What are the jhanas and how can they help awakening?

In the blog I wrote on 7th February 2023, ‘What can happen when you meditate,’ I made a brief mention of the altered states of consciousness that are known in some branches of Buddhism and Hinduism by the Pali word, ‘jhanas’, or ‘dhyanas’ in Sanskrit. As these have sometimes been considered as steps towards awakening I thought they were worth more emphasis here. 

As you can imagine, a meditation practice that has been passed on for at least a couple of thousand years will exist in many forms, and be surrounded by many and varied ideas by now. Here I’m just going to go with the version that I practise because it works for me! I’m sure that other forms will be good too – I just haven’t tried them.

I think it’s also worth mentioning at the outset that not everyone gets something out of them. If you find that they are not for you don’t worry about it. There are so many other types of practice that it is probably best to just move on to something that you find more helpful. 

A quick note of background before getting into the practicalities - the Buddha is said to have learned two jhana meditations from Brahmins while he was still a wandering ascetic. He is further said to have used them in the lead-up to his enlightenment and also to his death. He also said that the jhana states are not enlightenment experiences in themselves, but that they are helpful towards that.

The eight jhana states of absorption (or nine, or four, depending on who you read or study with) are a progressive series of positive states produced by highly focused concentration on a series of objects, usually starting with the breath. It can take many goes at it before someone enters the first jhana, so patience is very helpful!

The practice begins with getting yourself into a comfortable position and going into a focused meditation. I focus on the movement of air at the tip of my nostrils until there is good concentration with very few stray thoughts. Your breath can get very shallow at this point but don’t worry about that – it’s a good sign! I once dropped into what is called ‘access concentration’ in about five minutes, but 20 to 30 minutes is more typical for me. I’ve no idea how long it takes other people – it doesn’t seem to be one of those things that people talk about in case they are seen as a ‘show off’.

You then move your focus of attention to a pleasant feeling within the body – for some odd reason that’s usually my feet, but that’s just me – pick your own ‘sweet spot.’ All being well you then enter the first jhana, in which a state of delight or rapture arises and you move your focus to that. If this all sounds a bit ‘busy’ it can sometimes feel like that!

Once you have a nice, stable focus in the first jhana you can shift your focus to taking slow, deep breaths until you feel yourself dropping into the second jhana. In this one you are most likely to experience joy or happiness and, again, once you drop into it you move your focus away from your breath to that state. 

I won’t go through all the stages here – Leigh Brasington does a much better job of doing that than me and I’ve put the citation to his book below. As you can probably tell I highly recommend it. However, here is a list of the names that are usually given to them all, which gives a good idea of what you can expect if you really get into this. The first four are sometimes called the material jhanas, while the second four or five are known as the immaterial jhanas.

    1. Delight / rapture

    2. Joy / happiness

    3. Contentment

    4. Equanimity / deep peace

    5. Limitless space

    6. Limitless consciousness

    7. No-thingness (more accurate than nothingness)

    8. Neither perception nor non-perception (I think of this one as ‘beyondness’)

    9. Cessation

The main problem with the jhanas is that they are such positive states that you may feel like staying in one of them rather than moving on. It’s worth the effort though as they can all bring profound insights into the nature of consciousness.

Anyway, as I said above, these states are not considered to be awakening in themselves, but I can tell you that those higher numbered ones must be pretty damn close!

Further Reading

In the blog on meditation I recommended Leigh Brasington’s book, ‘Right Concentration,’ and his other outputs on the topic, as being particularly good, practical sources about them. In addition to the citations below he has also uploaded several videos on this topic to YouTube.

Bibliography

Brasington, L. (2002). Instruction for entering jhana. http://leighb.com/jhana3.htm

Brasington, L. (2015). Right concentration: A practical guide to the jhanas. Boston and London: Shambhala. 

Gunaratana, B. H. (2015). The taste of liberation: The jhanas. https://www.lionsroar.com/the-taste-of-liberation/

Key words

jhana, dhyana, consciousness, altered state of consciousness, awakening, enlightenment,