“According to the fully enlightened Ven. Ananda in the Gopaka-Moggallana Sutta (MN 108,27) the only kind of meditation that the Buddha recommended was jhana.Thus jhana designates Buddhist meditation proper, where the meditators mind is stilled of all thought, secluded from all five-sense activity, and is radiant with otherworldly bliss. Put bluntly, if it isnt jhana then it isnt true Buddhist meditation!” quote from apparantly Ajahn Brahms.
The Pali sutta’s talks about jhana as a happily abiding here and now. One has to apply insight-mediation while in jhana and while coming out of jhana. (MN52, AN11.16, MN64).
Only when applying insightmeditation during jhana or while coming out of jhana, the asava’s can end. But if one seeks gratification in jhana, that is considered to be bhava asava.
(Bodhi, MN, note 37).
True meditation…i belief…can uproot the asava’s and lead to samma vimutti. Jhana on it’s own cannot. But if one combines jhana with insightmeditation it seems like jhana can be a base for the destruction of the asava’s.