Dhyana in Buddhism

[2][3][4] 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.

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.

[9][10] Developed into Sanskrit root √dhī and n. dhī,[10] 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.

[7][24] The stock description of the jhānas, with traditional and alternative interpretations, is as follows:[24][note 5] Grouped into the jhāna-scheme are four meditative states referred to in the early texts as arūpa-āyatanas.

According to Buddhaghosa's Visuddhimagga (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.

The Buddha then recalled a meditative state he entered by chance as a child:[63] I thought: 'I recall once, when my father the Sakyan was working, and I was sitting in the cool shade of a rose-apple tree, then—quite secluded from sensuality, secluded from unskillful mental qualities—I entered & remained in the first jhana: rapture & pleasure born from seclusion, accompanied by directed thought & evaluation.

[67][full citation needed][note 15] According to Crangle, the development of meditative practices in ancient India was a complex interplay between Vedic and non-Vedic traditions.

[72] "That meditation-expert (muni) becomes eternally free who, seeking the Supreme Goal, is able to withdraw from external phenomena by fixing his gaze within the mid-spot of the eyebrows and by neutralizing the even currents of prana and apana [that flow] within the nostrils and lungs; and to control his sensory mind and intellect; and to banish desire, fear, and anger.” 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.

[78] Yet the Buddha rejected their doctrines, as they were not liberating, and discovered his own path to awakening,[75] which "consisted of the adaptation of the old yogic techniques to the practice of mindfulness and attainment of insight."

[3][79] Vishvapani notes that the Brahmanical texts cited by Wynne assumed their final form long after the Buddha's lifetime, with the Mokshadharma postdating him.

[89][83] This may also have been due to an over-literal interpretation by later scholastics of the terminology used by the Buddha,[90] and to the problems involved with the practice of dhyāna, and the need to develop an easier method.

[92] According to Frauwallner, mindfulness was a means to prevent the arising of craving, which resulted simply from contact between the senses and their objects, and this may have been the Buddha's original idea.

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 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.

"[39] 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.

[43][113] 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.

[124] Gethin further states that "the exegetical literature is essentially true to the vision of meditation presented in the Nikayas,"[125] applying the "perfect mindfulness, stillness and lucidity" of the jhānas to the contemplation of "reality", of the way things really are,[126] as temporary and ever-changing.

[128]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,[129][130] 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.

[142] Shankman notes that kasina exercises are propagated in Buddhaghosa's Visuddhimagga, which is considered the authoritative commentary on meditation practice in the Theravāda tradition, but differs from the Pāli canon in its description of jhāna.

While the suttas connect samadhi to mindfulness and awareness of the body, for Buddhaghosa jhāna is a purely mental exercise, in which one-pointed concentration leads to a narrowing of attention.

[8] According to Arbel, it develops "a mind which is not conditioned by habitual reaction-patterns of likes and dislikes [...] a profoundly wise relation to experience, not tainted by any kind of wrong perception and mental reactivity rooted in craving (tanha).

"[147] According to Kenneth Rose, the Visuddhimagga-oriented "maximalist" approach is a return to ancient Indian "mainstream practices", in which physical and mental immobility was thought to lead to equanimity and liberation from samsara and rebirth.

[citation needed] Both Polak and Arbel suggest that the traditions of Dzogchen,[148][149] Mahamudra and Chan[148] preserve or resemble dhyana as an open awareness of body and mind, thus transcending the dichotomy between vipassana and samatha.

[157] Downplaying the body-recollections[158] (but maintaining the awareness of imminent death), the early Chan-tradition developed the notions or practices of wu nian ("no thought, no "fixation on thought, such as one's own views, experiences, and knowledge")[159][160] and fēi sīliàng (非思量, Japanese: hishiryō, "nonthinking");[161] and kanxin ("observing the mind")[162] and shou-i pu i (守一不移, "maintaining the one without wavering")[163] turning the attention from the objects of experience, to the nature of mind, the perceiving subject itself, which is equated with Buddha-nature.

[168] According to Luk, this method is referred to as the "Mind Dharma", and exemplified in the story of Śākyamuni Buddha holding up a flower silently, and Mahākāśyapa smiling as he understood.

[171] The Zen student's mastery of a given kōan is presented to the teacher in a private interview (referred to in Japanese as dokusan (独参), daisan (代参), or sanzen (参禅)).

At the stage of pratyahara, the consciousness of the individual is internalized in order that the sensations from the senses of taste, touch, sight, hearing and smell don't reach their respective centers in the brain and takes the sadhaka (practitioner) to next stages of Yoga, namely Dharana (concentration), Dhyana (meditation), and Samadhi (mystical absorption), being the aim of all Yogic practices.

[185][failed verification] The Yoga Sutra, especially the fourth segment of Kaivalya Pada, contains several polemical verses critical of Buddhism, particularly the Vijñānavāda school of Vasubandhu.

[186] The suttas show that during the time of the Buddha, Nigantha Nataputta, the Jain leader, did not even believe that it is possible to enter a state where the thoughts and examination stop.