SuttaCentral
Hi Dhamma Friends,
I could swear I read a Sutta and there was a line where the Buddha says, Jhana is the only safety in the world.
I’ve searched and searched on Sutta central and access to insight and I cannot find it. Perhaps we Im remembering it incorrectly and I was that’s Nibbana is the only safety, but I’m almost positive it was Jhana.
Has anyone else come across this or know what Sutta this is?
Metta
Ami
This might be worth a look?
Perhaps AN11.16
In the same way, I’m able to flee to safety through any one of these eleven doors to the deathless.
The jhanas are four of the eleven doors. Significantly:
‘Even this fourth absorption is produced by choices and intentions.’
I.e., for some, these four doors may not be enough.
This one perhaps
In the same way, a mendicant, quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unskillful qualities, enters and remains in the first absorption, which has the rapture and bliss born of seclusion, while placing the mind and keeping it connected.
Evamevaṃ kho, bhikkhave, yasmiṃ samayebhikkhu vivicceva kāmehi vivicca akusalehidhammehi savitakkaṃ savicāraṃ vivekajaṃpītisukhaṃ paṭhamaṃ jhānaṃ upasampajjaviharati,5.2At such a time the mendicant thinks,
tasmiṃ, bhikkhave, samaye bhikkhussaevaṃ hoti:
5.3‘Now I’m in a secure location and Māra can’t do anything to me.
’‘bhīruttānagatena kho dānāhaṃ etarahiattanā viharāmi akaraṇīyo mārassā’ti.
And
Reminds me of a sutta about beings not being able to escape Mara because they die before getting close to escaping, it uses the analogy of farmer fields being burned up. I can’t find it though, I think it’s in MN. There are several suttas using the same analogy, so it’s hard to pinpoint it. edit: I think it’s mn 25
I’ve struggled hard to realize this,
enough with trying to explain it!
deep, hard to see, and very fine,
for they’re shrouded in a mass of darkness
The Buddha realised that jhana as high as the immaterial attainments weren’t the Path:
I too have realized this teaching with my own insight up to this point, and live having achieved it.’…We are fortunate, reverend, so very fortunate to see a venerable such as yourself as one of our spiritual companions! So the teaching that Rāma had realized with his own insight, and declared having achieved it…Come now, reverend! You should lead this community.’ Uddaka, son of Rāma, placed me in the position of a teacher, and honored me with lofty praise.
Yet he didn’t consider the 8th immaterial jhana as nibbana, because:
Then it occurred to me, ‘This teaching doesn’t lead to disillusionment, dispassion, cessation, peace, insight, awakening, and extinguishment. It only leads as far as rebirth in the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception.’ Realizing that this teaching was inadequate, I left disappointed.
Mat wrote:
The Buddha realised that jhana as high as the immaterial attainments weren’t the Path
Jhanas are the path, but they are not the fruit. Fruits must be unconditioned.
Then, bhikkhus, just as quickly as a strong man might extend his drawn-in arm or draw in his extended arm, those seers who were virtuous and of good character disappeared from their leaf huts along the shore of the ocean and reappeared in the presence of Sambara, lord of the asuras. SuttaCentral
Other religions have jhana and associated super powers, as seen above. Nigantanatsputta might have even had the first jhana. Early ascetics may have had divine eye, and mistook the Mahabrahma to be eternal, ie jhana isn’t ‘Buddhist’, without the Right view of the Four Noble truths!