In the Visuddhimagga, there's talk of nimittas, access, concentration, and kasinas.
Are these things dubious concepts, or can most monks and monasteries attest to their reality and usefulness?
Most monks can't agree on anything.
So the topics that you've raised are some of, I would say, the most
Not the more, but some of the contentious ones.
And there's prominent monks who denounce them and denounce the Visuddhimagga or denounce these sorts of teachings.
The Buddha himself used the word nimitta.
And so the Visuddhimagga is just explaining it and trying to standardize it.
The Visuddhimagga is not trying to give doctrine, it's trying to give practice, and it's a practical manual.
If you practice the kasinas, you should be able to use the Visuddhimagga as a practical guide to develop jhana.
Whether or not it's going to be exactly as is shown in the Visuddhimagga is not really
necessary, is not really the most important thing, whether or not it's true or false.
The point is whether it's practical and useful, which it is, and which there are many monks, most especially the Paok Sayadaw, who apparently uses the Visuddhimagga and goes through the whole of the Visuddhimagga.
We tend to skip chapters in our tradition, but the Paok Sayadaw, apparently they can remember past lives and enter into jhanas with all sorts of kasinas.
I've heard many monks talk about entering into jhana based on kasina practice.
But the nimitta, the patibhagam nimitta, for example, as some people say, doesn't arise, which seems silly to me.
Access, concentration, I mean, some of these concepts are so technical that it's really just argumentative and silly to even discuss them.
The best thing is to just accept them and say, well, does it work?
Does it enter into jhāna?
If it does, then what's the problem?
Or, for example, access neighborhood concentration, access concentration, does it repress the defilements, the hindrances?
And if it does, then what's wrong with it?
And who cares what you call it, really?
Even if you can't say it's jhāna or is jhāna,
Or can't determine, is it access concentration or is it attainment concentration?
Or is it momentary concentration?
That's an even more contentious one.
Does it work?
Does it lead to peace, happiness, freedom from suffering?
Does it lead to wisdom?
Does it lead to enlightenment or not?