MN 43 Sujato's disingenuous Jhāna translation notes continued

 

MN 43: Mahāvedallasutta—Bhikkhu Sujato

“Nissaṭṭhena hāvuso, pañcahi indriyehi parisuddhena manoviññāṇena kiṁ neyyan”ti?

“What can be known by purified mind consciousness released from the five senses?”

Sujato's translation note here:

The key term “purified” (parisuddha) indicates the fourth absorption.

frankk comment:

Presumably, Sujato is basing that conclusion on standard fourth jhāna formula's,

upekkha sati pari-suddhim

(equanimous observation and remembrance/mindfulness of Dharma purified)

But in the next 2 lines of the sutta,

Sujato fails to notice that fourth jhāna (all four jhānas in fact) is absent from the list!

(sujato trans.)

“Nissaṭṭhena hāvuso, pañcahi indriyehi parisuddhena manoviññāṇena kiṁ neyyan”ti?

“What can be known by purified mind consciousness released from the five senses?”

“Nissaṭṭhena, āvuso, pañcahi indriyehi parisuddhena manoviññāṇena ‘ananto ākāso’ti ākāsānañcāyatanaṁ neyyaṁ, ‘anantaṁ viññāṇan’ti viññāṇañcāyatanaṁ neyyaṁ, ‘natthi kiñcī’ti ākiñcaññāyatanaṁ neyyan”ti.

1. “Aware that ‘space is infinite’ it can know the dimension of infinite space. 

2. Aware that ‘consciousness is infinite’ it can know the dimension of infinite consciousness. 

3. Aware that ‘there is nothing at all’ it can know the dimension of nothingness.”

If Sujato, Brahm, Visuddhimagga's  redefinition of jhāna were legitimate and in accordance with EBT

Then you would expect to see all four jhānas as part of the list of what states of mind can be known by a mind divorced from the 5 senses of the body.

Just as in AN 9.37, also dealing with the same topic of the mind divorced from 5 senses,

it again omits the 4 jhānas.

Sujato seems to be trying to legitimize LBT Vism. color kasina "jhāna" with this earlier footnote

“Color” is a more sophisticated and less universal aspect of awareness than “feeling”, reflecting the fact that “perception” relates to higher-order functions like recognition and interpretation, which are involved in concept formation. The “perception” of lights and colors is often connected with the development of the four “form” jhānas (eg. MN 77:23.14), so we are paving the way for the apparently abrupt transition to the formless dimensions at MN 43:10.2 below.

frankk comment

Sujato is riding the coattails of Vism., trying to claim that rūpa (material physical form)

is a color kasina that is a mentally created visual kasina when in the context of four jhānas.

But what then of the 4 of the other 5 senses?

In a Vism./Sujato redefinition of jhāna,

you can see a visual kasina, but what about the other 4 senses?

Again, the fourth jhāna alluded to in MN 43 that Sujato links to 4th jhāna says:

“Nissaṭṭhena hāvuso, pañcahi indriyehi parisuddhena manoviññāṇena kiṁ neyyan”ti?

“What can be known by purified mind consciousness released from the five senses?”

It doesn't say "just the one sense of eye faculty".
It says all 5 senses.

However you slice it, Sujato and Vism redefinition of jhāna is incoherent,

totally incompatible with the Buddha's EBT definition of 4 jhānas.

So why does Sujato keep claiming to be EBT (early buddhist teachings)?

If you're going use Vism's redefinition,

own up to it, give "credit" where it's due,

and then you have the impossible task of demonstrating  how the EBT's support that.

If the EBT did that, then don't you think vism. would have shown the evidence already?

Instead, you see time and time again Sujato avoids giving translation notes in all the samādhi and jhāna passages which expose his incoherent fraudulent interpretation.

And even more amazingly, 

you have gullible followers of his, including monastics, 

who go along with his interpretation without protest.