Responses to "A Technique for Attaining Pure Land Jhanas"

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Jackson Wilshire, modified 14 Years ago at 4/29/09 3:14 PM
Created 14 Years ago at 4/29/09 3:14 PM

Responses to "A Technique for Attaining Pure Land Jhanas"

Posts: 443 Join Date: 5/6/09 Recent Posts
Forum: A Technique for Attaining Pure Land Jhanas

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Florian, modified 14 Years ago at 4/29/09 10:09 PM
Created 14 Years ago at 4/29/09 10:09 PM

RE: Responses to "A Technique for Attaining Pure Land Jhanas"

Posts: 1028 Join Date: 4/28/09 Recent Posts
Hi Jackson,

Some of this sounds awfully familiar! After resting attention on a fluttering sensation (a certain vibration in my inner sound perception), I'll experienced the subsequent bunching up of energy behind the eyebrows, accompanied by REM or sometimes involuntary squinting, and a thrusting up" inclination or pull. In my practice, these occur around the entrance to 4th Jhana, this being the only one I've managed to attain with any good degree of hardness and regularity so far (pre first path, for reference). My entrance to 4th is not "up", but "out, opening up", however, and usually involves a 3-D visual perception of bright dots for a while - like seeing the depth and perspective in a star constellation, or like those "indras jewelled net" toys made of beads and thin wire.

Also, kasina practice tends to accumulate energy behind my eyebrows, and my first experience of hard fourth jhana happened on the day of my first sit gazing at a kasina.

According to the map you linked to, the immaterial jhanas and the pureland jhanas are subsets of the fourth, so it kind of makes sense to have these aspects present in fourth itself.

So, do you experience the bunching up of energy and the REM only in connection with PL-1/2? If so, how would you place my experience? A momentary experience just outside PL-1 before my mind settles in 4th, perhaps? Or some kind of siddhi related activity, not necessarily connected to PL states?

Very interesting.

Cheers,
Florian
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Jackson Wilshire, modified 14 Years ago at 4/30/09 3:21 AM
Created 14 Years ago at 4/30/09 3:21 AM

RE: Responses to "A Technique for Attaining Pure Land Jhanas"

Posts: 443 Join Date: 5/6/09 Recent Posts
Hi Florian. Thanks for replying. Great points.

I get REM activity in a few different situations in meditation. I don't usually get it in the 3rd shamatha jhana leading up to 4th jhana, but I do get REM when transitioning from 3rd vipassana jhana to 4th. It also happens unpredictably sometimes.

Yes, I would agree that the shift from 3rd to 4th shamatha jhana has a thrusting out feel to it, and the "3-D perception of bright dots" is something I get as well. 4th jhana is one of my favorites. It seems as though when energy is successfully pushed up and stabilized in to the Brow/Third-Eye Chakra nexus, the visual field becomes more hologram like. This could be a marked similarity between 4th jhana and PL-1,

Come to think of it, moving out of 4th shamatha jhana and in to the arupa jhanas does seem to be accompanied by a movement of energy from the Brow/Third-Eye chakra up in to (or even out of) the Crown Chakra. This seems to be related to the quality of transcending space, consciousness, and even matter during the rise up the arupa jhanas.

It would be interesting to confirm if this experience of yours is "a momentary experience just outside PL-1", and we may need to consult one of the shamatha masters on that one. Though the PL jhanas are listed as being a subset of 4th jhana, I have not entered PL-1 without first climbing up to 8th jhana. I wonder if there's a short cut.

Helpful?

Jackson
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Florian, modified 14 Years ago at 4/30/09 3:55 AM
Created 14 Years ago at 4/30/09 3:55 AM

RE: Responses to "A Technique for Attaining Pure Land Jhanas"

Posts: 1028 Join Date: 4/28/09 Recent Posts
Hi Jackson,

Very intriguing.

From how you're describing it, there doesn't seem to be a shortcut: 'up" from 4 are the formless, and "up" from 8 are the PL.

I'll have a go at the formless realms, using Tarin's instructions.

Cheers,
Florian
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Jackson Wilshire, modified 14 Years ago at 4/30/09 4:49 AM
Created 14 Years ago at 4/30/09 4:49 AM

RE: Responses to "A Technique for Attaining Pure Land Jhanas"

Posts: 443 Join Date: 5/6/09 Recent Posts
Awesome. Let me know how it works out.

Transitioning from 4th to 5th jhana is one of expansion. Allow your consciousness to expand outward like a balloon being filled with air. The space around the bubble will eventually give way, leaving only the massive bubble. Entry in to 6th jhana, for me anyway, happens when the bubble pops. Though, it's not so much a pop as it is a dissolving and suffusing into the already boundless space. There is a feeling of release, but not one of being pulled 'up' or 'out' (at least not for me).

Things tend to flow naturally from there. Hope this helps.

Jackson

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