here’s one of the things that makes visuddhimagga “jhana” so incoherent. if you can resolve to enter the frozen samadhi where you can’t investigate, can’t think, can’t do anything until you emerge from that frozen samadhi at a predetermined time, then how are the 5 hindrances threatening to knock you out of first jhana? how is vitakka and vicara close to throwing you out of 2nd jhana? how does piti disturb 3rd jhana? etc. Why even talk about speech (vāca) ceasing in first jhana, or wrong intentions ceasing in first jhana, if a prerequisite to jhana is you can’t hear sounds, can’t think, body has disappeared,etc? and if that is the case, couldn’t the buddha have stated that plainly? such as:
what monks, is right concentration?
here monks, a monk
attends to the perception of light
does not attend to perceptions of the body
does not hear sounds
thinking and evaluation ceases.
that’s about the same number of words as the average of any of the 4 standard jhana formulas. and it would be perfectly clear what the entry prerequisites are for jhana .
why would the buddha go out of his way to point out “sato and sampajano” are still active in 3rd jhana, and sukha is experienced with kaya/body, if the perceptions of body and sound have disappeared already, and the type of investigation with “sampajano” as described in AN 4.41 were not possible?
two words for you. occams razor .
check out Bhante Gunaratana’s description of jhanas in his book “Beyond Mindfulness in Plain English”, he takes the occams razor approach to interpreting jhanas from the suttas in a straightforward manner.
see ajahn lee’s "keeping the breath in mind"
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/thai/lee/inmind.html
in ajahn’s autobiography, he stated that ajahn mun told him of all his disciples, ajahn lee had the best understanding of anapanassati.
witnesses say he once levitated a bus full of people.
are you going to tell me ajahn lee’s samadhi was “not deep enough”?
his interpretation of kaya is the anatomical body.
his interpretation of vitakka and vicara in first jhana and anapanasati is the straightforward plain meaning you would expect.
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/thai/lee/inmind.html
and are you going to tell Arahant Upatissa his samadhi is not deep enough? take a close read of his description of anapanasati 16 steps in vimuttimagga. it’s a lot more similar to Ajahn Lee’s and Ven. Thanissaro’s method than Visuddhimagga.