Jhanas - what for?

[Gabriel_L]

I tried to tackled this issue in the topic on stillness and liberating insight I started few months ago:

Stillness and liberating insight

EBTs are very consistent in terms of mapping how awakening gradually flourishes through an overall consistent virtue stillness wisdom process. The broad umbrella of the boddhipakkhya dhammas share this overall order of events or things. And the big-picture suttas like AN10.2, AN11.2 and SN12.23 offer some interesting hints at the detailed linkages one should expect to see occurring internally as the development of the path progresses through right effort, right mindf…

There I tried to call attention to AN9.47 in which we find an interesting concept of non-provisory nibbana (nippariyāyenā nibbānaṃ) being the outcome of a specific process of liberating insight.

As I noted originally, a key issue that arises from AN9.47’s detailed description of how the totally ending or destruction of taints / fermentations (āsavā parikkhīṇā honti) is dependent on a vision and insight (paññāya cassa disvā) born of such immaterial attainment is that elsewhere the usual categorical definition of what right stillness consists of does not include such immaterial attainments but only the four jhanas (see SN45.8).

To be clear, the formula for AN9.47’s model of liberating insight is:

saññā­ve­dayi­ta­nirodhaṃ upasampajja viharati, paññāya cassa disvā āsavā parikkhīṇā honti

I wonder if @sujato or @Sylvester could help us with a proper translation of this formula.

Also, I would like to suggest that we make an effort to bring together alternative descriptions of the specific process of stillness-born liberating insight which brings about the total ending or destruction of taints / fermentations found across AN9.

IMO, tackling this may help answering the topic’s question of what is the purpose of jhanas.

Last but not least, I believe that, as per the big picture suttas AN10.2 / AN11.2, SN12.23, the purpose of samadhi is to bring about insight into how things come to be. That in turn, is the foundation for revulsion, which then feeds into dispassion. Dispassion is then the basis for liberation, which then brings about knowledge of the destruction (of the asavas):

(…) with concentration (samadhi) as proximate cause, the knowledge and vision of things as they really are;
with the knowledge and vision of things as they really are as proximate cause, revulsion;
with revulsion as proximate cause, dispassion; with dispassion as proximate cause, liberation;
with liberation as proximate cause, the knowledge of destruction.
– SN12.23