Dear Thomas,

Firstly, "Hindu" is an anachronistic term here. The term actually was
not even Indian (it was Iranian, also sued by the ancient Chinese).
Hindu is a cultural term that arose sometime around the Gupta period.
As a religious term, it follows from Brahmanism.

However, the two teachers from whom the Buddha learned meditation were
not even brahmins, but sramanas, that is, members of the reform
movement.

The high stage they could teach him was that of
neither-perception-nor-non-perception.

With metta,

Piya Tan

On Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 9:23 AM, thomaslaw03 <thomaslaw03@...> wrote:
> Dear Pali friends,
>
> It is said that before the Buddha attained Enlightenment, he leant and
> practiced meditations from different Hindu gurus, and attained some
> meditative stages. Do you know what is the final stage of meditation he
> attainted at that time? Is it the Cessation of perception-and -feeling
> (sa~n~naa-vedayita-nirodha) or the Ream of
> neither-perception-nor-non-perception (n'eva sa~n~naa-naasa~n~naayatana)?
> According to what Pali text (s) we know this?
>
> Thank you.
>
> Thomas Law
>
>



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