firewns,
I am not at all frustrated. Please rest assured that you have my understanding. And, moreover, I do not feel that you are ‘correcting’ me, except in that it was me perhaps who was not tactful enough to make what I meant quite clear.
You observe that I started off there with; ‘that is my position as well’, meaning to say ‘that is how it is WITH ME’. I was not making a statement to apply to everybody. As you say’It depends on the individual,…” I know the Buddha praised the attainment of jhanas, so it would be plainly WRONG of me to disparage them.
My whole point was to contrast all of that with the fruit of pasada(in the Buddha, Dhamma and sangha) ,aveccappasada, sammaditthi etc. and that in turn would be, to put it bluntly, that I deem jhanas and formal meditation to be beyond me.
May you attain Peace