I think I might have achieved first jhana? But not super sure. Hard to answer this as such.
However, jhanic meditation I can describe, for me: it’s kinda nice? Like a lesser version of a warm bath, or a cup of my favorite tea, or standing on a mountain and seeing a vista, except effortful, time-consuming, and lacking the tangibleness of baths and tea and mountains.
Hmm, this seems a bit odd. I don’t like talking about jhanas for various reasons, but this is clearly not it, and I don’t think “jhanic meditation” makes sense as a term, unless you’re just using it to describe that Jhourney is doing.
Just like you’d know if you were given a random mdma/sugar pill, or a random 10g mushrooms / sugar pill, you’d know if you were in these meditative states.
Or at least, the state you’d be in that might be plausibly confused for the jhanic meditative states are impossible to confuse for something that can be described as a lesser version of drinking tea.
I don’t think “jhanic meditation” makes sense as a term, unless you’re just using it to describe that Jhourney is doing.
Yes, I think my terminology could have been more precise. This is what I meant by “jhanic meditation”: the state that Jhourney implies is the meditative precursor to jhanas, arising from cultivating ease and joy and getting closer and closer to them (this state for me, felt like a lesser version of other nice things in my life).
I agree with you that the actual jhana states would feel different. I thought I came close to something quite different, described further down in section 2.
I would be interested to know your reasons for not wanting to talk about the jhanas, if you can share!
Hmm, I don’t know about Jhourney’s terminology, but I’ve been meditating according to kind of Theravada Buddhist tradition, and there there’s a term ‘access concentration’, which is meant to be a precursor to jhanas. And I’d say that is vastly different too. Different from mundane good experiences the way drugs are.
I would be interested to know your reasons for not wanting to talk about the jhanas, if you can share!
Just, obviously there’s traditionally 8⁄9 jhanas. And there’s a bunch of things about how jhanas include suppression and/or cessation of hinderances. And I don’t know if I buy it.
I do buy that you meditate you can get into very strange, clear, powerful, blissful states. And that some of those occur more as phase-shifts than as linear culmination of these qualities as you meditate more.
But I don’t think
Its so discrete that you can losslessly create a map with 8 stages (or 1 stage, or 64 stages etc)
I’m not sure its the same from person to person
I don’t think all the traditional accounts of which phenomena accompany or are precursors for what jhanas are true
Hmm, this seems a bit odd. I don’t like talking about jhanas for various reasons, but this is clearly not it, and I don’t think “jhanic meditation” makes sense as a term, unless you’re just using it to describe that Jhourney is doing.
Just like you’d know if you were given a random mdma/sugar pill, or a random 10g mushrooms / sugar pill, you’d know if you were in these meditative states.
Or at least, the state you’d be in that might be plausibly confused for the jhanic meditative states are impossible to confuse for something that can be described as a lesser version of drinking tea.
Yes, I think my terminology could have been more precise. This is what I meant by “jhanic meditation”: the state that Jhourney implies is the meditative precursor to jhanas, arising from cultivating ease and joy and getting closer and closer to them (this state for me, felt like a lesser version of other nice things in my life).
I agree with you that the actual jhana states would feel different. I thought I came close to something quite different, described further down in section 2.
I would be interested to know your reasons for not wanting to talk about the jhanas, if you can share!
Hmm, I don’t know about Jhourney’s terminology, but I’ve been meditating according to kind of Theravada Buddhist tradition, and there there’s a term ‘access concentration’, which is meant to be a precursor to jhanas. And I’d say that is vastly different too. Different from mundane good experiences the way drugs are.
Just, obviously there’s traditionally 8⁄9 jhanas. And there’s a bunch of things about how jhanas include suppression and/or cessation of hinderances. And I don’t know if I buy it.
I do buy that you meditate you can get into very strange, clear, powerful, blissful states. And that some of those occur more as phase-shifts than as linear culmination of these qualities as you meditate more.
But I don’t think
Its so discrete that you can losslessly create a map with 8 stages (or 1 stage, or 64 stages etc)
I’m not sure its the same from person to person
I don’t think all the traditional accounts of which phenomena accompany or are precursors for what jhanas are true