Meditative Absorptions (Jhana Sutra)

Dhr. Seven, A. Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Ven. Thanissaro (trans.) Jhana Sutra (AN 9.36)

"I say, the end of the defilements depends on the:

1. first absorption...
2. second absorption...
3. third absorption...
4. fourth absorption...
5. the base of boundless space...
6. the base of boundless consciousness...
7. the base of nothingness...
8. the base of neither-perception-nor-non-perception.

"I say, 'The end of the defilements depends on the first absorption.' In reference to what is this been said?

"There is an instance in which a meditator, secluded (withdrawn) from sensual distractions, secluded from unskillful states, enters and remains in the first meditative absorption, which is accompanied by rapture and bliss (supersensual pleasure) born of seclusion, which is accompanied by applied and sustained application of attention.
 

"That meditator regards whatever phenomena are connected with [The Five Aggregates or Groups, namely]:

1. form (body),
2. feelings (sensation),
3. perceptions,
4. mental formations (fabrications or mental constructs such as volitions), and
5. consciousness (awareness)

as inconstant, disappointing, a disease, a cancer, an arrow, an affliction, painful, alien, disintegrating, empty, impersonal (not-self).

"Then one's mind/heart turns away from those phenomena, and having done so, it inclines to deathlessness (nirvana, the unconditioned element): 'This is the peace, this is the supreme -- the resolution of all formations, the relinquishing of all acquisitions, the ending of craving, dispassion, cessation, blowing out (quenching, nirvana).'

Hitting the mark (or not "sinning")

 

Did we "sin," Eve? - Serpent says no, Adam.

[NOTE: To sin, an archery metaphor used in Judaism/Christianity, literally means "to miss the mark."]

"Suppose an archer or archer's apprentice were to practice shooting arrows at a straw man or a mound of clay. After a while the archer would be able to shoot long distances, fire accurate shots in rapid succession, and pierce the target.

"In the same way, a meditator... enters and remains in the first absorption, which is accompanied by rapture and bliss (supersensual pleasure) born of seclusion, and accompanied by applied and sustained attention.
 

"One regards whatever phenomena are connected with form, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness as impermanent, painful, a disease, a cancer, an arrow, an affliction, unpleasant, alien, disintegrating, empty, as utterly impersonal (not-self).

"One's mind turns away from those phenomena, and having done so, it  inclines to the deathless: 'This is peace, this is excellent -- the cessation of all fabrications, the letting go of all acquisitions, the ceasing of all craving, dispassion, extinction, quenching (cooling, nirvana).'

 

"Then and there one reaches the end of all defilements [one wins full enlightenment]. Or, if not, then -- through this enthusiasm for the Dharma, this delight in the Dharma, and from the complete wasting away of the first five fetters [self-identity view, clinging to rites and rituals/precepts and practices as if they could in and of themselves bring about enlightenment, skeptical doubt, sensual passion, and aversion] -- one is due to be reborn [in the Pure Abodes], there to be totally liberated, never again to return from that exalted world.
 

"'I tell you, the ending of the defilements depends on the first absorption.' This was said, and with reference to what was this said?

• (The same is then said with regard to the second, third, and fourth absorption).

"'I tell you, the ending of the defilements depends on the base of boundless space.' This was said, and with reference to what was this said? There is an instance where a meditator -- with the complete transcending of perceptions of [physical] form, with the disappearance of perceptions of resistance, and not heeding perceptions of diversity, [perceiving] 'Boundless space' [or with the thought, 'Space is boundless'] -- enters and remains in the base of boundless space.

"One regards whatever phenomena connected with feelings, perceptions, formations, or consciousness as impermanent, unsatisfactory, a disease, a cancer, an arrow, painful, an affliction, alien, disintegrating, empty, as impersonal (not-self). So the mind turns away from such phenomena. And having done so, the mind inclines to the deathless: 'This is peace, this is beautiful -- the resolution of all formations, the relinquishment of all acquisitions, the ending of all craving, dispassion, cessation, quenching (nirvana).'
 

"Suppose that an archer or archer's apprentice were to practice on a straw man or mound of clay. After a while one would become able to shoot long distances, to fire accurate shots in rapid succession, and to pierce the target. In the same way, there is the instance of a meditator... [who] enters and remains in the base of boundless space.

"One regards whatever phenomena there connected with feelings, perceptions, formations, or consciousness as hurtling toward destruction, painful, a disease, a cancer, an arrow, woeful, an affliction, alien, disintegrating, empty, as impersonal (not-self). The mind turns away from such phenomena, and having done so, it inclines to the deathless: 'This is peace, this is exquisite — the resolution of all formations, the relinquishment of all acquisitions, the ending of craving, dispassion, cessation, cooling (nirvana).'
 

"Then and there, one reaches the [final] end of the defilements. Or, if not, then -- through this very Dharma-passion, this very Dharma-delight, and from the total subsiding of the first five of the fetters -- one is due to be reborn [in the Pure Abodes], there to be totally unbound, never again to fall from that world.
 

"'I tell you, the ending of the defilements depends on the base of boundless space.' This was said, and in reference to what was this said?

• (Same is said of the bases of boundless consciousness and nothingness).

"Therefore, as far as the perception-attainments go, that is as far as penetration by wisdom goes. As for these two bases -- the attainment of the base of neither-perception-nor-non-perception and the attainment of the cessation of feeling and perception -- I tell you that they are to be rightly explained by those ascetics who are meditators, skilled in attaining, skilled in attaining and emerging [resolving when to enter, for how long, and when to emerge from these exalted states], who have attained and emerged in dependence on them."

What is the "Mandela Effect"? (video)

Pat Macpherson, Ashley Wells, Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly; JC (Top3); Planet Nibiru

Professor explains the Mandela Effect on how the powers that be are changing the past to change the future. This is more proof for the theory, as if it were designed to alter our perception of the past and the reliability of our memory. planetxdesigns.spreadshirt.com

The Mandela Effect? They're gaslighting us (term from an old movie)

What could explain it?

Wisdom Quarterly (ANALYSIS)

I think we figured it out: control; gaslighting

The Mandela Effect, it's being done on purpose and is not the result of timeline alterations from time travel because if that were happening we would not be able to find proof that things were previously another way, as many of us remember them.

In the book by George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, one did not know what year it was. One could not. The powers that be, then known as "Big Brother," constantly kept altering history, burning book, altering photographs (editing people out), disappearing them, and making the language serve the process by the use of Newspeak, all euphemisms and abbreviations and deletions of vocabulary.

Why the powers that be are doing, we don't know. That they are doing it, there can be little doubt. What are they doing? They're gaslighting us. What's that?

.

Feeling lit?

Definition: Your Reality Check (urbandictionary.com) edited by Wisdom Quarterly

Gaslighting is a form of intimidation or psychological abuse, sometimes called ambient abuse where false information is presented to victims, making them doubt their memory, perception, and often their sanity.
 

The classic example of gaslighting is to switch something around that someone is sure to notice then deny knowing anything about the change, explaining that they "must be imagining things" when they challenge the change(s).

A more psychological definition of gaslighting is "an increasing frequency of systematically withholding factual information from, and/or providing false information to, the victim -- having the gradual effect of making them anxious, confused, and less able to trust their own memory and perception. More

Buddhist "perception" and that dress (video)

Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Seth Auberon, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Hank Green (SciShow)

(SciShow) The science of the multicolored dress, as explained by science and psychology.

Buddhist "perception" (saññā)

The round of samsara, cycling existence

"I am the color I see this dress," one may feel or think. This self-view would derive from the fact that who we feel we are falls under what the Buddha called the "Five Aggregates."

Ultimately, there is no self. But conventionally most of us most of the time cling to one or more of these five groups as self:

1. form (body)
2. feeling
3. perception
4. mental formations
5. consciousness.

We may say that we have these, or stand apart from these, as they belong to us, or we manifest these, or we experience these coming in from the outside. Whatever the case, many of us actually feel we "are" these:

I am my body, this body. I am this feeling (sensation). I am this perception, and that dress is clearly blue and black and can't be anything else to normal eyes! I am my impulses, volitions, (and/or 49 other discrete mental processes). No, but that's silly, clearly all "I" am is the watcher, the experiencer of experience, the feeler of feelings, perceiver of perceptions, thinker of thoughts and generator of will, which is to say I AM consciousness.

"Self" is like a patchwork of crumbling replaceable parts.

All of these common sense, fundamental, everyday, Cartesian views are in error.

We are caught up in an all-embracing nets of views which will be very difficult to break free from to see things as they really are, which would be enlightenment and a glimpse of nirvana. Escape to reality! But all we do all day long, and most of the night, is try to escape from reality, or at least what we think and fear is reality.

It's like transformational comedian and guru Kyle Cease says, "What is fear? We think a thought, it scares us, and we seem to forget that we created it. Taking it as real, we continue to be afraid of it." That's a very good explanation of what is going on, so good that we bet Eckhart Tolle and Pema Chodron are slapping their foreheads wondering, "Why didn't I say that?"!

 

Size matters but is easy to misperceive. In our minds the Statue of Liberty is bigger than the Buddha. China has the largest Buddha figure at Leshan, the size of mountain. India will have the largest when the Relics Tour completes its goal in Kushinagar. (telegraph.co.uk)

 
The Buddha said many things like that, specifically on one occasion giving the example of a length of rope laying on the road. In dim light one comes upon it and (mis-)perceives it as a "snake," and due to one's knowledge, bias, or opinions of snakes (all those mental formations associated with what we think we recognize or perceive, our prejudiced reactions, the primed pump), one is gripped with fear and dread. This is usually how we treat life, fearing death, fearing life, fearing loss but somehow failing to fear the actually dreadful things like unskillful karma, rebirth, lost wandering in samsara, greed, aversion/fear, delusion, and so on.

What did the Buddha define as "perception"? The greatest German Buddhist scholar-monk Ven. Nyanaponika Thera gives examines the ancient texts:

What color is dress that broke the Internet, what actual, objective color? (m2woman.co.nz)

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"Perception" (saññā) is one of the Five Aggregates (khandha) and one of the seven mental factors (cetasika) that are inseparably bound up with all consciousness (cetanā). 

Perception is sixfold: perceiving (apperception) associated with the five sense-objects and mental-objects. It is the awareness of an object's distinctive marks ("one perceives blue, yellow, etc.," S. XXII, 79).

If, in repeated perception of an object, these marks are recognized, saññā functions as "memory" (see the Higher Teachings, Abhidhamma Studies, by Nyanaponika Thera (BPS), p. 68-forward).

2. Saññā sometimes stands for "consciousness" (vinanna) in its entirety, for example, when describing a very rarefied world beyond the sensual and fine-material worlds known paradoxically as n'eva-saññā-n'āsaññāyatana, "the realm of neither-perception-nor-non-perception." [The paradox is resolved by the Commentaries and is verifiable as a sphere of consciousness, with a corresponding objective space world, that is so refined that perception there can neither quite be defined as "perception" nor, however, can it be called "non-perception" because one is definitely conscious.]

There are countless worlds in 31 categories.

Furthermore, in another world [as described in early Buddhist cosmology, the 31 Planes of Existence, there are beings without perception called] asaññā-satta, "unconscious beings" [classified within the Fine Material Sphere or Rupa Loka.] In both cases, reference is not to "perception" alone, but also to all of the other constituents of consciousness. Compare with the ninth sutra in the Longer Discourses (Digha Nikaya 9).

 

3. Saññā may also refer to the "ideas," which are objects of meditation, for example, in a group of seven ideas of impermanence (anicca-saññā), and so on (AN VII, 46); of ten: impurity (asubha-saññā), etc. (AN X, 56), and another set of ten in AN X. 60; or to wrong notions, as in nicca-, subha-saññā ("the notion of permanence, beauty"), and so on.

While the good monk, the teacher of our teacher (Bhikkhu Bodhi), is definitive here, he goes into the nitty gritty, the Higher Teachings only in Abhidhamma Studies. Why? The Buddha taught in a way we describe as "packed." The the Dharma or Buddha's Teachings, often need to be "unpacked" or accusations of tautology and/or misunderstandings are likely to occur.

Who am I if not my perceptions?

Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream, merrily... (Valerie_Sauve_in_Vancouver)

 

What color is this dress? Wrong!

The Five Aggregates of Clinging, the elements of separate or conditioned existence, all hang together and with very few exceptions are always coordinated together.

(What exceptions? For example, that there exists an Immaterial Sphere means there is a portion of the universe that is not physical; for another, the realm or plane of unconscious beings means there is a world without perception/consciousness where the beings seem to be asleep but have bodies and other mental functions). Body and mind are interdependent and rarely independent. They are conditioned phenomena.

Native American dress

That is, they are not really solid things but only composite and temporary phenomena. The Five Aggregates are called "aggregates," "heaps," or "groups" not because there are five of them but because there are uncountable numbers of them: countless feelings constantly falling away (a heap of them, nearly identical from one moment to the next, like a roll of film from a movie where each frame looks no different until it is rolled at high speed and then gives the illusion of continuity of motion).

This non-identity means we cannot possibly be our feelings, nor can we be these disintegrating bodies, nor these flickering perceptions, nor these mental formations, such as volition/will, and certainly not the impersonal process of "consciousness" we take so very  personally. But that is the Higher Teaching (Abhidharma), and conventionally, in Buddhist psychology, has explained physical and mental processes in exquisite detail for personal verification.
 

Kalapas and cittas as concepts (nature.com)

Otherwise, it's just theory liable to inspire doubt and argument. There is nothing to argue. Sit. Calm down. Concentrate (collect the mind to the level of absorption), which temporarily purifies it. This will intensify perception. Now look. Look down to the level of particles (kalapas) and mind-moments (cittas), as detailed in Buddhist physics and Buddhist psychology, and note how both in physical terms and more so in perceptual terms, the elements are radically impermanent, disappointing, and impersonal.
 
They are not subject to our "will" but come and go according to their own nature. What is their nature? It has three characteristics. Why would we ever cling to things if we always saw them as they truly are? We would not; the mind/heart would immediately let go. But there's the rub! We do not see things as they really are. We see them almost exactly as they are not: we take for granted that they are, of course, lasting over time, able to satisfy us, and actually what they seem so as to be able to be possessed.

The magician creates reality like the mind.

But really they are more like dreams, like a magician's tricks, like foam bubbles on the Ganges river, like sand particles formed into a body with sand falling away like that scene in "Altered States." Say it with us, say it with the great sages of the past and future, say it with the arhats (the fully enlightened), "Things are not what they seem." Perception is not what it seems. Whatever color that dress is, it really isn't. For an object is a color, we have heard, because it is every color but that color.
 

What color are my Asian eyes? Wrong! Blue.

Light waves getting absorbed fail to absorb that frequency and so reflect it back for us to see/perceive it as "red," "blue," "yellow," or whatever. (Is this certain? We better ask a physicist at one of our regularly scheduled weekly meetings). For many this may be bad news. Ah, the world is not what it seems! But for attentive auditors of the Buddha's Teachings, it is just possible to see an escape, liberation, emancipation, a means of waking up from this dream-like state of ignorance. Enlightenment and nirvana are possible...in this very life.

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Before the Enlightenment

The Buddha was not born a buddha ("awakened one"). There was a great deal of striving in past lives and again beginning at age 29.

Six years before attaining enlightenment (at 35) under a bodhi tree, Siddhartha Gautama ran away from home. He renounced his worldly riches, princely trappings he was now wearing like an albatross. He yearned for freedom, for deathlessness, for an end to suffering (dukkha or that profound sense of dissatisfaction).

• Brief life of the Buddha in pictures

This was not the first life he had done so, but it would be the last. He went as far as the river that marked the kingdom. And he crossed over, leaving everything behind until he could return from the archetypal Hero's Journey a victor. Now a sannyasin, he put on a simple robe and cut his hair.

Siddhartha was "bent-on-enlightenment" (bodhisatta). It was time to meditate, and he needed practical, real-world instruction. He sought out the guru and yogi Alara Kalama, attracted by his good reputation.

Yogic paths to liberation were practiced widely in India before the Buddha.

ALARA KALAMA
Based on YellowRobe.com

In search of practical knowledge of leading a holy life, he made his way to the then famous ascetic Alara, who was no ordinary guru. Of the eight stages of meditation (jhana), Alara had personally mastered seven -- up to the jhana consciousness of dwelling on The Void (the Sphere of Boundless Nothingness, akincanna-yatana). This is what the teacher was teaching his pupils (chelas).

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Before Buddhism, such gurus served as trustworthy masters giving practical instructions on methods of making attainments. Alara was famous although Theravada literature is nearly silent about him. However in the Lalitavistra, a Mahayana biographical text, it is recorded that the great Alara had lived in the state of Vesali and that he had three hundred disciples.

INSTRUCTION
The Bodhisatta -- one day to become the Buddha -- describes how he took instructions from the sage Alara Kalama:

"Having gone forth and become a recluse in pursuit of what is good, seeking the supreme, incomparable peace of nirvana, I drew to where Alara Kalama was and addressed him thus: 'Friend Kalama, I desire to lead the holy life under your doctrine and discipline.' When I addressed him, Alara replied, 'The venerable friend Gautama is welcome to remain in this teaching. Of such a nature is this dharma that in a short time an intelligent man can realize for himself and abide in possession of what his teacher has realized as his own.'"

REASSURANCE
Alara's statement that his dharma, if practiced as it was taught, could be realized soon by oneself as one's own [which means that one could make the same attainment as the teacher] was very reassuring, and it inspired confidence. A doctrine is trustworthy and pragmatic only if it can be realized by oneself. And the sooner the realization is possible, the more heartening it will be. The Bodhisatta was therefore satisfied with Alara's words and this thought arose in him:

"It is not because of mere faith that Alara declares that he has learned the dharma [truth]. Alara has surely realized the dharma for himself; he knows and understands it."

Alara, after all, did not cite any texts [such as the Vedas, which were the basis of the religious establishment at the time] as his authority. He did not say that he had heard it from others. He clearly stated that what he knew personally he had realized himself.

Without having practiced the dharma personally, without having experienced and realized it in a personal way, to claim to be a "meditation teacher" or to preach and write books about it is improper. It would be like a physician prescribing medicine not yet clinically tested and tried by him, and which he had not dared to administer to himself. Such preaching or publishing is undependable and uninspiring.

But Alara boldly claimed personal experience in meditation. The Bodhisatta was impressed, and this thought arose:

"Not only Alara has faith, I also have faith. Not only Alara has energy, mindfulness, concentration, wisdom, I also have them."

NOTHINGNESS
Then he strived for the realization of that truth which Alara declared that he himself had realized. In no long time, the Bodhisatta knew the dharma, which led him as far as the jhanic Realm of Nothingness [see WQ's "31 Planes of Existence."]

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The Void may be undifferentiated potential (no thing) rather than oblivion.

He then approached Alara Kalama and enquired whether the Realm of Nothingness, which Alara claimed to have realized and lived in possession of, was the same as what the Bodhisatta had reached. Alara replied, "This is as far as the dharma leads, of which I have declared that I have realized and abide in possession of, the same stage as friend Gautama has reached."

Then he utter these words of praise: "Friend Gautama is a supremely distinguished person! The Realm of Nothingness is not easy to attain, yet Friend Gautama has realized it in no time. It is truly wonderful! Fortunate are we that we should light upon such a distinguished ascetic companion as your Reverence. As I have realized the dharma, so have you realized it as well. As you have learned it, so have I learned to the same extent as you. Friend Gautama is my equal in dharma. We have a large community here. Come, friend, together let us lead this company of disciples."

Thus Alara, the teacher, set up the Bodhisatta, the pupil, as an equal. He honored him by delegating to him the task of guiding 150 pupils, half of all his disciples. But the Bodhisatta only stayed at the center for a short time because while staying there this thought came to him:

DISSATISFACTION

"This doctrine does not lead to aversion, to abatement, and cessation of passion [lust, hate, delusion], to peace, higher knowledge and full enlightenment nor to the end-of-suffering (nirvana), but only as far as the attainment of the Realm of Nothingness. That attainment will result in rebirth there for an average lifespan there of 60,000 world-cycles [maha-kalpas]. And after expiring, one reappears according to one's karma just like before, suffering again. This is not the dharma of deathlessness that I am in search of."

Then becoming indifferent to the practice of this meditation (jhana), the Bodhisatta abandoned it and departed from Alara's meditation center.

He sought out another guru, Udaka Ramaputra, and entrusted himself to him. He learned his dharma, which led to a higher realm of existence, a rarefied state known as Neither-perception-nor-non-perception.

The Nigantha Nattaputta (Mahavira) searched for enlightenment among Indian gurus and dharmas. And like the Buddha, he founded a religion (Jainism). But unlike the Buddhism, Jains and yogis teach that liberation comes through asceticism.

UDAKA RAMAPUTTA
After leaving Alara, the Bodhisatta was on his own for some time, pursuing the path of tranquility to reach the undying state of nirvana. Then the fame of Udaka Ramaputta ("disciple of the sage Rama") reached him. He went to Udaka and sought to lead the religious life under the dharma and discipline under him. (The Lalitavistra records that Udaka had a meditation center in Rajagaha and a following of 700).

The Buddha later described his experiences under the guidance of Udaka -- how Udaka had explained the dharma, how he had been impressed with the discipline and practiced it, how he had realized the dharma and recounted to Udaka his mastery of it -- in almost exactly the same way as he described his experience with Alara Kalama.

Notably, when he met the Bodhisatta, Udaka had not yet attained the meditative heights he preached. He explained only what stage his teacher, Rama, had achieved. So when the Bodhisatta attained it, leadership of the following was handed over to him. (According to the Sub-commentary, Udaka later emulated the Bodhisatta and made the attainment). It soon occurred to the Bodhisatta that, "This dharma does not lead to aversion, to the abolishing of passion nor to higher knowledge, supreme wisdom, and the end-of-suffering (nirvana). It only leads to rebirth in the Realm of Neither-Perception-nor-Non-perception (Neva-sanna-nasanna-yatana). Once there, the average liifespan is 84,000 world-cycles. Then one will die and come back again, according to one's karma, to enjoy sensual pleasures and experience much suffering. This is not the doctrine of the Deathless that I long for."

Modern austerities (Sanskrit, tapas) continue today in India.

SELF-MORTIFICATION
Siddhartha the Bodhisatta then took up severe asceticism before discovering that the path of self-torment was not the way to attain enlightenment either.