AN 6.70 samādhi: JST do it. (Jhāna sandwich theorem)

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Synopsis

Without a quality of samādhi that is peaceful, sublime, undistractable, lucid, properly pacified, unified, the 6 higher knowledges, with arahantship attainment being the 6th, is not possible.
From other suttas, we know this must mean the samādhi must be 4th jhāna quality or higher. Unification (ekodhi-bhava) is a primary characteristic of second jhāna, and santa&panita (peaceful and sublime) may be an epithet for something better than 4th jhāna.

AN 6.70 Samādhi

samādhi-suttaṃ n (AN 6.70)
 AN 6.70 undistractable-lucidity
♦ 70. “‘so vata, bhikkhave, bhikkhu
 “Monks, (for a) monk
na santena samādhinā na paṇītena
 (of) not peaceful undistractable-lucidty, not exquisite,
na paṭip-passaddhi-laddhena
 not properly-pacified-(and not having)-obtained (that),
na ekodi-bhāv-ādhigatena
 not unified-****-(and)-attained (to that),

[it is not possible that he could do the STED 6ab (abhiñña, #6 is arahantship) ]

anekavihitaṃ iddhividhaṃ paccanubhavissati — ekopi hutvā bahudhā bhavissati, bahudhāpi hutvā eko bhavissati ... pe ... yāva brahmalokāpi kāyena vasaṃ vattessatī’ti netaṃ ṭhānaṃ vijjati. ‘dibbāya sotadhātuyā visuddhāya atikkantamānusikāya ubho sadde suṇissati — dibbe ca mānuse ca ye dūre santike cā’ti netaṃ ṭhānaṃ vijjati. ‘parasattānaṃ parapuggalānaṃ cetasā ceto paricca pajānissati — sarāgaṃ vā cittaṃ sarāgaṃ cittanti pajānissati ... pe ... vimuttaṃ vā cittaṃ vimuttaṃ cittanti pajānissatī’ti netaṃ ṭhānaṃ vijjati. ‘anekavihitaṃ pubbenivāsaṃ anussarissati, seyyathidaṃ — ekampi jātiṃ, dvepi jātiyo ... pe ... iti sākāraṃ sauddesaṃ anekavihitaṃ pubbenivāsaṃ anussarissatī’ti netaṃ ṭhānaṃ vijjati. ‘dibbena cakkhunā visuddhena atikkantamānusakena satte passissati ... pe ... yathākammūpage satte pajānissatī’ti netaṃ ṭhānaṃ vijjati. ‘āsavānaṃ khayā ... pe ... sacchikatvā upasampajja viharissatī’ti
 could wield the various kinds of psychic potency: having been one, he could become many … [all abridged passages here as in 6:2] … he could exercise mastery with the body as far as the brahmā world. (2) It is impossible that with the divine ear element, which is purified and surpasses the human, he could hear both kinds of sounds, the divine and human, those that are far as well as near. (3) It is impossible that he could understand the minds of other beings and persons, having encompassed them with his own mind; that he could understand a mind with lust as a mind with lust … an unliberated mind as unliberated. (4) It is impossible that he could recollect his manifold past abodes … [426] with their aspects and details. (5) It is impossible that with the divine eye, which is purified and surpasses the human, he could see beings passing away and being reborn … and could understand how beings fare in accordance with their kamma. (6) It is impossible that with the destruction of the taints, he could realize for himself with direct knowledge, in this very life, the taintless liberation of mind, liberation by wisdom, and having entered upon it, could dwell in it.
n-etaṃ ṭhānaṃ vijjati.
 No-[way]-this condition (can) exist.

(same idea restated as complementary opposite)

♦ “‘so vata, bhikkhave, bhikkhu
 [but] “Monks, (for a) monk
santena samādhinā paṇītena
 (with) peaceful, undistractable-lucidty, exquisite,
paṭip-passaddhi-laddhena
 properly-pacified-(and)-obtained,
ekodi-bhāv-ādhigatena
 unified-****-(and)-attained (to that),

[it IS possible that he could do the STED 6ab (abhiñña, #6 is arahantship)]

anekavihitaṃ iddhividhaṃ paccanubhavissati ... pe ... yāva brahmalokāpi kāyena vasaṃ vattessatī’ti ṭhānametaṃ vijjati. ‘dibbāya sotadhātuyā visuddhāya atikkantamānusikāya ubho sadde suṇissati — dibbe ca mānuse ca ye dūre santike cā’ti ṭhānametaṃ vijjati. ‘parasattānaṃ parapuggalānaṃ cetasā ceto paricca pajānissati — sarāgaṃ vā cittaṃ sarāgaṃ cittanti pajānissati ... pe ... vimuttaṃ vā cittaṃ vimuttaṃ cittanti pajānissatī’ti ṭhānametaṃ vijjati. ‘anekavihitaṃ pubbenivāsaṃ anussarissati, seyyathidaṃ — ekampi jātiṃ, dvepi jātiyo ... pe ... iti sākāraṃ sauddesaṃ anekavihitaṃ pubbenivāsaṃ anussarissatī’ti ṭhānametaṃ vijjati. ‘dibbena cakkhunā visuddhena atikkantamānusakena satte passissati cavamāne upapajjamāne hīne paṇīte suvaṇṇe dubbaṇṇe, sugate duggate yathākammūpage satte pajānissatī’ti ṭhānametaṃ vijjati. ‘āsavānaṃ khayā anāsavaṃ cetovimuttiṃ ... pe ... sacchikatvā upasampajja viharissatī’ti
 could wield the various kinds of psychic potency … (2) could hear both kinds of sounds, the divine and human, those that are far as well as near … (3) could understand the minds of other beings and persons, having encompassed them with his own mind … (4) could recollect his manifold past abodes with their aspects and details … (5) could, with the divine eye, which is purified and surpasses the human, see beings passing away and being reborn … and could understand how beings fare in accordance with their kamma … (6) with the destruction of the taints, could realize for himself with direct knowledge, in this very life, the taintless liberation of mind, liberation by wisdom, and having entered upon it, could dwell in it.”
ṭhānametaṃ vijjatī”ti.
 {this}-condition (can) exist.
chaṭṭhaṃ.
 (end of sutta)
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JST (jhana sandwich theorem)

  1. Arahantship and non-return requires 4th jhāna quality of samādhi or better.
  2. The various psychic powers in the 6ab (abhiñña) require 4th jhāna or higher.

The jhana sandwich is this. The slice of bread on the bottom is virtue + other foundational qualities, the top slice is arahantship (or a momentary direct, experiential nirvana). The filling is lettuce, tomatoes, and many slices of samādhi.

The theorem states those slices of samadhi must be 4th jhana or higher.

This is implied by the vast majority of suttas in the EBT that mention nirvana/arahantship with gradual training instructions. But are there any suttas that explicitly state 4th jhana or better is required?

AN 6.70 is the closest I’ve seen, but it doesn’t actually say 4th jhana. The samadhi described, is the same one as in AN 3.101, minus the gold simile, and AN 3.101 also doesn’t explicitly name any of the 4j.

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Could you say again, ‘required for what?’, for arahantship?

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Yes, arahantship, or all 6 abhinna, or just 3 higher abhinna, anything that’s definitive and not just implying. The jhana sandwich theorem says, even if you can see lettuce and other veggies, and you can’t see the veggie protein pattie in the middle, by JST, 4th jhana must be a pattie in there somewhere, even if the text doesn’t explicitly say 4j.

The susima sutta for example, doesn’t mention 4j, but attains arahantship following anatta lakkhana type insight. In this excerpt, the questioner is astounded that an arahant doesn’t have formless samadhi, or any of the 6 abhiñña excluding destruction of asavas. By JST, the arahant must have had 4j quality samadhi to attain arhanatship. I view anatta lakhana sutta with 5 bhikkhus attaining arahantship, and fire sermon with 1000 attaining arahantship the same way. By JST, they had 4th jhana quality samadhi. The THOX (theravda orthodox) position seems to be, they were either dry insight arahants, or “people in those days were just better quality”. I trust in the JST, at least it’s the safest assumption to make. I wouldn’t want to shoot for only first jhana and hope that’s enough for arahantship.

SN 12.70 liberated by wisdom

some monks declare arahantship, susima asks them if they have 5 abhinna, arupa samadhi, they say no.
♦ “api pana tumhe āyasmanto evaṃ jānantā evaṃ passantā ye te santā vimokkhā atikkamma rūpe āruppā, te kāyena phusitvā viharathā”ti?
 “Then knowing and seeing thus, do you venerable ones dwell in those peaceful deliverances that transcend forms, the formless attainments, having touched them with the body?”208
“no hetaṃ, āvuso”.
 “No, friend.”
♦ “ettha dāni āyasmanto idañca veyyākaraṇaṃ imesañca dhammānaṃ asamāpatti; idaṃ no, āvuso, kathan”ti?
 21“Here now, venerable ones: this answer and the nonattainment of those states, how could this be, friends?”209 ""
“paññāvimuttā kho mayaṃ, āvuso susimā”ti.
 22“We are liberated by wisdom, friend Susı̄ma.”210
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@frankk, I really do appreciate your work; but I just can’t understand how you still rely, like many people on this site, on suttas that don’t have parallels.

This site is supposed to bank on EBTs, which are usually affiliated with suttas that have, at least, one true parallel with the issue at stake.

Relying on purely Theravadan suttas, does not mean that they might not have had, a lost parallel at the time. But the odds are against a proper understanding of the Dhamma.
For if they are “added” suttas, I just can’t see how good that can be.
It can be pretty confusing.

While, relying on Nikaya suttas with parallels (mostly in SA - which covers most of Buddha’s philosophical ism), would be much more decipherable.
There are approximately 1300 suttas corresponding to the above - and they do cover a much clearer message; in which there is no ambiguity.

I say that, and I say nothing.
Keep the good work!

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I’m still confused. Are you saying that no matter if arahantship mentions 4th jhana or not the jhana is still there ‘implicitly’? But I guess you mean something I don’t get yet, because the ‘reading into’ suttas something that is not there would not be a strong stand…

A sutta that says that higher than 1st jhana is not necessary is AN 11.16 (mirrored in MN 52):

a bhikkhu enters and dwells in the first jhāna… He considers this and understands it thus: ‘This first jhāna is constructed and produced by volition (abhisaṅkhataṃ abhisañcetayitaṃ). But whatever is constructed and produced by volition is anicca, subject to nirodha.’ If he is firm in this, he attains the destruction of the āsavā.

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A few problems, in no special order:

  1. we don’t yet have a complete list of agama parallels
  2. the agama parallels are in chinese, having gone through some interpretation process to translate from sanskrit. Classical chinese is really difficult to understand, even for erudite chinese born chinese literature experts. It really takes someone who is both highly chinese literate, and an EBT expert. And the problem when you have an EBT expert, who is well read in pali EBT, it’s going to tend to influence how they interpret and translate the chinese into english.
  3. the agama collections are not complete. They draw from 3 or more early schools, and we only have parts of each. the theravada canon is the only early school that survived with its entire collection of teachings. probably has to do with sri lanka being an island, away from the hustle and bustle going on in india when the early schools were dying out.
  4. the agama translation is in chinese, and we don’t have a complete english translations yet, I don’t think, and even if it is complete, the publishers are being obnoxious about the copy rights (rather than just digitally put it all on sutta central like rational people who want to promote EBT and keep the sassana alive and well).

If the agamas were accessible in english easily, I’d love to dig through those too and compare to pali. But as it is, I work with what I have access to.

Non EBT doesn’t mean it’s automatically unreliable. I consider ajahn mun’s teachings to be completely pure representation of EBT.

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AN 9.36 is similar to those 2 suttas, and even more explicit about exactly what is going inside while one is in jhana, and attains nirvana.

Ven. T (thanissaro) also takes the interpretation that those suttas prove 1st jhana is sufficient to attain arahantship. It’s a reasonable interpretation, but I disagree. My interpretation is, based on AN 9.36, that arahantship requires one of the 9 meditative samadhi attainments, and at the moment arahantship must occur while one is inside in the middle of doing one of the first 7 attainments, or right after emerging one of the last 2 attainments where the mind can not do that.

But if one attains destructino of the asavas (arahantship) while in the lowest of those 9 attainments, first jhana, that doesn’t mean one’s base level of samadhi (their average quality) or their ceiling (the highest quality they’re capable of reaching on occasion) is first jhana.

You’re right JST as i’ve defined it doesn’t have a strong leg to stand on as far as EBT passage support. It’s kind of heuristic and based on what the most frequently described model of arahantship showed in the EBT, and the most conservative “safe” approach to take.

For example, if I was a teenager planning out my strategy on how to get into oxford, harvard, beijing university, whatever top prestigious school, the JST fourth jhana minimum requirement analogy here would be, I need to score in the 90-95% percentile on tests, I need lots of extra curricular activites, I need to learn good communication skills on how to market myself and distinguish myself from the crowd, etc.

The “first jhana is good enough approach”, would be like George W. Bush. C+ or B- grade average getting into Harvard univsersity. How did he do it? Legacy. his daddy was George Bush senior the president, junior had the pedigree, the political connections , money, power, influence, to get in. If he didn’t have the right genes, he wouldn’t even bother to apply because he wouldn’t even make it past the first cut of the screening process.

Similarly, I’d suspect someone became an arahant with first jhana as their ceiling, their highest samadhi they can do, probably was a 4th jhana meditator their immediate past life and was still living off the residue from that. But more likely, I’d suspect they had 4th jhana as as ceiling but just can’t access it and use on demand as easily as first jhana.

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I am still going to rely on your interesting work - But you should excuse me to rely only on parallels.
Metta

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By no means was I trying to discourage anyone from studying or relying on the agama parallels. Just pointing out the potential flaws. And pointing out that present age Arhants like Ajahn Mun, without studying or teaching using the exact EBT framework, nevertheless can rediscover the essence of EBT.

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I think this is the most wise view. Why take a chance of wasting one’s practice when we know of the jhanas and can practice them in this lifetime. To me, there are too many risks of not cultivating the jhanas and only benefits of cultivating then.