I consider the notion that the jhānas are intrinsically soteriological. When discussing reasons for a neglect of the jhānas as a means to liberating insight, I refer to the commentarial literature, but otherwise I take as primary sources, texts from the Sutta Piṭaka. For insight to arise after the first jhāna, it would have to be unmediated by concepts, as discursive thinking is then absent. I argue that the meditative practice of bare cognition occurs optimally in the fourth jhāna. Alexander Wynne has described this practice as characterised by mindfulness, equanimity and absence of mental construction, and as a way of de-conditioning our tendency to mental proliferation and views. Bare cognition also allows a refined observation of the rise and fall of phenomena leading to insight into impermanence. Not only was jhāna a practice of the Buddha and his early followers, but, as indicated by accounts in early texts of the Sutta Nipāta and Udāna, bare cognition was also. Indeed, a misinterpretation of the Pāli word apilāpanatā may have led to sati (mindfulness) being interpreted as more active and focused, compared to an earlier view of mindfulness as a receptive, non-interfering monitoring. I additionally argue that the non-conceptual experience of jhānic pīti and sukha, by attenuating our attachment to sensual pleasure, leads to insight. I conclude that jhānic experience induces insight directly and may take us to a point at which liberation is virtually assured.
目次
INTRODUCTION 67 THE JHĀNAS OF THE SUTTAS (DISCOURSES) 71 A NEGLECT OF THE JHĀNAS AS A PATH TO INSIGHT 71 A DIRECT JHĀNIC PATH TO LIBERATING INSIGHT 74 IS INTELLECTUAL UNDERSTANDING SUFFICIENT FOR LIBERATION? 75 THE NATURE OF INSIGHT-PRODUCING JHĀNA 75 HOW THE JHĀNAS MAY PRODUCE INSIGHT DIRECTLY 76 JHĀNIC PĪTI AND SUKHA 82 AGAINST JHĀNAS FOR INSIGHT 84 JHĀNA AND NIBBĀNA 85 CONCLUSIONS 87 PERSONAL REFLECTIONS 87 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 89 ABBREVIATIONS 89 BIBLIOGRAPHY 89
