I am having problems formatting my messages for this group. It doesn't
seem to like Pali diacritics. Let me try again.

Jeff, your latest post is full of errors and misconceptions. Please do
not perpetuate these wrong views. Jhaana was indeed much praised by
the Buddha, but it does not necessarily follow that one who can attain
jhaana is following the Noble Eightfold Path properly. Was Devadatta
not well accomplished in jhaana? Did he not try to kill the Buddha?
How come, if he had attained to Lokuttara Dhamma, could he even
contemplate such an act?

The way of liberation via paññaavimutti is well known, and most
suitable for modern times when most people do not have the right
perfections, or enough time to cultivate jhaana.

"Katamo ca, bhikkhave, puggalo paññaavimutto? Idha, bhikkhave, ekacco
puggalo ye te santaa vimokkhaa atikkamma rüpe äruppä te na käyena
phusitvä viharati, paññäya cassa disvä äsavä parikkhïnä honti. Ayam
vuccati, bhikkhave, puggalo paññävimutto."

"What kind of person is one liberated-by-wisdom? Here some person does
not contact with the body and abide in those liberations that are
peaceful and immaterial, transcending forms, but his taints are
destroyed by his seeing with wisdom. This kind of person is called one
liberated-by-wisdom."

One should encourage the practice of jhana, as deep concentration is
very helpful to later gain insight. However, some people can be adept
in jhaana without attaining any insight at all -- as was the case with
Devadatta!

The following important point was made by Nyanaponika Thera in "The
Heart of Buddhist meditation:"

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

"We have to face the fact that, in this hectic and noisy age of ours,
the natural quietude of mind, the capacity for higher degrees of
concentration, and the requisite external conditions to cultivate
both, have greatly decreased, compared with the days of old. This
holds good not only for the West, but also, though in a lesser degree,
for the East, and even for a not inconsiderable section of Buddhist
monkhood. The principal conditions required for cultivating the
Absorptions are seclusion and noiselessness; and these are very rare
commodities nowadays. In addition, environment and education have
produced an increasing number of those types who will naturally be
more attracted by, and adapted to, the direct development of insight.

"Under such circumstances, it would amount to a neglect of promising
roads of progress if one were to insist rigidly on an exclusive
approach through the Absorptions, instead of making use of a method
emphatically recommended by the Buddha himself: a method which is more
easily adaptable to the current inner and outer conditions, and yet
leads to the aspired goal. To make use of it will be a practical
application of the Clear Comprehension of Suitability. ...

"These reasons of practicability referred to here, will certainly have
contributed to the fact that Satipatthaana has obtained such a strong
hold on the minds of many in modern Burma. The single-minded
application to the Way of Mindfulness and the enthusiastic
propagation of it, by Burman devotees, are based on the conviction
conveyed by personal experience. The emphasis which the practice of
Satipatthaana receives in Burma, and in the pages of this book, is
however, not meant to be a discouragement or disparagement of other
methods or devices. Satipatthaana would not be the Only Way if it
could not encompass them all."

*** *** *** *** *** *** ***

It does a disservice to Buddhism to insist on developing jhänas before
insight. Forest monks may be able to spend long hours for meditation,
but most monks and nearly all lay people require a more suitable
method for their busy lifestyles.

The importance of gaining insight during this waning era of the
Buddhasaasana cannot be overemphasized. Jhänas can be attained at any
time, even outside of the Buddha's dispensation, but insight requires
the unique Satipatthaana method taught by the Buddha, there is no
other method, whether one develops jhaanas first or not.

Alaara the Kaalaama and Uddaka Raamaaputta were also adept in jhaana.
Unlike Devadatta, they were virtuous persons and were also the
teachers of the bodhisatta, but they failed to gain enlightenment in
this dispensation whereas many ordinary lay persons with no special
accomplishments in meditation were able to do so by listening to the
Dhamma.

Please refer to Sayaadaw Pandita's book "In This Very Life" and read
the chapter on the Vipassanaa Jhaanas. Better still, get yourself to
Burma and ordain under that eminent Sayaadaw to practise vipassanaa
meditation under his guidance. Your jhaanas should lead you quickly to
attain genuine insight and the realisation of nibbaana.