[onlineslotetes]

Hi Kaarrine,
Thanks for the reply.
They are merely "peaceful abidings" for those who maintain views on self and overrate their status.
(notes) Comy.: "The overrater's meditative absorption is neither 'effacement' nor is it the 'path of practice for effacement' (sallekha-patipada). And why not? Because that jhana is not used by him as a basis for insight http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipit....008.nypo.html

"Cunda, as to those several views that arise in the world concerning self-doctrines and world-doctrines, if [the object] in which these views arise, in which they underlie and become active, is seen with right wisdom as it actually is, thus: 'This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self' — then the abandoning of these views, their discarding, takes place in him [who thus sees]. None of the above occur in the examples Buddha is providing. Here we see Buddha contrasting his teachings on Jhana with the other religions who hold self-views of one kind or another.

11. "It may be that, by entirely transcending the sphere of nothingness, some monk enters and abides in the sphere of neither-perception-nor-non-perception; and he then might think: 'I am abiding in effacement.' But in the Noble One's discipline it is not these [attainments] that are called 'effacement'; in the Noble one's discipline they are called 'peaceful abidings.' Perhaps the monk in this example has just discovered Tat Tvam Asi!

Where the Buddha recognizes as a path to arahantship through tranquility and insight. I don't know if Jhanna is about both of this attainments. Yes, very much so. That's my point.

Namaste
kris