Dear Aaron, welcome to this list. You make an interesting point.
op 15-10-2003 16:10 schreef asmith1543 op smith.1543@...:

> I've participated in a lot of athletics, in sport psychology the
> term "zone" is often used to describe the ideal mental state to
> pursue for peak mental clarity during competitive performance. In
> stuyding Pali and non-athletic meditation I'm curious why the
> term "zone" has never been used as a translation for Jhana?

N: People in the Buddha's time who developed jhana understood the
disadvantages of attachment to sense pleasures. By jhana defilements, such
as the hindrances of attachment, aversion, etc. are temporarily subdued,
though not eradicated. Great understanding of the different moments of
consciousness (cittas) is necessary. They change extremely rapidly, but
understanding, pa~n~naa, is able to know when there is a moment of
attachment and when a moment of non-attachment. This is most difficult
because we delude ourselves all the time. One can only find out oneself
whether there is clinging to jhana or not. The Buddha said that jhana alone
is not enough, and that one should not cling to it.
Thus, samatha is entirely different from sports and competitive performance.
We are attached to bodily wellbeing, to sports, that is natural. But we can
learn that moments of such clinging are different from moments of
detachment. When you give away something to someone else with pure
generosity, without selfish thoughts, there is citta with detachment, free
from attachment. It is kusala, wholesome citta. When you compete in sports,
you may have aversion when getting tired, or conceit when comparing yourself
with someone else, or clinging to a good result. So many different cittas.
We all have so much to learn in our daily life.
If someone who tries to develop jhana is led by clinging he may experience a
trancelike condition, but this is not the jhana developed by wisdom and
detachment. One may mistake wrong concentration for right concentration.
Nina.

>