Sorry, since I don’t see the gradual training (as I understand the term) described there we must be talking at cross purposes.
This thread is split off from one where i go i to pretty massive detail about exactly what
the āsavanirodhagāminī paṭipadā is, if your talking about some other text we are definatley, as you say, talking at cross purposes.
I’ve long wanted a “cheat sheet” for meditation myself. I’ve been a kind of solitary practioner for nearly 30 years, and for most of that time practicing Zen shikantaza, pure awareness without attachment. Strangely enough, it was only around 12 or so years ago that I learned of MN 10 Satipatthana meditation. I dived into the deep end on that right off; but always felt that precise “instructions” were lacking.
Since then I’ve read many books and suttas on the matter. I’ve come to the conclusion that doing so tends to cloud up one’s practice. With so many opinions and views on “how to” bouncing around in the head on how to proceed while I’m trying to quiet the mind any tangible progress can be difficult.
So, I’ve come to conclude that simple mindfulness is the answer. I watch myself. I watch my thoughts. I watch my feelings. I let them go. It’s as though I’ve come back to shikantaza with mindfulness as my gatekeeper. I’ve found that I can do this in literally any situation, from active meditation to going about my daily activities.
Keep it simple. 
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I suppose it depends if one considers ‘jhana’ as something to practice while sitting on a cushion, or rather something that can happen because of a way of life.
How often do we find in the suttas the Buddha saying things like, ‘ok householders, take a break from your hectic lives,come to the monastery for a week and sit on a cushion all day, amazing things can happen! Then you can go back home and resume your normal lifestyle. ‘
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How about as something that can happen while sitting on a cushion because of a way of life & practice? 
Yes, seek nothing, just sit, mindfully breathe out and mindfully breathe in.
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Finding Enlightenment is difficult. It is the most important and yet most difficult thing in life. It is the measure by which one’s success is measured by.
Sitting down and doing a simple meditation is well enough. But Enlightenment goes deeper than that. Having Compassion on others, Awakening to Compassion to all sentient beings and all phenomena goes beyond the simple meditation of mindfulness. So that’s why we have Sila, that’s why we have the Suttas. If one takes the entire Pali Canon and beyond as their “meditation manual” they are kindly more likely to achieve Enlightenment and Nibbana, for their own sake and for the sake of all others, than if they look simply to one aspect of meditation found in the Suttas. It is good to look at the entire map that the Suttas provide for Buddhism, and search for Enlightenment that way. Namaste.
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Yes, I agree.
As stated above, “seek nothing, just sit, mindfully breathe out and mindfully breathe in. But right view is needed at all times for the practice of Vipassana (i.e. right view) and Samatha (i.e. mindfulness), according to the core teachings of SN/SA suttas.”
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O-kay.
And Buddhism’s “preoccupation” with meditation has what reason?
Suppose one wanted to, or was instructed to loose weight for health reasons. Which seems more likely to work?
-at the end of one’s day, after unwinding, a person gets on a scale repeating the phrases, ‘May I weigh less, may I be less heavy’ for a few minutes.
-a person, from the moment of awakening in the morning, until falling asleep, whenever thinking of food, smelling food, or seeing food, has the thought, ‘I will only eat to sustain this body, not for pleasure, not to give into craving.’
Perhaps the latter can be considered meditation.
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I was particularly inspired by Stephen’s more practical take (yesterday) on the subject. Lo and behold, here it is again
So from yesterday’s inspiration to this moment, I recalled Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche’s work Meditation in Action. (Warning! I’m briefly turning away from Theravada here.)
Whatever our opinions of him, he was a prodigious thinker and writer. And meditator. (I count people transcribing his talks as his writings.)
He wrote Meditation in Action in 1967. So this was seven years after escaping Tibet and right before his 1968 Bhutan cave experience & subsequent car accident.
Here’s from that work:
It is as though a person has a very previous pair of spectacles which he puts in a box or various containers in order to keep it safe, so that even if other things are broken this would be preserved. He may feel that other things could bear hardship, but he knows that this could not, so this would last longer. In the same way, ego lasts longer just because one feels it could burst at any time…
…And when that barrier is removed one can expand and swim through straightaway. But this can only be achieved through the practice of meditation, which must be approached in a very practical and simple way. Then the mystical experience of joy or grace, or whatever it might be, can be found in every object. That is what one tries to achieve through vipassana, or ‘insight’ meditation practice.
Once we have established a basic pattern of discipline and we have developed a regular way of dealing with the situation – whether it is breathing or walking or what have you – then at some stage the technique gradually dies out. Reality gradually expands so that we do not have to use the technique at all.
I hadn’t reviewed this work for two or three years. Actually it exists as an extract of several pages in The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa: Volume I sitting on my bookshelf.
As I re-read several pages this morning, I was reminded of the elements of practice and working through something as regards meditation.
So, downstream, there wouldn’t be much technique or practical instructions in the EBT content. Other than what we surmise are the core teachings in MN10 and DN22 before they “evolved”.
Thus no meditation manual. This has been really helpful; thanks for all the discussion.
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Why not just go to the Ānāpānasaṃyuttaṃ (SN 54)?
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I am personally very open to your suggestion concerning the Jhanas. In fact, when I first studied the Suttas (without ever having come in contact with Bhuddism or other Buddhists), I interpreted them in the same way.
It is, however, opposed by a living tradition of thousands of years, as well as most historical and critical scholars. And I am afraid that, besides your own hunch (which is okay), you have not provided any useful arguments to counter this evidence to the contrary.
Yes, we should include that with the other two.
My quandary more recently has been why, on the whole, the EBTs don’t reveal a Buddha who’s that concerned with technique or instructions for sammāsati and sammāsamādhi.
Which appears, on the face of it, a kind of vacuum for lay people today who need some specific instructions – at least, to get started.
I did, and I used those suttas as the manual after I graduated from guided meditations.
Does it goes back to the fact that the Buddha was teaching to many samaṇā vā brāhmaṇā who would have already been familiar with dhyāna/jhāna. I don’t see people asking him for a technique in the EBTs.
Hi Beth,
Sorry, I don’t have any answers to your questions.
It is not a palpable explanation, since surely there would be at least some individuals who weren’t acquainted with the focusing techniques. It can’t be that literally everyone knew how to perform the meditation methods.
Personally, I came to a conclusion, that focusing on nostrils/abdomen/feet etc. is just not what the Buddha taught when he had meditation in mind.
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I don’t believe I’ve suggested anything about jhanas.
??? (Make that 20 charakters)
I’m sorry you are not able to follow me.
We’re definitely talking past one another.
Best wishes!
Strangely, this seems to happen to me quite often recently.