Jhana - Introduction

The Jhanas in Theravada Buddhist Meditation
by Bhikkhu Henepola Gunaratana



  Chapter 1
  Introduction



    
    The Doctrinal Context of Jhana
    The Buddha says that just as in the great ocean there is but one taste, the
    taste of salt, so in his doctrine and discipline there is but one taste, the
    taste of freedom. The taste of freedom that pervades the Buddha's teaching
    is the taste of spiritual freedom, which from the Buddhist perspective means
    freedom from suffering. In the process leading to deliverance from
    suffering, meditation is the means of generating the inner awakening
    required for liberation. The methods of meditation taught in the Theravada
    Buddhist tradition are based on the Buddha's own experience, forged by him
    in the course of his own quest for enlightenment. They are designed to
    re-create in the disciple who practices them the same essential
    enlightenment that the Buddha himself attained when he sat beneath the Bodhi
    tree, the awakening to the Four Noble Truths.
    The various subjects and methods of meditation expounded in the Theravada
    Buddhist scriptures -- the Pali Canon and its commentaries -- divide into
    two inter-related systems. One is called the development of serenity
    (samathabhavana), the other the development of insight (vipassanabhavana).
    The former also goes under the name of development of concentration
    (samadhibhavana), the latter the development of wisdom (pannabhavana). The
    practice of serenity meditation aims at developing a calm, concentrated,
    unified mind as a means of experiencing inner peace and as a basis for
    wisdom. The practice of insight meditation aims at gaining a direct
    understanding of the real nature of phenomena. Of the two, the development
    of insight is regarded by Buddhism as the essential key to liberation, the
    direct antidote to the ignorance underlying bondage and suffering. Whereas
    serenity meditation is recognized as common to both Buddhist and
    non-Buddhist contemplative disciplines, insight meditation is held to be the
    unique discovery of the Buddha and an unparalleled feature of his path.
    However, because the growth of insight presupposes a certain degree of
    concentration, and serenity meditation helps to achieve this, the
    development of serenity also claims an incontestable place in the Buddhist
    meditative process. Together the two types of meditation work to make the
    mind a fit instrument for enlightenment. With his mind unified by means of
    the development of serenity, made sharp and bright by the development of
    insight, the meditator can proceed unobstructed to reach the end of
    suffering, Nibbana.
    Pivotal to both systems of meditation, though belonging inherently to the
    side of serenity, is a set of meditative attainments called the jhanas.
    Though translators have offered various renderings of this word, ranging
    from the feeble "musing" to the misleading "trance" and the ambiguous
    "meditation," we prefer to leave the word untranslated and to let its
    meaning emerge from its contextual usages. From these it is clear that the
    jhanas are states of deep mental unification which result from the centering
    of the mind upon a single object with such power of attention that a total
    immersion in the object takes place. The early suttas speak of four jhanas,
    named simply after their numerical position in the series: the first jhana,
    the second jhana, the third jhana and the forth jhana. In the suttas the
    four repeatedly appear each described by a standard formula which we will
    examine later in detail.
    The importance of the jhanas in the Buddhist path can readily be gauged from
    the frequency with which they are mentioned throughout the suttas. The
    jhanas figure prominently both in the Buddha's own experience and in his
    exhortation to disciples. In his childhood, while attending an annual
    ploughing festival, the future Buddha spontaneously entered the first jhana.
    It was the memory of this childhood incident, many years later after his
    futile pursuit of austerities, that revealed to him the way to enlightenment
    during his period of deepest despondency (M.i, 246-47). After taking his
    seat beneath the Bodhi tree, the Buddha enter the four jhanas immediately
    before direction his mind to the threefold knowledge that issued in his
    enlightenment (M.i.247-49). Throughout his active career the four jhanas
    remained "his heavenly dwelling" (D.iii,220) to which he resorted in order
    to live happily here and now. His understanding of the corruption,
    purification and emergence in the jhanas and other meditative attainments is
    one of the Tathagata's ten powers which enable him to turn the matchless
    wheel of the Dhamma (M.i,70). Just before his passing away the Buddha
    entered the jhanas in direct and reverse order, and the passing away itself
    took place directly from the fourth jhana (D.ii,156).
    The Buddha is constantly seen in the suttas encouraging his disciples to
    develop jhana. The four jhanas are invariably included in the complete
    course of training laid down for disciples. [1] They figure in the training
    as the discipline of higher consciousness (adhicittasikkha), right
    concentration (sammasamadhi) of the Noble Eightfold Path, and the faculty
    and power of concentration (samadhindriya, samadhibala). Though a vehicle of
    dry insight can be found, indications are that this path is not an easy one,
    lacking the aid of the powerful serenity available to the practitioner of
    jhana. The way of the jhana attainer seems by comparison smoother and more
    pleasurable (A.ii,150-52). The Buddha even refers to the four jhanas
    figuratively as a kind of Nibbana: he calls them immediately visible
    Nibbana, factorial Nibbana, Nibbana here and now (A.iv,453-54).
    To attain the jhanas, the meditator must begin by eliminating the
    unwholesome mental states obstructing inner collectedness, generally grouped
    together as the five hindrances (pancanivarana): sensual desire, ill will,
    sloth and torpor, restlessness and worry and doubt.[2] The mind's absorption
    on its object is brought about by five opposing mental states -- applied
    thought, sustained thought, rapture, happiness and one pointedness [3] --
    called the jhana factors (jhanangani) because they lift the mind to the
    level of the first jhana and remain there as its defining components.
    After reaching the first jhana the ardent meditator can go on to reach the
    higher jhanas, which is done by eliminating the coarser factors in each
    jhana. Beyond the four jhanas lies another fourfold set of higher meditative
    states which deepen still further the element of serenity. These attainments
    (aruppa), are the base of boundless space, the base of boundless
    consciousness, the base of nothingness, and the base of
    neither-perception-nor-non-perception.[4] In the Pali commentaries these
    come to be called the four immaterial jhanas (arupajhana), the four
    preceding states being renamed for the sake of clarity, the four
    fine-material jhanas (rupajhana). Often the two sets are joined together
    under the collective title of the eight jhanas or the eight attainments
    (atthasamapattiyo).
    The four jhanas and the four immaterial attainments appear initially as
    mundane states of deep serenity pertaining to the preliminary stage of the
    Buddhist path, and on this level they help provide the base of concentration
    needed for wisdom to arise. But the four jhanas again reappear in a later
    stage in the development of the path, in direct association with liberating
    wisdom, and they are then designated the supramundane (lokuttara) jhanas.
    These supramundane jhanas are the levels of concentration pertaining to the
    four degrees of enlightenment experience called the supramundane paths
    (magga) and the stages of liberation resulting form them, the four fruits
    (phala).
    Finally, even after full liberation is achieved, the mundane jhanas can
    still remain as attainments available to the fully liberated person, part of
    his untrammeled contemplative experience.
    Etymology of Jhana
    The great Buddhist commentator Buddhaghosa traces the Pali word "jhana"
    (Skt. dhyana) to two verbal forms. One, the etymologically correct
    derivation, is the verb jhayati, meaning to think or meditate; the other is
    a more playful derivation, intended to illuminate its function rather than
    its verbal source, from the verb jhapeti meaning to burn up. He explains:
    "It burns up opposing states, thus it is jhana" (Vin.A. i, 116), the purport
    being that jhana "burns up" or destroys the mental defilements preventing
    the developing the development of serenity and insight.
    In the same passage Buddhaghosa says that jhana has the characteristic mark
    of contemplation (upanijjhana). Contemplation, he states, is twofold: the
    contemplation of the object and the contemplation of the characteristics of
    phenomena. The former is exercised by the eight attainments of serenity
    together with their access, since these contemplate the object used as the
    basis for developing concentration; for this reason these attainments are
    given the name "jhana" in the mainstream of Pali meditative exposition.
    However, Buddhaghosa also allows that the term "jhana" can be extended
    loosely to insight (vipassana), the paths and the fruits on the ground that
    these perform the work of contemplating the characteristics of things the
    three marks of impermanence, suffering and non-self in the case of insight,
    Nibbana in the case of the paths and fruits.
    In brief the twofold meaning of jhana as "contemplation" and "burning up"
    can be brought into connection with the meditative process as follows. By
    fixing his mind on the object the meditator reduces and eliminates the lower
    mental qualities such as the five hindrances and promotes the growth of the
    higher qualities such as the jhana factors, which lead the mind to complete
    absorption in the object. Then by contemplating the characteristics of
    phenomena with insight, the meditator eventually reaches the supramundane
    jhana of the four paths, and with this jhana he burns up the defilements and
    attains the liberating experience of the fruits.
    Jhana and Samadhi
    In the vocabulary of Buddhist meditation the word "jhana" is closely
    connected with another word, "samadhi" generally rendered by
    "concentration." Samadhi derives from the prefixed verbal root sam-a-dha,
    meaning to collect or to bring together, thus suggesting the concentration
    or unification of the mind. The word "samadhi" is almost interchangeable
    with the word "samatha," serenity, though the latter comes from a different
    root, sam, meaning to become calm.
    In the suttas samadhi is defined as mental one-pointedness,
    (cittass'ekaggata M.i,301) and this definition is followed through
    rigorously in the Abhidhamma. The Abhidhamma treats one-pointedness as a
    distinct mental factor present in every state of consciousness, exercising
    the function of unifying the mind on its object. From this strict
    psychological standpoint samadhi can be present in unwholesome states of
    consciousness as well as in wholesome an neutral states. In its unwholesome
    forms it is called "wrong concentration" (micchasamadhi), In its wholesome
    forms "right concentration" (sammasamadhi).
    In expositions on the practice of meditation, however, samadhi is limited to
    one-pointedness of mind (Vism.84-85; PP.84-85), and even here we can
    understand from the context that the word means only the wholesome
    one-pointedness involved in the deliberate transmutation of the mind to a
    heightened level of calm. Thus Buddhaghosa explains samadhi etymologically
    as "the centering of consciousness and consciousness concomitants evenly and
    rightly on a single object ... the state in virtue of which consciousness
    and its concomitants remain evenly and rightly on a single object,
    undistracted and unscattered" (Vism.84-85; PP.85).
    However, despite the commentator's bid for consistency, the word samadhi is
    used in the Pali literature on meditation with varying degrees of
    specificity of meaning. In the narrowest sense, as defined by Buddhaghosa,
    it denotes the particular mental factor responsible for the concentrating of
    the mind, namely, one-pointedness. In a wider sense it can signify the
    states of unified consciousness that result from the strengthening of
    concentration, i.e. the meditative attainments of serenity and the stages
    leading up to them. And in a still wider sense the word samadhi can be
    applied to the method of practice used to produce and cultivate these
    refined states of concentration, here being equivalent to the development of
    serenity. It is in the second sense that samadhi and jhana come closest in
    meaning. The Buddha explains right concentration as the four jhanas
    (D.ii,313), and in doing so allows concentration to encompass the meditative
    attainments signified by the jhanas. However, even though jhana and samadhi
    can overlap in denotation, certain differences in their suggested and
    contextual meanings prevent unqualified identification of the two terms.
    First behind the Buddha's use of the jhana formula to explain right
    concentration lies a more technical understanding of the terms. According to
    this understanding samadhi can be narrowed down in range to signify only one
    mental factor, the most prominent in the jhana, namely, one-pointedness,
    while the word "jhana" itself must be seen as encompassing the state of
    consciousness in its entirety, or at least the whole group of mental factors
    individuating that meditative state as a jhana.
    In the second place, when samadhi is considered in its broader meaning it
    involves a wider range of reference than jhana. The Pali exegetical
    tradition recognizes three levels of samadhi: preliminary concentration
    (parikammasamadhi), which is produced as a result of the meditator's initial
    efforts to focus his mind on his meditation subject; access concentration
    (upacarasamadhi), marked by the suppression of the five hindrances, the
    manifestation of the jhana factors, and the appearance of a luminous mental
    replica of the meditation object called the counterpart sign
    (patibhaganimitta); and absorption concentration (appanasamadhi), the
    complete immersion of the mind in its object effected by the full maturation
    of the jhana factors.[5] Absorption concentration comprises the eight
    attainments, the four immaterial attainments, and to this extent jhana and
    samadhi coincide. However, samadhi still has a broader scope than jhana,
    since it includes not only the jhanas themselves but also the two
    preparatory degrees of concentration leading up to them. Further, samadhi
    also covers a still different type of concentration called momentary
    concentration (khanikasamadhi), the mobile mental stabilization produced in
    the course of insight contemplation of the passing flow of phenomena.
    Notes:
    [1] See for example, the Samannaphala Sutta (D. 2), the Culahatthipadopama
    Sutta (M. 27),etc.
    [2] Kamacchanda, byapada, thinamiddha, uddhaccakukkucca, vicikiccha.
    [3] Vitakka, vicara, piti, sukha, ekaggata.
    [4] Akasanancayatana, vinnanancayatana, akincannayatana,
    nevasannanasannayatana.
    [5] See Narada, A Manual of Abhidhamma. 4th ed. (Kandy: Buddhist Publication
    Society, 1980), pp.389, 395-96