Summary of Key Takeaways

Introduction

 

• “This manual provides comprehensive practical guidance for developing the jhanas (profoundly serene and blissful states of meditative concentration), potentially all the way to the cessation of perception and feeling (nirodha samapatti)—the highest meditative attainment possible according to the early Buddhist scriptures.”

• “The manual focuses on mind training in a retreat setting, covering both the time on and off the meditation cushion.”

• “The manual is suitable for anyone (laypeople, monks, or nuns) aspiring to go beyond basic mindfulness on a meditation retreat.”

 

 

PART 1: GROUNDWORK FOR SERENITY

 

1. Theory

 

• “ . . . of the three types—let’s call them ‘lite,’ ‘intermediate’ and ‘absorption’ jhanas—the jhanas I talk about are closest to the intermediate type.”

• “Exactly that [absorption], as I understand it, is the main difference between the four jhanas and the formless attainments. The four jhanas are not absorption, while the formless attainments are.”

• “Cultivating samadhi is going beyond mindfulness, but it doesn’t mean you leave mindfulness behind. Mindfulness is highly developed in the jhanas. . . . If you want the purest mindfulness, go for the jhanas.”

• The four key factors for attaining jhana are:

  • Favorable external (retreat) conditions

  • Good instruction and advice

  • Persistent effort

  • Talent

• “Don’t focus on things you cannot control, such as the results. Focus on things you can influence, such as your persistent effort.”

 

 

2. Training Outside of Meditation

 

• “Developing samadhi on a retreat is the art of calming and unifying the mind in meditation and not ruining it outside of it.”

• A crucial aspect of the jhana training outside of formal meditation is avoiding or minimizing the “samadhi killers.” They are:

  • Using electronic devices

  • Conversations

  • Any sexual activity

  • Anger, irritation

• “The training is not meditating 24/7. During the meditation breaks, slow down, be fully aware of what you’re doing—be present . . . But also relax, act normal, and smile and enjoy the process if you can.”

• “The first jhana is rapture and bliss. You can hardly get there overstrained. . . . meditate as much as you can within what you can physically and mentally handle over the whole course of the retreat.”

• “The key to success [in dealing with the hindrances] is how you approach them, willpower, and good samadhi.”

 

 

3. General Meditation Tips

 

• “Pain is bad for samadhi. . . . meditation is not figure skating. It doesn’t need to look good. . . . You need the most effective posture for the mind training.”

• “The skill to focus on executing the instruction in the present moment, instead of looking back at what happened or ahead at what may happen, is part of the mind training. If the results come, they come because you have followed the instructions, not because you have fantasized about the results.”

• “ . . . it doesn’t make sense to give up just because one cannot imagine and lacks the confidence to get into those [nine meditative] states. What you can or cannot imagine doing is no predictor of what you can actually do in meditation.’’

 

 

4. Mindfulness Training

 

• “Meditative pleasure, happiness, and joy are conducive to the first jhana. The joy can also stem from the realization that the hindrances are gone (if they are). Allow yourself to feel happy that your mind training is going so well. The meditative pleasantness is your friend on the way to jhana.”

• “Being mindful of the body, or the breath, is not the purpose of the training. It’s the tool you use to still and unify the mind.”

• “A summary of the third mindfulness of breathing mode is that your main anchor is still experiencing the whole body or the breath; you have the aspiration in the back of your mind to gradually, gently, and indirectly tranquilize the breathing body by making the breath as subtle as possible; and, if it’s there, you delight in the pleasantness without making it the main focus of your attention. This technique . . . is the springboard to the first jhana.”

 

 

PART 2: ADVANCED MEDITATION

 

5. Jhana Training

 

• “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.”

 

 

6. Beyond Jhana: Formless Attainments

 

• “Since rupa [form], in general, is considered to be associated with suffering (the suffering arising on account of existing in the physical, material world), transcending it, going beyond it into arupa—the formless—is considered liberation, although temporary. . . . As the sutta passage suggests, one can do that by surmounting perceptions of form, sensory impact, and diversity, and entering the base of infinite space.”

• “ . . . there is a specific moment when the mind finally gets fully immersed as if soaked in or locked into the experience of infinite space. The perception of infinite space thus becomes clear and complete, filtering out all other experiences, including sensory perceptions. That is full absorption, the attainment of the formless infinite space, temporary liberation of the mind from matter.”

• “There is a natural tendency to try to be in control of what is happening. . . . Try to develop the habit and mindset of delighting in the sense of letting go, abandoning, releasing, detachment. Let the samadhi get in charge. . . . That will work best and develop the state further.”

 

 

7. Cessation of Perception and Feeling (Nirodha Samapatti)

 

• “The rule [to attain the cessation] is to cut, abandon, relinquish anything that arises in the mind [while in the neither perception nor non-perception]. Any subtle mind move that arises in the mind, anything happening in the mind beyond just going forward in the autopilot mode—you cut it, abandon it, don’t let it unfold immediately as it arises. It doesn’t have the nature of forcing it out. It has the nature of releasing it. . . . This is the mind mode that can lead the mind to shut itself down.”

• “ . . . the overall cessation experience, including the period before and after it, is subjectively 100% continuous. There is zero sense or memory of any gap, of any interruption in one’s conscious experience—the cessation. Subjectively, all you get is the moments before the cessation immediately followed by emerging from the cessation.”

• “Continuous practice of the cessation of perception and feeling generates, prolongs, and intensifies nondual awareness both during the meditations (speaking of the periods when you’re aware, not in the cessation) and outside of them.”

 

 

8. General Notes

 

• “The common feature of all the [meditative] stages is having a good time in your meditation. Don’t hesitate to enjoy it. The more enjoyable it is, the smoother the progress. The ever more refined form of bliss is the progress.”

• “Self-deceit is not your friend. Generally, overestimation—believing you have attained something while you have not—is a common pitfall in meditation. . . . The convenience of concluding one has attained something and the lack of objective checks for it is a tricky combination. Overestimating is a risk deserving careful attention.”

• “Being mistaken [i.e., drawing inaccurate conclusions about your meditation] is not as much of a problem as the potential unwillingness to see it, admit it, and fix it. . . . Self-honesty and truth-seeking is the best long-term strategy.”