Jhana, blissful ecstasy
It's like sex but better
Today I was talking to my brother about our meditation practices. I revealed to him some feelings that I haven’t described to anyone—feelings of self-induced ecstasy.
Buddhists discovered this thousands of years ago: the potential to reach a state of pure, unparalleled ecstasy, and they call it jhana.
In the Buddhist tradition, it's a state of mind that's different from enlightenment, which is a profound transformation. Instead, jhana is a temporary experience that can be attained through dedicated meditation practice, sometimes in just a few months.
I first encountered the concept of jhana from Nick Cammarata (OpenAI) in October of 2022:
How I achieve jhana
I’ve had dozens of profound sessions that felt incredible. I’m going to do my best to describe how I do it and what happens but it’s difficult. (Side note: my practice has been heightened by an order of magnitude after a healthy dose of caffeine.)
I first sit down and close my eyes, intensely focusing on breathing slowly, in and out of my nose.
I focus on each moment, each millisecond, of the breath. Shooooooosh, all the way in, pause, and, shooooooosh, all the way out.
When thoughts enter, I notice them arise and I then gently return to the breath.
After about 10 minutes of this, I start to imagine my consciousness as a condensed orb of light, almost like when light reflects off a shiny object and blinds your eyes for a moment, or like when you look at a light when it’s dark outside, and you can see the beams reflecting off your eyeballs.
Then after 20 or so minutes, the mind completely quiets and thoughts stop. My body feels as though it has melted into the earth, and it feels as though I am connected to it in some physical way, like I’m connected to everything. Roots of a tree.
It feels really, really good.