Jhana: the four jhanas of Buddhist meditation explained

Jhana, deep meditative absorption: the four jhanas in the Buddha's words, their factors, the formless attainments, and how jhana supports insight

Jhana is deep, unified stillness of mind, often translated 'absorption'. In the Buddha's teaching it is right concentration, the last factor of the noble eightfold path, and he described four jhanas in a fixed set of words that appears again and again in the suttas. This page sets out what the word means, the four jhanas in the Buddha's own words, the factors of each, the similes he gave for them, the formless attainments in brief, how jhana relates to insight, and some cautions for anyone practising toward it.

The word jhana

The Pali jhāna comes from the verb jhāyati, 'to meditate', 'to be absorbed in'. The Visuddhimagga adds a second, traditional explanation: jhana is so called because it closely contemplates its object and because it burns up the states opposed to it, the hindrances. In Sanskrit the word is dhyāna, which travelled with Buddhism to China as chan and to Japan as zen. In Thai it is ฌาน, read chan.

Jhana is a kind of samādhi, concentration, but not every concentration is jhana. The commentaries distinguish access concentration, a steady calm just short of absorption, from absorption itself, in which the mind is fully gathered on its object. The page on the 40 meditation subjects lists which subjects can lead to which level.

The four jhanas in the Buddha's words

In the Vibhaṅga Sutta (SN 45.8), the Buddha analyses the eightfold path factor by factor. When he comes to right concentration, he defines it entirely as the four jhanas:

Idha, bhikkhave, bhikkhu vivicceva kāmehi vivicca akusalehi dhammehi
savitakkaṁ savicāraṁ vivekajaṁ pītisukhaṁ
paṭhamaṁ jhānaṁ upasampajja viharati.
Vitakkavicārānaṁ vūpasamā ajjhattaṁ sampasādanaṁ
cetaso ekodibhāvaṁ avitakkaṁ avicāraṁ samādhijaṁ pītisukhaṁ
dutiyaṁ jhānaṁ upasampajja viharati.
Pītiyā ca virāgā upekkhako ca viharati sato ca sampajāno,
sukhañca kāyena paṭisaṁvedeti,
yaṁ taṁ ariyā ācikkhanti: ‘upekkhako satimā sukhavihārī’ti
tatiyaṁ jhānaṁ upasampajja viharati.
Sukhassa ca pahānā dukkhassa ca pahānā
pubbeva somanassadomanassānaṁ atthaṅgamā
adukkhamasukhaṁ upekkhāsatipārisuddhiṁ
catutthaṁ jhānaṁ upasampajja viharati

Here, mendicants, a mendicant, quite secluded from sense pleasures and from unwholesome states, enters and stays in the first jhana, which has thinking and examining, and joy and happiness born of seclusion. With the stilling of thinking and examining, they enter and stay in the second jhana, which has inner clarity and unification of mind, is free of thinking and examining, and has joy and happiness born of concentration. With the fading of joy, they stay equanimous, mindful and clearly aware, feeling happiness in the body; they enter and stay in the third jhana, of which the noble ones say, 'equanimous and mindful, one lives happily'. With the giving up of pleasure and pain, and the earlier ending of gladness and sadness, they enter and stay in the fourth jhana, which is neither painful nor pleasant and has mindfulness made pure by equanimity.

SN 45.8

The wording is precise. Each jhana is defined by what has been left behind and what remains, so the factors are the easiest way to tell the four apart.

The factors of each jhana

Suttas such as the Mahāvedalla Sutta (MN 43), and the Abhidhamma after them, name five factors of the first jhana. As the mind grows quieter, they drop away one by one:

1. First jhana: thinking (vitakka, placing the mind on the object), examining (vicāra, keeping it there), joy (pīti), happiness (sukha) and one-pointedness (ekaggatā). The mind is secluded from sense desire and the other hindrances.
2. Second jhana: joy, happiness and one-pointedness. Thinking and examining have stilled, and there is inner confidence and clarity.
3. Third jhana: happiness and one-pointedness. Joy, which still has a little excitement in it, fades; equanimity, mindfulness and clear awareness are strong.
4. Fourth jhana: equanimity and one-pointedness. Pleasure and pain are gone, the feeling is neutral, and mindfulness is purified by equanimity.

The Visuddhimagga pairs the five factors with the five hindrances they push back: one-pointedness against sense desire, joy against ill will, thinking against dullness and drowsiness, happiness against restlessness and worry, and examining against doubt. The Abhidhamma can also count the same ground as five jhanas instead of four, by letting thinking and examining fall away in two separate steps.

Four similes

In the Mahā-Assapura Sutta (MN 39), the Buddha gives an image for each jhana. Every one of them is about the stillness spreading through this very body:

• First: a skilled bath attendant pours bath powder into a bronze dish, sprinkles it little by little with water and kneads it until the ball is moist through and through, inside and out, yet does not drip. Joy and happiness born of seclusion soak the whole body in the same way.
• Second: a deep lake fed by a spring from below, with no stream flowing in from any direction and no rain falling; the cool water wells up and fills the whole lake. Joy and happiness born of concentration fill the body from within.
• Third: lotuses that sprout and grow under water without rising above it, soaked with cool water from tip to root. Happiness without joy pervades the body.
• Fourth: a person sitting wrapped from head to foot in white cloth, with no part of the body left uncovered.

Seyyathāpi, bhikkhave, puriso odātena vatthena sasīsaṁ pārupetvā nisinno assa,
nāssa kiñci sabbāvato kāyassa odātena vatthena apphuṭaṁ assa.

Suppose, mendicants, a person were sitting wrapped head and all in white cloth, so that no part of their whole body was not covered by the white cloth.

MN 39

The sutta goes on: in the fourth jhana the meditator sits with this very body pervaded by a pure, bright mind. So the similes describe jhana as something that fills the whole person, not as a blank: the mind is bright and steady. Teachers today differ on just how deep this stillness is; this page follows the suttas and the Visuddhimagga and does not try to settle that debate.

The formless attainments in brief

Beyond the four jhanas, the suttas describe four formless states (arūpa), reached by going past all perception of form. The Pāsarāsi Sutta (MN 26) lists them in order:

1. The dimension of infinite space: going beyond perceptions of form, aware that 'space is infinite'.
2. The dimension of infinite consciousness: aware that 'consciousness is infinite'.
3. The dimension of nothingness: aware that 'there is nothing at all'.
4. The dimension of neither perception nor non-perception: so refined that perception can be called neither present nor absent.

Together with the four jhanas these are often called the eight attainments (samāpatti). The same sutta tells how, before his awakening, the Bodhisatta learned the dimension of nothingness from Āḷāra Kālāma and the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception from Uddaka Rāmaputta, mastered both, and left each teacher with the same verdict:

‘nāyaṁ dhammo nibbidāya na virāgāya na nirodhāya
na upasamāya na abhiññāya na sambodhāya na nibbānāya saṁvattati,
yāvadeva ākiñcaññāyatanūpapattiyā’ti.

This teaching does not lead to disenchantment, to dispassion, to cessation, to peace, to direct knowledge, to awakening or to nibbāna, but only as far as rebirth in the dimension of nothingness.

MN 26

Even the most refined stillness, on its own, is not liberation. It has to be joined with wisdom.

Jhana and insight

In the eightfold path, jhana is right concentration, and the suttas treat it as a support for wisdom, not a rival. The same Mahā-Assapura Sutta continues: when the mind is collected like this,

So evaṁ samāhite citte parisuddhe pariyodāte anaṅgaṇe vigatūpakkilese
mudubhūte kammaniye ṭhite āneñjappatte
āsavānaṁ khayañāṇāya cittaṁ abhininnāmeti.

With the mind collected like this, purified, bright, unblemished, rid of corruptions, supple, workable, steady and imperturbable, they turn it toward the knowledge of the ending of defilements.

MN 39

They then know as it really is: this is suffering, this is its origin, this is its cessation, this is the way to its cessation. The sutta compares this to a person with good eyes standing on the bank of a clear mountain lake, who sees the shells, the pebbles and the shoals of fish. In the Jhāna Sutta (AN 9.36) the Buddha describes a meditator who, having entered one of the jhanas, examines whatever is there of form, feeling, perception, choices and consciousness, and sees it as impermanent, suffering and not-self. The absorption itself becomes an object of insight.

The Theravada commentaries recognise two ways in. Some practitioners develop calm up to absorption first and then turn to insight; others go straight to insight, supported by the momentary concentration that steady mindfulness brings. Both need concentration. The comparison is on the page samatha vs vipassana. For most people practising at home, the practical lesson is simple: calm and insight help each other, and neither should be skipped.

Cautions

• Do not grade yourself. Pleasant calm, tingling or lights are easy to mistake for jhana, and clinging to them stalls practice.
• Do not chase pleasure. Joy and happiness are factors of absorption, but craving for them is a hindrance. Let them come and go.
• Dullness is not absorption. A sleepy, foggy stillness is the hindrance of dullness and drowsiness; real concentration is bright and alert.
• Find a teacher. An experienced teacher who knows you can tell what is happening far better than any list, this one included.
• Keep it in proportion. Concentration supports the path; it is not a badge. Its fruit shows in a steadier, kinder life, not in claims.
• Intensive practice is not a treatment for mental illness; anyone with a history of serious mental illness should talk to a doctor and an experienced teacher first.

A gentle way to start

Concentration grows from conditions, not force. Keep the precepts so the mind has nothing to regret. Choose one object, such as the breath: according to the Visuddhimagga, mindfulness of breathing is a subject that can lead through all four jhanas. Sit at the same time each day, let the hindrances settle without fighting them, and come back to the object each time you drift. When the mind becomes still and happy, know that too, without grasping. Whether or not it ever becomes jhana, this kind of practice makes a mind that is calm, clear and ready to see.

Jhana in short

Jhana is deep, unified stillness, the right concentration of the eightfold path. The four jhanas are marked by what falls away: thinking and examining, then joy, then happiness, until only equanimity and one-pointedness remain. Beyond them lie the formless states. None of them is the goal by itself, but a mind steadied in this way is the best ground for the insight that leads to nibbana.

Based on: Vibhaṅga Sutta, analysis of the path (SN 45.8) · Mahā-Assapura Sutta (MN 39) · Pāsarāsi Sutta (the noble search) (MN 26) · Mahāvedalla Sutta (MN 43) · Jhāna Sutta (AN 9.36) · Visuddhimagga, by Buddhaghosa