Ajahn
Brahmavamso
NAMO TASSA BHAGAVATO ARAHATO SAMMASAMBUDDHASSA
In the Buddhist world today, there is much discussion among
meditators about the relevance of Jhana (to be explained below). The
first question usually asked is "Must one achieve Jhana first to
become fully Enlightened (Arahant), or is it possible to reach the
Supreme Goal without any experience of Jhana?"
Those who ask this question are usually those who have not yet
experienced Jhana themselves. It is difficult to do what is
necessary to realise Jhana; so most people ask this question wanting
to be told that Jhana is not essential. They want to be told that
their inability is not an obstacle. They want a quick and easy way
to Nibbana. Such people will be pleased and even inspired by a
teacher who tells them what they wanted to hear anyway - that these
Jhana states are unnecessary - and they will follow this teaching
because it is convenient. Unfortunately, Truth is seldom convenient,
and rarely agrees with what we want to hear.
On the other hand, a meditator who has familiarity with Jhanas will
recognise them as blissful states of letting go, and it is right
there, in the experience of letting go, letting go that the
relevance of Jhana is known. The First Jhana is the natural result
of letting go of the concern for sensory pleasure (Kama Sukha), by
which is meant all concern, even for mere comfort, in the realm of
the five external senses (sight, sound, smell, taste and touch). In
the First Jhana, through sustained and complete removal of all
interest in these five senses the meditator loses all sense of the
body, and these five external senses disappear. They abide wholly in
the sixth sense that is pure mind, and are still, in blissful inner
silence. The Buddha called this "The Bliss of Renunciation", or the
bliss of letting go. The Second Jhana is the natural result of
abandoning a very subtle movement of attention towards and holding
onto this blissful mind object. When this final 'wobbling' of
attention is let go of, one experiences the even more pleasurable
bliss of full inner stillness (Samadhi), where the mind is
absolutely one -pointed and motionless. The Third Jhana is the
natural result of letting go of the subtle excitement of rapture,
and the Fourth Jhana is the natural result of letting go of
happiness itself, so as to enjoy the most profound and immovable
mental equanimity.
In Buddhism, experience, not speculation, and even less blind
belief, is the criterion for understanding. A meditator simply does
not realise what stillness, rapture, happiness or equanimity fully
mean until they have become familiar with the Jhanas. But the
experience of the Jhanas, these stages of letting go, give one
direct understanding through experience of these mental phenomena,
in particular happiness (Sukha) and suffering (Dukkha).
It is similar to the tadpole who has spent her whole life in the
water but who can have no understanding of water because she has
known nothing else. Then, when she grows up into a frog, lets go of
the water, and attains to dry land, she knows both the nature of
water and the way to go beyond it. In this simile, the water stands
for Dukkha, the dry land for Jhana (not Nibbana - the frog still
carries a little water on her skin upon dry land!), and the way to
go beyond stands for letting go.
In this way, the practice of Jhana reveals the Path to fully ending
Dukkha. The meditator who achieves Jhana will eventually ask "Why
are these Jhanas so profoundly blissful? They will discover for
themselves the obvious answer -"Because they are stages of letting
go of that which they now see as fine forms of suffering!" When one
is familiar with Jhana, and realises the origin of the bliss
therein, one will come to see for oneself that all worldly
pleasures, that is, of the five external senses (which include
sexuality), are merely Dukkha. The attachment to the body and its
sensory adventures will begin to fade away. One will understand
clearly why all Enlightened Ones are celibate. Then, as one
progresses onwards to the higher Jhanas and contemplates why each
further one is ever more pleasing, one comes to understand that it
is because one is letting go of refined mental attachments, such as
the attachment to rapture, happiness and equanimity. It becomes
clear that even these most lofty of mind states are just refined
forms of suffering, because when one lets them go, then more
suffering goes too. The higher one goes , the more Dukkha is let go
of and through this process Dukkha becomes known. One cannot know
fully the Truth of Suffering, and thus the Buddha's Four Noble
Truths, except by letting go of suffering through the experience of
Jhana.
It is very odd, therefore, that some suggest that the practise of
Jhana leads to attachment. How can, what is the practice of letting
go, lead to attachment? Indeed, the Buddha repeatedly said that
these Jhanas should not be feared, but should be developed, and that
when these Jhanas are indulged in regularly they lead to Sotapanna,
Sakadagami, Anagami, and Arahant, the four stages of Enlightenment.
(See the Pasadika Sutta of the Digha Nikaya).
Once Full Enlightenment is reached and all attachments are removed,
then letting go into Jhana becomes as natural as a leaf released
from a tree falling downwards to the ground. Indeed, one's present
ability to let go and experience the Jhana is a measure of one's
true understanding of the Dhamma and consequent lack of attachment.
Ajahn Brahmavamso
BSWA Newsletter,
Mar/Jun 1997.
-ooOoo-
Source: Buddhist Society of Western Australia,
http://www.dhammaloka.org.au
http://www.saigon.com/~anson/ebud/ebmed075.htm
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Jhanas