Meditation & jhana; a personal experience

jll

http://www.leighb.com/longintv.htm

DhammaDhatu

Leigh Brasington is getting a little carried away, here.

There are three levels of concentration & rapture, namely:

1. momentary concentration & rapture;

2. neighbourhood concentration & rapture; and

3. attainment (jhana) concentration & rapture.

During his second retreat in Thailand, Leigh possibly experienced neighbourhood concentration/rapture at most but definitely not jhana.

But there is doubt that his mind even developed neighbourhood concentration because the mind with real concentration (i.e. neighbourhood or attainment) easily goes from rapture (piti) to happiness (sukha).

But momentary rapture, due to weakness of concentration, does not flow into happiness (sukha) because the mind gets carried away with attachment to the rapture.

Beginners who wish to learn about jhana are best to read Ajahn Brahm's book so they do not overestimate their experience.

With metta :om:

I grew up in a small town in Mississippi as the son of a Presbyterian preacher. I have grandparents on every side in every generation as far back as I can trace that are preachers, mostly Baptist. So, I was born with some sort of spiritual genes or something.

My second retreat was three years later in Thailand at Wat Suan Mokkha, Buddhadasa's place. He gave one of the Dharma talks, but his health was not particularly good at that time and the retreat was basically taught by Bukkhu Santicaro and the other monks there. That was where I got into the first Jhana for the first time. I had no idea it was Jhana. I knew it was piti. They talk about piti and sukkha at Suan Mokkha as part of Buddhadasa's mindfulness of breathing approach.

I went around meditating for the next two years, getting into piti and asking all the teachers "now what?" I signed up for another retreat with Ayya because I'd sat with her before and thought she was a good teacher. I go in for my interview and give the usual "I can get to Piti - now what?" She says, "Oh good! That's the first Jhana. Here's how you get to the second." It was like this incredible light going on. That was in 1990.