Dear Scot,
Your questions are superb. Firstly Jhanna is a cognate of a Sanskrit word yoJana, more at concentration that absorption. Pertaining to your question
," I thought there must be other senses such that one could be in it while going thru one's day." Here is how yoJana is defined:
yoJana = n. joining , yoking , harnessing Pa1rGr2. Hariv. ; that which is yoked or harnessed , a team , vehicle (also applied to the hymns and prayers addressed to the gods) RV. ; course , path ib. ; (sometimes m. ; ifc. f. %{A}) a stage or Yojana (i.e. a distance traversed in one harnessing or without unyoking ; esp. a partic. measure of distance , sometimes regarded as equal to 4 or 5 English miles , but more correctly = 4 Kros3as or about 9 miles ; according to other calculations = 2 1/2 English miles , and according to some = 8 Kros3as) RV. &c. &c. ; instigation , stimulation Sa1h. ; mental concentration , abstraction , directing the thoughts to one point (= %{yoga}) Up. ; the Supreme Spirit of the Universe (= %{paramA7tman}) L. ; a finger L. ; n. and (%{A}) f. use , application , arrangement , preparation RV. Ka1tyS3r. MBh. Sa1h. ; erecting , constructing , building Ra1jat. Katha1s. ; junction , union , combination Sa1h. Veda7ntas. ; (%{A}) f. application of the sense
of a passage , grammatical construction S3am2k.
truly,
biloo_5
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Scott Duncan <
scduncan@...> wrote: Hello,
P: "This is ver[y] interesting: could there be two possible senses of
jhaana (meditation, as is jhayatha bhikkhave, as dhyana or absorption)?
"How can we know the context?"
Forgive me, I'm a total beginner and so can't say much. I think I was
looking at the Paali because I can't makes sense of what seemed to be
the instruction to remain in "jhaana" all the time. Understood as
"jhaana" as the meditative absorption, which I also understand
precludes discursive thought when so absorbed, I couldn't understand.
I thought there must be other senses of jhaana, then, such that one
could be "in" it while going through one's day.
Sincerely,
Scott.
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