If you read The Anapanasati Sutta by Venerable U. Vimalaramsi and Mindfulness, Bliss, and Beyond by Venerable Ajahn Brahm, you will notice that these two prominent teachers diverge on the issue of which steps of the meditation represents which jhanas.

The Buddha did not specify which steps represented which jhanas and since there are sixteen steps and technically only eight jhanas, there is no one-to-one correlation between the steps and specific jhanas.

The two teachers even diverge on which steps are included in the classic sixteen step formulation of the sutta. Ajahn Brahm refers to the first step as a preliminary step that does not count as the first step.

This can get quite confusing since they diverge from the very beginning. However, in order to make some sense of the divergence, we offer a step-by-step comparison of the two interpretations of the sutta.

Ven. UV: Step 1 is going to a secluded spot and practicing mindfulness.

Ven. AB: Going to a secluded spot and practicing mindfulness is a preliminary step and not one of the sixteen steps. Mindfulness is practiced by following the two-step procedure of present moment awareness and silent present moment awareness.

Ven. UV: Steps 2 and 3 are watching the long and short breaths. It would seem that this is one step, not two, but virtually every Buddhist scholar refers to the sixteen steps of the Anapanasati sutta. So if this is just one step, then there are only fifteen steps so watching long and short breaths must be interpreted as covering two steps.

Ven. AB: Step 1 is watching the long breaths and Step 2 is watching the short ones, or vice versa. Step 3 is full sustained attention on the breath.

Ven. UV: Step 4 is a continuation of watching the long and short breaths as in steps 2 and 3 until tranquility arises. He emphasizes the importance of relaxing and letting go at this stage of meditation.

Ven. UV states in his explanation of the fourth step that no nimitta will ever arise if the Buddha's instructions are followed carefully. This is a very obvious clash with the outlook of Ven. AB.

Ven. AB: Step 4 is the arising of the moment-by-moment awareness of the breath that arises naturally from full sustained attention on the whole body of the breath.

So at Step 4 the two teachers have pretty much arrived at the same place. They begin to sharply diverge at Step 5.

Ven. UV says that step 5 is the most important step of the sixteen steps - the arising of tranquility, the prerequisite to the arising of the jhanas. This is the equivalent of the eighth step as explained by Venerable AB.

Ven. AB says that joy (piti) arises at step 5 but that joy is not the joy of the first jhana.

Ven. UV says that step 6 is the arising of the first two jhanas.

Ven. AB holds that step 6 is the arising of happiness (sukha) but that no jhana state has yet arisen. This is the stage of "the beautiful breath."

The third jhana arises at step 7 according to Ven. UV.

Step 7 is the breath becoming a mind object according to Ven. AB. This is the step where the breath of the beautiful breath is gone and only the beautiful remains, like the grin of the Cheshire cat.

The fourth jhana arises at step 8 under Ven. UV's understanding.

Under Ven. AB's understanding, when only the beauty remains, and that beauty alone is experienced for a considerable length of time, the mind eventually enters into a serene calmness that sets the stage for the appearance of a nimitta. He explains that step 8 is the Still Forest Pool of which his teacher Ajahn Chah spoke.

Steps 9-12 are not jhana steps in the teaching of Ven. UV. They are the steps of experiencing the mind, gladdening the mind, stilling the mind, and liberating the mind. These are the same words the Buddha used to describe these steps.

Ven. AB teaches that the ninth step is the step where the nimitta, the sign of Nirvana, arises. The nimitta is the mind that is experienced. The tenth step, gladdening the mind, is one of polishing the nimitta to make it stronger. The eleventh step, sustaining the nimittta, ensures that the polished nimitta is sustainable, thereby ensuring that the jhanas will be reached.

Step 12 is the step, under the teachings of Ven. AB, where all of the jhanas appear. However, a weak nimitta (which arises from weak following of the precepts; no nimitta at all will appear if the precepts are not followed) will probably fail to produce an experience of the first jhana.

As the polished nature and sustainable strength of the nimitta are enforced by prolonged polishing and strengthening at the tenth and eleventh steps, the meditator experiences the stages of jhana, in the order experienced by the Buddha, even all the way to Nirvana if the mind is truly pure, the five hindrances are overcome, and dependent origination is realized both forwards and backwards.

It follows that the final four steps, Steps 13-16, for Ven. AB are post-jhana stages of the meditation. The superpower mindfulness developed by the jhana experience is therefore harnessed to contemplate the four subjects that the Buddha refers to in the final four steps (impermanence, fading away, cessation, and relinquishment).

In the teachings of Ven. UV, the final four steps, Steps 13-16, are as follows:

Step 13: The fifth and sixth jhanas/first and second immaterial attainments (that of infinite space and infinite consciousness) arise from meditation on impermanence;

Step 14: The seventh jhana/third immaterial attainment (that of nothingness) arises from meditation on fading away;

Step 15: The eighth jhana/fourth immaterial attainment (that of neither perception nor non-perception) arises from meditation on cessation; and

Step 16: Arises from meditation on relinquishment. Although not quite "Supramundane Nibbana," this final stage of the meditation is "very close" to Nirvana, which arises only when dependent origination is seen backwards and fowards and when the stage of neither perception nor non-perception is transcended by cessation of perception and feeling.

To summarize, under Ven. AB, the jhanas arise at Step 12, if they arise at all, and the number of jhanas experienced depends upon the purity of the mind.

Under Ven. UV, the jhanas arise at steps 6 (the first two jhanas), 7 (third jhana), 8 (fourth jhana), and the fifth through eighth jhanas or the four immaterial attainments arise at steps 13-16. Of course, Ven. UV agrees with Ven. AB that no jhanas arise in the presence of a defiled mind, i.e., one that does not follow the precepts.

These rather striking differences in teachings arise from the fact, as already noted, that there are sixteen steps and only eight jhanas or nine if Nirvana is counted as a jhana for purposes of convenience. And the Buddha made no connection between the sixteen steps and the jhanas so reasonable minds can assign different jhanas to different steps.

Does it matter? Not at all. As we have said before, after the first few steps the mind takes over and a natural flow from one step to the next begins. The "doer" gets out of the way and the diversity of consciousness becomes less and less diverse at each step with no input from the meditator.

It is helpful to study the words of both teachers. It helps us to realize that we need to overcome the tyranny of words and to see the moon that both teachers are pointing at.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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