All mental states to which such names as ecstasy, trance, and vision can be applied involve a dangerous element which, if not actually pathological, can easily become so.  But the account of meditation put in the Buddha’s own mouth does not suggest either morbid dejection or hysterical excitement[682] and it is stated expressly that the exercise should be begun after the midday meal so that any visions which may come cannot be laid to the charge of an empty stomach.  Jhana is not the same as Samadhi or concentration, though the Jhanas may be an instance of Samadhi.  This latter is capable of marvellous extension and development, but essentially it is a mental quality like Sammasati or right mindfulness, whereas Jhana is a mental exercise or progressive rapture passing through defined stages.

Any system which analyzes and tabulates stages of contemplation and ecstasy may be suspected of being late and of having lost something of the glow and impetus which its cold formulae try to explain.  But the impulse to catalogue is old in Buddhism[683] and one important distinction in the various mental states lumped together under the name of meditation deserves attention, namely that according to the oldest documents some of them are indispensable preliminaries to nirvana and some are not.  Buddhaghosa reviewing the whole matter in scholastic fashion in his Way of Purity divides the higher life into three sections, firstly conduct or morality as necessary foundation, secondly adhicitta, higher consciousness or concentration which leads to samatho or peace and thirdly adhipanna or the higher wisdom which leads to vipassana or insight.  Of these adhipanna and vipassana are superior inasmuch as nirvana cannot be obtained without them but the methods of adhicitta, though admirable and followed by the Buddha himself, are not equally indispensable:  they lead to peace and happiness but not necessarily to nirvana.  It is probably unwise (at any rate for Europeans) to make too precise statements, for we do not really know the nature of the psychical states discussed. Adhipanna assuredly includes the eightfold path ending with samadhi which is defined by the Buddha himself in this connection in terms of the four Jhanas[684].  On the other hand the doctrine that nirvana is attainable merely by practising the Jhanas is expressly reprobated as a heresy[685].  The teaching of the Pitakas seems to be that nirvana is attainable by living the higher life in which meditation and insight both have a place.  In normal saints both sides are developed:  raptures and trances are their delight and luxury.  But in some cases nirvana may be attained by insight only:  in others meditation may lead to ecstasy and more than human powers of mind but yet stop short of nirvana.  The distinction is not without importance for it means that knowledge and insight are indispensable for nirvana:  it cannot be obtained by hypnotic trances or magical powers.