Monday, April 6, 2015

The Eight Stages of Jhana and Their Characteristics


Attainment of Cessation    Touching Nirvana with the body

Sphere of Formlessness
8th Jhana                              Neither perception nor non-perception
7th Jhana                              Nothingness
6th Jhana                              Infinite Consciousness
5th Jhana                              Infinite Space

Sphere of Pure Form
4th Jhana                             Concentration, Equanimity, Beyond pleasure and pain . 
                              Psychic power attained at this stage
3rd Jhana                             Concentration, Equanimity
2nd Jhana                            Concentration, Rapture, Joy                                      

                              Clairvoyance, Clairaudience, Retrocognition, Telepathy, Psychokinesis

1st Jhana                          Discursive thought, Detachment, Rapture, Joy

Source:
Damien Keown.  Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2013), p. 100.

Notes: 
Damien Keown (born 1951) is a prominent bioethicist and authority on Buddhist bioethics.[1] He currently teaches in the Department of History at the University of London. Keown earned a BA in religious studies from the University of Lancaster in 1977 and a DPhil from the Faculty of Oriental Studies at Oxford University in 1986.
Keown's most important books include The Nature of Buddhist Ethics (1992) and Buddhism & Bioethics (1995). His most widely read book is Buddhism, A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press).