What is this Sublime & Profound Right
Concentration ?
The Noble Eightfold
Way, leading to Nibbāna, is simply this: Right View,
Right Motivation,
Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort,
Right Awareness, & Right Concentration. But what is Right
Concentration ?
The 4-fold Definition & Characterization
of Right Concentration: Jhāna!
Having eliminated the 5 mental
hindrances, mental defects that obstruct
understanding, quite secluded
from sensual desires, protected from any
detrimental mental state, one
enters & dwells in the 1st jhana; full of joy &
pleasure born of solitude, joined with directed & sustained thought.
One
makes this joy & pleasure born of seclusion drench, saturate,
soak, and
suffuse the body, so that no part of the entire body is
unperfused by this
joy & pleasure! Just as a skilled bath-man puts
soap powder in a copper
basin & sprinkling it gradually with water,
whips it until the water soaks &
pervades all the soap powder, yet
without dripping, so too, do the friend
make the joy & pleasure born
of solitude permeate & pervade the entire body.
Again, friends, with
the stilling of directed & sustained thought, one enters
& dwells
in the 2nd jhana, calmed assurance & unification of mind with
joy &
pleasure now born of concentration, devoid of any thought! One
makes the
joy & pleasure born of concentration drench, saturate, soak,
and suffuse
the body, so no part of the whole body is unperfused by this
joy & pleasure:
Just as a lake whose waters welled up from below
within it itself, & it had
no other sources neither by showers of
rain, then this cool fount of water
welling up from within would suffuse,
fill, & pervade the entire lake, so do
one make this joy & pleasure
born of concentration infuse this entire body!
Again, friends, with the
fading away of joy, the friend dwells in equanimity,
aware & clearly
comprehending, still feeling pleasure in the body, one enters
upon &
remains in the 3rd jhana, regarding which the Noble Ones declare:
'In aware equanimity one dwells in pleasure!' One makes the pleasure
apart
from of joy flood, saturate, soak, and suffuse the body, so that
there is no
part of one's whole body unperfused by this pleasure divested
of joy. Just as
in a lotus pond some lotuses are born, grow & thrive
immersed under the water &
the cool water soaks them from their roots
to their tips, so too, do a friend make
the pleasure divested of joy
drench, fill, flood and pervade this entire body.
Again, friends, with the
leaving behind of both pleasure and pain, & with the
prior
disappearance of both joy & sorrow, one enters & dwells in
the 4th jhana; a stilled
mental state of awareness, purified by
an equanimity of neither-pain-nor-pleasure.
One sits illuminating the body
internally with this pure bright mind, so that there
is no part of one's
whole body not illuminated by this pure bright mind! Just as a
man were
sitting covered from the head down with a white cloth, so that no part
of
his whole body was uncovered by this white textile; so one sits
encompassing
this entire body with a pure bright radiant mind, so that
there is no part of one's
whole body not illuminated by this pure bright
and luminous mind...
No trivial worldly pleasure surpasses such sublime
bliss!
