Mastering the Core Teachings of Buddha - An Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book

Interestingly, one may begin to see a full cycle of each of these stages in each of the four vipassana jhanas as well, with each peak and valley adding or subtracting from the position of the greater wave it is an aspect of. For all you incurable model geeks, try plotting y=sin(x)+0.25*sin(4x) from x=0 to 2π on a graphing program. You have my sympathy. The x-axis is the jhanas and sub-jhanas, from 1.1 to 4.4, or 1.1.1 to 4.4.4 if you want to go into sub-sub-jhanas. Unfortunately, what goes on the y-axis would be the subject of a book longer than this one and would read like the most difficult works of Aleister Crowley. In short, the possible complexity of this model is endless and it is no substitute for practice.

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Try not to become an arrogant twit like I did when I began to figure all this stuff out. Esoteric map theory won’t win you any friends.

I have spent way too much time thinking about the fractals and modeling in my own practice. In my insecure moments, I have

considered showing off and writing a book that detailed the hundreds of little parallels and patterns that I have noticed over the years, how this tiny little stage of some vipassana sub-jhana mirrored or was in inversion of another aspect of some other little stage of some other sub-sub-jhana, but I couldn’t come up with any practical use for it at all. If you do the technique, you will see all of this and more. If not, reading about it won’t help you. It’s just another content trap, but a seductive one for us pseudo-intellectuals. On the other hand, Khabbala seems to have made related permutations into meditation itself, and those who are particularly inclined to this sort of analysis might want to try taking it as a vehicle for going beyond it. Also, guess where the complex geometric Tibetan Mandalas that are supposed to be pictures of the Mind or the Universe come from? Bingo!

U PANDITA’S MODEL

U Pandita, one of the greatest modern masters of meditation in the Burmese Theravada tradition (see his work In This Very Life) doesn't quite agree with Bill and I about how the ñanas and jhana line up, and so I thought that in the interest of fairness I would present his model .

In his model, as in Bill's model, the first three stages of Mind and Body, Cause and Effect, and The Three Characteristics all fall within the first vipassana jhana. However, he divides the Arising and Passing Away into two jhanas, with the immature phase (when the meditator is still in the grip of the Ten Corruptions of Insight) corresponding to the second jhana and the mature phase (when the meditator sees the true nature of the Ten Corruptions of Insight and crosses the A&P Event) as the third jhana. Everything from Dissolution to Equanimity then falls into the fourth jhana in his model. This does accommodate the vague formless experiences that can happen in Dissolution, as the formless realms come out of the fourth jhana.

The problem with this map is similar to the problem with the other maps, namely that some of the stages of insight tend to suck and the samatha or pure concentration jhanas are always a good time or 227

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peaceful. Thus, to say that the Dark Night stages such as Disgust are part of the fourth jhana just rubs the wrong way somehow, as does saying that Three Characteristics (which also tends to suck a bit) is part of the enjoyable first jhana. The point is that no matter how you slice it, the correlations are not quite perfect, and insight practice is rarely as pleasant as good old concentration practices. That said, there is something to these models anyway, and if you master insight and concentration practices and know a bit of theory, you will see for yourself what they were trying to get at, so get to it!

INKLINGS OF ONE MORE MODEL

The last model is one that is hinted at by the a line in The Vi

suddhimagga when it says that Desire for Deliverance, Re-observation and Equanimity are one. This cryptic phrase may mean many things.

One of them is that the content of these three stages is likely to be largely the same, while the relationship to it may change dramatically. It could also be used as justification for a third model that put these three together in the fourth jhana. Further, as the fourth vipassana jhana is about equanimity concerning formations, one might presume that one would have had to perceive formations at an earlier stage, such as the previous two, in order to have had the necessary time and experience to come to equanimity concerning them.

Go see for yourself and consider which of these three models presented here fits with your actual experience, or throw this book and all of its models out the window and investigate the Three

Characteristics precisely regardless of what happens! Actually, such decisions might be better made after reading the next chapter…

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26.HOW THE MAPS HELP