Dear Gabriel,
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Op 24-jun-2007, om 9:49 heeft Lotsawanet het volgende geschreven:

> Jhaana and Samadhi are different aspects or focus inside the
> practices of
> samatha and vipassanaa...is that right?
>
> So they would be a kind of different instruments with different
> qualities
> that offers the support to see things in different ways using
> either the
> samatha or vipassanaa method, am right?

Nina: The matter is more complex.
In the Pa.t.thaana, the Book of the Abhidhamma on Conditional
Relations, jhaana-paccaya is one of the conditioning factors that
conditions citta and cetasika. I shall quote parts of what I wrote in
my "Conditions':
< In the case of jh�na-condition, jh�na-paccaya, the cetasikas which
are jh�na-factors are the conditioning dhammas which cause the citta
and accompaying cetasikas, the conditioned dhammas, to fix themselves
firmly on the object which is experienced. In the �Visuddhimagga�, in
the section on the development of samatha, tranquil meditation (Ch
4), five jh�na-factors are summed up, sobhana cetasikas which should
be developed in order to reach jh�na, absorption. These factors
assist the citta to be absorbed in the meditation subject. When
jh�nacitta arises there are no longer sense impressions and there is
temporary freedom from defilements. Jh�nacitta is of a higher level
of citta than k�m�vara citta, citta of the sense sphere. The word
jh�na has been explained as being derived from �jh�yati�, to
contemplate, or to think closely of an object. Or else �jh�yati� can
mean to burn (Vis. IV, 119), since the jh�na-factors which are
developed burn the �hindrances� (akusala cetasikas) away. >
Jhaayati in the sense of burning is from another stem.

< The jh�na-factors which are developed in samatha are sobhana
cetasikas, they have to be developed together with pa��� which knows
the way to develop calm, so that absorption can be attained. However,
jh�na-factors can also be taken in a wider sense, they can even be
akusala. That is why the �Dhammasanga�i� mentions in the �Summary�
jh�na-factors arising not only with the mah�-kusala cittas which are
accompanied by pa���, but also with those which are unaccompanied by
pa���, ��.na-vippayutta, as well as with each of the akusala cittas.
Not only kusala citta but also akusala citta needs jh�na-factors
which assist the citta to be firmly fixed on an object. >
< The �Visuddhimagga� (Ch IV) mentions five of the seven jh�na-
factors, in that case sobhana cetasikas, which have to be developed
in samatha with the purpose of attaining jh�na. However, there must
be pa��� which knows the characteristics of those particular jh�na-
factors and which knows the way to develop calm with a suitable
meditation subject. One will not attain true calm merely by sitting
and trying to concentrate on one object. There are forty meditation
subjects of samatha and it depends on the individual which subject is
suitable as a means to develop calm (Vis. Ch IV-Ch X). For the
development of samatha it is essential that there is pa��� which
knows exactly when there is akusala citta and when there is kusala
citta with calm. The sobhana jh�na-factors have each their own
function in inhibiting the hindrances so that calm can be developed. >
< Sam�dhi, concentration, developed in samatha, is samm�-sam�dhi,
which is right concentration on the meditation subject. It inhibits
the hindrance which is sensuous desire (k�ma-cchandha). As calm grows
sam�dhi also develops. There is miccha-sam�dhi, wrong concentration,
and samm�-sam�dhi, right concentration. If there is no pa��� which
knows precisely when there is kusala citta and when akusala citta,
wrong concentration can be taken for right concentration. Someone may
mistakenly believe that there is calm when he just sits and for
example looks for a long time at a kasina (disk) which is among the
meditation subjects of samatha. Instead of true calm which is
wholesome there is clinging to quietness.

Not merely intellectual understanding of the jh�na-factors is needed
for the development of calm but there must also be right
understanding which discerns precisely their different
characteristics. When one underestimates the difficulty of the
development of jh�na there is bound to be wrong concentration. >

< Jh�na-factors which are sobhana condition each kusala citta, and
thus they also condition the kusala citta which develops vipassan� by
way of jh�na-condition. In vipassan� the aim is not the suppression
of the hindrances by the development of the sobhana jh�na-factors, as
is the case in samatha. Some people think that the hindrances have to
be suppressed first before there can be right understanding of n�ma
and r�pa. In vipassan�, however, right understanding is developed of
whatever reality appears, also when that reality is a �hindrance�.
When it appears it does so because it is conditioned. All conditioned
realities have to be known as they are, as non-self. At the moment of
right understanding of the characteristic of a hindrance such as
desire or ill will, the citta is kusala citta and there is no
hindrance.>

< Those who are proficient in jh�na and also develop insight can take
jh�nacitta as object of insight; jh�na is then the basis of insight.
In that way they can become detached from the idea that jh�nacitta is
self. >

Gabriel, does this answer your questions? Do not hesitate to ask again.
Nina.




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