Four stages of awakening in the context of Jhāna

In the oldest texts of Buddhism, dhyāna (Sanskrit: ध्यान) or jhāna (Pāli) is a component of the training of the mind (bhāvanā), commonly translated as meditation, to withdraw the mind from the automatic responses to sense-impressions and "burn up" the defilements, leading to a "state of perfect equanimity and awareness (upekkhā-sati-parisuddhi)." Dhyāna may have been the core practice of pre-sectarian Buddhism, in combination with several related practices which together lead to perfected mindfulness and detachment.

In the later commentarial tradition, which has survived in present-day Theravāda, dhyāna is equated with "concentration", a state of one-pointed absorption in which there is a diminished awareness of the surroundings. In the contemporary Theravāda-based Vipassana movement, this absorbed state of mind is regarded as unnecessary and even non-beneficial for the first stage of awakening, which has to be reached by mindfulness of the body and vipassanā (insight into impermanence). Since the 1980s, scholars and practitioners have started to question these positions, arguing for a more comprehensive and integrated understanding and approach, based on the oldest descriptions of dhyāna in the suttas.

In Theravāda Buddhism, pariyatti, paṭipatti, paṭivedha (Pāli; "Learning; practicing; realizing") is the educational concept consisting of three progressive stages culminating in full understanding of the Buddha's teaching. Pariyatti refers to the theoretical study of the Buddha's teaching as preserved within the suttas and commentaries of the Pāli Canon; paṭipatti means to put the theory into practice; and paṭivedha means penetrating the theory or rather experientially realizing the truth of it, that is the attainment of the four stages of awakening. Traditionally, pariyatti serves as the foundation of paṭipatti, and paṭipatti serves as the foundation of paṭivedha.

The Pāli Canon is the most complete Buddhist canon surviving in a classical Indian language, Pāli, which serves as the school's sacred language and lingua franca. In contrast to Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna, Theravāda tends to be conservative in matters of the theoretical study of the doctrine (pariyatti) and monastic discipline (vinaya). One element of this conservatism is the fact that Theravāda rejects the authenticity of the Mahayana sutras (which appeared c. 1st century BCE onwards).