jhana practice

hi friends!

i figured i'd write briefly about a topic i'm still learning about, the buddhist idea of the jhanas. the jhanas are something i'm still working on, still learning about, still practicing, so please be aware that this is in no way an authoritative gloss of this subject, it's more the thoughts of a wayward practitioner! so, you've been forewarned.

jhana is a Pali word that basically means "meditation". in Sanskrit, the term is "dhyana" and is also used in Hindusim and Jainism. however, the word has, over time, accumulated more nuance and specific meaning, and now means a particular thing, or more accurately a particular series of things.

in common modern Buddhist jargon, the jhanas are particular mental states that can be cultivated through intense focused concentration. there are four "material" jhanas and four "immaterial" jhanas, all of which are accessed sequentially through meditative techniques. it's possible, though difficult to confirm, that jhana practice is one of the earliest buddhist meditative techniques.

jhana practice is a form of concentration practice; there's a whole long thing i could get into about concentration practice vs insight practice, but that might be a bit much for today. suffice it to say that jhana is my current primary practice unlike vipassana, which is a very popular modern technique but is an insight practice. someday we'll talk about all of that in more detail!

depending on who you ask, jhana is difficult or impossible for modern people to achieve outside of intensive retreat environments. i understand why folks say that, but i am practicing as though that's not the case. the reason that belief is fairly common is that in our modern lives our minds are quite active all the time; there's much more information flowing through our lives than there were through the lives of folks even a hundred years ago. and as jhana practice requires an extremely focused mind, free of distraction, i will be the first to admit that it is difficult to practice but i find it to be very beneficial.

please take the following information with the caveat that i'm also not a meditation teacher. please listen to the instructions of a teacher before attempting any intense practice!

that said, here's what i do. i use the breath as an object, and i begin my sessions by taking a few deep breaths through my nose, paying close attention to where i most clearly feel the incoming and outgoing breath sensation.

i then focus my attention on the sensation of the breath coming in and going out of my nose. usually my attention falls on the upper lip, where i can feel the incoming and outgoing breath moving across the little hairs there somewhat clearly. other times, depending on factors beyond my understanding, i can feel the clearest breath on the outside rim of my nostrils, or inside the nostril somewhat. wherever i find it, once i've got an idea about it i try to lock my attention on that spot. the suttas describe an analogy of a saw: the saw itself is long but only contacts the branch at a single place. that area of contact is the focus of the meditation.

from here, the practice is straightforward to explain but difficult to maintain. you just... keep the attention on that single spot. your awareness may expand (mine occasionally encompasses my stomach and my nostrils, or my entire chest, and once or twice so far my entire body), but keep it concentrated. eventually stranger things start to happen, which other sources describe more effectively. those strange occurrences tend to be the jhana factors. i don't want to get too far into it because i'm not an expert and i'm still working, but if i can do it so can you!

overall, i find the jhanas a fascinating topic. the meditation model that i learned early on postulates that the jhanas are one path to enlightenment, and that insight/vipassana is another path. the jhana path may be the same path the Buddha taught in his life, though it's really hard to tell.

the other interesting thing is that my main meditation group (or sangha) is in the Rinzai Zen tradition, which has a very different set of normal meditation techniques as far as i can tell. my teacher, however, indicates that it is okay for me to continue my jhana practice and so i do; i just think it's a bit different than what most zazen actually looks like in practice, which we will also talk about later!

here's some more authoritative information on the jhanas. the first is by Theravada teacher Bhante Henepola Gunaratana. the second is also informational from Access to Insight. finally, here are instructions by Leigh Brasington, who is a jhana teacher.

enjoy, and best of luck if you decide to give this practice a shot.