Jhana and insight, hand-in-hand
There's no jhana for one with no discernment, no discernment for one with no jhana. But one with both jhana & discernment: he's on the verge of Unbinding.
— Dhp 372
Jhana seems to be a buzz word again in the Theravada western lay circles with a few new books in the past few years on the topic. Jhana is mentioned often in the suttas. They are spoken of as the sense pleasure for the monks, the monks go to a secluded place and abide in these states. There has been much discussion on the need for jhana for liberating insight and this seems to be an ongoing theme for discussion. In this blog post which is based on a talk a gave in for New Haven Insight I am intending to highlight the process/ conditionality that leads to these calm states called Jhana.
There are many different meditation approaches, these tend to be different ways of working with the hindrances. You could think of them as different ways people have found to either subdue the hindrances or become familiar with the activity of the hindrances. My sense is Jhana arises with letting go, we let go of the identification with the activity of the hindrances as they are arising in our present conditioned experience. They do not necessarily arise from a particular practice but how skilfully the practice is held, the integrity and wisdom of the individual doing the practice.
Jhana arises as the five hindrances fall way and the Jhana factors arise. The hindrances are described as sensual desire(which the desire for jhana is a form off, ill will, sloth and torpor, restlessness and remorse and doubt. As these are understood/ dealt with/let go off depending on the chosen technique, the conditions come around for the jhana factors to arise. The mind takes up the object, the object becomes stabilized in awareness, with this stabilization, joy( physical pleasure in body and mind arises), happiness/equanimity( a sense of contentment and resting independent of sensory objects) and equanimity arise as the pleasure is let go off.
A base for calm/insight is ethics, some of us may use precepts to help hold our experience to highlight our sensory inclinations.I feel that most of us who come to practice our good human beings, and that by developing a mindfulness practice we become aware of how ethical we actually are, we develop the ability, to be honest about our experience as we begin to see ourselves as a conditioned process rather than an independent ongoing, somebody.There is always ground to tidy up our act if we are sensitive to ourselves in the process of being aware then being ethical can become quite natural rather than need to be enforced externally. I large part of knowing and finding freedom from the hindrances is a trust in oneself.Trust in one's own goodness, leads to calm as there is a lack of remorse about how we live our life arising to disturb the mind.
There are different ways of approaching the calming and understanding of the hindrances. Some approaches focus on the calming, taking an object such as the breath, getting to know the breath and how the different aspects of the breath effect our experience. We then use this information to calm the body, which in turn highlights the processes of the mind, then the relationship to the breath is used to calm and know the mind. As we calm and smooth out the breath, the breath becomes ease-full, flows undisturbed, the body is felt as pleasant, the breath is felt as a pleasant abiding, the mind stays in relation to the breath with ease, not much effort is needed as it is pleasant it draws the mind to it, as we become familiar and we let go of controlling the experience the breath seems to breathe us, we may become absorbed in the sign of the breath( this can be a light, colored shapes feeling tones, images etc.) At first, this letting go can happen by fluke, but as we become aware of the conditions this becomes something that happens within our awareness and becomes more of a choice, this is when meditation has become a developed skill and we know how to respond to different conditions arising to bring about the desired effect. So with this training in regards to the breath we begin to feel a withdrawal from the external senses, the internal thoughts begin to settle as the attractiveness/pleasure of the breath grasps the mind and mind become composed as a pleasant abiding, when the mind is settled and restlessness settles and doubt in regards to this practice drops away we become absorbed and absorption feeds faith back into the practice .How long for depends on how skilled and how well we know the hindrances/conditions arising.
Other practices such as mantra work similarly, it very much comes down to personal understanding in regards to the results we will get. Myself I was very forceful at first and would suppress the hindrances with my will. This took a lot of effort and did not make me a very sensitive human being, over sensitive in terms of being disturbed by the sensory experience. So I was using the hindrances to suppress the hindrances. It is very much about object relationship, how to develop a friendship with the meditation object, to hold it in a wholesome way.
Some practices seem to involve keeping the mind busy as if staying ahead of the hindrances. I have found some body- sweeping approaches have done that for me. Letting go is the key, but letting go is not that easy, we have to become familiar with our inability to let go, be gentle and get to know ourselves and the conditions of this particular self-story, and letting go will happen.
In recent years I have been working with the Recollective awareness approach as taught by Jason Siff. Ethics in this practice arise in relation to the individual's personal choices rather than imposed, Our personal choices and effects of them are the grounds for our knowing ourselves. Our sensory experience arises and we make choices in relation to this. This process becomes familiar and we can directly feel the benefits or harm off chosen actions.
With this approach, my sense is that we get to know the hindrances intimately. We open to how they are arising, being with them in a gentle interested way and giving permission for them to be present. As we become familiar with them they do not seem to have the same hold on us. As we drift with the conditions arising, these conditions become the object, as the mind gently travels with this, the mind becomes held by the experience, as it is held there the gentleness can transform into a pleasant holding, the body and mind feel settled and joy arises. I find this can lead on depending on the familiarity and wisdom present in regards to the object arising in the mind. It is as if a stranger walks into your house, your response/ or reaction to them is quite different to a friend entering your home, you have a sense of knowing them, feel at ease. As we get to know the hindrances they become our friends, it as if we enter a conversation with them, we ask questions, we listen and this leads to us becoming familiar. This lead to a non-stick experience. The object tends to transform so the ability to travel with the change develops. If the mind is attracted to a particular object that has arisen the process leads to being with and becoming familiar with that object until it is known enough to be put aside let go off or another condition comes into the foreground. Within the practice, there is permission to stay with an object to hold it in awareness longer if we wish.We begin to become absorbed/stabilized in the process of change. What I have found is that absorption arises in a more integrated way as it is a gentle drifting with conditions/conditioning of the experience rather than taking a position in regards to the experience. The intention to sit in the meditation and through the knowledge of knowing the intention in regards to our practice story does calm arise.
I have found with this approach that the doorways to calm have become many. Sometimes the calm arises in more of a Samatha style with a sign and an absorption into the sign, or it can arise through the absorption into the three characteristics of experience, impermanence, suffering our not-self. The images and signs that arise in the mind can be varied, calm can arise through drifting into a lucid dream-like state and then absorbing into images arising within them. How this arises is not such a big deal, but I find the important part of this approach is the jhana/calm states are part of the process and are naturally investigated. The desire to regain an experience of calm can become the object of meditation. We get to know what we are projecting upon this state of mind, hopes, values etc. As this becomes an ongoing part of practice, what is here now is investigated. Jhana arising when the conditions are right, we get to know the hindrances as they arise now, without trying to get past them as this tends to be a hindrance. We become aware of the desire for jhana arising as a desire for sensory pleasure, from ill will in relation to our experience, in relation to wanting to disassociate in regards to our present experience, desire to be getting practice right and not knowing if we are. We know the desire and idea of jhana to be a hindrance to experiencing jhana. Becoming familiar with the process of letting go, we know Jhana as an effect of letting go, it is more about what is not present than what is. It is a natural part of letting go.
When we first get a taste of jhana we are unlikely to know which jhana this is. Our first glimpse may be very short and feel quite intense, even amazing as it is a calm that is not familiar to us. I have found that jhana feels nicer than drug experiences I had when I was younger. As we develop in skill and wisdom, we may find that we stay absorbed for longer periods. I have found that this is an aid to my delusion. I may be absorbed longer, the condition of being there longer makes me feel I have gone deeper. Yet I am still entering the same depth just the perception being created is stronger due to the experience lasting longer. It is hard not to imagine I have gone deeper, yet with time and becoming familiar with the conditions of that state, by traveling into it again and again over time I become aware of the conditioning process.These states I have noticed for myself has become more accessible since practicing Recollective awareness, I feel this is due to having become clearer about what my meditation story is.Why I meditate, taking time to be with my experience as it arises, becoming friends with the hindrances, views, and opinions I have, rather than taking a position against my experience and trying to calm it. I have found that learning to understand the conditions that I call comfort and discomfort, my self-hatred and my self-love I am beginning to unfold in a more holistic way as I become more aware that they are a process and not fixed positions.
By becoming familiar with our experience, this familiarity reveals the uncertainty we feel in regards to impermanence, this calms the hindrances. The mind stabilizes with the experience this feels like a pleasant abiding. The power of the calm and insight at this stage can lead to us noticing how the witness is also impermanent. The uncertainty this process brings around gives rise to stress. As we become familiar with this process, as wisdom in regards to the conditioning of the stress arises a deeper sense of stabilizing occurs. This brings about the conditions for equanimity to arise. Insight and calm go hand in hand when we give the mind space to unfold rather than making a battleground of practice.
Take care.
