Early Buddhist Meditation ─ The Four Jhanas As the Actualization of Insight

This book addresses a key problem in the study of Buddhist meditation: The relationship between ‘insight practice’ (vipassana) and the attainment of the four jhanas (i.e., right samàdhi). It offers a fresh look at an important element in Buddhist meditation theory and provides a novel map of the theoretical progress of meditation according to the early Buddhist texts. The book demonstrates that the four jhanas have been misunderstood by inaccurate interpretations of key terms in Buddhist psychology and philosophy as well as oversights of important aspects of the meditation process. By carefully analyzing the descriptions of the four jhanas in the early Buddhist texts in Pali, their contexts, associations and meanings within the conceptual framework of early Buddhism, the relationship between this central element in the Buddhist path and ‘insight meditation’ becomes revealed in all its power.

Early Buddhist Meditation will be of interest to academics in the field of Buddhist studies, including Buddhist philosophy and practise, Indian philosophy and religions, Asian religions, South Asian studies, contemplative studies and researchers of mindfulness meditation.

Keren Arbel holds a PhD in Buddhist Studies and is currently a lecturer at the Department of East Asian Studies in Tel Aviv University, Israel. Her research interests include early Buddhism, Buddhist Meditation and South Asian Buddhism.