To reach 1st jhana, do we have to let go, or do we have to put some effort?
Upvote:0
responding to user 000's answer:
The method you cite first is correct. Do not pursue the second. Any authentic feelings of joy and rapture will arise of their own accord. Anything forced or willfully attained is not jhana. The first stirrings of jhana will invariably catch you by surprise and will seem to come out of no where. We cannot force them to arrive.
That is completely wrong. Meditation is a subtle art, and both viriya-sambojjhanga (vigor/energy awakening factor, equivalent to right effort, right exertion) and passaddhi-sabojjhanga (pacification/relaxation/letting go of all tension in mind and body) are active before, and through all the 4 jhanas. See MN 78, and study the 7sb awakening factors.
Blissful aspects of Jhana can hit you suddenly and seem to come out of nowhere, as user 000 described, but piti, pamojja and mudita are active things you do to engender joy and bliss. Piti-sambojjanga (rapture awakening factor) is to be developed (bhavana), just like samadhi. https://notesonthedhamma.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-miseducation-of-piti-in-theravada.html
Upvote:1
"There is the case where a monk — quite withdrawn from sensuality, withdrawn from unskillful qualities — enters and remains in the first jhana: rapture and pleasure born from withdrawal, accompanied by directed thought and evaluation. He permeates and pervades, suffuses and fills this very body with the rapture and pleasure born from withdrawal. There is nothing of his entire body unpervaded by rapture and pleasure born from withdrawal.
"Just as if a skilled bathman or bathman's apprentice would pour bath powder into a brass basin and knead it together, sprinkling it again and again with water, so that his ball of bath powder — saturated, moisture-laden, permeated within and without — would nevertheless not drip; even so, the monk permeates, suffuses and fills this very body with the rapture and pleasure born of withdrawal. There is nothing of his entire body unpervaded by rapture and pleasure born from withdrawal...
Jhana / Right Concentration (samma samadhi)
One should quite withdraw from sensuality, withdrawn from unskillful qualities. To do this one must put effort to develop Vitarka-vicara on a chosen object exclusively. The Jhana factors that follow automatically.
This is not comparable to "letting go" (viraga) which is more Vipassana oriented results due to Nibbida. When one focuses on and objects one temporarily suspends sensuality. Vipassana totally eradicates it. Therefore Vipassana also leads to Jhana when one develops viraga, but suppression of sensuality and unskillful qualities is sufficient for the 1st Jhana.
Upvote:3
The method you cite first is correct. Do not pursue the second. Any authentic feelings of joy and rapture will arise of their own accord. Anything forced or willfully attained is not jhana. The first stirrings of jhana will invariably catch you by surprise and will seem to come out of no where. We cannot force them to arrive.
If I had to guess, I'd say the main reason why you [and really most people] aren't experience jhana is that you haven't been sitting enough. Outside of a retreat setting, daily 90 minute sits is really the bare minimum for effective samatha meditation. Any less than that and the mind just isn't quelled enough for jhana factors to present themselves in any kind of stable way. To be terribly honest, you are also highly unlikely to find full absorption outside of a retreat setting. It usually takes at least three days of 10+ hours a day of sitting for the mind to release its hold on the world and the grosser manifestations of the hindrances. Only afterwards is the mind prepared for jhana practice.
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