[Attachment(s) from Kumara Bhikkhu included below]
Here's the controversial thing, which I think Ven
Buddhoghosa himself wasn't sure of what jhana
really is. I suspect that he was getting
different ideas about this, and end up with these
seemingly precise yet deficient and muddled ideas.
I attach an appendix which gives an idea of this.
It's from a book I'm almost done writing titled
"What You May Not Know about Jhana & Samadhi".
(It doesn't deal with vitakka and vicara, which I have in the main text.)
Note: It's not a scholarly paper (and I'm just a
quasi-scholar), and is still a draft that may
contain a polemical tone which I've not cleared up or toned down yet.
with mettâ,
Kumâra Bhikkhu, ven.
Bryan Levman bryan.levman@... [palistudy]
wrote thus at 09:46 AM 27-08-15:
>I am not really sure why vitakko is coarse and
>vicaro is subtle. Certainly the initial striking
>of a bell is loud and sudden, whereas the
>after-sound is more delicate and softer. How
>this exactly relates to the first jhāna is not
>clear to me, and it isn't explain in the Vin-a
>commentary that I can see. It relates vitakko to
>a bird flapping its wings to lift itself into
>flight, whereas vicāro is the bird with outstretched wings flying.
>
>Maybe someone else has some ideas?