Detailed Notes on Session One of The Role of Jh!

na in
Buddhist Meditation, by Bhante Henepola Gunaratana.
Buddhist Library, Singapore. Nov 12, 2013.
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Pay close, undivided attention.
Jh!nas are one of most essential part of the Buddha's teachings.
There is no concentration without wisdom, no wisdom without
concentration. These are two sides of the same coin. This was
emphasized in Buddha's teachings.
Insight or vipassan! meditation has been a popularized in the
West in the last 20 years... [But] When someone wants to
practice concentration meditation, some vipassan! meditation
teachers discourage that. They do not want people to practice
concentration meditation. Concentration meditation is known as
the practice of jh!nas.
Concentration has two aspects: right concentration and wrong
concentration. Right concentration is not right concentration if
jh!na is not included. If you preclude jh!na from meditation,
then our meditation is not complete. Becos, for the right
concentration there has to be 7 other steps that we must practice
- right understanding....right mindfulness - these are the 7 steps
must precede right concentration. If we do not practice right
concentration, we are not following the Noble Eightfold Path.
We follow Noble 7-fold Path. In order to complete Noble 8-fold
Path, we must include right concentration as well, which has
invariably been defined by the Buddha as the four jh!nas.
...
4 Formulas that Buddha used to describe right concentration.
Quite secluded from sense pleasures, secluded from
unwholesome states of mind, one enters and dwells in the first
jh!na which is accompanied by applied thought and sustained
thought, with rapture and happiness born of seclusion. - That is
the [formula of the] 1st jh!na.
So, what is jh!na? By looking at this description, you may see
the words but they do not make any sense if you dont
understand the theory of jh!na. Theory is also absolutely
neccessary - it is like a roadmap. Even if you have a good car
and money in your pocket, if you do not know the direction in
which you are going to drive, you will end up somewhere
without reaching your goal. Similarly, we have to understand
what jh!na really means. What it really does. How we can
practice it. The formula gives the gist of 1st jh!na. ....It is
imbibed with a lot of meaning.
...
You have to begin with some kind of trust, faith. This is not
blind faith. We have faith in the Buddha because he never tell us
to do anything that we cannot do. He is saying I have done it,
and I have reached the goal. From my personal experience I am
telling you that you too can do exactly as I have done. So his
teaching he is giving from his own personal experience. And
also Buddha is the One who never lie to people, never deceive
people. He always tell the truth. Not just the truth, but the Noble
truth. There are 3 kinds of truth: 1. Conventional truth, 2.
Ultimate truth, 3. Noble truth - i.e. 4 Noble Truths.
Buddha was the one spoke about Noble Truth. What are the
Noble truths? The first one is Suffering. Is there anything noble
in suffering? Suffering itself is not noble, but the fact that it is
truth, is noble. ...Therefore, we have to have trust, confidence,
faith in Buddha. We must try to follow what he says....then we
must put them into practice, then they will be effective. Faith is
the seed of anything wholesome.
Why is concentration so important?...Is concentration absolutely
necessary for attainment of goal? My dear friends, I must say
yes. It is absolutely necessary. Buddha repeatedly says that it
is the concentrated mind that sees truth and things exactly as
they are. Concentrated mind can see things exactly as they are.
Also Buddha mentions our mind is naturally luminous. But
because of defilements this luminous mind becomes defiled.
Since many people do not know this, they do not practice
concentration meditation.
...Concentrated mind is just like kinetic energy...like streams on
mountains, run through tributaries, but we need to harness this
energy...make it run through dynamo...then we can harness the
power of the water....the concentrated of mind can penetrate
through the shell of ignorance and break it.
What is "seeing things as they are"? Things means not outside
things, people cars so on, but things in the body, feeling, senses,
thoughts and consciousness. These things we cannot see
completely clearly as they are without concentration.
Concentration absolutely necessary, to complete meditation
practice.
...Buddha is our guide, our teacher, our leader. Follow the guide
and his instructions. Buddha was practicing wrong concentration
for a long time following other teachers. When is concentration
right? When practice Noble eightfold path, wrong concentration
becomes right concentration. This involves a lot of discipline.
Jh!nas cannot be cultivated without a certain degree of
discipline. How to discipline? By following the Noble 8-fold
Path.
Jh!na has certain steps to follow. ...Roadmap is given in 1st
formula:
Quite secluded from sense pleasures. Withdraw does not mean
to leave home. ...but we need right environment, we cannot
attain jh!na in nightclubs, playgrounds, etc. ...There is physical
seclusion and mental seclusion. Physical seclusion means
remove from hustle-bustle, busy activities. People can find this
even in their homes, turn off the tv, cell-phone, dont tell visitors
to come and see them, you can stay in your own house and be
secluded from other activities, and you can cultivate jh!na if you
can create suitable atmosphere. Having quiet time to themselves
is absolutely necessary for mental health for everybody.
Mental seclusion is removing certain mental impurities to attain
the goal....Secluded from unwholesome states of mind...ie.
hindrances....keep the hindrances from mind temporarily in
order to gain jh!na.
...In the first jh!na, there are two kinds of thoughts: applied
thought and sustained thought. The explanations for these are
not very clear [in the commentarial tradition]. Applied thought
and sustained thought in Pali is called vitakka and vic!ra.
In the Noble 8-fold path, there are 3 kinds of thoughts that are
called right thoughts. They are the thoughts of letting go or
thought of renunciation, there is the thought of letting go of
anger and cultivating the thought of metta or loving-friendliness
and the thought of cultivating compassion or non-cruelty. These
thoughts are called Sankalpa.
In some other places, the same kind of thought is called
vitakka. Sometimes they are called sankalpa, sometimes
vittaka. So when someone attains jh!na, there are still 3 kinds of
thoughts in the mind. What are they?

The first initial thought or pre-requisite of jh!na is the thought of
letting go, or of freedom. Letting go means dont become
attached to any particular thought. ...When we sit to meditate,
attaining jh!na is not very difficult. We have to remember the
whole universe is in our mind. People say, My mind is going
somewhere, and that is why I cannot meditate and so on.
Friends, mind cannot go anywhere. MIND CANNOT GO
ANYWHERE. If mind goes somewhere, youd be dead - legs in
the air. Mind circulates within itself, bringing all kinds of
memories. We have all sorts of things in our mind: seeing,
hearing, tasting, smelling, touching and thinking. We build up
our concepts, ideas and we put it all in our permanent files. So,
we take away all these permanent files when we close our
minds: We have these trillions of things we have seen, smelt,
heard, touched and thought....so many trillions of things in the
present, and on top of all this, we think about things in the past
and future...Does the mind go anywhere? No. It does not go
anywhere. It keeps rehashing the things we have seen, heard,
smelt tasted touched and so on. ...So, to get rid of these thoughts,
this is called freedom, or liberation, or letting go. What we have
to know is to turn off the switch of going to the past, going to
future. Switch off all the things we have seen with our eyes,
heard, smelt and so forth. DONT THINK OF THEM. The
moment you do not think of them, that moment you have let go
of them. That is a very easy thing to do....You have to train....As
soon as you close your eyes, let go of these memories
temporarily. This how we have the initial thought of letting go.
The second pre-requisite for jh!na is the thought of loving-
friendliness....metta is better translated as loving-friendless
instead of loving-kindness, as metta means friendliness, while
karu!! means kindness....Third is the thought of letting go of
cruelty and cultivating compassion....Our mind is so peaceful
and calm and relaxed when we have these 3 thoughts in our
mind. These are the 3 thoughts that help us to gain
concentration.
...Then sustained thought means maintaining these 3 types of
thought - keeping the mind secluded from sensory stimuli, then
maintaing the thought of friendliness and keeping it, and
maintaining the thought of compassion and not letting the
thought of cruelty take over.
....Some people say they dont hear or sense anything in 1st
jh!na. In first jh!na, it is not that everything disappears. If so,
what is the use of going to higher jh!nas?...Imagine you are
working all and day, and one day you go to a quiet place. See
how much joy happiness, and freedom. Concentration
meditation is like that. Everybody is calm, quiet, relaxed,
maintaining no talking. You feel peace. Then rapture and
happiness arises in your mind. This is different from busy state.
You can still feel and sense, but your mind is very calm and
relaxed, and in that state you will gain first jh!na. Not that
everything completely disappears and you are in state without
everything. ...It takes some time.
[Bhante gives instructions for short meditation session: Try to
gain some peace, seated quietly. Then recite Metta Sutta
translated into English, and make the mind go to metta, and then
maintain the mind in this state.]
Question and Answer:
1) What is the difference between joy and happiness?
Joy arises in degrees in anticipation of what is ahead. Suppose
you are traveling in desert where is no water, food or directions,
you are alone, facing uncertainty, doubts and so forth. Suddenly
you see somebody coming towards you with wet clothes, fresh
face. Seeing the person....you ask him the secret to why he is
looking so fresh traveling in the same desert. The person will tell
you he has seen an oasis in the desert and how to get there.
Hearing this, you feel joy. As you approach you see birds flying,
and people jumping and bathing in water, your joy increases.
When you yourself jump into water, bathe and enjoy, your joy
turn into happiness cos you have quenched your thirst and gotten
rid of tiredness. ...Happiness is the completion of contentment.
Joy is in anticipation of that. That is the difference. Neither of
them is excitement. If there is excitement, you cannot gain
concentration. It arises when mind calm, relaxed and peaceful. It
becomes calm, relaxed and peaceful when it is content, not
excited.
2) There are 5 consciousness and mind consciousness and each
has a door. What is the door of the mind consciousness? How do
you go about representing it?
Mind consciousness is the mind conscious of itself. This
sometimes is termed as bhava"ga citta. Bhava"ga is a limbo, a
connection of this life with previous life and this life with future
life. Bhava"ga has 3 heads: the one when we are conceived in
mothers womb is called pa#isandhi, the one when we die is
called cuti, and the one during the time we live is called
Bhava"ga. When the 5 sense consciousness are not working,
when these doors are closed to extend a still mind, the mind
returns to itself. Mind opens its own door for it to go into the
bhava"ga state. That is called mind door or mind consciousness,
that is the moment mind becomes conscious of itself.