Studies in the Origins of Buddhism c19.s1.1

c19.s1.1

In some form Jhānic practice was already current in the times of Buddha.¹²⁰ It was essentially a method of mental discipline which could be utilized for a diversity of purposes—for attaining to this or that divine world,¹²¹ for the sake of supernormal powers,¹²² for the sake of enjoyable experience,¹²³ for communion with the true self or the inner reality.¹²⁴ In the case of Buddha it served as a footstep to the realization of higher learning (Vijjā) culminating in Bodhi.¹²⁵ And this is the sense in which Jhāna is advocated in many Nikāya texts.¹²⁶