The ‘norm’ is the four jhanas are completed and then Nibbana is attained. For example:
Quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, I entered upon and abided in the first jhāna…With the stilling of applied and sustained thought, I entered upon and abided in the second jhāna…, With the fading away as well of rapture, I abided in equanimity, and mindful and fully aware, still feeling pleasure with the body, I entered upon and abided in the third jhāna… With the abandoning of pleasure and pain, and with the previous disappearance of joy and grief, I entered upon and abided in the fourth jhāna…When my concentrated mind was thus purified, bright, unblemished, rid of imperfection, malleable, wieldy, steady, and attained to imperturbability, I directed it to knowledge of the destruction of the taints. I directly knew as it actually is: ‘This is suffering’; I directly knew as it actually is: ‘This is the origin of suffering’; I directly knew as it actually is: ‘This is the cessation of suffering’; I directly knew as it actually is: ‘This is the way leading to the cessation of suffering.’ I directly knew as it actually is: ‘These are the taints’; I directly knew as it actually is: ‘This is the origin of the taints’; I directly knew as it actually is: ‘This is the cessation of the taints’; I directly knew as it actually is: ‘This is the way leading to the cessation of the taints.’…When I knew and saw thus, my mind was liberated from the taint of sensual desire, from the taint of being, and from the taint of ignorance. When it was liberated, there came the knowledge: ‘It is liberated.’ I directly knew: ‘Birth is destroyed, the holy life has been lived, what had to be done has been done, there is no more coming to any state of being.’
MN 4
[quote=“DaoYaoTao, post:53, topic:5058”]
Dude give me references![/quote]
Mindfulness, Bliss, and Beyond
The Jhanas
Simply put, Jhana states are stages of letting go.
I looks like I was wrong here about MN 64 because MN 64 states:
… a bhikkhu enters upon and abides in the first jhāna, which is accompanied by applied and sustained thought, with rapture and pleasure born of seclusion… He turns his mind away from those states and directs it towards the deathless element thus: ‘This is the peaceful, this is the sublime, that is, the stilling of all formations, the relinquishing of all attachments, the destruction of craving, dispassion, cessation, Nibbāna.’ If he is steady in that, he attains the destruction of the taints.… MN 64.
The destruction of the taints (āsavānaṃ khayaṃ) is arahantship. Therefore, my rationale was not correct (even though I still consider attaining arahantship from the 1st jhana is questionable & a departure from the norm).
Reading MN 64 again, the translation states:
And what, Ānanda, is the path, the way to the abandoning of the five lower fetters? Here, with seclusion from the acquisitions, with the abandoning of unwholesome states, with the complete tranquillization of bodily inertia, quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, a bhikkhu enters upon and abides in the first jhāna… He turns his mind away from those states and directs it towards the deathless element… If he is steady in that, he attains the destruction of the taints. But if he does not attain the destruction of the taints because of that desire for the Dhamma, that delight in the Dhamma, then with the destruction of the five lower fetters he becomes one due to reappear spontaneously [in the Pure Abodes] and there attain final Nibbāna without ever returning from that world. This is the path, the way to the abandoning of the five lower fetters.
It appears the subject matter of MN 64 is the way to the abandoning of the five lower fetters. In other words, it not explicitly about Nibbana.
Therefore, my reading of MN 64 is it is stating:
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A practitioner reaches the 1st jhana.
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If the practitioner is not attached to the 1st jhana by focusing on the (immature) Deathless / Nibbana element, the practitioner steady in that will eventually attain the destruction of the taints in this life however via the 2nd, 3rd & 4th jhanas.
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If the practitioner delights in the 1st jhana & other jhanas, the practitioner will never reach Arahant Nibbana in this life but only the state of Non-Returner (i.e., the Pure Abodes).
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Therefore, if the practitioner reaches either Arahant Nibbana or Non-Returner, in both cases, the five lower fetters will be abandoned.
With metta
D-Dude