Early Buddhist Meditation - The Four Jhanas as the Actualization of Insight (Paperback)

This book offers a new interpretation of the relationship between 'insight practice' (satipatthana) and the attainment of the four jhanas (i.e., right samadhi), a key problem in the study of Buddhist meditation. The author challenges the traditional Buddhist understanding of the four jhanas as states of absorption, and shows how these states are the actualization and embodiment of insight (vipassana). It proposes that the four jhanas and what we call 'vipassana' are integral dimensions of a single process that leads to awakening. Current literature on the phenomenology of the four jhanas and their relationship with the 'practice of insight' has mostly repeated traditional Theravada interpretations. No one to date has offered a comprehensive analysis of the fourfold jhana model independently from traditional interpretations. This book offers such an analysis. It presents a model which speaks in the Nikayas' distinct voice. It demonstrates that the distinction between the 'practice of serenity' (samatha-bhavana) and the 'practice of insight' (vipassana-bhavana) - a fundamental distinction in Buddhist meditation theory - is not applicable to early Buddhist understanding of the meditative path. It seeks to show that the common interpretation of the jhanas as 'altered states of consciousness', absorptions that do not reveal anything about the nature of phenomena, is incompatible with the teachings of the Pali Nikayas. By carefully analyzing the descriptions of the four jhanas in the early Buddhist texts in Pali, their contexts, associations and meanings within the conceptual framework of early Buddhism, the relationship between this central element in the Buddhist path and 'insight meditation' becomes revealed in all its power. Early Buddhist Meditation will be of interest to scholars of Buddhist studies, Asian philosophies and religions, as well as Buddhist practitioners with a serious interest in the process of insight meditation.

General

Imprint:	Routledge
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Series:	Routledge Critical Studies in Buddhism
Release date:	September 2018
First published:	2016
Authors:	Keren Arbel
Dimensions:	234 x 156 x 21mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback
Pages:	236
ISBN-13:	978-0-367-11137-3
Categories:	Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Non-Western philosophy > Oriental & Indian philosophy Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > General > History of religion Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Non-Christian religions > Religions of Indic & Oriental origin > Buddhism > General Books > Philosophy > Non-Western philosophy > Oriental & Indian philosophy Books > Religion & Spirituality > Non-Christian religions > Religions of Indic & Oriental origin > Buddhism > General Books > Religion & Spirituality > General > History of religion
LSN:	0-367-11137-3
Barcode:	9780367111373

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