When I first came to this forum I did not understand the difference between hard and soft Jhanas. The only Jhanas I have ever experienced have been those that are 100% void of thoughts with complete stillness of the mind. After reading these forums a bit I realized that I had never experienced a soft Jhana, and have only experienced very solid hard Jhanas. I have been practicing for many years, and it is only now after reading peoples experienced that I realized why my practice was different.
I learned about meditation back in highschool. Wanted to improve my concentration, read like 2 articles about it, and tried to meditate. The very first time I meditated in class, I naturally tried a very particular technique that just made sense to me, and after about 5-10 minutes of practicing it, I obtained a very hard Jhana. I was in complete bliss, mind was completely silent, and all that existed was my breath. I stayed like this until my Teacher called me out on sleeping, though I apparently got in trouble because I had ignored him for 10 minutes without realizing it, even though I was completely conscious of my meditation object(my breath).
Reflecting back on my many years of practice after reading this forum, I finally figured out why my method produced such solid results, and I am more than happy to share it.
The Technique:People tend to dichotomize meditation between 2 types, insight, and concentration. Only now have I realized that this is unnecessary. The meditation that I used to obtain such a rock solid Jhana my first time meditating, was a combination of the 2 practices.
People when doing insight meditations often just note every sensation that arises, without concentrating on anything in particular. When people do concentration meditations, they often just continually bringing the awareness back to the object of meditation, and don't pay much attention to arising thoughts. When doing this, the result is thoughts/emotions will still arise, but they are just being ignored while you are focusing singularly on the object of meditation. This can lead some to get distracted easily.
Now, it's very simple. Simply combine the 2. Focus on your breath, keep bringing your attention back to your breath, but when a thought, emotion, or distraction arises, LABEL IT, become aware of it, do an insight practice towards it. Hold the distraction in your attention for a brief moment until you feel you have it, no more than a second or 2, then let go of it and focus back on the breath.
That's it. Repeatedly doing this will result in a number of things:
-Concentration will increase, leading to a growing absorption.
-Mindfulness and insight will also increase due to the power of concentration. This will allow you catch thoughts or emotions as they arising before they can have any effect on you. You will be able to catch arising sensations and stop them in their tracks.
-The more absorbed you get, the less frequently sensations/thoughts/emotions will arise as you will become increasingly aware of that region of your mind.
-After a certain point thoughts/emotions/sensations will stop arising all together and the Jhana will be instantly solid.
Doing this technique there is no soft Jhanas, only pure, Hard Jhanas, with no thoughts. You will simultaneously be practicing both insight and concentration meditations.
There will be a point where power of concentration grows and grows(if the resources of the mind allows it), to where you will start hearing your subconscious thoughts with an intense awareness as if someone were talking in your ear. The deeper into the mind you go, you will need to start reapplying the Insight technique while maintaining the concentration. Once you have gone to the deepest parts of the mind, when concentration is at its most powerful, you will essentially have stopped all ego thoughts. This is, a moment of enlightenment, though making it permanent takes time, and resources of the mind, as it must rearrange itself. It can take many sittings and refueling.
Now the deeper into the mind you go, if thoughts begin to arise beyond your control, and the labeling them isn't working, yet concentration still seems pretty strong, then that is a clear sign that you need to refuel. If your brain does not have the energy to maintain concentration, then labeling will grow ineffective and concentration will weaken. The Jhana will grow "soft" so to speak, but only because the mind does not have fuel.
Practicing insight and concentration together like this is a far superior method than practicing either one independently. It is far faster than practicing either one technique independently.
Here is another way to look at it, in the sense of a analogy.
- Labeling thoughts and then letting them go is akin to spying a rock/obstacle in the river that is your consciousness, and throwing it out of the stream of the flow.
- The act of concentrating is akin to continually watching the river in order to find rocks and remove them
- The growing power of concentration, absorption, and deepening into the mind is akin to your sight becoming better, allowing you to spot smaller obstacles/rocks(lower/subconscious thoughts) in the river and then remove them.
- The sharper concentration becomes will determine how deeply into the mind you can go. This is akin to how steadily the river is flowing and how deeply you can see into it.
- Weakening concentration is akin to river-cleaner's eyesight growing weak as he is unable to get up the energy to eye rocks out in the river. He needs to go eat so he has the energy to focus on his task and identify the rocks stopping the steady flow of his river.
- The longer the river-cleaner goes without cleaning the river, the more rocks will be blown into it from the wind and will accumulate downstream.
- Eventually the river cleaner will grow so skilled at what he does that he can multi-task, while simultaneously keeping the river clean. This means at a certain level of perfecting this technique, you can go about your everyday life catching thoughts and distractions as they arise while staying focused on whatever you are doing. This will prevent any "rocks" or ego-junk from entering or accumulating in your river while you are not sitting down and practicing. Once this level is attained, a person can maintain a clear consciousness 100% of the time. Though if one does not periodically dedicate time to singularly focused concentration, then his ability to notice very very small 'rocks'(subtle thoughts) will dwindle, and his consciousness/river can slowly become dirtied.
Through this technique, you will remove all rocks from your river of consciousness, allowing it to flow freely and purified. Essentially, when all rocks are completely removed from the river, Enlightenment is attained. For permanent enlightenment to be maintained, one must be able to keep the river of consciousness clean.
Remember, enlightenment is NOT the peak. Enlightenment is a perfect state of awareness of things. In regards to how powerfully you can be aware, the depth of awareness abilities must be developed through sustained and constantly refined concentration. It is through development of this super-deep awareness that brings a ton of mental energy and access to the so called 'siddhis' and supernatural powers.
Never forget, Concentration and Insight go hand in hand. Each one has it's own qualities that support the other one.
While concentration can be built up without any insight, this is akin to a River-Cleaner who is very very good at spotting the rocks of his consciousness, but his river is so powerful that it can do it's highest functions regardless of the 'rocks' that dirty it up. This is why many 'powers' can be attained without enlightenment, but those rocks are still there disrupting the clarity and purity of the river no matter how efficiently it is flowing. Even if the river is in a state of super powerful flow, it would still benefit and increase in power by removing those rocks.
So with all this, never forget, Insight and Concentration practices should be one! This is essentially what the Buddha practiced, and how he attained enlightenment with various powers so quickly. He would focus on his breath to attain Jhana while staying aware of the true nature of sensations that arise(by labeling and knowing them).
I hope I have made this as clear as possible. If there are any questions, I will do my best to answer them! Good-Luck with your practices