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first jhāna is easy. all you need to do is relax (passaddhi/pacification)


I got a few complaints about my recent article:

2 super powerful tools to help you get (and improve!) your jhana: 1) foot in the door and 2) bullying the bully


The complaint was that, those two tips weren't that helpful and didn't actually help with attaining first jhana. 

So here is another article to fill in some of the gaps. Basically, if you follow the simple instructions in the suttas, first jhana is really easy, but for the vast majority of the people, what they will experience instead of the bliss of first jhana, is instead jhana constipation. 

Here is the billion dollar insight I'm sharing with you now:

 Because you think jhana constipation is not first jhana. Actually it is! You just have to be wise and patient enough to put in your daily practice until the energy blockages melt. Most people will get it in piece meal, gradually over months. Parts of your body will feel bliss, and then more and more as various blockages melt. But the whole time, you were doing the same simple thing. Pacify the mind (supress the 5 hindrances), pacify the body, allowing the force and heat of your jhana battery to circulate the PIE (precious internal energy) until all the blockages melt. When there is blockage, it feels like constipation. When blockage is melted, then it feels like the bliss of jhana (AN 5.28), but you were doing the same thing the whole time. Don't make the mistake thinking you don't have the merits, or doubt that you're doing the correct method. Just about every meditation problem I had no teacher was able to help me with (I had access to the greatest meditation teachers in the world), because in hindsight I was doing the right thing - relaxing completely, it just took a few years for various blockages to melt. My journey to 2nd jhana would have been shortened many years if I knew then what I know now, because I wouldn't have doubts about my practice and method (doubt leads to physical and mental tension).

And that's why the previous article is a powerful tool. It's helping you establish a daily and continuous skillful habit that will patiently wait out the jhana constipation unclogging process. 

 






Comments

  1. >>AN 5.179 same 500 lay people with first jhana from AN 5.176 attain stream entry.
    With respect to "the four pleasureful meditations in the present life belonging to the higher mind that they get when they want, without trouble or difficulty," what precisely is the "noble disciple’s ethical conduct is loved by the noble ones, unbroken, unflawed, unblemished, untainted, liberating, praised by sensible people, not mistaken, and leading to undistractible-lucidity"? I don't think it's the five precepts as they were just mentioned. (Although this is a stock phrase which may have been inserted here wholesale irrespective of context.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't think it's the 5 precepts either. What are you driving at?

      Delete
    2. I'm not driving at anything. I just have always wondered what "ethical conduct loved by the noble ones" could be other than 5- or 8-precepts, but I draw a blank. You (and your friend) usually have a good handle on what "lifestyle" should surround a successful meditation practice, so I thought you might have some insight. Maybe you also draw a blank?

      Delete
    3. AN 6.10 gives a little more context on teh relationship between the jhanas (higher mind) and the 6 recollections. sila is the 4th of the 6 recollections, and also closely related to the viriya and piti in the 7sb sequence. Pamojja and piti arise because viriya is conducted with sila.

      I think the sila-khanda portion of noble eightfold path (right speech, action, livelihood) would cover the "ethical conduct loved by the noble ones" sufficiently. 5 precepts is a subset of that.

      Delete

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