The First Jhana as an assimilated Jain Meditation Practice

In this book the author spends quite a bit of time comparing Jain and Buddhist styles of meditation. One of the things he points out is that the Buddhist rupa jhanas, as described in the early suttas, are quite unique when compared to how meditation is described in Jain texts from the same time. One of the big differences is that the Buddhist rupa jhanas have blissful states (piti and sukha) as defining characteristics. Contemporary Jain texts mention nothing about blissful states when discussing meditation. Actually, he argues that the rupa jhanas are uniquely Buddhist. If I have time later, I’ll paste some quotes from his book where he discusses this. That book is very good, by the way. I highly recommend it.

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