from Bhante Sujato’s MN 119 translation, for standard 4th jhana formula and its simile:
Furthermore, a mendicant, giving up pleasure and pain, and ending former happiness and sadness, enters and remains in the fourth absorption, without pleasure or pain, with pure equanimity and mindfulness. They sit spreading their body through with pure bright mind. There’s no part of the body that’s not filled with pure bright mind. It’s like someone sitting wrapped from head to foot with white cloth. There’s no part of the body that’s not spread over with white cloth. In the same way, they sit spreading their body through with pure bright mind. There’s no part of the body that’s not filled with pure bright mind. As they meditate like this—diligent, keen, and resolute—memories and thoughts of the lay life are given up.
(this ekodhi + samadhi refrain is used for all the exercises in MN 10 kayaanupassana / MN 119 kayagatasati)
Their mind becomes stilled internally; it settles, unifies, and becomes immersed in samādhi. That too is how a mendicant develops mindfulness of the body.
All the of those kayagatasati exercises are absolutely, no doubt referring to the anatomical body of flesh and blood, agreeing with the Theravada commentary.
MN 119 kayagata and MN 10 kaya anupassana exercises
(1. 16 APS breathing first 4 steps)
(2. Four postures)
(3. S&S mindfulness and clear-comprehension)
(4. 31Asb: asubha, 31 body parts)
(5. Four elements)
(6.1 9siv: 9 cemetary contemplations: 3 days old, festering)
(6.2 9siv: 9 cemetary contemplations: various animals devour)
(6.3 9siv: 9 cemetary contemplations: skeleton with flesh)
(6.4 9siv: 9 cemetary contemplations: skeleton bloody)
(6.5 9siv: 9 cemetary contemplations: skeleton)
(6.6 9siv: 9 cemetary contemplations: skeleton bones scattered all directions)
(6.7 9siv: 9 cemetary contemplations: very white bones)
(6.8 9siv: 9 cemetary contemplations: pile of bones 4 years old)
(6.9 9siv: 9 cemetary contemplations: white powder)
(7.1 STED 4j: first jhāna + simile)
(7.2 STED 4j: second jhāna + simile)
(7.3 STED 4j: third jhāna + simile)
(7.4 STED 4j: fourth jhāna + simile)
for kāya to be coherent, this must be so. It is not “personality” or merely “a group or collection of things”. Kāya anupassana in the 4sp is contrasted with citta anupassana, and kāyagatasati seems to be synonymous with kaya anupassana.
In bojjhanga samyutta, kāya sutta, SN 46.2, is clearly talking about the anatomical body, both in their simile, and as a physical body in kāya passadhi of passadhi-bojjhanga.
SN 46.2, note how kāya is contrasted with citta
(5. Passaddhi)
Ko ca, bhikkhave, |
“{And} what, monks, [is the] |
āhāro an-uppannassa vā |
nutriment (for) un-arisen |
passaddhi-sam-bojjh-aṅgassa uppādāya, |
tranquility-awakening-factor's arising, |
uppannassa vā passaddhi-sam-bojjh-aṅgassa |
(and) arisen tranquility-awakening-factor's |
bhāvanāya pāripūriyā? |
development (and) fulfillment? |
Atthi, bhikkhave, |
There-is, monks, |
kāya-passaddhi, |
body-tranquility, |
citta-passaddhi. |
mind-tranquility. |
Tattha yoniso-manasi-kāra-bahulī-kāro– |
(To) that-there, wise-mental-production-frequently-done, |
ayam-āhāro an-uppannassa vā |
is-the-nutriment (for) un-arisen |
passaddhi-sam-bojjh-aṅgassa uppādāya, |
tranquility-awakening-factor's arising, |
uppannassa vā passaddhi-sam-bojjh-aṅgassa |
(and) arisen tranquility-awakening-factor's |
bhāvanāya pāripūriyā. |
development (and) fulfillment. |
In the theravada abhidhamma vibhanga, it agrees that the sutta says the body is physical (further in the vibhanga, they say that the abhidhamma view of the same passage requires treating kaya-passadhi as a body of mental aggregates).
both Ven. Analayo, and Ven. Thanissaro, have extensively surveyed and in Ven. T’s case, translated much of the pali sutta pitaka in English. Ven. Analayo has also surveyed much of the Agama EBT parallels, and they treat the body as physical, anatomical, flesh and blood in the 4 jhanas.
The Arahant upatissa, in Vimuttimagga, and the early theravada commentators, also treat the kaya in 4 jhanas as the anatomical body.
The scholar Buddhaghosa, and the late Te. Abhdhamma composers, found it necessary to redefine kāya and vedana by brute force, away from the physical into a “collection of mental things”, effectively redefining jhana in late Te. Abhdhamma.
If kāya has the flexibility as Ajahn Brahmali claims in the context of four jhanas, there would be no need for late Abdhamma to use brute force in explicitly redefining these important basic terms.
If kāya has the flexibility as Ajahn Brahmali claims in the context of four jhanas, there would be no need for an english translator to use a translation that omits the default physical understanding of kāya in the four jhanas, or in 16 APS (anapana), as the context would make it clear.
If kāya has the flexibility as Ajahn Brahmali claims in the context of four jhanas, why is Ven. Analayo, Ven. Thanissaro, Bhante Gunaratana, Bhikkhu Bodhi, the early Theravada commentators, Ajahn Lee, etc., how come they don’t see it that way?
