Note f45 — ZEN AS CHINESE INTERPRETATION OF THE DOCTRINE OF ENLIGHTENMENT (continued 2)

There is however a Sutra in the Saṁyukta Āgama, fas. XXXIII., p. 93b (Anguttara-Nikāya, XI., 10), dealing with true dhyana (ājānīya-jhāna) which is to be distinguished from untrained dhyana (khaḷuṅka-jhāna). The latter is compared to an ill-disciplined horse (khaḷuṅka) kept in the stable that thinks nothing of his duties but only of the fodder he is to enjoy. In a similar way dhyana can never be practised successfully by those who undertake the exercise merely for the satisfaction of their selfish objects; for such will never come to understand the truth as it is. If emancipation and true knowledge are desired, anger, sleepiness, worrying, and doubt ought to be got rid of, and then the dhyana can be attained that does not depend upon any of the elements, or space, or consciousness, or nothingness, or unthinkability—the dhyana that is not dependent upon this world or that world or the heavenly bodies, or upon hearing or seeing or recollecting or recognising—the dhyana that is not dependent upon the ideas of attachment or seeking—the dhyana that is not in conformity with knowledge or contemplation. This “true dhyana” then as is described in this Sutra in the Nikayas, is more of the Mahayana than of the Hinayana so called.