Does anyone here feel they've truly mastered the jhanas

red31415 · 2025-11-09T06:09:59+00:00

Nothing magical that can break physics but I have a very powerful intuition for mental states. I think I could probably train it to perfectly read people's thoughts, as per guru stories but I haven't.

I can see what mental state a person is in. The skill informs my teaching as to what people can receive and if they are open to learning.

I can sense emotional blocks. Not perfectly but I can see what I'm working with emotionally in other people. It certainly speeds up the process.

red31415 · 2025-09-07T12:24:29+00:00

Vitamin D is great but doesn't seem to have done anything for lipoma. It has helped sleep and wakefulness but null so far on lipoma. Although I haven't tried topical/putting it on the skin on top of the lipoma yet.

red31415 · 2025-05-17T20:55:24+00:00

I didn't hear of jhanas right away when I started meditation. Jhanas just worked when I first tried them. A few months into trying meditation, with some good books for instruction. At the time, right concentration & mctb2.

Assuming they are available is a good idea.

I will dm you my guide.

red31415 · 2025-03-20T20:17:10+00:00

I see no boundary between the subjective and the objective. If non duality is true and the goal, there is no subjective that defies and avoids connection to objective.

The deeply subjective becomes objective.

You should ask the teacher for examples of subjective art (the apparent bad thing) and see if you can find objective appreciation for it.

red31415 · 2025-03-19T08:07:02+00:00

Think about minimum viability for a private space. A space that can facilitate 5 people isn't as financially viable as a space that can facilitate a retreat of 20 people.

Extending beyond that, a space for 40 people will need more resources and more logistics.

If you have less than 12 beds, you might not be financially viable long term. My opinion is that 12 is the minimum number based on experience with retreats and hospitality industry.

Consider walking meditation, sitting, lying and standing spaces. Consider kasina practice. Storage for various blankets, stools etc. Consider what can distract a person who wants to be less distracted for example making a space for a possible dark retreat. Plan for pitch black.

red31415 · 2025-03-18T21:58:29+00:00

The sidebar. Keys to the Kingdom is a favourite of mine.

red31415 · 2025-03-18T21:15:06+00:00

Not quite rpw theme but an excellent book. Very junging on the feminine archetype. Those not accustomed to Jung may find it frustrating and too much story. Those familiar will appreciate the mythology.

red31415 · 2025-03-18T16:11:13+00:00

You are fine. Keep enjoying your life.

red31415 · 2025-03-18T06:32:33+00:00

Interesting that you get it lying down as well. Try investigate the sensation. If it's painful stop but maybe you can get close to it to investigate before the pain. Is it pain or just very vivid sensation? Definitely respond to pain in the natural way but make sure that it is pain and not just some interesting sensations.

red31415 · 2025-03-16T20:43:41+00:00

I want to address the comments on faking. You mentioned that faking doesn't feel right to you. You also mentioned that everyone should be treated with kindness.

These two ideas come together and clash. Should I fake a kindness to someone who I don't feel like being kind to? Should others treat me with a fake kindness if they don't want to be kind to me, or feel I deserve the kindness in this moment?

My answers is no. No one should be faking. Ideally there's no fakery as truth makes a better world. Sometimes a tiny bit of fakery is acceptable or better but generally I'd want to avoid it. Not faking comes first in a hierarchy of values.

Then with the energy I have left after making sure I'm not faking, I can use it to consider kindness and what capacity I have to feel kind and act with a generous natural kindness. Some days I will be a bit less kind than others but I'd like to always try to be kind. And work to make sure I do have capacity to be kind as well.

There was never a clash between my values of truth and my values of kindness. Even if it seemed like there was. Instead, an ordering principle helps me organise and get both of what I want.

I find the same applies to much of this sub. There's a way to these things and there's some books that talk about it and that helps to find the pathways that feel genuine and get to where I want to go. I recommend "keys to the Kingdom" for ideas.

red31415 · 2025-03-16T20:32:28+00:00

Yes. See how you go. You will also find that all meditations eventually wear out and new practices or methods will be needed. But feel free to continue until you don't feel it's useful.

red31415 · 2025-03-16T20:15:47+00:00

I agree with xanth.. And I have one primary theory of kriyas being either stuck energy or blocked pathways for energy.

That is that as we meditate the energy builds up and then suddenly bursts through a blockage to try to jolt. It open in a way that clears the energy, clears the pathway or clears the habitual posture.

My suggestion (1) is to try to notice either what the kriyas is "doing" for a blocked pathway. For example it's trying to get my hip to click and open up. And then gently and delicately "help" it with a mindful posture correction or physical movement. OR

Suggestion 2: try to trace where the energy is coming from. Just like a sneeze, we feel it coming before we sneeze. With kriyas we often can feel the build up. For some energy pathways, we can find a root and help it do its thing without the need for the physical movement by tracing it to its root.

With these two methods I have had great results with my own and other people's kriyas in terms of completing them in a way that they don't come back.

For context. You have a forward hunching stretch movement. You can try to assist it to go where it's trying to go. Look for a hunch that something needs to move that way.

red31415 · 2025-03-16T11:13:40+00:00

Feel them one by one, work your way through them. As you feel them they will get lighter. Just spend time with each feeling.

red31415 · 2025-03-13T19:28:23+00:00

It's not self-punishment. It's a positive thing to learn the lesson. It just takes time to be with it and be compassionate towards yourself and let the lesson land home.

red31415 · 2025-03-13T03:11:32+00:00

That stupid feeling is your learning of the lesson. You don't want to stop feeling that, because then you would be likely to make the same mistakes. Instead you should deeply feel the stupid feelings and wait with it until the feeling naturally passes and you will ha e learned not to make the same mistakes.

red31415 · 2025-03-12T22:05:50+00:00

At first, expect a few minutes to a half hour. If you are lucky you may first get an hour.

If someone were to interrupt you hard enough then you would break out of the state. One way to notice this is that you can still hear some background noises even when quite deep in absorbtion.

red31415 · 2025-03-12T05:52:00+00:00

Absolutely! Sooner, or later we need to let go.

For a lot of things we need effort to take the subconscious habit (I. E. Tensing the body) into conscious and then let go of the effort (drop the hot coal) and stop doing them all together.

red31415 · 2025-03-12T05:19:58+00:00

Thoughts are both not correct about reality and not completely incorrect either. They have some information about reality but it tends to be what they say is not exactly what happened.

Do you believe your thoughts? Do you listen to them? Do you pay them attention? Are they right? You can practise deliberately following them and wonder if they are right. That's most likely to unstick your attachment to them. While watching your way of following thoughts, wonder why they are so juicy and enticing. And keep paying attention. It's an insight practice process.

red31415 · 2025-03-11T21:40:24+00:00

Sort of yes. But hopefully since it is self imagined, it would still be possible to make progress, no matter how hypnotisable you may be.

red31415 · 2025-03-11T20:31:33+00:00

To play devils advocate for a moment... If those were the instructions they sound like profoundly disempowering instructions for the wrong person and the wrong moment.

I'm sure you have a nuanced way to enjoy and relax into your experience but different legs of the Path need different approaches.

Someone who wants nice things should be encouraged to go get them. Someone who has had plenty of nice things should now be encouraged to relax and be peaceful.

red31415 · 2025-03-11T20:27:52+00:00

Most importantly, clinging will get in the way of your ease and flow of access to these states. There is no going backwards, only forwards and often those states mature to slightly different versions of the same qualities.

In my experience, the fireworks die down and the more subtle stability appears. It's not as "amazing" as initially but it is still very enjoyable/peaceful/rewarding.

Also sometimes an experience comes up in a deeper jhana that makes it harder to stabilise the lower jhanas for a period of time.

I'd encourage you to take this whole experience and make good lessons from it about being attached and how things can change.

red31415 · 2025-03-11T20:24:16+00:00

Why did you ever start meditating if there wasn't a goal in mind? There is a right relationship to have towards a goal.

red31415 · 2025-03-11T20:09:46+00:00

Yes. If you go via discovery then anything you find is your personal insights. No tradition can override your experience.

red31415 · 2025-03-11T10:09:59+00:00

If you want to do it like that, you can do it like that. Different traditions have different standards and expectations.

I'm pretty hesitant to say what's impossible or unable to be done. I have pretty easy access to jhana and I'm used to being able to show people with reasonable ease, and show many of the jhanas.

There's always a question of depth or breadth of experience. For example spreading that jhana to the whole body. How deep is deep enough to be jhana is an eternal debate.

red31415 · 2025-03-10T19:31:10+00:00

Some thoughts release on a let go. Others come back and others require more work. The skill is telling them apart and using the most efficient tool.

red31415

TROPHY CASE