Jhana

　　The highest level of concentration — fixed penetration — follows on threshold concentration. If mindfulness and alertness arise while you are in threshold concentration, they turn it into jhana.

　　Jhana means focusing the mind, making it absorbed in a single object, such as the internal sense of the form of the body. If you want jhana to arise and not deteriorate, you have to practice until you are skilled. Here”s how it”s done: Think of a single object, such as the breath. Don”t think of anything else. Practice focusing on your single object. Now add the other factors: Vitakka — think about the object; and vicara — evaluate it until you arrive at an understanding of it, e.g., seeing the body as unclean or as composed of impersonal properties. The mind then becomes light; the body becomes light; both body and mind feel satisfied and refreshed: This is piti, rapture. The body has no feelings of pain, and the mind experiences no pain: This is sukha, pleasure and ease. This is the first level of rupa jhana, which has five factors appearing in this order; singleness of object (ekaggata), thought, evaluation, rapture, and pleasure.

　　When you practice, start out by focusing on a single object, such as the breath. Then think about it, adjusting and expanding it until it becomes dominant and clear. As for rapture and pleasure, you don”t have to fashion them. They arise on their own. Singleness of object, thought, and evaluation are the causes; rapture and pleasure, the results. Together they form the first level of jhana.

　　As you become more skilled, your powers of focusing become stronger. The activities of thought and evaluation fade away, because you”ve already gained a certain level of understanding. As you focus in on the object, there appears only rapture — refreshment of body and mind; and pleasure — ease of body and mind. Continue focusing in on the object so that you”re skilled at it. Don”t withdraw. Keep focusing until the mind is firm and well-established. Once the mind is firm, this is the second level of rupa jhana, in which only rapture, pleasure, and singleness of object remain.

　　Now focus on the sense of rapture associated with the grosser physical body. As the mind becomes more and more firm, it will gain release from the symptoms of rapture, leaving just pleasure and singleness of object. This is the third level of rupa jhana.

　　Then continue focusing in on your original object. Don”t retreat from it. Keep focused on it until the mind attains appana jhana, absolutely fixed absorption, resolute and unwavering. At this point, your sense of awareness becomes brighter and clearer, causing you to disregard the grosser sense of the form of the body and to focus instead on the subtler sense of the body that remains. This leaves only singleness of object, the mind being unconcerned and unaffected by any external objects or preoccupations. This is the fourth level of rupa jhana, composed of singleness of object and equanimity.

　　When you become skilled and resolute at this stage, your concentration gains the strength that can give rise to the skill of liberating insight, which in turn is capable of attaining the noble paths and fruitions. So keep your mind in this stage as long as possible. Otherwise it will go on into the levels of arupa jhana, absorption in formless objects.

　　If you want to enter arupa jhana, though, here is how it”s done: Disregard the sense of the form of the body, paying no more attention to it, so that you are left with just a comfortable sense of space or emptiness, free from any sensation of constriction or interference. Focus on that sense of space. To be focused in this way is the first level of arupa jhana, called akasanañcayatana jhana, absorption in the sense of unbounded space. Your sen…

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