Jhana: meditative "absorption" ("meditation") chiefly refers to the first four meditative absorptions of form
I want to enter that bliss, but how?
Namely, these are the form absorptions of the fine-material sphere (rūpa-jjhāna or rūpāvacara-jjhāna, see avacara). These profound absorptions are reached through full (ecstatic) stillness, samādhi, concentration (appanā).
At this time there is a complete (albeit temporary) suspension of fivefold sense-activity and of the Five Hindrances (pancha-nīvarana). However, this state of consciousness is one of full alertness and lucidity and, it is said, singlepointedness (ekagata) of mind/attention.
Gandhara: meditating Buddha
This degree of concentration becomes a fully absorbed state. It is generally developed by the practice (cultivation) of one of the 40 subjects of tranquility meditation (samatha-kammatthāna, see bhāvanā).
There are four higher (more refined) states of absorption called the Four Formless Attainments of the immaterial Spheres (arūpāyatana). These are called the four absorptions of the immaterial sphere (arūpa-jjhāna or arūpāvacara-jjhāna).
The usual text, often met with in the Pali canon sutras, runs as follows:... More: jhāna
Ask a Buddhist teacher. Most will say, "There's no way to do it, so just do it." And that's pretty good advice as far as it goes, but it will only get a few there, the "naturals."
For a long time in this round, most of us are not the naturals, not inclined to even try. But when we finally "try," that is not a good sign of getting there. A person letting go, not aspiring, not striving, not anticipating, or doing nothing more than beginner's mind will is more likely to experience "beginner's luck."
That seems to be the Taoist approach advocated by Zen. How many Zen practitioners, however, ever get into a Zen state, a jhana, dhyana, seon, or absorción?
Not many. No one speaks of it, perhaps because of the threat/injunction that, "Anyone who knows doesn't speak; anyone who speaks doesn't know."
That may be true insofar as successful practitioners are not inclined to be worried about what anyone else does or does not do. But as a thinker, I am keen to figure out a practical way of teaching those cannot to be able to. There are a few ways that make sense or have some sort of logic.
First, we know that someone in an absorption has characteristics and is missing others. Things are present, and things are absent. How now if one were to include (cultivate) what is present for them and exclude (abandon) what is absent?
What is present? The Five Factors of Absorption (jhana-anga). What is absent? The Five Hindrances. Does it therefore not stand to reason that by such cultivation, one may very well fall into it? Drop away the obstacles, erect the parallels (those things present along with the wished-for state of heart-mind), and viola there it is!
So much of what people call "Zen" (capitalized as opposed to zen or jhana/dhyana) sounds more like Taoism (with a stiff dose of Confucianism) than Buddhism, and here's why. It was all picked up in translation. So what was lost? Those may be beautiful spiritual/temporal traditions with which to blend, but what is obscured is the historical Buddha's message until it is almost completely lost and replaced by Hinduism (with its Tantra, yoga, and magic that gave rise to another branch Vajrayana/Shingon attached) to a new religion that came to be called Mahayana, far from the Buddha's Dhamma.
Everything Zen
We silly Westerners have no idea! We think we know
"Zen" is a silly word, carrying so much meaning in American English. Goodness knows what it means in Japan or China nowadays, a dying religious sect taking sides in the jiriki versus tariki battle?
We aim to find out on Thursdays in Los Angeles at the Pasadena Zen Sangha. There is a path. What is it? If one were to ask the average American Zen practitioner, then everything likely to be heard in response would be some derivation of Taoism, not Buddhism or any relation to relation to the Doctrine of the historical Buddha.
Lao Tzu (Laozi) was not a Buddhist. He was possibly a celestial (deva), descended to Earth to philosophize and guide the Chinese.
For all that, on "Buddhist Radio" (Alan Watts - KPFK 90.7 FM, 8:00 am, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026) Alan Watts explained Zen in 18-minutes.
His brief talk lays bare the root of every misconception. Moreover, Buddha's Wisdom (in the video displayed above) does much to add context and clarify. Zen can be grasped.
Watts says the problem with understanding Zen is that unless one were raised Japanese -- very punctilious, rigid, formal, ritualistic, deadly afraid of a faux pas, losing face, or doing things incorrectly -- one will not be able to appreciate what Zen (Taoism) offers as relief.
Zen promotes spontaneity, naturalness, flow, being at ease, comfort, and relaxing into a kind of "just being" present and mindful (of the moment) without so much thinking (premeditation).
This is very easy to answer. In Japanese zen literally means "meditation" in the sense of "absorption" (Pali jhana, Sanskrit dhyana, Chinese chan or channa, Vietnamese thiền, Korean sŏn or seon, and Japanese zen). Absorptions are progressive states of stillness (samadhi), misleadingly translated as "concentration."
The connotation of this rendering is struggle, force, and effort, whereas "absorption" is the result of persistent balanced effort (sādhanā practice) but itself is effortless: It is not accomplished by "muscling" or "over-efforting" but rather by "letting go" and no longer "clinging" to things.
Through persistent, steady, calm practice these obstructions are replaced by the Five Factors of Absorption (jhana'anga. "limbs of absorption"), detached tranquility, dispassionate observation, and mindful looking on or objective witnessing or simply watching, at first accompanied by a sort of "bliss" (piti, rapture, uplift, joy, enthusiasm, zeal), "happiness" (sukha), and "contentment" (santosha).
"Zen" with a capital Z is a different story, for it may refer to the entire history and set of practices in the Japanese Mahayana Chan School originating in China, having spread to Korea and other parts of Asia and now the world.
Perplexing discussions of "emptiness" (shunyata) and "suchness" (tathātā) are more easily understood in the older texts of the Theravada.
The Wheel of the Dharma (8 spokes)
Thera-vada is the "Teaching of the Elders," who are the enlightened direct disciples of the historical Buddha Shakyamuni, the "Sage of the Sakas" or the Indo-Scythians of ancient Gandhara, one of the Angas.
Of course, as much as one Buddhist school might influence or explicate another, Zen (Chan) is part of the Mahayana movement, a later "reformed" rather than a back-to-basics "orthodox" movement like Theravada. Zen is so thoroughly blended and saturated with Taoism (and to a lesser extent Chinese Confucianism and Japanese Shinto) that most of what is pondered and assumed to be "Buddhist" is strictly Taoist in nature. All the fun of Zen is more related to Lao Tzu (and later Hinduism, Tantra, and Vajrayana) than the historical Buddha's Teachings. One need only listen to Alan Watts to realize that.
What are those "things"? They are everything other than the only compact (noncomposite) item, the sole unconditioned element, which is called nirvana (Pali nibbana).
Nirvana, as our habitual logic might compel us to conclude, is notnothingness. Rather, it is the end of:
For anyone who's convinced that the Buddha never had anything to say about nirvana, there is this lovely description describing the indescribable, almost capturing the ineffable, or seeming to put words to that which is really beyond words.
These words are said as a corrective for everyone making the massive mistake of concluding that nirvana has to mean "annihilation, nothingness, non-existence, or the void," a pernicious wrong view.
Could anyone ever draw what can't be imagined?
THE BUDDHA: “There is, O meditators, an unborn, unoriginated, uncreated, unformed. Were there not, O meditators, this unborn, unoriginated, uncreated, unformed, there would be no escape from the world of the born, originated, created, formed. But since, O meditators, there is an unborn, unoriginated, uncreated, and unformed, there is an escape from the born, originated, created, formed.”
Anyone not yet convinced that the Deathless is not Eternal Life (but perhaps closer to the Ancient Greek term mistranslated as such, aion, as spoken of by the wise Gnostics) and the Unconditioned is just not like the conditioned (all those composite things utterly dependent on causes and conditions), the Buddha said more:
“Truly, there is a realm, where there is neither solid, nor fluid, neither heat, nor motion, neither this world, nor any other world, neither sun nor moon. This I call neither arising, nor passing away, neither standing still, nor being born, nor dying. There is neither foothold, nor development, nor any basis. This is the end of suffering" (Ud. VIII. 1 - The Immutable).
Thus have I heard. At one time the Buddha was staying near Savatthi in Jeta's Grove at Anathapindika's monastery.
On that occasion he was instructing, rousing, inspiring, and gladdening the meditators with a Dhamma talk connected with NIRVANA, and those meditators, being receptive and attentive and gathering their whole mind, were intent on listening to teaching. Then, on realizing the significance, the Buddha delivered this inspired utterance:
What would such a timeless place be like?
"Meditators, there is that base where there is no earth, no water, no fire, no air [the Four Elements]; no base consisting of the infinity of space, no base consisting of the infinity of consciousness, no base consisting of nothingness, no base consisting of neither-perception-nor-non-perception [the Four Immaterial Absorptions]; neither this world nor another world nor both; neither sun nor moon. Here, meditators, I declare, there is no coming, no going, no staying, no ceasing, no rising. Not fixed, not movable, it has no support. Just this is the end of suffering" (Udana 8.1).
This counterintuitive Teaching is for the wise.
What could this sutra mean? It is clearly stating that there is something beyond the beyond -- beyond the "universe" that is the 31 Planes of Existence, which is divided into three spheres (lokas): our sensual sphere, the heavenly fine-material sphere, and the incomprehensible immaterial sphere. They are increasingly subtle until they peter out into an even more sublime situation where there is not even that which was already incomprehensible. It does not matter that it is incomprehensible BECAUSE it is experienceable, personally verifiable, a truth attainable here and now, not in another rebirth (in heaven or otherwise), not in an afterlife, but here and now in this very life. So nirvana should be embraced as practical, excellent, and worthy of knowing-and-seeing directly, and not dismissed as theoretical or unknowable. Let's look at the original Pali canon wording:
Paṭhama-nibbāna-suttaṃ
1. Evaṃ me sutaṃ: ekaṃ samayaṃ bhagavā sāvatthiyaṃ viharati jetavane anāthapiṇḍikassa ārāme. Tena kakho pana samayena bhagavā bhikkū nibbānapaṭisaṃyuttāya dhammiyā kathāya sandasseti samādapeti samuttejeti sampahaṃseti. Te ca bikkū aṭṭhi katvā [1] manasi katvāsabbaṃ cetaso [2] samannāharatvā ohitasotā dhammaṃ suṇanti.
2. Atha kho bhagavā etamattaṃ viditvā tāyaṃ velāyaṃ imaṃ udānaṃ udānesi: - "Atti bhikkave, tadāyatanaṃ, yattha neva paṭhavi, na āpo, na tejo, na vāyo, na ākāsānañcāyatanaṃ, na viññānañcāyatanaṃ, na ākiñcaññāyatanaṃ, na nevasaññānāsaññāyatanaṃ, nāyaṃ loko, na paraloko, na ubho candimasuriyā. Tatrāpāhaṃ bhikkhave, neva āgatiṃ vadāmi, na gatiṃ, na ṭhitiṃ, na cutiṃ, na upapattiṃ. Appatiṭṭhaṃ appavattaṃ anārammaṇamevetaṃ. Esevanto dukkhassā"ti.
Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly edited by Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly
In the Pali language texts, there are two ways for developing the Four
Elements Meditation, in brief and in detail.
The brief method explained here is meant for those of quick understanding. The detailed method is meant for those who have
difficulty with the brief method.
The Buddha taught the brief
method in the Maha Satipatthana Sutta (the “Greater Discourse on Setting Up the Four Foundations of Mindfulness”): A meditator reviews this very body however it is positioned
or placed as consisting of just elements: “There are in this
body just the earth-element, the water-element, the fire-element,
and the air-element” (The Path of Purification, Visuddhimagga, Ch.XI, para. 41–43) explains further:
First, one of quick understanding who wishes to develop
this meditation should go to a solitary place. Then one should
advert [turn attention towards] one's entire material body and discern the elements in
brief in this way:
Western (British) Sayalay now Beth Upton
“In this body
what is hard or rough is [to be regarded as] 'earth
element,'
what is flowing or cohesive is 'water-element,'
what
is maturing (ripening) or heat [temperature] is 'fire-element,'
what is pushing
or supporting is 'air-element.'”
One should advert and give
attention to it and review it again and again as [simply] “earth-element,
water-element, fire-element, air-element,” that is to say, as mere
elements [components, qualities, characteristics], not as a being but as selfless.
As one applies attention in this way, in no long time, concentration [stillness] arises, which is reinforced by understanding that illuminates the classification [labelling] of the
elements.
This is only access-concentration* and does not reach absorption [a fully absorbed or concentrated condition] because it has states with individual essences as its object.
[*“Neighborhood or access-concentration” (upacāra-samādhi) is the degree of concentration (stillness, centeredness, mental-settling, focus) just before entering the absorptions or jhānas.]
Alternatively, there are these four [bodily] parts mentioned by Ven. Sariputta for the purpose of showing the absence of any self in the Four (great primary) Elements:
“When a space is enclosed with bones, sinews, flesh, and skin, there comes to be the term 'material form' (rupa)” (M. I. p. 190).
And one should resolve each of these, separating them out by the
hand of knowledge, then discern in the way already stated (above): “In these what is hardness…as its objects.”
4. Air-element: supporting, pushing [for a total of 12 characteristics lumped into four categories called the Four Elements, the dhatu or maha-bhuta].
To learn this meditation, one must begin by learning how to discern each of the 12 qualities or characteristics of the Four Elements one at a time.
Usually, the beginner must first be taught the characteristics that are easier [more obvious] to discern then the more difficult [subtle] ones later. The “Four” Elements are therefore usually taught in this order:
pushing,
hardness,
roughness,
heaviness,
supporting,
softness,
smoothness,
lightness,
heat,
coldness,
flowing,
cohesion.
Each characteristic must be discerned first in one place in the body then one must try discerning that same characteristic throughout the body.
Fortunately for us in the United States, Americans have gone to Burma, practiced under Pa Auk Sayadaw, succeeded in attaining the absorptions and insight and on occasion written books about it. They are in America. They teach. We can recommend these seven:
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.
"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
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.
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.
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
Friends, at the beginning of the year, I made a commitment to write more. Since then, I have actually done a little writing every single day. Five gold stars!
Writers tell me it is important to keep up the habit, that practice makes progress. Obviously, it’s the same with meditation, so I am humbly practicing what I preach, trusting that if I just keep writing, eventually something good will come of it.
At the same time, it would be a huge help to know what readers actually want to read about.
My strength, if I dare say so myself, is attending and attuning to the person sitting in front of me. I’ve never been great at addressing a large or anonymous audience. It’s never quite clear what’s being requested of me with such an audience.
So when I sit down to write, I’m often left with a sense of well, What do readers want to know?
A few weeks ago, I recorded a podcast (see above) with the charming Dan Harris. As one can see, I enjoyed the conversation. He asked great questions and did a wonderful job of playing proxy for the average viewer who doesn’t know too much about the world of advanced Buddhist meditation.
The first time Pa Auk Sayadaw came to America, he was invited to California in Napa
.
For me, it was my first real foray into addressing an audience I do not know. The same issue crops up here. Of all the precious and hidden gems the Dhamma (the Buddha’s Teaching) has to offer, which of them should I give this hour to? Again, instinct prompts me to ask, What does anyone want to know?
Dan and I touch on past lives, absorption (jhana), science, and its relationship to the Buddha’s “Doctrine in Ultimate Terms” (Abhidhamma), eventually landing on a topic dear to my heart: the skillful and wholesome (kusala).
But the topic choice from my side was basically just a series of guesses. I don’t really have a clue what the average viewer of Dan’s podcast, or the average reader of my newsletter might want to know more about.
So please let me know at bethupton.com. Let me know in our next one-on-one meeting, or on a group call, or better still, in the comments below.
Also, if anyone would like for me to do more podcasts like this one with Dan Harris, please take a moment to like the video and leave a comment there.
Let us know in the comments which kinds of things the world would want to hear more from me in future videos.
Another successful Western female student of Pa Auk Sayadaw: Dr. Nikki
And for those of wondering where the button is to book one-on-one time with me, I am sending out monthly newsletters, interspersed with these ones that are just me writing about things. Open and read them all, just in case it’s the one with the button. 🌝
All of my work is done on a donation basis, which means that all of this is only possible because of generous voluntary support. Support this work at bethupton.com.
Key takeaways:
Kusala states = happy states:
Kusala, drawn from the Buddhist psychology of the Abhidhamma—a system that breaks down experience into its most granular mental and emotional components—refers to a constellation of virtuous, skillful mind states.
Beth Upton calls it a “Buddhist happiness cake,” made from ingredients like generosity, mindfulness, uprightness, loving-kindness, and more.
One entry point unlocks the rest:
We don’t need to cultivate them all at once—because focusing on just one quality (like loving-kindness, integrity, or gratitude) invites the rest to arise. These mental states are “best friends” who tend to show up together.
Letting go feels better than giving in:
Our culture glorifies small, fast pleasures—like scrolling, snacking, and checking out—but deeper, more lasting happiness comes from subtle, wholesome states.
Letting go of ego and craving isn’t a sacrifice; it’s a relief.
It’s not just for monastics:
We don’t need a cave or a meditation cushion. Kusala can be woven into daily life—as we parent, commute, chop vegetables, or write emails. More
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