The
Buddha says that just as in the great ocean there is but one taste, the taste of
salt, so in his doctrine and discipline there is but one taste, the taste of
freedom. The taste of freedom that pervades the Buddha’s teaching is the taste
of spiritual freedom, which from the Buddhist perspective means freedom from
suffering. In the process leading to deliverance from suffering, meditation is
the means of generating the inner awakening required for liberation. The methods
of meditation taught in the Theravada Buddhist tradition are based on the
Buddha’s own experience forged by him in the course of his own quest for
enlightenment. They are designed to re-create in the disciple who practises them
the same essential enlightenment that the Buddha himself attained when he sat
beneath the Bodhi tree, the awakening to the Four Noble Truths.
The
various subjects and methods of meditation expounded in the Theravada Buddhist
scriptures - the Pali Canon and its commentaries - divide into two inter-related
systems. One is called the development of serenity (samatha-bhāvanā), the other the development of insight (vipassanā-bhāvanā).
The former also goes under the name of the development of concentration (samādhi-bhāvanā), the latter the development of wisdom (pańńā-bhāvanā).
The practice of serenity meditation aims at developing a calm, concentrated,
unified mind as a means of experiencing inner peace and as a basis for wisdom.
The practice of insight meditation aims at gaining a direct understanding of the
real nature of phenomena. Of the two, the development of insight is regarded by
Buddhism as the essential key to liberation, the direct antidote to the
ignorance underlying bondage and suffering. Whereas serenity meditation is
recognised as common to both Buddhist and non-Buddhist contemplative
disciplines, insight meditation is held to be the unique discovery of the Buddha
and an unparalleled feature of his path. However, because the growth of insight
presupposes a certain degree of concentration, and serenity meditation helps to
achieve this, the development of serenity also claims an incontestable place in
the Buddhist meditative process. Together the two types of meditation work to
make the mind a fit instrument for enlightenment. With his mind unified by means
of the development of serenity, made sharp and bright by the development of
insight, the meditator can proceed unobstructed to reach the end of suffering,
Nibbāna.
Pivotal
to both systems of meditation, though belonging inherently to the side of
serenity, is a set of meditative attainments called the jhānas. Though
translators have offered various renderings of this word, ranging from the
feeble „musing“ to the misleading „trance“ and the ambiguous
„meditation,“ we prefer to leave the word un-translated and to let its
meaning emerge from its contextual usage. From these it is clear that the jhānas
are states of deep mental unification which result from the centring of the mind
upon a single object with such power of attention that a total immersion in the
object takes place. The early suttas speak of four jhānas, named simply after
their numerical position in the series: the first jhāna, the second jhāna, the
third jhāna and the fourth jhāna. In the suttas the four repeatedly appear
each described by a standard formula, which we will examine later in detail.
The
importance of the jhānas in the Buddhist path can readily be gauged from the
frequency with which they are mentioned throughout the suttas. The jhānas
figure prominently both in the Buddha’s own experience and in his exhortation
to disciples. In his childhood, while attending an annual ploughing festival,
the future Buddha spontaneously entered the first jhāna. It was the memory of
this childhood incident, many years later after his futile pursuit of
austerities, that revealed to him the way to enlightenment during his period of
deepest despondency (M.i.246-47). After taking his seat beneath the Bodhi
tree, the Buddha entered the four jhānas immediately before directing his mind
to the threefold knowledge that issued in his enlightenment (M.i.247-49).
Throughout his active career the four jhānas remained „his heavenly
dwelling“ (D.iii.220) to which he resorted in order to live happily here and
now. His understanding of the corruption, purification and emergence in the jhānas
and other meditative attainments is one of the Tathāgata’s ten powers which
enable him to turn the matchless wheel of the Dhamma (M.i.70). Just before his
passing away the Buddha entered the jhānas in direct and reverse order, and the
passing away itself took place directly from the fourth jhāna (D.ii.156).
The
Buddha is constantly seen in the suttas encouraging his disciples to develop jhāna.
The four jhānas are invariably included in the complete course of training laid
down for disciples.[1] They figure in the
training as the discipline of higher consciousness (adhicittasikkhā), right concentration (sammā samādhi) of the Noble Eightfold Path, and the faculty and
power of concentration (samādhindriya,
samādhibala). Though a vehicle of dry insight can be found, indications are
that this path is not an easy one, lacking the aid of the powerful serenity
available to the practitioner of jhāna. The way of the jhāna attainer seems by
comparison smoother and more pleasurable (A.ii.150-52). The Buddha even refers
to the four jhānas figuratively as a kind of Nibbāna: he calls them
immediately visible Nibbāna, factorial Nibbāna, Nibbāna here and now
(A.iv.453-54).
To
attain the jhānas, the meditator must begin by eliminating the unwholesome
mental states obstructing inner collectedness, generally grouped together as the
five hindrances (pańcanivaranā):
sensual desire, ill will, sloth and torpor, restlessness and worry, and doubt.[2]
The mind’s absorption on its object is brought about by five opposing mental
states - applied thought, sustained thought, rapture, happiness and
one-pointedness[3] - called the jhāna
factors (jhānangāni) because they
lift the mind to the level of the first jhāna and remain there as its defining
components.
After
reaching the first jhāna the ardent meditator can go on to reach the higher jhānas,
which is done by eliminating the coarser factors in each jhāna while aiming at
the superior purity of the next higher jhāna. Beyond the four jhānas lies
another fourfold set of higher meditative states which deepen still further the
element of serenity. These attainments, known as the formless or immaterial
attainments (āruppā), are the base
of boundless space, the base of boundless consciousness, the base of
nothingness, and the base of neither-perception-nor-non-perception.[4]
In the Pali commentaries these come to be called the ‘four immaterial jhānas’
(arūpa-jhāna), the four preceding
stages being renamed, for the sake of clarity, the ‘four fine-material jhānas’
(rūpajjhāna). Often the two sets are
joined together under the collective title of the eight jhānas or the eight
attainments (atthasamāpattiyo).
The four
jhānas and the four immaterial attainments appear initially as mundane states
of deep serenity pertaining to the preliminary stage of the Buddhist path, and
on this level they help provide the base of concentration needed for wisdom to
arise. But the four jhānas again reappear in a later stage in the development
of the path, in direct association with liberating wisdom, and they are then
designated the supramundane (lokuttara)
jhānas. These supramundane jhānas are the levels of concentration pertaining
to the four degrees of enlightenment experience called the supramundane paths (magga)
and the stages of liberation resulting from them, the four fruits (phala).
Finally, even after full liberation is achieved, the mundane jhānas can still remain as attainments available to the fully liberated person, part of his untrammelled contemplative experience.
[1]See, for example, the Sāmańńaphala Sutta (D. 2), the Cūllahatthipadopama Sutta (M.27), etc.
[2]Kāmacchanda, byāpāda, thīnamiddha, uddhaccakukkucca, vicikicchā.
[3]Vitakka, vicāra, pīti, sukha, ekaggatā.
[4]ākāsānańcāyatana, vińńānańcāyatana, ākińcańńāyatana, nevasańńanāsańńāyatana.
The
great Buddhist commentator Buddhaghosa traces the Pali word „jhāna“ (Skt. dhyāna)
to two verbal forms. One, the etymologically correct derivation, is the verb jhāyati, meaning to think or meditate; the other is a more playful
derivation, intended to illuminate its function rather than its verbal source,
from the verb jhāpeti meaning to burn
up, explains: „It burns up opposing states, thus it is called jhāna“
(Vin.A.i.116), the purport being that jhāna „burns up“ or destroys the
mental defilements preventing the development of serenity and insight.
In the
same passage Buddhaghosa says that jhāna has the characteristic mark of
contemplation (upanijjhāna).
Contemplation, he states, is twofold: the contemplation of the object and the
contemplation of the characteristics of phenomena. The former is exercised by
the eight attainments of serenity together with their access, since these
contemplate the object used as the basis for developing concentration; for this
reason these attainments are given the name „jhāna“ in the mainstream of
Pali meditative exposition. However, Buddhaghosa also allows that the term „jhāna“
can be extended loosely to insight (vipassanā),
the paths and the fruits on the ground that these perform the work of
contemplating the characteristics of things - the three marks of impermanence,
suffering and non-self in the case of insight, Nibbāna in the case of the paths
and fruits.
In brief
the twofold meaning of jhāna as „contemplation“ and „burning up“ can be
brought into connection with the meditative process as follows. By fixing his
mind on the object the meditator reduces and eliminates the lower mental
qualities such as the five hindrances and promotes the growth of the higher
qualities such as the jhāna factors, which lead the mind to complete absorption
in the object. Then, by contemplating the characteristics of phenomena with
insight, the meditator eventually reaches the supramundane jhāna of the four
paths, and with this jhāna he burns up the defilements and attains the
liberating experience of the fruits.
In the
vocabulary of Buddhist meditation the word „jhāna“ is closely connected
with another word, „samādhi“
generally rendered by „concentration.“ Samādhi
derives from the prefixed verbal root sam-ā-dhā,
meaning to collect or to bring together, thus suggesting the concentration or
unification of the mind. The word „samādhi“
is almost interchangeable with the word „samatha,“
serenity, though the latter comes from a different root, sam, meaning to become calm.
In the
suttas samādhi is defined as mental
one-pointedness, (cittass’ekaggata,
M.i,301) and this definition is followed through rigorously in the Abhidhamma.
The Abhidhamma treats one-pointedness as a distinct mental factor present in
every state of consciousness, exercising the function of unifying the mind on
its object. From this strict psychological standpoint samādhi can be present in unwholesome states of consciousness as
well as in wholesome and neutral states. In its unwholesome forms it is called
„wrong concentration“ (micchāsamādhi),
in its wholesome forms „right concentration“ (sammāsamādhi).
In
expositions on the practice of meditation, however, samādhi is limited to one-pointedness of mind (Vism. 84-85;
PP.84-85), and even here we can understand from the context that the word means
only the wholesome one-pointedness involved in the deliberate transmutation of
the mind to a heightened level of calm. Thus Buddhaghosa explains samādhi
etymologically as „ the centring of consciousness and consciousness
concomitants evenly and rightly on a single object … the state in virtue of
which consciousness and its concomitants remain evenly and rightly on a single
object, undistracted and unscattered“ (Vism.84-85; PP.85).
However,
despite the commentator’s bid for consistency, the word samādhi is used in the Pali literature on meditation with varying
degrees of specificity of meaning. In the narrowest sense, as defined by
Buddhaghosa, it denotes the particular mental factor responsible for the
concentrating of the mind, namely, one-pointedness. In a wider sense it can
signify the states of unified consciousness that result from the strengthening
of concentration, i. e. the meditative attainments of serenity and the stages
leading up to them. And in a still wider sense the word samādhi can be applied to the method of practice used to produce
and cultivate those refined states of concentration, here being equivalent to
the development of serenity.
It is in
the second sense that samādhi and jhāna
come closest in meaning. The Buddha explains right concentration as the four jhānas
(D.ii,313), and in doing so allows concentration to encompass the meditative
attainments signified by the jhānas. However, even though jhāna and samādhi
can overlap in denotation, certain differences in their suggested and contextual
meanings prevent unqualified identification of the two terms. First, behind the
Buddha’s use of the jhāna formula to explain right concentration lies a more
technical understanding of the terms. According to this understanding samādhi
can be narrowed down in range to signify only one mental factor, the most
prominent in the jhāna, namely, one-pointedness, while the word „jhāna“
itself must be seen as encompassing the state of consciousness in its entirety,
or at least the whole group of mental factors individuating that meditative
state as a jhāna.
In the
second place, when samādhi is considered in its broader meaning it involves a
wider range of reference than jhāna. The Pali exegetical tradition recognises
three levels of samādhi preliminary concentration (parikamma-samādhi) which is produced as a result of the
meditator’s initial efforts to focus his mind on his meditation subject;
access concentration (upacāra-samādhi),
marked by the suppression of the five hindrances, the manifestation of the jhāna
factors, and the appearance of a luminous mental replica of the meditation
object called the counterpart sign (patibhāganimitta); and absorption concentration (appanā-samādhi),
the complete immersion of the mind in its object effected by the full maturation
of the jhāna factors.[1]
Absorption concentration comprises the eight attainments, the four jhānas and
the four immaterial attainments, and to this extent jhāna and samādhi
coincide. However, samādhi still has a broader scope than jhāna, since it
includes not only the jhānas themselves but also the two preparatory degrees of
concentration leading up to them. Further, samādhi also covers a still
different type of concentration called momentary concentration (khanika-samādhi),
the mobile mental stabilisation produced in the course of insight contemplation
on the passing flow of phenomena.
[1]See Nārada, A Manual of Abhidhamma, 4th ed. (Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1980), pp. 389, 395-96.