American Academy of Religion

The Structure and Dynamics of the Attainment of Cessation in Theravada MeditationAuthor(s): Winston L. KingSource: Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. 45, No. 2 (Jun., 1977), p. 226Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1462534 .

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JAAR, XLV/2 Supplement (June, 1977), K:707-725*

The Structure and Dynamics of the Attainment of Cessation

in Theravada Meditation Winston L. King

ABSTRACT The attainment of cessation (nirodha-samdpatti) is the highest meditational state

possible in Theravada Buddhism. Those in this state are to all appearances dead, for it is the extinction of all feeling and perception, continuing for as long as seven days. It is seen as the actual realization of Nibbana in this life.

The basic technique of this achievement is yogic. The meditator proceeds through four jhi nic states, each one of deeper concentration than the previous one, and then on through four "formless meditations" by an increasing subtilization of the object of meditation and a correlate weakening of the sense of individuality. The eighth level has "neither perception nor non-perception" as its object and is "semi-conscious." All these states are transic in nature, i.e., locked into speechless, conceptionless, irresponsive concentration on one object. Cessation is the consummation of this process.

Yet there is another absolutely necessary component: vipassani, or insight meditation. Only those who have pursued this route to its perfection, and are at the same time jhanic adepts, can attain to cessation. Now vipassand is the sine qua non of enlightenment; it is the fully existentialized comprehension that all existent entities, including the self, are impermanent, empty of true reality and instinct with suffering (and rebirth). It can form a separate, non-jhinic, Buddhist style of meditation in its own right. But it may also be used in conjunction with the jhinic mode to produce cessation.

How then can and do these two disparate, seemingly antagonistic disciplines together produce the attainment of cessation? The methodology is as follows: Fully intending cessation the meditator enters the first jhina and then successively goes up the transic ladder to neither perception nor non-perception, whence he vaults on into cessation. But after each emergence from jhanic trance, he "reviews" it in vipassanic terms; "This too is impermanent, empty, instinct with pain."

What are the implications? (1) Obviously the two techniques are interacting at every stage but with vispassani dominating the consciousness. (2) Both seek states which are transcendent of ordinary subject-object consciousness: The jhdnic "peaceful abidings" overcome all "materiality"; vipassanS brings Path-awareness in which Nibbana itself is directly apprehended. (3) Both inevitably tend toward a climactic experience; the jhinic-yogic progresses toward a non-dual awareness; the vipassanic toward a "going-out" into the "Unconditioned." Hence a fully "unconscious" state of transic nature and achieved by yogic means ifseen as nibbanic realization constitutes a joint climax.

To this the jhinic-yogic strand contributes techniques and gives depth, stability and transic quality; vipassand contributes the all-pervasive conviction (pre- and post- cessation) of cessation's identity with Nibbana.

Winston L. King is a professor emeritus of Vanderbilt University, teaching in 1977 at Oberlin College. He will be studying in Japan 1977-79. He was a Ford Foundation project advisor in Burma for two years, Fulbright lecturer in Japan and has published several books and articles on Theravada and Japanese Buddhism.

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*Please see pages 287-88 for full-text ordering instructions.

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