Traditional Quotes and Symbols
There exist the road and the going, but not he who goes.
A few considerations, both on the practice and on the "place" of these four jhāna. In order to develop them successively, it is of prime importance that the will for the unconditioned should completely occupy the mind. Only then will its advance not be obstructed. Only then, when each single jhāna has been wholly apprehended, can one he aware of what that jhāna still retains that is "compounded," that is "conditioned," and thus find a way that leads still further.
When contemplating the phenomena proper to each jhāna in their appearance and development, the ascetic must confront them without inclination, without interest, without ties, without being attached, with his mind not limited by them, and he must apprehend "There is a higher liberty"; and by developing his experience he will, in fact, see: "There is."
The demon of identification and of satisfaction raises its head here also. It must be anticipated and conquered. Every feeling of enjoyment or of satisfaction that may arise upon the realization of each jhāna is immediately seen as a possible bond for the mind and is to be rejected.
One must apply here the general Buddhist principle that all enjoyment through attachment is lethal, be it either of the "heavens" or of nirvāna itself, since "a fire lighted with sandalwood burns no less fiercely than any other fire." The action must be neutral, absolutely purified and naked. As in the Carmelite symbolism of the ascent of the mountain, the path that does not become lost, which leads straight up to the summit, is that to which are attributed the words: nada, nada, nada -"nothing, nothing, nothing." The difference is that in the Ariyan path of awakening there is found no equivalent to the crisis that Saint John of the Cross called the "dark night of the soul."
In the texts the impersonality of the action is evident also from the fact that the four jhāna are given as phases of a development from within, phases that occur normally as a result of the fundamental direction that one's own being has taken, without "volitional" intervention in a strict personal sense. In the four jhāna, as in the later experiences, one must never think: "It is I who am about to achieve this jhāna," or: "It is I who have now achieved this jhāna." or "It is I who am surmounting this jhana." On the contrary, the mind, having rightly been set in motion, should lead from one to the other. Any intervention by the normal personal consciousness would only arrest the process and lead back to the point of departure, in the same way as Narcissus, at the moment of gazing at his image, prepared his own end.
The Mahayana saying, "there exist the road and the going, but not he who goes," seems not out of place here. We can also remember the Taoist maxim: "To achieve intentionally the absence of intentions."
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Julius Evola: The Doctrine of Awakening - Part II., Chapter 5. - The Four Jhāna : The "Irradiant Contemplations" (excerpt)
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image: Ornamental Gateway (Pailou) from Han Dynasty (202 BCE - 220 CE) across a street lined with small shops - Hanzhong, China, 1875
There exist the road and the going, but not he who goes.
A few considerations, both on the practice and on the "place" of these four jhāna. In order to develop them successively, it is of prime importance that the will for the unconditioned should completely occupy the mind. Only then will its advance not be obstructed. Only then, when each single jhāna has been wholly apprehended, can one he aware of what that jhāna still retains that is "compounded," that is "conditioned," and thus find a way that leads still further.
When contemplating the phenomena proper to each jhāna in their appearance and development, the ascetic must confront them without inclination, without interest, without ties, without being attached, with his mind not limited by them, and he must apprehend "There is a higher liberty"; and by developing his experience he will, in fact, see: "There is."
The demon of identification and of satisfaction raises its head here also. It must be anticipated and conquered. Every feeling of enjoyment or of satisfaction that may arise upon the realization of each jhāna is immediately seen as a possible bond for the mind and is to be rejected.
One must apply here the general Buddhist principle that all enjoyment through attachment is lethal, be it either of the "heavens" or of nirvāna itself, since "a fire lighted with sandalwood burns no less fiercely than any other fire." The action must be neutral, absolutely purified and naked. As in the Carmelite symbolism of the ascent of the mountain, the path that does not become lost, which leads straight up to the summit, is that to which are attributed the words: nada, nada, nada -"nothing, nothing, nothing." The difference is that in the Ariyan path of awakening there is found no equivalent to the crisis that Saint John of the Cross called the "dark night of the soul."
In the texts the impersonality of the action is evident also from the fact that the four jhāna are given as phases of a development from within, phases that occur normally as a result of the fundamental direction that one's own being has taken, without "volitional" intervention in a strict personal sense. In the four jhāna, as in the later experiences, one must never think: "It is I who am about to achieve this jhāna," or: "It is I who have now achieved this jhāna." or "It is I who am surmounting this jhana." On the contrary, the mind, having rightly been set in motion, should lead from one to the other. Any intervention by the normal personal consciousness would only arrest the process and lead back to the point of departure, in the same way as Narcissus, at the moment of gazing at his image, prepared his own end.
The Mahayana saying, "there exist the road and the going, but not he who goes," seems not out of place here. We can also remember the Taoist maxim: "To achieve intentionally the absence of intentions."
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Julius Evola: The Doctrine of Awakening - Part II., Chapter 5. - The Four Jhāna : The "Irradiant Contemplations" (excerpt)
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image: Ornamental Gateway (Pailou) from Han Dynasty (202 BCE - 220 CE) across a street lined with small shops - Hanzhong, China, 1875