Hi Ven.Kumara and Gerard,

I like to suggest to take following essay into consideration of our discussion.

Interpretations of the Jhanas http://www.leighb.com/jhanantp.htm

(extract from introduction)
Although the Jhanas appear very frequently in the discourses of the Buddha (suttas), now two and a half millenna later there is no generally agreed upon interpretation of what exactly these states of concentration are. This paper is a highly subjective attempt by one Jhana practitioner to simply list and categorize the various interpretations I have heard of here at the beginning of the 21st century. The information in this list is quite likely to not be totally accurate. ..The first broad categorization would be into "Sutta Style Jhanas" and "Visuddhimagga Style Jhanas .....

D: I wonder whether the suttatexts allow such a variety of interpretations and suppose that fitting Pali -English translations must be checked within its context. For example the question concerning ' absorbtion ' may be easier to be answered when we have both ,Jhana texts and the interpretations of Jhana practioners, in mind.

with Metta Dieter




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