Hearing Sounds in Jhāna

In the purest sense, sounds cannot be heard while in jhāna because there is no 5 door adverting conscious arising for sound to happen. Theoretically, you are deaf while you are seeing, smelling, tasting, touching and processing and thinking of those senses. We are deaf more than 99% of the time actually.

The quality of jhāna can vary even from some of the most astute and well known disciples. A famous quote comes from Pārājika 4 with Venerable Mahāmoggalāna.

Pārājikapāḷi MM_Para 232

Atha kho āyasmā mahāmoggallāno bhikkhū āmantesi—
Venerable Mahāmoggallāna said to the monks,

“idhāhaṃ, āvuso, sappinikāya nadiyā tīre āneñjaṃ samādhiṃ samāpanno nāgānaṃ ogayha uttarantānaṃ koñcaṃ karontānaṃ saddaṃ assosin”ti.
“After attaining an unshakable stillness on the banks of the river Sappinikā, I heard the sound of elephants plunging in and emerging from the water, and trumpeting too.”

Bhikkhū ujjhāyanti khiyyanti vipācenti—
The monks complained and criticized him,

“kathañhi nāma āyasmā mahāmoggallāno āneñjaṃ samādhiṃ samāpanno saddaṃ sossati.
“How can Venerable Mahāmoggallāna talk like this?

Uttarimanussadhammaṃ āyasmā mahāmoggallāno ullapatī”ti.
He’s claiming a superhuman ability!”

Bhagavato etamatthaṃ ārocesuṃ.
They told the Buddha.

“Attheso, bhikkhave, samādhi so ca kho aparisuddho.
“Monks, there is such a stillness, but it’s not wholly purified.

Saccaṃ, bhikkhave, moggallāno āha.
Moggallāna spoke truthfully.

Anāpatti, bhikkhave, moggallānassā”ti.
There’s no offense for Moggallāna.”

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And 99% of our life ( even more actually) we are blind, and in darkness. As only at the moment of Cakkhuviññāṇa is there contacting colour.
All other moments are without light.

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It would be good to learn more about this.

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I write about this in my abhidhamma book.

Strictly speaking though, jhāna is uninterrupted.

Jhāna is very different from sleep or Idle Consciousness. However, since they are both continuous streams of consciousness, they can be compared quite nicely. Scholars will never compare jhāna with bhavanga because they are at the complete opposite ends of the consciousness spectrum. Therefore, please keep in mind that we are only comparing the similarities for the “interruption” of a stream of consciousness.

Just like sounds can interrupt sleep, they can also interrupt concentration. If you are not in a coma, sounds can take you out of Idle or bhavanga. If you hear a sound from your alarm clock that does not mean you were not sleeping before you heard your alarm. That is why we have alarm clocks. They take you out of your sleeping mode or simply wake you up. Therefore, as soon as you hear a sound from your alarm clock, you are no longer in bhavanga or no longer sleeping. You are awake. Consciousness does not mix.

The same thing happens with jhāna. If you hear sounds, you are no longer in jhāna, but that does not mean that you were not in jhāna before that moment of sound consciousness. I’ll repeat that sentence because it is a double negative and often misunderstood.

If you hear sounds, you are no longer in jhāna, but that does not mean that you were not in jhāna before that moment of sound consciousness.

Jhāna is one thing and hearing is another. They do not mix together at all. During one hour or any length of practice time, especially in the beginning stages, one may go in and out of jhāna concentration. There will be a period of unbroken and continuous jhāna mind moments and then a small amount of interruption cycles. Then one will go back into jhāna automatically as I explained before in the chart starting with Access Concentration.

If this happens, the meditator will be able to hear sounds. However, the majority of the time will be experienced with jhāna consciousness moments. We will refer to this jhāna stream with interruption-impurities as “Jhāna-Mode”[ Although I made this term up, it is just a label for this condition of practice similar to that of Mahā Moggallāna Thera during his first week of practice. He was noted for hearing sounds of elephants bathing and trumpeting while in the fourth jhāna. It was said that he did not have full five mastery and his jhāna (stream) was therefore not pure. However, it was enough for insight and he later attained Arahant. (Vinaya Pitaka under Pārājika 4 mula and commentaries Paragraph 232)] rather than just jhāna. Sounds can be known in this mode but ignored. Through development, one may later hear sounds while in jhāna-mode but not know they heard them. This is good or at least better than knowing one heard sounds during an hour of jhāna-mode. While Buddhism is all about awareness and knowing, this is one situation where non-knowing, is better. I’ll explain why.

It is known that we wake up many times during the night while we are in sleeping-mode, but we often do not remember it in the morning. If one wants to, one can notice these awakenings. If one pays attention to these awakenings, the awakenings will have more power and disturb his night’s sleep. If one does not want to do this, one can just sleep in sleeping-mode. Depending on how deep one is in sleeping-mode, the less one will awaken. A coma or anesthesia are extreme examples where one never has an awakening while sleeping.

If one pays attention to sounds when they are in sleeping-mode, like the noise of a rain storm, one will have difficulty sleeping. At other times, one may think he heard it rain all night, but somehow woke up refreshed. He would awaken and hear a small amount of noise, become unconscious (and not know it) and then again awaken and hear some more noise. It would seem as though he was hearing the rain all night, but maybe it was a chain of several awakenings. He awakens refreshed because he did sleep for the majority of the night, but did not know it at the time. In all cases, it is best to not think about noise when you are in sleeping-mode and ignore it totally. This is the way to give less power to awakenings and more power to sleep. Some people can sleep all the way through a strong thunder storm and never know it happened. It depends on the abilities of the person, but both are “sleepers” in general terms.

The same thing can happen with jhāna. One can pay attention to the times one comes out of jhāna by listening for sounds. If they intend to do this, the sounds will have more power and disturb one’s ability to go back into jhāna. On the other hand, one can just stay in jhāna-mode where one may or may not remember if they came out or not. If one determines to stay in jhāna-mode and to ignore sounds, the disturbing force will have less power and one can re-enter jhāna quickly, automatically and unknowingly just like the average person does when he momentarily awakes during his sleep. The person who believes he slept soundly and does not remember any of his awakenings will be similar to the one in jhāna-mode who does not remember any momentary breaks. It might also be possible that there are no breaks. When that happens, one can eventually have a continuous and pure jhāna stream. So do not pay attention to your breaks in concentration and only pay attention to your meditation object, forgetting about everything else. By doing this, the breaks will become weaker and have less power, giving a more pure concentration experience. Then more pure concentration can develop.

Jhāna happens in the javana type of consciousness. Unlike the bhavanga or Idle which is passive and a resultant consciousness and also has the same causes as one’s birth, jhāna is an active type of consciousness. It has strong energy and its kamma effects are very powerful. There is not enough space in this chapter to explain the kamma effects of jhāna.

Notes:
“jhāna mode”: Although I made this term up, it is just a label for this condition of practice similar to that of Mahā Moggallāna Thera during his first week of practice. He was noted for hearing sounds of elephants bathing and trumpeting while in the fourth jhāna . It was said that he did not have full five mastery and his jhāna (stream) was therefore not pure. However, it was enough for insight and he later attained Arahant*.* (Vinaya Pitaka under P ā r ā jika 4 mula and commentaries Paragraph 232 )

I will try to get the commentary translated better and show it here. You can find it under pārājika A. 232

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Dear Bhante

Very interesting about your sharing knowledge Jhana and could you give a link your write Abhidhamma book please!
I appreciate it.

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