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Right Concentration: A Practical Guide to the Jhanas
Copyright © 2015 Leigh Braisngton

Table of Contents

The Precepts

Abandoning the Five Hindrances

Jhna Factors and the Hindrances

The Gradual Training

The Gradual Training and The Eightfold Path

A Partial List of Insight Practices

MN 111 - The Anupada Sutta

P+ti: Physical, Sukha: Mental OR P+ti: Mental, Sukha: Physical?

The Neurological Correlates of the Jhnas

Introduction to Various Interpretations of the Jhanas

Vipassan Jhnas

Abhidhamma Jhnas

The Nimitta

Visuddhimagga Jhnas

The Precepts

Concentration, when imbued with ethics, brings great fruit and profit. (DN 16.1.12)

Jhna practice has a required prerequisite practice: ethics, morality, s+la. If someone is not leading a morally upright life, it is going to be very difficult to meditate effectively enough to enter the jhnas. The primary ethical practice given by the Buddha is the practice of the precepts – the training rules of behavior. For lay people there are five of these precepts. All of these precepts are about not causing harm – to yourself or to others. This dedication to harmlessness is the root of the Buddha's ethical teachings.
Each of these precepts really has three levels. There is the basic level of the behavior you really do have to refrain from doing. The next higher level bends your mind towards living a life in harmony with your environment. And the highest level helps you act only in ways that support your spiritual journey.

The first of the precepts is, "I undertake the training to refrain from killing living beings." We are vastly interrelated and that interrelatedness needs to be recognized. We share this planet with lots of other creatures. They have as much right to be here as we do. So we want to act towards them in ways that are in harmony with this interrelatedness and not generate the hate that is necessary to kill something. So we undertake the training to refrain from killing living beings, which includes the insects and spiders that might annoy you, as well as your fellow human beings.
A higher level of this precept would be to not harm living beings; to not only not kill them, but to not harm them. If there is a spider in your room, get a cup, get a piece of paper, trap the spider and take it outside. See if you can avoid having creatures encountering harm because of your actions.
And then the highest level of this precept would be to love all living beings. Love is a way of acting in harmony with this interrelatedness. It turns out that if you act in harmony with reality, life just goes so much better than if you are going at cross purposes with reality.

The second of the precepts is "I undertake the training to refrain from taking what is not given." It means not taking anyone else's possessions, of course. But it also means, for example, if you are on a residential meditation retreat, to not go into the kitchen and rifle through what's in there when no one else is around to find some food – unless, of course, you have been given permission to do just that.
At a higher level, this precept means respecting other people's property. If you are at a friend's house, your workplace, a hotel, a retreat center, you want to leave that place in at least as good a shape when you leave as when you arrived; you want to take care of what is there.
The highest form of this precept is to practice generosity, to actually practice letting go. The essence of the Buddha's teachings is the Four Noble Truths. The first one is "dukkha happens." The second is that dukkha arises dependent on craving and the third is that if you don't want to experience dukkha, don't crave. A powerful practice for learning to not crave is the practice of letting go, of generosity.

The third of the precepts is "I undertake the training to refrain from sexual misconduct." Sexual misconduct is defined as any use of your sexual energy that causes harm to someone else, or to yourself. Our sexual energy is quite strong energy and it's easy to misuse it by becoming confused and selfish. If you firmly keep in mind that you don't want to harm anybody then you're much less likely to misuse your sexual energy. Now the not harming yourself or others also includes other interested parties, not just the person you are having sexual relations with. If you're cheating on your spouse, even if your spouse doesn't know it, it's considered breaking the precept because if your spouse found out they would experience dukkha.
A higher level of this precept would be that not only do your sexual relations not cause harm, but that none of your relationships cause harm to you, or to the person with whom you are relating. And the highest form of it would be that your relationships would all be beneficial – beneficial to you and beneficial to the people with whom you are relating.
On a meditation retreat this precept changes. It's not just refraining from sexual misconduct; it's refraining from any sexual activity at all. It is necessary on a retreat to build a container where people feel safe. One of the things you want to do on a retreat is take a deep look at what's going on inside you. To effectively look inside, you need to let down your defenses; however, you can't keep your defenses up for the outside world and let down your inner defenses. Our minds just don't work like that. You need to feel you're in a space that's safe enough that you can let down all your defenses. Since our sexual energy is so strong, in order to not disturb this retreat container where people feel safe, you just simply don't involve yourself in any sort of sexual energy. Sexual energy can also be a big distraction. On a retreat, you want to do everything you can to minimize distractions.

The fourth of the precepts is "I undertake the training to refrain from wrong speech." Wrong speech is defined as lying, as harsh or abusive speech, as speech that's divisive, and as gossip or idle chatter. Traveling a spiritual path is about discovering the truth. If you really want to discover the truth, especially the deepest truths there are, you have to be fully committed to the truth – and you can't be fully committed if you are telling lies.
In AEguttara Nikya 5.198, the Buddha gives five guidelines for "speech well spoken, not badly spoken; it is blameless and beyond reproach by the wise. What five? It is spoken at the proper time; what is said is true; it is spoken gently; what is said is beneficial; it is spoken with a mind of loving-kindness." Harsh or abusive speech is obviously not spoken gently nor would it be said with a mind of loving-kindness. And instead of speaking divisively, we want to be peacemakers and bring harmony.
Probably the most commonly broken precept is the gossip/idle chatter part of this fourth precept. In a number of suttas, the Buddha gives a list of what he considers unedifying conversation: "about kings, robbers, ministers, armies, dangers, wars, food, drink, clothes, beds, garlands, perfumes, relatives, carriages, villages, towns, cities, countries, women, heroes, street- and well-gossip, talk of the departed, trivialities, speculations about land and sea, talk about being and non-being."1

"kings, robbers, ministers, armies, dangers, wars" – the 6 o'clock dukkha report on TV
"food, drink, clothes, beds, garlands, perfumes" – how many magazines about these are sold each month?
"relatives" – always an interesting topic
"carriages" – cars, planes, trains, ships, etc.
"villages, towns, cities, countries" – where will your next vacation be?
"women" – or men
"heroes" – pop stars, sports heroes, celebrity gossip anyone?
"street- and well-gossip" – water cooler gossip
"talk of the departed" – and the good ol' days
"trivialities" – you have a limited amount of time before you die, do you really want to waste time talking about trivialities?
"speculations about land and sea, talk about being and non-being" – the Buddha felt metaphysical speculations were a waste of time.

Now admittedly the Buddha gave this list to his monastics. As lay people it is important we know what is happening in the world, but we don't need to wallow in that misery. And often there are people we encounter in our work-a-day lives where realistically the only way to easily relate to them is talk about one of these topics. But if you are doing so, just be sure you know that's what you are doing – and if you see an opening to take the conversation to a higher level, by all means do so.
A higher form of this precept would be that when you speak to someone be sure what you have to say is actually beneficial. It should be beneficial for you to express it and beneficial for them to hear it. And the highest form of this precept would be to speak about the Dhamma. The Buddha said to the monks and nuns that the Dhamma is an appropriate topic to talk about; everything else is considered unedifying. It's considered the best topic for lay people as well.
At the time of the Buddha speech was about the only way to communicate. There was no writing. There were no books. There were no cell phones, there was no internet, and there was no email. Given all the ways we have to communicate today, perhaps this precept should be updated to be "I undertake the training to refrain from unwholesome communication." Is that novel you are reading a triviality? Have you carefully reread that email to make sure it is true, timely, beneficial, expressed gently and was composed with a mind of loving-kindness? Humans are social creatures. It works best if we are wise in the ways we socialize.
Again this precept changes on a retreat – to noble silence. Noble silence is not the same as dead silence. If you're learning to do your yogi job and you need to ask a question, it's perfectly okay to ask the question. You don't need to pantomime "where's the broom?" But once you've learned your yogi job, you are probably not going to have much reason to talk at all, except during questions and answers or in an interview. These are the appropriate times. Noble silence is only speaking when it's absolutely necessary. It makes it very easy to avoid wrong speech when you are on retreat; you're mostly not saying anything at all.

The fifth of the precepts is "I undertake the training to refrain from intoxicants." The precept literally says to refrain from alcoholic beverages, but like the increase in the number of ways to communicate, we have come up with other ways of being intoxicated besides alcohol. So this precept means avoiding recreational drugs and alcohol – it does not mean avoiding medicinal drugs. If you want to see what's going on at the deepest level, it's essential that you have a clear mind. We don't need to ingest anything that makes us even more confused than we are already. Furthermore, if you are intoxicated you are far more likely to break one or another of the other four precepts. In and of itself there is nothing wrong with alcohol other than the fact that it tends to make you less aware of how you behave in general and makes your mind more deluded when we are trying to remove delusion.
A higher level of this would be to refrain from anything that you are using as an escape. If they have a twelve step program for it, then there are people who are misusing whatever it is and using it as an escape. There are lots of things with which we can do that: trashy novels, unedifying movies or TV, surfing the internet. The list is probably endless. Pay attention to what you're doing. Sometimes maybe you come home from work and you really need to do something somewhat mindless – just be aware that's what you're doing. And be aware of how much time you're spending doing those sorts of things, and be very aware if you are running away from something. Running away would not be in harmony with the deeper level of this precept.
And then at the deepest level this would be to ingest only things that are beneficial. This would include food, books, movies, TV, conversations, most everything. This would be part of guarding the senses as is taught in the Gradual Training – see the chapter on The Preliminaries.

These are the five precepts; the basic rules of behavior for life in the world as a spiritual seeker. They are essential practices both for learning the jhnas and for gaining insight into the nature of reality. There is no real freedom without a basis of ethical behavior.

1. DN 1.14 – also found in DN 2-13, MN 76, MN 77, MN 78, MN 122, SN 56.10.

Abandoning the Five Hindrances

Luminous, bhikkhus, is this mind, but it is defiled by adventitious defilements. (AN 1.51)

The description of the first jhna always starts out with "Secluded from sense desires, secluded from unwholesome states of mind, one enters and remains in the first jhna." As said earlier, seclusion from sense desires and unwholesome states of mind is the abandoning of the five hindrances. What we find in the Gradual Training, just prior to the description of the jhnas, is the Buddha's teaching on the abandoning of the hindrances. He recognized that sitting down and putting your attention on the breath wasn't all there was to it.
In describing the Gradual Training, he says "Having abandoned covetousness for the world, one dwells with a mind free from covetousness. One purifies one's mind from covetousness."1 So the first hindrance is given here as "covetousness for the world."2 Sometimes you see it expressed as the "desire for sense pleasures," kma-chanda. It's the wanting mind. When you're caught in planning, it can be wanting. It might be other things: you might be planning out of fear, you might be planning out of boredom, but often there's wanting involved. You want to have a good holiday when you go to Spain, you want lunch, you want a good meditation. The Buddha compares this wanting sense pleasures to being in debt:

"Suppose a man were to take a loan and apply it to his business and his business were to succeed so that he could pay back his old debts and would have enough money left over to maintain a family. He would reflect on this and as a result he would become glad and experience joy."3

If you are in debt, you must continually work to pay back the debt. You can't simply call up the bank and say, "Well I'm going to go to Spain on vacation this month and I'm not going to make a payment. I hope that's okay with you." You can't even call them up and say, "I lost my job, I can't make a payment this month. I hope that's okay with you." As unfortunately far too many people discovered in the last recession, the banks have no sympathy for that. You've got to keep working. It's the same with our sense pleasures. No sense pleasure is ultimately satisfying. If you get something that is quite nice, you simply want to keep it, or repeat it, or get something similar to it. Like being in debt, we must continually work to satisfy our desire for sensual pleasures, our wanting. There is no fulfillment to be found by obtaining what you want. Okay, you get some fulfillment for a bit, but no ultimate fulfillment. We usually assume that when we want something and we get it and that feels great, that feeling is due to the fact that we got what we wanted. But have you ever stopped to consider that it might be due to the fact that you stopped wanting? The relief from the wanting produces quite a bit of pleasure. So perhaps a more effective strategy would be to let go of the wanting. The Buddha also compared sense desire to a bowl of water into which someone had poured many different colored dyes.4 If you try and look into the water, you cannot see into the depths.
Now this hasn't quite answered the question what to do about the wanting mind. It's just pointing out that it's a problem. Well luckily in the commentaries5 there are six things that are given to do to deal with each of the hindrances. For sense desire these are
learning the sign of the unattractive, that is the repulsive nature of the body;
application to meditation on the unattractive;
guarding the doors of the sense faculties;
moderation in eating;
noble friends and noble conversations.
This is probably not the list you were hoping for. The first two are learning the sign of the unattractive, that is the repulsive nature of the body, and application to meditation on the unattractive. What this is referring to is that at the time of the Buddha if you had a lot of lust, a lot of sense desire, they would send you to the charnel ground to do your meditation. Now a charnel ground is not like a cemetery. A cemetery is actually a rather pleasant place; nice little statues, they cut the grass, a quite pleasant place to be as far as the five senses are concerned. A charnel ground was where they dumped the bodies of the people who didn't have enough money to pay for a cremation. The bodies got ripped apart and eaten, and they rotted. It was not a pleasant place, visually unappetizing and I imagine it smelled extremely unappetizing. They would send you there and tell you to sit down in front of a rotting corpse and meditate on that corpse, contemplate that corpse. The body that you were lusting after was going to wind up like that. Also recognize that your own body was going to wind up like that. Well we don't have charnel grounds around here. It is interesting and insightful to wander through a cemetery; notice that people can die at any age. But a cemetery does not have quite the same impact.
In the West I think what we need to do more than anything else is get a more realistic picture of the body. The media are basically telling us to never have a body that looks more than 25 years old; stay young forever. But that's not possible. So I think our goal in the West in terms of the body is more about getting a realistic picture of the body rather than looking at the disgusting nature of it. We in the West often have low self-esteem and for many people that's directly associated with their body. So to battle the low self-esteem, it's helpful to get a realistic picture of not only your body, but all the bodies.
Guarding the doors of the sense faculties – this means that when you see something, hear something, smell something, taste something, touch something, or think something, you don't get lost in the sensory input and what follows from that. Far too often we see something and we are immediately off on a train of thought. There's all sorts of stuff stirred up by that, including quite possibly wanting (or rejecting). So what the Buddha says is that one should not get caught up in the signs, or secondary characteristics. In other words, when you see something, just simply see it and let it go without getting caught up in mental proliferation that leads to the wishing and the wanting.
Moderation in eating – there's not a lot of excitement on a silent meditation retreat. About the only excitement you get is eating and there is indeed a tendency, because that's your only excitement, to stoke up on it, get a lot of sense pleasure out of it. Generally that just tends to increase the wanting for food. If you're looking for your pleasure in the food, you do get some pleasure for what, twenty minutes, half an hour? How long does your meal last? And then you return to meditating and you're thinking about the food. So you should be moderate in your eating so that it doesn't become the most important experience of your day. I've heard it said that if you can eat until just before you feel full that's the perfect way to do it. Of course the problem is, you don't know when you're going to feel full until you get there. So it is a bit tricky.
And the last two things helpful in overcoming the desire for sensual pleasures are noble friends and noble conversations – the discussion of these will be deferred for the moment.
This still hasn't addressed the question about what to do about sense desire when you're sitting there meditating and it comes up quite strongly. What seems to work the best is to get a realistic picture of what it is you are desiring, to see its limitations, to see that it's not going to bring lasting happiness. One of the ways that people can get caught in sense desire during a retreat is the phenomena known as a vipassan romance. You are on a retreat and you see someone that you can tell is really serious about their practice because they walk like it and they sit so well and besides, they're very attractive. And the next thing you know, you are caught up in your fantasies. The idea of seeing what's really going on is recognizing that, one, you don't know anything about this person; it's just your ideas that are happening. And two, even if they were to turn out to be as wonderful as you are imagining them to be, it still wouldn't be totally satisfying. Furthermore the odds are probably a hundred percent that they won't turn out to be who you are imagining them to be. So working to get a realistic picture of what's going on is probably the best that you can do with sense desire. See it, name it, and really investigate the limitations and defects of any objects that are attracting your desiring attention.
It's important to remember that not all wanting is counter-productive. When I was at Wat Suan Mokkh in southern Thailand, they talked about wise wishes and foolish desires. Wanting to come on a meditation retreat, wanting to see the truth, wanting to gain insight – these would be classified as wise wishes. Wanting dessert after every meal or wanting to experience some blissful state so you can hang out there would be considered foolish desires. There is indeed pleasure on the spiritual path; the Buddha frequently mentions the fact that gladness and joy are necessary components of the path.6 But you can't be hankering after that pleasure while working to generate deep concentration. The idea is to see where you are, to know what the instructions say to do at that point, and just do that – without what Ayya Khema called "result thinking." As part of the practice for entering the first jhna, when you recognize the mind has gotten to access concentration and been stabilized there for a bit, then the next step is the focusing on pleasure. That's just part of the path. Just stay focused on the pleasurable sensation and enjoy it. There's nothing wrong with enjoying. It's the grasping and seeking that causes the problems; being there and just staying focused on it is not a problem. But if you are actively wanting the jhna while you are meditating, that's a hindrance and it's going to prevent you from attaining access concentration, and with no access concentration there's no jhna possible. This is actually a great example of the second noble truth: dukkha arises from craving.
The second hindrance discussed in the Gradual Training is "Having abandoned ill-will and hatred, one dwells with a benevolent mind, sympathetic for the welfare of all living beings. One purifies one's mind from ill-will and hatred."7 So the second hindrance is ill-will and hatred. It's pushing things away, not wanting, the opposite of the first hindrance. This covers everything from ill-will and hatred to sadness and fear. In fact fear is probably at the basis of most hatred. I made that statement in a retreat and somebody wrote me a note and said "I hate broccoli, but I'm not afraid of it." And what I responded was "you're afraid of the unpleasant taste you will experience by putting broccoli in your mouth." You're not afraid it's going to attack you, but you are afraid of the unpleasant vedan8 that tasting it will generate. It seems that fear is really at the basis of all of our aversion. Fear that we will for some reason experience some unpleasant vedan. The Buddha compares ill-will and hatred to being physically ill.

"Suppose a man were to become sick, afflicted, gravely ill so that he could not enjoy his food and his strength were to decline. Then after some time, he would recover from that illness and soon would enjoy his food again and regain his bodily strength. He would reflect on this and as a result, he would become glad and experience joy."9

When you are overcome with ill-will, it's very much like being physically ill. You don't feel well. You can't think straight. You're hot. You can't really do what you want to do. This is a perfect description of physical illness as well as of ill-will and hatred. The Buddha also compares ill-will and hatred to a bowl of water which is over a fire and is boiling10. If you try and look into the depths, you can't see what's there.
There's a story about a Brahmin who came to see the Buddha and he was very upset11. His younger brother had come a few days earlier to see the Buddha and the Buddha had "corrupted" him, because his younger brother had become a monk. So this Brahmin insulted and cursed the Buddha with rude, harsh words. The Buddha replied, "Do friends and colleagues, relatives and kinsmen come to you as guests?"
"Yes, certainly they do."
"Do you serve them with staple and non-staple foods and delicacies?"
"Well, of course I prepare nice food for my guests."
"And if they don't accept them, to whom do those foods belong?"
"If they don't accept them, Master Gotama, those foods are all mine."
"Just so, Brahmin, I'm not accepting the harsh words you offered." In other words, the Buddha didn't take on the anger that this Brahmin was expressing towards him. The Brahmin was so impressed that he decided to become a monk as well.
When someone is angry at you, there is no law that you have to become angry back. If you can keep your equanimity, you have a much better chance of diffusing the situation without things escalating into an even worse situation. Of course sometimes when you don't get angry back, the person who is angry at you becomes even more angry because you are not angry as well. But that's their problem, not yours.
Luckily, however, there are six things mentioned in the commentaries to do for overcoming ill-will and hatred. These are:
learning the sign of loving kindness,
application to meditation on loving kindness,
reflection on the ownership of action,
abundance of wise reflection,
noble friends and noble conversations.
Learning the sign of loving kindness and application to meditation on loving kindness – If the hindrance you are experiencing is aversion, then the thing to do is to stop the practice that you were doing and start doing mett meditation. Suppose you are working with following your breath and some aversion arises. If you can set that aversion aside and continue on with the breath, fine. But if it keeps coming up and it really isn't something that you can set aside, then forget about the breath and start doing mett meditation. Now it may be far too difficult to do loving kindness practice for the person that is generating this negativity. You don't have to do it towards any particular person at all. If you can do it for the person that's generating the negativity that's pretty powerful practice, but just do mett for somebody. It doesn't matter who. Do it for yourself. You certainly need it at this point given the fact that this aversion is coming up and is preventing your meditation from going well. Do it for somebody that you care about. Do it for the Dalai Lama. Just simply get your mind off the aversion and then get it into a positive state. Mett is a very powerful practice. I have said that if they were to come to me and say "you can only do one practice, choose," I would unhesitatingly choose mett practice. It's a very transformative practice as well.
Reflection on the ownership of action – Ever do something when you were angry that wasn't really the wisest choice? Well you still have to reap the results of that action. It's not like you can later phone the karma gods and say, "Oh, sorry, I was angry then. Can we just set that aside?" No, basically when you're in an angry state, when you have ill-will and hatred, you are putting yourself in a position where you will probably not act in the wisest fashion. You are disempowering yourself and yet you will still have to reap the results of this action. So recognizing that this angry state is not an empowering state, but a disempowering state may help you let it go.
Abundance of wise reflection – Simply pay attention to what the aversive state feels like. Feel how unpleasant it is. Feel how the unpleasantness that you are experiencing with this aversion is not really solving the problem. If you are sitting here and are mad at somebody who's a hundred miles away, your anger in no way is affecting them. It's affecting you, but it's not doing anything to solve the problem. So just reflect on any angry experience that you're having and see the limitations of it.
And again, lastly comes noble friends and noble conversation, which again will be deferred.

The discussion of the third hindrance is "Having abandoned dullness and drowsiness, one dwells perceiving light. Mindfully and clearly comprehending, one purifies one's mind from dullness and drowsiness."12 Often this one is translated as sloth and torpor, or sleepiness and laziness. It can take the form of being physically sleepy – as you get concentrated you fall asleep. Or it can take the form of just being lazy. You sit down and it's just a lot of work to follow the breath and you'd just rather fantasize, or maybe you'll just skip this meditation period altogether – either of these would be this hindrance. The Buddha compares sloth and torpor to being in prison.

"Suppose a man were locked up in a prison and after some time he would be released from prison, safe and secure with no loss of his possessions. He would reflect on this and as a result, he would become glad and experience joy."13

If you are a prisoner, you can't do anything. You just sit there missing out on all the good things of life. If you are overcome with sloth and torpor, you can't do anything. You just sit there not able to get concentrated, not able to gain any insight, not able to follow the spiritual path. It is like being in prison. The Buddha also compared sloth and torpor to a stagnant bowl of water, one that is covered over with slimy moss and water-plants.14 Again you can't see into the depths. But luckily, there are six things to do for overcoming sloth and torpor. These are:
recognizing that overeating is the basis for sloth and torpor,
changing the postures,
attention to the perception of light,
living in the open air,
noble friends and noble conversations.
Recognizing that overeating is the basis for sloth and torpor – there is a reason why there are no meditation periods right after a meal on a retreat. It's not just because someone is needed to wash the dishes. After you have eaten, your system is busy digesting the food. And the more food you eat the longer it's going to take to digest it. If it takes a long time to digest it, then when you sit down you are going to fall asleep. So once again, eat less food. Eating less food actually helps you overcome two of the hindrances.
On most retreats that I teach, about forty percent of the students mention that they are dealing with sleepiness at the beginning of a retreat. I suspect the actual number dealing with sleepiness is actually even higher. This is not surprising since so many people in this culture have a chronic sleep debt. So if that is part of what you are dealing with, just eat less food. After all, how many calories do you need? If you are on retreat, you're spending your day sitting around. You do burn quite a few calories with your brain while you're trying to concentrate, but not all that many. Skip the entertainment value of the food; just get some nourishment. Don't overeat and you will be dealing less with sloth and torpor.
Changing the postures, attention to the perception of light, living in the open air – if you are feeling sleepy, open your eyes, rub your cheeks, pinch and pull on your ear lobes. If you know where the acupressure points are on the sides of your ears, you can squeeze them very hard to wake you up for at least a few minutes. Make sure you have fresh air. And if all else fails, stand up. You are not going to fall asleep standing up with your eyes open. Now if you're doing standing meditation, make sure that you flex your knees. If you lock your knees, you might pass out. That would be most unpleasant for you and for whomever you fall upon, so keep your knees flexed. You can continue to follow your breath, or you can put your attention on the subtle adjustments that you are making to stay standing. You may think that when you just stand there you are not moving, but actually there is a little bit of subtle motion that you are doing all the time to keep your balance. You can pay attention to those subtle motions and use them as your meditation object, which will help keep you awake.
Definitely the first thing to do when you find you are getting sleepy is to get yourself out of it. Continuing to pursue deeper concentration is probably not useful, because that will just make you sleepier. If you know a practice that you find is a little more energizing, switch to doing that practice. You might find mett practice a bit more energizing. If you know the body scan, you might find that a bit more energizing. It is said that if you do the body scan from the feet up, it's more energizing. I never have noticed much difference, but you can try it out and see.
It really is quite important to balance your energy and concentration. If your energy is too low, working to become concentrated is quite likely to lead to you falling asleep. If you know when you sit down to meditate that your energy is low, it's probably best to not work on deep concentration during that sitting, but rather see if you can generate a bit of calm and collectedness and then begin doing some insight practice.
And then there are noble friends and noble conversations, which again will be deferred.

The discussion of the fourth hindrance is "Having abandoned restlessness and remorse, one dwells at ease within oneself with a peaceful mind. One purifies one's mind from restlessness and remorse."15 So this is the opposite of sloth and torpor; it's having too much energy: too much energy in your body, or too much energy in your mind. Sometimes when you sit down, your body just doesn't want to sit. You just can't find a comfortable posture; when you finally do get settled, it's still not right – you've just got to move. Or you sit down, your body is fine, but you mind is all over the place. It just won't get settled on the breath. It's got to run off and entertain itself. This is restlessness, which the Buddha compares to being a slave.

"Suppose a man were a slave without independence, subservient to others, unable to go where he wants. And after some time he would be released from slavery and gain his independence. He would no longer be subservient to others, but a free man able to go where he wants. He would reflect on this and as a result, he would become glad and experience joy."16

A slave is compelled to go there and do that, come here and do this. The slave is always doing what the master wants done, not what the slave wants to do. If you are overcome with restlessness and remorse, you are unable to do what you want to do even though there is this huge amount of activity, either physically or mentally. The Buddha also compared restlessness and remorse to a small bowl of water where there is a strong wind blowing over the surface and the ripples prevent you from seeing down to the depths.17 But luckily, there are six things to do for overcoming restlessness and remorse:
much learning,
interrogation,
skill in the Vinaya,
associating with senior monks,
noble friends and noble conversations.
Much learning – sometimes the restlessness arises simply because you don't know quite what to do. So you are struggling to figure out how you should be doing this practice, what's going on here? Learn all you can; both about the Buddha's teachings as well as the practices.
Interrogation – ask questions. The Buddha felt that it was very important to ask questions; he encouraged his monks and nuns to ask questions.
Skill in the Vinaya – skill in the precepts. The Vinaya is the rules for the monks and nuns; in the Theravda tradition, 227 for the monks, 313 for the nuns. But as lay people, we really only have the five precepts to worry about. Skill in keeping the precepts means you have much less to be remorseful about. To take a gross example, if you are out robbing banks and then you sit down to meditate, you are probably going to be restlessly worrying about the authorities coming and hauling you off to jail.
Associating with senior monks – Hang out with people from whom you can learn the Dharma and the practices that provide progress on the spiritual path.
What's really being addressed in these suggestions from the commentary is more about the remorse aspect. The physical restlessness aspect can sometimes be helped by going for a vigorous walk. If you feel like you have too much energy, then go burn some of it off. Just make sure it's a mindful, vigorous walk. Interestingly enough, going for a vigorous walk can sometimes be helpful for the opposite hindrance. If you're overcome with sloth and torpor, wake yourself up by going for vigorous walk.
And once again the discussion of noble friends and noble conversations will be deferred.

The discussion of the fifth hindrance is "Having abandoned doubt, one dwells as one who has passed beyond doubt. Unperplexed about wholesome states, one purifies one's mind from doubt."18 Doubt is an insidious hindrance and can take many forms. Did the Buddha really know what he was talking about? Was he really enlightened? Is the Dharma really the truth? Is what is being taught here really what the Buddha was teaching? Has it gotten garbled along the way? Doubt about the SaEgha can take the form of wondering if anybody else really can become enlightened. Maybe only people twenty-five hundred years ago could become enlightened. What am I doing on this path? And probably the most destructive doubt of all; doubt about yourself. I can't do this. This is too hard. This is impossible. It's just beyond my abilities. The Buddha compares skeptical doubt to being on a perilous desert journey where bandits abound and provisions are scarce.

"Suppose a man with wealth and possessions were traveling along a desert road where food was scarce and dangers were many. After some time, he would have crossed over the desert and he would have arrived safely at a village which is safe and free from danger. He would reflect on this and as a result would become glad and experience joy."19

If you have a doubting mind, you are not sure what to do. If you are on a perilous desert journey, you think maybe we should go this way, but wait there might be bandits. Better to go that way, but no, there won't be any water. So there is more starting and stopping than actual progressing.
You set out on the spiritual path and you are following the Theravdan tradition, the Vipassan path, but it's kind of dry. You want something a little more colorful, exciting. Well the Tibetans, I mean have you seen what they've got? They got the horns and they got the colorful paintings. So you switch to Tibetan practice and you start doing that, but it turns out to be a little too baroque, a little too catholic. Zen, that's where it's at. I mean look at their gardens. This is really cool and they got all these great stories, so you switch to Zen practice. It turns out they hit you with a stick. Sufi dancing, that's where it's at....
You are trying one thing after another. You are never finding out where any of these paths actually lead. I've heard it said that if you really want to find out where a path will take you, it's necessary to follow it for five years. Now this doesn't mean that if you start out down a path and you realize this is not the right path for you that you have to stick with it for five years before you can change your mind. But if you do find yourself trying one practice and then another and then another and then another, it might not be the practices that are at fault. It really could be that you are not sticking with a practice long enough to find what's really going on. The Buddha also compared skeptical doubt to a bowl of water that's very muddy,20 which prevents you from seeing into the depths. Once again there are six things to do for overcoming skeptical doubt. And they are very much like those for overcoming restlessness and remorse:
much learning,
interrogation,
skill in the Vinaya,
resolution,
noble friends and noble conversations.
To overcome your doubt, learn what you can about the practice. Learn what you can about the Dharma. Ask questions. This can be quite helpful. If you think your practice is not working, ask questions to find out what you can about what's going on, what it's supposed to be like.
Skill in the Vinaya – try out keeping the precepts. See if this makes your life better. In many spiritual traditions, ethical practice is based on "Behave, or you'll wind up in hell," or something equivalent to that. You can find that in Buddhism, but really the depths of the Buddha's teaching on ethics is "this is the way to behave that actually works the best." It just makes your life go easier, if you don't go around killing living beings, or taking what's not given, or misusing your sexual energy, or telling lies, or getting intoxicated. Practicing the precepts and experiencing first hand the benefits of doing so helps you gain confidence in the path and in yourself.
Resolution – resolve to stay with the practice until you've explored it and see where it leads. It's the only way you are going to find out. Reading about a practice, talking to other people about a practice can be helpful, but the real proof is in actually doing the practice and seeing what happens. But it's probably going to take a while to follow through and see where it goes. So resolve to stay with the practice until you can learn its benefits first hand.
Noble friends and noble conversations – These are helpful for dealing with all of the hindrances. They are not so helpful while you are practicing silent meditation, obviously, since you are not going to be having any kind of conversation with anybody at that point. But they are helpful for getting yourself to where the hindrances are much less likely to arise when you are practicing. There is a sutta where nanda, who was the Buddha's attendant, was having a discussion with another monk.21 According to the commentaries, what they were discussing was what was the most important aspect of the spiritual path. The other monk was the meditation master and he felt that meditation was the most important part of the spiritual path. nanda was a very outgoing, gregarious soul – an extravert – and he felt that noble friends and noble conversation were the most important part of the path. And so they discussed it back and forth and, as always happens with these things, they went to see the Buddha. They saluted the Buddha and sat down at one side. nanda said, "Venerable Sir, I say that noble friends and noble conversations are half the holy life." The Buddha replied, "Do not say so nanda, noble friends and noble conversations are the entire holy life." It's really difficult to practice this path without having likeminded people around to share supporting each other. And this support is very important for helping you overcome these hindrances.
So these are the basic categories of hindering things that can arise when you are trying to get concentrated: the wanting mind, the aversive mind, the tired or lazy mind, the restless or remorseful mind, and the doubting mind. You should apply the antidotes as best you can. A general antidote is substitute with the opposite. For hatred, the opposite is love. For wanting it's seeing that the object of your wanting isn't going to bring ultimate fulfillment. For sleepiness it's to do things to wake yourself up. For too much energy, try and see if you can get yourself calmed down. And for the doubting mind, learn as much as you can so that you actually have the fortitude to stick with the practice.
These are the five hindrances; pretty much anything that is blocking your development of concentration falls into one of these categories. Now the words that name each hindrance point to the more extreme end of these useless mind-states, so it may not always be obvious why some mind-states are grouped under a particular hindrance. For example, how is sadness related to ill-will and hatred? Well, the second hindrance is really "not wanting" and sadness arises when you don't accept that some unpleasant thing has occurred; it's a pushing away of reality, a not wanting. If we think of the five hindrances as "wanting", "not wanting", "too little energy", "too much energy" and "doubt" it might make things more obvious.
"When one sees that these five hindrances are not abandoned within oneself, one regards that as a debt, as a sickness, as confinement in prison, as slavery, as a desert road. But when one sees that these five hindrances have been abandoned within oneself, one regards that as freedom from debt, as good health, as release from prison, as freedom from slavery, as a place of safety. When one sees that these five hindrances have been abandoned within oneself, gladness arises. From gladness, rapture arises. When one's mind is filled with rapture, one's body becomes tranquil. Tranquil in body, one experiences happiness. Being happy, one's mind becomes concentrated. Quite secluded from sense pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states of mind, one enters and remains in the first jhna, ... second jhna, ... third jhna, ... fourth jhna."22

1. DN 2.68
2. Sometimes it is translated as "longing for the world." In AN 10.176 we find "Here, someone is full of longing. He longs for the wealth and property of others thus: 'Oh, may what belongs to another be mine!'" Thus "covetousness" seems more accurate.
3. DN 2.69
4. SN 46.55
5. From the New Subcommentary to DN 2, quoted in Bhikkhu Bodhi, "The Discourse on the Fruits of Recluseship," Buddhist Publications Society, 1989, pp 146-148.
6. E.g., DN 2-13, MN 7, MN 40, SN 12.23, SN 35.97, SN 42.13, SN 47.10, SN 55.40
7. DN 2.68
8. Vedan is usually translated as "feeling" but that has the unfortunate connotation of emotion and vedan certainly never means emotion. It refers to the initial categorization of a sense input and there are only three possibilities: pleasant, unpleasant and neither unpleasant or pleasant. There is no English word that has this meaning, so I've left it untranslated.
9. DN 2.70
10. SN 46.55
11. SN 7.2
12. DN 2.68
13. DN 2.71
14. SN 46.55
15. DN 2.68
16. DN 2.72
17. SN 46.55
18. DN 2.68
19. DN 2.73
20. SN 46.55
21. SN 45.2
22. DN 2.75

Jhna Factors and the Hindrances

In the Visuddhimagga, Buddhaghosa writes

For the hindrances are contrary opposites of the jhna factors: what is meant is that the jhna factors are incompatible with them, eliminate them, abolish them. And it is said accordingly in the Pemaka (Pemakopadesa): 'Concentration is incompatible with lust, happiness with ill will, applied thought with stiffness and torpor, bliss with agitation and worry, and sustained thought with uncertainty.'1 (Vsm IV.86)

To put the information above in tabular form, using the more common translations for the hindrances, we have

Jhna Factor

Hindrance

vitakka

sloth & torpor

vicra

doubt

p+ti

ill will

sukha

restlessness & remorse

ekaggat

sense desire

But there are serious problems with making such a correspondence. In the first place, as we saw in the chapter on the 1st Jhna, there is no ekaggat factor for the first jhna. We actually found that even talking in terms of jhna factors is misleading and not useful – but ignoring that for the moment, we really have only four factors for the first jhna and five hindrances!
It is true that even as early as the very late sutta composition period, a fifth factor of cittekaggat was introduced, so allowing for that, does this correspondence make any sense? As we saw in the chapter on Vitakka & Vicra, both of these words just mean "thinking." Does thinking really counteract sloth & torpor and doubt? There is no obvious way that thinking overcomes sloth & torpor unless perhaps what you are thinking of inspires you to practice. But that is not what is being said here. And if there is doubt present, thinking is just as likely to lead to even more doubt rather than suppress it. So again this teaching makes no sense in light of the actual meaning of the words for the first two jhna factors.
But if we ignore the sutta meaning of vitakka & vicra and go with their later redefinition as "initial attention" and "sustained attention" does this correspondence make any sense?
Initial attention on the meditation object does indeed overcome laziness about beginning to meditate. However, it certainly does not often overcome sleepiness, which is usually categorized under sloth & torpor. Ignoring this last bit, we can give this correspondence a passing mark.
It is said then that sustained attention overcomes doubt. Well – yes, of course. And sustained attention also overcomes ill will, restlessness & remorse, and sense desire. This is exactly what generating access concentration is all about. Does this mean we should give this correspondence an A++++ since it overcomes 4 of the 5 hindrances? Given this, why bother with the remaining correspondences? But we'll have a look at them as well.
P+ti is said to overcome ill will. Yes, strong p+ti pretty much drives everything else out of the mind except sukha. Doesn't that mean it counteracts all 5 hindrances? It certainly does a better job of counteracting sleepiness than initial attention. Do we give this correspondence an A+++++?
Sukha is said to counteract restlessness & remorse. But it also even more obviously counteracts sense desire and ill-will. And when sukha is strong, what is there to doubt? Looks like another A++++ since it overcomes 4 of the 5 hindrances.
And ekaggat – that's like super sustained attention. It overcomes all of the hindrances – another A+++++.
So what does the table look like now that we aren't limited to an artificial one-to-one correspondence?

Jhna Factor

Hindrance

vitakka

sloth & torpor

vicra

sense desire, ill will, restlessness & remorse, doubt

p+ti

sloth & torpor, sense desire, ill will, restlessness & remorse, doubt

sukha

sense desire, ill will, restlessness & remorse, doubt

ekaggat

sloth & torpor, sense desire, ill will, restlessness & remorse, doubt

It this useful? Is it even memorable?
Actually the whole exercise of making a correspondence between the 5 jhna factors (if there actually were 5 and the notion of factors was useful) and the 5 hindrances is rather misleading. All of the hindrances must be overcome in order to enter the first jhna; any hindrance can block all of the factors; the p+ti and sukha can't arise until all of the hindrances are suppressed.
We humans are pattern matching machines. Unfortunately we sometimes match patterns when there is no reason to do so. It is indeed important to know about the hindrances and how to deal with them. But having gotten them out of the way by entering access concentration, there is no need to think about or even know about the qualities of the first jhna – just focus on a pleasant sensation and the jhna will come and find you. Then afterward you can analyze what happened to see if the experience you had did indeed have the qualities of the first jhna.

1. Vsm IV.86, page 135. Buddhaghosa ascribes the passage he cites in support of the correspondence to the "Pemaka," but it cannot be traced anywhere in the present Tipitaka, nor in the exegetical work named Pemakopadesa.

The Gradual Training

Despite the traditional story of the origins of the suttas, the suttas of the Pali canon were not likely mostly composed during the Buddha's lifetime (with just a handful composed shortly after his death). In fact it's quite possible that the majority of the suttas were composed after the Buddha's death; certainly some of them were composed long after his death. This long period of sutta composition seems to span the time from when the Buddha began teaching until approximately 100 to 200 years after his death, at which point Abhidhamma composition took over as the main creative activity. Although far more modern work waits to be done in looking at the "stratification" of the suttas, it is possible to begin to tease out for some of the suttas those which are early and those which are late compositions.
Since this book relies quite a lot on the Gradual Training for both its outline and to elucidate a number of points concerning the jhnas and their relationship to the rest of the path to awakening, just how ancient is the Gradual Training? Does it go back to the earliest strata of the suttas? Can we use it to gain a clear idea of what the Buddha actually taught? The answer seems to be a qualified "yes."
The Gradual Training appears in various forms in both the D+gha Nikya, the Majjhima Nikya amd the Anguttara Nikya.1 Many of even the early suttas in these two collections appear to have been created by taking yet earlier material and expanding it by adding additional teachings and explanations. The full recension of the Gradual Training found in the D+gha Nikya clearly has had numerous tweaks and additions. For example, there are three sections on morality. Even though all the information presented in them seems totally in harmony with the Buddha's teachings on ethics, it does not seem so likely the Buddha would give a talk with all 38 of the items in the three sections recited one after the other. The Buddha was certainly not one to bore his audience!
But the basic outline of the Gradual Training appears to be very ancient. The three major parts of the Buddha's teaching, s+la, samdhi and paññ: ethics, concentration and wisdom, pervade the whole of the suttas from earliest to latest. The Gradual Training is an expansion of these three parts; they are each expanded by providing detailed practices that lead to the skills necessary for perfecting that part.
There are a number of individual features of the Gradual Training that suggest that this is an early teaching. The precepts given in the small section on morality are not the usual list – the fifth precept of avoiding intoxicants does not appear and is instead replaced with avoiding damaging seeds and crops. The description of contentment is quite simple and probably is unchanged from the original. The description of the jhnas in the Gradual Training matches the earliest descriptions anywhere in the four prose Nikyas.2
A quite obvious early feature is found in the "Insight" section at DN 2.83. A person is said to be composed of "kya" and "viññGa." This is a very early depiction of a person – quite far removed from the later five khandha method. Even the usage of "viññGa" for "mind" is a very early usage; its meaning only later expanded to become sense consciousness, one of the khandhas and one of the six elements.
The Gradual Training forms the heart of the Smaññaphala Sutta (DN 2). That sutta is given to King Ajtasattu, who when he was a prince, had been a follower of Devadatta after Devadatta had created a schism in the SaEgha.3 Later Prince Ajtasattu killed his father, King Bimbisra, but was stricken with remorse. He comes to the Buddha in DN 2 seeking "peace for our heart."4 It seems quite clear from other suttas and from the Vinaya stories that Ajtasattu indeed had a change of heart and went from following the schismatic Devadatta to being a follower of the Buddha. Something must have happened to change his mind and DN 2 certainly provides a plausible answer to what that something was. Thus it seems quite likely that some early form of the Gradual Training was what King Ajtasattu heard that moonlit night – and again this is a strong hint at the earliness of the Gradual Training.5
All of this points to the Gradual Training as being a reliable source to aid in trying to understand exactly what the Buddha taught.6

1. See the chart at http://leighb.com/gtchart.htm for more information.
2. In the Khuddaka Nikya, the jhnas are seldom mentioned at all and never in any detail.
3. SN 17.36
4. DN 2.1
5. Pande (1995) strongly feels DN2 is for the most part an early sutta: pp 82-87.
6. Polak (2011) p. 36 says "This scheme is a very important description of the Buddhist path to liberation, and probably a very ancient one."

The Gradual Training and The Eightfold Path

The quite strong correspondence between the Gradual Training and the Eightfold Path is apparently seldom noticed and certainly is almost never mentioned or taught. Yet the correspondence is quite striking. Consider the following table:

Gradual Training

Eightfold Path

Hearing the true Dhamma, gaining confidence

Right View

Keeping the precepts

Right Intention, Right Action, Right Speech, Right Livelihood

Guarding the senses

Right Intention, Right Effort

Mindfulness

Right Mindfulness

Being content with little

Right Intention

Abandoning the hindrances

Right Effort

Practicing the Jhnas

Right Effort, Right Concentration

Gaining Insight

Right View

Overcoming the savas, Liberation

Right Effort, Right View

Hearing the true Dhamma and gaining confidence is the first step of the Gradual Training and also provides the initial glimpse of Right View. Keeping the precepts requires the Right Intentions of renunciation, of non-ill-will, and of harmlessness. The precepts also specifically address Right Speech and Right Action (i.e., to refrain from killing, to refrain from taking what is not given, and to refrain from sexual misconduct). And the bulk of the discussion of morality in the Gradual Training is about Right Livelihood which means not earning one's livelihood in a way that involves breaking any precept.
Guarding the senses requires the Right Effort of preventing the arising of unwholesome mental states as well as involving all three Right Intentions. Mindfulness as explicitly stated in the Gradual Training is one of the Satipammhna practices given for mindfulness of the body.1 Being content with little is a practice of the Right Intention of renunciation.
Abandoning the hindrances is the Right Effort of overcoming arisen unwholesome mental states and preventing new ones from arising. Right Concentration is defined as the four jhnas; entering and abiding in the jhnas are the Right Efforts of producing unarisen wholesome mental states and maintaining arisen wholesome mental states.
Gaining Insight         leads to a more profound Right View. Overcoming the savas requires the Right Efforts of overcoming arisen unwholesome mental states and preventing new ones from arising, and Liberation results in the ultimate Right View.
It is interesting that the Eightfold Path is often subdivided into three sections of morality, concentration and wisdom but with the wisdom section surprisingly coming first rather than at the end:

Right View
Wisdom

Right Intention

Right Speech

Right Action
Morality

Right Livelihood

Right Effort

Right Mindfulness
Concentration

Right Concentration

Could it be that the order of the Eightfold Path is actually a reflection of the Gradual Training? Notice in the table at the beginning of this appendix that the order in which each element of the Eightfold Path appears as one progresses through the Gradual Training is the usual order in which the Eightfold Path is given, other than Right Speech and Right Action being swapped. Of course there is no hard evidence that this speculation about the ordering of the Eightfold Path is correct – but the correspondence between the Gradual Training and the Eightfold Path is quite striking indeed.

1. DN 22.4 and MN 10.8

A Partial List of Insight Practices

Insight Practices Given In or Derived from the Satipatthana Suttas (DN 22 & MN 10)

Meditations
Anapanasati (Mindfulness of Breathing) which may be used for both Concentration & Insight
Mindfulness of your Postures
Mindfulness of your Physical Activities
Mindfulness of the Parts of your Body (Sweeping, also know as the Body Scan, is said to be derived from this)
Mindfulness of Vedan (your first categorization of a sensory input – pleasant, unpleasant, neither)
Mindfulness of your Mind State
Mindfulness of Arising & Ceasing (of the Five Aggregates)
Contemplations
The 9 Charnel Ground Contemplations
Contemplation of The 4 Elements
Contemplation of The 5 Hindrances
Contemplation of The 5 Khandhas (Aggregates)
Contemplation of The 6 Senses and their Objects
Contemplation of The 7 Factors of Awakening
Contemplation of The 4 Noble Truths

Insight Practices Given In or Derived from Other Suttas

Meditations
Anapanasati (Mindfulness of Breathing) may be used for both Concentration & Insight – see e.g., MN 118; SN 54, passim
Bahiya Practice: "In the seen, let there be only the seen,...." – see Ud 10.1, SN 35.95
Contemplations
Contemplation of Anicca (Impermanence)
Contemplation of Dukkha (Unsatisfactoriness)
Contemplation of Anatta (Corelessness)
The 5 Daily Recollections – see AN 5.57

Insight Practices Derived from the Progress of Insight

Meditations
Mindfulness of Arising & Ceasing
Contemplations
Contemplation of Mind & Body; Contemplation of Which is in Charge
Contemplation of Cause and Effect
Contemplation of Karma
Contemplation of Dependent Origination

Insight Practices from Other Sources

Meditations
Noting [Mahasi Sayadaw]
Dzogchen [Tibetan]
Mahamudra [Tibetan]
Shikantaza (Just Sitting) [Zen]
Choiceless Awareness [Krishnamurti]
Contemplations
Preciousness of this human birth [Mahyna]
"Who Am I?" [Ramana Maharshi]

MN 111 - The Anupada Sutta

One of the favorite suttas of those who feel insight should be done while in the jhnic states is the Anupada Sutta at MN 111. But this is a late sutta and hence is not a good guide for learning what the Buddha actually taught.1 In fact I would say it is a very late sutta, coming from the last strata of sutta composition. The hints of its lateness are

There is no Chinese gama corresponding to MN 111, in fact no parallel of any sort has been identified.2 The vast majority of suttas of the first four collections (Nikyas) in the Pali Canon have corresponding suttas in the Chinese gamas. This would seem to indicate they originate from a common stock. Any sutta that does not occur in both was most likely dropped from one of the collections or was composed after the time the suttas traveled to China.3 The lack of an gama corresponding to a particular sutta is no proof that a sutta is late; it's only a hint and the sutta must be examined for other hints of its possible lateness.

The sutta is about Sriputta, even though it is supposedly spoken by the Buddha. Again when a sutta is by or about someone other than the Buddha, this is a hint that should be further investigated to see if there are other signs of possible lateness.

As we saw in the chapter 1st Jhna, MN 111 is one of only two suttas that mention one-pointedness of mind as a factor of the first jhna. This indicates that at the time of the composition of MN 111, the words vitakka and vicra in the context of the first jhna had undergone the transition in meaning from "thinking and more thinking" to "initial and sustained attention." This is obviously a late transition, coming towards the end of the sutta composition period and the beginning of the abhidhamma composition period.

The whole tone of the sutta is very abhidhamma-like, with all its lists and details. Each jhna is deconstructed into multiple factors, corresponding quite closely to the universal and beautiful cetasikas (factors) found in the Abhidhamma for the various jhnas. As mentioned earlier, Caroline Rhys Davids points out that its style is similar to that of the DhammasaEgaG+, regarded as one of the earliest books of the Abhidhamma.4

There are two suttas that relate how Sriputta attained full awakening. If they both are authentic, that would be like losing your virginity twice! The other sutta is the D+ghanakha Sutta at MN 74 which seems to belong to an earlier strata of sutta composition.5, 6

My conclusion is that MN 111 is completely worthless for trying to understand what the Buddha actually was teaching.
This does not necessarily mean that the practices given in MN 111 are wrong practices. It just means that they differ from what is found in the Gradual Training and other earlier material, which seem more likely to reflect what the Buddha actually was teaching.

1. G. C. Pande also says MN 111 is a late sutta; see Pande, 1995, p. 138.
2. Anlayo, 2011, p. 635.
3. Another possible reason for a sutta to be missing from one of the collections is accident or carelessness by the reciters and compilers. Yet another possibility may be the way Agamas (seem to) have affiliations with schools other than that which produced the Pli suttas. This is why a "missing" sutta serves only as a hint of possible lateness.
4. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1902; quoted in Pande, 1995, p. 138.
5. Pande, 1995, p. 168.
6. One way of resolving the two accounts of Sriputta's awakening is to say that the first one (MN 74) is him attaining liberation by wisdom; the second (MN 111) is him becoming both-ways liberated. But this distinction of two ways of being liberated is is also a late doctrinal development. Furthermore being both-ways liberated means one is skilled in The Psychic Powers, which are not mentioned at all in MN 111.

P+ti: Physical, Sukha: Mental OR P+ti: Mental, Sukha: Physical?

One of the debates that occurs among scholars is whether p+ti refers to something primarily physical or mental (emotional). Of course anyone who has actually experienced the first three jhnas as described in the suttas has no doubt that p+ti encompasses the physical component and sukha refers to a purely mental (emotional) component.
The misunderstanding seems to come from two sources in the suttas. The first one is in the description of the Seven Factors of Awakening that is found in the npnasati Sutta at MN 118. At verse 34 it says, "In one who is rapturous, the body and the mind become tranquil. On whatever occasion the body and the mind become tranquil in a bhikkhu who is rapturous – on that occasion the tranquility enlightenment factor is aroused in him, and he develops it, and by development it comes to fulfillment in him." The conclusion is then made that p+ti can't be referring to the physically energetic component of the first two jhnas because obviously that energetic component is incompatible with tranquility.
However they have missed the larger context such as is found in the The Jhna Summary and the Upanis Sutta (SN 12.23). The same subpattern of tranquility following from p+ti occurs in these larger patterns as well. As we saw in the chapter on The Jhna Summary, the larger pattern in both of these is

pmojja (gladness), p+ti, pasaddhakya (bodily tranquility), sukha, samdhi, (concentration)

with each component generating the subsequent component. Translating p+ti as "emotional happiness" and sukha as "physical rapture" leads to

gladness, emotional happiness, bodily tranquility, physical rapture, concentration.

But there is just no way physical rapture is going to arise from tranquility, which is what would be required if p+ti is primarily mental and sukha is primarily physical. In fact, just the opposite happens – the tranquility arises from the ceasing of the physically energetic experience.

The second source of confusion seems to be the description of the third jhna where, after the p+ti has faded and only the sukha remains, it says one "experiences happiness with the body." Those who think sukha is physical seem to assume this bodily happiness arises because of the presence of the sukha – entirely missing the point that the happiness with the body arises because the p+ti has faded away. See the chapter on the 3rd Jhna for a more complete discussion of this.
In the first two jhnas, both p+ti and sukha are present and in the third only sukha is present. If we were to translate p+ti as "emotional happiness" and sukha as "physical rapture," we would have emotional happiness and physical rapture in the first two jhnas and have only the physical rapture present in the third jhna. But people who are trying to learn the jhnas sometimes, instead of generating an experience of both emotional happiness and physical rapture, wind up generating an experience of only emotional happiness and no physical rapture; others generate only physical rapture and no emotional happiness. Those with only emotional happiness and no physical rapture find the state quite nice and also workable for accessing the fourth jhna. Those with only physical rapture and no emotional happiness find themselves in a state that is most unpleasant and completely unworkable for doing anything – yet that state would correspond to the third jhna if p+ti were emotional happiness and sukha were physical rapture. Clearly this is not the case.
Perhaps those who think sukha is physical may also be confused by thinking that the kyena in the phrase sukha kyena is solely referring to the physical body. But since kya means "group, heap, collection;" it is probably referring to both the body and mind.
An additional source of misunderstanding seems to come from The Pemakopadesa – Stories of the Hungry Ghosts, a text sometimes included in the Khuddaka Nikya of the Pali Canon. P+ti there is defined as a mental quality and sukha, in the context of jh�na is defined as bodily pleasure. But this is a late text and certainly not a good source for understanding what is described in the suttas – and perhaps it is making the same two mistakes outlined above.

The similes for the first 3 jhnas also provide useful clues to the sutta understanding of p+ti and sukha:

1st jhna: bath attendant making soap – vigorous activity - lots of physical energy - p+ti & sukha

2nd jhna: spring in a lake – gentle activity - calmer with inner tranquility - p+ti & sukha

3rd jhna: lotus blossoms underwater – no activity - very still - sukha & no p+ti

Notice that the decrease in p+ti corresponds with the decrease in physical energy as one moves from first to third jhna.
Even the very late Visuddhimagga indicates that p+ti is physical and sukha is mental. It describes five grades of p+ti such that there is certainly an indication of a physical component for p+ti, especially in the fourth grade of "uplifting p+ti" (even if you toss out the levitating!).1 And in describing the jhnas, the Visuddhimagga says "P+ti is included in the rkpa aggregate; sukha is included in the vedan aggregate" (which is mental).2
In conclusion, p+ti is physical; sukha is mental. Reversing this leads to nonsense and confusion, especially regarding the third jhna and the similes for the first three jhnas.

1. Vsm IV.94-99, pp 137-139.
2. Vsm IV.100, p. 139.

The Neurological Correlates of the Jhnas

What is going on in the brain when you enter these jhnas? The short answer is "we don't know." But this is my best guess as to what's happening in the brain during the experience of the four jhnas. It's based on my subjective experiences, looking at the output generated on several occasions when I have meditated and been tracked using EEG or fMRI, and then subsequent conversations with neuroscientists. It is also based on the fact that there are two mesolimbic dopamine systems: the substantia nigra (wanting) system and the ventral tegmental (liking) system. Given this we can hypothesize the following:

sense desire = kmachanda = activation of the dopamine-based wanting system

rapture = p+ti = activation of the dopamine-based liking system (housed in the Nucleus Accumbens) which generates norepinephrine which gives rise to the "symptoms" of p+ti

happiness = sukha = activation of the opioid-based liking system (also housed in the Nucleus Accumbens)

We can then rewrite each of the four jhna descriptions, with the standard description given initially, followed by a neurological description, as follows (normal, italics and bold fonts are just to help you track the changes):

First Jhna

Quite secluded from sense desire, secluded from unskillful states – one enters & remains in the first jhna: rapture & happiness born of seclusion, accompanied by thinking & examining.

Quite secluded from the dopamine-based wanting system (substantia nigra), secluded from any other disturbing mental activity – one enters & remains in the first jhna: norepinephrine system activation & opioid-based liking system activation born of seclusion, accompanied by background mental activity.

Second Jhna

With the stilling of thinking & examining, one enters & remains in the second jhna: rapture & happiness born of concentration, unification of awareness free from thinking & examining – internal tranquility.

With the stilling of background mental activity, one enters & remains in the second jhna: norepinephrine system activation & opioid-based liking system activation born of concentration, unification of awareness free from background mental activity – internal tranquility due to opioids flooding the nervous system.

Third Jhna

With the fading of rapture, one remains in equanimity, mindful & clearly aware, and experiences happiness throughout one's being. One enters & remains in the third jhna, of which the Noble Ones declare, 'Equanimous & mindful, one has a pleasurable abiding.'

With the fading of norepinephrine system activation, remaining equanimous, mindful & clearly aware – with continued opioid-based liking system activation, one experiences happiness throughout one's being. One enters & remains in the third jhna, of which the Noble Ones declare, 'Equanimous & mindful due to opioid system activation, one has a pleasurable abiding.'

Fourth Jhna

With the abandoning of pleasure & pain – as with the earlier disappearance of elation & distress – one enters & remains in the fourth jhna: mindfulness fully purified by equanimity, neither pleasure nor pain.

With the abandoning of liking generated by opioid system activation – as with the earlier disappearance of liking generated by dopamine system activation – one enters & remains in the fourth jhna: mindfulness fully purified by the equanimity remaining from the prior opioid activation, a neutral state now that the liking systems have calmed down.

Remember it's a hypothesis – it's a tentative guess! This is probably very much an oversimplification (e.g., the roles of seratonin and other neurotransmitters are not addressed at all). Much more scientific work needs to be done to see if there is any validity to this hypothesis.

Introduction to Various Interpretations of the Jhanas

There is a great deal of misinformation about the Jhnas floating around in the Buddhist world today. My research has turned up no less than 25 different states that are identified by the word Jhna in the ancient Pali literature:
4 Sutta Jhnas + 4 Immaterial States
5 Abhidhamma Rupa Jhnas + 4 Abhidhamma Arupa Jhnas
4 Visuddhimagga Rupa Jhnas + 4 Visuddhimagga Arupa Jhnas
Those who are fans of the Visuddhimagga tend to roll all these 25 different states into the 8 states matching the descriptions of the Jhnas given in the Visuddhimagga. Of course there is a precedent for doing so – the Visuddhimagga makes the same assumption. But a careful reading of the suttas, the Abhidhamma, and the Visuddhimagga clearly indicates that these are 25 different states.
Additionally there are other, more modern descriptions of states that go by the name Jhna:
4 Vipassana Jhnas
4 Pure Land Jhnas
4 Path Moments are somethimes referred to as Supermundane Jhnas
1 Cessation experience that is sometimes referred to as the 9th Jhna
This gives a total of 38 different states that are called by some form of the name Jhna.
Unfortunately, most people who know anything about the Jhnas, assume that the states they have learned about or experienced are the only states that qualify for the name Jhna. However, the Buddha was not practicing the states given in the Visuddhimagga; the monks at the time of the writing of the Visuddhimagga were not practicing the states described in the suttas. This difference among collections of states referred to as Jhnas is not just my opinion – see the writings of Thanissaro Bhikkhu (2011), Rod Bucknell (1993) and particularly Richard Shankman (2008).
What follows are the details of some of these other states that are referred to as "Jhnas."

Vipassan Jhnas

There is probably no phrase associated with the jhnas that has resulted in more confusion than "Vipassan Jhnas." The phrase is usually used in contrast to "Samatha Jhnas" which refers to the jhnas as described either in the Suttas or in the Visuddhimagga. I have heard the Vipassan Jhnas defined at one time or another as each of the following:

1.   you're doing vipassan practice and some of the jhna factors occur, but you are not concentrated enough to call the experience a "Samatha Jhna,"
2.   you're doing vipassan practice and accidentally stumble into a Samatha Jhna,
3.   you're doing vipassan practice and use that to generate access concentration and enter the Samatha Jhnas,
4.   you're practicing one of the Samatha Jhnas and gain some insight while in that jhna, therefore that jhna has become a Vipassan Jhna,
5.   the Vipassan Jhnas are four of the sixteen Insight Knowledges (Vipassan ÑGas) in the progress of insight.1

But none of these definitions ever made any sense to me! For #1, why call it a jhna at all if you only have factors happening without enough concentration to call it a jhna? For #2 and #3, why make a distinction based on access method if the jhnic experience is the same as a so-called "Samatha Jhna?" For #4, why change the name of an experience based on something that occurred during that experience but that did not change that experience? For #5, which four knowledges, and why only four, and why those four?
It turns out that definition #5 is the official definition – but the questions above still apply. There definitely seems to be a consensus that the 4th Vipassan Jhna is the "Knowledge of Equanimity about Formations" since both this knowledge and the "4th Samatha Jhna" have equanimity as their most obvious characteristic. But what are the first three Vipassan Jhnas referring to? None of the knowledges seem to involve p+ti or sukha in any way whatsoever. In fact the Knowledges of Terror, Danger, Disenchantment and Desire for Deliverance are quite the opposite of anything associated with sukha! What's going on here? Furthermore the jhnas – the so called Samatha Jhnas – do occur in the Seven Stages of Purification in the second stage, while the Insight Knowledges occur in the third through seventh stages. And why use the word "jhna?" The literal meaning of jhna is "meditation" and the knowledges are neither ways to meditate nor are they concentration states, they are knowledges.
Finally after many years of hearing about the Vipassan Jhnas, reading about the Vipassan Jhnas, listening to dhamma talks about the Vipassan Jhnas, it occurred to me that most likely something like the following happened sometime in the long forgotten past:

An eminent monk got up before a group of junior monks and said "Tonight I will teach you about the Vipassan ÑGas." And some little monklet heard "I will teach you about the Vipassan Jhnas." That monklette learned about the Vipassan ÑGas, but thought he was learning about the Vipassan Jhnas. Eventually that monklette grew up to be an eminent monk and began teaching about the Vipassan ÑGas using the phrase "Vipassan Jhnas." And so today we have the ill-defined concept of Vipassan Jhnas that haphazardly refers to 4 of the Vipassan ÑGas.

Now remember, the above is totally conjecture on my part! The phrase "Vipassan Jhnas" does appear in some of the later commentaries, but never have I found it to have a clear referent, nor have I found any reason to use the word "Jhna" in association with the ÑGas, nor have I found it useful in any way. This overloading of the term "jhna" seems to serve no purpose except to generate confusion. So when someone asks me "What are the Vipassan Jhnas?" I have to answer "A mishearing of the phrase Vipassan ÑGas."
Of course, there are others who do find the phrase "Vipassan Jhnas" useful. If you don't find my explanation above satisfactory, you'll need to talk to people who do feel the phrase "Vipassan Jhnas" does actually refer to something useful.

1. For an in-depth look at the progress of insight, please see The Seven Stages of Purification and the Insight Knowledges ~ Matara Sri Ñanarama Mahathera, Buddhist Publication Society, 1983, ISBN: 955-24-0059-7

Abhidhamma Jhnas

DhammasaEgaG+

The first book of the Pali Abhidhamma, the DhammasaEgaG+,1 initially describes in Chapter II the four jhnas much the same as found in the Anupada Sutta at MN 111 – i.e., with a host of additional factors besides the qualities given in the usual sutta descriptions of the jhnas.2 It then describes a fivefold system of jhnas that cover the same states as the sutta fourfold system but with the addition of a new jhna (call it jhna 1.5) between the first and second jhnas.3 The factors of jhna 1.5 are the same as for the first jhna except that vitakka has subsided and yet vicra remains. Jhna 1.5 is said to be born of concentration – which is the same as the second jhna. The first, third, fourth and fifth jhnas of the fivefold system correspond exactly to the first, second, third and fourth jhnas of the fourfold system mentioned on the previous pages of the DhammasaEgaG+.
The method for entering the jhnas in both the fourfold and fivefold systems is via "earth-gazing."4 Earth-gazing is inserted into the actual description of each of the jhnas – e.g., "Quite secluded from sense pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, by earth-gazing, one enters and dwells in the first jhna, ...." Earth-gazing refers to using the earth kasiGa as the access method. A kasiGa is a colored disk, with the particular color and/or properties specified according to the type of kasiGa. The earth kasiGa, for instance, is a red-brown disk made of earth or clay (or another medium producing similar color and texture). The Visuddhimagga gives copious information about making and using an earth kasiGa5 and that information is in accord with what is described in the DhammasaEgaG+.
Then Chapter II of the DhammasaEgaG+ goes on to describe the Four Modes of Progress, the Four Objects of Thought, the Sixteenfold Combinations of the previous two, The Remaining Seven Artifices, The Stations of Mastery and The First Three Deliverances. It concludes with a section on the jhnas and the brahma-vihras and on the jhnas and foulness (stages of decay of a corpse). It is all rather cryptic and is more clearly explained in the Visuddhimagga – not that you should ever get the idea that the Visuddhimagga is a paragon of clarity!
Chapter III is about the Four Formless Jhnas and again closely matches what is found in MN 111. However the usual description of these immaterial jhnas is expanded by sandwiching in the sutta description of the fourth jhna between the usual sutta description of an immaterial jhna and the enumeration of the multitude of factors of that immaterial jhna. By the time of the Abhidhamma, the formless jhnas were thought of as modes of the fourth jhna. This enabled the Gradual Training to now contain all eight jhnas – the formless ones now assumed to be implicitly referred to when the fourth jhna is mentioned.
What is interesting is that every description of each of the eight jhnas starts with the phrase "When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form [or Formlessness], he cultivates the way thereto, and ..." – with the usual description of each jhna inserted at the "...". It seems that by the time of the Abhidhamma, the jhnas were seen as a way to guarantee rebirth in one of the higher heavens – one of the Heavens of Form with mastery of the Rkpa Jhnas or one of the Formless Heavens with mastery of the Arkpa Jhnas. In fact Chapter IV of the DhammasaEgaG+ is all about the relationship of the jhnas and the heavens. This next life emphasis is a quite striking difference from the emphasis in the Gradual Training of the suttas where the Rkpa Jhnas are used to generate a concentrated, bright, wieldy mind which is used to gain the insight necessary for liberation in this life.
Chapter V of the DhammasaEgaG+ introduces the concept of the supermundane jhnas. In the suttas, the jhnas are always considered mundane – that is, they have their causes and conditions and are impermanent, not ultimately satisfying, and are empty of any inherent existence. In the Abhidhamma the four rkpa and four arkpa jhnas are still considered mundane, but the path and fruit moments of awakening are introduced in Chapter V and are called supermundane jhnas. This overloading of the term "jhna" serves no modern purpose except to generate confusion. The word "jhna" literally means "meditation." It comes from the verb jhyati which means "to meditate." But the path and fruit moments are not types/styles/forms of meditation – they are momentary experiences that result from meditating.

VibhaEga

The chapter on the jhnas in the VibhaEga opens with a very nice two page summary of the Gradual Training, very close to what is described in detail in the early chapters of this book. The rkpa jhnas are described in the usual sutta fourfold way; this would be expected since this section is titled "Analysis According to the Discourses."6 Then follows in excruciating detail the definitions of all the important words in the summary. Vitakka & vicra seem to mean both "thinking and examining" and "initial and sustained attention." P+ti is described as mental – excited elation; sukha is described undoubtedly as mental – ease and pleasure; no mention is made of any physical manifestation for either of them. The detailed definitions of the arkpa jhnas span two pages yet manage to provide virtually no additional information about these states beyond what is found in the suttas.7
Then follows a section titled "Analysis According to the Abhidhamma."8 This opens with a rehashing of the fourfold rkpa jhnas and the arkpa jhnas as explained in the DhammasaEgaG+ with its emphasis on rebirth in the corresponding heavenly realms. It continues with a cryptic discussion of the supermundane jhnas and concludes with a section that teaches how the jhnas are sometimes good and sometimes neither-good-nor-bad and never a cause for bewailing. Interestingly, only the fourfold scheme for the rkpa jhnas seems to be mentioned in the VibhaEga.

Puggalapaññatti

The Puggalapaññatti seems to mention the jhnas only once, and in a way that corresponds to the central part of the Gradual Training:9 – abandoning the hindrances; moving through the four rkpa jhnas; using the concentrated, bright, wieldy, mind to bring an end to the three savas.

Kathvatthu

The Kathvatthu – "Points of Controversy" – answers several points of controversy regarding the jhnas:10

Q: Do we pass immediately from one jhna to the next or is there an intermediate non-jhnic state?

A: No intermediate state. [Though I would say it depends – if you move intentionally, there is a brief, intermediate non-jhnic state; if the transition happens automatically, there is no intermediate non-jhnic state.]

Q: Is there a jhna 1.5?

A: No. [Interesting! Especially seeing that the DhammasaEgaG+ describes such a state.]

Q: Can you hear sounds in jhna?

A: No. [This appears to be the origin of this misunderstanding. The argument is quite suspect, but does indicate that by the time the Kathvatthu was composed, the understanding of the jhnas had shifted to absorption deep enough to block out all sound.]

Q: Does one who enjoys jhna and desires jhna, have that jhna as the object of desire?

A: No? [The arguments actually are confusing and inconclusive.]

Although the remaining books of the Abhidhamma may have additional information on the jhnas, I am not familiar with them and can provide no further information. But hopefully the above gives you some sense of how the jhnas evolved after the Buddha's death. We can clearly see the following:

- A fivefold scheme for the jhnas was created by inserting a new state between the first and second jhna. This was only possible after the Pali phrase "vitakka and vicra" had lost its meaning of just "thinking" and had taken on the separate meanings of "initial application" and "sustained attention" respectively. This probably arose when the first jhna became a more absorbed state than described in the suttas – witness the inclusion of one-pointedness as a factor of the first jhna late in the sutta composition period (i.e., MN 43.19 & MN 111.4).

- KasiGa practice had become more important by the time of the composition of the DhammasaEgaG+. This too would indicate a deepening of concentration relative to the suttas, where kasiGas are mentioned in very few suttas and then only listed.11

- The immaterial jhnas came to be regarded as modes of the fourth jhna.

- Emphasis shifted somewhat from using the jhnas to obtain a mind suited for insight practice to attaining rebirth in one of the heavenly realm corresponding to one of the jhnas.

- The concept of the supermundane jhnas was introduced.

- Various controversies surrounding jhna practice were resolved – usually in terms of deeper concentration. However, seemingly the fivefold jhna scheme was later rejected.

1. Translated from the Pali by C.A.F. Rhys Davids as Buddhist Psychological Ethics, (Oxford: Pali Text Society, 1900).
2. Dhs, 1900, pp 40-47.
3. Dhs, 1900, pp 47-48.
4. Pamhav+kasinaC – i.e., the earth kasiGa.
5. Vsm IV.24-26, p. 118f
6. Vbh, 1969, pp 319-320.
7. Ibid, pp 342-343.
8. Ibid, pp 344ff
9. Pp, 1922, p. 94.
10. Kath, 1915, pp 327ff, pp 277f.
11. DN 33.3.3.2, MN 77.24, AN 1.455-464, AN 10.25, 26 & 29.

The Nimitta

The Pali word nimitta literally means "sign." As was mentioned in the chapter Access Concentration, seeing a "diffused white light is a sign of good concentration." And as was mentioned in the chapter Entering the Jhnas, very subtle breathing or seemingly not even breathing are "signs that you've likely arrived at access concentration." The word nimitta does appear in the suttas and it has exactly this meaning in the context of meditation. It does get used in other contexts as well and also simply means "sign" in those places as well.1
The Vimuttimagga from approximately 100 CE says the following about the nimitta (sign) in the section Mindfulness of Respiration – Procedure:

To the yogin who attends to the incoming breath with mind that is cleansed of the nine lesser defilements the nimitta arises with a pleasant feeling similar to that which is produced in the action of spinning cotton or silk cotton. Also, it is likened to the pleasant feeling produced by a breeze. Thus during breathing in and out, air touches the nose or the lip and causes the setting-up of air perception mindfulness. This does not depend on colour or form. This is called the nimitta. If the yogin develops the nimitta and increases it at the nose-tip, between the eyebrows, on the forehead or establishes it in several places, he feels as if his head were filled with air. Through increasing in this way his whole body is charged with bliss. This is called perfection.

And again, there is a yogin: he sees several nimittas from the beginning. He sees various forms such as smoke, mist, dust, sand of gold, or he experiences something similar to the pricking of a needle or to an ant's bite. If his mind does not become clear regarding these different nimittas, he will be confused. Thus he fulfils overturning and does not gain the perception of respiration. If his mind becomes clear, the yogin does not experience confusion. He attends to respiration and he does not cause the arising of other perceptions. ... If his mind is not disturbed, he will destroy the hindrances, and arouse the jhna factors.2

(My underlining, my bolding.)

The phrase "he does not cause the arising of other perceptions" means you do not pay attention to these visual signs or to any tactile signs not associated with the touch of the breath. Hence you do not lose your attention to the breathing by generating "other perceptions," i.e., distractions. The underlined phrase specifically indicates mindfulness of breathing does not depend on anything visual; it's a tactile experience.
But as time went on, the word nimitta took on a new, more specific meaning. Four centuries later in the Visuddhimagga, under Mindfulness of Breathing, we find the following:

214. ...the nimitta soon appears to him. But it is not the same for all; on the contrary, some say that when it appears it does so to certain people producing a light touch like cotton or silk cotton or a draught.

215. But this is the exposition given in the commentaries: It appears to some like a star or a cluster of gems or a cluster of pearls, to others with a rough touch like that of silk-cotton seeds or a peg made of heartwood, to others like a long braid string or a wreath of flowers or a puff of smoke, to others like a stretched-out cobweb or a film of cloud or a lotus flower or a chariot wheel or the moon's disk or the sun's disk.3

(Again, my bolding.)
Compare the words in bold in the earlier Vimuttimagga description with those in bold in the Visuddhimagga. Notice how the quantity has increased and also notice the huge increase in the variety of visual nimittas. The Visuddhimagga goes on in verse 219 to say "Then he should fix his mind on that same sign; and so from now on, his development proceeds by way of fixing." In verse 221 and 222, we find "he should make it [the nimitta] grow and improve with repeated attention, and he should practice the ten-fold skill in absorption" and "as he strives thus, jhna is achieved by him on that same sign." Now nimitta, and in particular the visual ones, have become the object of focused attention that brings one to full absorption and thence to the jhnas.
The following is from Nyanatiloka Mahathera's Buddhist Dictionary under the word nimitta:

'Mental (reflex-) image', obtained in meditation. In full clarity, it will appear in the mind by successful practice of certain concentration-exercises and will then appear as vividly as if seen by the eye. The object perceived at the very beginning of concentration is called the preparatory image (parikamma-nimitta). The still unsteady and unclear image, which arises when the mind has reached a weak degree of concentration, is called the acquired image (uggaha-nimitta). An entirely clear and immovable image arising at a higher degree of concentration is the counter-image (patibhga-nimitta).

This transition from visual signs of good concentration that should be ignored to a visual sign becoming the heart of the method of absorption is a curious one. Bhikkhu Sona, in his essay "The Mystery of the Breath Nimitta,"4 suggests that a simile in the Pamisambhidmagga, a commentary from approximately 300 BCE, eventually was taken literally:

Whose mindfulness of breathing in and out is perfect, well developed, and gradually brought to growth according as the Buddha taught, It is he [who] illuminates the world just like the full moon free from cloud.5

Now certainly it is true that if you become VERY concentrated you might see an image that looks like "a star or a cluster of gems" or "chariot wheel or the moon's disk," etc. And it is also true that you can with sufficient concentration absorb into that experience so deeply that you no longer hear sounds, or are aware of your body, or are even aware of the passage of time. This is not what is described in the suttas; however, this is indeed what the later commentaries mean when they use the word "nimitta."
So we can say that in the suttas the word "nimitta" simply means "sign." And in the Visuddhimagga the word "nimitta" refers to a (usually visual) image that appears when your mind is sufficiently concentrated and which can be used as an object of full absorption. As you will see in the following appendix, in the Visuddhimagga a nimitta is required for jhna practice – without sufficient concentration to produce a nimitta, full absorption is not possible. Hence the jhnas, which for the Visuddhimagga are full absorption states, are not possible without a nimitta.

Of course the above discussion still leaves the question "Just what exactly causes a nimitta to appear?" Clearly it's a sign of deep concentration, but what is going on neurologically to cause a visual image to appear? A very interesting paper by Dr. Susan Blackmore,6 discussing the tunnel some people report upon returning from a near-death-experience, provides clues. She writes

In the 1930s, Heinrich Klüver, at the University of Chicago, noted four form constants in hallucinations: the tunnel, the spiral, the lattice or grating, and the cobweb. Their origin probably lies in the structure of the visual cortex, the part of the brain that processes visual information.

Brain activity is normally kept stable by some cells inhibiting others. Disinhibition (the reduction of this inhibitory activity) produces too much activity in the brain. This can occur near death (because of lack of oxygen) or with drugs like LSD, which interfere with inhibition.

It also seems that very deep states of meditation also interfere with inhibition. Dr. Blackmore and Tom Troscianko7 at the University of Bristol, UK, "used a computer to simulate what would happen when you have gradually increasing electrical noise in the visual cortex."

The most obvious thing about the representation in the cortex is that there are lots of cells representing the center of the visual field but very few for the edges. This means that you can see small things very clearly in the center, but if they are out at the edges you cannot. We took just this simple fact as a starting point.

The computer program starts with thinly spread dots of light, mapped in the same way as the cortex, with more toward the middle and very few at the edges. Gradually the number of dots increases, mimicking the increasing noise. Now the center begins to look like a white blob and the outer edges gradually get more and more dots. And so it expands until eventually the whole screen is filled with light. The appearance is just like a dark speckly tunnel with a white light at the end, and the light grows bigger and bigger (or nearer and nearer) until it fills the whole screen.

Nimittas do sometime appear as a tunnel8 although the star, cluster of gems, chariot wheel or the moon's disk seem to be more common. But these too would appear if the noise mentioned above does not increase above a certain threshold.
This means that steady visuals that you might see when meditating can be a good indication of deep concentration. The defused white light occurs in the early stages of disinhibition in the visual cortex. The concentration is providing the lack of inhibition and you can actually see that occurring. As disinhibition increases with further increases in concentration, the more the activity of the visual cortex comes to resemble a round object. This means you can actually track your depth of concentration by tracking what you see – just don't get caught up in the visuals and lose your focus on your meditation object; if you do you'll start losing concentration. It's really important to "dance with the one that brung ya."
Just remember that no visuals of any sort are required to enter the jhnas described in the suttas; a visual nimitta is only necessary for the Visuddhimagga Jhnas which are discussed in the following appendix.

1. See Polak, 2011, pp 131-137 for a more detailed discussion of the use of the word "nimitta" in the suttas.
2. Vimuttimagga, 1995, p. 158f
3. Visuddhimagga, VIII, 214-215, 1991, p. 277f
4. http://www.arrowriver.ca/dhamma/nimitta.html and mirrored at http://leighb.com/case_of_the_missing_simile.htm
5. Pamisambhidmagga III.171, p. 172
6. Susan Blackmore, Near-Death Experiences: In or out of the body?, Skeptical Inquirer 1991, pp 16, 34-45.
7. Blackmore, S. J., and T. S. Troscianko. 1989. The physiology of the tunnel. Journal of Near-Death Studies, 8:15-28.
8. Mentioned in meditation instructions given by Ven. Pa Auk, July-Oct, 2011, IMS Forest Refuge, Barre, MA

Visuddhimagga Jhnas

The orthodox Theravdan understanding of the jhnas is based on the Visuddhimagga which was written in Sri Lanka in the 5th century CE, more than eight centuries after the death of the Buddha. The jhnas described there are extremely deep states of concentration. Apparently during succeeding generations after the death of the Buddha, the monks found ways to enter into deeper and deeper meditative states until they were able to reach full absorption, probably long before the Visuddhimagga was written.
The Visuddhimagga describes all of the jhnas as complete absorption states. There are no body sensations, no sounds are heard, there is not even the sense of time passing.1 The vitakka and vicra mentioned in the description of the first jhna are no longer understood as "thinking and examining" but rather as "initial and sustained attention [to the meditation object];" one-pointedness has also been added as an additional factor of the first jhna. This is the same understanding as found in the Abhidhamma. In order to enter such a deep state, the concentration preceding the entry into the jhnas, now officially called "access concentration," requires a depth strong enough to generate a nimitta – see the previous appendix for more information on Nimitta.
By the time of the Visuddhimagga, the jhnas had become redefined to such profoundly deep states of concentration that it was extremely difficult to learn them. In fact the Visuddhimagga says the following:

[The] preliminary work is difficult for a beginner and only one in a hundred or a thousand can do it. The arousing of the nimitta is difficult for one who has done the preliminary work and only one in a hundred or a thousand can do it. To extend the nimitta when it has arisen and to reach absorption is difficult and only one in a hundred or a thousand can do it."2

Thus only 1 in 100 x 100 x 100 = 1,000,000 can reach absorption (first jhna) – using the most optimistic figures. If we were to take the numbers above literally, it would seem to indicate that since the Buddha could enter the jhnas, statistically it would be unlikely that any of his far less than a million personal followers could – but of course this is flat out contradicted by the suttas where many disciples are shown as being accomplished in the jhnas.3 Of course we shouldn't take these numbers literally, but they do point to the fact that by the time of the Visuddhimagga, the jhnas had come to be understood as states that were very difficult to learn and master.
The most prominent access method found in the Visuddhimagga is meditation on a kasiGa – a color disk about the size of a dinner plate. The Visuddhimagga gives a quite detailed description of how this is done,4 along with discussing other access techniques as well.5 It is very interesting that kasiGa meditation becomes the most important access method in the Visuddhimagga. The word "kasiGa" does appear in the suttas – 10 kasiGas are listed at DN 33.3.3.2 and MN 77.24. But nowhere else in these two Nikya, where the jhnas are repeatedly mentioned, are kasiGas mentioned.6
Since one who is experiencing the Visuddhimagga jhnas is completely absorbed in the experience, the factors of the jhnic experience can only be determined by reflecting back on the experience after one leaves the jhna. One does not move between jhnas directly: instead of going from access concentration (AC) into the first jhna, then the second (i.e., AC-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8), one must return to access concentration between jhnas (i.e., AC-1-AC-2-AC-3-AC-4 etc.). And of course since one is totally absorbed while in a jhna, it is impossible to do any insight practice while in the jhnas – one always has to exit the jhnas before beginning any sort of insight practice.
These very deep states do indeed generate a mind that is super concentrated, very pure and bright, truly malleable, wieldy and steady, and strongly imperturbable. This is a very powerful mind state for undertaking insight practice. But it has this very serious drawback of being extremely difficult to access. For a given individual, it is also possible that the effort to reach such a state may push one past the point of diminishing returns, in that the time spent working to enter such a state could perhaps have been more productively used to generate a lesser level of concentration and then begin insight meditation practice with that level of concentration.
It does seem that if you have both the skill necessary to learn the Visuddhimagga jhnas and the lifestyle that affords you the time to actually enter these jhnas, they provide an excellent jumping off place for beginning insight meditation. But most lay people don't frequently have weeks and months of nothing else to do but silently meditate – and that seems to be a requirement, even for those who do learn the Visuddhimagga jhnas relatively easily.
Unfortunately this Visuddhimagga description of what constitutes a jhna has persisted as the orthodox Theravdan understanding of the jhnas into the 20th and 21st centuries – for the most part. There is nothing in this understanding that would constitute "wrong concentration;" it's just that this understanding is quite impractical and very different from the Buddha's understanding of the jhnas.
This brief overview of the Visuddhimagga jhnas is in no way complete. Luckily there are a number of excellent books available that do provide an in-depth look at the Visuddhimagga Jhnas. Both Shaila Catherine's Focused and Fearless and Stephen Snyder and Tina Rasmussen's Practicing the Jhnas are very readable books. They are both based on the teachings of Ven. Pa Auk whose teachings, not only of the jhnas, but also of insight, are based on what is found in the Visuddhimagga. Ven. Pa Auk also has a quite good book entitled Knowing and Seeing which is even available for free download from http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/know-see.pdf. Richard Shankman's The Experience of Samdhi gives an excellent overview of both the Sutta Jhnas and the Visuddhimagga Jhnas. Ajahn Brahmavamso teaches jhnas that use a nimitta as access to absorption states, although he claims not to be teaching in the style of the Visuddhimagga. He too has an excellent book entitled Mindfulness, Bliss, and Beyond.
Of course, if you are really interested in learning about the Visuddhimagga jhnas, the Visuddhimagga itself has been excellently translated into English by Ven. Nyanamoli. And although like the rest of the Visuddhimagga, the chapters on concentration (III - XIII) are not an easy read, they do contain valuable information on what has come to be the orthodox Theravdan understanding of the jhnas. You can freely download a copy of the Visuddhimagga from http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/nanamoli/PathofPurification2011.pdf.

1. Vsm IV.79ff. See also Pa Auk, 2000, p. 102.
2. Vsm XII.8
3. E.g. Sriputta in MN 111, SN 28; Mahmoggallna in SN 21.1, SN 40.1-8; Anuruddha in MN 31 (along with Nandiya and Kimbila), SN 52.21; Vacchagotta in MN 73; monks in general in DN 22, MN 141, SN 36.31, 46.54, 48.10. The phrase "He obtains/gains at will, without trouble or difficulty, the four jhnas" occurs at MN 6.9, MN 53.6, MN 108.17, MN 119.36, SN 21.4 and over 20 times in the AN.
4. Vsm IV.1-33, pages 113-122
5. Vsm III-XIII, pages 81-430
6. KasiGas are not mentioned at all in the SN. The 10 kasiGas do occur at AN 1.455-464 and AN 10.25, 26 & 29, but not in connection with the jhnas. See Polak, 2011, pp 127-130 for a more detailed discussion of kasiGas in the suttas.

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