Samadhi & Jhana

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Dear friends

The 5 jhana factors are given in the classic jhana description itself.Another place the Buddha says that if one not First! overcome the hindrances, then one will fall out of Jhana very quickly. Below is clearly explained the very absence of hindrances is the CAUSE itself of entering the first jhana!!!Practically one should clear them first at everysitting by substituting them with their opposites:

Desire => DisgustAversion => FriendlinessLaziness => Alert AwarenessRestlessness => TranquilityDoubt => Certainty of what is Advantageous.The classic Canonical Reference here is DN I 73-74:As long. Sir, as a monk does not perceive the disappearance of the five hindrances in himself, he feels as if in debt, in sickness, in bonds, in slavery, on a desert journey.But when he perceives the disappearance of the five hindrances in himself, it is as if he were freed from debt, from sickness, from bonds, from slavery, from the perils of the desert.And when he knows that these five hindrances have left him, joy arises in him, from joy comes rapture, from the rapture in his mind his body is tranquillized, with a tranquil body he feels happiness, and with happiness his mind is concentrated. Being thus secluded from sense-desires, secluded from detrimental states, he enters and remains in the first jhana, which containsdirected thought & sustained evaluation, filled with delight and joyborn of seclusion, . And with this pleasure and joy born of seclusion, he so suffuses, drenches, fills and irradiates his body that there is no spot in his entire body that is untouched by this pleasure and joy born of seclusion [74]Please also study: The Jhanas In Theravada Buddhist Meditationby Ven. Mahathera Henepola Gunaratana. Wheel 351/353

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/bps/wheels/wheel351.html

Ven. Mahathera Henepola Gunaratana quit the joints & the beers & the porno 58 years ago...., when he entered the Sangha in 1947.He first worked 5 years among the untouchables in India...Later 10 years as missionary in Malaysia.

Personally I wouldnt recommend trusting any layman still enjoyingjoints, beers & porno to ever have entered any jhana, simply sincethis is difficult!, and requires a long period of scrupulous moralityat a minimum of keeping the 5 precepts.. And a low level of addiction!The beers & the joints disqualify here, while they may imitate asimile state of deep (drugged) calm, which may deceive the puffed upbeginner to think he has entered jhana... Which naturally & actually is quite far from the case.... Naturally you will have to check this out quite thoroughly & carefully for yourself... ;-)

>those inexperienced there can be brief, momentary absorptions >into Jhana, perhaps lasting a few seconds at most.

Careful here: Note the definition 'he enters and remains in the 1st jhana'Coming and going in & out of a state a few seconds is not enters and remains! If one cannot deliberately REMAIN in the state it is not 1st jhana...What you speak of is momentary concentration IMHO + IMHE...

This would technically not be called jhana but samadhi = concentration,but not absorption. Some degree of one pointed concentration is a part of all mental states, simply because it is this very quality which puts the mind ON the abject...

In brief:All Jhanas contains Samadhibut not all degrees of Samadhiare Jhanas...

: - ] Friendship is the GREATEST! The whole motivation of the Noble life! : - ]