Jhana meditation – extending and deepening your practice

 

 

In previous blogs I have written an introduction to the jhana meditations and why the Buddha considered them important, and also a brief note on a change in my subjective experience of them (see ‘Sources’ below for links). The change didn’t last by the way...

In this blog I share some ideas on how jhana meditations could be deepened and extended for those who have some experience of them, including the experiences of reaching access concentration and of entering one or more of the jhanic states.

For practitioners who feel comfortable about accessing the four material and four immaterial jhanas, deepening your practice might involve:
    • Refining your mastery of holding, exploring and then moving between states
    • Extending the application of these states, and
    • Integrating them into broader spiritual goals, such as insight in Buddhist traditions or deeper awareness of God in Christian traditions.

Here are some suggestions to enhance and expand your practice:
    1. Prolong and stabilise jhanic states (is ‘jhanic’ a word?): You could try sustaining each jhana for longer periods. This builds mental stamina and deepens concentration. It also helps you gain greater control and familiarity with these states.
    2. Refine subtle aspects: Focus on some of the more subtle qualities of each jhana. For example, in the material jhanas, explore the nature of piti (delight or rapture) and sukha (happiness or bliss) separately. This sharpens mindfulness and reveals more subtle layers of experience.
    3. Master transitions between jhanas: Practice moving deliberately between the material and immaterial jhanas in both ascending and descending order. This fluidity also strengthens concentration.
    4. Use the jhanas to take your practice further: If you are using a Buddhist perspective, you could use the jhanas as a foundation for vipassana or insight practice. For example, after stabilising a jhana, observe the three characteristics of impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and non-self within the experience. Note how the experience of each jhana arises and passes, or how the boundless states lack a fixed ‘self’. This helps bring together both concentration and wisdom. For those who draw on a Christian perspective, the heightened clarity, stillness and sense of elevation from the jhanas might make someone more receptive to spiritual experiences, including ones that align with a Christian sense of God’s presence. I know that this is an unconventional use of the jhanas, but I think it is possible so I have added a short explanatory coda at *.
    5. Explore cessation: For advanced practitioners, aim toward the cessation of perception and feeling, a temporary suspension of consciousness accessible after the eighth jhana. I find it hard to say if I have experienced cessation or not yet! I probably need to talk to practitioners who have more experience to get a better idea...
    6. Focus on reaching access concentration more easily: If you can reach access concentration, and thus enter the jhanic states, more easily, it is useful in its own right for deepening concentration and it also facilitates the next point on applying the jhanas.
    7. Apply jhanas to daily life: Practice entering lighter jhanic states during mundane activities such as walking, eating, or working, to bring mindfulness and tranquility to daily activities. This tests the portability of your practice beyond formal meditation.
    8. Seek feedback: If possible, talk with fellow practitioners who are familiar with jhanic practice. They often have helpful tips and experiences, and you may be able to help them as well.
    9. Have the jhana states become another source of attachment? The jhanas are a tool rather than an end in themselves.

The key is to balance absorption with investigation, avoiding attachment to the bliss of some jhanas while using them for liberation or divine union. Progress depends on consistent effort, curiosity, and a clear intention—whether that’s awakening, developing compassion, or a deeper experience of the divine in one’s life.

* A coda on the inter-faith perspective above:

Given that the jhanas began and developed within Hindu and Buddhist traditions, I thought I ought to add a few words on why they may be helpful to those exploring a contemplative practice within a Christian perspective. For me it relates to the way that some jhana practitioners have described it as peeling back layers of distraction to experience reality more clearly and directly. The heightened clarity and stillness from jhana might make someone more receptive to spiritual experiences, including ones that align with a Christian sense of God’s presence. Some Christian mystics, such as St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Ávila among others, describe states of contemplation that sound a bit like meditative absorption - intense focus leading to union with the divine.

This comparison between the jhana states of Buddhist meditation and the ‘inner mansions’ of St. Teresa’s Interior Castle has attracted the interest of some religious scholars, particularly those exploring parallels between Eastern and Western mystical traditions. While it is an on-going discussion, several thinkers have noted striking similarities in the experiential progression and depth of consciousness described in both frameworks. For example, Daniel P. Brown (see Brown & Thurman, 2006, for example), a psychologist and meditation researcher, has explored how deep meditative states across traditions, such as the jhanas and Christian mystical stages, share common phenomenological ground. In his work on contemplative practices, Brown suggests that the jhanas, which involve progressively refined states of concentration and bliss, may parallel the deepening experience St. Teresa describes as the soul moves through her seven mansions toward union with God.

Similarly, Eknath Easwaran, a spiritual writer who often bridges traditions, touches on this in his commentary on mystical literature. In his introductions to texts like The Perennial Philosophy, he hints at the jhanas and St. Teresa’s mansions as analogous journeys inward, both involving letting go of distractions and moving towards unity with the divine or ultimate reality. He notes that the jhanas’ emphasis on stillness and the mansions’ progression toward the ‘innermost chamber, where God dwells, reflect a shared path of transcendence, even if the theological endpoints differ (Easwaran, 2001).

And, as you might have expected, Thomas Merton, the widely known Trappist monk and mystic, who engaged with Buddhist practices later in his life, had something to say on this topic. In his Mystics and Zen Masters (Merton, 1967), although he doesn’t explicitly link St. Teresa’s mansions to the jhanas, he does comment on how Christian contemplation and Buddhist meditation converge in their “inner transformations.”

I hope this opens up the topic a little. It is potentially interesting and relevant to more than just religious scholars!

Image

Christian Cross and Buddhist Dharma Wheel

Sources

Brasington, L. (2015). Right concentration: A practical guide to the jhanas. Boston and London: Shambhala.
Brown, D. P. & Thurman, R. (2006). Pointing out the great way: The stages of meditation in the Mahamudra tradition. Wisdom Publications.
Easwaran, E. (2001). The Bhagavad Gita for Daily Living (volume 2, chapter 10). Educa Books.
Forster, P. (2023). What are the jhanas and how can they help? https://herethewaking.blogspot.com/2023/04/what-are-jhanas-and-how-can-they-help.html
Forster, P. (2024). A short note on jhana meditation and intention. https://herethewaking.blogspot.com/2024/12/a-short-note-on-jhana-meditation-and.html
Merton, T. (1967). Mystics and Zen masters. Farrar, Straus & Giroux Incorporated.
Saint Teresa of Avila. (Edited and translated by E. Allison Peers). (1946). Interior Castle. Dover Publications.
The Dark Night of the Soul by St. John of the Cross (n.d.). Accessed 23rd June, 2024. https://makeheaven.com/st-john-of-the-cross.html

Key words

Buddhism, cessation, Christianity, divine union, insight, inter-faith, jhana, consciousness, altered state of consciousness, awakening, enlightenment, God, meditation, mystic, right concentration, vipassana,

Link to this blog

https://herethewaking.blogspot.com/2025/04/jhana-meditation-extending-and.html