Hi robert,

you wrote:
As Teng kee pointed out the path out of samsara
depends on lakkhana
jhana - insight into the three characteristics of
anicca, dukkha and
anatta. The jhana labhi after he leaves mundane jhana
must also
develop this type of special samadhi. The
sukkha-vipassaka develops
this profound samadhi without having attained mundane
jhana.
Which is the superior path? Certainly the texts are
clear that the
one who develops both samatha and jhana is the
highest. However I
think we should not despise also the lesser path of
the sukkha-
vipassaka as this too eventually results in the end of
rebirth.

=============================================
To clear up a few points:
1. I never said I despise the sukkha-vipassaka. What I
express is that I doubt that they exist, or if they
did exist, they existed as a statistical anomaly, and
did not cultvate some special dry insight only
techniques that modern Buddhists can follow and bypass
the foundation of seclusion and samatha.
2. one can study all the pali, commentaries, and
subcommentaries until the end of time, but in the
final analysis, the only valid proof is the
confirmation from one's own realization experienced
directly. To this end, we have to carefully scrutinize
the canon to identify which parts are the most
authoritative and significant. For example, in the
early suttas, you would be hard pressed to find any
references to kasinas and 40 meditation objects. What
you do find is sutta passages that indicate that of
the 4 foundations of mindfulness, mindfulness of body
is the most important, and of the those, mindfulness
of breath is given special prominence. What this tells
me is that the serious cultivator should be spending a
fair amount of their effort engaged in mindfulness of
body, especially the breath. The early pali suttas
also say that if we carefully cultivate mindfulness of
breath, that it would naturally bring all 4
foundations of mindfulness to fruition, would lead to
samatha, vipassana, single pointedness of mind and
induce jhanic absorption. What a wonderful tool! All
the study of the canon does not equal one minute of
peace, joy, tranquillity and insight that is easily
availabe to us from cultivating the breath. This can
be verified with one's own experience without even
obtaining jhanic absorption.
3. The Buddha used the breath, seclusion, tranquillity
as the fundamental tools. So did the arahants. Even
taoist and yoga adepts. If there was some method that
avoided these fundamental steps, and redefined
"meditation" in some novel way to achieve lofty states
without doing the work, surely we would know about
them. There would be as many enlightened beings as
there are lawyers. Talk about accumulations, or lack
thereof, is also baffling to me. Certainly some would
find seclusion and tranquillity easier to cultivate
than others, but if you don't accumulate now, when are
you going to accumulate? After you're dead?

-fk



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