Exploring samadhi and jhana states
I have wanted to write about jhanas and samadhi for a while, mainly because they have provided me with a great deal of benefits in my life. They help in a number of ways:
- just reading about them is inspiring. The path they describe is beautiful and uplifting.
- even if you don't get into them, just trying to do them is beneficial.
- if you do get into them, or near them, it is very refreshing for the mind.
- they make relaxation profoundly interesting.
- combined with mindfulness, they get things moving on the insight path (vipassana)
There's not much use in me writing about the technical details of doing jhanas, as there are already a number of excellent books out there that do that - simple intructions would be: sit there, relax, be steady, wait. Knowing about them can be a hindrance, but if you don't know about them then you don't know what is going on when stuff happens and this can be limiting. You could try and find a teacher but this might not be possible. There also seems to be this big thing about jhanas but I would recommend ignoring that and just take things as they come.
Anyway, I will try to focus on the bits that have been useful to me and ramble on about that. This will combine with other things I will be attempting to explain, so that when I'm done I feel like I've managed to explain stuff that has made me feel a bit better. That is my aim.
- just reading about them is inspiring. The path they describe is beautiful and uplifting.
- even if you don't get into them, just trying to do them is beneficial.
- if you do get into them, or near them, it is very refreshing for the mind.
- they make relaxation profoundly interesting.
- combined with mindfulness, they get things moving on the insight path (vipassana)
There's not much use in me writing about the technical details of doing jhanas, as there are already a number of excellent books out there that do that - simple intructions would be: sit there, relax, be steady, wait. Knowing about them can be a hindrance, but if you don't know about them then you don't know what is going on when stuff happens and this can be limiting. You could try and find a teacher but this might not be possible. There also seems to be this big thing about jhanas but I would recommend ignoring that and just take things as they come.
Anyway, I will try to focus on the bits that have been useful to me and ramble on about that. This will combine with other things I will be attempting to explain, so that when I'm done I feel like I've managed to explain stuff that has made me feel a bit better. That is my aim.
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