UpasakaMichael:
This is a good thought, that we are free to practice meditations in those forms that we find helpful and useful. The key, though, I think, is that we really need to determine as best as is possible what the Buddha was teaching in terms of samma samadhi . This is important insofar as we might wish to pursue a Buddhist path of practice and to embrace as fully as possible the Eightfold Path.
Even when we might disagree about what experiences or practices constitute Dhammic Jhana, it’s also important to appreciate, I feel, that the jhanas are the companion wing of the two winged bird that involves vipassana , insight or clear seeing. Cultivating jhanas needs as a precursor abandonment of mundane sensuality, and a mindfulness that is founded on an ethical, renunciant, wise path of practice. We might see this kind of mindfulness and experience in someone like an Ayya Khema, or in Ajahn Chah, or in some of the monks and nuns that have trained with Ajahn Chah, and other dedicated Forest monastics like the students and present/former monastic colleagues of Ajahn Brahm, by way of example. You can see evidence that these monastics have “touched” the jhanas as they seem to live their lives in compatibility with the Eightfold Path.
Thank you it’s interesting
UpasakaMichael:
just think it’s difficult, maybe impossible, to live in the mundane world, to immerse oneself in sensual pursuits, such as romantic relationships, culinary experiences, etc. In other words, if someone is truly practicing (or teaching ) within a path to the jhanas, they are probably a serious, wise, compassionate, renunciant monk or nun. They are likely not a lay person…how can we be in the lay world and believe that we can approximate the samadhi to the depths that the Buddha has prescribed?
One can live in the secular world without immersing oneself in sensual pleasures. Achieving nirvana in the secular world is not impossible, but it is indeed more difficult.
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