7☀️ jhāna factors, not 5
The four jhānas have seven factors, not five.
The seven are the 7sb☀️: satta bojjh-aṅgā, the seven awakening factors.
1🐘 sati — remembering [the ☸Dharma one needs]
2💭🕵️ dhamma-vicaya — ☸Dharma investigation
3🏹 vīriya — vigor
4😁 pīti — rapture
5🌊 passaddhi — pacification
6🌄 samādhi — undistractible-lucidity
7🛆👁 upekkhā — equanimous-observation
Three of them — upekkhā, sati and dhamma-vicaya — are capable of vipassanā.
That is precisely why the LBT 5-jhāna-factor scheme omits them.
Two terms used throughout
EBT = Early Buddhist Texts/Teachings: the four Pāḷi Nikāyas and their Chinese Āgama parallels,
the earliest record of what the Buddha taught.
LBT = Late Buddhist Texts/Teachings: chronologically,
anything after the EBT — Abhidhamma,
the commentaries, the Vism.
Lateness by itself is not the problem.
The problem is that LBT often introduces teachings that are not in the EBT,
or redefines an EBT teaching so that the new version contradicts the original.
Who this article is arguing with
“Theravāda” is not one position.
EBT Theravādins take the suttas as the standard.
LBT Theravādins take the Visuddhimagga and the commentaries as the standard,
even where those contradict the suttas.
Everything below is an argument with the second group,
and says so wherever it names them.
EBT Theravādins will find nothing here to quarrel with — this is their argument too.
🔗The 4 jhānas have 7☀️ factors. Not 5. — the article this page is based on.
+1 – 7sb☀️ as independent jhāna factors
all
The four jhānas have seven factors.
Upekkhā, sati and dhamma-vicaya are all capable of vipassanā, which is why the LBT 5-jhāna-factor paradigm omits them.
Two identifications carry the argument:
vīriya is 4pd🏹️, sammā-padhāna: right effort.
The factors the LBT 5-jhāna-factor scheme drops are therefore not decorative.
They are the ones that remember, investigate and think: the ones that make jhāna a place where insight can occur.
+1.1 – MN 78 vīriya: an independent factor the five leave out
vīriya is an independent jhāna factor,
and the LBT 5-jhāna-factor list omits it.
Outline of MN 78 samaṇa-muṇḍika (the contemplative named Muṇḍika):
Uggāhamāna's invincible ascetic — no bad bodily action,
speech, thought or livelihood
the Buddha makes fun of him, comparing him to a baby
the Buddha's ideal ascetic
kusala sīla purified by right effort
the 3 akusalā saṅkappā, exact opposites of the 3 aspects of right resolve: lust,
ill will, harm
akusalā saṅkappā depend on 3 perceptions — again the opposites of right resolve
akusalā saṅkappā cease in first jhāna
right effort removes kusalā saṅkappā within,
and prior to, first jhāna
the 3 kusalā saṅkappā are the 3 aspects of right resolve
kusalā saṅkappā depend on the 3 kusala perceptions
kusalā saṅkappā cease in second jhāna
right effort removes kusala saṅkappa from first jhāna,
leaving no V&V in second
In sammā-samādhi, the four jhānas of the EBT,
both samatha and vipassanā are done while one is in jhāna.
passaddhi, pacification, is a cause of pīti and sukha and correlates with them.
Sukha ain't happening if you're not pacified/relaxed.
The definition of upekkhā-sam-bojjhaṅga in SN 46.3 is clearly doing vipassanā.
+1.2 – SN 46.4 is a good example of 7sb as independent jhāna factors
Outline of SN 46.4 vattha (the cloth):
he abides in any combination of 7sb factors,
any time of day he chooses
these 7sb factors can be analysed within jhāna,
with S&S
simile: a king wears whatever clothes he wants,
whenever he wants
(repeated) these 7sb factors can be analysed within jhāna
Ven. Thanissaro's commentary
That is the point of the cloth simile: the seven are independent.
A king does not put his robes on in a fixed order,
and a meditator is not handed the awakening factors in a fixed bundle.
He takes up whichever one the moment calls for,
from inside jhāna.
+1.3 – SN 46.2: independent 5niv and 7sb factors
both while one is in the four jhānas and while one is trying to enter them.
The five hindrances have nutriment:
(1. 💑 Kāma-c-chanda ← subha-nimittaṃ)
(2. 😠 Byāpāda ← paṭigha-nimittaṃ)
(3. 😴💤Thina-middha ← arati, tandi, vijambhitā,
Bhatta-sammado, cetaso ca līnattaṃ)
(4. 😳 Uddhacca-kukkucca ← cetaso a-vūpasamo)
(5. 🤷♂️ Vicikiccha ← vicikicchāṭ--ṭhānīyā dhammā)
The seven awakening factors have nutriment:
(1. 🐘 Sati ← sati-sam-bojjh-aṅgaṭ--ṭhānīyā dhammā)
(2. 💭🕵️ Dhamma vicaya ← kusal-ākusalā d,
sāvajj-ānavajjā d, hīna-paṇītā d, kaṇha-sukka-sap-paṭibhāgā dhammā)
(3. 🏹 Vīriya ← ārambha-dhātu, nikkama-d,
parakkama-d)
(4. 😁 Pīti ← pīti-sam-bojjh-aṅgaṭ--ṭhānīyā dhammā)
(5. 🌊 Passaddhi ← kāya-passaddhi, citta-passaddhi)
(6. 🌄 Samādhi ← Samatha-nimittaṃ, A-by-agga-nimittaṃ)
(7. 👁 Upekkha ← upekkhā-sam-bojjh-aṅgaṭ-ṭhānīyā dhammā)
Seven factors, seven separate nutriments.
A scheme in which factors drop away in lock-step through the four jhānas has nothing to say about this sutta.
+1.4 – SN 46: 20 meditation subjects where 7sb are 7 independent factors
The SN 46 bojjhaṅga collection also gives 20 meditation subjects in which the 7sb function as seven independent factors,
with no mention of LBT 5 jhāna factors anywhere — see SN 46.57.
The same holds in SN 54.2, where the seven awakening factors are developed together with 16🌬️😤: there are seven jhāna factors,
not five.
+1.5 – 🛆👁Upekkha is an important independent factor
🛆👁 Upekkhā is an important independent factor: in the 7sb,
and in third and fourth jhāna, it is upekkhā that does vipassanā.
This is why the LBT Theravāda conspiracy goes to such lengths to suppress the teaching on 7sb,
and to push its newly minted "5 jhāna factors" instead.
See the separate article ☸4nt → 7sb → 7🛆👁,
especially these sections:
🛆👁 Upekkhā in the 🌖🌕 jhānas
🛆👁 Upekkhā in 7sb☀️
V&V💭 & U🛆👁
And these three, currently missing from this page:
❧
+2 – 7sb☀️ as causal sequence
The same seven factors also arise in order, each one feeding the next:
🐘 sati → 💭🕵️ dhamma-vicaya → 🏹 vīriya → 😁 pīti → 🌊 passaddhi → 🌄 samādhi → 👁 upekkhā
These are not two competing readings.
Both hold simultaneously: each of the seven is an independent factor,
available in any of the four jhānas (see 1 above),
and the seven are a causal sequence, each one a direct cause of the next.
For example: 🌊 passaddhi, pacification of the body,
is a direct cause of bodily 🙂 sukha, pleasure,
and of 🌄 samādhi, undistractible-lucidity,
arising.
On either reading there are seven.
Neither is a scheme of five.
✴️SN 46.3 — the real bojjhaṅga-paritta
+3 – "5 jhāna factors" is an LBT Theravāda conspiracy
all
A conspiracy to redefine the four jhānas as a frozen samatha exercise, devoid of vipassanā capability.
Search the EBT for the five jhāna factors and they appear twice.
Neither time is it the Buddha teaching them; both times it is Sāriputta: MN 43 (see 4 below) and MN 111,
the same two Leigh Brasington arrives at in 7 below.
Sāriputta is usually the one involved when Abhidhamma origin stories and LBT are being fabricated.
There is a second clue that the five are an LBT Theravāda concoction:
the Visuddhimagga passage explaining how they oppose the five hindrances,
one for one.
It's one of the dumbest things I've ever heard in my life.
Even LBT Theravādins of the blind-faith persuasion find that teaching confusing and nonsensical.
+3.1 – How the LBT 5 jhāna factors remove vipassanā
The LBT 5 jhāna factors are vitakka, vicāra,
pīti, sukha and citt'ekaggatā.
Set them beside the seven and what is missing is not random.
Then Buddhaghosa works the five through the standard jhāna formula,
abandoning them one by one — roughly Vism IV.79 onward,
continuing through the treatment of each jhāna in turn:
1st jhāna — all five: vitakka, vicāra, pīti, sukha,
ekaggatā
2nd jhāna — vitakka and vicāra are abandoned together,
Vism explaining that they drop as a pair rather than one at
a time because both belong to the "gross" thinking-function → leaves pīti,
sukha, ekaggatā
3rd jhāna — pīti is abandoned → leaves sukha,
ekaggatā
4th jhāna — sukha is abandoned and replaced by upekkhā → leaves upekkhā,
ekaggatā
Now ask what is left that could do vipassanā.
sati is not on the list at all. Neither is dhamma-vicaya. Those are the two faculties that remember a ☸Dharma and investigate it,
and the LBT 5 jhāna factors never contained them — not in first jhāna,
and not in any other.
That leaves vitakka and vicāra as the only candidates.
But the LBT redefines those two as "initial and sustained
attention" rather than thinking and evaluating (see 7 below),
so they cannot investigate anything either.
And by second jhāna they are gone.
From second jhāna upward the scheme leaves pīti,
sukha and ekaggatā; then sukha and ekaggatā; then upekkhā and ekaggatā.
Not one of those can remember a ☸Dharma,
investigate one, or discern what is happening.
Nor does the upekkhā that arrives in fourth jhāna repair it: the LBT reads it as neutrality of feeling,
not as the 7🛆👁 equanimous-observation that does vipassanā.
So the LBT jhāna cannot do vipassanā.
That is not an accident of the LBT 5 jhāna factor scheme — it was a deliberate scheme to eliminate vipassanā capability.
Compare with the Buddha's EBT 7 jhāna factor system,
every factor of which is available in every one of the four jhānas,
and three of which do vipassanā (see 1 above).
+4 – MN 43: Sāriputta claims first jhāna has five factors
The first of the two occurrences.
MN 43.9 Mahāvedalla-sutta (mn43:18.1–20.5) — Ven.
Mahākoṭṭhita asks, Sāriputta answers:
| “Paṭhamaṁ panāvuso, jhānaṁ kati·aṅgikan”ti? | “But how many factors does the first jhāna have?” | |
| “Paṭhamaṁ kho, āvuso, jhānaṁ pañca·ṅgikaṁ. Idhāvuso, paṭhamaṁ jhānaṁ samāpannassa bhikkhuno vitakko ca vattati, vi·cāro ca pīti ca sukhañca citt·ekaggatā ca.” | “The first jhāna has five factors. When a monk has entered the first jhāna, directed-thought, evaluation, mental-joy, bodily-pleasure, and a mind with singular focus are present.” | |
| “Paṭhamaṁ panāvuso, jhānaṁ kataṅga·vippahīnaṁ kataṅga·samannāgatan”ti? | “But how many factors has the first jhāna given up and how many does it possess?” | |
| “Paṭhamaṁ kho, āvuso, jhānaṁ pañcaṅga·vippahīnaṁ, pañcaṅga·samannāgataṁ. Idhāvuso, paṭhamaṁ jhānaṁ samāpannassa bhikkhuno kāma·c·chando pahīno hoti, by·āpādo pahīno hoti, thina·middhaṁ pahīnaṁ hoti, uddhacca·kukkuccaṁ pahīnaṁ hoti, vi·cikicchā pahīnā hoti; vitakko ca vattati, vi·cāro ca pīti ca sukhañca citt·ekaggatā ca.” | “The first jhāna has given up five factors and possesses five factors. When a monk has entered the first jhāna, desire for sensual pleasures, ill-will, dullness and drowsiness, restlessness and remorse, and doubt are given up. Directed-thought, evaluation, mental-joy, bodily-pleasure, and a mind with singular focus are present.” | |
Two things Sāriputta does not say, and both of them matter:
1. He is talking about first jhāna, and only first jhāna. He is asked paṭhamaṁ … kati·aṅgikan — how many factors has the first — and that is what he answers.
He is never asked, and never says, how many factors the second,
third or fourth jhāna has.
The LBT 5-jhāna-factor scheme therefore covers one jhāna out of four.
The picture of factors dropping away one per jhāna as you climb
is not extrapolated from the EBT at all: it was fabricated by the authors of the LBT and passed off as the Buddha's.
2. He gives two lists of five and pairs nothing. Five given up — the five hindrances.
Five present — vitakka, vicāra, pīti,
sukha, citt'ekaggatā.
Both lists in the same breath, and not one word matching a hindrance to a factor.
The one-to-one correspondence — ekaggatā against lust,
pīti against ill will, and the rest — appears for the first time centuries later,
in the Visuddhimagga (see 5.2 below).
This answers the question 5.2.1 asks out loud: where did this teaching come from? The two lists of five came from here.
The pairing did not; it was added.
Note also the fifth factor, citt'ekaggatā, which appears in no STED jhāna
formula anywhere in the suttas; and that the question Sāriputta is answering,
"how many factors does the first jhāna have?",
is the question 8 below advises abandoning.
+5 – VRJ claims the LBT 5 jhāna factors oppose the 5 hindrances
all
The Visuddhimagga claims that the LBT 5 jhāna factors correspond one-to-one with the five hindrances,
each opposing and removing its own.
+5.1 – 4 jhānas and the "5 jhānas" of AN 8.63
This part explains the difference between the four jhānas and the "five jhānas" of AN 8.63 and MN 128.
Vism. chap. 3:
25.16. In the pentad there are five jhānas by dividing in two
what is called the second jhāna in the fourfold reckoning (see §21),
taking the second jhāna to be due to the surmounting of only
applied thought and the third jhāna to be due to the surmounting of both applied and sustained thought.
There are five kinds of concentration according to the factors of these five jhānas.
So its fivefoldness should be understood according to the five sets of jhāna factors.
+5.2 – Vism. passage on 5 magical soul mates
all
Here each of the five hindrances is given a monogamous soul mate from among the LBT 5 jhāna factors.
⛔ Vism. chap. 4:
86. And although there may be unprofitableness in other states as well, nevertheless only the hindrances are mentioned subsequently in the Vibhaṅga thus, “Herein, what states are unprofitable? Lust …” (Vibh 256), etc., in order to show their opposition to, and incompatibility with, the jhāna factors. For the hindrances are the contrary opposites of the jhāna factors: what is meant is that the jhāna factors are incompatible with them, eliminate them, abolish them.
And it is said accordingly in the Peṭaka (Peṭakopadesa):
{1. ekaggata/kāma-chanda} “Concentration is incompatible with lust,
{2. pīti/byāpāda} happiness with ill will,
{3. vitakka/thina-middha} applied thought with stiffness and torpor,
{4. sukha/udaccakukucca} bliss with agitation and worry,
{5. vicāra/vicikicca} and sustained thought with uncertainty”
(not in Peṭakopadesa).
+§2.1 – my comments
The curly braces above contain my notes on the Pāḷi correspondence to B. Ñāṇamoli's English.
Buddhaghosa writes “And it is said accordingly in the Peṭaka (Peṭakopadesa)”.
In the parenthetical comment immediately after that sentence,
B. Ñāṇamoli answers: no it's not in there. (the KN Peṭa)
So where did this teaching of five hindrances and their five jhāna-factor soul mates come from?
Half of it came from 4 above: MN 43 sets both lists of five side by side,
five hindrances given up and five factors present,
and pairs nothing.
Buddhaghosa supplied the pairing.
Just think about it.
Why would ekaggatā oppose lust alone,
and not ill will, or uncertainty, or all five?
Why is pīti the soul mate of ill will rather than sukha?
There is no reason for an exclusive one-to-one correspondence between these two sets of five.
Teachers of VRJ👻 go on teaching it, and cannot tell you why when you ask.
+§2.2 – On the positive side
The good thing is that where there is smoke,
there is fire.
Anyone who will feed you this will feed you more of it,
so the five soul mates serve as a useful red flag.
Stay on your toes about what the Visuddhimagga teaches.
+§2.3 – A theory on why
It could be a deliberate red herring,
designed to leave the reader puzzled and perhaps awed by the inscrutable "wisdom" of the Visuddhimagga.
Whatever the motive, the effect is plain: it keeps the reader from noticing S&S&U — sati,
sampajāno and upekkhā — factors of the four jhānas that do vipassanā while one is in them.
❧
+6 – You could say first jhāna has four factors
If you go strictly by the STED first-jhāna formula,
four factors are named:
💭 vitakka & vicāra 😁 pīti 🙂 sukha
Not five.
citt'ekaggatā does not appear in the formula.
Leigh Brasington makes the same case at length in 7 below.
+7 – excerpt from Leigh Brasington's website
Excerpted from Leigh Brasington, 🔗leighb.com/jhana_4factors.htm. His words, unedited:
Five Factors for the First Jhana - NOT!
There is a wide spread misunderstanding that the first jhana has 5 factors.
But this is not what is described in the suttas and is certainly not what the Buddha taught and practiced.
The first jhana has 4 factors (Yes!
Four - look it up, see it in Pali):
vitakka - thinking
vicara - more thinking, examining
piti - rapture, glee, zest
sukha - happiness
In the vast majority of cases - over 100 suttas,
the first jhana is described as having only the 4 factors listed above.
However the Abhidhamma and the Commentaries do speak of 5 factors
for the first jhana - they add ekaggata (one-pointedness).
Ekaggata isn't mentioned in the suttas because it is not and cannot be part of the formula.
In the first place, vitakka and vicara always and only mean "thinking"
and "examining" in the suttas - there is no place where
they can be interpreted to mean "initial and sustained attention" or any such thing.
It is even explicit in the canon that vitakka and vicara refer
to thinking in the context of the first jhana - see for example SN 21.1.
There "Noble Silence" is defined as the 2nd Jhana because vitakka and vicara are now absent.
It is simply not possible to have one-pointedness and thinking at the same time,
so experiencing ekaggata in the same jhana as vitakka and vicara makes no sense whatsoever.
Furthermore in the 2nd Jhana, vitakka and vicara are replaced with "vupasama,
ajjhattam sampasadanam" and "ekodi-bhavam" -
"inner tranquility" and "unification of mind." If there was ekaggata in 1st Jhana,
there would be no need to specify the gaining of "ekodi-bhavam"
to replace vitakka and vicara in the 2nd Jhana.
Now there are 2 suttas where 5 factors are given for the first
jhana and a 3rd sutta where unification of mind is mentioned in regard to the 1st Jhana:
M I 294 - MN 43 "The Greater Set of Questions-and-Answers"
M III 25-29 - MN 111 "One After Another"
S IV 263 - SN 40.1 "The First Jhana" (not ekaggata,
but ekodim; the context makes it a real stretch to consider this a 5th factor!)
But all of these appear to be "late" suttas - written
at the close of the sutta era and the beginning of the abhidhamma era.
Sutta MN 111 is actually internally contradictory: it first gives
the standard 1st jhana formula with vitakka and vicara and then
says Sariputta examined the factors of the 1st jhana and found ekaggata.
As mentioned above, you just can't have ekaggata and vitakka & vicara happening at the same time.
Of course this was a problem for the abhidhammaikas and the commentators.
So they redefined vitakka and vicara to mean initial and sustained attention.
But clearly the Abhidhamma has tinkered with the definitions of the jhanas,
converting the first jhana into 2 different states: one with vitakka & vicara and one with only vicara.
There is no basis for this in the suttas except again in a couple of "late" suttas.
And by the time of the Visuddhimagga,
the definitions of what constitutes a jhana had diverged significantly from the sutta definitions.
The Visuddhimagga has made the jhanas so difficult that only
one in a million who come to meditation can enter the first jhana (section XII.8) - while in the suttas,
the monks and nuns were all practicing jhana (the Buddha didn't
have millions of followers - probably only a few thousand at most,
yet there are many accounts of monastics successfully practicing the jhanas).
The absorption level described in the Visuddhimagga is so deep
that "sounds are a thorn to the 1st jhana" as found in AN 10.72 makes no sense at all.
Clearly ekaggata as a factor of the 1st jhana is a later addition making the 5 factors of the 1st jhana a later schema.
In fact, looking at the jhanas with the traditional abhidhamma/commentarial factors misses some of the important information in the sutta schema - see 🔗leighb.com/jhanatrd.htm.
His second "late" sutta, MN 111,
is the same one named in 3 above: two authors arriving independently at the same two passages.
❧
+8 – How many factors does each of the four jhānas have?
Here's a radical concept.
Rather than take LBT Theravāda propaganda's word for it that
the four jhānas have LBT 5 jhāna factors dropping out one by one as you climb,
why not learn the jhānas the traditional way?
Memorise the STED four-jhāna formula.
It's short: 🔗48 seconds to chant in Pāḷi once you're familiar with it.
Then you never have to wonder how many factors are in a given jhāna,
because you can recall it and examine each factor on the fly.
The STED four-jhāna formulas are meditation instructions.
They occur in well over 120 suttas, probably many more,
since elisions make an accurate count difficult.
Having tracked down every reference to first jhāna by pattern search,
I find that almost all of them are to all four jhānas,
not just the first.
See ☸4nt → 8aam #8🌄: STED (smd 1) 🌘 paṭhamaṃ jhānaṃ.
+9 – MN 53: the STED 4j formula is meditation instructions
MN 53 Sekha-sutta:
| Kathañca, mahānāma, ariyasāvako catunnaṃ jhānānaṃ ābhicetasikānaṃ diṭṭhadhammasukhavihārānaṃ nikāmalābhī hoti akicchalābhī akasiralābhī? | And how does a noble one's disciple get the four absorptions — blissful meditations in the present life that belong to the higher mind — when they want, without trouble or difficulty? | |
| Idha, mahānāma, ariyasāvako vivicc'eva kāmehi vivicca akusalehi dhammehi savitakkaṃ savicāraṃ vivekajaṃ pītisukhaṃ paṭhamaṃ jhānaṃ upasampajja viharati … | It's when a noble one's disciple, quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unskillful qualities, enters and remains in the first absorption … [the formula runs on through all four jhānas] | |
The four-jhāna formula is not merely a description of an attainment after the fact.
It is a terse set of instructions for the process of attaining the jhānas.
That is why, asked how a noble one's disciple obtains them,
the Buddha answers with the formula itself.
+10 – Conclusion: The 4 jhānas have 7☀️ factors. Not 5.
The four jhānas have seven factors. Not five.
🐘 sati 💭🕵️ dhamma-vicaya 🏹 vīriya 😁 pīti 🌊 passaddhi 🌄 samādhi 👁 upekkhā
The LBT 5-jhāna-factor scheme appears twice in the whole EBT,
both times from Sāriputta and never from the Buddha (see 3,
4 and 7 above).
The seven appear throughout SN 46 as independent factors (1.2 to 1.4) and again as a causal sequence (2).
The three that the LBT 5-jhāna-factor scheme drops — upekkhā,
sati and dhamma-vicaya — are precisely the three that do vipassanā.
That is why the redefinition matters.
With the LBT 5 jhāna factors the jhānas become a frozen samatha exercise.
With seven, they are where insight happens.
Each of the 4 jhānas has 7 awakening jhāna factors.
The 7sb sequence is both causal and independent,
both samatha and vipassanā happen in each jhāna.