stepsister "jhāna"

Prince Siddhartha and the glass slipper

Prince Siddhartha of course is our historical Gotama the Buddha.

The glass slipper represents the correct translation and interpretation of the sutta passages on the four jhānas, vitakka and vicāra, kāya, rūpa, etc.

Visuddhimagga

Visuddhimagga shows how their "four jhānas" perfectly explain the sutta passages on jhāna

Ajahn Brahm also thinks his jabrama "jhāna" is a perfect fit with the suttas

Bhikkhu Sujato helps out Ajahn Brahm with his helpful "translation" of the sutta passages on jhāna

Look! It fits perfectly!

Visuddhimagga and Ajahn Brahm look on ...

What happens when a valid translation and interpretation of the suttas on jhāna are coherent?

The explanation must work on all sutta references to jhāna, not just a few cherry picked ones that happen to match, leaving the rest of the sutta jhāna explanations incoherent. All jhana sutta references need to cohere for the interpretation to be legitimate.

To be continued...

Part 2 of stepsister "jhāna"

Comments

Advice to younger meditators on jhāna, sex, porn, masturbation

Someone asked: Is porn considered harmful sexual.activity? I don't have a sex life because I don't have a partner and I don't wish to engage in casual sex so I use porn to quench the biological urge to orgasm. I can't see that's it's harmful because nobody is being forced into it. The actors are all paid well and claim to enjoy it etc. The only harm I can see is that it's so accessible these days on smart devices and so children may access it but I believe that this is the parents responsibility to not allow unsupervised use of devices etc. Views? Frankk response: In another thread, you asked about pleasant sensations and jhāna. I'm guessing you're young, so here's some important advice you won't get from suttas if you're serious about jhāna. (since monastics are already celibate by rule) If you want to attain stable and higher jhānas, celibacy and noble silence to the best of your ability are the feedstock and prerequiste to tha...

SN 48.40 Ven. Thanissaro comments on Ven. Sunyo's analysis

This was Ven. Sunyo's analysis of SN 48.40: https://notesonthedhamma.blogspot.com/2024/05/exciting-news-honest-ebt-scholars-like.html And here is Ven. Thanissaro's response to that analysis: I think there’s a better way to tackle the issue of SN 48:40 than by appealing to the oldest layers of commentarial literature. That way is to point out that SN 48:40, as we have it, doesn’t pass the test in DN 16 for determining what’s genuine Dhamma and what’s not. There the standard is, not the authority of the person who’s claiming to report the Buddha’s teachings, but whether the teachings he’s reporting are actually in accordance with the principles of the Dhamma that you know. So the simple fact that those who have passed the Buddha’s teachings down to us say that a particular passage is what the Buddha actually taught is not sufficient grounds for accepting it. In the case of the jhānas—the point at issue here— we have to take as our guide the standard formula for the jhānas, a...

1min. video: Dalai Lama kissing boy and asking him to suck his tongue

To give more context, this is a public event, * everyone knows cameras are rolling * it's a room full of children * the boy's mom is standing off camera a few feet away watching all of this * the boy initiated contact, he had already had a hug with Dalai Lama earlier and then asked Dalai Lama for another hug which triggered this segment 17 min. video showing what happened before that 1 min. clip and after, with some explanation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT0qey5Ts78 16min talk from Ajahn Acalo with his thoughts on Dalai Lama kissing boy, relevance to Bhikkhu monastic code, sexual predators in religion in general, and how celibate monastics deal with sexual energy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK2m0TcUib0 The child's comments about the incident in a filmed interview later https://www.marca.com/en/lifestyle/world-news/2023/04/18/643eba5d46163ffc078b457c.html The child: It's a great experience It was amazing to meet His Holiness and I think it's a great ex...

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