Religion (1983) 13,55-68

A FORM-CRITICAL STUDY

Paul Griffiths

1 . JHANA AND FORM-CRITICISM

Meditative techniques, methods of transforming the cognitive, perceptual and

affective experience of the practitioner, are of central importance to Buddhist
soteriology . This has become a truism, both for western buddhologists and for
Buddhist apologists, but it is less often realized that the Buddhist tradition
preserves a very wide variety of such techniques, and that they are not always
easily compatible with each other . Perhaps the most basic and significant
tension is that between concentrative techniques aimed at the gradual
reduction of the contents of consciousness, and analytic techniques aimed at
the transformation of perceptual and cognitive processes and the enhance-
ment of intellectual understanding .' The systematisers of the Buddhist
meditative traditions in India, Sri Lanka and Tibet dealt with such tensions in
a variety of ways : often they created complex hierarchical path-structures in
which some meditative techniques are classified as preparatory and
propadeutic, and others as ultimate, issuing in Nirvana . Alternatively, it was
often suggested that some meditative techniques simply have the function of
correcting certain character defects, and that for those individuals without
such defects the same techniques are likely to be useless or even harmful . The
creation of such complex scholastic edifices necessarily did some violence both
to the true functions of the techniques thus neatly compartmentalised and
allotted their given places, and to the historical realities of the Buddhist
tradition itself. Meditative techniques regarded by later Buddhist scholastics
as merely preparatory or as appropriate only for certain character types may,
at an earlier stage of the tradition, have been regarded as of independent
soteriological validity .
This paper is an attempt to go behind the path-structures of the Buddhist
scholastics, and to offer some preliminary remarks towards the study of one
specific type of Buddhist meditative technique in its own right. We shall be
concerned here with a variety of enstatic method2 designed progressively to
withdraw its practitioner from cognitive and affective involvement with his
environment . This technique is described, in Buddhist texts, by a series of
formulaic highly stereotyped units of tradition which refer to a four-membered

0048-721 X/83/010055 + 15$02 .00/0 á 1983 Academic Press Inc. (London) Ltd .
56 Paul Griff the

linked set of meditative practices and their results . In Páli these are known as
the four jhánáni, or more precisely as the four rnpajhánáni, the four meditations
of form . By a judicious application of form-critical method to the relevant texts
of the first four Nikáyá of the Páli Suttapitaka 3 we hope to isolate the units of
tradition describing the four rûpajhánáni from their secondary contexts . We
shall then provide a brief analysis of the nature and aims of the technique
enshrined in these units of tradition, and, on the basis of a discussion of the
variety of contexts within which this tradition occurs, we shall make some
suggestions as to the functions and value of this technique in early Buddhism .
By `early Buddhism' we mean, broadly speaking, pre-A§okan Indian
Buddhism, a period to which we have access by way of the form-critical
method since this approach allows us to penetrate behind the period of the
written material with which we are dealing . This-the Páli Suttapitaka-had
reached something like its present form by the first century BC (although at
that time its transmission was still largely if not entirely oral) and contains
material considerably older than that, so there is no doubt that when we
discuss the units of tradition which comprise the Suttapitaka we are considering
material largely shaped within the first two centuries of Buddhist history . 4
The presupposition underlying the application of the form-critical method
to the suttas of the Suttapitaka is that during the early period of transmission of
the Buddhist traditions the material which was later organized into the form in
which it now stands in the Suttapitaka was transmitted orally in highly
formalized and stereotyped units of tradition for which we shall adopt the term
`pericopes .' 5 These pericopes were given form and transmitted largely in-
dependently of the contexts in which we now find them . This becomes
especially clear if, in considering a specific pericope, we find that it has a highly
standardised form in which it always occurs, but that it is found in a very wide
variety of contexts and that its use in these contexts is also variable . In such a
case-and we shall see that this is the case with the pericope which concerns us
in this paper-the reasonable conclusion is that the pericope in question was
originally created and circulated independently of its various contexts .
This method, if used successfully-as it has been in New Testament criticism,
and as it can be in the study of the Páli Nikáyá-gives us a means of approach to
those units of tradition which circulated in the Buddhist communities prior to
their redaction of the Nikáyá into their present form . In this paper we shall be
concerned only with the application of form-criticism to one type of Buddhist
meditative tradition ; but there is no reason why the same method cannot be
used to illuminate the early history of Buddhist thought in other areas .
Further, a study of the way in which the earliest units of tradition were
redacted and combined in the suttas of the Suttapitaka itself should shed new
light on the motivations and interests of the very first systematisers of the
Buddhist traditions .
 Buddhist jhdna : A Form-Critical Study 57

2 . TEXTUAL ANALYSIS

The unit of tradition describing the four rûpajhdndni is one of the most frequent-
ly occurring meditative pericopes in the four Nikdyd . In reading through this
body of literature we have noted 86 separate occurrences of this unit of
tradition, and many more instances where the fourjhdhdni are simply referred
to without the usual full description of the practices and states of consciousness
associated with them . Such a frequency of occurrence is one significant
indication of the importance of this tradition to the earliest Buddhist com-
munities . Our first task must be to determine the basic invariant form of this
tradition, to assess to what extent it has been stereotyped and whether it
always occurs in substantially the same form in its various contexts .
We shall begin by examining in parallel three separate occurrences of the
meditative pericope in question . The contexts are quite different in each case,
and the underlined sections in the examples on the next page show precise
verbal parallels and indicate the invariant stereotyped core of this pericope . 6
In the first of these three examples- that taken from the Sdmannaphalasutta
of DN-we see the four jhdndni pericope employed in the context of a wider
soteriological path, beginning with the usual practice of morality (sila),
passing through various preparatory meditative techniques (guarding the
senses and so forth), and only then coming to the four jhdndni, the technique
which interests us here . This technique in turn is followed by various types of
analytic meditation aimed at insight (vipassand-bhdvand), which in turn lead to
the attainment of supernatural powers (abhinnd) and the realization of final
enlightenment, here defined as the destruction of the dsavd . It should be further
noted that in this first example each of the four jhdndni is combined with two
further units of tradition : the first may be defined as a stereotyped gloss on the
invariant core of the tradition, instructing the practitioner to `drench,
saturate, permeate and suffuse'? his body with whatever psychological factors
are relevant to the jhdna in question . The second pericope with which each of
the four jhdndni is linked in our extract from the Sdmannaphalasutta may be
defined as a stereotyped illustrative pericope . 8 This form occurs very frequent-
ly throughout the four Nikdyd, and is usually prefixed (as in this case) with
seyyathdpi, 'just like . . .' 9 The illustration given differs for each jhdna, though
the differences are not tied closely to the psychological factors involved in each
jhdna . The main function of these illustrative pericopes is to give visual images
to illustrate the meaning of the near-synonymous verbs we noted above . We
should note that this connection of the four jhdndni pericope with these stereo-
typed glosses and stereotyped illustrative pericopes does not occur only here .
Identical forms may be found at DN 1 .214-6 ; MN 1 .276-8 ; 3 .92-4 .
Our second example is taken from the Anupadasutta of MN, in which the
Buddha praises Sáriputta's great learning and wisdom, and describes the
course of meditative practice which he has undergone . This includes our four
 58 Paul Grii fitlu

jhánáni, presented in their standard form, but this time connected with a fuller
list of the psychological factors present in each jhána . 10 Sáriputta is represented
as performing a variety of mindfulness meditation upon each of these factors-
maintaining awareness of them as they arise and pass away-and then in each
case realizing that there is a higher escape (nissarana) from entanglement in the
world . In this sutta the four jhánáni do not, as in our first example, pass into
insight meditation and the attainment of supernatural powers, but rather into
the four formless mediations and the attainment of the cessation of sensation
and conceptualization (sane-vedayita-nirodha), than which, according to this
sutta, there is no higher escape .
In our third example the four jhánáni again occur in their standard form, but
this time they are represented as a result of concentration upon the breath . The
practitioner is told that if he wishes to develop the four jhánáni he should
practise concentration upon the breaths . In this example the four jhánáni are
preceded by meditations designed to modify the practitioner's affective in-
volvement with his physical and psychological environment, and followed by
the formless meditations mentioned in the preceding paragraph .
These three examples of the four jhánáni pericope were chosen pretty much
at random . The placing of them side by side, together with the brief discussion
of context that we have provided, should be sufficient to suggest that the
invariant core of the material describing the four jhánáni occurs in different
contexts and is used in different ways . It has undergone a very high degree of
stereotyping and formalization-it almost always occurs in the exact form that
we have found in our three examples-and we may characterize it, somewhat
technically, as a stereotyped didactic pericope designed to preserve and trans-
mit information about meditative techniques and their resultant states of
consciousness . This form-the stereotyped didactic pericope-occurs very
frequently in the four Nikáyá, and not just in meditative contexts . It seems
likely that such a high degree of formalization is a direct result of the methods
by which sacred material was preserved and handed on in the early Buddhist
communities ; the demands of mnemonic convenience and pedagogic effective-
ness created by the system of private learning and public recitation meant that
the units of tradition valued by the communities had to be rapidly reduced to
an easily memorized standard form which could be introduced wherever it
seemed appropriate, and slotted in to the rapidly growing complexes of such
units of tradition which we now know as the suttas of the Páli canon . The
stereotyping of the traditions about the four jhánáni, in the form in which we
have isolated it, was but a small part of this wider process .
Before passing to a more detailed consideration of the widely different
contexts wherein this particular pericope is to be found we must offer a
translation of it and some discussion of the method and resultant states of
consciousness described by it . First, the translation :
 Buddhist fhána : A Form-Critical Study 59

(The meditator), separated from desires and negative states of mind, attains to and
remains in the first jhána which is born from separation and accompanied by initial
cognition, reasoned examination, joy and happiness . Upon suppressing both initial
cognition and reasoned examination he attains to and remains in the second jhina
which is born from concentration, consists in inner tranquillity and one-pointedness
of mind, and is accompanied by joy and happiness . Upon detaching himself from joy
he possesses equanimity; mindful and aware, he possesses that physical well-being of
which wise men say : `The mindful possessor of equanimity remains happy .' So he
attains to and remains in the third jhána. Upon abandoning pleasure and pain, as well
as former elation and depression, he attains to and remains in the fourth jhána which
is without pleasure and pain and is characterized by that purity of mindfulness which
is equanimity .

Some of the technical terminology in this pericope needs clarification . It is

important to note that we are leaving the term jhàna untranslated ; there is as
yet no standard English translation of this term, although perhaps `trance' and
simply `meditation' are the two most common ." We shall not offer a new
translation, hoping that the implications and semantic range of this term will
become clear in what follows . All that needs to be said about it here is that it is
a technical designation for a series ofwhat are, in contemporary psychological
literature, called `altered states of consciousness' (hereinafter ASCs) . 12 That
is, the term jhána is used to label a hierarchically organized set of four ASCs,
whose characteristics we must now look at in more detail .
The first of these ASCs is characterized as vivekajam, `born from separation' ;
that which one is separated from is further described as `desires' and `negative
states of mind' in general . In the commentarial literature, these `negative
states of mind' (akulsalá dhammá) are identified with the standard list of five
hindrances (nïvarana)-which, we may note, are explicitly stated to be
removed immediately prior to the practice of the jhánáni in the Sámarmiaphalasutta,
from which the first of our three examples was taken . It would be superfluous
to discuss these five hindrances in full detail here ; 13 their full systematization
and connection with the jhánáni belongs to a later period than the one with
which we are concerned here . For our purposes it is sufficient to note that the
negative states of mind from which the meditator is separated in the first jhàna
are clearly affective rather than cognitive or perceptual . That is to say, they are
concerned with the meditator's emotional reactions to and involvements with
his environment, and with disabling psychological weaknesses which might
prevent the practitioner from overcoming his emotional entanglements . So
much for the factors from which the meditator is separated in this first ASC . In
contrast, four factors are mentioned as being specifically involved in this first
ASC, two cognitive (vitakka/vicára) and two affective (pfti/sukha) . The dis-
tinction between vitakka and viciira, translated above as `initial cognition' and
`reasoned examination', is a matter for extensive commentarial discussion, the
details of which lie beyond the scope of this paper . For our purposes it is
60 Paul Griffiths

sufficient to note that these terms refer to the mind's activity in appropriating,
classifying and thinking about objects with which it comes into contact
through the senses . Such activities are closely connected with verbalization
and with language generally, and their inclusion in the list of psychological
factors associated with the first jhána is meant to indicate the essential part that
the mind, conditioned by language, plays in constructing its life-world . Vitakka
and Vicdra, therefore, denote the mind's active nature in grasping and making
sense of the external universe . 14 The two affective terms-piti and sukha-are
also differentiated from each other by extensive and complex commentarial
debates ; it will suffice for us to note that `joy' (piti) has a rather more intense
emotional tone than `happiness' (sukha), but that both terms carry approxi-
mately the same kind of affective overtones .
It should be clear from this brief discussion that in the first jhána we are
dealing with an ASC wherein the basic cognitive/verbal functions of the mind
are still fully operative, but where the range and intensity of the meditator's
affective experience has been greatly reduced . Anger, hatred, intense sensual
desire-all these are no longer possible in the first jhana; what remains is a
generalized sense of well-being (sukha) together with an occasional more
intense joyful reaction to sensory impressions as they are appropriated and
classified by the mind .
In passing to the second jhána the major alteration that we note is the
suppression of the cognitive activities that were designated by vitakka and
Viccrra . These cognitive/intellectual activities are no longer a possibility for the
practitioner once this second ASC has been reached . Joy and happiness
remain, though now tempered by `internal tranquillity' (ajjhattam sampasádanam) ;
we find also the introduction of what appears to be a completely new factor-
one-pointedness of mind (cetaso ekodibhävam) . 15 This is connected with the fact
that the second jhina is described as `born from concentration . To concentrate
the mind, in the sense in which it is generally understood in Buddhist texts, is
to `bring it together' (sam-a-dhá), to focus it upon a single object to the
exclusion of other, unwanted stimuli . The stereotyped formula under discus-
sion here gives no details about the techniques that might be used to achieve
this, and we cannot discuss these in any depth ; nevertheless, we should note
that the Páli texts are replete with descriptions of techniques for attaining this
kind of one-pointedness, many involving the use of methods to internalize
eidetic images of external objects . There can be no doubt that this second ASC
was intended to be inculcated in part by some such techniques as these, and it
should therefore also be clear why the cognitive/classificatory activities of the
mind labelled by Vitakka/Vicára have no further place here . If the mind is
exclusively centred upon one object and one only, there is neither room nor
need for verbal analysis and classification . Similarly, even the fairly restrained
 BuddhistJhdna: A Form-Critical Study 61

affective experiences of joy and happiness, while still present, are toned down
and begin to shade into equanimity and internal tranquillity, factors which we
shall see become more important as the meditator proceeds through the
jhdndni.
In the third jhdna the more intense affective reaction-that of joy-is left
behind, and the meditator's affective condition is now characterized essential-
ly by equanimity (upekhd) and by a sensation of physical well-being . The terms
`mindful and aware' (sato ca sampajdno) refer to a kind of non-judgemental
awareness of every event in the meditator's physical and psychological
environment as it occurs . This, at least, is the significance of these terms in
other areas of Buddhist meditative theory, and it seems appropriate here since
such awareness has no directly cognitive or verbal component ; it does not
involve intellectual analysis or classification of phenomena, but rather a
simple noting of things as they occur . It appears, then, that the major
characteristics of this third ASC in our series are a gradual lessening of the
range and intensity of affectjoy disappears and is replaced by undif-
ferentiated well-being in both the physical and psychological sphere-
together with a concomitant inability to significantly react on the emotional
level to any event . This is the implication of the introduction of upekhd-
equanimity . The flavour of equanimity for Buddhists is captured by a story in
the Mahdsihanddasutta: 16 the Buddha tells of his ascetic practices before his
enlightenment, and describes an occasion when he was sleeping in a cemetery
and was tormented by cowherders who spat at him and stuck twigs in his ears .
He was able to avoid getting angry with them because of his `dwelling in
equanimity' (upekhdvihdra) . Equanimity, then, which comes to the fore in this
third ASC, is a psychological condition opposed to any kind of extreme
emotional reaction, either pleasant or unpleasant . It is usually connected with
the practitioner's reactions to other people (as is especially clear in the context
of the `four ways of living like Brahma'-brahma-vihdrd), but the connection
does not appear to be a necessary one . Finally, in our description of the third
jhdna we must note the close connection with happiness ; part of the definition
of happiness in this context, it appears, is the reduction of affect which we have
seen to be integral to the meditator's progress through the jhdndni .
The fourth, and last, of our series of ASCs makes this reduction of affect
quite explicit ; here, happiness and unhappiness are abandoned, as well as all
kinds of elation and depression (samonassa/domanassa) . There is no mention of
any kind of cognitive faculties operating here, and all that remains is `that
purity of mindfulness which is equanimity .' 17 Our comments on mindfulness
and equanimity in connection with the third jhdna apply equally here . This
fourth ASC, then, is a condition where affect has been reduced almost to
nothing, and where cognitive/intellectual functions are also drastically
62 Paul Griiths

reduced. Thinking about anything-analyzing it or classifying it-would not

seem to be possible in this ASC ; the most one could hope for would be an
unprejudiced awareness of whatever occurs . 18
To summarize this investigation of the four jhánáni : we are dealing with a
hierarchically arranged series of ASCs which utilize concentrative enstatic
techniques and are aimed at the radical deconstruction of the practitioner's
affective and cognitive experience . The soteriological goal at which this series
of ASCs directs the meditator is a condition of emotionless stasis, a trance in
which he is effectively withdrawn from all emotional and intellectual contact
with the world and other people .

3 . CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS

We have now isolated the pericope describing the four jhánáni, translated it
and discussed the nature of the meditative techniques and ASCs described by
it . Our final task must be to survey the wide variety of contexts in the four
Nikáyá wherein this unit of tradition occurs, and to see if any historical
hypotheses may be suggested about the functions of this set of practices in
early Buddhism . We can distinguish four different types of context wherein
this unit of tradition occurs .
The first context consists in the insertion of the four jhánáni pericope into a
standardized path-structure in which it forms-rougly speaking-the middle
term . Preceding it comes morality (sfla) as paradigmatically expounded in the
Brahmajálasutta, and the abandonment of the five hindrances, and following it
comes the practice of insight which culminates in wisdom, an articulated
awareness and intuitive perception that reality actually is as conceived by
standard Buddhist doctrine . The paradigm example of this type of context for
our fourjhánáni pericope is, of course, the Sdmannaphalasutta, one of the earliest
and most influential Buddhist attempts at constructing a consistent and
coherent soteriological path, and one which is repeated with only minor
variations throughout both DN and MN . 19 We have already made some brief
remarks about the Sámannaphalasutta, and these need not be repeated here,
except to note the structure of this path : the practice of morality is designed to
purify the practitioner, a preliminary process which ends with the removal of
the five hindrances . Jhdna practice is then designed to foster the practitioner's
ability to concentrate, and thus to remove still more emotional defilements .
The final practice of insight which culminates in the destruction of the isavá is
thought to require such preliminary concentrative exercises to make it pos-
sible . So, in almost all the instances of this context, we find the four jhánáni
pericope linked to the descriptions of the practice of insight by the following
unit of tradition or some variant thereof `(The meditator) with his mind thus
 Buddhist Jhiina : A Form-Critical Study 63

concentrated, purified, cleansed, without blemish, free from defilement,

flexible, ready to act, firm and unshakeable, applies and turns his mind to
knowledge and insight . . . .' 20 This unit of tradition splendidly illustrates the
orthodox way of explaining the connection between the practice of the four
jhdnáni and the analytic meditations which follow it . We may note in passing
that this connection is secondary, and to some degree artificial ; phenomeno-
logically speaking, the techniques and goals described by the four jhdndni
pericope and those described by the units of tradition relating to insight
meditation are very different indeed, and their coherent combination requires
rather more than a connecting paragraph of this kind . Nevertheless, this first
context is significant because in it we find the most frequently occurring
path-structure in the four Nikáyá, the most common context for the four
jhándni, and a clear example of the dynamic tension which was to fuel the
creation of later, more systematic, theories of Buddhist meditation .
The second context consists of the use of the fourjhdndni pericope as a
preliminary set of meditative techniques within a soteriological path which is
aimed at the complete cessation of all consciousness whatever . This goal is
approached through a further set of meditative techniques and ASCs called
the formless meditations (ariüpajhdnáni) ; frequently associated with a fifth
attainment (samdpatti) described as the cessation of sensation and concept-
ualization (sane-vedayita-nirodha) . This final condition is effectively indisting-
uishable from death and may be adequately described as a cataleptic trance . 21
I t is beyond the scope of this paper to say more about the formless meditations ;
for our purposes it is sufficient to note that the four Yipajhdnàni, with which we
are concerned here, are very frequently associated with this further set of
enstatic techniques . 22 We shall look briefly atone such case-the Nivdpasutta of
MN-in order to give some idea of what this rather different soteriological
path looks like .
In this sutta the Buddha describes the correct path to follow in order to
escape the entanglements of Mara, the evil one, and to escape from entrap-
ment in the sensual pleasures of life in the world . Much of the sutta is taken up
with a description of improper methods of attaining this end, but the culminat-
ing description of the right path is simply a list of our four jhdndni followed by
the four formless meditations and culminating in complete enlightenment .
The final stage on this path is described in the following terms :

Also, monks, a monk who has transcended the plane of neither-non-conceptual-

ization-nor-conceptualization (the fourth formless meditation) remains in the
cessation of sensation and conceptualization . Having seen by means of wisdom, his
ásavá are completely destroyed . Monks, this monk is described as one who has
enveloped Mara with darkness . Who has blotted out Mara's vision so that it has no
range, who goes unseen by the evil one, and who has gone beyond worldly entangle-
ments . 23
64 Paul Gnffths

There is no doubt that this soteriological path, as much as that exemplified

by the Sámannaphalasutta, was thought of as leading to enlightenment . Once
again, there are some interesting problems raised for Buddhist meditation-
theorists by this fact : how is it, for example, that wisdom can occur in
connection with the state of sanná-vedayita-nirodha, which we have already
characterized as a type of cataleptic trance? It is worth noting that in many
cases of the description of this set of formless meditations, the last-minute
injection of wisdom seen in the above extract from the Nivápasutta does not
occur . 24
The third context consists in the use of the four jhánáni pericope as a
preliminary set of meditative techniques preceding a further set of techniques
designed primarily to manipulate the practitioner's affective states . The unit
of tradition which describes this set of affectively-transformative techniques in
the four Nikáyá is called the four brahmavihdrá, the `ways of living like Brahma,'
sometimes translated as the `divine abidings .' This unit of tradition occurs
comparatively infrequently in our sources, and there appear to be only four
instances of the jhánáni preceding these practices . In one case (MN 1 .350-51)
we find a soteriological path with three distinct stages described : the first is the
fourjhánáni, the second the brahmavihárd, and the third the formless meditations
already discussed . In two cases (DN 3 .78 ; AN 1 .182-83) the successive
practice of the four jhánáni and the ways of living like Brahma is followed by a
variant of the analytic meditative techniques noted in our earlier analysis of
the Samannaphalasutta . And in the fourth and final case (DN 2 .186-87) the
combination of the four jhánáni and the ways of living like Brahma is aimed at
rebirth in the Brahmaloka, an altogether different soteriological goal .2s
The fourth and final context consists in the treatment of the four jhánáni as
an independently valid soteriological technique . In such contexts the four
jhánáni are not connected with other soteriological techniques ; rather they are
listed independently, usually in connection with what we might call a
soteriological approval-formula . A good example of such a context may be
found in the Pdsádikasutta of DN . This is a sutta which lists a large number of
miscellaneous items of doctrine and practice, mostly in stereotyped list format .
Among these we find our four jháháni pericope qualified by the following
formula : ` . . . (they) lead to complete detachment, absence of passion,
tranquillity, transcendent insight, enlightenment and Nirvana .' 26 This
formula is applied to the four jhánáni without any suggestion that they should
be connected with further meditative techniques, and such a connection is
significant because this samvat-plus-dative construction-what we have called
a soteriological approval formula-is found at many other places in the four
Nikáyá . It is itself an independent unit of tradition, a formulaic way of saying
that any specific doctrine or practice is useful, correct, orthodox and results in
Nirvana. It is a kind of Buddhist imprimatur, a floating unit of tradition used
 Buddhist Jhána: A Form-Critical Study 65

to express assent and approval wherever appropriate . Thus at DN 1 .189 we

find it applied to the four truths; at DN 2 .251 to the eightfold path and so on .
The occurrence of this unit of tradition in the Pdsiidikasutta in connection with
the four jhándni pericope therefore suggests that at one stage in the redaction of
the tradition two independent units of tradition-the four jhiindni pericope and
the soteriological approval formula-were brought together, and that at least
at that stage of the development of the tradition the techniques and ASCs
enshrined in the fourjhánâni pericope were thought to have independent
soteriological validity . 27 That is, it appears possible that at some period in the
early history of Buddhism it was felt by some that the concentrative enstatic
techniques of the four jhándni were themselves capable of leading towards,
conducing to, or resulting in (all possible translations of samvat-plus-dative)
salvation without the practice of intellectually analytic insight meditation .

4 . CONCL USIONS

The following tentative conclusions are suggested by our investigation : first,

the application of the techniques of form criticism to the traditions about the
four jhdniini in the first four Nikáyà of the Páli Suttapitaka has enabled us to
isolate the invariant core of this tradition from its various secondary contexts,
and to make some remarks about its form . Second, a closer look at the
terminology used in this unit of tradition has shown that we are dealing here
with a set of concentrative enstatic techniques which result in the progressive
`deconstruction' of the practitioner's cognitive and affective experience,
issuing in a condition wherein emotional reactions to and involvements with
the world are impossible, and where cognition, intellectual activity of any
kind, and (probably) also speech and perception have come to a halt . Third,
an examination of the varied contexts wherein this tradition is used in the four
Nikáyd, a relatively homogenous body of early Buddhist literature, has shown
us that during the gradual process of redaction and construction of ever more
complex and inclusive soteriological path-structures, the four jhdnàni pericope
was appropriated and used in a number ofdif erent frequently incompatibl e
path-structures, and that its use in each was different . Finally, it seems at least
possible, though by no means certain, that by some Buddhist communities at
some point in the course of the development of the tradition, the meditative
techniques and ASCs enshrined in the four jhánáni tradition were regarded as
of independent soteriological validity .
This is certainly not the position of the later systematizers of the tradition ;
that it was ever a possibility points up the fundamental tension in Buddhist
meditation theory between the radically different techniques and ASCs of
enstasy and those of insight .
66 Paul Griff the

NOTES

1 The structure and implications of this tension are further explored in Paul Griffiths,
`Concentration or insight : the problematic of Theravâda Buddhist meditation-
theory`,,Journal of the American Academy of Religion, XLIX/4 (1981), p . 605-24.
2 The term 'enstasy' is used here in its precise etymological sense to mean `standing
within' or `withdrawal.' Mircea Eliade has defined and discussed it in Yoga:
immortality andfreedom, 2nd English ed ., New York, Bollingen Foundation, 1969, pp .
79-95 ; 162-99 ; 395-8 . Eliade's work has some egregious errors in its discussion of
Buddhism, some of which have been discussed by Richard Gombrich, 'Eliade on
Buddhism', Religious Studies 10 (1974), pp . 255-231, but Eliade's terminology
remains extremely useful even where his substantive conclusions cannot be follow-
ed .
3 The four Nikdyd are : Dighanikdya (hereinafter MN) ; Samyuttanitaya (hereinafter
DN) ; Majjhimanikdya ( hereinafter SN) ; Anguttara-nikdya (hereinafter AN) .
References in this paper are to page and line of the standard Pali Text Society
editions .
4 There is no space here to explain or defend this dating of the material ; it is not, in
any case, a particularly controversial matter . We know from inscriptional evidence
that some of the texts in what we now know as DN, MN, SN and AN were known
by their present names in the second century BC, and from references in the canon
itself that the division of the canon into three Pi takd and four (sometimes five)
Nikdyd was also current by that period. Choosing the Pâli texts is not meant to
imply that they have any especially privileged historical position . Certainly, the
fragmentarily existing Sanskrit versions of the same material are based on equally
old traditions, as are the much more complete Chinese versions . The choice of the
Pâli Nikdyd, then, is based on easy availability in relatively good editions .
5 This is a term derived from the Greek perikopi, meaning `section' or `that which has
been cut around' . It has passed into common usage in New Testament criticism as
a label for the small units of tradition out of which the evangelists composed their
gospels, and we shall use it in this paper as a label for those highly stereotyped units
of tradition which comprise so much of the four Nikdyd.
6 It will be clear from a close examination of these parallels that the differences
between the versions are insignificant . We have a change of mood in the SN
extract-from indicative to optative-which is demanded by the context ; the SN
extract also separates some compounds, and omits somanassa from the fourth jhdna .
The other differences are still less significant and are partly due to different
methods of romanization used by the editors of these texts .
7 This translates the series of near-synonyms abhisandeti, parisandeti, paripûreti,
parippharati, repeated four times in our extract from the Samannaphalasutta . This
stereotyped gloss has precisely the same form for each of the first three jhdnani, and
takes only a slightly different form for the fourth .
8 Not transcribed in full on p . 6, but indicated by seyyathd pi . . . .
9 For a discussion of the significance and frequency of this form in the four Nikdyd, see
Dipakkumar Barua, An analytical study of the four Nikdyas, Calcutta, Rabindra
Bharati University, 1971, Appendix Two .
10 This is reproduced in full on p . 6 only for the first jhdna .
11 See L .S . Cousins, `Buddhist Jhâna : Its Nature and Attainment According to the
Pali Sources', Religion 3 (1973), pp . 115-6 for a good discussion of possible trans-
lations .
 Buddhist fhána : A Form-Critical Study 67

12 This term has become common parlance among psychologists carrying out
empirical studies of the effects of meditative disciplines . See Charles T . Tart,
Altered states ofconsciousness, New York, John Wiley 1969, for the pioneering work in
this field, and Andrew Rawlinson, `Altered states of consciousness', Religion 9
(1979), pp . 92-103, for an excellent review of the state of research .
13 They are : kámacchanda-desire for sense-objects ; vyäpàda-ill-will ; thinamiddha-
which may be understood either as a dvanda, viz: sloth and torpor, or as a tappurisa,
viz : increase of languor ; udhaccakukkucca-disturbance and remorse ; and finally
vicikicchá---doubt . The later commentarial literature goes into great detail in its
discussion of these psychological factors . In the Nikdyd some interesting similes
may be found at AN 3 .230íT
14 We may note two similes which describes these two factors in the Visuddhimagga .
(Visuddhimagga ofBuddhaghosácariya, ed . Henry Clarke Warren, rev . Dharmananda
Kosambi, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1950 . 4 .89) . There vitakka is said
to be like a bird spreading its wings upon deciding to take off, and vicára like that
same bird gliding with spread wings . Also, vitakka is compared to a bee's first
approach to an attractive flower and vicdra to that bee's close examination of the
flower which first attracted it.
15 Although most commentarial analyses of the first jhána attribute one-pointedness
to it-as also do many places in the Nikáyá, as at MN 3 .25-27, partially reproduced
on p . 6-it is not explicitly mentioned in the stereotyped pericope .
16 MN 1 .79.
17 This compound-upekhásatipdrisuddhim or upekhásatiparisuddham depending on
which version we follow-can be interpreted in a number of ways . We have chosen
to take it as a kammadháraya with the tappurisa satipdrisuddhim being qualified by
upekhá . It is equally possible to take the whole thing as a tappurisa, with pdrisuddhim
standing in a genitive case relationship to the dvanda upekhdsati .
18 The extent to which perception of the external world is possible at all in the fourth
jhána is not made quite clear by this pericope . The later commentarial tradition is,
on the whole, clear that perception-and speech-have ceased at this level . We
should also note that the factor of one-pointedness-concentration upon a single
object-is not explicitly mentioned here . Nevertheless it is probably meant to be
understood throughout the series . Concentration of the mind upon a single object
to the exclusion of unwanted data is the technique by which progression through
this series of ASCs is effected . Finally, at some places in the four Nikdyd it is
suggested that the physiological condition of the meditator has radically changed
by the time this ASC is reached-to the extent that respiration ceases . This is the
case in DN 3 .266, but it is not explicitly stated or even implied by the standard
formula under discussion here .
19 Instances are: DN 1 .100 ; 1 .124 ; 1 .147 ; 1 .157 ; 1 .159-60 ; 1 .172-3 ; 1 .182-3 ; 1 .207-8 ;
2 .214-5 ; 2 .186 ; 2 .313 ; 3 .78 ; 3 .131 ; 3 .222 ; MN 1 .22 ; 1 .81-3 ; 1 .247-8; 1 .277-8 ; 1 .347 ;
1 .441-2 ; 2 .15-17 ; 2 .37-8 ; 2 .93 ; 2 .212 ; 2 .226 ; 3 .3-4 ; 3 .14 ; 3.36 (only three jhdndni
mentioned in this instance) ; An 1 .219 ; 1 .1631 ; 2 .210; 3 .93 ; 3 .99 ; 3 .118 ; 4 .176 .
20 so evam samáhite citte parissudhe pariyodàte anangane vigatupakkilese
miidûbhùte kammaniye thite ànejjappatte nànadassanàya cittam abhiniharati
abhininnàmeti .
21 This interesting psychological condition has played an important part in the
development of Buddhist meditation-theory, although it has as yet received rather
less attention than it warrants . Most recently see Noriaki Hakamaya,
`Nirodhasamàpatti-its Historical Meaning in the Vijnaptimàtratà System',
68 Paul Griiths

Journal Of Indian and Buddhist Studies . 23/2, 1975, pp . 33-43, and Winston King,
`The Structure and Dynamics of the Attainment of Cessation in Theravâda
Meditation',Journalofthe American Academy ofReligion, XLV/2 (1977), pp . 707-725 .
22 Instances are : MN 1 .40-1 ; 1 .159 ; 1 .174; 1 .203-4 ; 1 .208-9 : 1 .398-9 ; 1 .435-6;
1 .454-6; 3 .25-6 ; 3 .42-3 ; SN 1 .158 ; 2 .210-2 ; 3 .255-6 ; 4 .217 ; 4 .226-7 ; 4 .262-5 ;
5 .318-9; AN 4 .418 ; 5 .207-8 .
23 puna ca param bhikkhave bhikkhu sabbaso nevasannânâsannâyatanam
samatikamma sannâvedayitanirodham upasampa11a viharati . Pannâya câssa
disvâ âsavâ parikkhina honti . ayam vuccati bhikkhave bhikkhu andhamakâsi
mâram apadarn vidhitvâ mâracakkhum adassanam gato pâpimato tinno loke
visattikam t i . M N 1 .160 .
24 See DN 3 .265-6; 3 .290; MN 2 .12-13 etc .
25 We should note that the psychological condition aimed at by the brahmavihárá has
clear affinities with that aimed at by the four jhdndni . Equanimity is of central
importance in both .
26 ekanta nibbidâya virâgâya nirodhâya upasamâya abhirináya sambodhâya
nibbânâya samvattanti . DN 3 .131 .
27 C .f. SN 4 .235-6 ; 5-307-8 .

PAUL GRIFFITHS obtained a doctorate in Buddhist studies from the

University of Wisconsin . He has published several articles on the theory of
Buddhist meditation .