Jhãna is
the 1st Mental Absorption!
Jhāna is
Pāli: In Sanskrit = Dhyāna, in Chinese = Chān, in Japanese =
Zen.
Preliminaries: Purified
Morality => Clear Conscience, innocence & the mental elation thereof.
Guarding the Senses => Absence of Temptation, greed, desire, & attraction.
Clear Comprehension => Acute Awareness & Absolute Mental Presence.
Contentment => Calm & Stilled Satisfaction even with nothing. Joy & Happiness.
Mental Factors of Entry: 1:
Absence of any Urge of Desire
2: Absence of any Aversion of Ill Will
3: Absence of any Lethargy & Laziness
4: Absence of any Restlessness & Regret
5: Absence of any Doubt & Uncertainty
1: Presence of Directed Thought
2: Presence of Sustained Thought
3: Presence of Rapturous Joy
4: Presence of Pleasurable Bliss
5: Presence of Single-Pointed Focus
Subjective Experience: Intense
presence & awareness. Effortless, undistracted, & focused thinking.
Attention anchored even at ease at any chosen object. Mind is fixed & unified.
Result of chain of reasoning arguments is always reached quickly & successfully.
Body is without any pain & is felt like being a feather inside a big empty
silent hall.
There is Joy, Bliss and Happiness mixed into Solid Calm like a Smiling
Mountain!
Stages: 1:
Directing (adverting to sign of serenity).
2: Attaining entrance & stabilizing that.
3: Prolonging & controlling duration.
4: Emergence from absorption.
5: Reviewing (looking back on).
Grades: I:
Access Concentration like in neighbourhood approaching (upacāra-samādhi).
II: Full Absorption Concentration fixed & anchored on object (appanā-samādhi).
Techniques which can induce Jhāna Absorption: Awareness
of Breathing (ĀnāpānaSati)
Basic Entirety Object (Kasina)
Inner Organs & Corpses (KāyagatāSati)
The 4 Infinite & Divine States (Mettā)
The 4 Formless States (Āruppa)
Buddha
Said: Having
momentarily eliminated the five mental hindrances of:
Sense Desire, Ill Will, Lethargy & Laziness, Restlessness & Regret, and Doubt &
Uncertainty,
defiling imperfections of the mind that obstruct concentration & understanding,
quite secluded from sensual pleasures, separated from disadvantageous mental
states,
one enters & dwells in the first Jhāna absorption of directed & sustained
thought joined
with joy & pleasure born of secluded solitude. One makes this joy & pleasure
born of secluded
solitude pervade, perfuse & fill the entire body so that all parts is thrilled
by this joy & pleasure
born of secluded solitude. Even as a clever barber or his apprentice would put
soap powder in a
brass basin, sprinkle it with water, gradually knead & moist it into a ball of
foam soaked thoroughly
everywhere inside out yet without dripping so too he pervade, perfuse & fill his
entire body so that
all parts is completely drenched with joy & pleasure born of secluded solitude.
