK AdityaMarch 22, 2021 at 9:39 AM

    > keeping it in a frozen stupor

    Please avoid using derogatory language, the practice is legitimate even if the words are to be rechosen.

    Incidentally, I myself practice by this methodology (and I have no other options, I cannot do your jhanas)

    ReplyDelete

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