What was Jhāna, really?

[stu]

Hi Rich. Good stuff!

@anon50778162

Once this is developed the mind opens up rather than shuts down.

I am maybe suggesting that: the mind opens up when the brain shuts down.

This of course doesn’t make sense if you equate mind with brain which is the dominant scientific theory at the moment. Having said that, I do note that Anil Seth at the Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science (which is a just down the road from me), is trying his best to be neutral about this and not equate mind with brain when he speaks these days. He says it’s not necessary to make this assumption to do the science. Good on him!

The EBTs do not equate mind and brain do they? I think that they are at odds with the current cultural understanding of this. What do you think?

@anon50778162

You may be surprised to find that there is more brain activity seen in scans.

Has a meditator in jhana ever had a scan? How would we know, when we can’t get two people to agree on what jhana means?

@Brahmali

How do we know it’s a real jhāna? Self-reporting is notoriously unreliable. The vast majority of people who think they have jhāna have nothing of the sort. And if you did find a proper jhāna meditator, how would you convince them to take part? They are likely to be utterly uninterested.

@anon50778162

Clearly seeing, in internal visual terms, is the quality of the visual experience. Clearly knowing is something different altogether, right view. You may want to check your terminology in the question.

Yeah, ‘knowing’ is a better translation - Sampajañña

@anon50778162

Shutting the brain down results in death.

@anon50778162

If metabolism stops you are dead.

Maybe?? But …

@Brahmali

The world of samādhi is amazing and marvellous. Things happen that under normal circumstances would be impossible.