SN 47.10 is in many respects an interesting meditation sutta…
- This is not unusual, but it places the satipatthāna practice as a means to achieve jhāna - which is indirectly but clearly represented by the pamujja-series.
“a bhikkhu dwells contemplating the body in the body… While he is contemplating the body in the body, there arises in him, based on the body, either a fever in the body or sluggishness of mind, or the mind is distracted outwardly. That bhikkhu should then direct his mind towards some inspiring sign… gladness is born… rapture is born… … The mind of one who is happy becomes concentrated.”
- It equates the end of the pamujja-series (samadhi) with the first jhana, not with the second as the word ‘samādhi’ - which in the jhāna-series appears only in the second - would suggest .
“The mind of one who is happy becomes concentrated (samādhi). He reflects thus: ‘The purpose for the sake of which I directed my mind has been achieved. Let me now withdraw it.’ So he withdraws the mind and does not think or examine (vitakka-vicāra).”
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Having established the first jhāna (not coming out of it) it states a volitional impulse to move into the second. As above, “The purpose for the sake of which I directed my mind has been achieved. Let me now withdraw it.”
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It ends the establishment of the second jhana with a quote that echoes what we usually find in the third-jhāna-pericope.
SN 47.10 - ‘Avitakkomhi avicāro, ajjhattaṃ satimā sukhamasmī’
‘Without thought and examination, internally mindful, I am happy.’
Jhana-series, 3rd Jhana - 'Upekkhako satimā sukhavihārī’
‘With upekkha, internally mindful, he dwells happily.’
I like this sutta because it gives us a ‘gradual training for meditation’. Without having investigated it in detail it seems not to contradict our understanding of the meditation process. What is interesting though is that the pamujja-series unambiguously ends in the 1st jhāna (with the implication that ‘samādhi’ is achieved in the 1st), and not as I believed in the 2nd jhāna (that is samādhijam).