Dear Ven. Pesala, Stephen and friends,

Ven. Pesala, there was a previous post questioning your identity. It
has aroused my attention too. With due respect, can you tell us more
about yourself?

Stephen, I have some questions which I hope you can help:

1. Below, you put "samadhi (= jhana)". Can you explain more? The
equal sign is helpful, but what I understand is jhana => samadhi, but
samadhi /=> jhana. That is to say jhana is an advance state of
samadhi, but not the reverse.

2. Your understanding of the eightfold path is different from mine.
Yours is a linear model, the first time I heard of it, and may I say
it is a funnel model too, i.e. the first seven items funnel into the
eighth. My understanding is a circular model, on top of that, it is
cyclical. Do you think that is wrong?


metta,
Yong Peng.

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, Stephen Hodge wrote:

If vipassana were so central to the Buddha's true teachings, then it
is surely strange how infrequently the term is used in the Nikyas
whereas "jhana" occurs thousands of times. You would also need to
account for its glaring omission from the eightfold path which
culminates in samadhi (= jhana) -- though your understanding of the
relationship of the eight elements of the path will probably differ
from mine: whether they are to be practised sequentially or at the
same time, or according to my understanding that the first seven
items are auxillary elements which are conducive to the eighth.