I've been listening, since this morning after meditation, to a talk by Soeur Khema Katy proposed on the 3-6th jhanas
. I'm up to Infinite Consciousness and for now I'm going on rewind

. I'm returning to 3-4 specifically because they obviously are more applicable for where I'm sitting, pun intended, somewhere between 2 and 3. Even though 1 is on-going.
I like reading the Buddha's words, MN 39 15, when describing where the recluse
"Having abandoned these five hindrances, imperfections of the mind that weaken wisdom, quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, he enters upon and abides in the first jhana, which is accompanied by applied and sustained thought, with rapture and pleasure born of seclusion. He makes the rapture and pleasure born of seclusion
drench, steep, fill, and pervade this body, so that there is no part of his whole body unpervaded by the rapture and pleasure born of seclusion."
This drenching, steeping, filling and pervading of the body occurs also when entering and abiding in the 2nd jhana (16), the 3rd jhana (17) and the 4th jhana (18) as well although w some nuances.
1st, is rapture and pleasure born of seclusion
2nd, is rapture and pleasure born of concentration
3rd, the pleasure divested of rapture
4th, he sits pervading this body with a pure bright mind
Nuances aside, I'm beginning to better understand what the Buddha and Soeur Khema call a pleasant abiding. From where I sit, if it isn't attachment wanting to drench, steep, fill and pervade the body w this "pleasant abiding", I see no reason not to remain if that is what is being experienced or requested --- a little longer, so that the absorption can, on the one hand, be maintained more frequently, with one-pointedness and, on the other hand, "naturally" take one fully into the next, either 1 to 2 or 2 to 3 and maybe, having got there just a glimpse, 3 to 4.
Soeur Khema talks of taking the time in the jhanas and that the time taken isn't measurable in our normal terms. this is why the suffusing of the whole body, at least in my extended experience, is becoming my choice now. So instead of getting frustrated as to why I'm not already in the 3rd for example, I believe patience, our samsara, and as Sister Khema says our perseverance, our effort and belief in the Dhamma's teachings suffices to carry me onward.
Also, it is becoming so much more important to me in my practice the practicing and attainment of the four immeasurable, the Brhamaviharas. We all have heard of loving kindness, compassion, joy w others and equanimity but to a degree, for me at least they were words in a dictionary w a certain meaning my DNA inheritance provided me.