Perfect image to capture the emotional and physical feeling of trying to attain Vism. and Ajahn Brahm "real first jhāna"

 

That is a real photo, not AI generated!

In 128-degree Death Valley, a man dressed as Darth Vader ran a mile

(full story from which the image came from here.)

Note 128 degree F = 53 degree C. 

Vism "jhāna", and Ajahn Brahm’s “jhāna” is not the Buddha’s definition of Jhāna

What Ajahn Brahm (Brahmavamso) calls “Jhāna” is not Jhāna according to the EBT.

To make that distinction clear, I call his redefined “jhāna” BRJ👻🥶.

His redefinition is actually much closer to (V)isuddhi-magga (Re)-definition of (J)hana, minus the Abhidhamma underlying theory.

The problem with Buddha's jhāna vs. Pa Auk's vism. jhāna

excerpt from dhammawheel discussion, I wrote:

The problem with Buddha's jhāna vs. Pa Auk's vism. jhāna, is that they're qualitatively very different practices.
So different, that the amount of samatha need to attain a formless state, requires much more samatha and internal body energy transformation needed to reach that bar, than what's required to have enough samatha to do a competent Buddha's first jhāna.
More importantly, the biggest problem with the pa auk approach, is that many people get a visual nimitta, but then are never able to reach a formless "first jhāna".
They spend years doing that, when they've already had more than sufficient samatha to do the really important part of the buddha's first jhāna, which is see the danger and dukkha in sensual pleasures, clearly enough to become disenchanted with them.

So many people in pa auk waste lots of time energy sharpening the sword of wisdom may more than it needs, and completely neglecting the important work of practicing swinging the sword of wisdom to fight the defilements.
https://notesonthedhamma.blogspot.com/2 ... about.html

from another message in thread I wrote:

I never said Pa Auk system doesnt achieve samatha to the point where one attains disembodied frozen stupor.
What I said was even if the goal is to do that, it's not the best way to get there, because their methods create too much completely unnecessary physical and mental tension.
People getting knee and leg long term damage, people getting cross eyed, headaches from staring at visual nimittas at the anapana spot, all kinds of problems that a sensible objective person realizes is Vism. and Pa Auk's fault for teaching breath meditation incorrectly (different than the Buddha's).
I've seen lots of meditators who gave up, even though they got a strong bright visual nimitta, because they didn't understand the reason they didn't have jhāna yet is not because they weren't "one pointed enough", but is because it takes an undeterminate amount of time for energetic blockages to dissolve, dependent on a person's prior health and age.
I've got lots of horror stories, but just haven't wanted to spend the time yet to write about it.

If you're attempting, doing, or close to the Buddha's Jhāna, it should feel like this

 

The Buddha's first jhāna instructions

https://lucid24.org/tped/g/goldcraft/index.html#4.3