Month: February 2022

A friend commented about the meditative states (jhanas):

[The jhanas] would be an easy way (if you are familiar with the states) to get yourself as deep in emptiness as you could so that you could easily recognize the clear light in the bardo state.

… we commonly pass through some of the jhanas accidentally, not realizing what they are. [They’ve been described] as like radio frequencies we learn to tune into.

(The Dao Bums, bracketed summaries mine)

My response–I open with a quote, to clarify “the clear light” experience associated with “the bardo state”:

In the dissolution process of the bodily elements as outlined previously, consciousness progressively relies on less elements [dissolution of the elements and three subsequent stages of creative energies are described]. After this comes the Clear Light Dharmakaya experience which can be had at death, falling asleep, fainting or in advanced tantric meditations.

(“The Mahamudra: Eliminating the Darkness of Ignorance”, Wang Chug Dor-je, Alexander Berzin, Beru Khyentze Rinpoche; p.142; commentary by Beru Khyentze Rinpoche; bracketed summary mine)

I write about the practice of falling asleep (and waking up), here.

More from the commentary above:

Normally consciousness relies on all the bodily elements as its basis. During the death process, however, the elements as bases progressively fail and consciousness relies on less and less of them. This is what experiences the Clear Light of death and passes into the in-between or “bardo” state and on into your next rebirth. Thus meditation on the mind with no object is similar to the tantric ones of taking the Dharmakaya as a pathway for death, in which you simulate in meditation the dissolution process of death and focus finally on the space-like mind itself in the Dharmakaya Clear Light experience.

(Ibid, pg 51-52, emphasis mine)

“Meditation on the mind with no object”–how about this:

Gautama emphasized “one-pointedness of mind” as a characteristic of concentration, and what I experience is a complete freedom of the singular location of self-awareness to move in space, with the coordination of the body following autonomically from the location of “mind”.

(from my post, Meditation Manuals)

More:

The location of that mind is often in the “hara”, but the aim is to allow for experience like that Gautama described for the fourth of the initial states of concentration:

Again, a (person), putting away ease… enters and abides in the fourth musing; seated, (one) suffuses (one’s) body with purity by the pureness of (one’s) mind so that there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded with purity by the pureness of (one’s) mind. … just as a (person) might sit with (their) head swathed in a clean cloth; even so (one) sits suffusing (their) body with purity…

(AN III 25-28, Pali Text Society Vol. III pg 18-19)

I don’t often experience an orderly progression of states of concentration, more like a jumble, but I keep an eye on “freedom of the singular location of self-awareness to move in space”, which to me is “purity by the pureness of (one’s) mind, so that there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded with purity by the pureness of (one’s) mind”.

And I keep in mind the “head swathed in a clean cloth”. In several sermons, Gautama spoke of the entire body so swathed, not just the head–I look more to that. My explanation: “a heightened ability to feel dermatomes, as a consequence of the relaxed nerve exits from the sacrum and spine provided by an even stretch of ligaments”. I wrote that to describe how ch’i “manifests in the skin and hair” (here), but I think it applies to the “clean cloth” as well.

As Gautama said about each of the jhanas:

“… for whatever (one) imagines it to be, it is otherwise.”

(MN III 42-45)

And the Blessed One entered the first jhana. Rising from the first jhana, he entered the second jhana. Rising from the second jhana, he entered the third jhana. Rising from the third jhana, he entered the fourth jhana. And rising out of the fourth jhana, he entered the sphere of infinite space. Rising from the attainment of the sphere of infinite space, he entered the sphere of infinite consciousness. Rising from the attainment of the sphere of infinite consciousness, he entered the sphere of nothingness. Rising from the attainment of the sphere of nothingness, he entered the sphere of neither-perception-nor-non-perception. And rising out of the attainment of the sphere of neither-perception-nor-non-perception, he attained to the cessation of perception and feeling.

And the Venerable Ananda spoke to the Venerable Anuruddha, saying: “Venerable Anuruddha, the Blessed One has passed away.” “No, friend Ananda, the Blessed One has not passed away. He has entered the state of the cessation of perception and feeling.”

Then the Blessed One, rising from the cessation of perception and feeling, entered the sphere of neither-perception-nor-non-perception. Rising from the attainment of the sphere of neither-perception-nor-non-perception, he entered the sphere of nothingness. Rising from the attainment of the sphere of nothingness, he entered the sphere of infinite consciousness. Rising from the attainment of the sphere of infinite consciousness, he entered the sphere of infinite space. Rising from the attainment of the sphere of infinite space, he entered the fourth jhana. Rising from the fourth jhana, he entered the third jhana. Rising from the third jhana, he entered the second jhana. Rising from the second jhana, he entered the first jhana.

Rising from the first jhana, he entered the second jhana. Rising from the second jhana, he entered the third jhana. Rising from the third jhana, he entered the fourth jhana. And, rising from the fourth jhana, the Blessed One immediately passed away.

(“Maha-parinibbana Sutta: Last Days of the Buddha”, translated from the Pali by sister Vajira & Francis Story)

The assumption that some of the Order were psychic enough to discern the particular jhana the Gautamid was in at the moment of his passing–that seems doubtful to me.  The last assertion, that Gautama returned to the fourth of the material jhanas and was transcending that state at the moment of his demise, I think is the entire reason for the inclusion of this account.

In his early days, Gautama studied under two of the foremost teachers of his time.  He attained “the sphere of nothingness” under one, and “neither-perception-nor-non-perception” under the other.  He was unsatisfied with these attainments, and succeeded in arriving at “the cessation of perception and sensation” on his own.  I have no doubt that this arrival was synonymous with his enlightenment, and that his insight into dependent causation and the four truths came from this experience.

“Cessation” is the cessation of action arising from determinate thought (AN III 415).  What Gautama experienced was the falling away of habit and volition in perceiving and feeling, the cessation of habit and volition in the action of the mind (and what was left was “the disturbance” of the six sense fields, MN III 108-109).

Why did the elders posit that Gautama was transcending the fourth of the material jhanas when he died?  The attainment of the fourth jhana is synonymous with the cessation of (habit or volition in) action of the body, and that cessation I believe was Gautama’s daily touchstone.  In many of his lectures, he recounted the four material jhanas, and then spoke of “the survey-sign of the concentration”, leaving off the further states entirely.

I believe the fourth jhana was the primary cessation in his own practice of mindfulness, the fifteenth of the sixteen elements of his mindfulness.  At one point in his teaching career, Gautama emphasized the sixteen elements of his own practice to his followers, as a thing “peaceful and choice, something perfect in itself, and a pleasant way of living too” (SN V 320-322).  I think he understood that even though he taught “lack of desire” as the means to attain and transcend each of the jhanas, his followers focused their intent solely on attainment, to their own detriment.

That would be why the elders had him deceasing as he came out of the fourth of the material jhanas–to lay the emphasis on something more a part of daily practice, so the monks and nuns wouldn’t knock their brains out thinking they must arrive at “the cessation of perceiving and feeling” at the moment of their death.

The details of his teaching as far as I’ve been able to gather, are here.