[Gem]

Originally Posted by Still_Waters

"Signposts" along the way is fine as well but, on second thought, it might not even be that.

First, on the way to what?


It's a more important question than it first seems to be, because the future orientation of desiring 'special things' inhibits the ability to see 'this' just as it is.

Actually, as I think about it more, the jhanas could apply to any mental activity on any subject --- even a business topic.

I once did a long retreat with a businessman who told me afterward that he spent to whole time contemplating his business, and was now clear on how he should re-structure it.

In such a case, there's thought-conception and discursive thought followed by joy when the problem is solved, then happiness, and then equanimity as one moves on to the next thing. The jhanas are just an expression of common sense relevant to mental activity in which one is absorbed.

I guess that is a fair meaning.

Nonetheless, I'm glad that we had this discussion. That's enough words on this subject for me, and I'm still inclined to define jhana in the Theravada sense as an "absorption" as it can easily apply to things that are not meditative.

Yes indeed. Meditation is to see it 'as it is' sans all the judgments, aversion, clinging, craving and other reactivity. The cessation of reactivity is equanimity, and equanimity is the practice regardless of what the experience is like.

Religions seem too focused on words and categories when it's all much simpler than it's made out to be by the intellectual religion promoters.

Yes, because the teachings or religious philosophy have no truth content other than what can be ascribed as meaningful from real lived experience.