5th Jhana

So the day before yesterday lacking enthusiasm for the self-reference proof I came to read the “Ariyapariyesana Sutta: The Noble Search” at www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.026.than.html

It has a very simple exposition of Buddha’s quest. But then it goes on to something I have only once and very vaguely heard about: the “Formless Jhanas. What I read was the most total wake up call I could ever receive…

“Then again the monk, with the complete transcending of perceptions of [physical] form, with the disappearance of perceptions of resistance, and not heeding perceptions of diversity, [perceiving,] 'Infinite space,' enters & remains in the dimension of the infinitude of space. This monk is said to have blinded Mara. Trackless, he has destroyed Mara's vision and has become invisible to the Evil One.

"Then again the monk, with the complete transcending of the dimension of the infinitude of space, [perceiving,] 'Infinite consciousness,' enters & remains in the dimension of the infinitude of consciousness. This monk is said to have blinded Mara. Trackless, he has destroyed Mara's vision and has become invisible to the Evil One.”

I don’t know if I have blogged this – though I must have – but for the first time I have found exactly the experience I had a child in the world’s written texts – “infinite space”. The description I gave of the experience to my father was “my mind expanded to fill all of space, even the space behind my head”. This last bit was what most struck me: that the visual space we are normally aware of only goes out in front of us, and we only imagine the space behind our heads – normally therefore space as we experience it is heterogenic and made up different types of space, in different regions of our senses and our minds. But when I rose above this my mind was no longer fragmented into all these different arenas of space, it became the same as a space that was all around and without a boundary (that is what infinite means here) – it doesn’t stop at the nearest wall for example, or strec=tch through a window and then stop at the horizon. This space was also self-illuminating, or sort of; because it was filling the darkness as much as the light of my room. It was the “implication” and the transcendence of an unintentional meditation of a circle of light and the spontaneous realisation that the circle only existed because of the darkness that surrounded it – that darkness was the universe (more or less). It was not a mental investigation, I was doing home work, it was a spontaneous enquiry that occurred below the level of thoughts, that is, I was seeing what I was thinking directly.

The object of meditation is as simple as this but do in a dark room so the black extends in all directions. Have I drawn a white circle on a black background, or is this black card with a hole in it on a white background?

The point is that the very fact that there are two equally valid interpretations means that the picture is of neither! What it is a picture of is actually a dialectic between black and white. The white defines the shape of the black and the black equally defines the shape of the white. There is not actually a circle there in its own right. What we call a circle is only the apparent illusion caused by an interaction. The area of white depends upon the black and the area of black depends equally on the area of white. Our attention is drawn to the area of white by the area of black and our attention is drawn to the area of black by the area of white.

This is the first time since that experience in early 1984 that I have philosophically understood the experience. It was exactly the “dependent origination” that I have been learning about for 10 years in Buddhism. So why having experienced it in the 5th Jhana did I not “know” what I had seen?

The answer to that is the difference between “thoughts” and “reality”. 26 years is a long time to codify an experience, and that is even with the explanations in front of my eyes. This is how far apart the enlightened mind and the mind that understands are. This I imagine is why Buddha was not inclined to teach his realisation and why he took his life to find a way to teach it. This is why the deputy grand master of my temple said that “no-one in the world today really understands the Buddha”. This is why enlightenment it is so unfathomable.

What has shocked me is that my tender adolescent mind was shocked for a moment by what appears to be 5th Jhana (or even the 6th given that my mind expanded to fill all space). The details are not important. It is the realisation that I WAS on The Path. There can be no doubt now. I have asked teachers before and never got a clear answer and have doubted whether that experience meant anything at all. Just an hallucination is the easiest way to forget about it. My father thought I was going mad. In a world that has no recognition you lose faith in what you see and yourself. You rewrite it in your mind so that you can forget about it. Thinking, Science and Philosophy were the safe answer and I turned to them to find The Path. How misleading a path that is I now see. Yet I still maintain a resolution from then that I will never attain anything that I cannot explain and get others to attain…. tho a seconds thought now seems to throw that resolution into peril. Maybe it is right to seek attainment first and worry about helping others attain it later?

How did I attain this? That it is easy and I have documented that in this blog before. However the path to attainment I misunderstood at the time. It was not intellect that led here at all but simply Purity.

On confirmation to the Christian Church in Nov 1983 I kept a habit of praying every night and then lying in bed mentally silent listening for God before I slept. This effectively was meditation. I made vows to be “my best”. Worked hard in everything at school, kept promises and was Noble. This is the key word – remaining Noble. Nobility has been made a dirty word in the west by the jealous poor. But actually the dirtiness is just the jealousy of those who do not have as much as others. Nobility – being a gentleman - is the highest attainment. One must be strong in ones duties and resolutions, clear, honest and reliable; able to cut away temptations that will seek to grow up the walls that ones purity has built.

Sila is what the Pali calls it. Morality uprightness. This is not about being good, it is about being accurate, correct and precise in ones behaviour. It is the source of strength that the mind can build upon and see reality for what it really is.

Now I have faith again and understand how to attain the path I need only try once again to complete the duty to enlighten.