Subjective experiences of the deeper jhana meditation states

 

Introduction

I intended to move on from the previous blog to this one relatively quickly, but it took me longer to get around to this than I anticipated so you might want to have a quick look at that one before going further. It is at https://herethewaking.blogspot.com/2026/04/should-i-explore-jhana-meditation.html

I ended that previous blog with, “In the next blog I will explore the variety of people’s subjective experience of jhana states, to give practitioners an idea of where they can take you.”

The eight jhana states are usually given as:

The material jhanas:

1. Rapture or Delight

2. Happiness

3. Contentment

4. Equanimity

 

The immaterial jhanas:

5. Limitless (or infinite) space

6. Limitless (or infinite) consciousness

7. Nothingness or no-thingness

8. Nether perception nor non-perception

I will focus here on the immaterial jhanas. They feel deeper than the material jhanas and differ more from familiar, day-to-day states. My guess is that meditators could do with more help to understand them and even, perhaps, to know when they are experiencing them!

They also tend to be more difficult to access than the material jhanas and I wanted to write something encouraging, so that people would feel that they are worth the greater persistence that it usually takes to reach them.

These states are subtle and hard to describe. I really appreciate those who take the trouble to try.

I have relied on freely available AIs such as ChatGPT and Grok, to search for people who have had personal experience of the jhanas and who then wrote about them in personal blogs, Buddhist forums, books, published talks by teachers such as Leigh Brasington, Ajahn Brahm and their students, and in articles on the subject. These sources tend to be biased towards accounts given by Theravada Buddhists, as that is the branch of Buddhism that puts more emphasis on the jhanas.

I asked the AIs for the most common subjective experiences rather than exhaustive lists, as that would make this blog unhelpfully long. So the lists below do not contain outliers, but instead are the most representative descriptions for each jhana.

I also restricted these to the descriptions of the states themselves, rather than longer term effects of the states, such as changes in personality or in relationships, for example, although these are obviously important.

Subjective experiences

To give a little context for the contemporary, subjective experience accounts that follow, here are brief descriptions given in the Pali Canon itself (details of the sources can be found below):

• Infinite Space: the meditator transcends all perception of material form and attends to boundless space.

• Infinite Consciousness: attention shifts from the infinity of space to the awareness that knows it.

• Nothingness: the perception arises that "there is nothing."

• Neither Perception nor Non-Perception: consciousness becomes so subtle that it cannot straightforwardly be said to perceive or not perceive.

Now here are typical subjective experiences for each of the four immaterial jhanas, drawn from multiple first-hand accounts by practitioners:

5^th Jhana – Limitless or infinite space

Practitioners describe a sudden or gradual dissolution of bodily boundaries and all perceptions of form. The mind feels disembodied and expands outward in all directions to fill infinite or unbounded space. There is no inside/outside, no objects or solidity—just vast, empty awareness of space itself.

• Metaphors: “outer space” (grayscale, vast emptiness), the walls of a room falling away, or the mind being “blown” outward as the ego/reference point vanishes.

• Qualities: Disembodied, expansive, loss of body limits, vast openness, calm, ‘cool’, boundless, initially disorienting. The body and physical world feel completely gone; only the perception of boundless space remains.

• How it is entered: Usually entered from the 4^th material jhana by noticing/expanding the subtle spaciousness already present there.

6^th Jhana - Infinite Consciousness

Here the focus shifts from the space to the consciousness that experiences that space. The infinite space is ‘dropped,’ and awareness recognises itself as infinite, boundless, and all-pervading. There is a profound sense of oneness or merging: everything (including what was previously “space”) is now known as consciousness itself.

• Metaphors: Psychedelic beauty, cosmic/mystical oneness, “floating forward into grace”; sometimes described with soft colours.

• Qualities: Intensely beautiful, benevolent, unified, and overwhelming in a positive way. A subtle watcher or knowing remains, but the self feels reduced, minimal or even absent. Boundless awareness. The loss of a clear observer–object distinction.

• How it is entered: By contemplating the consciousness that was aware of infinite space and letting the space itself fall away.

7^th Jhana - Nothingness (some like to change this to ‘no–thingness’)

Everything previous dissolves into pure nothingness. There is no space, no prominent consciousness, no objects, no self, no time—simply absence or “nothing there.” The mind rests in this void without fear once it becomes familiar.

• Metaphors: Opening the fridge expecting milk and confronting total absence (not even the space where it should be); a thick, pitch-black void or black-hole-like collapse; a flattening or collapsing of self into a horizon of nothingness.

• Qualities: Profound emptiness, stable, mystical, and deeply peaceful (although people new to the jhanas may initially describe it as an abyss or as frightening). Simplicity, emptiness of content, no history or future, no ‘things’ arise; it can feel like non-existence without dread. (N.B. In my meditation journal, I described this a couple of times as simply “Beyondness”.)

• How it is entered: By seeing the drawbacks of even infinite consciousness and focusing on “there is nothing” or “void of self/phenomena.” (N.B. I have experienced this as entering a void.)

8^th Jhana – Neither Perception nor Non-Perception

If the previous three were difficult to describe, this is the most subtle state: perception itself is almost gone. There is still bare awareness, but it is so refined that one cannot clearly say there is perception or its absence—hence the name. It feels like a limbo or surreal dissolution.

• Metaphors: Black velvet studded with faint, winking lights that appear and vanish; a vague, flickering dichotomy (is/isn’t, here/not-here); something unfamiliar in the corner of the eye that the mind never quite identifies.

• Qualities: Extremely quiet, absence of things, still, bizarre, hard to “land” in or remember clearly. Mind is barely active; it may serve as a gateway to cessation (a temporary stopping of consciousness, sometimes called ‘nirodha’).

•  How it is entered: By equanimously observing the subtle arising and passing in the nothingness without grasping.

Common threads across accounts

Experienced meditators often say that these states feel less like acquiring something extraordinary, but are more like progressively relinquishing layers of ordinary experience: first letting go of form, then the distinction between subject and object, then the presence of experiential content itself, until only an extraordinarily attenuated mode of awareness remains.

These states are all highly equanimous and absorptive (no ordinary thinking, emotions, or sensory input are experienced in these states). They feel profoundly peaceful and ‘otherworldly,’ often leading Buddhists to describe insights into the fabricated/empty nature of experience. Some describe the experience of the stages as an awakening experience.

Many practitioners note that they are valuable for deepening concentration. Descriptions often emphasise that reading about them is no substitute for direct experience—that words are poor approximations, at best.

Final thoughts

I noticed that, while individual descriptions of the core qualities were remarkably consistent, the subsequent interpretations of the experiences differed according to the background of the experiencer. For example, a Vedantin might interpret their experience of the 6^th jhana (infinite consciousness) as contact with the Absolute Self, whereas a Buddhist would more often treat that (indeed all the formless jhanas) as a profound but empty state.

From what I have seen so far, I could characterise ultimate interpretations as follows:

A Buddhist might conclude:

Consciousness is conditioned and empty.

An Advaita Vedantin might conclude:

This is the infinite Self.

A Christian contemplative might conclude:

This is participation in the infinite being of God.

A secular practitioner might conclude:

This is an unusual but natural state of the mind.

Perhaps the jhanas are ultimate states of consciousness, available to all humanity, experienced in similar ways, but which are then interpreted in different ways according to our various backgrounds.

Anyway, I hope you found the descriptions people gave for their very profound and subtle experiences to be both interesting and, for those of you who have not yet tried them, encouraging.

Sources

Ajahn Brahm (2006). Mindfulness, bliss and beyond: A meditator’s Handbook. Boston, Wisdom Publications.

Bhikkhu Bodhi (Trans.). (1995). The middle length discourses of the Buddha: A translation of the Majjhima Nikāya. Wisdom Publications.

Bhikkhu Bodhi (Trans.). (2005). In the Buddha's words: An anthology of discourses from the Pali Canon. Wisdom Publications.

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

Key words

absorption, Advaita, awakening, bliss, Buddhism, Buddhist, Christian, Christianity, concentration, consciousness, contemplative, God, Hindu, insight, jhana, meditation, mystic, Pali Canon, Theravada, Vedanta,

Link

https://herethewaking.blogspot.com/2026/06/subjective-experiences-of-deeper-jhana.html