Tag: Meditation

Mindfulness and Phenomenology

On By Chris Shuttleworth3 Comments
Originally Written: February 12th 2020

Mindfulness and Phenomenology

Here I wish to delineate several related terms to better differentiate their usage and respective attributes. The terms in question are that of mindfulness, philosophical phenomenology, and psychological phenomenology. Edmund Husserl pointed to key differences between psychological phenomenology and philosophical phenomenology, but here, for clarification and ease of understanding, I wish to additionally employ the use of mindfulness or Vipassana in the Buddha’s conception. These terms are used in the study of our own experience, and all are different possible states of Being we may enter into, and can potentially be used towards specific aims once they are unveiled to us within our own experience. They are Hiedeggerian “modes of Being” which can become open options to us (due to deterministic causality) in the exploration and truth seeking in the direction of comprehending and conceptualizing our own experience.

We begin with an analysis of the content of our consciousness, through introspective awareness, this is defined as mindfulness. Through mindfulness we can direct our consciousness to become aware of the contents within its sphere of awareness within the present moment (Basic Vipassana and Samatha Meditation). When we knowingly are aware (meta awareness – aware of our awareness) of what is happening within consciousness within this presentment, we can learn about the nature of consciousness, and gain insights into its fundamental nature (philosophical phenomenology) as well as its development, prior and post causality, what brings certain aspects into awareness and how we act and behave in response to them, and what effect that experience has upon us (psychological phenomenology). Thus we use mindfulness as a groundwork structure to gain insight into the two fields of further application. Mindfulness allows us to be aware of what content enters into our consciousness, and with enough practice in being in this mode of Being, certain insights can become clear to us (recognized as True).

Such insights available to be gleaned and recognized firsthand through the practice and training of mindfulness are broadly grouped into three useful, essential, basic truths about our inner experience. These are delineated by the Buddha, and while they are not comprehensive as to the content which is able to be uncovered, they are immediately intuitable, and beneficial to recognize. Those I speak of are the nature of non-self, impermanence, and the unsatisfactory underpinnings of our existence. The lack of a definite self, or ego, or non-self is to be discovered through the coinciding insight of impermanence, as their being no content or no phenomena to be found as being permanent. We find upon investigation that the content of our consciousness is in constant flux from moment to moment, and is characterized by its transient arising and fading away nature, as objects of consciousness (inner subjective content within the realm of consciousness within each moment) come into view and are replaced by new content. This causally led chain of content is discovered as modal changes to being without an anchor or headmaster, what we find to be its basis is simply Being as Being, rather than as Being as Self. Being becomes conceptualized, or experientially seen as, an active happening, lacking the “self” which we normally attribute as being an agent acting as the contributing subject to the content of our experience. Lack of “free will”, or, lack of control over what is the next content of consciousness, becomes apparent as a negative attribute of our experience. Mindfulness has the ability to allow the mindful practitioner to realize the suffering, or unsatisfactory nature of his being, through the experiencing of a consistently present desire, or craving, or clinging which propels the consciousness to become dissatisfied with its current state, and to be directed towards future states of the present moment. This is what Husserl terms intentionality, or the directedness or pointlessness of consciousness towards something. This intentionality, spurred by desire and dissatisfaction, is acted the content of our perceptual environment, including mental content, under the fundamental concern, importance, value, of what the perceived horizon presents as optimal to the totality of our Being. This directedness towards value is what Heidegger defines as fundamental to our Being, that of “care” (Heideggarian Terminology).

From the findings of mindfulness stems the scientific study of phenomenological psychology, which is a variant upon, and later rediscovery, of the very methodology which Buddha painted the picture of two thousand years prior. In psychological phenomenology, we take the experience of consciousness, and analyze them in a way towards an aim of giving description to the content found within. The describing of such content allows us to classify and arrange experiential content (psychologically phenomenological) in a cohesive and useful manner, in which to recognize and give a conceptual understanding to the causality of such states arising, as well as towards goal-directed states of optimization. This is the role of psychology within the phenomenological subfield, to identify states as falling into discovered groups of classification, and towards the arising of future states with a goal in mind towards the state of Being with which we wish to embody.

As to the nature of the Being which is able to experience mindfulness, we must employ a “science” of objective philosophical phenomenology to analyze and interpret its foundation structures. The role of philosophy is to describe the nature, essence, limit, scope, and characteristics of the Being which is able to experience, the being which we analyze, that which is necessarily most readily available to us, is our own, a “human being”, defined as “Dasien” in Hiedeggerian terms. When we seek to know what is universal about such consciousness, and its ability to experience, its ability to enter into different modes of Being, we seek the use of philosophy in its depiction. We find explanations attempting to attribute essential foundational, objective, universal, consistencies that form the basis of Human Being. Hiedegger finds our being inextricably linked to a tripartite temporality, as existing within a structure of time we didn’t choose to inhabit, the “thrown” of our existence (past creating a present creating a future). We are found within this period of temporality with the primary characteristic of having a foundational “care structure” (comparable to desire in Buddhism) which affects our entire existence. We find ourselves “thrown” into an existence which is unprecedented, and we have an anxiety towards death, a constant anticipation of future inexistence, and we embody the will to escape it (Buddhist dissatisfaction). The answer is to heed the call of conscience and to live authentically while seeking to understand our Being.

In Hegel we find that human consciousness exhibits a form of Being which is able to be in distinctive general modes, or forms of Being, which can progress itself through a dialectical method to higher states of more comprehensive knowledge and understanding of itself and reality. As contradictory truths are discovered in our experience, we seek to transcend them through forming a synthesis which contains opposing facts about our existence, allowing us to supersede our prior mode of consciousness. Subsequent philosophy is able to analyze and depict the Being which we are, Dasien, as containing infinite modes of Being which give rise to the experiences which shape these forms of Being, and which can progress.

Philosophy is able to generalize about the steps taken in the conscious development, or of a hypothetical ideal conscious development as derived from the objective nature of experience which itself is discovered through the use of reason and conceptualization within this consciousness, which is, the objective study of subjectively discovered philosophical phenomenology.

Benefits of Mindfulness

On By Chris Shuttleworth1 Comment
Originally Written: April 6th 2018

Spiritual progress and expertise in meditation is a skill that can only be developed and cultivated with practice. Practice takes time, repetition, effort, concentration. It is of utmost importance to have this skill, as the development of the mind organizes the chaos of all we experience. The understanding of reality, and the fusion of your consciousness to the present moment, without being led away by delusion, destroys ignorance, destroys suffering, and its causes. To improve in the development of your mind, arguably called “spirituality”, enables experiences of ever increasing insight into the nature of your psychology, reality, “yourself”, that increases in profundity and clarity as you work on the skill.

To work in developing mindfulness in a Theravadan Buddhist sense, or in developing a non-dual state of mind as outline in the Hindu Advaita Vedanta tradition, increasingly enables experiencing the present moment, experiencing every shift in consciousness as its contents arise and fall, as it shifts from object of awareness to awareness itself. It is possible to become so mindfully located in the present moment that you are aware of even the slightest change in consciousness as it moves from one phenomena to another. To do this much practice, much time, effort is needed to cultivate the skill. Certain defilements must be uprooted; distractions must be eliminated. Any form of desire, craving, attachment, to anything – even a state of mind, yourself, peace – must be uprooted. Any type of aversion, blocking, avoidance must also be uprooted. This is the middle path, a pure acceptance of the present moment, with no will to be found. No will as in want, and no will as ability to control, as both are illusions made of the brain by the organism to produce effects.

The ability to experience Being, to experience pure experiencing, is to simply Be. To fully be mindful, is to be mindful of being mindful. It is to be aware of the exact content of consciousness as it constantly is changing, and to see it, watch it, free of motive, free of will, free of denial of will, unbiased, as it is. The effects of such insights lead to a greater understanding of causality as it relates to your psychological state. This includes the causality leading to the un-satisfactory nature of life, and thus to others, and how you and them can be aided. This cause is from the very desire or craving or attachment to anything, even happiness, and from seeing things as permanent, and as something to “hold on to”. Every phenomenon is merely occurring within the present moment, and it is all impermanent, these are truths we should make peace with by letting go of the notions otherwise. From a mode of being characterized by peaceful equanimity, in which the mind is not disturbed by any normally perturbing stimuli, such as those that go against our desire, by anger in others, by misfortune or by aversion, springs all the greatest things we would normally want, truth, happiness, morality. We often find in life that when we are not looking for something, we happen to find it, and in this case, when we are not searching after happiness, or satisfactoriness, but rather pursuing what is right morally, and by maintain a state of mind which is characterized by understanding and virtue, that it naturally follows in its wake.

If you understand how your wellbeing is diminished by the desire that moves us along in the present moment, you can understand how your wellbeing is possible in the present moment, by redirecting those desires towards something that truly has meaning to you, and by eliminating the desires that aren’t in alignment with consciously calculated goals. From this you can use that understanding to move your experience to that of well being, more and more so with more practice, more and more so you move to do what is in your best interest. Then extrapolate outward with the effects of such an undertaking and it becomes clear that you can improve the wellbeing of your family, your coworkers, friends, community, and onward. The key is to developing your mind, and the implications lead to a better present moment, better in every form of the term, not only for you. The more you develop and train and practice in this manner, the better your life can become, the more you can understand yourself, and your lack of self, the more you can acknowledge phenomena as they arise, and then remove defilements such as anger, hatred, jealousy, ill will, laziness, boredom, dissatisfaction, suffering, and so on.

It is natural when an unsatisfactory mode of being arises to not want it to proceed as dominating the psyche, but that very desire often confines us to stay within it. It is by the calm recognition of the arising, and the ability to let go of wishing to be otherwise, while simultaneously not acting in a way which satisfies the unwholesome state of mind, that we are able to overcome it. What skill could be more useful than that which enables you to be better equipped to the misfortune and negative modes of being inherent in every life? What would be a better way of becoming a better person, than developing knowledge of wellbeing, and how to attain it, and then improving the lives of others, by improving yourself? The skill cannot be bought, or shared, or worked on by anyone but you, and you can only develop it, it isn’t quick, and instantaneous, your improving in it is yours alone, and you can not share that. But you can help point others in the right direction so they too can develop it. Spiritual progress is yours alone, and thus shouldn’t be talked about lightheartedly, but to those with true willingness to learn, to improve, with “little dust on their eyes”, we should seek to aid them or answer their cries for help as Buddha was encouraged to do upon attaining enlightenment. Wisdom dictates our ability to decipher who it would be beneficial to share certain ideas with, and we should use our best judgment in discerning the ideas we share with others.  Enlightenment is the most important thing in the world, the most valuable, and it is within you, hidden underneath biological impediments, culture, conditioning, and unwholesomeness, clean up your mind, remove impediments, develop wholesomeness, and become able to be experiencing right here, right now, in this present moment, and every present moment, the potential you contain – actualized.

Basic Advaita Vedanta Meditation

On By Chris Shuttleworth1 Comment
Originally Written: March 30th 2018

I think the main confusion people have with understanding the self is in the understanding of consciousness and its contents, which is where you would look for such a thing. The confusion comes from attributing independent control to awareness. Consciousness (all subjective experience) simply is made up of stimuli arising into awareness then disappearing, there is no choice/selection by a self, there is only mindfulness, or knowledge of awareness of the present moment, available to us. If you pay attention to your experience, this is available to be seen now. Even thoughts of the past/future are simply arising into the moment. The feeling of control/choice/ being something permanent is an illusion, also arisen into conscious awareness.

There is no subject/object, experience/experiencer duality in relation to subjective experience. There is only the awareness of the present, of consciousness, there is only experience itself, there is no separation between a someone and something done to him, all there is is something happening, this happening is experience, and that is all. This is the non-dual nature of reality, there is no self, just change, just experience, just consciousness and its contents. This is Advaita Vedanta. To practice Advaita Vedanta, you are focusing on the awareness itself which is the backdrop in which contents of consciousness are appearing. Rather than recognizing the contents as they arise and fade away, as in Vipassana, and rather than focusing on a single content of consciousness and bringing the awareness constantly back to it, as in Samatha, in Advaita Vedanta you are focusing upon the field of pure consciousness within which these contents are appearing. It is the reflexive meditative act of focusing awareness upon the field of awareness itself. The best metaphor I have for it is that of a stage play, where actors and sets are constantly changing on the stage, but the whole act is occurring on the stage. The contents on the stage change, but the stage remains the same. Here the stage is consciousness, and the actors are the contents of consciousness. In Advaita Vedanta we are watching the stage, and realizing its “permanence” in a Hindu sense, as it is the backdrop and consistent aspect which lies behind all conscious content. Through this identification with awareness itself, we remove the distinction between there being a watched and a content watched, we lose the subject object distinguishing and identifying, entering into a non-dual state, which has with it the realization of the non-dual nature of consciousness itself. This insight, and this state, is the primary objective of Advaita Vedanta.

Basic Vipassana and Samatha Meditation

On By Chris Shuttleworth2 Comments
Originally Written: March 26 2018

Here I want to give a quick differentiation of two basic types of traditional methods of meditation, Vipassana and Samatha. Samatha meditation is concentration meditation, and it was the first “formal” type of mediation. It was developed by the Hindus far before the birth of Buddha, and was common practice by contemplatives and spiritual gurus up until his time. Samatha meditation is the focusing of your concentration on a single phenomenon, this is most commonly practiced as breath meditation, where you focus on the breath exclusively, attempting to bring the attention to it, and back to it any time it strays. Any object can be the object of attention in Samatha meditation, whether it be a deity, a word, or a phrase. The important aspect is that any time your awareness drifts from the object of intentioned perception, you recognize its shift, and bring it back into the contemplation of the object. It is an attempt at minimalizing the distractions, and maintaining a steady awareness. As far as the effects of Samatha mediation, it can bring you into state of jhana (Four Jhanas of Buddhism), which are meditative states of increasingly different conscious states. The jhanas are marked by many aspects, as you move into the higher rungs throughout mediation. While many people state they are reserved for spiritual contemplatives, I believe they are attainable by anyone who is able to practice the mediation sufficiently. Some aspects of the different jhanas experienced during Samatha Meditation are; intense pleasure in concentration, seclusion and removal of distractions, one pointedness of thought, removal of desire and aversion, peace in the present moment, peace in seclusion, and as you get into further states – the abolition of thought, and the fetters of existence. The experience of non self, and equanimity regardless of the minds movement is most valuable here. Through dedicated concentration, and awareness of the minds ability to change from the object, you are cultivating character traits of equanimity, or undisturbedness in the face of misfortune, or fortune. It is cultivating a peaceful mind that is calm and unable to be perturbed, thus the benefits last longer than the actual mediation.

Vipassana Meditation was brought into existence by the Buddha himself, and entailed a further extension of Samatha meditation. Formally, it is translated as “insight” meditation, where the practitioner is developing insight into dharma (Basic Dharma Explanation), or the true nature of things. Rather than singular focus upon a single mental phenomenon, the practitioner here seeks to be mindfully aware of any content entering into conscious awareness, without an attempt to hold on to anything, or revert back to anything, nor to be averse to any unpleasant phenomena. This method of mediation is much more difficult, as many phenomena can distract us from the awareness of their arising. The goal is to be aware of the content of consciousness without judgment or desire for it to be otherwise, yet to remain aware on the present moment. The distraction here isn’t a content that is other than the object of awareness, as in Samatha, but rather a distraction is anything that takes us out of the mindfulness of the contents of consciousness in the present moment. So anytime our awareness breaks and we follow a thought stream without being explicitly aware that it is happening, the practitioner must bring his awareness back to the present moment and maintain that awareness of whatever content is arising. This form of meditation opens us up to some fundamental truths of our psychological state, namely, the inability to alter the contents of consciousness, as there is no controller, there merely is content arising and fading away, outside of any “self” controlling it. This is known as the doctrine of nonself. There merely are phenomena arising, there is no “free will” in determining what content appears next. We merely are motivated to the next thought or content, through desire. We don’t choose the desire. Therefore, whatever happens, is out of “our” control. There are the perceptions, emotions, sensations, thoughts, and mental formations, or habits of the mind, such as language and reactions, these things are the 5 aggregates that make up our experience, and they are arising and fading away.

The next insight to be gleamed from Vipassana is the realization of impermanence, that any phenomena that arises is not lasting, its transitory, subject to change, it is not permanent. This can be extrapolated from mental occurrences to all phenomena, and just like non-self, or any other Vipassana insights, it can be directly experienced and known by the practitioner as a foundational truth of our psychological existence. In addition to impermanence and nonself- we can realize that any phenomena that does appear, is appearing in the present moment. Whether it be a thought about the future, or the past, or any other phenomena, everything that occurs, is only occurring now, in this moment, and it will always be so.

The basic formula for performing Vipassana meditation is; present moment awareness, recognition of impermanence, and then letting go. If this is done sufficiently, these insights will come to the practitioner, and can be directly realized. This provides wisdom into the truth of reality, and allows us to align ourselves with the truth through the destruction of false beliefs previously held, such as the existence of a self and free will, or the existence of something “permanent”. The benefit in these realizations in providing a better equipped psyche in reference to mental phenomena as they arise, in not clinging to the pleasurable, or avoidance of the unpleasurable, but rather excepting them for what they are, phenomena out of our control. We can gain insight into the causal nature of what causes positive, wholesome states, as well as what produces unwholesome, suffering, states. This is through the mindful awareness of the causal chain of dependent origination (Dependent Origination (Buddhist Conditionality)), another insight to be gleamed. This chain is characterized by initial ignorance, and leads us through several successive steps which eventually leads to suffering. If we are able to recognize the processes occurring, in their causal determinacy in leading to unwholesome states, we are better able to navigate and destroy the chain before it propagates into destructive mental states and speech and actions. The ability to gain insight into these chains, allows us to handle ourselves in a wise, calm, equanimous manner, and better enables us to navigate the throes of existence, as well as provides us with insight into how others minds work, so we can aide them, or at least not hinder them, in the destruction of the suffering within their lives. The benefits of this type of insight mediation are honestly exhaustive, and the sill can be constantly improved upon. While Samatha necessarily requires one-pointed concentration on an object in the present moment, and thus, normally, requires quiet, sitting, eyes closed (traditional meditation stereotype), Vipassana, on the other hand, can be practiced in any situation in life, it merely requires a concentration on the content of the present moment, and thus is useful in many situations. It is advocated that a mindful existence, always, is beneficial, but I disagree, which is basically a blasphemous statement in Buddhist circles, but I have my reasons, as explained in the essay “Conscious employment of the Unconscious”.

As with all meditation, I don’t believe they are to be utilized in response to a negative situation, they are not a “fix it” tool for resolving life’s problems. I tend to see them as anticipatory tools. They are the cultivating of character traits, and in Vipassana, realization of truths, which better prepare us for when difficulties do arise in our lives. We shouldn’t perform meditation when life is going horrible for us, in these cases, we should attempt to actively rectify and set our lives in order. When life is going good is when we should meditate, to remind ourselves of the transitoriness of this pleasure and fortune, and to prepare us for when things fall apart, for when bad times do come it is better to be strong and calm minded in order to better deal with them. Vipassana improves our understanding of consciousness and reality, thus providing insight into the true nature of things. Samatha can change our conscious state more directly and dramatically to one of peace, non desire, equanimity, as well as improve our concentration.

Both types of mediation can change our conscious awareness of the present moment to an improved experience, and improve morality by acting/experiencing in a mindful, careful, wise way. Meditation is cultivation, expanding the mind, improving our understanding, morals, actions, speech, thought, beliefs, wisdom, purity, compassion. Say we feel angry or annoyed by something someone says. The effect lingers, we contemplate why they said it, the person’s horrible character, how they are wrong, we’re right, and the general situation that caused our anger/annoyance. To be mindful of the feeling, in the present moment, opens us up to its impermanence, allows us to let it go, and is the best tool to understanding/fixing negative emotions which in turn effects thoughts/speech/actions in effect changing our lives and others. We can become aware in such a way “I feel annoyed at this person, this annoyance sprung up into my Being after he said something. I didn’t choose for the person to say something, neither did I choose to feel this way in response, it just came into my conscious experience, and there is something mysterious yet amazing about its arising. So there was a cause, what the person said, then the feeling, then negative thinking, now I’m aware, I feel the emotion, it’s not me, it’s non-self, it’s causing suffering, and it’s impermanent. Viewing it merely as it is, I won’t crave my previous state of happiness, or be in a state of aversion towards it. I will accept it for what it is.” Merely by knowing our aware of its presence, and that there is no self that created it, it becomes merely part of experience, realizing it’s okay, just part of reality, of a life with an inherit conscious nature to experience suffering like this, we can accept the emergence of the emotion, and let it go, liberating ourselves from its influence, dispassionately, we can be mindful of the whole stream of events and it might occur to us that the whole situation was almost magic like. It’s astonishing in seeing how emotions happen, and we might even laugh/be happy on how we were able to see the emotion as just an emotion, to mindfully witness life happen, understand it, and fix the problem. The most important part of reciprocity is to not manifest those emotions into actions or speech that harbors ill-will, or isn’t useful or beneficial to the other person. This type of reaction to unwholesome, or negative influences, is all too natural for us, but only leads to further suffering for ourselves and the other person. By mindfully being aware of unwholesome states, we can reign back our automatic response in being defensive or going on the attack to the other person, and work to respond in a way that is wise, meaning, beneficial to all parties involved.

In addition to these two types of mediation, there is Advaita Vedanta meditation, and Buddho Mediation, as well as a whole variety of other traditional practices. Advaita Vedanta (Basic Advaita Vedanta Meditation) is a slightly different spin off of Vipassana, where the insight and methodology is slightly different in its focus upon non-duality, but certain insights are gleamed that are unique to it. Buddho meditation is a specific form of Samatha meditation, where the object of concentration is the word, which has significant meaning, and thus inspires us to gain the character traits associated with that meaning.

Four Jhanas of Buddhism

On By Chris Shuttleworth1 Comment
Originally Written: November 19th 2017

There are certain states of mind that are exclusively experienced through the use of meditation, each one building upon the last, manifesting themselves out of the previous state of consciousness. These unique states of mind, of course, are relevant to any experience, but the four with which I am granting differentiation and specific classification, are those that are found through Samatha concentrating meditation, and are known by Buddhists as the four jhanas. They are meditative states, and have certain attributes in their experiencing, and certain requirements or preconditions to their arising. It is important to strictly pursue the Samatha meditation with the right intentions, of improving concentration, in focusing upon the present moment, and expanding the mind through practice. Any intention whilst practicing to achieve these states of jhana will hinder your development in their arising, we must practice without the intention to change our current mode of being, if we are suffering, we shouldn’t enter meditation to alleviate it, we should practice with diligence towards the intention of becoming closer to the truth, in becoming more moral, in developing wisdom and compassion, rather than for the egotistical benefit of desiring to achieve some sensual or internal pleasure. These things should naturally follow from the good intentioned practice.

These meditative states are able to be entered through Samatha Meditation, in which the practitioner is focused upon a single object, such as the breath. By one pointed concentration directed towards the experiencing of the object of concentration, we enter into Samatha meditation. As Our mind wanders to different content, naturally, we bring the gaze of awareness back to the object, and if we have gained enough concentration, and effectively cultivated a state of mind which is free of attachment, has been liberated from the ego, and finds pleasure in seclusion from sensual pleasures, then we are moving along the path towards the manifestation of the first jhana, or state of mind cultivated by Samatha meditation. If there has been sufficient cultivation of a wholesome mind, marked in ways listed before, that desires and puts forth effort in abandoning Ill will, delusion, craving and clinging, then with single pointed concentration into the present moment upon the object of meditation, you enter the first jhana. This is marked by a great pleasure of being secluded and in not desiring sensual pleasures. It is a contentment with the present moment experience of consciousness, devoid of external influence as a source of happiness, and a foundation of inner peace based on the inner disposition. This mode of Being is cultivated by prior experience in traveling the Eightfold path and the resultant of concentration within the framework of abandonment of previously mentioned defilements and unwholesome qualities. This pleasure within comes from knowing that you are cultivating wholesomeness, becoming a better person while practicing, so it is working toward enlightenment, or in other words we experience joy, through the practice of cultivating the highest possible form of ourselves. This combines the joy of personal spiritual growth and understanding, with the happiness from virtuous activity, which comes from knowing that the practice will increase wholesome interactions stemming from your own Being with to those you come in contact with (family, friends, coworkers, society, and sentient beings in general). The first jhanas is characterized by removal of five hindrances (Ill will, doubt, laziness, restlessness and greed or sensual pleasure) and experience of five jhanas factors (happiness, one pointedness of mind (concentration), applied thought, sustained thought, rapture). While this is the beginning of jhana development, there still is maintained discursive thought, and while meditating upon the object of attention, we shouldn’t seek to “empty our minds” or remove this thought, we should only be concerned with concentrating upon the present moment and the object which we are focusing upon. We shouldn’t be averse to any thoughts that arise within this state that bring us away from the object, we should only recognize them, and bring attention back to the object of concentration.

The second jhana is characterized by the removal of two factors cultivated in the first, that of sustained thought and applied thought, and is marked by further unification of concentration and gain a pleasurable sensation through the increase in sustained concentration, which is a modified version of positive emotion from the first jhana. You no longer are applying conceptualizations to the content of experience, but are rather experiencing the object of concentration, to a greater degree of sustainability than previously experienced. You can experience the first jhana as pleasure in the thoughts of wholesomeness, and the second in pleasure born of the sustained concentration of the experience without thought, the moment without thinking. This doesn’t mean we should actively pursue the removal of thought, it only means, with enough emersion into the present moment, and enough cultivation of concentration, the thoughts that describe phenomena and the thoughts which move to different phenomena, merely fade away, and the feeling of pleasure is conditioned by the concentration itself, not in the pleasure of being secluded.

The third jhana is characterized by equanimity, also without thought or conceptualization, with an ever increasing concentration and emergence into the phenomenon which is the object of awareness, but with an understanding and acceptance of the body as it is, acceptance and appreciation of the life happening within, which doesn’t include a thought stream but maintains a strict awareness within the present moment. The joy comes from this equanimity and contentedness within the present moment, no matter on the situation or experiences surrounding your life. It is the effective detachment from the content of experience, and the peace that arises from this detachment, is born of acceptance of the present moment regardless of its content. This equanimity is the crucial part of the third jhana, and constitutes the middle path, neither excessive self torture, nor in sensual pleasures, but restraint in not going to either extreme, and the contentment and happiness found in that mode of Being located between the two. Neither desiring or running towards fame, wealth, or immortality, nor being repulsive or running from the states of unpopularity, poverty, or death, is equanimity. Neither pleasure in being a wholesome state of consciousness, or non-pleasure in being in an unwholesome state of consciousness, whether experiencing a positive emotion such as love, or a negative emotion such as anger, the equanimity marked by emergence in the third jhana fosters a state of mind that is not perturbed by any content arising in the mind.

In the fourth jhana the ability to be equanimous in the state of pleasure or pain, is replaced by pure mindfulness and equanimity, in which there is no longer an experience at all arising of either pleasure nor pain. While equanimity and contentedness began to develop in the third, in the fourth the pleasure is replaced by a calm, clean, purified consciousness that is ultimately equanimous, without thought, without the emotion of positive joy or negative dissatisfaction. So the pleasurable sensation which was concurrent throughout the first three leaves us, the thought which was present in the first is no longer there, the full emergence into the present with undivided attention, not being broken by any distracting phenomena is attained in the fourth. The first jhana destroys the five hindrances, and begins concentration, and happiness from thinking of the mind in this state. The second removes the thought attached to the concentration, and focuses on the concentration itself. The third is an increase in happiness and concentration, and the beginning of developing equanimous feeling. In the fourth the happiness is replaced by a pure emergence in the awareness in the present moment while concentration and equanimity becomes a constant.

It is said that from the fourth jhana stems psychic powers, to this, I can offer no experiential evidence, nor logical reasoning to its existence. What is known, is that there are different states of Being that are able to be cultivated through sufficient concentration, and their delineation is possible to be characterized by these four classifications. In practice, the transition from each state of mind, in each person, I would assume, is most likely a very hard thing to pin down, especially in the present moment. But in a retrospective analysis as to what was experiencing in Samatha meditation, if sufficiently analyzed and meditation effectively practiced, we can conceptualize the experience as containing the above states, that is, if they were attained. It must be remarked that our experience is changing in degrees, and a strong “line that is crossed” in reference to the successive jhana states is never experienced, we merely move from state to state in degrees, along a spectrum of experience, each state doesn’t appear in its entirety in a concrete step. Experience flows, and we can mark of the jhana by the retrospective analysis of experience as it flowed, and make the distinctions listed above. All in all, the jhanas are not to be experienced for the pleasure and states that they can provide us while experiencing them, but our intention should always be to merely practice concentration, with an aim to character development, and inner expansion. Any unwholesome intentions will not only bar us from experiencing the jhanas, but will also contaminate any attempt of mental training or cultivating of character traits.