See also: Samadhi, Samatha, Vipassanā and Dhyana in Hinduism.
| Dhyāna | |
| Lang1: | Sanskrit |
| Lang1 Content: | ध्यान (in Devanagari) Dhyāna (Romanised) |
| Lang2: | Pāli |
| Lang2 Content: | (in Brāhmī) ඣාන (in Sinhala) ឈាន/ធ្យាន (in Khmer) (in Burmese) (in Mon) Jhāna (Romanised) Thai: ฌาน (in Thai) |
| P: | Chán |
| W: | Ch’an |
| J: | sim4 |
| T: | 禪 |
| S: | 禅 |
| Rr: | Seon |
| Mr: | Sŏn |
| Hangul: | 선 |
| Hanja: | 禪 |
| Romaji: | Zenjyō or Jyōryo |
| Kanji: | 禅定 or 静慮 |
| Qn: | Thiền |
| Hn: | 禪 |
| Tgl: | Dhyana |
| Tib: | བསམ་གཏན |
| Wylie: | bsam gtan |
In the oldest texts of Buddhism, dhyāna or jhāna is a component of the training of the mind (bhavana), commonly translated as meditation, to withdraw the mind from the automatic responses to sense-impressions, "burn up" the defilements, and leading to a "state of perfect equanimity and awareness (upekkhā-sati-parisuddhi)." Dhyāna may have been the core practice of pre-sectarian Buddhism, in combination with several related practices which together lead to perfected mindfulness and detachment.
In the later commentarial tradition, which has survived in present-day Theravāda, dhyāna is equated with "concentration", a state of one-pointed absorption in which there is a diminished awareness of the surroundings. In the contemporary Theravāda-based Vipassana movement, this absorbed state of mind is regarded as unnecessary and even non-beneficial for the first stage of awakening, which has to be reached by mindfulness of the body and vipassanā (insight into impermanence). Since the 1980s, scholars and practitioners have started to question these positions, arguing for a more comprehensive and integrated understanding and approach, based on the oldest descriptions of dhyāna in the suttas.
In Buddhist traditions of Chán and Zen (the names of which are, respectively, the Chinese and Japanese pronunciations of dhyāna), as in Theravada and Tiantai, anapanasati (mindfulness of breathing), which is transmitted in the Buddhist tradition as a means to develop dhyana, is a central practice. In the Chan/Zen-tradition this practice is ultimately based on Sarvastivāda meditation techniques transmitted since the beginning of the Common Era.
Dhyāna, Pali jhana, from Proto-Indo-European root *√dheie-, "to see, to look", "to show".[1] Developed into Sanskrit root √dhī and n. dhī,[2] which in the earliest layer of text of the Vedas refers to "imaginative vision" and associated with goddess Saraswati with powers of knowledge, wisdom and poetic eloquence.[3] This term developed into the variant √dhyā, "to contemplate, meditate, think",[4] [2] from which dhyāna is derived.[5]
According to Buddhaghosa (5th century CE Theravāda exegete), the term jhāna (Skt. dhyāna) is derived from the verb jhayati, "to think or meditate", while the verb jhapeti, "to burn up", explicates its function, namely burning up opposing states, burning up or destroying "the mental defilements preventing [...] the development of serenity and insight."
Commonly translated as meditation, and often equated with "concentration", though meditation may refer to a wider scale of exercises for bhāvanā, development. Dhyāna can also mean "attention, thought, reflection".[6]
Zoroastrianism in Persia, which has Indo-Aryan linguistic and cultural roots, developed the related practice of daena.
The Pāḷi Canon describes four progressive states of jhāna called rūpa jhāna ("form jhāna"), and four additional meditative attainments called arūpa ("without form").
See also: Buddhist meditation and Buddhist paths to liberation.
Meditation and contemplation form an integrated set of practices with several other practices, which are fully realized with the onset of dhyāna. As described in the Noble Eightfold Path, right view leads to leaving the household life and becoming a wandering monk. Sīla (morality) comprises the rules for right conduct. Right effort, or the four right efforts, which already contains elements of dhyāna, aim to prevent the arising of unwholesome states, and to generate wholesome states. This includes indriya samvara (sense restraint), controlling the response to sensual perceptions, not giving in to lust and aversion but simply noticing the objects of perception as they appear.[7] Right effort and mindfulness ("to remember to observe"), notably mindfulness of breathing, calm the mind-body complex, releasing unwholesome states and habitual patterns, and encouraging the development of wholesome states and non-automatic responses. By following these cumulative steps and practices, the mind becomes set, almost naturally, for the equanimity of dhyāna, reinforcing the development of wholesome states, which in return further reinforces equanimity and mindfulness.
See also: Seven Factors of Awakening.
Grouped into the jhāna-scheme are four meditative states referred to in the early texts as arūpa-āyatanas. These are also referred to in commentarial literature as arūpa-jhānas ("formless" or "immaterial" jhānas), corresponding to the arūpa-loka (translated as the "formless realm" or the "formless dimensions"), to be distinguished from the first four jhānas (rūpa jhānas). In the Buddhist canonical texts, the word "jhāna" is never explicitly used to denote them; they are instead referred to as āyatana. However, they are sometimes mentioned in sequence after the first four jhānas (other texts, e.g. MN 121, treat them as a distinct set of attainments) and thus came to be treated by later exegetes as jhānas.
The four arūpa-āyatanas/arūpa-jhānas are:
Beyond the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception lies a state called nirodha samāpatti, the "cessation of perception, feelings and consciousness".[8] Only in commentarial and scholarly literature, this is sometimes called the "ninth jhāna".[9] [10] Another name for this state is saññāvedayitanirodha ("cessation of perception and feeling"). According to Buddhaghosa's (XXIII, 18), it is characterized by the temporary suppression of consciousness and its concomitant mental factors, so the contemplative reaches a state unconscious (acittaka) for a week at most. In the nirodha remain unically some elementary physiological process designated, in the, by the terms āyu and usmā. Neuroscientists have recently studied this phenomena empirically and proposed a model for its neural-substrate.
While dhyana typically refers to the four jhanas/dhyanas, the term also refers to a set of practices which seem to go back to a very early stage of the Buddhist tradition. These practices are the contemplation on the body-parts and their repulsiveness (patikulamanasikara); contemplation on the elements of which the body is composed; contemplation on the stages of decay of a dead body; and mindfulness of breathing (anapanasati). These practices are described in the Satipatthana Sutta of the Pali canon and the equivalent texts of the Chinese agamas, in which they are interwoven with the factors of the four dhyanas or the seven factors of awakening (bojjhanga). This set of practices was also transmitted via the Dhyana sutras, which are based on the Sarvastivada-tradition, forming the basis of the Chan/Zen-tradition.[11]
See main article: Enlightenment in Buddhism and Nirvana.
The Buddhist tradition has incorporated two traditions regarding the use of jhāna. There is a tradition that stresses attaining insight (vipassanā) as the means to awakening (bodhi, prajñā, kenshō) and liberation (vimutti, nibbāna). But the Buddhist tradition has also incorporated the yogic tradition, as reflected in the use of jhāna as a concentrative practice, which—in some interpretations—is rejected in other sūtras as not resulting in the final result of liberation. One solution to this contradiction is the conjunctive use of vipassanā and samatha.[12]
The , Majjhima Nikaya 36, narrates the story of the Buddha's awakening. According to this story, he learned two kinds of meditation from two teachers, Uddaka Rāmaputta and Āḷāra Kālāma. These forms of meditation did not lead to liberation, and he then underwent harsh ascetic practices, with which he eventually also became disillusioned. The Buddha then recalled a meditative state he entered by chance as a child:
Originally, the practice of dhyāna itself may have constituted the core liberating practice of early Buddhism, since in this state all "pleasure and pain" had waned. According to Vetter,
The time of the Buddha saw the rise of the śramaṇa movement, ascetic practitioners with a body of shared teachings and practices. The strict delineation of this movement into Jainism, Buddhism and brahmanical/Upanishadic traditions is a later development. According to Crangle, the development of meditative practices in ancient India was a complex interplay between Vedic and non-Vedic traditions. According to Bronkhorst, the four rūpa-jhānas may be an original contribution of the Buddha to the religious practices of ancient India, forming an alternative to the ascetic practices of the Jains and similar śramaṇa traditions, while the arūpa-āyatanas were incorporated from non-Buddhist ascetic traditions.
Kalupahana argues that the Buddha "reverted to the meditational practices" he had learned from Āḷāra Kālāma and Uddaka Rāmaputta, "directed at the appeasement of mind rather than the development of insight." Moving beyond these initial practices, reflection gave him the essential insight into conditioning, and learned him how to appease his "dispositional tendencies", without either being dominated by them, nor completely annihilating them.
Wynne argues that the attainment of the formless meditative absorption was incorporated from Brahmanical practices, and have Brahmnanical cosmogenies as their doctrinal background. Wynne therefore concludes that these practices were borrowed from a Brahminic source, namely Uddaka Rāmaputta and Āḷāra Kālāma. Yet the Buddha rejected their doctrines, as they were not liberating, and discovered his own path to awakening, which "consisted of the adaptation of the old yogic techniques to the practice of mindfulness and attainment of insight." Thus "radically transform[ed]" application of yogic practices was conceptualized in the scheme of the four jhānas.
Yet—according to Bronkhorst—the Buddha's teachings developed primarily in response to Jain teachings, not Brahmanical teachings,and the account of the Buddha practicing under Uddaka Rāmaputta and Āḷāra Kālāma is entirely fictitious, and meant to flesh out the mentioning of those names in the post-enlightenment narrative in Majjhima Nikaya 36. Vishvapani notes that the Brahmanical texts cited by Wynne assumed their final form long after the Buddha's lifetime, with the Mokshadharma postdating him. Vishvapani further notes that Uddaka Rāmaputta and Āḷāra Kālāma may well have been sramanic teachers, as the Buddhist tradition asserts, not Brahmins.[13]
See also: Buddhist paths to awakening and Subitism.
A stock phrase in the canon states that one develops the four rupa-jhānas and then attains liberating insight. While the texts often refer to comprehending the Four Noble Truths as constituting this "liberating insight", Schmithausen notes that the Four Noble Truths as constituting "liberating insight" (here referring to paññā[14]) is a later addition to texts such as Majjhima Nikaya 36.
Schmithausen discerns three possible roads to liberation as described in the suttas, to which Vetter adds a fourth possibility, while the attainment of nirodha-samāpatti may constitute a fifth possibility:
See main article: Vipassanā and Sampajañña.
According to the Theravada tradition, the meditator uses the jhāna state to bring the mind to rest, and to strengthen and sharpen the mind, in order to investigate the true nature of phenomena (dhamma) and to gain insight into impermanence, suffering and not-self. According to the Theravada-tradition, the arahant is aware that the jhānas are ultimately unsatisfactory, realizing that the meditative attainments are also anicca, impermanent.[16]
In the (Majjhima Nikaya 36), which narrates the story of the Buddha's awakening, dhyāna is followed by insight into the Four Noble Truths. The mention of the Four Noble Truths as constituting "liberating insight" is probably a later addition. Vetter notes that such insight is not possible in a state of dhyāna, when interpreted as concentration, since discursive thinking is eliminated in such a state. He also notes that the emphasis on "liberating insight" developed only after the four noble truths were introduced as an expression of what this "liberating insight" constituted. In time, other expressions took over this function, such as pratītyasamutpāda and the emptiness of the self.
This scheme is rejected by some scholars as a later development, since the āyatanas are akin to non-Buddhist practices, and rejected elsewhere in the canon.
The emphasis on "liberating insight" alone seems to be a later development, in response to developments in Indian religious thought, which saw "liberating insight" as essential to liberation. This may also have been due to an over-literal interpretation by later scholastics of the terminology used by the Buddha, and to the problems involved with the practice of dhyāna, and the need to develop an easier method.
Contemporary scholars have discerned a broader application of jhāna in historical Buddhist practice. According to Alexander Wynne, the ultimate aim of dhyāna was the attainment of insight, and the application of the meditative state to the practice of mindfulness. According to Frauwallner, mindfulness was a means to prevent the arising of craving, which resulted simply from contact between the senses and their objects. According to Frauwallner, this may have been the Buddha's original idea. According to Wynne, this stress on mindfulness may have led to the intellectualism which favoured insight over the practice of dhyāna.
Both Schmithausen and Bronkhorst note that the attainment of insight, which is a cognitive activity, cannot be possible in a state wherein all cognitive activity has ceased. According to Vetter, the practice of Rupa Jhāna itself may have constituted the core practice of early Buddhism, with practices such as sila and mindfulness aiding its development. It is the "middle way" between self-mortification, ascribed by Bronkhorst to Jainism, and indulgence in sensual pleasure. Vetter emphasizes that dhyana is a form of non-sensual happiness. The eightfold path can be seen as a path of preparation which leads to the practice of samadhi.
According to some texts, after progressing through the eight jhānas and the stage of nirodha-samāpatti, a person is liberated.[8] According to some traditions someone attaining the state of nirodha-samāpatti is an anagami or an arahant.[15] In the Anupadda sutra, the Buddha narrates that Sariputta became an arahant upon reaching it.[17]
In the commentarial tradition, the development of jhāna is described as the development of five mental factors (Sanskrit: caitasika; Pali: cetasika) that counteract the five hindrances:
Buddhagosa's considers jhāna to be an exercise in concentration-meditation. His views, together with the Satipatthana Sutta, inspired the development, in the 19th and 20th century, of new meditation techniques which gained a great popularity among lay audiences in the second half of the 20th century.
According to Henepola Gunaratana, the term "jhāna" is closely connected with "samadhi", which is generally rendered as "concentration". The word "samadhi" is almost interchangeable with the word "samatha", serenity.[18] According to Gunaratana, in the widest sense the word samadhi is being used for the practices which lead to the development of serenity. In this sense, samadhi and jhāna are close in meaning. Nevertheless, they are not exactly identical, since "certain differences in their suggested and contextual meanings prevent unqualified identification of the two terms." Samadhi signifies only one mental factor, namely one-pointedness, while the word "jhāna" encompasses the whole state of consciousness, "or at least the whole group of mental factors individuating that meditative state as a jhana." Furthermore, according to Gunaratana, samadhi involves "a wider range of reference than jhana", noting that "the Pali exegetical tradition recognizes three levels of samadhi: preliminary concentration (parikammasamadhi) [...] access concentration (upacarasamadhi) [...] and absorption concentration (appanasamadhi)."
According to the Pāli canon commentarial tradition, access/neighbourhood concentration (upacāra-samādhi) is a stage of meditation that the meditator reaches before entering into jhāna. The overcoming of the five hindrances mark the entry into access concentration. Access concentration is not mentioned in the discourses of the Buddha, but there are several suttas where a person gains insight into the Dhamma on hearing a teaching from the Buddha.
According to Tse-fu Kuan, at the state of access concentration, some meditators may experience vivid mental imagery, which is similar to a vivid dream. They are as vivid as if seen by the eye, but in this case the meditator is fully aware and conscious that they are seeing mental images. Tse-fu Kuan grounds this view in the early texts, with further explication to be found in the Theravāda commentaries.[19]
According to Venerable Sujivo, as the concentration becomes stronger, the feelings of breathing and of having a physical body will completely disappear, leaving only pure awareness. At this stage inexperienced meditators may become afraid, thinking that they are going to die if they continue the concentration, because the feeling of breathing and the feeling of having a physical body has completely disappeared. Sujivo explains that this fear is needless and that the practitioner should instead continue concentration, in order to reach "full concentration" (jhāna).[20]
A meditator should first master the lower jhānas, before they can go into the higher jhānas. According to Nathan Katz, the early suttas state that "the most exquisite of recluses" is able to attain any of the jhānas and abide in them without difficulty.[16]
According to the contemporary Vipassana movement, the jhāna state cannot by itself lead to enlightenment as it only suppresses the defilements. Meditators must use the jhāna state as an instrument for developing wisdom by cultivating insight, and use it to penetrate the true nature of phenomena through direct cognition, which will lead to cutting off the defilements and nibbana.
According to the later Theravāda commentorial tradition as outlined by Buddhagoṣa in his, after coming out of the state of jhāna the meditator will be in the state of post-jhāna access concentration. In this state the investigation and analysis of the true nature of phenomena begins, which leads to insight into the characteristics of impermanence, suffering and not-self arises.
While the jhānas are often understood as deepening states of concentration, due to its description as such in the Abhidhamma, and the, since the 1980s some academics and contemporary Theravādins have begun to question both this understanding of the jhānas as being states of deep absorption, and the idea that they are not necessary for the attainment of liberation. While significant research on this topic has been done by Bareau, Schmithausen, Stuart-Fox, Bucknell, Vetter, Bronkhorst, and Wynne, Theravāda practitioners have also scrutinized and criticised the samatha-vipassana distinction.[21] Reassessments of the description of jhāna in the suttas consider jhāna and vipassana to be an integrated practice, leading to a "tranquil and equanimous awareness of whatever arises in the field of experience."
While the commentarial tradition regards vitarka and vicara as initial and sustained concentration on a meditation object, Roderick S. Bucknell notes that vitarka and vicara may refer to "probably nothing other than the normal process of discursive thought, the familiar but usually unnoticed stream of mental imagery and verbalization." Bucknell further notes that "[t]hese conclusions conflict with the widespread conception of the first jhāna as a state of deep concentration."
According to Stuart-Fox, the Abhidhamma separated vitarka from vicara, and ekaggata (one-pointedness) was added to the description of the first dhyāna to give an equal number of five hindrances and five antidotes. The commentarial tradition regards the qualities of the first dhyāna to be antidotes to the five hindrances, and ekaggata may have been added to the first dhyāna to give exactly five antidotes for the five hindrances. Stuart-Fox further notes that vitarka, being discursive thought, will do very little as an antidote for sloth and torpor, reflecting the inconsistencies which were introduced by the scholastics.
Vetter, Gombrich and Wynne note that the first and second jhāna represent the onset of dhyāna due to withdrawal and right effort c.q. the four right efforts, followed by concentration, whereas the third and fourth jhāna combine concentration with mindfulness. Polak, elaborating on Vetter, notes that the onset of the first dhyāna is described as a quite natural process, due to the preceding efforts to restrain the senses and the nurturing of wholesome states. Regarding samādhi as the eighth step of the Noble Eightfold Path, Vetter notes that samādhi consists of the four stages of dhyāna meditation, but
According to Richard Gombrich, the sequence of the four rūpa jhānas describes two different cognitive states: "I know this is controversial, but it seems to me that the third and fourth jhānas are thus quite unlike the second." Gombrich and Wynne note that, while the second jhāna denotes a state of absorption, in their interpretation of the third and fourth jhāna, one comes out of this absorption, being mindfully aware of objects while being indifferent to them. According to Gombrich, "the later tradition has falsified the jhana by classifying them as the quintessence of the concentrated, calming kind of meditation, ignoring the other—and indeed higher—element. According to Lusthaus, "mindfulness in [the fourth ''dhyāna''] is an alert, relaxed awareness detached from positive and negative conditioning."
Gethin, followed by Polak and Arbel, further notes that there is a "definite affinity" between the four jhānas and the bojjhaṅgā, the seven factors of awakening. According to Gethin, the early Buddhist texts have "a broadly consistent vision" regarding meditation practice. Various practices lead to the development of the factors of awakening, which are not only the means to, but also the constituents of, awakening. According to Gethin, satipaṭṭhāna and ānāpānasati are related to a formula that summarizes the Buddhist path to awakening as "abandoning the hindrances, establishing [...] mindfulness, and developing the seven factors of awakening." This results in a "heightened awareness", "overcoming distracting and disturbing emotions", which are not particular elements of the path to awakening, but rather common disturbing and distracting emotions. Gethin further states that "the exegetical literature is essentially true to the vision of meditation presented in the Nikayas," applying the "perfect mindfulness, stillness and lucidity" of the jhānas to the contemplation of "reality", of the way things really are, as temporary and ever-changing. It is in this sense that "the jhana state has the transcendent, transforming quality of awakening."
Alexander Wynne states that the dhyāna-scheme is poorly understood. According to Wynne, words expressing the inculcation of awareness, such as sati, sampajāno, and upekkhā, are mistranslated or misunderstood as particular factors of meditative states, whereas they refer to a particular way of perceiving the sense objects:However, this criticism of the traditional Theravādin interpretation has itself been criticized in return, with other scholars and practitioners holding that the higher jhānas either cannot involve discursive awareness,[22] [23] or—at least—that the "Abhidhamma-style" jhāna practice remains a tenable interpretation of the material found in the Pāli suttas, and will—equivalently to the "lighter" jhāna practice recently championed by e.g. Wynne—yet lead to liberating insight.[24] [25]
Upekkhā, equanimity, which is perfected in the fourth dhyāna, is one of the four Brahmā-vihāra. While the commentarial tradition downplayed the importance of the Brahmā-vihāra, Gombrich holds that the Buddhist usage of the term Brahmā-vihāra originally referred to an awakened state of mind, and a concrete attitude toward other beings which was equal to "living with Brahman" here and now. The later tradition, in this interpretation, took those descriptions too literally, linking them to cosmology and understanding them as "living with Brahman" by rebirth in the Brahmā-world. According to Gombrich, "the Buddha taught that kindness—what Christians tend to call love—was a way to salvation.
While Theravāda meditation was introduced to the west as vipassana-meditation, which rejected the usefulness of jhāna, there is a growing interest among western vipassana-practitioners in jhāna. The nature and practice of jhana is a topic of debate and contention among western convert Theravadins, to the extent that the disputes have even been called "the Jhana wars."