Dear Thomas,

In his book "The Buddha and His Teachings" (ch. 1 and 2) Ven. Narada Mahaathera refers to Ariyapariyesana Sutta and Mahaa-Saccaka Sutta (Majjhima Nikaaya, part I, no. 26 and 36) regarding ascetic practices done by the Buddha before the attainment of Enlightenment. I myself haven't studied this particular texts, but I suppose there you can find the information you seek.

With metta,
Ardavarz

--- On Fri, 3/20/09, thomaslaw03 <thomaslaw03@...> wrote:
From: thomaslaw03 <thomaslaw03@...>
Subject: [Pali] Meditation Stage
To: Pali@yahoogroups.com
Date: Friday, March 20, 2009, 3:23 AM












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-percepti on (n'eva sa~n~naa-naasa~ n~naayatana) ? According to what Pali text (s) we know this?



Thank you.



Thomas Law































[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]