[Vapepreab]

Anyone heard of the Jhana deep versus Jhana light debate?

Just thought I'd ask. Any opinions?

The leading exponent of the Jhana deep school is the ex-pat (virtually deified in OZ) Brit Ajahn Brahm.

Check out his take on the factors of all Jhanas (including the first)
The Five Senses are Fully Shut Off. Another strange quality that distinguishes Jhana from all other experiences is that within Jhana all the five senses are totally shut down. One cannot see, one cannot hear, one cannot smell, taste nor feel touch. One cannot hear the sound of the birds, nor a person coughing. Even if there were a thunderclap nearby, it wouldn't be heard in a Jhana. If someone tapped one on the shoulder, or picked one up and let one down, in Jhana one cannot know this. The mind in Jhana is so completely cut off from these five senses that they cannot break in.*

* Although sound can disturb the first Jhana, the fact is that when one perceives the sound, one is no longer in Jhana. His famous anecdote:


A lay disciple once told me how he had "fluked" a deep Jhana while meditating at home. His wife thought he had died and sent for an ambulance. He was rushed to hospital in a wail of loud sirens. In the emergency room, there was no heartbeat registered on the E.C.G., nor brain activity to be seen by the E.E.G. So the doctor on put defibrillators on his chest to reactivate his heart. Even though he was being bounced up and down on the hospital bed through the force of the electric shocks, he didn't feel a thing! When he emerged from the Jhana in the emergency room, perfectly all right, he had no knowledge of how he had got there, nor of ambulances and sirens, nor of body-jerking defibrillators. All that long time that he was in Jhana, he was fully aware, but only of bliss. This is an example of what is meant by the five senses shutting down within the experience of Jhana. Get the picture.



· SUMMARY OF THE LANDMARKS OF ALL JHANAS

It is helpful to know, then, that within a Jhana:

1. There is no possibility of thought;

2. No decision making process is available;

3. There is no perception of time;

4. Consciousness is non-dual, making comprehension inaccessible;

5. Yet one is very, very aware, but only of bliss that doesn't move; and

6. The five senses are fully shut off, and only the sixth sense, mind, is in operation. http://www.what-buddha-taught.net/Bo...The_Jhanas.htm

Now does this accord with the factors of Jhana, as listed in the suttas? Some say it doesn't. What do you guys think:

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipit....111.than.html

"There was the case where Sariputta — quite secluded from sensuality, secluded from unskillful qualities — entered & remained in the first jhana: rapture & pleasure born of seclusion, accompanied by directed thought & evaluation. Whatever qualities there are in the first jhana — directed thought, evaluation, rapture, pleasure, singleness of mind, contact, feeling, perception, intention, consciousness,[2] desire, decision, persistence, mindfulness, equanimity, & attention — he ferreted them out one after another. Known to him they arose, known to him they remained, known to him they subsided. He discerned, 'So this is how these qualities, not having been, come into play. Having been, they vanish.' Doesn't look like the same thing Ajahn Brahm is describing. We see contact, feeling and perception listed in the sutta rather than a complete shut off of the five senses.

This total shut off is equated with the formless states, in particular with the "cessation of feeling & perception" as its name implies.

Thus Jhana Deep and Jhana Light.

Any thoughts?