Studies in the Origins of Buddhism c19.s1.19

c19.s1.19

The four Jhānas are apparently referred to in the Mbh. Śānti Parvan¹³⁰ and a somewhat similar division is to be discovered in the Yoga sūtras¹³¹ and later Jaina works.¹³² In the Abhidhamma-stage the four Jhānas were turned, for the sake of greater system, into a five-fold.¹³³ A detailed and remarkably clear account of the Jhānas is given by Buddhaghosa in his Visuddhimaggo.¹³⁴