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The Four Rupa Jhanas Explained

The document describes the four rupa jhanas or meditative absorptions involving form. The first jhana involves applied and sustained thought accompanied by rapture and happiness from seclusion. The second jhana involves internal calm, unification of mind without applied thought, and is filled with concentration-born rapture and happiness. The third jhana involves dwelling in equanimity as rapture fades, being mindful and discerning, and experiencing happiness that comes from equanimity and mindfulness.

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Milos Kovacevic
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238 views1 page

The Four Rupa Jhanas Explained

The document describes the four rupa jhanas or meditative absorptions involving form. The first jhana involves applied and sustained thought accompanied by rapture and happiness from seclusion. The second jhana involves internal calm, unification of mind without applied thought, and is filled with concentration-born rapture and happiness. The third jhana involves dwelling in equanimity as rapture fades, being mindful and discerning, and experiencing happiness that comes from equanimity and mindfulness.

Uploaded by

Milos Kovacevic
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Four Jhanas with Form (Rupa Jhana)

1. Quite secluded from sense pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states of mind, he enters
and dwells in the first jhana, which is accompanied by applied thought and sustained thought
with rapture and happiness born of seclusion.

In the first jhana an adept concentrates on thought, a visual representation of that thought or on an
external object in order to develop one-pointedness of mind. It is similar to dharana and the
dhyana stage of yoga. As one becomes able to sustain that thought through one’s concentration,
one may begin to feel rapture or joy (also translated as sensual pleasure). This is the first jhana.

2. With the subsiding of applied thought and sustained thought he enters and dwells in the
second jhana, which has internal calm and unification of mind, is without applied thought and
sustained thought, and is filled with rapture and happiness born of concentration.

In the second jhana one attempts to see the illusory nature of rapture and, through a type of
internal withdrawal, moves to a deeper state called calm (sometimes also referred to as quiet
happiness). One is still using the sustained thought, but then one lets go of it. Reaching calm is the
second jhana.

3. With the fading away of rapture, he dwells in equanimity, mindful and discerning; and he
experiences in his own person that happiness of which the noble ones say: ‘Happily lives he
who is equanimous and mindful’ – thus he enters and dwells in the third jhana.

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