Wisdom and jhana?
There’s no jhāna for one without wisdom;
No wisdom for one without jhāna.
But for one with both jhāna and wisdom,
Nibbana truly is near.
— The Buddha, Dhammapada 372
Baba:
When seeing quotes like this, I wonder about how wide (or narrow) the
technical understanding of mind the author has/had because in ancient
times, in this case 2500 years ago, people didn't have access to that
many teachings and traditions, and many approaches and
interpretations that have existed since hadn't yet developed or
hadn't spread. It's a free world for people to do whatever they like
but I think that it is good to healthily question all, both ancient
and modern teachings, ways and views.
Based on having
practiced jhanas, meditative absorptions, for few thousand hours I
disagree with the Buddha if the context is wisdom. Existential
ignorance is due to self-based views and beliefs and existential
wisdom comes from seeing through those views but jhanas are not for
this purpose. Jhanas are pleasant states of mind that are an
unsuitable ground for wisdom insight for the simple reason that in
jhanic states there is no material to look and see through, other
than the state itself, so why spend so much time and effort in
finding such states in the first place?
From the perspective
of ignorance and wisdom (prajna) this is like trying to remove a
stone from one's show by putting another one, perhaps a smoother one
in there. In the context of wisdom this is purely misleading.
In
the context of healing, though, it is a different matter. Taking
vacations at the beach side and hiking up in the mountains in high
altitudes are known to have healing effects.
With respect.
