Why Jhana8?

I’ve been considering whether to create a site like this for some time. A visit to YouTube to search for videos about Jhana turned up only some Buddhist monks from Thailand, USA, and India talking about what the Buddha said about Jhana.

That was odd. There are many people that have experienced some level of the jhanas – and yet – why isn’t anyone telling about it? Why isn’t anyone helping those that aren’t receiving jhana?

I’ve been lucky or blessed or whatever you want to term it – to have spent time in all 8 jhanas. Hence the name of the site – Jhana8.com.

Was it difficult to reach a place where jhana would visit? Sure, it was difficult… but mostly it was fun. That might sound like a contradiction to many of you that have worked hard to get jhana.

The bad news is… you don’t get it. It just comes. Ready yourself for it coming – and you can experience jhana. All the jhanas.

A little about my background…

I had very little ‘training’ in meditation – and that’s to my benefit. I think it’s profoundly difficult for Buddhist monks and others attempting to follow the Buddhist way of meditation and get much of anywhere at all.

My evidence for that is that over the past 10+ years of looking I’ve yet to meet anyone that has experienced high level jhana. I’ve looked. Hard! I know of a few people that appear to have had it… but I haven’t met them in person.

Here in Thailand over the last 4+ years I’ve met many Theravada monks and nuns… abbots of Buddhist temples. I have yet to find someone that is enlightened.

That’s very strange to me. Is it strange to you? It should be! There are millions of people across the globe attempting to do what the Buddha originally did.

How many were successful over the course of history? How many had definitely gone up to and through Jhana8?

From my perspective – maybe nobody.

How many have experienced Jhana8? One out of a billion? One out of 100 million?

Those numbers don’t add up for me.

I’m nobody special I assure you. Whether what happened before my birth in this body had anything to do with anything at all – I haven’t the slightest idea. I don’t believe in reincarnation – rebirth – karma – or anything like that, yet.

I say yet because there have been some experiences I cannot explain logically, with my rational mind – they happened – no doubt. How did they happen? I’ll go into it some on this site with some of my meditation journals from years back – and some recent.

Jhana8 is for those that would like to experience jhanas. I’ll do my best – with what I know, to share with you how you can reach these states of mind.

The problem is, that you are in a catch-22. You have probably been taught that jhana is the path to enlightenment… to the ultimate freedom from pain… from suffering… Buddhists call it dukkha. I’m not well-versed in what Buddhists call different experiences and factors of meditation. I didn’t know any of them (virtually) when I started to sit and watch the breath.

You need not know them either. Believe it or not.

I hope I can help even one person experience jhanas… if I can do that – wow, what a cool thing to have shared with someone else… maybe it will be you? I think it’s not that difficult… the main problem will be getting over the catch-22 that exists which is this:

Jhana won’t visit you unless your mind is free from attachment… from craving, from excitement about possibly experiencing a jhana state.

How can you forget about it’s importance? As soon as you grasp for just a fraction of a second… it goes away… it might have been very close to coming, and yet – when you get excited, anticipate it… bye bye, it fades.

The less important jhana is to you – the better chance you have of finding it. Monks or steadfast practicioners of 20+ years have a much smaller chance of having jhana visit… you might have a much better chance.

Myself – I had very little knowledge of levels or states that occur in the mind as one meditates. Jhana didn’t mean anything to me when it came… sure it was amazing… but, I was following a very simple process… watch what happens… don’t attach to it with the mind. It will pass… and it did.. jhana 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 all passed…

If you think I might be enlightened after this experience… I can assure you I’m not. I think I can assure you. My mind has changed – no doubt. My current state of functioning is bizarre – no doubt… am I enlightened – no, I think not… I’m not really sure what enlightened means. I don’t know what to believe it is… who can talk about it unless they’ve experienced it?

So – have a look around here and see if there’s anything you can take into your practice  that might help.

Best of life…

Vern