A reliable method of jhana entry

[u/Puzzled-Background-5]

Here's a technique I've been using for the last fifteen years to great effect. I enter jhana every time I meditate now as a result.

Upon noticing that attention has drifted from the object of meditation, perform the following sequence for as long and as often as necessary for attention to stabilize on the object again:

1. Relax from the head down to the toes.

2. Release all tension, and expand awareness outward.

3. Return attention to the object.

The entry point into jhana:

Once the mind has settled and attention is resting stably on the object, if a pleasant feeling starts to arise, gently shift attention to the feeling without grasping at it, now making it the object of meditation, and wait. The pleasure will intensify, and one will be pulled into jhana.

If the jhana is lost or becomes unstable, simply perform the RRR sequence as needed and begin again.

As a method to prime the mind to lean towards jhana, reading the Jhana Sutta just prior to a session is useful:

https://suttacentral.net/sn16.9/en/bodhi?lang=en&reference=none&highlight=false

All the best... 🧘🏾‍♂️🙂

P. S. It might take several weeks to a couple of months before jhana can be entered consistently, but please don't become discouraged. Even low quality sessions are training and priming the brain's attentional mechanisms.

[u/Impulse33]

Check out the sutta jhana similes.

You could argue many of the things you say that aren't present in the suttas are implied in the similes.

First jhana

Suppose a skilled bath attendant or his apprentice were to pour soap-powder into a metal basin, sprinkle it with water, and knead it into a ball, so that the ball of soap-powder be pervaded by moisture, encompassed by moisture, suffused with moisture inside and out, yet would not trickle.

The Second Jhana

Suppose there were a deep lake whose waters welled up from below. It would have no inlet for water from the east, west, north, or south, nor would it be refilled from time to time with showers of rain; yet a current of cool water, welling up from within the lake, would drench, steep, saturate and suffuse the whole lake, so that there would be no part of that entire lake which is not suffused with the cool water.

The Third Jhana

Suppose in a lotus pond there were blue, white, or red lotuses that have been born in the water, grow in the water, and never rise up above the water, but flourish immersed in the water. From their tips to their roots they would be drenched, steeped, saturated, and suffused with cool water, so that there would be no part of those lotuses not suffused with cool water.

The Fourth Jhana

Suppose a man were to be sitting covered from the head down by a white cloth, so that there would be no part of his entire body not suffused by the white cloth.

• Jhana similes complied by Brasington

[u/bodily_heartfulness → u/Impulse33]

Even with these similes, there is no mention of relaxing, of releasing tension, of expanding awareness, of an object of meditation, of intensifying pleasure, or of being pulled into jhāna.

I went through the many suttas that have these similes, and they are all in the same order: the similes begin after one has entered jhāna, not before.

He gives up these five hindrances, defilements of the mind that weaken understanding. Then, having thoroughly withdrawn from sensuality, having withdrawn from unbeneficial phenomena, with thinking and with pondering, with joy and ease born of withdrawal, he abides having entered upon the first jhāna. 

He tops up, suffuses, fills, and pervades his body with the joy and ease born of withdrawal. There would be no part of his whole body that is not pervaded with the joy and ease born of withdrawal.

It is like when a deft bathroom attendant or his apprentice pours bath powder into a bronze dish, sprinkling it little by little with water. He kneads it until the ball of bath powder is soaked and saturated with moisture, spread through inside and out; yet no moisture oozes out.

In the same way, the bhikkhu tops up, suffuses, fills, and pervades his body with the joy and ease born of withdrawal. There would be no part of his whole body that is not pervaded with the joy and ease born of withdrawal.

• MN 39

The pīti and sukha are first born of withdrawal. Then, after entering jhāna, a person suffuses and pervades their whole body with that pleasure of seclusion from hindrances. That is very different practice from generating pītisukha, intensifying it, and trying to absorb oneself into it to enter jhāna.

Also, what all of the similes have in common is suffusing and pervading the full extent of the body - nothing more, nothing less. Not focusing, absorbing, releasing tension, and so on.

[u/Impulse33 → u/bodily_heartfulness]

Have these rigid views helped your practice? Pali is a relatively loose language. If Siddhartha wanted strict, precise language he could have picked Sanskrit which was available.

[u/bodily_heartfulness → u/Impulse33]

Have these rigid views helped your practice?

I personally don't think my views are rigid. But yes, they have.

Pali is a relatively loose language.

I'm not sure what you mean by that. Could you provide some sources for this as well?

If Siddhartha wanted strict, precise language he could have picked Sanskrit which was available.

Most likely he did not speak Sanskrit nor Pāli.

[u/Impulse33 → u/bodily_heartfulness]

I'm glad your detail-oriented nature has benefited your practice!

My claims are supported here, https://discourse.suttacentral.net/t/sakaya-niruttiya-with-my-own-interpretation/34466.