The fourth dhyana
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 7 minute read This excerpt is from Chapter 10 and follows on from The Third Dhyana. Concentration Fourth dhyana In the fourth dhyana the experience of happiness fades and is replaced by one-pointed concentration; the monk has now developed the qualities of mindfulness and equanimity to an unshakeable degree; there are now no situations under which he can be distracted from being mindful or skilful by the experience of pleasure or pain, he is therefore as mindful and skilful as he possibly can be. His whole being is practically absorbed in bringing about Awakening—for himself and for others, and he is ready to deal with things as they really are. ‘Furthermore, with the giving up of (attention to) pleasure and pain and the earlier disappearance of elation and distress, the meditator enters into and abides in the fourth dhyana, which is beyond pleasure or pain and purified by equanimity and mindfulness. And they sit suffusing this very body with a completely pure and translucent mind, so that there is no place in their body that is not suffused with a completely pure and translucent mind.’[1] The Buddha gives a simile for the fourth dhyana of a man wrapped in a clean white sheet after having taken a bath: ‘Suppose a man were to sit enveloped from the head down with a white cloth, so that there would be no place in his body that was not enveloped with the white cloth. In this way, the practitioner sits suffusing their body with a completely pure and translucent mind, so that there is no place in their body that is not suffused with a completely pure and translucent mind.’[2] I have used ‘unshakeability’ as the quality characteristic of the fourth dhyana because it is at this stage that the meditator develops equanimity. The fourth dhyana subsumes within itself all of the qualities of the third dhyana, in that the person is unquestionably skilful, but what is added to that is that the monk’s skilfulness is maintained under ALL circumstances; whatever pleasure or pain they are experiencing, they remain in distracted; their focus of care and awareness is undiluted by anything that they might experience. The mind in the fourth dhyana is described as being ‘completely pure’ (Pali: parisuddha). We normally understand purity in terms of the essence of a person being unsullied, but while such essences feature in Hinduism and in other theistic religions, Buddhism does not recognize them (it only recognizes impermanent phenomena), therefore we need another explanation. The Samanaphala Sutta teaches that the mind in the fourth dhyana...
The third dhyana
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 11 minute read This excerpt is from Chapter 10 and follows on from The Second Dhyana. Calming down Pacification In the transition from the lucid confidence and inspiration of the second dhyana to the ‘calm abiding’ of the third dhyana, the mind is said to go through the stage of pacification (passaddhi).[1] Kamalashila identifies pacification with the process by which the rapture that characterizes the second dhyana is ‘contained’ by the subtler feelings of bliss which characterize the third. ‘Bliss is gentler and subtler. But though less dramatic, it is in its quiet way actually more intense. Rapture is traditionally compared to the delicious feeling of anticipation when you know that you are about to get the very thing you’ve always wanted. Bliss is more like enjoying the satisfaction of actually possessing it. Bliss is thus a deeper stage of integration in which the mind has begun to absorb the wilder and less refined sensations of rapture. With experience, you become less attached to these relatively coarse feelings and move towards a deeper, stronger state of happiness. The occurrence of rapture and bliss show that increased concentration is an intensely satisfying experience.’ [2] There is a strong idea in the West that the aim of meditation involves a withdrawal from the world into an unhindered and detached world of bliss; it is very common in the New Age narrative, which takes its’ cue from Hinduism, but Buddhism is not like that. In fact, personal happiness can be a trap, a beautiful prison. Flow Aristotle identified happiness as predominantly to do with activity. Based on the same idea, the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in 1975 identified the concept of flow. ‘A flow state, also known colloquially as being ‘in the zone’, is the mental state in which a person performing some activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. In essence, flow is characterized by the complete absorption in what one does, and a resulting transformation in one’s sense of time.’[3] When a person has a set of challenges, and their skills out-match those challenges, they feel bored; when their skills are not up to the challenges they face, they feel anxious; But when their skills match their challenges they enter into the happy and absorbed state of flow. This is because spiritual pleasure arises on the basis of actual achievement; of meeting and addressing various real-world challenges. We can experience something similar to flow–called ‘hyperfocus’–when playing video games, but...
The second dhyana
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 7 minute read This excerpt is from Chapter 10 and follows on from The First Dhyana. Rapture Second dhyana Each remaining dhyana is a development of the first dhyana; involving a further withdrawal from concern with sensory experience; a deeper involvement with skilfulness; and a signal that a certain process is complete. The main change from the first to the second dhyana are that thought disappears and is replaced by a state of lucidity or in Pali pasada (Sanskrit: prasada), and the monk’s predominant experience is now rapture. ‘Furthermore, with the subsiding of initial thought and sustained thought, the meditator enters into and abides in the second dhyana, which is accompanied by internal peace, (lucid) confidence (pasada)[1] and unification of the mind,[2] is free from initial thought and sustained thought, and is filled with the rapture and happiness born of concentration.’[3] The Nyingmapa Buddhist School talks about three kinds of faith;[4] lucid confidence or pasada (sometimes called inspired or vivid faith), longing or eager faith; and the deep (trusting) confidence that comes when we feel a thing is completely reliable. “While confident faith in the three jewels, from the heart’s depth, once their blessings and extraordinary qualities are understood.” [5] In other words, faith or confidence-trust has a cognitive aspect; a volitional aspect; and a deeply emotional aspect. Of these, the second dhyana is concerned with cognitive conviction; we understand how things work, and what we need to do. Ratnaguna illustrates the quality of pasada in an image. He says that when we first arrive on retreat, it can be difficult to take in the world around us; we are still somewhat preoccupied with whatever we have been doing before the retreat; perhaps we feel regret over some of the things that we have done and this weighs on our conscience. But as we practice meditation in the following days, slowly purifying our mental states, after a few days we might walk out of the shrine room and the world looks amazing. Having purified our karma and clarified our thinking, we experience pasada. We see another person, and bang. ‘It is as if you’ve never seen this person before; they are completely new to you; fresh. … Like in the springtime you get these leaves don’t you, these tiny little baby leaves that are this incredible colour green, and they are so fresh and innocent and pure you can’t believe it, and you think, how did that happen, incredible.’[6] Image by anncapictures on Pixabay. The rapture and happiness that arises in the first dhyana does so...
The first dhyana
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 4 minute read This excerpt is from Chapter 10 and follows on from Hindrances to Meditation. First dhyana In the first dhyana the five hindrances, and sinking and drifting, are completely absent. As a result, the monk abides in a happy human existence, and is able to focus on what is of real importance to him, namely. he can think clearly because the energy levels within his body and mind allow it he is focused exclusively on cultivating skilful mental states, because this is where his confidence truly lie his interest and investment are no longer with sensory experience This situation is laid out in the Samannaphala Sutta, where the Buddha states that the first dhyana takes place in seclusion from sensuality and unskilful mental states: ‘Quite secluded from sense desires and from unskilful states, the monk enters and abides in the first dhyana, which is accompanied by thinking and pondering, filled with the rapture and happiness born of seclusion.’[1] And this experience ‘pervades his whole body’, by which the Buddha usually means something like ‘thoroughly informs his thoughts, emotions and even deeper unconscious tendencies’; in other words, his experience feels complete and unified; integrated: ‘He pervades, drenches, saturates and suffuses his very body with the rapture and happiness born of seclusion, and there is no place in his entire body that is not suffused with this rapture and happiness.’[2] The first dhyana marks the transition from relying on sensual experience and unskilful mental states to relying only on inner experience and skilful mental states for happiness. Having completely let go of the hindrances the monk has; Confidence (i.e., no more doubt) in the ‘path of skilfulness’ as the route to happiness Energy in mind and body that will support that path (i.e., no ‘energetic’ hindrances) Non-reactivity to sensual experience (i.e., neither sense desire nor aversion) and is thus able to focus solely on cultivating skilful mental states. The presence of thought means that the details of such skilfulness are being worked out in this stage; he is able to bring objects to mind (vitaka), reflect upon them (vicara) and thus experiences ‘rapture and happiness born of seclusion.’ The first dhyana need not necessarily take place in seated meditation, it can arise while the monk is sat in an armchair, just as long as he is reflecting upon a skilful theme to become clearer what it means in practical terms. And as insights occur, he experiences rapture and happiness, which because they arise from a skilful source, are of a spiritual nature; it is that joy which arises...
Hindrances to meditation
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 16 minute read This excerpt is from Chapter 10 and follows on from The Dhyanas. Morality By morality the Buddha doesn’t mean conventional morality, but the natural morality that consists in first seeing, and then bringing into being, the conditions that actually lead to happiness in experience. Hence morality is keenly tied to the practice of mindfulness, in particular the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, thus: Mindfulness of the body We usually think of morality as being concerned with curbing our desires so that we do not do harm, and promoting beneficial outcomes, but Buddhism has a broader remit, because there are conditions other than these that have a positive or negative bearing on suffering; the body is one. I feel that many Buddhists are vague about this; they do not view the state of their body as an ethical issue, only their intentions. As a result, they may wilfully disregard their bodies’ state, and, as a result, when they come to meditate will effectively waste much of the session fighting their body, rather than getting on with the meditation. Although the monk can in theory practice mindfulness of the body in all situations, in practice it is most easily developed in sitting meditation, in which new input is reduced to a minimum, allowing the bodily state of the meditator to gradually become apparent and be dealt with. By allowing his body to sit in a balanced way so that its’ bones take its’ weight, and its’ muscles relax in the knowledge they are supported, the mind will experience the singular, stable, reassuring physical presence of the body. Thus, the monk achieves the best conditions to support mental concentration and absorption; this is why the meditative state is so stable (no will is involved in maintaining it; only natural conditions that support concentration). It is only when this balance is not maintained that his mind is forced back from its’ singular focus to the world of bodily concerns. His ability to maintain his posture is supported or constrained by the energy levels in his body. Morality in the sphere of the body includes making sure that his energy Is neither sluggish nor over-stimulated. Counteracting bodily energy that is sluggish In life in general it is obviously extremely important that we have constant access to good physical energy, if we are to contribute anything substantial to the ‘world community.’ Shantideva puts it bluntly in relation to ‘The perfection of vigour’: ‘Without vigour there is no merit, just as there is...
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