5. Jhana Training

First jhana

The timeframe for attaining the first jhana

Before discussing jhana, I must manage the expectations about the timeframe for attaining it. I want to be fair and avoid promising unlikely results. At the same time, I don’t want to be too specific regarding how long it takes to attain jhana. First, it’s highly individual. Second, in this regard, I myself don’t know precisely where the line between possible and impossible is.

So, I will put it this way: As far as I’m aware, the most common duration of retreats is up to two weeks. You should not expect to attain jhana, even the first one, in up to two weeks of retreat. I’m not saying it’s impossible. Honestly, I don’t know. But it’s unlikely enough that it should not be expected.

That might sound not very encouraging to some. The encouraging part, though, is that the jhana not being so easy to attain is paired with the fact that it’s also quite profound. I can’t imagine someone in the jhana I’m talking about saying the effort and time put into it wasn’t worth it.

I want to dispel unrealistic expectations in both directions—that the jhanas are too easy or too difficult. I’ve suggested that one should not expect to get into the first jhana within two weeks of retreat. Let me add a hint from the other direction: Attaining the first jhana within more or less one month of retreat is possible.

Again, I’m not saying it’s impossible to be quicker. I’m also not saying one month is a standard that should be expected. I’m saying that if things go relatively well—the four key factors for attaining jhana are present—the first jhana happening in more or less four weeks of dedicated practice is realistic. “The first jhana happening” is still quite far from mastering all four jhanas though.

If you only have time for retreats up to two weeks long, it doesn’t mean you can’t do the training. Doing the pre-jhana training—mindfulness of breathing—outside of the retreat settings, and/or occasionally on retreats of the typical duration, counts and increases your chance of making it to jhana once you do have the time for a more extended retreat. And even the pre-jhanic mindfulness states are worthwhile. It’s not all only about jhana. Jhanas are the cherries on the mindfulness cake.

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The typical sutta passage and simile for the first jhana are:

Here, secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, a bhikkhu [monk] enters and dwells in the first jhana, which consists of rapture and pleasure born of seclusion, accompanied by thought and examination. He makes the rapture and happiness born of seclusion drench, steep, fill, and pervade this body, so that there is no part of his whole body that is not pervaded by the rapture and happiness born of seclusion. Just as a skillful bath man or a bath man’s apprentice might heap bath powder in a metal basin and, sprinkling it gradually with water, would knead it until the moisture wets his ball of bath powder, soaks it, and pervades it inside and out, yet the ball itself does not ooze; so too, the bhikkhu makes the rapture and happiness born of seclusion drench, steep, fill, and pervade this body, so that there is no part of his whole body that is not pervaded by the rapture and happiness born of seclusion.[1]

The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha, sutta 5.28

As this is a practical manual, I will abstain from theoretical discussion of the sutta passages beyond what is necessary for describing the process of going through the meditative attainments. An overview of the jhana practice is presented in a table following the fourth jhana subchapter.

First jhana instruction

Rapture arising

As you mindfully tranquilize the breathing body, rapture (piti) may arise on top of the pre-jhanic pleasantness. You don’t need to try to produce it. Remember that the anapanasati instruction is not to focus on the pleasantness actively—not to actively try to develop it into rapture. However, rejoicing in how well the practice is going (the pleasantness, the absence of hindrances, the growing unification of mind) can help spark the rapture. It may come suddenly as an outburst, or more gradually.

I think the term “joy” is too weak for the jhanic piti. It’s a physical rapture, ecstasy. It brightens the mind and overwhelms with energy. You may have a problem falling asleep later that night. The first surge of rapture may only last for several seconds, but the effects can be long-lasting (it wouldn’t make sense to try to specify the effects’ duration as you keep meditating and adding to them).

Technically, we’re talking about rapture and pleasure (piti, sukha). The (mental) pleasure (sukha), also referred to as “happiness” in the sutta, or “bliss,” is also there. At this point, however, one can hardly separate the two, and the rapture is predominant.

How do you deal with the rapture arising? Don’t change anything. Not yet. Just keep following that mindfulness of breathing instruction that got you there. Treat the rapture as you’ve been treating the pleasantness until now—passively enjoy it as a by-product of the mindfulness training. The very nice thing about this stage is that the hindrances are gone, and you have plenty of energy and well-being for further practice.

As you keep practicing, rapture may be arising again. It may not necessarily occur in every meditation session at first. Over time, however, it might arise more frequently, earlier in the meditation session, and it may become more stable and last longer. During this stage, you’re still not actively working with it.

Developing the rapture

When the rapture comes quite consistently, not only towards the end of the sessions, and is more stable, lasting longer—that is the time to adjust the technique. From now on, you’re following that good old mindfulness of breathing tranquilizing instruction only until the rapture arises. When it arises, you switch, making the rapture the main object of your attention. You experience it, perceive it, enjoy it, delight and rejoice in it. That will nurture it further. Now, you do it actively. It’s the main thing you do, unlike when you were just supposed to enjoy it passively.

If it fades away, go back to the tranquilizing. You start the next session again with mindfulness of breathing and switch to the rapture only when it arises. This is somewhat of a transitional period—when the rapture is there, you are with it, when it’s not, you are with the third mode of mindfulness of breathing.

Hopefully, the rapture will keep developing. If it goes well, it will come consistently in every session, earlier in the sitting, and will become more and more stable. If that’s the case, and you feel you already have a solid grasp on it, you can try to arouse it yourself earlier in the sitting or right from the beginning. There is no special trick for how to do that. At a certain point, the rapture and pleasure can be ingrained enough in you to arouse it with your willpower. In the same way that there is no special technique for moving your limbs—you simply have the ability to do that at will (I hope), there is no special technique for arousing the jhana factors once you’ve developed them enough—you can do it at will.

The ability to arouse rapture and pleasure at will allows you to abandon the mindfulness of breathing technique and switch to practicing the first jhana only. You arouse the rapture and pleasure right from the start of the sitting, and then you have only one task: maintain and nurture it by fully experiencing it, enjoying it, delighting in it. There is still thinking, and that’s all right. Don’t worry about the presence of thinking at this point.

Gradually, as the sutta simile depicts, you want the rapture and pleasure to pervade the whole body. You let it suffuse you entirely. You “bathe” in it. You may spread it throughout the entire body intentionally, or it might also happen naturally without much of your deliberate assistance.

Mastering the first jhana

If it goes well, you’ll be able to master the first jhana. You would be able to arouse the rapture and pleasure at will, maintain it for the whole meditation session, and also exit from that state at will. The rapture and pleasure would be clear, stable, and profound, pervading the whole body. Thinking would still be there. The five hindrances should not be a problem anymore.

Second jhana

The sutta passage on the second jhana is:

Again, with the subsiding of thought and examination, a bhikkhu [monk] enters and dwells in the second jhana, which has internal placidity and unification of mind and consists of rapture and pleasure born of concentration, without thought and examination. He makes the rapture and happiness born of concentration drench, steep, fill, and pervade this body, so that there is no part of his whole body that is not pervaded by the rapture and happiness born of concentration. Just as there might be a lake whose waters welled up from below with no inflow from east, west, north, or south, and the lake would not be replenished from time to time by showers of rain, then the cool fount of water welling up in the lake would make the cool water drench, steep, fill, and pervade the lake, so that there would be no part of the whole lake that is not pervaded by cool water; so too, the bhikkhu makes the rapture and happiness born of concentration drench, steep, fill, and pervade this body, so that there is no part of his whole body that is not pervaded by the rapture and happiness born of concentration.

The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha, sutta 5.28

Second jhana instruction

Stopping thinking

If you have mastered and stayed with the first jhana for some time, you can continue to the second jhana. The way to do it is to stop thinking. You get into solid first jhana (i.e., wait until you get a bit deeper into the first jhana in the sitting), and then you make a deliberate effort to suppress thinking. In a similar way you would hold your breath, now you “hold your thoughts.”

On the path from mindfulness to cessation, some things come spontaneously, while others do not and you need to make them happen. Stopping thinking is one of the things you need to “do.” It’s probably not going to be easy at first. It really requires some mental effort to make it happen. But at this stage, the first jhana mind might be powerful enough to succeed.

First, you might be able to hold your thoughts for only a few seconds. If the thinking process is really suspended during the first jhana, even a few seconds of it gives a good taste of what the second jhana is like. Keep trying to extend the time without thinking. Hopefully, the duration will gradually become longer, and it will become easier and more natural to remain in that state.

I remember I didn’t believe I could stop thinking. I could not imagine how I would do that. As already discussed, it’s difficult, or rather impossible, to imagine states of mind that lie outside the sphere of what we’ve experienced. The fact that you don’t believe you can get into a certain state doesn’t prevent you from getting there. Fortunately, a lack of confidence does not necessarily prevent you from progressing in meditation as long as it doesn’t negatively impact your persistent effort.

For me, piercing into the second jhana was one of the most rewarding experiences on the path from mindfulness to cessation. After constantly thinking or overthinking all your life, after being entangled in the net of endless series of thoughts, you manage to stop the whole process. It’s physical rapture, mental bliss, and complete inner silence and peace. Freedom from thinking. What a relief.

Developing the second jhana

You have two tasks to develop the second jhana from the initial brief periods of no thinking into mastery. First, you keep experiencing and delighting in the rapture and pleasure as you did in the first jhana. Second, you try to keep the thinking at bay and prolong the periods without it. Sometimes, you may need to focus more on the former, other times on the latter. Over time, the non-thinking will, hopefully, become effortless. Again, as the sutta simile suggests, you let the rapture and pleasure pervade the whole body.

Mastering the second jhana

As you keep cultivating the second jhana, you might arrive at the point where you fully master it—enter it at will shortly after starting the meditation session (after sitting down, you enter the first jhana within a few seconds, and the second jhana after another few seconds), maintain it for the whole session, and exit from that state at will as well. This is already full-fledged samadhi. There is the inner silence and peace of non-thinking, the mind is well unified, firm, and stable, and the rapture and pleasure born of concentration spread throughout the whole body.

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The suttas speak about the gradual stilling of verbal, bodily, and mental formations. The second jhana is the stilling of verbal formation.

Third jhana

The sutta passage for the third jhana is:

Again, with the fading away as well of rapture, a bhikkhu [monk] dwells equanimous and, mindful and clearly comprehending, he experiences pleasure with the body; he enters and dwells in the third jhana of which the noble ones declare: ‘He is equanimous, mindful, one who dwells happily.’ He makes the happiness divested of rapture drench, steep, fill, and pervade this body, so that there is no part of his whole body that is not pervaded by the happiness divested of rapture. Just as, in a pond of blue or red or white lotuses, some lotuses that are born and grow in the water might thrive immersed in the water without rising out of it, and cool water would drench, steep, fill, and pervade them to their tips and their roots, so that there would be no part of those lotuses that would not be pervaded by cool water; so too, the bhikkhu makes the happiness divested of rapture drench, steep, fill, and pervade this body, so that there is no part of his whole body that is not pervaded by the happiness divested of rapture.

The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha, sutta 5.28

Third jhana instruction

Abandoning the rapture

When you have mastered the second jhana and kept cultivating it for some time, you can transition to the third one. The transition might come naturally and effortlessly if you’ve spent enough time in the second jhana. You can perceive the rapture as still being too rough, not refined enough, and you make it fade away by intentionally leaving it behind, abandoning it, dispelling it. The second jhana mind can have the capacity to do that by willpower.

When the rapture fades away, it can feel a bit “empty.” The sukha—(mental) pleasure, happiness, bliss—is somewhat “soft” compared to the energic rapture. And as one is only starting with the third jhana, the sukha may be relatively subtle, not yet so tangible.

Developing the bliss

The technique for developing the third jhana is the same as for the second one. You fully experience it, enjoy it, delight in it, except you’re applying it only to the bliss (sukha), as the rapture is gone. Not thinking should be effortless by now, so you don’t need to actively focus on it anymore. And, as in the sutta simile, you let the bliss suffuse you entirely—you fully immerse in it. Gradually, the bliss should become more apparent and profound.

Mastering the third jhana

When you master the third jhana, you can enter it within a few seconds after entering the second jhana; you can maintain it for the whole session and exit whenever you want. The sukha—pleasant feeling, bliss—is clear and fills you up completely. Thinking and rapture are long gone. The main feature of the third jhana is the blissful feeling, which is “softer” than the rapture of the first two jhanas, yet profound. The mind is calm, mindful, unified, equanimous, filled with pure happiness.

Pleasant bliss and bliss of peace

The third jhana is the most “pleasantly blissful” state of all the nine meditative attainments. The states beyond the third jhana are neither painful nor pleasant—the feeling is neutral, which is more peaceful than a pleasant feeling, but as the definition suggests, it lacks the quality of pleasure. The third jhana is thus blissful in the sense of being profoundly pleasant, whereas the states beyond the third jhana are more blissful in the sense of being profoundly pure and peaceful without the pleasant element.

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Until the third jhana, you’re experiencing rapture and pleasure (piti, sukha) as one inseparable experience. Only in the third jhana, when you leave rapture behind and experience sukha alone, can you clearly distinguish the two.

Fourth jhana

The sutta passage for the fourth jhana is:

Again, with the abandoning of pleasure and pain, and with the previous passing away of joy and dejection, a bhikkhu [monk] enters and dwells in the fourth jhana, neither painful nor pleasant, which has purification of mindfulness by equanimity. He sits pervading this body with a pure bright mind, so that there is no part of his whole body that is not pervaded by the pure bright mind. Just as a man might be sitting covered from the head down with a white cloth, so that there would be no part of his whole body that is not pervaded by the white cloth; so too, the bhikkhu sits pervading this body with a pure bright mind, so that there is no part of his whole body that is not pervaded by the pure bright mind.

The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha, sutta 5.28

Fourth jhana instruction

Abandoning the (pleasant) bliss

The patterns for working with the jhanas are more or less repetitive. If you have mastered the third jhana and stayed with it for some time, you can move on to the fourth one. The technique for doing so is the same as moving from the second to the third jhana, except you’re abandoning the bliss of the third jhana (sukha) instead of rapture (piti). Again, the transition can be quite natural if you have spent enough time in the third jhana. You can perceive the bliss of the third jhana as still being too rough, not refined enough, and you make it fade away by deliberately leaving it behind, abandoning it, dispelling it.

When the bliss of the third jhana goes away, the state is no longer pleasantly blissful. What is left is an equanimous, mindful, and pure mind without pleasure or pain. It’s a bliss of peace and purity.

Developing the fourth jhana

Developing it further into the fourth jhana mastery is similar to the third jhana. A slight difference is that since the fourth jhana lacks the pleasant element, it’s less fitting to say you “enjoy and delight” in it unless it would refer to enjoying and delighting in the equanimous purity. So, you fully experience, perceive the (feeling-wise) neutral equanimous purity. You are fully with it; you immerse in it. You let it pervade you entirely, as the simile depicts. That will nurture and develop the fourth jhana further.

Mastering the fourth jhana

The result of such practice will, hopefully, be the culmination of the four jhana sequence: a mind that is exceptionally stable, unified, equanimous, mindful, pure, and bright—the pure fourth jhana mind. The suttas speak about the mind in the fourth jhana as being “concentrated, purified, cleansed, unblemished, rid of defilement, malleable, wieldy, steady, and attained to imperturbability” (The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha, sutta 3.58). As usual, mastering the fourth jhana means you can enter and exit from it at will and comfortably keep it going for the whole meditation session.

No breathing in the fourth jhana?

There is a sutta that says: “For one who has attained the fourth jhana, in-breathing and out-breathing have ceased.” (The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha, sutta 9.31) In the progressive stilling of the verbal, bodily, and mental formations, this corresponds to the bodily formation being stilled, as “bodily formation” refers to in-breathing and out-breathing.

This is an opportunity to avoid falling into the trap of taking everything in the scriptures literally. If people in the fourth jhana were literally not breathing, they would soon be brain dead, of course. As I understand it, the sutta refers to the breath becoming so subtle that it “has ceased” from the meditator’s perspective. As discussed earlier, the breath “disappearing” can happen even during the mindfulness of breathing practice. The breath in the fourth jhana is so subtle that the meditator doesn’t perceive it, but physiologically, there is still breathing.

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OVERVIEW OF THE JHANA PRACTICE (see the PDF version of the manual)

Notes on practicing the four jhanas

Jhanas as progressive refinement by abandoning

After getting into the first jhana, in a way, going through the jhanas is refining the mind by abandoning. By abandoning thinking, you get to the second jhana. By abandoning rapture, you get to the third jhana. And by abandoning pleasure, you get to the fourth jhana.

That’s all true. It’s also important to add, though, that the abandoning requires developing the rapture and pleasure in the first place, and the whole process requires very solid samadhi. Without mentioning this, the jhanas might sound too easy, as if it all were only about leaving something behind. That would be incomplete and inaccurate. Going through the jhanas is a constant mind development, which involves dropping some of the jhana factors along the way—that’s what gets you from one jhana to another. However, abandoning on its own is not the whole picture of the jhana practice.

Going up and down the jhana sequence

Mastering more than one jhana means being able not only to go up the jhana sequence but also down. There is no special trick for doing so. The mind that masters the jhanas has the ability to turn the determining jhana factors—rapture, thinking, pleasure—on and off at will. In that sense, going up the sequence means:

rapture (and pleasure) ON—first jhana
thinking OFF—second jhana
rapture OFF—third jhana
pleasure OFF—fourth jhana

Going down the sequence from the fourth jhana then means:

pleasure ON—third jhana
rapture ON—second jhana
thinking ON—first jhana
hindrances ON— . . . just kidding, don’t turn those on . . .

Where in the body are the jhanas experienced?

The jhanas are whole-body experiences. Going through the meditative attainments, I was often surprised by how physical these states were. Nevertheless, the main thing always clearly happens in the head. Developing the jhanas for the first time felt like an almost constant “adjustment” of something in the head. One of the main experiential features of developing each jhana was something like an “evolving pleasant pressure” in a specific location in the head (a different location for each jhana). When the jhana developed and stabilized, the evolving pressure dissolved, and how the jhana felt in the head also stabilized.

The timeframe for attaining all four jhanas

To anchor the expectations regarding the timeframe for going through all four jhanas, let’s say that if things go very well, it’s possible to do it within three months of retreat. Again, I’m not claiming it’s impossible to be faster. I’m also not saying that getting into all four jhanas in three months is a standard. I’m saying that if things go very well and the key factors for attaining jhana are fulfilled, it’s not impossible to do it within three months.

By three months of retreat, I don’t necessarily mean the most intense retreat, meditating constantly all day. But I do mean a set-up where the meditator is dedicated full-time to the on- and off-the-cushion training, quite secluded, and meditating several hours a day (such as in the daily retreat schedule example provided earlier).

Benefits of the jhanas

I’m unaware of any adverse side effects of the jhanas as described in this manual. Naturally, the most direct benefit is being in those profound states in meditation. In addition to that, the benefits experienced outside of the formal meditation are many:

As the mind is serene and mindfulness pure, the working patterns of the mind are more visible. The jhanas are an ideal base for developing insight (vipassana), whether in or outside of formal meditation. Wisdom gained by seeing things as they really are is the primary purpose and potential benefit of samadhi from the Buddhist perspective.
There is calmness of thoughts and more control over them. If you want to think about something, you can. If you don’t want to think about it, you don’t. You have a choice. There is no obsessive thinking, no restlessness, no uncontrollable inflow of thoughts. I see this as one of the top benefits.
As the jhanas are primarily experienced in the head, a certain “feel” stays there beyond the meditation sessions. It’s not easy to describe. To use a few words, I would say it feels very pleasantly light, soft, and smooth in the head (each jhana having its own distinctive “flavor” of it). That is my subjective description. I suppose other meditators might describe it using different words. In any case, I consider it one of the most tangible and rewarding effects of the training. Compared to the normal states of mind without jhana practice, the head is in constant comfortable bliss.
The mind is composed, stable, and equanimous, far from stress, anxiety, and emotional instability.
The body is relaxed, with less tension and pain. You can also sit longer in meditation as samadhi reduces pain perception.
The mind is bright and fresh, and the body is energized. You hardly get drowsy.
Falling asleep is blissful and easy (except if the mind is too bright and energized from meditation), and you wake up into pleasantness, well rested and refreshed. Dreams are peaceful and more often recallable.
There is no craving for sensual pleasures. You get plenty of well-being from the jhana bliss instead.
Memory and concentration improve.
One notable benefit of deep jhana practice I’ve experienced is that it completely silences tinnitus[2]. Without deep samadhi, I constantly hear a mild buzz. It’s not too bothersome. Maybe it’s quite normal. The beautiful thing is that with deep samadhi, it’s completely gone (even outside of the meditation sessions). You can enjoy both inner and outer silence.

The benefits above are only those directly experienceable. There are likely additional health benefits not noticeable right away (and I will leave that topic to the scientists).

Key Takeaways

“Doing the pre-jhana training—mindfulness of breathing—outside of the retreat settings, and/or occasionally on retreats of the typical duration [up to two weeks], counts and increases your chance of making it to jhana once you do have the time for a more extended retreat. . . . It’s not all only about jhana. Jhanas are the cherries on the mindfulness cake.”

“ . . . in a way, going through the jhanas is refining the mind by abandoning. By abandoning thinking, you get to the second jhana. By abandoning rapture, you get to the third jhana. And by abandoning pleasure, you get to the fourth jhana. . . . It’s also important to add, though, that the abandoning requires developing the rapture and pleasure in the first place, and the whole process requires very solid samadhi. . . . abandoning on its own is not the whole picture of the jhana practice.”

[One of the jhana benefits experienced outside of the formal meditation:] “There is calmness of thoughts and more control over them. If you want to think about something, you can. If you don’t want to think about it, you don’t. You have a choice. There is no obsessive thinking, no restlessness, no uncontrollable inflow of thoughts.”

[1] © 2012 by Bhikkhu Bodhi, The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha. Reprinted by arrangement with Wisdom Publications. This attribution applies to all excerpts from The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha throughout the manual.

[2] A condition when you hear a sound, such as ringing or buzzing, without any external source.

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