Mike, I would appreciate hearing your views on Jeffrey's assertions
below, based on your personal experiences.
Thanks, ED
Hello Luis, and welcome to the JSG.
We have spent the last 40 years examining how the terms samadhi and
jhana are understood by Buddhism.
When we find that the terms 'samadhi' and 'jhana' are generally
interpreted as 'concentration' by priests, translators and teachers of
Buddhist philosophy and religion;
Whereas, if one were to study the Discourses of the Buddha in its
original Pali language, and read the Christian mystics, such as: Teresa
of Avila and John of the Cross, then we can see that 'contemplation' is
the correct translation of the terms 'samadhi' and 'jhana;' we thus must
begin to question how well these priests,
translators and teachers of Buddhist philosophy and religion understand
their own religion well enough to teach it.
Then, we also commonly find priests, translators and teachers of
Buddhist philosophy and religion claim that samadhi and jhana are
optional; whereas, the Buddha defined them as the 8th fold of his Noble
Eightfold Path. This means these priests, translators and teachers of
Buddhist philosophy and religion must be unworthy to teach Buddhist
philosophy and religion, because they are only
teaching a 7-fold path, not an 8 fold path.
Then, we find some priests, translators and teachers of Buddhist
philosophy and religion claim that one must remain in meditation for 4
hour intervals while on retreat to experience jhana. We can only
conclude that such priests, translators and teachers of Buddhist
philosophy and religion also clearly do not know what samadhi and jhana
are. With the above problems in the interpretation of Buddhist
philosophy and religion we have to conclude that very few priests,
translators and teachers of Buddhist philosophy and religion understand
it
sufficiently to teach it.
In nearly 40 years of daily meditation practice I have found that
samadhi and jhana can be achieved by anyone simply by maintaining a
daily meditation practie that is sensitive to the phenomena of
contemplation, which is the same as samadhi and jhana. These phenomena
include: Bliss (piiti), joy (sukha), tranquility (passaddhi), equanimity
(upekkha), energy (viriya), and freedom from suffering (adhukkha).
Best regards, Jeffrey
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Jhanas/message/18286
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Jhanas/message/18286>
