I did shamatha, don’t know for how long, maybe an hour or so. I was cycling the jhanas. I don’t know for sure if I was really cycling all the eight jhanas or if it was for instance the first three and then a number of different subjhanas, but I think they may have been the real thing. The shifts felt so fast and seamless that I didn’t realize that I was cycling (there was no thinking) until I came back to access concentration from what I cannot explain any differently than neither perception nor non-perception and knew that I had still been fully conscious and yet could not recall anything, and then found myself entering second jhana again before I even had time to return to the breath. Next time around the farthest I came was to when the notion of having a body started to fade away and I couldn’t tell where the limits of my body was. This time there was too much of an observer to keep going. I could return to the lower jhanas but not continue the cycling. The notion of wanting to remember the details was too strong, so I found that the session was over. I’ll makes notes of the different states that I can recollect:

The breath was so delightful that I let it fully embrace me. There was breath from every pore, and it was as if I was breathing a silky flourescent smoothly dancing mist. So beautiful, so blissful.

I forgot about the breath. The bliss was gently showering through my whole body on its own. I didn’t have to do anything. There was a total surrender. It felt very healing.

The gentle showerings came to a halt and there was stillness and peace, with remaining happiness.

I forgot about happiness as the stillness and peace deepened.

I forgot about my body. The first time around I didn’t even notice the shift because there was no notion of having had a body in the first place. The second time of cycling I was aware of the process and could feel that the boundaries were gradually dissolving until I didn’t know where they were, and then I came back to access concentration before I had completely let go of the idea of a body.

There was sharp clarity everywhere and nothing but that. The clarity had sort of a brightness and pureness to it.

There was nothing there, really. I forgot about the clarity.

Then I forgot about the nothingness.

Then I sort of came to it, had senses again and wondered how the heck I could know that I had been conscious when there was no recollection of observing anything. On the way out of it, before the senses came back, there was bright clear pureness everywhere again for a very short moment. I don’t know whether or not it was nothingness before that. I think it might have been. I think perception of nothingness was what came back first. Then the vaste clarity. Then access concentration with thoughts about what the heck that was.

...

In the morning I did 75 minutes of vinyasa yoga and listened to dharma talks by Ayya Khema and Thanissaro Bhikku. They both made shamatha feel so easy, so I let go of all my doubts. I didn’t plan on cycling through all the jhanas, though. I was only determined about really enjoying that breath, because I felt inspired to do so.

I had an hour of interesting meditative experiences, despite being interrupted by restless cats a couple of times.

I was in jhanas that cannot be placed in the eight jhana arch as far as I understand. Maybe they were custom made jhanas, I don’t know. When entering jhana there was a gentle whoosh experience and then gentle tingles. There were joy and happiness. After a while I realized that those sensations were not in my body, though, but in a layer outside of it. It was my body and yet it wasn’t. Maybe it was the energy body, I don’t know. It was sort of a layer of static electricity in an aura outside the physical body. It started in (outside) the crown of the head, and as it did, there were lightness and spaciousness. There was a high pitched sound vibrating. The static electricity tingles gradually moved towards the top of my head. There was also a feeling of something melting and seeping out through my left ear.

Somewhere here I think equanimity started to dominate. Maybe that’s also when density increased again, or maybe that was at another point in time. I’m not sure. When dencity increased, the high pitched sound lowered somewhat in frequency. There was some phase that was more fuzzy than the others which were very crisp and clear. At some point it almost felt like roots were growing out from below the back of my head, grounding me.

Then the electric tingles moved from all parts of the hed to the forehead and joined together at the third eye. It felt like large bubbles of air or a very tempered foam of water were gently seeping out through the third eye.

I’m not sure about the chronology here, especially since I was interrupted and needed to go back in, but it was something like this.

I recognize this from before. Something very similar happened right before stream entry and then again in the review.* Maybe this is past the post eighth junction point or whatever Daniel calls it? But I don’t know... There are still so many dips and such a rollercoaster ride. Oh well, whatever it is, it is temporary and not self, and craving it or clinging to it leads to suffering.

My definition of jhana is immersion with a visual nimitta. Absorption. Visudhimagga jhana.It's the only jhana i know so i can't help you if your defintion is different.

Jhana practice the way i see it,is something one undertakes at a silent retreat at the monastery and under the guidance of a teacher,not something i would actively pursue at home but sometimes meditators accidentally have jhana form which is fine but i don't see it as something sustainable at home.Just the consistency you'd have to keep to stay with the meditation object will cost you in everyday life.

Jhana has a LOT to do with supportive conditions.

External conditions:

1.Don't talk.Don't talk to anybody.Don't engage.Silent retreats.If it's not silent don't engage.stay in your room or somewhere you won't be disturbed.

2.Don't engage in dhamma discussion,dhamma talks,sutta readings,chanting,don't contemplate anything,don't change mix and match meditation objects.Don't engage in dhamma teaching or building monasteries etc.The reason is the mind must be brought to a stand still.

Even wholesome things will move the mind.

You need to let it settle like sand settles at the bottom of a glass of water.

The only thing you should concern yourself with is the meditation object,keep attention on the breath 24/7 while standing,sitting,eating,bathing continuously tether the mind to the breath even if it's just 1% of your attention don't completely let go of the breath.

Don't avert elsewhere no matter how wholesome it takes away the momentum of concentration.You are immersing yourself with the breath not immersing yourself with good deed A,B or C.These things are great but not going to cause jhana to form. Jhana only forms when you stay with your meditation object.


3.Keep your gaze lowered to avoid sensory stimulation.When you walk with you gaze upward or straight you immediately take in the scenery,the environment,admire nature,colours,people,again it doesn't matter if it's wholesome or unwholesome sights.The key is not to excite the mind.

When your gaze is low it closes in on one object and you can stick close to the breath.

4.Keep your room neat,tidy and clean.Have your affairs in order so you don't have to make phone calls or sort things out mid retreat.Make sure you are also physically clean as this will help cleanse the mind.

5.Only talk with your teacher and keep it short.As you can't leave the breath and if you get into discussions about jhana and anapanasati..guess what,you Have LEFT the Breath.

You must guard the object or the nimitta like it's a precious jewel.

Internal Conditions:

1.Meditate 8 hours a day.It needs to be continuous like 20 days in a row something like that.I'm sorry i don't mean to sound severe or like holier than thou meditator i'm basically saying you need TIME + CONSISTENCY to build MOMENTUM. Jhanas not some magical wish.. you need to construct the conditions that support it.through RIGHT EFFORT.Just like you have to water a plant and allow sunlight in.And not just let everything be and the plant will grow on its own.

Because it takes a lot of time to build momentum its probably not suitable to do at home.But people have different paramis. You could easily do this i don't know your parami. when you finish your 8 hours on the mat don't leave the breath.

Attention always on the breath.

while brushing,your teeth,getting ready for bed.

Not on sutta discussion, not on jhana discussion.

Don't open a book and start reading.

Stay with The breath.The only time you can lose it is in sleep.

Don't stop the attention on the breath to contemplate the benefits of jhana,don't contemplate sila,don't Leave the breath for Anything or Anybody.

This is your child. You stay with it.24/7 period.

2.Technique: Some meditators practice anapanasati but don't have jhana form because of one error i have picked up.

They are not looking at the breath in the right way for this purpose.

The breath is one of the objects that you can practice both vippasanna and anapanasati on.

I'm not sure people think of this but It depends on HOW YOU LOOK AT IT.HOW YOU LOOK AT THE BREATH.

For example,meditators who practice fire kasina don't absorb themselves into a moving flame they absorb into a Snapshot or Still Image of the flame.

And yet many meditators are trying to absorb into the moving breath.

That's Never going to happen.

Often when you hear anapanasati you hear "the touch sensation","the flowing",I feel the smoothness" I feel the warmth or coldness of the breath".Don't practice this way.This is not the way to jhana.

Samatha practice needs a STABLE OBJECT.

We all need to sense all of this "Touching Sensations" at FIRST to anchor the breath and get a sense of it.But after that there should arise a KNOWING of the breath and THIS is where you fix your attention on.

Its very stable.Very simple.VEry very simple.If nobody taught you anything about meditation and you were relaxing on a beach somewhere you would Naturally want to go there but because it's feels so "RIGHT" ,So fulfilling,so ON POINT most people think it can't be.And then revert back to feeling the physical moving breath sensations touching the skin part.And sure they will build "some" concentration but that's not the way to jhana.

This physical sensation will slowly merge with this Knowing.Which is kind of in that physical area but not quite physical because its very subtle,people call it all sorts of things ajahn brahms calls it the Subtle Breath i call it the Not so Physical or Semi Physical breath,once you HIT this point the nimitta will appear.

This is stage 1 Breath into nimitta.

Stage 2 is stabilising nimitta.This can take awhile also.But atleast you have turned a raw material into something very subtle.You just doing the same thing keep attention on the breath don't follow the nimitta it sometimes can be distracting because it can sometimes seem like staring at a mini sun or mini star,you feel like the light should burn your eyes but your eyes are closed so it can't do that. sometimes less intensity like a dull light bulb it shines and dims shines and dims sometimes like a blue pearl or blue orb then turns bright white but don't follow it.ajahn brahm talks a lot about nimittas i honest to god don't see the appeal,but you can learn more about them in his books.I don't get excited in general it translates on the mat as well.

Stage 3.The nimitta merges with the breath.

So at this point you not going to care about anything including the nimitta even if it's doing all sorts of crazy like changing colour to golden,maybe some black if your silas not that great,crackling with electricity,seemingly energised,floating to where ever you were watching the breath.You don't care.You have crossed that bridge and you don't care about anything other than the breath.Its is ALL You Know.You don't know your name.You don't know your body.You don't care if a train hits you.So i'm not so sure it's a letting go moment you know how monastics talk about jhana as let go let go let go it could just as easily be a simple don't care moment.You know like your letting go cause there is just this peace of rest.Similar tot he death process of release and relief and rest.

But it truly is like launching into space.I'ms orry im going to give an analogy.You know all those alien movies where when the space ship hovers just on top of the ground and all the little rocks and stones start floating and gravitating up.That's how your going to feel this buzzing of energy gathering itself then out of the blue this tsunami of whiteness like bright whiteness will completely fill your visual field and engulf you or pull you in and not gently it will put you in and knock your senses out.Literally.Knock your senses out.You can actually sense a meditators vibration when their approaching jhana or in jhana or just emerge from jhana, its really powerful you can't miss it its like an invisible force field of deep deep emptiness holding everything together.Your spine straightens up like a steel rod supporting itself in perfect balance with the universe.

It feels like you just implode.Like a silent calm explosion of whiteness.Like when you watch a movie about a planet exploding in space but instead of cathastrophic music in the background it's a calming ambient sound. There's no actual sound in that process it's just an analogy of how calming the process is ..when somewhere at the back of your mind you really should be frightened.At that moment this vibration that we have,i'm not sure if it's the earths vibration or our own vibration i don't know what it is but it gets cut off.Everything gets cut off.

Something else emerges and you can't really say i was in jhana,

"something"

..was in jhana but the whole thing is really quite bizzare i find it hard to explain. Its bizzare in a sense that its a strange way of looking at things as you can't differentiate.

You have like no centre of gravity.

Your like ONE.Just think of ONE.Singular.Think of ONE.

Think of One angle.

or maybe..

Imagine you were an Ocean within an ocean.Like its really bizzare.Its like being chained under an ocean and suddenly being released and you want to swim up with the stream but realise you have no arms no legs..no body...it dawns on you nobody is swimming..and alas..you ARE the ENTIRE OCEAN.Ocean within ocean.Mind within mind.

Also Often people ask why you can't hear sounds in jhana and it's not cause you can't hear sounds in jhana it's more like there's nobody to hear sounds for you in jhana.

There like is No Body you can attach an ear to,to hear sounds for you.this is some serious level of seclusion.

You can't get out of jhana for the same reason.there's no body with hands that can open the exit door for you.

Or more specifically there's no self to Will you out of jhana. Its all been disabled or frozen or suppressed and its very real supression there is no way on earth you can just open your eyes and sense your environment or get up from the mat.Your like gone.Like i know there is a body somewhere on earth sitting on a mat but please take this literally when i say your gone.This is not one of those dreams you can wake up from.Jhana will stop when it stops not when you want it to.

If it happened to you and you were not a buddhist it feels rather frightening as you don't know what happened which is why practicing with a teacher is important.But Jhanas are protective states which mean no one can harm you in jhana,Mara can't find you.

You can't find You!

Its funny how we try to escape samsara but can't take ourselves with us. Jhana is that first taste of not taking yourself with you.Sometimes when i read that Mara can't find you in jhana i'm not sure if it also means We can't find ourselves in jhana because maybe we are Mara.The wolf hiding between the sheep.

The ultimate hiding place.Nobody can reach you.Not even you.And maybe that's the point.To split layers of ourselves into our primordial state of being where things are just ONE.

This is only first jhana. after this you'll notice things like memory improving or you can't break precepts till it wears off in a few hours or days.Can get concentrated with other meditation objects.But it's not something you can keep with you it comes and goes with conditions.It really isn't something you can carry around with you in your pocket.Don't equate jhana with stream entry its not definite.If you don't make an effort to stay with the breath it's not going to magically land on your lap either.This is why when jhana forms think of it as a magical bridge that you have to cross immediately.which means use it to either develop all the other jhanas or practice vippasanna don't think oh its happened before it will happen again.

Please don't give up on jhana practice or developing samadhi.Even if one doesn't reach jhana its so valuable for the next life you'll have an easier time practicing jhana. Don't let anyone convince you otherwise.dude don't doubt it.jhanas not going to land on your lap you need to build the structure to support it just like a house doesn't build itself.Remember the story of the boddhisatva when he swam for seven days.Dude that's effort.Don't forget it' Part of the Eight Noble Path.Just sign up for a silent retreat.Increase your regular meditation time.Time is of the essence.when you've experienced it for yourself you know without a doubt man like you know.that it exists.and if the Buddha was right about such states then he could be right about Nibbanna.That is what is so valuable i think more than anything,that sense of doubt forever gone.

everybody has the capacity for samatha practice.You don't have to be a sotappana or a wise hermit.In the buddhas time merchants could enter absorption and they only doing it to REST for god sakes it's not extremely rare but it Does need Time+ Consistency and RIGHT CONDITIONS which YOU have to Create.yes YOU the FIVE AGGREGATES.THE SELF.

If your not an arahant your STUCK with the five aggregates and they gonna have to walk the whole eight noble path for you.

You don't have the option to not attach to anything because only parinibbanna can give you that option.Beings in the process of samasara can't just will themselves to let go they always attached to something.Thats why samsara is occuring in the first place.cause we think we are actual being living the story of our lives.

Nibbanna is not something you do.like let go.because in order for it to be.

a You Can't Exist to Let Go in the first place.

You always going to attach to something till enlightenment occurs and even then you stuck with the body.So Jhana is valuable man ,you going to need it to rest in when you get tired of things arising and passing away.Even as an arahant it will be useful.And remember what did the Buddha do on his death bed.We always do the most important thing on our death bed.we always save the most important words or do the most meaningful actions.
What did the Buddha do before parinibbanna?
He entered the Jhanas.

He ended not only his one life but his whole entire long and endless wanderings,countless lives,countless stories in samsara,he ended them in one final act of entering the Jhanas.

So good luck with your practice.Remember to Stay with the breath.Good luck!

I only ever glimpsed what I think was a full nimitta once when I was falling asleep. I was meditating and feeling sleepy so I decided to let go and drift off. Suddenly there was the brightest flash of light I had ever seen in my life. Actually to call it a flash of light is wrong because that makes it sound like it was a localized point in space surrounded by darkness, whereas really it was a total whitening of the mental (not even visual) field. It wasn't a harsh white which would hurt the eyes, it was just the most perfect pure whiteness all over that I could not even imagine such a thing could be "seen". It reminded me of people's descriptions of near death experiences where they float up to the light and see themselves in heaven or something. What happened next is I felt myself falling into the white void and started to panic thinking I was about to be annihilated (which in a sense I was) and the panic pulled me out of it with a big thumping heartbeat. It probably lasted less than a second, but there was no doubting what I had "seen" and it's good to know it's there. I recognized that I had been lucky but my insight wasn't well developed enough to support it because I hadn't really grokked non-self. Of course I wanted to repeat it (counterproductive desire) so I could never get more than a weak whitening of the mind or flashes of light. So it was back to work on the hindrances, especially off the mat. But my practice has gotten quite sloppy and your post inspired me to tighten it up again. The main hindrance now is strong energetic sensations in the body (kundalini process), blissful in places but alarming in others and it's become a bit of an object of meditation in itself. I think I've developed the assumption that kundalini needs to be watched to speed up the process, but maybe it will happen of its own accord and I should just go back to focussing on the breath and see if that can carry me through the storm.

Just as if a man were sitting wrapped from head to foot with a white cloth so that there would be no part of his body to which the white cloth did not extend; even so, the monk sits, permeating his body with a pure, bright awareness. There is nothing of his entire body unpervaded by pure, bright awareness.

The perfecting of the first jhāna involves two steps of procedure: the extension of the sign and the achievement of the five masteries. The ‘extension of the sign’ (nimittavahana) means extending the size of the object of jhāna, that is, the size of the counterpart sign (pa(ibhāganimitta). The meditator, before entering jhāna, should mentally determine the boundaries to which he wishes to extend the sign; then he should enter the jhāna and try to bring the sign to reach those boundaries. Beginning with a small area, the size of one or two fingers, he gradually learns to broaden the sign until the mental image can be made to cover the world-sphere or even beyond.

Jhanas that seem to be outside the eight jhana arch happened again. Crossposting from my practice log:



*) and obviously very recently too, in the post above this one.

Okay, can somebody help me shed some light on this? Are these custom made jhanas? Pure land jhanas? Something entirely different?