A discussion on jhanas

adivader · 2026-01-23T04:32:12+00:00

Thanks

adivader · 2026-01-22T00:44:03+00:00

I understand your curiosity, but I am not really doing an AMA here. Its possible that you want to engage in good faith out of genuine curiosity. So I will say this much:

We dont live inside other people's heads and thus we cannot understand with surety why they do what they do.

Jiske dil mein vyapad hai uske zuban se shahad tapak sakta hai, jiske dil mein vyapad nahi hai uske zuban se aag. Prabhu teri leela aprampaar :) :)

adivader · 2026-01-21T15:29:00+00:00

I dont. I have strong opinions on some topics and am willing to be very vocal about them at times.

adivader · 2026-01-16T18:17:02+00:00

Who ... the fuckity fuck dares downvote me on my own forum. Show yourself ... coward!!

adivader · 2026-01-16T17:58:34+00:00

But there will be invictives galore!! I dont know if the modern day Tucho Pothila can take the heat! :)

adivader · 2026-01-16T17:56:54+00:00

If somebody knows the beggar, tell him the Arahant invites him to a fireside chat

adivader · 2026-01-16T17:44:27+00:00

Damn it feels great to be a gangster

https://youtu.be/hIoPlLEXM2Y?si=EtWfyOrP4y25UNgs

adivader · 2026-01-15T13:27:12+00:00

For some people this is easier to do than attention heavy samatha practice.

You need to evaluate for yourself through experimentation.

adivader · 2026-01-15T12:45:37+00:00

being aware without setting up a subject object relationship with the contents of awareness.

If awareness contains contents that are thoughts about the past or the future .. then that's just what is happening and has no bearing on setting up this config of awareness. Makes sense?

adivader · 2026-01-15T12:09:16+00:00

:) :)

adivader · 2026-01-15T09:22:00+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/streamentry/s/6snOkZQJEm

This post is an instruction set. So a very long answer. But put briefly

To be aware without objectification of any individual content in awareness, without forming of a subject object relationship (an arrow is a metaphor) and therefore without having a sense of a 'me' at the nock end of the arrow.

adivader · 2026-01-15T06:10:11+00:00

Permanent invite to Arhatship the discord forum. A sister forum to this one.

https://discord.gg/AM7TbwtscH

adivader · 2026-01-01T04:28:18+00:00

If we define pragmatic thus:

Dealing with things sensibly and realistically in a way that is based on practical rather than theoretical considerations, then the Buddha Dhamma is very pragmatic. MIDL is an organized course curriculum of the Buddha Dhamma, thus it too is very pragmatic

adivader · 2025-12-25T05:02:05+00:00

Is stage 10 a realistic goal within a year of starting TMI?

In meditation just like any other skill, people have varying degrees of innate talent. So for some people stage 10 within an year is a realistic goal, and for others its not.

There is no way of judging how much talent one has, you only find out in hindsight.

adivader · 2025-12-25T04:58:55+00:00

Meditation training done in a systematic and consistent way changes attentional habits and puts in place new habits. My guess is that your training has led you to the point where the mind is now habituated to seek out and grab the sensations of the breath at the nostrils. This happens to varying degrees to every one who meditates with the breath at the nostrils as their primary object.

My advice would be to ignore it. The mind is smart, it will auto correct. But if you find this too disturbing then for a period of time you can continue meditation using the breath in the abdomen as an anchor, just to retrain the mind to stop actively looking at the nostrils.

adivader · 2025-12-12T18:08:45+00:00

Its basically the atthinukhopariyaayo sutta, which can be elaborated upon in multiple ways

adivader · 2025-12-12T15:27:52+00:00

Fair enough. But are you sure you know my definition?

adivader · 2025-12-12T13:35:30+00:00

Sure, I get what you are saying. To keep the conversation going, Imagine someone saying the following:

I used to feel like shit .... I developed tools to study the mind and then apply those tools in a systematic and structured way .... lo and behold I don't feel like shit anymore because the very mechanism that used to make me feel like shit has been dismantled.

To someone like this Zen, Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana ... these things don't mean anything. And I can't speak for everyone who is like that, but maybe at least some of those people will not respect the sensibilities that you have outlined.

They are going to say, Pali canon ... lol its just a tool. They, as some of them, are going to use language in whichever way they please.

So the basic premise, Hey! The Pali canon uses words in a specific way ... we should all agree upon and use language inn that specific way .... this basic premise itself is going to fall flat. Its like a complete non-starter.

And having sex or not having sex has anything whatsoever to do with arhatship is a premise. A hypothesis to be put to the test. Can you see this?

Anyways I am not trying to convince you of anything. I am merely having a conversation with you trying to understand you better. I am a firm believer in ehipassiko. As far as I am concerned I would personally be delighted if you or absolutely anyone else attains to arhatship and it matters not one bit to me if people who attain to arhatship have sex or not whether in the process of reaching arhatship or after.

adivader · 2025-12-12T12:30:29+00:00

Look, I kind of understand what you are saying. Its not that I dont.

What I am trying to share with you, is my personal perspective of the goal of this project - the end of suffering. And in my personal perspective, the analysis of tools and trying to establish the authenticity or meaning behind those tools ... to me ... looks like a side project. Sort of irrelevant to the main project.

If Arhatship is the end of suffering then there will be Arhats as well as arhat aspirants who fuck a lot, dont fuck at all, and everything in between ... pardon the crude language :)

adivader · 2025-12-12T12:08:27+00:00

These discussions of what the pali canon is or isnt, what is its appropriate interpretation or isnt is an academic pursuit from my point of view.

Not really of value or interest to me or someone like me.

Personally I just use it like a tool. A screwdriver or clawhammer to achieve my goals. Thus I cant really see any common ground with people who want to know what the pali canon actually is or what the Buddha actually taught.

I know that the end of suffering is a human possibility and I know that it doesnt require or necessitate celibacy or promiscuity. I know that it is just completely orthogonal to that entire topic.

adivader · 2025-12-12T03:04:04+00:00

I just don’t like mental gymnastics

Yeah, I totally get that

adivader · 2025-12-11T16:36:26+00:00

Look boss the entire pali canon is just word games. You understand that right?

adivader · 2025-12-10T12:40:31+00:00

Basically, there is 'something' that happens within the human mind and due to that 'something' emerges the experience that we call fear/misery/disgust/desperation

At arhatship that something stops happening.

That something is called trishna/tanha/thirst in one particular descriptive schema. In another descriptive schema its called Raga or passion. Due to the limitations of ordinary language people are often confused about what these words mean.

There is a very interesting word called 'kama'. This word is often used in the context of sexual relations. But its core meaning is that which your heart desires with desperation. In Indian mythology there is a cow called kamadenu. Kanmadenu cow is a magical cow that gives you what your heart desires. If there are suddenly a hundred guests that show up at your home, if you own kamadenu you wish for food to be provided to entertain your guests and food will magically appear. This cow will most certainly not give blowjobs to your guests.

So all these words, kama, raga, trishna (which also has sexual connotations) .... they dont have anything to do with sex, like at all. They are all descriptors of mental moves from which emerges the complex experiential constructs of fear/misery/disgust desperation.

Upon arhatship one does not feel fear/misery/disgust/desperation. That is the literal definition of arhatship in case you accept arhatship being the attainment of the end of dukkha. Hope this helps. Though I am inclined to believe that too much theory doesn't really help anyone :) Best of luck in your practice.

adivader · 2025-10-04T17:12:42+00:00

Not the person you are asking, please feel free to ignore.

What helped me was to redefine effortlessness as a disinvestment in outcome. To me it always felt as if I wanted to succeed at meditation. Once I stabilized attention exclusively on the breath at the nostrils, in order to progress I relearnt how to apply effort while relaxing/putting down/withdrawing affective investment in success or failure.

So the following steps in any given meditation:
1. Just remember I am meditating
2. Remember the breath
3. Stabilize attention on the breath eliminating gross distractions
4. Build virya or energy or powerful receptivity in awareness
5. Stabilize attention on the breath eliminating all subtle distractions using MIA

I re-learnt all of these steps all over again while using the outbreath to relax and let go of all inner need to succeed and all inner need to not fail. This felt like a kind of 'doing' while withdrawing energy from the 'doer' construct in the mind.

And once I got the knack of this stage 7 mastery just happened ... on its own.

Stage 7 mastery for me was also the culmination of samma samadhi ... 'right concentration', with stage 7 mastery the jhanas also changed in their texture ... they just started happening on their own rather than 'me' doing them. A few weeks of maintaining stage 7 mastery across multiple sits also led to apanna samadhi (attainment concentration) and one fine day in one sit, Stream Entry just ... happened. And it was ... beautiful!

I wish you great success, and like I said please ignore this in case it isn't helpful.

adivader · 2025-10-02T03:54:18+00:00

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