Into the forest: Seclusion Sutra (SN 9.1)

Dhr. Seven (trans.), Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Viveka Sutta, Wisdom Quarterly

What is the ideal place to meditate? The Buddha frequently repeats some of his suggestions. Would it be a thatched hut in the jungle, a tent of robes in the desert, a mound of kusa grass next to a river?

• Tiny house? Abodu Quiz (prefabricated small footprint)

The Seclusion Sutra

Viveka Sutta, (SN 9.1) translated by Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

"Oh, foolish mortals! ever blind to fate; too soon dejected, too soon elate" (Alexander Pope).

Thus have I heard. On one occasion a certain wandering ascetic was dwelling among the Kosalans in a forest.

At that time, having gone to spend the day in seclusion, he was beset by unskillful thoughts, clinging to reminisces about the life of a layperson.

Then the woodland fairy (devata) inhabiting that forest, out of sympathy for the meditator, wishing him success, wishing to return him to his senses, approached and addressed him in verse:

"Wishing for seclusion one enters the forest

Yet the mind (heart) keeps running back.

Being a person, subdue the desire for people.

Then be at ease, content, dispassionate.

Dispel discontent with keen mindfulness.

Wisely reflect on the higher good.

For the mire of the abyss* is difficult to overcome.

Do not be led astray, pulled in by the draw of sensuality.

A bird its feathers coated with dust sheds it

With a shake so that it adheres not.

Just so an ascetic, mindful and full of energy,

Abandons dust that adheres from the world."

Indeed, that meditator, chastened by the glowing spirit, came to his senses with a sense of urgency for the goal.

• *Abyss: not literal (as in Avici or the Downfall of Niraya in general) but figurative in the sense that sensual craving can never be appeased by feeding it, as it is an endless consumer of more and more pleasures, stimuli, and novelty.
• Viveka Sutta (SN 9.1)—Ven. Sujato (trans.) suttacentral.net

Plunging into a forest grove cabin

Oh, you men. Settle down. We can feel you.

In West Virginia we visited Bhante G's Bhavana Society (bhavanasociety.org), a Sri Lankan Theravada Buddhist meditation center in the woods. I was assigned a cozy cabin with a funny stove. It was the warm season, so I could hardly imagine how cold it gets part of the year, snowed in, surviving by chopping wood to feed the hearth. Outside, mushrooms sprouted on the damp ground, and all around were trees and plants and a creek farther down by the old country road. This would do for meditation, but there were still many social distractions. One could hardly be silent as people were in the habit of small talk or getting to know one another. External silence is a great support for internal silence, where it really counts if one wishes to absorb into one's meditation object. The visiting nun leading us, as the abbot was no longer himself post-stroke, gave us instruction capable of producing absorption (jhana). One retreatant constantly slipped into piti and swirled his body on his cushion, blissed out. I would look at him, and rather than let myself become annoyed, I would follow suit. I swirled. And piti arose like magic, just a little, enough to know he was onto something. The woodland glen the center is on seemed ideal for fairy spirits of some description, as in "The Rape of the Lock." But I didn't see them. I couldn't feel them; I wasn't still enough. Females, being more sensitive and attuned to nature, claimed they could.

The Bhāvanā Society, rural West Virginia, not far from DC (bhavanasociety.org)

Fear of Serenity?

.

"Right Concentration" (samma samadhi) is part of the Noble Eightfold Path. It is defined in many sutras as the Four Jhanas ("meditative absorptions"). This is fundamental to realizing the Dharma. So why are people afraid, and why do some teachers advise against, practicing jhana and Serenity Meditation? Renowned meditation expert, Bhante G (abbot of the Bhavana Society in West Virginia), explains.

• Audio Download
• Jhana Retreat Guided Meditation Nine - (more downloads)
• Dharma Articles
• Question: Morality, Concentration, Wisdom - (more articles)

Eight Mindful Steps to Happiness
Bhante Gunaratana

The Noble Eightfold Path is the core of the Buddha’s teaching and the fourth Noble Truth. In his book, Bhante G systematically discusses each step individually, while never losing sight of their relationship to each other or how they affect our daily lives. As always the author is clear and direct in language, with many practical examples drawn from real life experience, and lists of check-up points to help identify their role in our lives.

Wisdom Publications (Boston) 2003

Bliss and Magic (through Jhana)

By Seven Jaini

The Four Imponderables: The Buddha warned that one might become unhinged and mentally imbalanced by pondering any of these four unfathomable things:

1. The range of a Buddha (the extent of the influence of a Buddha from the development of the Ten Perfections).
2. The range of one absorbed in jhana (the power one might obtain from the meditative absorptions)
3. The incomprehensibly complex working out of the consequences of karma (volitional actions)
4. A first moment, initial cause, or purpose for the universe

"These four imponderables are not to be pondered. If one were to ponder and attempt to fathom them, one would become unhinged."

The importance of the meditative absorptions (jhanas) can therefore hardly be overstated. In Sanskrit, the word "absorption" is dhyana, in Pali, jhana. Throughout the Pali Canon, the Buddha defines Right Concentration (samma samadhi) as entering the first Four Jhanas.

Because of this, in many languages the word "meditation" -- and entire Buddhist schools of meditation -- is simply the translation of this word (dhyana). In Chinese, "Jhana" is Ch'an; in Korean Sŏn; in Tibet Samten (bsam gtan); in Vietnamese Thiền; and in Japan "Jhana" is translated as Zen.

Jhana did not develop in a Buddhist context but was prevalent in the Indian subcontinent before the Buddha in various yogic systems of spiritual training. In Jainism, an ancient religion of extreme asceticism and ahimsa (non-harming) that developed alongside Buddhism and survives today in India, it is called Samayika. This is in the Prakrit dialect, somewhat akin to the Pali word Shamatha (Serenity), referring to the practice of developing the absorptions.

The purpose of Jhana in a Buddhist context is never an end in itself, as it would seem in other Indian traditions. The Buddha's first teachers -- Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta -- were yogi masters skilled in attaining high states of jhana. They were therefore regarded as saints and sages with wondrous powers (siddhis). The Buddha's ability to perform miracles, which he perceived danger in doing, was based on his ability to enter the jhanas (or "ecstatic meditation attainments") at will and remain in them for a predetermined period of time.

He became a buddha by realizing that rather than asceticism and self-mortification, jhana was the path. The Five Mental Hindrances were the problem, and they absent in jhana. As he gained meditative stability, he developed the factor of mindfulness. This combination gave rise to insight, enlightenment, and liberation overnight.

It quite literally took one full night of meditation through the Four Jhanas, directing his attention to the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. The final two factors in the Noble Eightfold Path are Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration, defined as these foundations and jhanas. In the absence of insight, such powers readily turn to one's disadvantage, exacerbating the unskillful tendencies (greed, ill-will, delusion, and fear) until one's meditative stability evaporates.

Unless one is liberated (nirvana), the positive karmic result of mastering the jhanas is rebirth in successively more exalted celestial planes. (See WQ article on the 31 Planes of Existence for detailed explanation). The negative karmic result of unprofitably wielding such power is hard to fathom because rebirth into heaven does not preclude future rebirth elsewhere.

The Buddha's First Sermon

Suggested reading

• Pa Auk Sayadaw
• Ajahn Brahm (Australia)
• Leigh Brasington
• Friends of the Heart
• Sister Ayya Khema

PHOTOS: Woman in deep meditation (Ebay Ebook CD); the Buddha emerging from Jhana (Flickr)