The Noble Council of Akanitta Brahma Realm was remembered with faith.
The 29/08/2025 Upekkha Appamana meditation was repeated. In that, it was investigated with the diagram 1 given there that what will happen when ‘faculty of life’ (jivitha indriya) is not exhausted and the perversion of thought that “there is self” comes up to the ‘faculty of life’ (jīvitindriya) and then breaks down?
Diagram 1
Here, due to the form like cotton being taken as self, there arises perversion of perception that “there is self”. This is a subtle phenomenon. There are no feelings being taken as self here. The form which is insubstantial like cotton being taken as self has reached such a subtle state, and it is accumulated in the ‘consciousness as nutriment’. Thus, there is My-making due to the self that arises at the top of the diagram. By now, the stream of consciousness has reached delusion, and there is impregnation of permanence (nicca). What if there is ‘underlying tendency to greed for sensual desire’? Here, there is completion of area 6, and through that there arise the doctrines of conceit and I-making.
If examined with the 16/04/2016 Nibbana meditation, the seventh jhana state can be understood well. Examine the third row of the Dukka Table therein.
| Row | Identity View - sakkāyadiṭṭhi | The adherence to rules and observances (sīlabbataparāmāsa) | Doubt -vicikicchā |
| 1 | (5-5 – Atta) Permanency because of pleasure (suka) | Pleasure (suka) | Doubt regarding pleasure ( suka ) |
| 2 | Delight (nandi), self (atta), “subtle (sukhuma ) – permanency” | Permanency (nicca) because of pleasure (suka) | Doubtful whether it is permanent (nicca) ( Note: Death occurred at 4-2) |
| 3 | I-making (ahaṃkāra) | Delight, self (atta), “subtle– permanency” | Doubtful whether it is ‘delight (nandi)’. Note: Sickness already occurred at 6-4. |
| 4 | Passion of delight (nandīrāga). Note: We have assigned pleasure value (suka) to the form. | I-making (ahaṃkāra) as a perception | Is it befitting to regard the I-making perception as mine? |
There is no selfhood due to gross feelings of pleasure. There is no delight due to that selfhood. So, in this case, when there is no intention to give birth to a dead thought, birth occurs due to the perception of self itself, and since there is no delight due to selfhood, without the thought of pleasure, due to the arising of volitions with perceptions of pleasure, birth in the seventh jhana plane occurs in cases where there is no view between the mental volition and misapprehension.
Let us examine doctrines applicable to the attainer of eight jhana with the 16/04/2016 Nibbana mediation. Therein, in the third row of the Dukkha table, there is no selfhood due to gross feelings of pleasure. There is no delight due to that selfhood. In the fourth row, I-making does not exist as a perception. There is no doubt about that perception of I-making. Since he too has no delight due to selfhood, there is no intention of giving birth to a dead thought. So, there is no thought of pleasure. There is a subtle permanency that arises due to the eighth jhana volitional formations. There is a perception of ‘separation from what is pleasing’ to some extent. Why so? Due to the loss of the previously acquired perceptions and attentions, there is awareness to some extent that a loss of the noise that arose without nibbana. For this reason, the manifestation of past existences is done by consciousness.
Thus, the perception of being separated from what is pleasing is there to some extent, volitions are created by a similar path, like the path of ‘straying mind’. Those volitions should not be mistaken as new volitions. They are volitions that maintain a certain degree of subtle permanency, which arises due to the eighth jhana formations. That is so.
That is the meditation.
To add a little more to this,
1. Consider noise as sounds to the ear, tastes to the tongue, etc.
2. The subtle permanency that arises due to the volitional formations for the eighth jhana is the subtle permanency that arises from the volitional formations such as examining the impermanence of perception. The noise is made for such volitional formations, there, in order to observe the impermanence of perception, something has come forward. It should not be taken as the permanency arose because of the noise.
3. Birth occurs due to the perception of self itself, and since there is no delight due to selfhood, without the thought of pleasure, due to the arising of volitions with perceptions of pleasure, birth in the seventh jhana plane occurs in cases where there is no view between the mental volition and misapprehension. This was further examined. We know that the thought (citta) is perception, volition, and consciousness. This process, which occurs with the consciousness as condition the ‘perception of self’ is coming to volition, is like the father, the consciousness, giving something to his family members and making them happy. Since this is done with consciousness as condition, it cannot be said that consciousness was constructed by perception and volition. If so, since there is no thought (citta) by perception, volition and consciousness, it is understood that it is without the thought of pleasure.
4. In step 6.4, we know that when delight enters misapprehension, there is ‘I-making’. Examining this with the seventh jhana case, the Budu Piya was asked why becoming ‘I-making’. Budu Piya said, "Look where the birth is." Here, I understood that ‘I-making’ is because of the idea ‘exists’ due to the form like cotton.
That is what needs to be added.
Discussion 13/09/2025
Notes added at the end of the discussion
Then if we add this here, a similar path, like the path of the ‘straying mind’, one can draw a circle around the ‘separation from what is pleasing’. Then draw a dotted circle around the ‘birth’. Then do not mark a connection between the ‘separation from what is pleasing’ and ‘birth’. Similarly, do not mark a connection from ‘birth’ to ‘feeling’. Then, we draw the connection from ‘feeling’ to ‘volition’, we know that in the higher jhana planes, there is the path of the attainer of ‘neither-perception-nor-non-perception’ and that kind of connection is there.
Then that is what needs to be added.