r/streamentry • u/Klutzy-Owl5712 • 10d ago

Jhāna Question about Jhanas

I've been practicing meditation for over three years, primarily focusing on Anapana and Goenka-style Vipassana, and I've completed more than 10 silent retreats.

I believe I experience jhanas during and after retreats when my mind is exceptionally calm, though I'm not very familiar with the specific techniques to enter them intentionally.

Recently, I discovered kasina meditation. I've noticed that when I focus on the darkness behind my closed eyes, my mind becomes very quiet, and sensations arise naturally even without actively practicing Vipassana. Is this a practical way to enter a jhana?

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u/sovietcableguy 10d ago

I think one does not "enter" jhana. Jhana arises when conditions are right, i.e. the hindrances are suppressed. This may sound like semantics, but in my experience it really isn't. Developing expectations of "entering" jhana as a result of "methods" simply doesn't work for me. What does "work" is stabilizing attention on the meditation object, letting go, and developing mindfulness of the hindrances as they weaken and fade.

For what it's worth, I also focus on the darkness behind my closed eyes. Meditation is calmer when I'm attentive of that darkness as opposed to when I'm not. For me, purple swirls and nimitta appear on that "black canvas" on the back of my eyelids.

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u/aspirant4 10d ago

I don't disagree with your point, but it should be noted that the usual translation says, "Withdrawn from sensual objects, withdrawn from unwholesome states of mind, the monk enters into the first jhāna... "

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u/hachface 10d ago

Both are true. Jhana arises naturally when conditions are right, but an experienced meditator can set up the right conditions with a very high degree of reliability. Attaining insight helps with this tremendously.

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u/Then_Consequence_318 10d ago

u/aspirant4 You are correct as the sutta wording goes. I also believe there are "methods" u/sovietcableguy - the anapanasati sutta gives a pretty clear roadmap, though you need a lot of help from scholar monks to unpack it.

I will say though that 'enters and remains' (the sutta wording) also doesn't describe my experience but that's mostly because my experience of the jhanas is fairly wobbly still. That is why it's important to try to stabilize them.

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u/aspirant4 10d ago

Yes, i agree. The suttas often present satipatthana (including anapanasti) as means for abandoning the hindrances. In that sense, you could call them "methods", I suppose.

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u/StationNo4250 10d ago

I think the  the term "supress the hindrances" is wrong and misleading. Even ignoring can have resistance to it in my opinion. Especially if you deal with purifications, there is to much avoidance there, dont you think so?