Right Concentration: A Practical Guide to the Jhanas

by Leigh Brasington

However, the commentaries have completely missed the mark! The abandoning of the hindrances, the pericope above, and the jhāna descriptions are not three things in a linear progression. What actually is there is the abandoning of the hindrances, a summary of the whole arc of jhānic experience, and then a full detailed description of the jhānas. A similar pattern occurs earlier in the gradual training. Right after a householder goes forth, there is a summary of the sīla practices: “Having gone forth, one dwells restrained by the restraint of the rules, . . . with the sense-doors guarded, skilled in mindful awareness and content.”3 This is followed by a detailed description of the precepts, guarding the senses, mindful awareness, and contentment. The context there makes it very clear it is just a summary. Most likely this pericope is a late insertion into the gradual training: it’s certainly missing a context that makes it clear that it is a summary, it is redundant, it doesn’t occur in all recensions of the gradual training, and it seems to have been lifted from other suttas, particularly from the Saṃyutta Nikāya.