Don’t say that my dear friend. Goenka guruji is not teaching suttas because he is directly teaching Vipassana course to people who have come to attend the retreat. Many of the people who attend course are not familiar with buddhism so that’s why suttas are not read/taught directly.
Goenka was not born in buddhist community. He was born in Hindu community of merchant and was millionaire at the age of 25. Moreover he don’t teach suttas because one cannot learn Vipassana by reading suttas. Teaching suttas is not goal of that course. Only refuge in triple jewel and taking precepts is enough to learn the Vipassana-insight technique, which is the goal there. The reason for attending course is not to enrich our knowledge of suttas essentially. Reason is to learn something which we can use in our daily life to be free from daily pains/suffering.
As far as I know, jhanas don’t help in abandoning hindrances, they merely help in suppressing them. Regardless of that, whatever you are saying can be done after realising the noble eightfold path. Vipassana-insight technique is the the first step for general practitioner. We are not adept like some monks in the Buddha’s time to go through jhanas first and then insight. Even Goenka guruji say this, we can also go through jhanas first and then insight but it requires time. Going with Vipassana insight is easy way. I will give you an analogy.
Suppose realising the fruit of stream-entry is like learning to write correctly with pen. Jhanas are like posture. Goal is to improve handwriting and not to improve posture. If we learn the rules of writing first then we can find posture on our own afterwards. But if we run behind learning posture we will lose/forget the very goal of our venture which is learning to write. Once person learns to write perfectly, meaning, once one attains insight into impermanence, one will enter into stream and then one can progress further by himself or herself. But if one goes through jhanas, there is very high chance that one will stay in jhanas only and won’t work further from that, as it requires guidance also. Opposite to that once one attains proficiency in insight of impermanence through vipassana, one can progress by himself on the path without guidance.
I hope you are getting what I am trying to say. Vipassana-insight is one of the direct way to the core/goal of Buddhism which is liberation. We still don’t know the importance of that.
No my dear friend. Jhanas can be attained through insight only and Liberating insight not required as far as I know. [Liberating insight=insight which has seen impermanence]. If one(ordinary person) enters jhanas without liberating insight one will definitely be stuck there(cling). Jhanas should be entered with the help of liberating insight only for general people like us who lack continuous and perfect guidance. And liberating insight is attained through vipassana only.
I don’t know but regardless of that if one progresses in vipassana, one definitely comes across it. As far as I know kalapas is the smallest unit of everything we experience. Seeing kalapas means seeing impermanence directly in our own body.
Irrespective of Buddha taught that or not, vipassana insight meditation surely gives insight into the reality of impermanence. And when one observes impermanence directly through insight, then only one sincerely searches for that which is not impermanent, that which is permanent, that which we call nibbana. Searching sincerely then one realizes that which is permanent, that which is not born and does not die. So in other words, only then noble eightfold path is attained after stream-entry. Only stream-enterer has right view, the first of eightfold path. Till then one is just trying to follow noble eightfold path.
We actually don’t search for permanence sincerely even if we do chanting or enter jhanas or study any sutta.
May all of us end rebirth in lower realms forever!