從世尊對外道禪法的批判來探析「佛四禪」成立過程可能存在的內在理路=An exploratory study on how Buddhist four jhānas may be internally related during the formation process: From the aspect of how non-Buddhist meditation practices were criticized by the Buddha
The imperative of four jhānas system in Buddhist liberation is well documented in the Āgamas or Nikāyas. Its origination, however, remains disputed among scholars. Some held that Buddhist thoughts on mediation just could not be possibly generated from a vacuum, for it may have been susceptible to the thoughts of Brahmanism or other samaṇa traditions that existed before the time of the Buddha. Others, however, seeing its soteriological role in Buddhist liberation and no completed documentation of four jhānas system were uncovered among non-Buddhist literature that pre-dated the Buddha, have come to conclude the system to be the Buddha‟s initiation. Either way, no focal study seems to have been conducted investigating how the meditation system was initiated and why it is to be so. By raising the question of “how the Buddha may have criticized meditation techniques of the heretics that formed a part of his earlier practice”, this study intended to deconstruct or to restore the likely formation process of the Buddhist four jhānas. Results from employing two analytic modes by Walters (1999) indicated that the Buddha‟s critiques, later, were mostly reflected on the composed factors of the four jhānas. Without these heretical experiences, Gotama could not have made breakthrough in his contemplative practice back then. The breakthrough characterizing the four jhānas includes “not rejecting joy and happiness from nonsensuous and non-unwholesome dharmas sources” and “rightawakening is the aim”, which crystallized the Buddha‟s enlightenment from his heretical experiences. That is, the joy and happiness should be accepted as nutrients necessary to pacify the body and mind in the meditation process. In the end, however, they too should be forsaken just like “the raft is for the crossing” so as to manifest the rightawakening, so as to prepare the mind for a workable foundation for ultimate liberation. It is also in this contextual vein that a more proper interpretation was found for the pāli composite word “upekkhā-satipārisuddhiṃ”; its role in the practice of the forth jhāna was further discussed.
