Tuesday, July 29, 2025

Practical Guide to Deep Meditative States


How to strengthen concentration through jhāna with Shaila Catherine
(Dhamma Centre) Streamed live in 2021. This online event includes a Dhamma talk, a brief guided meditation, and a Question & Answer session. Ask questions about the practice of concentration, and Shaila will respond with an understanding gleaned from her extensive experience with jhana practice. Join to explore the role of concentration in Dhamma practice.
  • The Buddha in samadhi at Gal Vihara, Sri Lanka
    "Concentration"?     What does samadhi really mean? The Pali texts describe this quality of mind as "internally steadied, composed and settled, unified." It is a coherent mind, a unification of the mind with the object, a stillness of mind free of distraction, undistractedness, collectedness, and focused attention that produces a profound stability of mind. It is the factor that lands on the meditation object, penetrates it, and stays there. We stay attentive with the object, not dispersed, dissipated, scattered, or agitated. We experience it with cohesion and coherence, internal strength, often very pleasant (states linked to bliss, happiness, equanimity, a joy born of seclusion or withdrawal of the senses) associated with tranquility, calm, ease, peacefulness, stillness, rapture, bliss, deep and profound equanimity. Fixed focus (appana samadhi) is a single focus on any one of a variety of different objects. There is another called momentary concentration (kannica samadhi).
The Jhanas: A Practical Guide to Deep Meditative States
The Jhanas: A Practical Guide
Author Shaila Catherine has 4.8 out of 5 stars with 27 ratings for this instructional manual. It promises to give access to some wonderful things:

Experience new levels of joy, calm, and clarity with this revised and enhanced edition of the bestselling Focused and Fearless.

The Pali word jhana (Sanskrit dhyana) literally means “to meditate.” It also refers to a traditional series of states of meditative absorption, each deeper than the last, in which the mind is undistracted by sensation, thoughts, or moods.
Shaila Catherine’s friendly, wise approach, blended with contemporary examples and pragmatic "how to" instructions that anyone can try, shows meditators (and non-meditators) how to attain these extraordinary states with relative ease.

But jhana practice is about much more than just meditation or concentration [the misleading word most often used to translate samadhi]; it offers a complete path toward bliss, fearlessness, and true awakening.
From the introduction:
It's so natural, laypeople can reach it with ease.
Jhanas are states of happiness that can radically transform the heart, reshape the mind, imbue consciousness with enduring joy and ease, and provide an inner resource of tranquility that surpasses any conceivable sensory pleasure.

Jhanas are states of deep rest, healing rejuvenation, and profound comfort that create a stable platform for transformative insight.

Beyond Distraction: Five Ways
In this approach to jhana, we use the calming aspects of concentration to support the investigative aspects of insight meditation. The fruit of concentration is freedom of heart and mind.

This new edition of the meditation classic clarifies crucial points and offers twenty-one additional exercises, making this a great book for both those new to jhana practice and those looking to deepen their practice. The Jhanas: A Practical Guide to Deep Meditative States
Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)