Right Samadhi

What then is the experience of jhāna? The mind’s energy gradually pulls away from its usual dispersion at the various sense doors and gathers internally. Any negative emotions or unwholesome states of mind disappear. The sensation of having a body disappears. One feels light and joyful, and the mind becomes silent without any thinking whatsoever. The mind’s awareness then focuses more and more intently on the mind’s own reflection, usually experienced as radiant brightness, until the subject/object relationship melts away into an experience of oneness. The mind is then unified, immobile and rapturous. There is no awareness of the external world. What remains is the essential “knowing” nature of the mind, boundless and clearly aware. This state can last from a few minutes to many days. Such profound meditative experiences form the basis for mysticism in many spiritual traditions. An all-pervading clarity and purity, a sense of profound unity, and a deeply satisfying bliss—these are the hallmarks of jhāna.

In the process of making an effort to develop samādhi through repeating a word internally, watching the breath, cultivating loving-kindness or some other pure samatha technique, one inevitably gains much insight into the workings of the mind. At each stage the reason that the mind won’t go deeper into samādhi is because of some attachment. It is then necessary to seek out and understand what it is that we are attached to.

This reflection by Ajahn Chandako is from A Honed and Heavy Axe.