(from Ven. Thanissaro's translation of A.V.28)

1st jhana: ...ball of bath powder - saturated,
moisture-laden, permeated within & without (with
water)...

2nd: ... a lake with spring-water welling up from
within, having no inflow from east, west, north,
south...

3rd: ... lotus pond... [lotuses ] stay immersed in the
water and flourish without standing up out of the
water, so that they are permeated & pervaded, suffused
& filled...


So these first 3 similes are really cool, but then we
get to the 4th jhana: ... just as if a man were
sitting wrapped from head to foot with a white cloth
so that there would be no part of his body to which
the white cloth did not extend.

=========================

Does anyone else find that simile kind of
disappointing? From the simile, all I can picture for
the 4th jhana is a cartoon mummy, not a lofty
meditative state where your body feels
ethereal/nonexistent.

Does the original pali or commentaries elaborate on
the mummy cloth simile? I just don't get it.


-fk






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