This post may be a bit scattered because I've been a bit tripped up lately on this subject, and hopefully, I can refine my thoughts on this. My main question is this: How do mindfulness and jhana interact?
Mindfulness is the 7th fold of the 8 fold path, and it is supposed to lead to jhana. But my confusion is on the interaction point between the two.
Please, critique my understand of things.
I'd like to, before I get back to my question, write something quickly about mindfulness that I consider insightful. It is as follows:
It would be interesting and helpful to define the term 'mindfulness', because it is something you should strive for at ALL times. I think that 'presence', 'watchfulness', 'self aware', 'conscious' are all similar words to what this word is trying to convey, but it's really just a word, and all of these are just words, which fall short of the reality. What's more important are the practices which give you
this quality (the reality which these words attempt to touch at). Because then, you don't have to worry about 'mindful' and 'what it means' cognitively. You don't have to worry much about theory, because if you stay with the sense of the body, or if you observe the thought stream, you are mindful, self aware, conscious, present, watchful or whatever you would like to call it.
Mindfulness and Meditation:
Mindfulness is a quality to be trained. Meditation could also be called mindfulness training. All of the following suttas describe the Buddha's mindfulness training, and how to get and experience this quality of 'mindfulness' so that you know what it is:
Anapanasati Sutta (MN 118) “Mindfulness of the breath” Kayagata-sati Sutta (MN 119) “Mindfulness of the Body”Satipatthana Sutta (MN 10) “the Four Paths of Mindfulness” Maha-satipatthana Sutta (DN 22), “Larger Discourse on the Four Paths of Mindfulness”NOW, back to the question:
So here is my question, based upon my earlier premises, mindfulness is clearly a quality to be trained. It is a quality you want to have 24/7. You could also call it 'conscious'. You want to be 'conscious' 24/7. So here is my question. How does this all relate? So clearly, you should start with the meditation techniques listed above. But when do you drop these techniques? Do you drop them upon the arrival of the jhanas? Let's say you're practicing awareness of the inner body. And at some point, a still mind arises. Does this mean that you drop your awareness of the body at this point, and switch to 'being with' the still mind instead? And in doing so, does this sustain mindfulness/self-awareness? I'm a bit confused here.
