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**Teprophopay** · 04-29-2012, 10:34 PM

If Vipassana is the meditation of release from Samsara, how do the rest of the meditational "topics" per se meet with that towards a Nibbana goal?

I am not too sure if the statement "Vipassana is the meditation of release" is accurate. IMO, the prominence here is jhana. "Jhana-induced vipassana is the path to release".

There are a lot of debates as to what the Buddha's unique discovery was: jhana or vipassana. I have a feeling the kind of jhana leading to wisdom is unique to Buddhism because real jhana is not achievable without the noble 8-fold path which the Buddha discovered. Sila (morality), samadhi (tranquility) and panna (wisdom) are developed through the 8-fold path. Without mastering the 8-fold path, real jhana is not possible.

Vipassana (direct insight) happens naturally in a mind that is free from the five hindrances. It is the five hindrances that nourish ignorance. Jhana occurs in meditation as the mind becomes free from the five hindrances. Therefore, it is jhana-induced insight that leads to Nibbana, imo.

In MN 36, the Buddha recalls rapture and pleasure of jhana and how he discerned jhana as the path to awakening:

"I thought: 'I recall once, when my father the Sakyan was working, and I was sitting in the cool shade of a rose-apple tree, then — quite secluded from sensuality, secluded from unskillful mental qualities — I entered & remained in the first jhana: rapture & pleasure born from seclusion, accompanied by directed thought & evaluation. Could that be the path to Awakening?' Then following on that memory came the realization: 'That is the path to Awakening.'

04-29-2012, 10:34 PM	#3
Teprophopay Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 523 Senior Member	If Vipassana is the meditation of release from Samsara, how do the rest of the meditational "topics" per se meet with that towards a Nibbana goal? I am not too sure if the statement "Vipassana is the meditation of release" is accurate. IMO, the prominence here is jhana. "Jhana-induced vipassana is the path to release". There are a lot of debates as to what the Buddha's unique discovery was: jhana or vipassana. I have a feeling the kind of jhana leading to wisdom is unique to Buddhism because real jhana is not achievable without the noble 8-fold path which the Buddha discovered. Sila (morality), samadhi (tranquility) and panna (wisdom) are developed through the 8-fold path. Without mastering the 8-fold path, real jhana is not possible. Vipassana (direct insight) happens naturally in a mind that is free from the five hindrances. It is the five hindrances that nourish ignorance. Jhana occurs in meditation as the mind becomes free from the five hindrances. Therefore, it is jhana-induced insight that leads to Nibbana, imo. In MN 36, the Buddha recalls rapture and pleasure of jhana and how he discerned jhana as the path to awakening: "I thought: 'I recall once, when my father the Sakyan was working, and I was sitting in the cool shade of a rose-apple tree, then — quite secluded from sensuality, secluded from unskillful mental qualities — I entered & remained in the first jhana: rapture & pleasure born from seclusion, accompanied by directed thought & evaluation. Could that be the path to Awakening?' Then following on that memory came the realization: 'That is the path to Awakening.'
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