1. One of the main goals in the text is to achieve jhana, specifically first jhana. He describes jhana as a complete mind state where one cannot see, hear, speak, think, feel, or smell anything. You are basically a dead person sitting there blissing out. I am guessing this is true since he is a renound teacher but I was surprised at first to see jhana being explained this way, as I have never attainted it or read much about it.
I believe this to be false, the first jhana as spoken of by the Buddha is characterized by five factors: directed thought, sustained thought, bliss, pleasantness and one pointedness of mind.
(In other words it is possible to volitionally construct jhana, actually it is completely necessary to volitionally construct jhana, jhana cannot be attained without volition.)
In my experience, jhana is a deeply bodily experience wherein one touches the bases with one's body, jhana does not necessitate the ending of all mental faculties, that sounds like dead concentration.
Jhana as an experience is a) very pleasant b) dynamic, meaning there is insight and serenity present at the same time and c) almost akin to the deathless, but not quite.
There is a short group of suttas that explain various terms as being none other than the phenomena of jhana, ex:
The deathless, the deathless...
Nibbana, nibbana...
Security, security...
Parinibbana, parinibbana...
Etc.
The above phenomena in these suttas are defined as entering the jhanas, however with a caveat, they are defined in this way only in the provisional sense. The Buddha (or rather it was Ananda who was discoursing) states that only the cessation of perception and feeling (sanna vedayita nirodha) is the above terms, non-provisionally.
2. He says stream entry is possible by entering jhana and reviewing the experience afterwards. Profound insight is gained this way. Even enlightenment is possible by working with the jhanas and not doing any insight practice. I thought insight was gained in the experience itself, without thinking about things. Is there a divide here between intellectual insight and ultimate insight?
3. Where does noting come in to play here in the context of jhana / concentration based practice?
4. At this point, I think jhana is the way to go in terms of my practice. At the moment, I think I am diddling around in the dark night and there seems to be a filter of delusion over my mind, my perception is tainted by something and percieving things clearly is a challenge. Concentration is also a challenge. I am beginning to notice the 5 hindrances very clearly when I sit in almost all of my mental activity. The author says after entering jhana, the mind has diamond precision and is free from all hindrances, which makes "seeing things as they are" very easy. This sounds like something I would benefit from in my practice in order to gain insight.
I definitely believe jhana is the path to nibbana, as the Buddha stated that he rediscovered it in the Maha Saccaka sutta, or rather after much austerity he considered the pleasant wholesome pleasure was in fact a good thing.
In fact the Buddha goes so far as to say: "Samadhi is the path, no samadhi is the bad path."
The Buddha spoke highly of jhana, referring to it as a quality higher and more sublime than knowledge and vision (Cula-Saropama sutta).
In the Maha-Malunkyaputta sutta and the Atthakanagara sutta, the Buddha refers to jhana as one of the paths to the ending of the five lower fetters. It's probably best if you read those source materials for yourself.