This is a talk given at the Blooming Heart Sangha on September 15, 2022.
Cultivating the state of Jhana joy – take two
Last week, Karla gave a lovely talk on breathing.
- Moreover, she gave us the guided experience of what it feels like to breathe and become aware of our breath.
- Pause to be aware of our breath…….
- I expect that we all have experienced moments of joy, pleasure and delight.
- I want to talk about my practice of cultivating and expanding those moments if joy. Based on breath.
- It is the practice of the 5 jhana factors, the precursors and precondition for the deep state of absorption: Jhana
- The 5 Jhana factors are the path of deep concentration leading to: Jhana, samadhi.
- I talked about this several years ago, and said I had a 6 month plan to explore the 5 jhana factors.
- I’m still exploring. I’m still on the path, I’ve experienced lot, but still practicing. I now see the path differently. This is my current experience.
Summary: The 5 Jhana factors are steps along the path to cultivating deep concentration.
- A path of deepening joy.
- I’ve seen Thay refer to Jhana, but I haven’t seen him discuss the 5 steps I’m talking about.
- He talks about the factors and about the state of absorption.
- I have relied on authors like Shaila Catherine for identifying the path as the 5 steps.
First Step: Connecting
- I direct attention to a chosen object: the breath as known
- Connecting begins with the intention to know and become aware.
- Connecting relies on relaxed, natural awareness of the physicality of the breath.
- A focus on the breath as known. On the occurrence of breath.
- Equivalent: the striking of the bell.
Second Step: Sustaining
- Sustained attention on the chosen object: sustained attention on the breath as known
- Starts getting harder
- This sustaining of attention allows concentration to deepen
- Equivalent: the reverberating bell, the steading hands of a potter.
- Next step is easy: do nothing
Third Step: Rapturous interest
- Surrender to inner bliss; allow it to happen naturally.
- Natural feeling of lightness and pleasure when the first two steps occur.
- I said it is easy, BUT: the first time it happened to me it scared me so much I was in my Doctor’s office the next day talking about the possibility of a stroke.
- I’ve decided that this surrender to rapture is a developed skill; I now do it multiple times a day, without fear. It is easy.
- Not some kind of random rapture; it is rapture out of attention to a specific object (for me: breath as known or some other tactile experience as known: eg. Momentary touching the chair fabric)
Fourth Step: Joy
- Enduring deep ease, pervasive contentment
- Mind is bright and undisturbed
- Sustain rapturous, but at lower level; not as intense
- Equivalent: settling into a warm bath.
- No urgency to finish…..nice
Fifth Step: One-pointedness
- A feeling of intimacy that rivets attention
- Sets the stage for absorption
- 5th step has a feeling of certainty; stability of concentration.
- I think: A summary of all 5 steps in one.
These five are the 5 Jhana Factors
- Set the stage, are prerequisites for Jhana absorption……absorption that can support insight or action, but it is not the same as insight or action.
- I linger on these 5 factors; They are where I am; still working on them, getting familiar with them.
- Jhana absorption is mostly out of my reach, though I sometimes think I see it in a distant mist.
- I talked about the five as steps, and some authors, like Shaila, present them that way.
- In true Thay fashion: I think if you really experience any one of them, you experience them all. All at once. And that is very nice.
- Like 5-sided dice.
The 5 Jhana factors are a way of deep concentration; also a way of deep joy.
- 5 Jhana factors rely on awareness of the breath that Karla taught us about.
- In my practice, I add other tactile experiences that I become aware of as known.
- However, for most, the breath is pivotal, the breath is foundational.
This is how I use the breath; What about you?
- How do you use your breath?
- How does the breath fit into your practice.
- Experience?