| | If someone is trying to achieve paths, is it better to proceed with dry vipassana and supplement with jhanic practice as one hits higher paths, or is it better to first establish the jhanas, and investigate from the highest point possible?
I've been consolidating jhana and vipassana. I've noticed that I can basically treat nanas like jhanas, and get absorbed/steep in them. This is the case for insight stages like fear and reobservation, but I've even noticed that I can prolong and cultivate the A&P, in a way that is still clearly vibratory, insight work, distinct from 2nd jhana. I find myself naturally doing that in practice quite often, but then I think, why am I blasting my brain so hard, without cultivating joy at the same time? Naturally, my thought would be, I'm just trying to stick with vipassana practice so I should just keep breaking everything down and not cultivate anything besides mindfulness of the 3C's. But, I've started to blend it... I'll hit the A&P and make a conscious effort to bring the joy along. It's much more pleasant that way, and I don't find myself getting stuck in jhanic territory. It's still edgy and vibratory, but the mind seems so much calmer if I do it that way.
Another thing I noticed... If I practice in this way, cultivating jhanic factors in the corresponding nanas, cycling becomes more jhana-like than vipassana-like. I realized this to the max the other day, as I was walking down a busy street at school, when I felt some concentration/mindfulness/whatever arising in my body, giving me pleasant feelings. I allowed those sensations to continue, and payed attention, and to my surprise, I basically found myself ascending through the jhanas, up to a very solid 4th jhana. I've never really experienced jhanas while walking, and I've definitely not experienced jhanas while not really trying to.
I've decided that it must be one of two things:
1. Since I got 1st path, the experience of cycling makes it much more plausible to be hitting jhanas while off the cushion, or
2. Since I upped my concentration practice, cycles naturally cause the jhanic factors and stages to arise.
The second possibility is why I'm posting this. The implication would be, anyone who has crossed the A&P and cycles through DN territory could perhaps learn to smooth out any cycling that occurs, causing jhanic factors to arise. You really do skip over the DN if you just go from 3rd jhana to 4th, and if you have a solid grasp of the joy that blossoms in 2nd, the simple happiness of the 3rd, and the sinking of the 4th, you could simply evoke the corresponding factors at the A&P, dissolution, and then sink smoothly into equanimity. Then, perhaps get path from there.
Any thoughts on why one would cycle through the DN when it's possible to just practice jhana, get 1-4 solid, and just cycle through those instead? |