How To Enter Jhana

I began my journey with meditation around 2014 after  dabbling for a few years previously. I became fascinated by the inner landscape of the mind and dove head first into a committed daily practice. I focussed primarily on concentration practice, believing that the modern mind is so affected by it’s environment that Vipassana meditation is wasted on a person who cannot achieve stable concentration. I still believe this and I think it is one of the biggest failings of how many people approach the subject.

My journey led me to something called the Jhanas, a series of states of absorption which are poorly documented and understood by few. This is a shame because Jhana happens to be the most mind shattering experience of ecstasy and bliss the human mind is capable of experiencing. Having spend many, many hours myself absorbed in these states of mind, I can say with absolute confidence that for many people, the experience of the first and second Jhana is the distillation of everything they’ve been seeking through sensory and chemical sources of pleasure. It is a bottomless fountain of saturating, blinding pleasure. It is more joy and physical pleasure that can be contained. There is simply no way to over-exaggerate the experience of Jhana. The following is adapted from a post I wrote on reddit a decade ago, attempting to help people discover this esoteric corner of the mind.

I like to think of meditation as taking a journey into a forest. What I’ll attempt to provide here is a rough map ~ an idea of what you’re trying to find. The states I’ll describe are like oases or temples within that forest. The map will give you an idea of what to look for and where, but (as you’ll know if you’ve ever tried to follow a map in a forest) it can’t take you there on its own. Once you’ve found these places, you’ll find it easier to return to them. Over time you’ll carve paths through the forest of your mind, and visiting the oases of unimaginable bliss will become like taking a stroll through the woods.

Jhana isn’t some mystical thing. There’s so much misinformation about it, yet it’s the most incredible, healing experience. It’s not an impossible goal reserved for monks and their devotion to practice. It is, however, an incredibly subtle state to reach ~ one that requires a great deal of letting go. The experience itself is anything but subtle: joy, happiness, ecstasy, and contentment quite beyond anything one could imagine. With practice, you’ll be able to get there almost every time you sit for twenty to thirty minutes; if you desire it.

Access Concentration

First, you need to be able to achieve access concentration. I highly recommend this book to help you get there (and beyond):
The Mind Illuminated – Culadasa & Matthew Immergut

Access concentration is the point at which the mind is totally unified upon a singular object of attention. The breath becomes fine and detailed, and you begin to clearly distinguish between the focus of your attention and what sits in your peripheral awareness.

To get there you must pass through many layers of stillness. The first step is for the inner storm to die down and for focus to be locked into the object of meditation. Eventually, you will notice that everything feels tranquil. Attention follows the cycle of the breath and the mind is not darting away. The key at this point is to seek out the movement still existing in the mind. Like ripples on the surface of water. The pool hall is silent now, but you still see no reflection in the water. There are many layers to the subtle motion of the subconscious. I find the absence of movement to be the only worthwhile object worth seeking out in meditation. It’s always beneficial to wander in the direction of stillness. 

Finding Contentment

The most important thing is to feel completely happy with whatever state you find yourself in. If you desire to reach Jhana, or think of it as a goal, you’ll never get there. You need to find a place within you that is utterly content. Tell yourself, 

“This is perfect. Inner stillness and silence are all I need.”

That feeling of a comfortable void is a nice place to be absorbed. Just breathe into it.

An Exercise

One minuite of quick breaths with hard nasal exhales. feel the air blow on your feet. exhale and fall into silence.

There is nothing to do, in this moment, but rest in the seat of awareness. 

Anchor yourself, if necessary. The breath is a perfect anchor. 

Over twenty minutes, you will reach many floors of silence, there is often a deeper wave that emerges with time. 

Become aware of your inner stillness. Feel it. Sit with it for a while.

Now notice your own silence in contrast to the world around you. Observe what is external. Listen to the cars, the birds, the construction noise across the street. None of it matters, because within you there is only stillness and silence (apart from the slow, gentle undulations of the breath). Sit with that. Be aware of it.

Next, feel the space that this stillness and silence reside within. Notice how thoughts and sensations drift through it. Recognise the background.

You are standing beneath a huge, curved mirror. You calmly watch everything the mind is doing. The breath is now automatic. 

Your mind skates out, upon the endless mirror lake.

Rising Pīti

It blooms like a dark flower in a black void. Wrapping around your spine and enveloping you from behind. The key is not to turn around.

Remain neutral. 

Don’t wish it to rise or cling when it fades. 

To be connected to that inner stillness is already perfect. 

Hold pleasure as you hold pain ~ as something to be observed ~ much like the cars and the birds outside.

If you remain in this space, the Pīti will appear and build from a blind spot ~ a serpent rising behind you ~ a three headed cobra ~ a fanning bloom of pleasure that becomes unignorable. When it grows to a tidal wave the time may arrive for surrender. You are ready to enter Jhana.

Moving from Pīti to Jhana

My understanding of Jhana is that it’s a state of absolute absorption into a unifying object of mind. This may be a bright white light filling your entire conciousness (the luminous Jhana) or, more typically, this sensation of pīti.

You simply drift into the feeling, allowing it to envelop you ~ wrapping around you from behind and submerging you in bliss.

It’s a flow state.

Imagine you’re floating in zero gravity, your body made of hundreds of small segments held together by tiny hands. Their natural state is to drift apart, but the hands have been clasped together you whole life, keeping you under a subtle tension. Let the hands open. Let the glue dissolve. Don’t resist as the pieces drift away. Observe. The mind will want to resist ~ just let it happen and trust that it’s safe.

Expect, at first, to hop in and out of the stream of Jhana. Recognition of Jhanic flow, breaks the spell. learning to surf takes practice.

Jhana is the complete release of control.
Concentration is tension.
Jhana is effortless.