Early this month, I decided to spend my holidays in a solo meditative retreat to develop the immaterial meditative absorptions again since, for the past two years, I had focused almost solely on insight and healing practices. After those six days, and looking from the teacher perspective, it became very clear that they are fundamental to the spiritual journey. As a consequence, I’m going to put more emphasis on them in the way I teach since they bring enormous insight.
Yes, they bring insight, which means that the separation between samatha (concentration/tranquility) and vipassana (insight) practices is not that sharp. I’ll come to that after a very short introduction, and I’ll finish with a discussion on the necessary conditions for practice and how much time you can expect to spend to develop them.
Introduction
For those who don’t know, the jhanas, or meditative absorptions/immersions, are mental states sometimes also called “higher levels of consciousness” that can be accessed through sitting meditation. They differ greatly from the mundane mind. The Buddha gave the distinction between the fine-material absorptions and the immaterial absorptions. There are 8 states in total, which are very distinct in their composition of mental factors. The first four material states (rupa-jhanas) are just called by their numbers 1 to 4, whereas the four immaterial absorptions (arupa-jhanas) have each a name: the 5th jhana is called the base of infinite space, the 6th one is called the base of infinite consciousness, the 7th one is called the base of nothingness, and the 8th is called the base of neither perception nor non-perception. It is possible to develop mastery in entering those meditative states.
They are all over the place in the Pali canon, the compendium of the Buddha’s teachings. They are part of the Noble Eightfold Path under the label “right concentration.” When I discovered the teachings about 8 years ago, I intuitively felt they were key since they were practiced by the Buddha himself until his last moments right before death (see Maha Parinibbanasutta). I opened the big book, read some pages, and said, “OK, Jhana, what’s that? How could I reach them? ». If you browse through the canon, you won’t find many instructions or many “how-to’s.” I was lucky to find Ayya Khema’s old tape recordings from the 90s. I sat after having listened to those incomprehensible instructions and discovered, by myself, how to reach those states. I used the breath at first, and over the years, I practiced with other objects (called kasina) such as color disks, elements (earth, fire, water, and wind), space, and light. I would say that there is no better way than to sit there and try to figure it out by yourself and come back from time to time to the instructions you received for comparison. You’ll find at the end of that post some resources for instructions.
Insight
Although attaining the jhanas is not enlightenment in itself, they reveal the gross and subtle workings of the mind. You think you know about the workings of the mind until you’ve practiced the jhanas. Looking back, after that kind of training, you would realize how much you didn’t know about the mind.
They reveal the different degrees of fabrication of experience. Going to deeper and deeper immersion implies a gradual cessation of mind processes (here, I’m talking of a level of mind stillness that is already way beyond the stopping of thought formations and mental verbalization). Mastery of the jhanas allows one to switch on and off those mental mechanisms.
The most important insight is the recognition that this damping of subtle mental activities leads to more and more peace. Therefore, the immaterial jhanas prepare for the ultimate letting go when all mind processes stop to reach Nibbana, the ultimate cessation of all energies, movements, and formations (sankharas). Training the jhanas is training the mind to gradually stop. At the highest jhana, the mental activities are so refined that there is almost nothing perceived, and it is extremely restful. And yet, yet…this remaining activity can still be perceived as too much movement. There is still dhukkha, or unsatisfactoriness. One can ask oneself, “Is there any state that is even more peaceful than this one when there is a cessation of all kinds of consciousness and any other arising?” ». This is when that state becomes a springboard to Nibbana, Nibbana being total extinguishment, the cessation of all arising. The mind can recognize that Nibbana, the non-occurrence of anything, is ultimate peace and therefore inclines towards it. In the highest jhana named “neither perception nor non-perception,” the body is not felt; there is no pain or bliss, no thought, and perceptions are reduced to their minimum. This minimal activity can still be felt as painful, and the mind can recognize that no perception at all would be even more peaceful. And perceptions are part of the five aggregates of clinging. One starts to realize slowly, slowly, that the five aggregates of clinging (form/body, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness), which construct the human experience, are painful, and one starts to look for a way to avoid their future arising through rebirth.
It is noteworthy to mention that the penultimate jhana called “base of nothingness” is not Nibbana, and yet it is all-pervasive nothingness. By spending time in the base of nothingness, one realizes that even experiencing nothingness is dukkha. How is it possible? This is where language gets short. One has to realize that even experiencing nothingness is dukkha. This is all I could say about it. And it gives you an idea that Nibbana can’t be an experience of any sort. You start to know what Nibbana is not and have a guess as to why it is ultimate peace.
It became very clear to me that a run-of-the-mill mind working at the mundane level and without faith will have enormous difficulty understanding and sticking to the Path. What I’ve seen is the regular mind defeating itself in many ways, playing the trickster. This is not because one can philosophize on awareness/consciousness/enlightenment and say things such as ” We are all one anyway”, that the mind is freed from its defilements. Intellectual pondering is a good start since it is the first engagement with the spiritual journey, but one has to do the work of purification, and it is not done by thinking about purification.
A mind trained in the jhanas will understand very clearly why the Path is built the way it is and will have less hesitation and reluctance to follow it strictly. It has a glimpse of what gradual mental extinction feels like and can extrapolate to the ultimate peace of Nibbana and understand way more easily the importance of detachment and dispassion. In addition, when purely mental absorption is trained, the fear of letting go of the body is extremely attenuated. The fear of death is reduced.
As a side note, to enter the very first jhana, the 5 hindrances (sensual desires, restlessness and worry, skeptical doubt, ill-will, sloth, and torpor) must be gone; the jhanas act as a purification system. Since, to enter them, one has, first and foremost, to eliminate those hindrances, one must put energy into cleaning one’s intentions and behavior. That’s the price to pay, but that’s a little price in comparison with the quality of rest and energy one can get from dwelling in them.
Not to mention the psychic powers they deliver.
Environment needed and time investment
The time you’ll have to spend meditating depends on the meditator. When I started meditating, I was very enthusiastic to sit and walk in meditation as long as it would take, and therefore, the jhanas developed easily. If they were in the suttas, I thought I should work on them. My temperament is to develop things systematically, so I was very interested in the process and the how-tos. If I had to renounce this or that to make concentration deeper, I would do it just to see the consequences on the mind. I didn’t do specific retreats, just self-retreats at home when I had the chance to be left alone long enough without heavy duties to deal with.
The best condition is to respect at least the 5 precepts. It is better if the 8 precepts are followed. Find a calm place to sit, with no imminent and important duties, no talking, no screen, reading, writing, or entertaining. Walking meditation in between formal sits. Those conditions can be loosened when experience is gained.
You can start by developing the first four material jhanas as a daily routine. For the immaterial jhanas, you’ll probably have to invest at least 5-6 hours a day for at least a week to find the pathways. Once the mental pathways are found, it’s easier to find them again.
I recommend Ayya Khema’s old tape recordings (see dharmaseed.org for free recordings). For Kasina practice, I recommend the book «Visuddhimaggha» and the book from Sheila Catherine, «Wisdom, Wide and Deep». Of course, if you are interested, you can also reach me. I’d be glad to share with you what I know.
You can also find some introductory dhamma talks on the topic on the Youtube Channel:
Nibbana Unplugged 
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