Many people have the mistaken idea that the 4 jhānas have to be done in sitting posture only, not all 4 postures (standing, sitting, lying, walking).
That's wrong.
And this affects the way people approach their practice.
A more helpful way to think of it, is that sitting in the four jhānas with your eyes closed is your control group to assess the quality level of your samādhi. It's like a food critic coming into your jhāna kitchen assigning one to four stars depending on how nutritious the jhāna food quality is. It's a controlled laboratory condition to do a quality check. But you shouldn't only be 'doing' jhāna and samādhi while sitting with your eyes closed. You should approach practice like your survival (life after life) depends on the quality of your samādhi - all the time, in all postures. This is what many suttas like AN 8.63 say. And good meditation teachers will emphasize this point.
If your formal sitting practice does not go well, it's usually because it's just a continuation of what you habitually do all the time while you're not in formal sitting. In other words, if you train yourself all the time to be distracted, unfocused, following your whims, following defiled emotions, then in sitting meditation the pattern continues. But if you're training in samādhi all the time, in all postures, with eyes open, while eating, working, doing chores, etc, that means you're always training to think what you want to think and not thinking what you don't want to think. In other words, undistractible lucidity. You see things clearly, act with purpose, no wasted energy and effort. And if you train all the time like that, then when you do a formal sit, the habit continues and developing samādhi shows improvement easily. Having to work and perform other duties is no excuse to neglect samādhi development. Samādhi is a quality amplifier for everything, worldly and spiritual. So if you do your work and other non-spiritual duties with undistractible lucidity, care, quality, attention to detail, then your'e samādhi quality improves and carries over into your spiritual practice. Everybody has to eat, so that's at least 60 min. a day one can practice undistractible lucidty while eating. With noble silence, or thinking only thoughts related to food sustaining your life and practice. If you take a minute out of every hour for noble silence while working, that goes a long way.
🌑🌑🌑🌑 samādhi quality level = below first jhāna quality
⭐🌑🌑🌑 samādhi quality level = first jhāna quality
⭐⭐🌑🌑 samādhi quality level = second jhāna quality
⭐⭐⭐🌑 samādhi quality level = third jhāna quality
⭐⭐⭐⭐ samādhi quality level = fourth jhāna quality
STED (smd 1) 🌘 paṭhamaṃ jhānaṃ: First Jhāna
STED (smd 2) 🌗 dutiyaṃ jhānaṃ: Second Jhāna
STED (smd 3) 🌖 tatiyaṃ jhānaṃ: Third Jhāna
STED (smd 4) 🌕 catutthaṃ jhānaṃ: Fourth Jhāna
first jhana similes...
second ....
third...
fourth jhana and similes...
That's wrong.
And this affects the way people approach their practice.
A more helpful way to think of it, is that sitting in the four jhānas with your eyes closed is your control group to assess the quality level of your samādhi. It's like a food critic coming into your jhāna kitchen assigning one to four stars depending on how nutritious the jhāna food quality is. It's a controlled laboratory condition to do a quality check. But you shouldn't only be 'doing' jhāna and samādhi while sitting with your eyes closed. You should approach practice like your survival (life after life) depends on the quality of your samādhi - all the time, in all postures. This is what many suttas like AN 8.63 say. And good meditation teachers will emphasize this point.
If your formal sitting practice does not go well, it's usually because it's just a continuation of what you habitually do all the time while you're not in formal sitting. In other words, if you train yourself all the time to be distracted, unfocused, following your whims, following defiled emotions, then in sitting meditation the pattern continues. But if you're training in samādhi all the time, in all postures, with eyes open, while eating, working, doing chores, etc, that means you're always training to think what you want to think and not thinking what you don't want to think. In other words, undistractible lucidity. You see things clearly, act with purpose, no wasted energy and effort. And if you train all the time like that, then when you do a formal sit, the habit continues and developing samādhi shows improvement easily. Having to work and perform other duties is no excuse to neglect samādhi development. Samādhi is a quality amplifier for everything, worldly and spiritual. So if you do your work and other non-spiritual duties with undistractible lucidity, care, quality, attention to detail, then your'e samādhi quality improves and carries over into your spiritual practice. Everybody has to eat, so that's at least 60 min. a day one can practice undistractible lucidty while eating. With noble silence, or thinking only thoughts related to food sustaining your life and practice. If you take a minute out of every hour for noble silence while working, that goes a long way.
🌑🌑🌑🌑 samādhi quality level = below first jhāna quality
⭐🌑🌑🌑 samādhi quality level = first jhāna quality
⭐⭐🌑🌑 samādhi quality level = second jhāna quality
⭐⭐⭐🌑 samādhi quality level = third jhāna quality
⭐⭐⭐⭐ samādhi quality level = fourth jhāna quality
STED (smd 1) 🌘 paṭhamaṃ jhānaṃ: First Jhāna
STED (smd 2) 🌗 dutiyaṃ jhānaṃ: Second Jhāna
STED (smd 3) 🌖 tatiyaṃ jhānaṃ: Third Jhāna
STED (smd 4) 🌕 catutthaṃ jhānaṃ: Fourth Jhāna
DN 2 : 4 jhānas are 4 quality levels of samadhi-sambojjhanga
(7sb → 1-3 🐘💭🕵️🏹) Tassime pañca nīvaraṇe pahīne attani samanupassato
| (7sb → 1-3 🐘💭🕵️🏹) Seeing that the hindrances have been given up in them, |
pā-mojjaṃ jāyati,
| profuse-mirth is born. |
(7sb → 4. 😁) pa-muditassa pīti jāyati,
| (7sb → 4. 😁) Being profusely-mirthful rapture (is) born, |
(7sb → 5. 🌊) pīti-manassa kāyo passambhati,
| (7sb → 5. 🌊) (with) en-raptured-mind (the) body (is) pacified, |
(7sb → 5.5 🙂) passaddha-kāyo sukhaṃ vedeti,
| (7sb → 5.5 🙂) (with) pacified-body, they experience pleasure. |
(7sb → 6. 🌄) sukhino cittaṃ samādhiyati.
| (7sb → 6. 🌄) (in) pleasure, the mind becomes undistractible-&-lucid. |
4.3.2.5. First jhāna
4.3.2.5. Paṭhamajhāna
| 4.3.2.5. First jhāna |
🚫💑 so vivicc’eva kāmehi
| 🚫💑 Quite-withdrawn (from) sensuality, |
🚫😠 vivicca a-kusalehi dhammehi
| 🚫😠 withdrawn (from) un-skillful Dhamma [teachings & qualities], |
(V&V💭) sa-vitakkaṃ sa-vicāraṃ
| (V&V💭) With-directed-thought, with-evaluation, |
😁🙂 viveka-jaṃ pīti-sukhaṃ
| 😁🙂 withdrawal-born rapture-&pleasure, |
🌘 paṭhamaṃ jhānaṃ upasampajja viharati.
| 🌘 first Jhāna (he) enters, dwells. |
first jhana similes...
second ....
third...
fourth jhana and similes...
AN 8.63 describes jhāna in all four postures
- Samādhi, jhāna, 4bv, 4sp in all 4 postures
- AN 8.63 Saṅkhitta-sutta
- (preliminary practice, proxy for removing 5niv)
- (1. 4Bv #1: mettā me ceto-vimutti)
- (2. 4Bv #2: karuṇā me ceto-vimutti)
- (3. 4Bv #3: muditā me ceto-vimutti)
- (4. 4Bv #4: upekkhā me ceto-vimutti)
- (5. 4Sp #1: Kāya anupassana )
- (6. 4Sp #2: Vedana Anupassana)
- (7. 4Sp #3: Citta Anupassana)
- (8. 4Sp #4: Dhamma Anupassana)
- (jhāna samādhi possible in all 4 postures )
- (conclusion: khīnā jāti! Destroyed is birth!)
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