Day 5 The Jhanas -Aug Retreat with Delson Armstrong

Today we will speak on jhanas. Some people have asked this question, why do we talk about jhanas? Because they seem to create an expectation of where we need to be. But what I would say about that is, the reason we speak about jhanas is to lay out the map and understand the steps and the process that's involved, that is a naturally progressive experience that de-layers and deconstructs the mind to its absolute essence, thereby helping the mind attain Nibbana.

The mind that has expectations based on this would still have expectations no matter what, because that is the nature of the mind, the thinking mind, the rational mind, the analytical mind. And the reason why that is, is because we all want to be good little boys and good little girls. We want to perform. We want to get to the top. We want to be the best.

That's all it is. But that's just the mind that has been conditioned by expectations from parents and teachers and elders and societal norms and all kinds of things. I mean, look at the world that we live in, look at how the world lives. It used to be said, and maybe correctly or incorrectly, that there was a division between the East and the West, and the West was very much the capitalistic society of go-getters and making sure that they continue running the machinery of so many different things. The East was this stronghold of wisdom and enlightenment and so on and so forth.

Well, let me tell you, having been to India many times, that is a delusion, a complete 100% fabrication. No matter where you go, the mind has this capacity to want to perform one way or the other, whether it's spiritually or materially, right? And it is for whatever reason. Whatever reason it might be is not our concern in terms of practice, because it can tend towards a lot of self-psychoanalysis, which could result in mental proliferation of the mind. Bhante Vimalaramsi has always said, this is a process of how things work, not why things work.

Why is an endless question. How gets to the core of process. It gets to the core of how, in terms of how the mind attains to suffering or how the mind attains to awakening. And if you look at the entire essence of the practice and the Dhamma, it is about causality and conditionality. All we're doing here is injecting the right causes and conditions and stepping back and watching the performance.

This is what meditation is. Meditation is a performance, right? What I mean by that is, it's like being on stage. Using this analogy of the stage, think of the performer on the stage as your object of meditation, and think of your spotlight as your attention, and the one who works the spotlight as intention. And mindfulness is the stage manager, making sure everything is going according to the script. So when the guy or girl or whoever is operating the spotlight is sleeping, the stage manager comes up and says, hey, wake up! Right, the spotlight is no longer on the performer, it's somewhere else.

So the work in the mind is learning how to keep the spotlight on its object in a fluid manner, and so that answerability is to mindfulness, the stage manager, who says okay, be aware, be attentive. And when you have these coming together, this is the process of meditation. The beauty of that is it's not just when you sit down and meditate. It's not just when you're walking around and meditating.

It's all of life. So there are these four jhanas, and above them the arupa jhanas, which are also called ayatanas. They are an extension of the fourth. So, what is jhana? How do we define what jhana is? Jhana is the Pali that comes from the Sanskrit, dhyana. And the way I translate that is to place your attention on something, to pay attention to something. Dhyana. You know, when we see in colloquial languages in India, when they say to pay attention or where is your attention, they use the word dhyana in place of that. Where is your dhyana? And so we can look at jhana as levels of experience,

levels of understanding, and levels of cessation. The jhanas are not the, I should put it another way, the jhanas are in that sense signposts on the journey, right? Don't mistake the side roads for the destination. They are just there to show you where your mind is, what is the quality of the mind, and what is happening. At the same time, the attitude ought to be in such a way that whatever jhana the mind may be in, it is satisfied being there, it is content being there.

Right? So when I am providing the map to you, it's just so you have the map, and so you know, okay, this seems more likely of what's going on here, which means I'm on the right track. That's it. We don't want to be that little kid in the backseat of the car who keeps saying, are we there yet?

Are we there yet? But that's what happens. The mind says, am I there yet? Am I there yet? So what is the first jhana? The first jhana has five components: vitakka, vichara, piti, sukha, and ekagata. Vitakka and vichara mean one places their attention on an object and keeps that attention on the object. The vitakka is placing the attention, and the vichara is keeping the attention there.

From there, there arises something known as piti. Piti translates to joy, exuberance, exhilaration. And sukha, which translates to comfort and ease. And ekagata is a unified mind. The attention remains composed and collected. So in the suttas it is mentioned, secluded from unwholesome pleasures, or quite secluded from unwholesome pleasures, or unwholesome states, sensual pleasures and unwholesome states. So in other words, when we're closing our eyes, we close off all the sensual activity that's happening from the eyes.

As we bring our attention and our mind back to some kind of an object, we stop paying attention to what's going on in the ears, or in the nose, or in the tongue, or in the body. Our mind is only within itself. So, secluded from sensual pleasures, or quite secluded from sensual pleasures, and secluded from unwholesome states. What do we mean by unwholesome states?

We mean hindrances. The mind is free from sensual craving, free from any kind of aversion, free from any kind of restlessness, free from any kind of sloth and torpor, and free from any form of doubt. So in other words, when we establish mindfulness before us, we sit down, we relax the body, maybe take in a couple of deep breaths, become embodied, come back to the body, and be present with what is arising.

This is establishing mindfulness before you. And then noticing what is in the mind. Is there agitation? Is there irritation? Is there sensual craving? Is there doubt? Whatever is there. And release it. Let it go. And notice what kind of mind is there. It's a mind that is relatively calm, right? A mind that is empty of any kind of agitation or sloth or anything like that.

And then we place our attention on the object. So we have become secluded from the sensual pleasures, secluded from the hindrances. And now we're using vitakka to bring our attention to an object, and vichara to keep the attention on that object. And there's piti, or joy, born of seclusion. There is a beautiful passage in a couple of suttas, I think. One of them that I remember is from the Digha Nikaya.

And in there, it talks about how being free of hindrances is likened to finding an oasis in the desert. Or likened to being free of that debt, making that final payment on your mortgage, making that final payment on your car loan, being free from debt. Or being in prison, and it is your last day, and you are about to be set free, and you are set free.

Or you are under some kind of indentured servitude, and you are freed from that, right? So the idea is that the feeling you experience is relief. I am free. I don't have to make any more payments. I don't have to serve another day in prison. I don't have to wander around in the desert for water. I have found it. I find relief. And that relief is known as pamojja in Pali. It's a gladness in the Dhamma. And this translates to piti, born of seclusion.

Joy, born of seclusion. My mind is free of hindrances. That is the joy that later percolates in a sense of happiness and exuberance. Or it can. It can. And there is ease in the body. There is comfort in the body. There is a sense of steadiness in the body, and the mind remains in gravitational orbit around its object. That's the ekagata. In the second jhana, the vitakka and vichara cease.

In other words, the placing of the attention on an object and trying to keep it there goes away. It goes away because the mind has a certain level of self-confidence. This is how it's translated, self-confidence. It goes on autopilot. It's able to stay with the object without much effort. And so the mind becomes further collected. And now what we have is piti, born of collectedness, joy born of collectedness, further sukha, ease in the body, and further ekagata, the further unification of the mind.

So notice the difference between the piti in the first jhana and the piti in the second. The joy in the first and the joy in the second. The joy in the second is more about enjoying the process of meditation. Not a lot of people on retreat enjoy the meditation. They're only looking ahead, looking forward. What's next? What's next?

So to enjoy, there's the word joy, and enjoy. When you're fully enjoying the process, then you have a certain level of acceptance of, okay, this is great. This is wonderful. I enjoy it, I accept it, and I'm content being here. Because the mind becomes further collected, the mind becomes further unified with its object. In the third jhana, what arises is basically sukha and ekagata. Comfort and ease and further unification of mind.

So what has dropped now? Joy has dropped. Because the mind experiences something more sustainable than just joy. It experiences a certain level of tranquility. Joy is likened to a flame that flickers in the wind due to its exuberance. But tranquility and peace are like a still flame. It won't go out so fast. So here in the third jhana, you may notice that the body feels lighter.

or heavier, the body feels more grounded. There are all these things that are happening in the body because the ease, the comfort, the sukha continues to strengthen. And so this is what in the suttas or the Buddha would say: The noble ones declare he has a pleasant abiding. So this is a beautiful space to be in.

Amazing tranquility and peace. But there is something greater in the fourth jhana. Here, in the fourth jhana, it is known as transcending pain and pleasure. He abides in the fourth jhana, which has purity of mindfulness due to equanimity. That's an interesting statement. Purity of mindfulness due to equanimity. So that mindfulness that started off as the first awakening factor, then changed to discernment, then changed to energy, then changed to joy, then changed to tranquility, then changed to collectedness, and finally came upon equanimity. And that equanimity further strengthened the next cycle of mindfulness.

You see, we have a tendency to think of our thoughts or our experiences as fluid movement. But really, they are basically like individual frames in a film reel. And it's only because of the rate at which the film reel is rolling that it creates a fluid picture. So under the hood, as we're meditating, these frames of mindfulness, discernment, energy, joy, tranquility, collectedness, and equanimity continue to flow.

And further strengthen, further strengthen, until at the fourth jhana, the mind is so unwavering, and the equanimity is so deep that the mind is utterly disinterested with what's going on. There's no disgust. There's no indifference. There's just a sense of everything is fine. The mind is very quiet. The attention is unwavering. And the mindfulness is utterly pure.

At this point, it would feel like there is more energy or vibration or sensation in the head compared to the body. It is as if the feeling of loving-kindness has moved up into the head. Now, can thoughts arise here? Yes, of course they can. So, interestingly enough, when we talk about the formations, there is the physical formations, the verbal formations, and the mental formations.

The physical formations are to do with the in-breath and the out-breath and movement of the body. The verbal formations have to do with active placing of thoughts, actively approaching an object and so on, expressing in thought and in speech. So this happens in the first jhana, where you are actively bringing up an object. But in the second jhana, that ceases. And therefore, it is understood that the verbal formations cease.

Now, it is said that the physical formations, the bodily formations, cease in the fourth jhana. And so some people will take that as meaning that the breath stops in the fourth jhana. In that case, nobody has experienced the fourth jhana. What is happening is that the nervous system becomes so quiet and down. You are at such a deep, parasympathetic space that the breathing becomes almost imperceptible, right? It is like there is breathing going on, but it's in the background. You don't really pay attention to it. It becomes very subtle.

And you start to lose contact with the physical body. Your mind becomes more in itself. If a fly lands on your hand, you may feel it because of the contact. You may feel the contact as your back is in the chair and you're sitting in the chair. Or your feet making contact with the ground and so on.

But generally, the body becomes in the background. It goes in the background. The sensation of the body goes in the background. And from here it is said, transcending all forms or perceptions of forms, one enters into the space known as boundless or infinite space. So what is happening here? You are sending loving-kindness to yourself first, and then you're sending it to a spiritual friend. After a while, that loving-kindness moves up into the head, you experience deeper equanimity, and you experience other things which for us instructors are important to understand and know, so we can give you the right level of instruction. And then from there you are told to radiate in the six directions, to send it out in front of you, behind you, to your right, to your left, above you, below you. Doesn't matter the order. There are many ways of doing this. Some people like to imagine there are beings in the different directions. There are the heavenly beings in the direction above you.

There are lower beings in the direction below you, and so on. Whatever works for you. But ultimately, what happens is as you are radiating loving-kindness in the different directions, your mind feels more expansive. You feel a sense of spaciousness. And sometimes that spaciousness is maybe this much, maybe it's bigger than that, maybe it's the entire hall, maybe it's beyond the hall. And so the idea is you keep radiating beyond and beyond and beyond.

And eventually you are just in this infinite space. And that loving-kindness may transition into what we call compassion, the recognition of the suffering of other beings. Emotionally, people will say compassion feels like empathy. Or it feels like I want people to be free. I want beings to be free. But energetically and meditationally, it's like holding space.

That is also what compassion is. Holding space for another person. When somebody comes to you with a problem, when somebody says or wants to vent, what do you do? You listen. You hold space. Now, I have the maybe fortune or misfortune of living with my mother and my sister. And my mother and sister will sometimes have disagreements.

And when I hear that they are in disagreement, I take shelter to my room. Because I know that they will try to come to me and have me take a side. And sometimes my mom will come to me and want to say something. So I'll ask her in advance. Do you want to just be heard, or do you need a solution? Thank you. Or the same with my sister, or anybody, really. But that's holding space. Just what do you need right now?

Some people just need to be heard, and that's what it means to hold space. So, infinite spaciousness, right? Infinite space is holding compassion for all beings in all directions. After a while, that feeling of spaciousness might slow down, and you might see that there is an expansive awareness that fills up that space. And so in that expansive awareness, you might start to notice what we would call infinite consciousness.

What is infinite consciousness? Here, you might actually go down to the depths and to the intricacies of seeing the individual arising and passing away of infinite consciousnesses. If you are a more visual person, you may see flickering behind the eyes. You may see dots or spirals or all kinds of different things. If you are a more auditory person, you may hear flickering in your ears.

Sometimes you may smell phantom smells. You might feel like there is a spider crawling up on your skin. You may see the gap between one thought and the other. And so what's going on is you're starting to notice contact, contact, contact, contact, internally. Visual contact, auditory contact, olfactory contact, bodily contact, even with the tongue. You may notice electricity coursing through the tongue or phantom tastes.

Mental contact, where you start to see the thought coming and going, coming and going. And so this is really the film reel starting to slow down. Now, this can happen even when you are in walking meditation sometimes. And it is very trippy, so to speak, right? Because I've had it where I was on retreat with the online retreat with David.

And walking into the kitchen, you could see everybody kind of moving around as if there was a strobe light. And you could see every other movement, or the movements were kind of jagged. You could see the space between movements. Some people, when they hear something, they might hear sound in the distance and an echo of that. And when you are in infinite consciousness, I would challenge all of you to try this, because I have done this: go behind the dining hall and you'll see these hummingbirds. And if you're in infinite consciousness, you can actually see the slowing down of the wings of the hummingbirds.

Because your mind is so attentive, it's able to see every layer of consciousness arising and passing away. And so, tied to this can arise what's known as empathetic joy, mudita. Empathetic joy or altruistic joy, sometimes known as that. So how do we define this empathetic joy? There's a friend of mine who was mentioning this to me a couple years ago. We were at a gas station, and we were in his car, and we saw some very fancy car pass on by, some kind of sports car. And he said, every time I see somebody who's driving a sports car, or a fancy car, or a luxury car, I say, good for them.

I'm so happy for them. And he means it genuinely. It's the sense of celebrating in another person's happiness, in another person's joy, in another person's success. This is why it is said that mudita, or empathetic joy, is an antidote for envy and jealousy. The ability to celebrate with another person, to celebrate in another person's victory and another person's accomplishment.

Sometimes, on retreat, someone or another will come and ask me, so how's everybody doing on this retreat? It's not coming from mudita. It's like, am I doing better or worse off? I just need to know. So, mudita, on an energetic or meditational level, feels like contentment. I'm happy. I'm free of any kind of desire for this or that, because I'm contented. And that joy is much more long-lasting. It's a very tranquil kind of joy.

So what you will notice is that loving-kindness has kind of a syrupy quality to it. It's sweet, it's cloyingly sweet, it's got a certain kind of buoyancy to it. And compassion is more diffuse. Somebody has described it as like cotton candy. And then this empathetic joy is even more tranquil, even more sort of wispy.

But it has a certain kind of gravitas to it. It has a certain kind of steadiness to it. From this infinite consciousness, the mind will transition into what's known as nothingness. So what's going on here? If the mind is able to perceive the arising and passing away of infinite consciousnesses. To give you an example, Bhante would always do this. You snap your finger.

That is a hundred thousand arising and passing away of your consciousness. So it's very, very, very slowed down. And you start to see the gaps. The other thing you see is that this arising and passing away suggests that it is impermanent. There's no stability to it. And it becomes tiresome to continue to see this arising and passing away.

And after a while, the mind realizes, oh, I'm not controlling this. There's no controller here. And so what you are seeing for yourself is anicca, dukkha, and anatta. Impermanence, suffering, and the impersonal nature. The emptiness. The word emptiness doesn't mean that it is nothing or there's nothing there. Here when we're saying emptiness, we're saying empty of any permanently abiding self. It is an impersonal process.

So, this perception of impermanence, to the perception of suffering, through the perception of emptiness, leads to what we know as equanimity. And this equanimity is seen especially in nothingness. So this nothingness can be understood or experienced as just a very black space or a white space or translucent space, just no thing present. The mind isn't looking outward for anything and it's not holding on to anything in particular as a something.

There's just awareness that there is nothing going on right now. And it's tied to this experience of equanimity. And so you will radiate this equanimity in the different directions. Now, somebody had asked the question, how do I verbalize these different states? So loving kindness is, may all beings be happy, may I be happy. Compassion is, may all beings be free of suffering, may I be free of suffering. Joy is, may all beings celebrate in their happiness, in their awakening, may I celebrate in their awakening.

And equanimity is, may all beings experience tranquility and peace, may I experience tranquility and peace. This is how you can start the process for yourself wherever you want to start from and then radiate in the different directions. So equanimity is a very, very quiet space to be in. It is different from indifference. Indifference is I'm ignoring that thing. Equanimity is full-on acceptance of everything that's arising through non-reactivity. And it's like seeing or being on the surface of a very still lake.

So, sometimes you will be radiating equanimity, and after a while, the mind stops radiating. And so you take a little pinch of it, and you just squeeze a little bit. And there is like a pebble that drops onto the surface of the lake. And there are little vibrations coming out. And that's the radiating of equanimity. It doesn't have to be so vast.

And after a while, those waves die down again. So you repeat it again. And after a while, those waves die down again. And you try repeating again, and the mind says, that's enough. It has a kind of tension there, which means that it is done with doing. It wants to just rest in its own luminosity. And sometimes people will say, oh, maybe I should pay attention to my breath now.

Maybe I should pay attention to something else. Maybe I should pay attention to the vibrations in my body. No. Those are all thoughts arising from the luminosity of the mind. You just stay in the quiet mind. Sometimes the quiet mind is not altogether quiet, but we call it the quiet mind. It is just mind resting in itself, in the eye of the storm. This is where we transition into the eighth jhana, which is known as neither perception nor non-perception. What is perception?

Perception is the recognizing of an experience. When I was a little boy, maybe about four or five, there was a lot of trouble for my mother because I never listened. She would say, don't touch the fire. Why? I want to see what the fire is all about. So I would touch the fire. And guess what? I felt the heat. I felt the pain.

But I didn't learn my lesson. I would want to touch it again. Okay, I confirm that this is indeed painful. So now it's been ingrained in my mind that this is painful. Next time I see fire, I have a perception of it as being, be careful with that fire. There are many different layers of perception around whatever it is that we experience. When we are kids in school, we learn about different colors and the days of the week and the months and so on. And now that's layering perception in our mind. In other words, perception is rooted in learning and in memory. It is the process of recognition, recognizing what you have experienced before. When I tell you to look at this, all of you recognize these as yellow roses.

You see the color yellow, and you say, Oh, this is a rose. I think it's a rose. So these are yellow roses. If you don't know that this is a yellow rose, now you do. So next time you see it, you will recognize it. So that's rooted in memory. So when we say neither perception nor non-perception, it is neither recognizing nor non-recognizing. It's a very interesting space to be in. Here you are with mind resting on itself, and it's almost like the mind falls asleep but is awake at the same time. It's like a hypnagogic space.

You may experience patterns, images, colors, distant memories, the mind trying to make up something in this dream-like world. It's because the process of perception isn't entirely forming. And yet you're not fully not perceiving. So hence it is neither perception nor non-perception. And sometimes you will be here for a while and then the mind gets very quiet and there's nothing going on for some time.

And again, the mind goes through a space of neither perception or non-perception. And again, there's a point where the mind is very quiet. And again, you might go through this process. And you might do this a few times. And the thing is, the thinking mind, which has now been sort of silenced, comes back and says, am I doing this correctly? Should I be making adjustments?

Should I do a little bit more tranquility? Should I do a little bit more joy? Should I do this? Should I do that? It's more like I'm just watching. The mind is just watching. And after a while, the mind experiences disenchantment. This disenchantment comes from the word nibida, which means usually it's translated as revulsion, but it's not the best translation. It's really you've had enough. You've had enough of whatever it is that you're experiencing. It's like, okay, I see this. I know if I continue looking at something, it's just going to get me down this rabbit hole, and I'm not going to go anywhere. So you're kind of like, okay.

I'm going to remain still. I'm going to let the mind just rest in itself. And after a while, you develop what's known as dispassion, viraga, the lack of any kind of grasping on anything. There's a beautiful image of this in a movie called Little Buddha, where we are shown the night of the enlightenment of the Buddha. And Mara comes to tempt the Buddha.

And he does all kinds of things. And at one point, he launches with his armies a thousand arrows at the Buddha. And the Buddha remains non-reactive. That's what this dispassion is, non-reactivity. No matter how many things are coming to flummox the mind, it remains like this. It just remains non-stick. Nothing sticks to it. And so those arrows come.

And as they approach the Buddha, they all turn into lotus flowers and fall. So there's nothing for us to do in this space just to be, to remain, to rest. Don't do anything. And don't try to don't do anything. Now, in this space, we experience something known as the signless collectedness of mind. It's an objectless awareness. Here, you may notice points of tension in the mind. You just release and relax, release and relax. And the mind may become more just pure awareness without landing on anything.

It's like taking light and shining it up into the sky. And there's nothing that comes in contact with that light. No clouds, no satellites, no meteorites, no asteroids, no planets, nothing. It just keeps going. It just keeps going. That's the objectless awareness. It doesn't land on any object. And whatever may arise in very small little things just burns away, flitters away in that awareness.

They self-liberate. Anytime you look at that thing in particular, now you are taking that as an object. But all you have to do is just be non-reactive, and that thing just goes away. It flickers away. And after a while, just as the flashlight might be shining, the batteries run out. And as the batteries run out, the light stops.

And so in the same way, with nothing fueling the attention of that objectless awareness, because the object itself is what fuels the awareness. But when there is no more fuel, the batteries have run out for that awareness, it stops. And we enter into what's known as nirodha. Sanna, vedayita, nirodha, the cessation of perception and feeling. And here, all mental formations cease altogether.

And it is like there was a gap in your continuity of awareness. There is missing footage. File not found. And so it's like you don't know that happened because the subjective awareness has gone. But when you come out of it, it's like something happened. What was that? Where did I go? And a lot of people will be like, oh, wow.

And so this meditation was originally going to be called the oh, wow meditation for that reason. So they go, oh, wow, and there is an enormous flood of joy that comes up, this unbridled joy and relief, as if you have dropped a huge and heavy thousand-pound backpack. You have dropped an ocean of suffering in that moment. And you feel so much relief and so much joy that your senses are vibrant.

And so when you come out of that and you walk around, there is a hyper-vividity to all your senses. The greens are sharper, the flowers look more beautiful, the birds look more beautiful, the sounds, all of it is just so magnificent. You may have this experience and you may come to me and you may report and say, this is what happened, or I may ask you certain questions to confirm, and then I'll say, wonderful, go back and sit, because this is just the first stage of awakening. This is what's known as stream entry. And all you have to do, all you have to do, is come back and repeat that process.

And so oftentimes the second time around is harder because now you know what to expect. Now how do you deal with those expectations? How do you deal with being in the waiting room of Nibbana? Understand that waiting itself is craving. Like when you're waiting in line at the bank or at the airport, what are you doing? When is it going to be my turn? So you're waiting, there's a craving, there's an expectation of something.

So you have to transform that into upekkha, into equanimity. So if you notice that your mind is overwhelmed by that waiting, by that little kid that keeps asking, are we there yet? You go back one step and you radiate equanimity again. You radiate for a while until it stops and the mind is quiet again. And you do that. You may have to do that a few times, a few dozen times, a few hundred times, but eventually you develop the disenchantment. How many times am I going to do this? I give up.

I give up waiting. I give up doing anything, and you let go, and you develop that dispassion, and then the mind experiences that again. So this is the process, this is the map of the jhanas. Let's share some merit. May suffering ones be suffering free, and the fear-struck, fearless be. 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.