“However, majority of the websites and YouTube videos readily concede that such practice is not given in the suttas.”
- That is correct.
“ I also do not intend to mean that these people meditating on kasinas have been taken for a ride…”
- But that is true if that means “meditating on kasina objects like breath or a clay ball.”
1. Using kasina objects for meditation is advised in Buddhaghosa’s Visuddhimagga. Some Theravadins have embraced that wrong practice.
- Buddhist mediation does not involve ANY worldly objects, including breath.
2. “Dasa kasiṇāyatana” are listed in the “Paṭhamakosala Sutta (AN 10.29).”
- Those anariya meditation techniques were there when the Buddha (Bodhisatta) was born. Many yogis cultivated them and attained rebirths in various Brahma realms (in rupa loka and arupa loka.)
- At marker 5.2: “Evaṁsaññinopi kho, bhikkhave, santi sattā.” OR “Some sentient beings perceive like this.”
- At marker 5.3: “Evaṁsaññīnampi kho, bhikkhave, sattānaṁ attheva aññathattaṁ atthi vipariṇāmo.” OR “But even the sentient beings who perceive like this decay and perish.” By that, it means those yogis who cultivated such meditations and reborn in Brahma realms undergo decay and death.
- At marker 5.4: “Evaṁ passaṁ, bhikkhave, sutavā ariyasāvako tasmimpi nibbindati.” OR “Seeing this, a learned noble disciple grows disillusioned with it.” Thus, they will no longer use such techniques.
3. Thus the sutta points out the futility of such kasina meditations.
- The keyword referring to kasina is “sañjānāti.” For example, at marker 4.3: “Pathavī kasiṇameko sañjānāti” means focusing one’s mind on a pathavi (clay ball.) In particular, “vāyo kasiṇameko sañjānāti” refers to breath meditation.
- Things will become clear when you understand the meaning of “sañjānāti.”
- See “Cognition Modes – Sañjānāti, Vijānāti, Pajānāti, Abhijānāti”
P.S. The phrase “aññathattaṁ atthi vipariṇāmo” can be understood by reading the post “Aniccaṁ Vipariṇāmi Aññathābhāvi – A Critical Verse.”