SN 21.1, SN 36.11, SN 41.8: Sujato's disingenuous SN jhāna sutta translation notes continues

 Sujato's Jhāna related suttas in SN translation notes as of 2026-march 22

SN 21.1 why is the bar for noble silence second jhāna and not first jhāna?

Here, Sujato only notes that vitakka and vicāra are absent from 2nd jhāna.

He makes no mention of why first jhāna is not noble silence.

Is "placing the mind and keeping it connected" (to a white kasina) noisy?

Can the mind reading devas and monastics who have mind reading psychic power hear the squeaky noises from these redefined "jhāna" meditators grabbing at a kasina?

Does that make a squeaky noise?

What makes Sujato's first "jhāna" be considered "noisy" and not "noble silence"? 

If first jhāna is indeed as Sujato, Brahm, Vism., redefine the term,

which is a frozen disembodied stupor where the body sense faculties are shut off,

verbal thought is not possible,

the mind is glued to a visual kasina,

Then why is first jhāna not "noble silence"?

Maybe it's because Sujato knows his translation and interpretation of jhāna are fraudulent.

So he doesn't try to defend his interpretation by explaining these incoherent artifacts,

such as noble silence being second jhāna instead of first. 

And why make a fool of himself and attempt to defend it in writing on public record

when his followers are willing to buy it?

SN 21.1: Kolitasutta—Bhikkhu Sujato
‘As the placing of the mind and keeping it connected are stilled, a mendicant enters and remains in the second absorption, which has the rapture and bliss born of immersion, with internal clarity and mind at one, without placing the mind and keeping it connected.This  [second jhāna, not FIRST!] is called noble silence.’

So-called because of the absence of vitakka and vicāra, which are the precursors of speech (SN 41.6:2.4, MN 44:15.3).

frankk response to Sujato translation note above

No. Second jhāna is called noble silence because first jhāna is not silent,

for devas and monastics with mind reading ability who literally "hear/sutva" 

(that's the word the buddha uses for mind reading someone in first jhāna, the same word sutva you "hear" people speaking with).

See AN 3.60. When a mind reader reads the mind of someone in avitakka-avicāra samādhi (second jhāna or higher), there is no verbal mental talk to sutva/hear. 

That's why second jhāna is noble silence.

SN 41.8 Jain founder doubts second jhāna (or higher) is possible, but he doesn't doubt first jhāna!

Jain founder does not doubt first jhāna, because he uses the same vitakka vicāra definition 

every sane person depending on the oral tradition style of transmitting Dharma does - 

verbal thought and evaluation of those thoughts.

You don't memorize Dharma in the form of placing the mind on white kasinas,

you memorize Dharma as vitakka encoded as linguistic, communicable language, verbal thoughts.

Jain founder can either can do first jhāna himself, or he doesn't doubt it can be done.

He doubts second jhāna (or higher) because stopping mental chatter is challenging.

If he were using the same redefined vitakka definition as Sujato and Brahm and Vism.,

then he would also think first jhāna is impossible.

He can only think first jhāna is possible if he understands vitakka as verbal thought.

Here again, Sujato's translation notes avoids that inconvenient truth, hoping his followers also ignore it. 

SN 41.8: Nigaṇṭhanāṭaputtasutta—Bhikkhu Sujato

The only meditation footnote  he has: (2026 march 22)

It is not easy to trace details of early Jain meditation. For the most part they focused on austerities and self-mortification, which the Buddha found to be counterproductive to deep meditation (MN 36:33.2).

frankk response:

Here's what I wrote 6 years ago pointing out in detail what I summarized above.

Thursday, June 11, 2020

SN 41.8 Jain founder doesn’t believe 2nd jhana possible, B. Sujato interpretation of vitakka illogical and incoherent

https://notesonthedhamma.blogspot.com/2020/06/sn-418-jain-founder-doesnt-believe-2nd.html


One year later, 2021 Feb.

Gabriel, a member of Sujato's forum,

wrote an article pointing out the same thing.

https://discourse.suttacentral.net/t/the-first-jhana-as-an-assimilated-jain-meditation-practice/19263

Not surprisingly, you can see Sujato did not participate in that thread.

I'll bet 1000$ that if you check Sujato's forum activity, within a 4 week period of Gabriel's post,

(you can do date range searches on sutta central forum) 

you'll see he's active on other threads but pretends not to notice Gabriel's article.

SN 36.11 formless attainments omitted from 6 passaddhi

The two most important points from that sutta, are

1) by omitting 4 formless attainments, that is Buddha's way of explicitly saying that the passaddhi awakening factor, when it talks about pacifying kāya and pacifying citta as precondition to samādhi awakening factor (4 jhānas), 

kāya means physical body,

kāya can not mean a "mental body" in the formless attainments, does not get redefined to be mental body for that context.

Buddha removes that context, by omitting the 4 formless attainments from that list,

which is otherwise identical to the 2 other lists including the standard 9 attainments.

Essentially the Buddha is saying kāya means physical body in four jhānas context. 

(contradicting Brahm, Sujato, Vism.) 

2) vāca, vocalized speech ceases in first jhāna.

Sujato doesn't address that point in his translation notes, 

because in order for speech to be possible as a way to contaminate a first jhāna experience,

first of all the 5 bodily senses must be active,

and vitakka and vicāra must mean verbal thoughts,

because you can't vocalize the sound of a mind being glued to a white kasina (sujato's redefined vitakka "placing the mind on a kasina")

SN 36.11: Rahogatasutta—Bhikkhu Sujato

referring to the 6 pacifications (passaddhi), Sujato says:

This is the same at the corresponding point in SN 36.17:2.7, but at SN 36.15:1.22 it speaks of the “progressive tranquilizing of activities”.

That's Sujato being evasive, hinting that he doesn't think the 6 pacifications are legitimate, 

hinting perhaps they are corruptions or errors because it doesn't follow the standard and common 9 progressive cessations.

I make a brief explanation here ☸franks notes on SN 36.11 why 6 passaddhi are significant:

Also several articles on my blog, from as early as 2019 explaining in more detail.

Conclusion

When an ordained Bhikkhu makes a conscious decision to avoid addressing holes and inconsistencies in their incoherent interpretation of jhāna,

that amounts to a tacit admission of fraudulent translation and interpretation.

An honest Bhikkhu with integrity, would stick by their wrong view and defend it,

making a good faith effort to go through the 30 most important jhāna suttas

and attempt to explain why those contradictions and incoherence are necessary and valid.

They would attempt to explain why an ockham's razor straightforward  standard Buddhist lexicon definition of vitakka as verbal thought is not applicable, why it only appears to be coherent and consistent in those 30 suttas.

If the sane interpretation works, the burden of proof is on you to show why your incoherent inconsistent interpretation is correct, and the other is wrong.

Yet Sujato has made no effort to address most of those 30 important suttas in the past 10 plus years.

He only cherry picks about 3 suttas, redefines key terms to be opposite to what they actually mean, waves his hand, uses equivocation, ambiguation, obfuscation, and sophistry, 

and his followers believe him.

So why does he continue to get away with this fraudulent promulgation of Jhāna?

Because he's riding the coattails of Visuddhimagga and Ajahn Brahm, 

who have popularized this wrong view of jhāna that contradicts the early suttas.

As we know from all facets of life, 

popularity is what determines what the masses accept as "fact". 

Not honesty, logic, reason, critical thinking, not integrity, not truth.

There are (likely) scores of monastics on Sujato's suttacentral forum.

Very few have spoken up over the years to correct his serious errors on Jhāna,

or even just attempt to  hold him accountable and demand he support his interpretation. 

Those who do question him publicly get banned from the forum. 

More in the disingenuous series

DN 21 Sujato's disingenuous translation notes deliberately avoids explaining how Buddha hears sounds in jhāna
February 14, 2026