Day 3 UK Retreat (Sept 2023) Jhanas Pt 1

Today we will talk a little bit about what's known as jhana. In Pali, the word jhana comes from the Sanskrit dhyana, and dhyana means different kinds of things. It can mean to have a mind that is focused or concentrated or collected. It means to pay attention. And dhyana or jhana is a level of understanding, a level of clarity, a level of cessation. So before I get into jhana, I'll just tell you what cessation is all about, because that's really the core of the practice in the context of what the Buddha is teaching. When we talk about the cessation of suffering, that is dukkha nirodha, what we're saying is that we are experiencing the third noble truth.

There are four Noble Truths. The first is that there is suffering. That is dukkha. We'll get more into what that all means, but just understand that dukkha is essentially a certain sense of unease, whether it's in the mind or in the body or in the way life is lived. And the reason that dukkha arises is the second noble truth, the cause or condition for dukkha, the causes and conditions for suffering. This is abbreviated in the word craving, or tanha. But there's more to it, because there are other aspects that lead the mind to cause itself suffering. And there is the cessation of that suffering. So the cessation of that craving, the cessation of the causes and conditions that cause that suffering, that is what is the goal of the practice: total cessation of suffering.

So nirodha, dukkha nirodha. Nirodha has different layers of meaning, because depending upon the context and usage of the word, it can mean the cessation of all perception, feeling and consciousness, or it can mean the cessation of craving, or it can mean the cessation of whatever it is. Letting go of a certain cause and condition that leads to certain kinds of suffering. And the way leading to that cessation is the fourth Noble Truth, which is the Eightfold Path. And so the Eightfold Path is the recommendation by the Buddha to follow. It is a path to follow that leads to ultimate happiness, a happiness that is not born of the five physical sense spaces, a happiness that is not tied to conditions, an unconditional kind of happiness, which is seen as Nirvana or Nibbana.

This Eightfold Path is essentially a lifestyle. It has nothing to do with rites or rituals. It has nothing to do with prayers. It has nothing to do with chanting. It has nothing to do with doing any kind of religious offering, etc. etc. It is essentially just a lifestyle. These are certain lifestyle changes or recommendations that you do that create the conditions for your mind to be ready for Samadhi. I remember yesterday I talked a little bit about Samadhi. Samadhi is a mind that is composed, a mind that is collected, mental composure. And the components of Samadhi, or those things that are part of Samadhi, are the four jhanas. So that's what we'll talk about today.

But within this process of attaining Samadhi, you need the other path factors. I will go more in depth later on, but essentially the path factors that are involved in this process are culminated in something known as sila, in virtue. So that is essentially taking and keeping precepts. That is what we do in the morning. Right now you are taking a certain number of precepts. At a minimum you take the five precepts, and then on retreat you take a certain amount of precepts, and so on. But the idea here is that in the taking of the precepts you are not doing some kind of ritual. Instead you are cultivating a habit, a certain kind of habit that causes rest in the mind, that causes tranquility in the mind.

Because when you take precepts and you make sure to keep those precepts, what you're doing is tilling the soil of your mind and putting in the seeds that will eventually germinate and come to fruition as the four jhanas. It can happen in this retreat and it can happen beyond this retreat, and things beyond the jhanas can also happen in this retreat. That is to say, you can experience all four jhanas plus the ayatanas, which we'll talk about tomorrow, and then also experience cessation. But it's a matter of your commitment to keep sila. Sila is essentially, it means foundation. It means the rock, the bedrock of the practice. So keeping the virtues, taking the precepts, that's non-negotiable in this practice, because it is actually enabling your mind to be filled with a level of peace that is then cultivated as jhanas.

Sila then leads to Samadhi. So there are three parts to this: sila, samadhi and panna. Sila leads to Samadhi, and so Samadhi is the mental work that you do in the form of meditation practice, and the fruit of that, the ripening of samadhi, is what's known as panna, or pragya in Sanskrit. That is wisdom, insight, understanding, the fruit of knowledge. But it's not any old knowledge, it's a particular kind of knowledge. It's the knowledge and understanding of how existence works, and it is also liberating knowledge, liberating insight. So the jhanas serve as a carrier, as a vehicle for you to experience that, but also in and of themselves are levels of insight. So when we talk about jhanas in the context of the twin practice, Tranquil Wisdom Insight Meditation, what we're saying is that it is the conjoining or yoking of samatha and vipassana.

So the samatha aspect of that is the serenity that you experience as a process of letting go. And the vipassana aspect is understanding how your mind works, understanding how your mind causes its own suffering or causes its own happiness. So here what we're doing is we are letting go of certain causes and conditions that cause us suffering. How do we do that?

Come into the meditation practice, and we let go of the outside world. What is the first thing you do? You close your eyes. These are the factors of the first jhana. The first jhana, it says, is basically: quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states of mind. He enters into the first jhana, which is accompanied by thinking and sustained thought, and joy and comfort born of seclusion. So let's break that up and understand what actually is going on. It says quite secluded from sensual pleasures. What does that mean? What do you do when you sit down for practice? You close your eyes. Now there is no light that can seep in. You're not seeing anything in front of you through your visual field. Now you're honing your attention into the mind and experiencing an object of meditation. In this case it would be loving-kindness, or radiating in the six directions, or it would be the quiet mind. It could be anything. But for the purposes of this practice we're using the Brahmaviharas, and the quiet mind.

So by letting go of our attention, what happens? Our attention is divided between these five physical sense spaces and, of course, the mind as well. We're contemplating what's going on when we're seeing things, when we're hearing things, when we're tasting things, when we're touching things, when we're smelling things, and so on. But now what we're doing is withdrawing all of that attention that is related to those sense spaces, like a turtle that withdraws its limbs. That's what we're doing. We're taking all of that attention and redirecting it to a specific object, to a singular object. And in that sense we are secluded from sensual pleasures, or quite secluded from sensual pleasures, because yes, we will still hear things in the background.

Yes, we will still feel things on our arms when we're outside or inside or whatever it is. We might still smell things. But for the most part, our attention is on something internal. That is the mind, or the mental object of the mind. Secluded from unwholesome states of mind. The second factor. What does it mean to be secluded from unwholesome states of mind? Unwholesome states of mind are the five hindrances.

Distractions. When your mind gravitates towards an object of meditation, you have let go of any attention to any of the hindrances. What are the hindrances? Sensual craving, aversion, restlessness, sloth and torpor, and doubt. So in order for you to be in the first jhana, no hindrances are to be present in the mind whatsoever. What does that mean? That means that even if there are thoughts in the background, even if there are things going on, but your mind is still with the object, even there you are set to be meditating, because your mind is still singularly focused on something. As soon as it diverts its attention somewhere else, now you've lost your mindfulness, and now there is the scope for hindrances to arise, for distractions to arise.

Indeed, you are distracted at that point in time, because you are no longer on your object of meditation. So every time you direct your energies, your attention, to something in particular, you are secluded from unwholesome states of mind, particularly since you are with loving-kindness. Loving-kindness is being in a wholesome state of mind. So secluded from unwholesome states of mind, he enters into the first jhana, which is accompanied by thinking and examining thought, or thinking and sustained thought. This is vitaka and vichara.

What is vitaka and vichara? Vitaka is the intention to bring up something. It's focusing your thoughts or directing your thoughts towards something. This is what you do when you bring up an object of meditation. When you use verbalizations in your mind like "may I be happy", "may I be well", "may I be free of suffering", or you use certain kinds of imagery, you use certain kinds of wholesome memories to trigger the feeling of loving-kindness, or you use gratitude practice, these are all processes of vitaka. And vichara is, once you do feel the feeling of loving-kindness, you rest your awareness on it. Now you direct your intention towards resting, or you direct your attention towards resting on the feeling of loving-kindness.

This is vichara. So followed by that, there is piti and sukha born of seclusion. When you have the hindrances, what happens? Your mind is agitated, your mind is all over the place, your mind is disturbed. Your mind becomes too serious, your mind becomes too brittle. But when you let go of a hindrance, it's important to understand how the mind feels in that moment. It is like a temporary liberation, a temporary kind of freedom. In fact, in the sutta, as the Buddha has said, when his mind is free of hindrances it is as if he is free of all debts. Does that feel like being free of all debts, having been freed from a prison? A prison of your own making. What is that prison of your own making? All kinds of concepts and ideas about the world and all these things, right?

Taking life too seriously, being glum, right? Just being too, taking things too personally, identifying with things. All of these are the foundation for the hindrances to arise. But if you can keep your mind light, if you can be cheerful, if you can, like I said the first time, the first day, if you can fake it till you make it with your smile, if you can be lighthearted, that is the clear path towards full awakening. The Buddha has said in the suttas that we, the arahants, are the happy ones, right? The fully awakened ones are the happy ones. Can you just imagine, during the time of the Buddha, where the Buddha and his troop of monks are just frolicking in the forest and happy as can be, right?

Somehow we have these paintings and images of the Buddha being very serious, and walking slowly through the forest, very mindful and so on. I don't think that was the case. They would have been very happy. They would have been very relaxed. They would have been just very peaceful and serene, definitely. But not having to be so, not having to be so serious about things. So when you have that, you obviously bring up some level of joy, some level of comfort. Piti and sukha. Piti is essentially a certain kind of joy that you feel. It doesn't have to be an exuberant kind of joy. It doesn't have to be a vibrant kind of joy.

It can just be a feeling of being uplifted. There's a sense of the emotions being joyful, being happy, being alert. And followed by that is sukha, which is happiness or comfort in the body. So comfort and joy, right? Born of seclusion. When you let go of the hindrances in that moment, you experience a spaciousness. That spaciousness is a form of relief. That relief is known as pamojja in Pali. Pamojja means gladness. Gladness of what? Being free of tightness and tension in the mind and in the body. As a result of which, naturally, joy arises. And comfort and tranquility in the body arise. Now, these are all components of the first jhana. As you continue to progress in your practice, as you continue to stay with the feeling of loving-kindness, or stay with your object, what will happen is you will naturally drop, and that happens immediately, actually, you will naturally drop the vitaka and vichara.

Meaning you no longer have to intentionalize bringing up the feeling of loving-kindness with words, with images, with a gratitude practice. It's just there. The feeling is there and you can just bring it up. So you let go of the vitaka and vichara. And so now the second jhana is basically that. You let go of that and now you have a certain level of self-confidence. This is known as self-confidence. So this self-confidence is basically the mind saying, oh, I'm getting the hang of this practice now. I understand what's going on here. I'm not fooling myself into feeling loving-kindness. I'm actually feeling it for myself. There's something going on here. So now you're kind of like on autopilot, right?

Now you don't have to worry too much about being with your object. It's just there. It's in your view, and you're staying with it. And tied to that is what's known as piti and sukha, or joy and happiness born of concentration, born of collectedness. So there is another factor in all of these jhanas, that pervades all of these jhanas, which is known as ekagata. Ekagata is generally translated as one-pointed concentration or one-pointedness of mind. But if you look at the word ekagata, it's actually following another word, which is chitta. So the real word, or the compound word, that's being used is chitta sehagata, ekagata, which means unification of the mind. This is where we talked about yesterday, where the mind's attention becomes

non-dispersed, right? It becomes non-refractive. It actually binds together towards an object. So this is what's happening in the first jhana, and it's happening more so in the second jhana. That's why you have piti and sukha born of collectedness. First, you have let go of the hindrances, as a result of which you get into the first jhana. You let go of the intentionalizing and trying to stay with your object. There's a certain level of autopilot that's going on.

And then there is a further deepening of joy and happiness, joy and comfort, born of this further refined collectedness. This is part of the second jhana. So how does that feel? Sometimes what people will feel when they're in the second jhana is a sense of elation, but it can be very subtle also. They can feel heat in the body. Oftentimes they will feel like their hands are quite warm or hot, or they will feel a certain kind of energy that's arising in the body. These are all the somatic signs, let's say psychosomatic signs, of piti. Tied to that, they can also be a sense of relief. It can be a sense of well-being. There can be a sense of happiness, a sense of comfort, a sense of joy.

So these are all signs that you're getting into the second jhana. Also, your attention on your object is more prolonged, right? In other words, before you might have been struggling to stay with the object for maybe five or ten seconds, but now you can stay up to a minute, or you can stay up to two minutes, or you can stay up to five minutes, right? And you're able to just stay there without having to make too much of an effort. Now, when the internalizing of thoughts and verbalizing and so on, when that goes away, that doesn't mean the background thoughts necessarily go. You have to understand the difference between the two. When we say vitaka and vichara, and it's saying thinking and examining thought, we're talking about an intentionalized thinking, a directing of thoughts, right?

So in essence, there's a level of control of taking the thoughts and bringing them, or the attention, and bringing it to the feeling of loving-kindness. But the thoughts that are there in the background, the images that are there in the background, they are beyond your control. You can do all you can to suppress them. You can do all you can to fight them and push them down. And you know what's going to happen. You're gonna feel good for a while. You'll be happy for a while. You'll be joyful for a while. But just as you would push down a beach ball underwater and you let go, what happens? That ball emerges up right again.

In the same way, you try to suppress these thoughts. You try to suppress these hindrances. You try to force yourself and push them down. And you feel good about it. You feel happy. You feel joyful, you feel collected, right? And you might actually feel like you're, you know, on cloud nine for the rest of the day. And if somebody utters a word that you don't like, and what happens? Boom, all of those hindrances come back up again, right? The anger, the irritation, the aversion, the hatred, the sensual craving, the restlessness, whatever it is, it all comes back up again. So what was the point? It was a whole waste to do that. So this practice is all about dealing with those things in the moment as and when they arise.

It's not about suppressing them. It's not about turning away from them. It's about, okay, I see you. I acknowledge you, and I'm going to gently let you go, go at your convenience, go at your leisure, right? And I'm going to just now gently bring my attention back to what I was doing, which is staying with the feeling of loving-kindness. The more you do that, the less the hindrances arise and the quieter the mind gets. And so the background thoughts, or even if you're in quiet mind, the kind of thoughts that come up at you, because you're no longer enchanted by them, because your attention is no longer on them, because you don't add any fuel to them with your reactivity to them, they start to die away.

They start to go away and your mind becomes quieter. And so at this point you're ready to get into the third jhana. Now this process happens naturally. It happens automatically. You don't need to say, I have to do this and this and this to get into it. I'm just showing you a broad understanding of the map that you're walking. That's it. You don't need to keep all of these things in mind. They're just letting you know the territory. So in the third jhana, it says, with joy fading away, with the fading away of piti, now there is only sukha, and there's tranquility. There is a certain level of equanimity. This is what the noble ones declare: he has a pleasant abiding.

He is one who is in a pleasant abiding. Why is that the case? Because here, whereas the joy might have been like a flickering flame, the comfort, the sukha, the tranquility that you feel is a flame that is utterly still, more sustainable. So in this third jhana, the joy might fade away. And this is where people kind of mistake it and say, oh, I don't know if I'm actually progressing, because it feels like I'm no longer happy anymore. It almost feels like I'm losing something. But actually, you're getting deeper, because joy is actually very overrated. Yeah? Joy is very short-lived. That's why I said on the first day, it's the happy mind that leads to peace of mind, which leads to freedom of mind.

Fine, now you've cultivated a certain level of happiness, which in itself is actually temporary. But you have done the work by cultivating that mind so that it's ready now to get into deeper levels of tranquility and peace. And so the hallmark of the third jhana is that there might not be any joy, but there will be some level of comfort. There will be some level of tranquility, some level of equanimity. And you might start to notice that you're losing sensation in the body. You might notice that maybe the body is becoming more grounded. Maybe the body is becoming heavier, or it feels like it's rooted to your seat. Or, on the flip side, it feels like your body is becoming lighter, and it feels like you might be floating away.

Or it might feel like the loving-kindness is becoming more expansive, feels like the loving-kindness is starting to become more pervasive, feels like it's starting to go outward or go upward or pervade the entire body. These are all different kinds of signs that indicate that you are in the third jhana. And as I said, these jhanas are levels of cessation, levels of insight, levels of understanding. So what is it that you're doing here? You're just observing how your mind is traveling through these signposts, and you're letting go of coarser and coarser causes and conditions. In the case of the first jhana, what is it that you are ceasing? You're ceasing the hindrances, you're ceasing unwholesome states of mind, you're ceasing the attachment to sensual pleasures, and you're just coming back into the mind.

In the second jhana, what are you ceasing? What is the level of cessation there? You are ceasing the vitakka and vicara. You're ceasing the intentionalizing, right? Now you are letting things go on autopilot. You're trusting in your mind to be able to stay with its object. In the third jhana, what is ceased? The joy. The joy ceases naturally. You're letting go at a deeper and deeper level and experiencing deeper levels of tranquility, comfort, and contentment. Eventually you get into what's known as the fourth jhana. So in the fourth jhana you experience what they call purity of mindfulness due to equanimity. What does that even mean? Purity of mindfulness due to equanimity. In the fourth jhana, you will notice that a lot of the energy of the feeling of loving-kindness starts to get up here in the head.

And it starts to want to expand outward. And that's quite natural. When this is happening, the awareness of the body itself, or the sensations in the body itself, start to die down even greater. And what is left is a certain level of clarity and awareness. There's a deep level of equanimity. So oftentimes when the teacher in the interview will ask the student how are things going and they're in the fourth jhana, they might seem like they're in some kind of depression. They might seem like they're very, oh yeah, everything is good, it's all good, man, just very quiet, because they're experiencing the fourth jhana. They're in this sense of equanimity and tranquility.

So in the fourth jhana, your mindfulness becomes very sharp. You might experience some level of contact with the body, like for example, if a fly lands on your skin, you might feel it, but you're not bothered by it. You remain completely unbothered by it. Moreover, in the fourth jhana you'll notice that the clarity of mind is such that whatever is happening, you have a certain laser clarity of seeing it as it actually is. Fine, there's a hindrance, you notice it, and you're immediately able to let go of it. You're on your object of meditation, you see it, you're there. There's a greater level of attention, and so this is the purity of mindfulness. But that statement, that phrase, purity of mindfulness due to equanimity, why did they phrase it in that way? Remember yesterday we went over the seven awakening factors. What are the seven awakening factors? Mindfulness

Investigation, energy, joy, tranquility, collectedness, and equanimity. So in that sense, mindfulness leads to investigation. Investigation leads to energy. Energy leads to joy. Joy leads to tranquility. Tranquility leads to collectedness. Collectedness leads to equanimity. So it's the linear fashion. But in reality, as you're progressing through these jhanas, whether you know it or not, when you're staying with your object, when you're using right effort, you're actually strengthening and deepening the cycling through of the enlightenment factors. In other words, that equanimity then informs a next arising of mindfulness and strengthens that mindfulness. So as you're progressing through these jhanas, the mindfulness which leads to investigation and so on, which then finally leads to equanimity, then strengthens the next arising of mindfulness, and so on, until you get to the fourth jhana where there is absolute pristine clear awareness, purity of mindfulness due to equanimity. And now the equanimity that's there is very stable, unwavering, and it's informing the next arising of mindfulness.

So these are the four jhanas. There are other factors that are present in these jhanas, but these are all sub-factors or secondary. Not necessary for you to actually know about them, because you will see for yourself, and they're always there. For example, there's something known as contact, feeling, perception, intention, attention, awareness, determination, so on and so forth. So all of these things are there. There is a sutta, which is Majjhima Nikaya 111, and it is known as the Anupada Sutta, the one by one, one by one as they occurred. And what it is, is a detailing of a particular monk named Sariputta, who was one of the chief disciples of the Buddha, and he was known as being the foremost in wisdom, foremost in insight, foremost in understanding the Dhamma. Right, the Buddha had two chief disciples, Moggallana and Sariputta. So Sariputta was the one who was foremost in insight, and Moggallana was the one who was foremost in psychic faculties.

So this particular sutta details Sariputta's ability to go into each of the jhanas and all of the different factors that are present. He had such level of clarity and mindfulness that he was able to dissect everything that was going on in each jhana. And so if you're interested in knowing more about those other factors, you can go and read it and you'll see all of that. But as I said, at this point in time, it's not necessary. When you're ready to explore the jhanas on your own, then you can start to, let's say, take a couple of days, right?

When you're on the map, you can take a couple of days and stop at a particular location, at a signpost, and just take in the territory of what's going on in this jhana, and then you'll be able to see for yourself these different factors. But for the purpose of this retreat, what you're doing is you're getting into these jhanas without knowing it, but you're traversing through them in a way that is gentle, in a way that isn't super focused, in a way that doesn't need to be so deep either. So this is known as light jhanas or diet jhanas, if you will. These are jhanas which are just signposts, because jhanas are not the goal. The goal is no goal.

You know, people will say the goal is awakening, the goal is nirvana. Well, as soon as you make that a goal, what happens? Now you have craving. Now it's like, I have to go and get this, I have to achieve it, I must do this. But if you enjoy what's going on and allow the mind to just automatically, naturally progress through this, before you know it you'll reach the goal and you'll have, you'll be like, oh, that was it. So tomorrow I'll talk about what is known as the ayatanas, because sometimes informally they're known as eight jhanas, but technically speaking there's only four jhanas. And then from the fourth jhana there are four sub-levels, which I'll talk about tomorrow.

But until then, are there any questions? I think I know the answer, but I'm just asking for clarity. It's possible to jump jhanas? Oh, absolutely. Right, so you can experience fourth and one but not two and three, right? Okay, it's possible. Yeah. And by the way, since you brought that up, you can experience nibbana from the first jhana onwards. You can experience cessation from the first jhana onwards. You don't even need... Yeah, okay, thank you. Yeah, what did you mean by that?

So, jhanas are the territory, like I said, and what can happen is you can actually experience cessation of perception, feeling and consciousness from the first jhana onwards. In other words, you might be in the first jhana, you're sending loving-kindness to yourself and you're sending loving-kindness to a spiritual friend, and you're feeling the factors of the first jhana, and because your mind is very, very still and there's a balance of samatha and vipassana, everything just drops, and for a moment you experience what's known as cessation of perception, feeling and consciousness. And when that happens, something else very interesting happens, which I'll talk about tomorrow, but it is essentially touching or making contact with what's known as the nibbana dhatu, nibbana element, and it is as a result of which you experience the first level awakening, and so on and so forth. Now, has it happened before? It has happened. It's mentioned in the suttas.

In terms of practicalities, it is quite possible but difficult. It's difficult. Most people will experience cessation from the fourth jhana onwards, at least in my experience of people's own experiences of understanding their experience. For me, for example, in my first experience that I had, which was back in 2016, I was in what's known as nothingness and I was radiating equanimity in the six directions, and then all of a sudden my mind went somewhere, there was no awareness, there was a complete gap, it was like I popped into a different dimension and had no idea what happened. And when I came back, I saw certain things and I said, wow, what is that? And I felt amazing levels of joy and relief, and it was like the heavens that opened up and the angels were singing and all of the good stuff that was happening. So it can happen, usually from the fourth jhana onwards, for most people. - Thank you.

- You were talking about background thoughts coming, and can you have background thoughts while in a jhana? - Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Because the background thoughts have nothing to do with, as I said, vitakka or vicara. It has nothing to do with intentional directing of thoughts. It's the same as, like I said, in the fourth jhana you might still feel an ant crawling on your skin. So when we talk about the sense bases, we're talking about the eyes, the ears, the nose, the tongue, the body, right, and the mind itself. And what is happening is the sensations continue on. Obviously your eyes are closed, so you're not really seeing anything outside, but you can still hear, for example, the birds chirping, or you can feel something, or you might smell something. In the same way, your mind, the function of the mind, is to think or to have thoughts, and so those are just sensory input. You have no control over that, so it will still be there, but it might start to taper off as you get into higher and higher jhanas. Thank you, so

Yep, so the feeling of loving-kindness is the object all the way through. But does this, in the same way that joy fades in the fourth jhana, does the feeling of loving-kindness also diminish, or is it a similar intensity all the way through? It will change. The feeling of loving-kindness will change. And at that point the feeling of loving-kindness changes into compassion, or empathetic joy, or equanimity. So there's a sutta called the Metta Sahagata Sutta, which means accompanied by loving-kindness. And in there, the Buddha says that the limits of loving-kindness are the fourth jhana. In other words, loving-kindness can be in the first, second, third, and then fourth jhana.

But the limit of compassion is the fifth, or what we'll get to tomorrow, which is infinite space. And then so on with empathetic joy and equanimity. What that means is you can still experience compassion from the first jhana onwards until the fifth. Or you can experience empathetic joy from the first jhana onwards up until the sixth. And equanimity from the first jhana onwards until the seventh. So it will change, but it will change on its own. You'll notice certain things that are going on. So if there is a very, very quiet state with a lot of equanimity, but the loving-kindness is gone, is that then you've lost your object of meditation and you're just sitting in a quiet mind or something?

It could be, but not necessarily. It could be the fourth jhana, and your mind's attention is more on the factors of the fourth jhana, which is predominantly equanimity and a sharp mindfulness. Thank you. Any other questions? Yeah. If you revisit the jhanas, do you experience them the same way? Not always. The thing about the jhanas is, as you start to go and experience them more, you might experience deeper aspects of the jhanas or lighter aspects of the jhanas. It all depends upon the mindset. It's almost like taking a trip, an acid trip, which depends on the set and setting. So if your mind is attuned to focusing on certain kinds of factors, you might see more equanimity, or you might see more joy, or you might see more spaciousness.

It just depends on the attention. Do you have any advice for a goal-oriented person to not have goals? Yeah, so in this practice there's something called chanda, which means a wholesome intention. It's like when you're on a ship and you set a course for some place, but you don't keep looking all the time, are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? You just know that that's the destination. So even a goal-oriented person, it's okay to be goal-oriented, but in becoming obsessed by the goal and seeing how soon you can reach it, it's kind of counterintuitive to achieving that. So here the goal, so to speak, is no goal in the sense that it's Nibbana, right?

Nibbana is no conditions at all. So you've set your course for Nibbana, but if along the path you keep saying, are we there yet? Where is Nibbana? Am I in Nibbana yet? You're not in Nibbana, right. So even in terms of life, or having goals in everyday life, it's good to have those, absolutely, but the idea is to not become obsessed by the goal, not to become obsessed even by the outcome of what happens in the process of taking the steps. Before you know it, when you least expect it, Nibbana arises, or when you least expect it the goal is achieved, maybe not exactly as you expected it to be, right, but still it's achieved in some way. So goals aren't bad. It's the implementation of action and how you could perceive that action.

I've got a quick one. Yeah. Is there a correlation between the time that one sits and the arrival of jhanas, or should one sit for a certain time? Because you said 30 minutes plus. Is there a certain kind of duration when these jhanas are likely to start to arise? That really depends on the person. If a person is able to let go a lot, the degree to which they're able to let go, the quicker you're experiencing the jhanas. It doesn't mean that it's only going to happen in 30 minutes. It can happen in five minutes, it can happen in two minutes, it can happen in 30 seconds.

Just depends on how much you can let go. Yeah. If one was to experience Nibbana, would one know about it afterwards? Trust me, you will know. Yeah, oh yeah. But then if a teacher confirms it to you, be like, that was it. It's that, it's like that. Anyone else? Let's share some merit. May suffering ones be suffering free, and the fear-struck be fearless. May the grieving shed all grief, and may all beings find relief. May all beings share this merit that we have thus acquired for the acquisition of all kinds of happiness. May beings inhabiting space and earth, Devas and Nagas of mighty power, share this merit of ours. May they long protect the Buddha's dispensation. Sadhu, Sadhu, Sadhu.