MN 49 Buddha in imperturbable 4th jhāna visiting Brahma in his native habitat, see rūpa form of Brahm and talks to him

 What caught my attention about this sutta, MN 49, what aroused my interest, is because in the MA (agama version of MN middle length discourses), the 7th division contain sutras

MA 72 - MA 86

and almost every single sutra in there has something very specific to say about the four jhānas and/or the formless attainments.

Whereas the Pāḷi parallels for all the sutras in that division are scattered all over the various nikāyas, the Sarvastivada Agama compilers deliberately and conveniently groups all of these suttas together.

So I was very interested to see what MN 49 (|| to MA 78) had to say.

First, note that Buddha would have to be in imperturbable fourth jhāna to exercise the mind reading of Brahma, and further, it says he traveled to the Brahma realm with his physical body, not sitting in meditation and using a cloned mind made body.

 

4👑☸ → MN‍ → MN 49 - 🔗🔊 

        MN 49¹ – (Brahma has wrong view that his world is permanent)
        MN 49² – (Buddha uses psychic power to read Brahma’s mind, then visit Brahma realm)
        MN 49³ – (Buddha tells Brahma he’s ignorant)
        MN 49⁴ - (Māra possesses one of Brahma’s retinue to criticize Buddha)
        MN 49⁵ - (Buddha recognizes and calls out Māra)
        MN 49⁶ - (Brahma says to Buddha: other monks also thought they were beyond my power but were not)
        MN 49⁷ – (Buddha says to Brahma: Yes, I will be in your power if I attach to those things)
        MN 49⁸ - (Buddha’s verse describing Brahma’s power)
        MN 49⁹ - (Buddha tells Brahma he sees higher realms that Brahma can’t see)
            MN 49^9.5 – (Buddha knows everything as it actually is, as in MN 1)
            MN 49^9.7 – (Viññāṇaṃ anidassanaṃ anantaṃ: consciousness that is infinite and radiant)
        MN 49¹⁰ – (Brahma tries to vanish from view of Buddha and fails)
        MN 49¹¹ – (Buddha vanishes from Brahma’s view successfully)
            MN 49^11.1 – (Buddha uses psychic power to speak while invisible to Brahma and his assembly)
        MN 49¹² – (Māra possesses someone again to persuade Buddha to stay silent and not teach Dhamma)
        MN 49¹³ - (Buddha sees through Māra’s agenda and fear of losing potential victims to nirvana)

The most interesting one is this: 

            MN 49^11.1 – (Buddha uses psychic power to speak while invisible to Brahma and his assembly)

So not only do Brahma realm beings have a physical rūpa body that is subject to aging and death, requires nutriment, but they also communicate with each other by speaking with voice, a communicable language that requires vitakka and vicāra.

Hence, when the Buddha was reading the mind of Brahma earlier, he's reading the thinking and pondering of Brahma's mental talk. 

 And when Buddha is physically disappearing making himself invisible to Brahma and his retinue, these are live physical bodies appearing and disappearing.

In terms of the 8 vimokkha, the Buddha would be in the first vimokkha, which has percipience of internal rūpa (i.e. Buddha's physical body).

Had the Buddha sat in formless samādhi with his eyes closed, created a cloned mind made body to visit the Brahma realm, then he would be using the second vimokkha instead of the first.

Conclusion #1:  ajjhatta (internal) rūpa means the meditator's body, not 'vision' or 'sight' 

So for this sutta and all the suttas to work properly,  this requires a coherent, consistent dictionary where ajjhatta (internal) rūpa means the meditator's body, not 'vision' or 'sight' (as a function of the eye faculty seeing).

Conclusion #2: Brahma realm has physical body forms, visual faculty, ability to speak and think with vitakka and vicāra

According to other EBT suttas, rebirth in the first Brahma realm with Brahma's retinue corresponds with proficiency in first jhāna.

If Ajahn Brahm and Visuddhimagga were right about their interpretation of first jhāna, you would expect the Brahma realm to be full of formless beings with 5 sense faculties shut off or not even there, and they spend most of their time in a disembodied frozen trance staring at pretty lights. 

You don't see any suttas describing anything like that. 

What you do find is Brahma realm beings who have physical bodies, talk, think, ponder over speculative views about their own existence and the lower level beings they have power over.