I have been hearing more in recent months about the Jhanas.  What is a good foundation for starting such a practice?  Where I live there are 3 day retreats available in the Vipassana tradition.   A 10 retreat is not feasible for me at this time.   

Hello and Welcome

Mayhaps more experienced practitioners will chime in with what they consider a good foundation (i am more in beginner territory in regards to location on maps) but here are my 2 cents:

A lot of folk tend to split up meditation into 2 buckets. One being vipassana meditation that leads to insight and the other being shamatha meditation that leads to a pleasant abiding in the here and now. Jhana stuff usually falls more into the shamatha bucket so i wouldn't recommend attending a retreat that focuses on the first. See below, if you want, for some resources i have found helpful on my journey so far.
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MCTB2 (book available online authored by one of the founders of this site): https://www.mctb.org/mctb2/table-of-contents/part-iii-the-samatha-jhanas/25-introduction-to-part-three/

Sutta with in/out breathing as meditation object: https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.118.than.html

Another sutta which specifically talks about the jhanas (see first listed development): https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an04/an04.041.than.html

Jhourney might be a good intro. Heard some interviews with the founder, seems like a good way for beginners to try this out. So much to say beyond that. Read MCTB, and if you find you're into this stuff there is so much to learn, to study, to explore, teachers to maybe check out, so many possible ways to travel this path. 

Nut Job Jhāna with Brian Newman is a fun interview with a hardcore practitioner of jhana that might be interesting.
How to Jhana — with Michael Taft is a good general intro to practicing for jhana.

There are a number of books that are sort of must reads, and some very good retreat dharma talk recordings to ckeck out beyond that.
​​​​​​​Come back for those when you're hungry to study more. ;)

Back in 2008-2009 I've practiced an Aikido meditation method called Ki-breathing and had some very deep and vast experiences. Once I experienced them I wanted to own them and live "in them". They were so pleasant. But I failed and was deeply disappointed. Why couldn't I have these pleasant states?! 

Then in 2010 I found Shamatha practice and got going with it. Then I've heard about Jhanas and wanted to get to the 1st Jhana, only to realize a couple of years later that I've already experienced the 5th Jhana (and likely the previous Jhanas) during my Ki-breathing practice back in 2009.

Then much later I decided to practice diligently the Noting method and the mind got Stream Entry. Did my previous Jhana attainment help this? Dunno. Was Jhana enough? No. 

Hi Ken!

What about trying a weekend home-retreat first? 

When it comes to written material, Leigh Brasington’s Right Concentration is the best book I’ve read on jhānas. Here there's a long excerpt of it, and here's his website.

Check also the Centering entries in Shargrol's compilation. 

I started with shamatta practice using the techniques in, The Mind Illuminated. Once I was able to get access concentration consistently, and my shamatta was good enough, I used the techniques in the Leigh Brasington book. I did a one week self guided jhana retreat and it was enough to get to the 6th Jhana. 7th and 8th came after streamentry.

I need to clarify. I practiced jhana in my day to day practice for months before that 1 week retreat. I built up to it. You may need more work or less. Some individuals require months of retreat, some none.