going for alms round while in jhana:
KN Iti (than. trans.)
§81. This was said by the Blessed One, said by the Arahant, so I have heard: “Monks, I have seen beings conquered by receiving offerings–their minds overwhelmed–at the break-up of the body, after death, reappearing in a plane of deprivation, a bad destination, a lower realm, hell. I have seen beings conquered by not receiving offerings–their minds overwhelmed–at the break-up of the body, after death, reappearing in a plane of deprivation, a bad destination, a lower realm, hell. I have seen beings conquered both by receiving offerings & by not receiving offerings–their minds overwhelmed–at the break-up of the body, after death, reappearing in a plane of deprivation, a bad destination, a lower realm, hell.
“It’s not through having heard it from another contemplative or brahman that I say, ‘I have seen beings conquered by receiving offerings–their minds overwhelmed–at the break-up of the body, after death, reappearing in a plane of deprivation, a bad destination, a lower realm, hell. I have seen beings conquered by not receiving offerings–their minds overwhelmed–at the break-up of the body, after death, reappearing in a plane of deprivation, a bad destination, a lower realm, hell. I have seen beings conquered both by receiving offerings & by not receiving offerings–their minds overwhelmed–at the break-up of the body, after death, reappearing in a plane of deprivation, a bad destination, a lower realm, hell.’
“Instead, it’s from having known it myself, seen it myself, observed it myself that I say, ‘I have seen beings conquered by receiving offerings–their minds overwhelmed–at the break-up of the body, after death, reappearing in a plane of deprivation, a bad destination, a lower realm, hell. I have seen beings conquered by not receiving offerings–their minds overwhelmed–at the break-up of the body, after death, reappearing in a plane of deprivation, a bad destination, a lower realm, hell. I have seen beings conquered both by receiving offerings & by not receiving offerings–their minds overwhelmed–at the break-up of the body, after death, reappearing in a plane of deprivation, a bad destination, a lower realm, hell.’”
Both when receiving offerings
& not,
his concentration
doesn’t waver;
he remains
heedful:
he–continually absorbed in jhāna,
subtle in view & clear-seeing,
enjoying the ending of clinging–
is called a man
of integrity.
“yassa sakkariyamānassa, asakkārena cūbhayaṃ.
samādhi na vikampati, appamādavihārino VAR .
“taṃ jhāyinaṃ sātatikaṃ, sukhumaṃ diṭṭhivipassakaṃ .
upādānakkhayārāmaṃ, āhu sappuriso itī”ti.
sātatikaṃ c
sātatika: acting continuously. (adj.)Sātatika (adj.) [fr. last] persevering Dh 23; S ii.232; It 74; DhA i.230.
You never leave jhāna. The quality of stillness and sukha will vary according to the complexity of what you have in your field of attention. In EBT, jhana and samadhi is something potentially active all the time, with practice. It’s time to discard the pernicious redefinition of jhāna by the later Theravada orthodoxy and return to the original meaning of jhāna.