SAMATHA MEDITATION

By Venerable Rat Rattanayano

Every type of learning must have the right introduction and this is also true for training the mind. The introduction to mind training is samatha meditation and its goal is to stabilize and calm the mind.  Stability and calmness are great contribution factors for increasing mind power.  The increasing mental power derives from the attempt to reduce the amount of energy used up in mundane pursuits, and from training the mind to concentrate one-pointedly.  In daily life, most of the mind power is purposelessly used up in the process of thinking, feeling, and changing moods constantly which causes it to become feeble and weak. It is necessary for the mind to have a resting period to replenish the energy used up throughout the day.
A resumed energy from rest is enough to perform daily activities but not to study the subtle mental processes which are very delicate and complicated matter related to various energy levels.

Therefore, it requires a stronger power of the mind than what is necessary for daily activities.  The increase of energy will be generated when we are fully awake and when the mind is concentrated one-pointedly, without letting it disperse, diffuse or wander from thoughts to thoughts, and feelings to feelings.  The more stable and calm the mind becomes, the more power it will acquire.  By doing so, one already increases one’s mental power.

A more powerful mind enables us to increase the acknowledging ability of the mental energy levels.  This acknowledgement is very useful to comprehend how the mind works, and its energy levels.  We can make use of this understanding to find out which energy level and what mechanisms are necessary to develop the wisdom that can free us from suffering.

Prior to the Lord Buddha’s time, there were already a number of techniques known and taught to develop concentration. Before his enlightenment, Buddha himself had learned all these techniques from various schools.  Therefore, samadha meditation, a way of training the mind to be stable and calm, includes ancient techniques existing before Buddha’s enlightenment as well as ones discovered by Buddha himself and later by his disciples.  We can classify all these techniques into two broad categories:
(1) Concentration on external phenomenon, and

(2) Concentration on internal phenomenon

Concentration on External Phenomenon

This technique is to train the mind to concentrate on a chosen phenomenon outside the body.  One has to memorize the characteristics of a selected external phenomenon and use its exact image as object for the mind to concentrate upon until it becomes still and calm.  There is a wide variety of subjects that one can select to develop concentration.   Firstly, we have the 10 kasina (meditation device), which take as object the four elements: earth, water, fire, and air; the four colors: green, yellow, red, and white; space and light.  Secondly, asubha meditation takes as object the 9 different states of corpse, and the foulness of the body.  Thirdly, arupa takes as object the 4 immaterial states: infinity of space, consciousness, the sphere of nothingness and neither perception nor non-perception.  Finally, ahare patikulasa๑๑a takes as object the repulsiveness of food.

2. Concentration on Internal Phenomenon

This technique is to train the mind to concentrate on certain thoughts and feelings, and different parts of the body until the mind becomes stable and calm.  Concentration can be developed using one of the following internal phenomena as object. The first is deep contemplation on how the body is made up of four elements.  The second is the concentration on certain kinds of feelings such as metta (loving kindness), karuna (compassion), mudhita (sympathetic joy), and upekkha (equanimity).  The third are the 10 anussati (mindfulness or reflection on 10 types of entities) including Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha, sila, deva, death, generosity, impurity, breath, and nirvana.  The fourth is the concentration on respiration, breathing in and out along with using a mantra.  The last is the concentration
on different bodily parts such as abdomen, chest, neck, forehead, head, hands, bones, heart, etc.

Throughout the body, there are vi๑๑ana dhatus (knowing elements). These dhatus function is to enable us to acknowledge things around.  Within one’s body structure, there are seven areas where the vi๑๑ana dhatus can be found in high density. The first six correspond to the six sense-faculties, namely eye, ear, nose, tongue, skin, and brain.  It is at those points (or doors) that dhatus form into the six respective consciousnesses:

eye consciousness;

ear consciousness;

smell consciousness;

taste consciousness;

touch consciousness;

and brain consciousness.
The dhatus located at the six sense-faculties doors function as outer knowing dhatus.  The seventh one is located at the heart.  Here, the knowing dhatus are called manovi๑๑ana, heart consciousness or the inner knowing dhatu.   Manovi๑๑ana is the center point of all the knowing dhatus. Both outer and inner knowing dhatus are continuously connected.  For example, when an outside object appears in front of the eyes, eye consciousness is aroused, and transmits a message to manovi๑๑ana at the heart.  When the two come together, the state of knowing is complete. Once the first state of knowing arises in the eye consciousness, a message is sent directly to the heart and then again back to the eye in a cycle.  It occurs much faster than a finger snap.  Actually, one is unable to acknowledge its mechanism unless one consistently and persistently trains the mind by the method of vipassana meditation.

Scientifically speaking, a knowing process occurs   through the nervous system.
All knowing dhatus are nerve cells.  However, if we go into details, this is not the case.  Nerve cells are hosts for the knowing dhatus.  They are located in the smallest part of the cell and network with each other.

As for the mind, it is not manovi๑๑ana. The mind actually uses manovi๑๑ana or the heart consciousness, to create thoughts, feelings, etc. That is why we have to learn how to train the mind to become stable and calm. According to what was mentioned before, a major   goal of samatha meditation is to train the mind to adhere to the knowing dhatus at a certain point in the body.  This is the way to unite the mind with the knowing dhatus so that it is able to concentrate one-pointedly and not wander and disperse with thoughts and feelings.  If we keep training the mind in this way, it will gradually become stable and calm.  Thoughts and feelings will decrease, and will be less able to distract the mind.  Finally, the original characteristic of the knowing dhatu which is free from all mental constructions will naturally appear.

This is the process of returning to the knower rather than the known.
In daily life, the untrained mind is, most of the time, preoccupied with the known        such as thoughts, rather than being conscious of knowing the process itself.

Such a process of focusing on the known consistently uses up our mental energy.
In contrast, if the mind concentrates one-pointedly only on the process of knowing and unites with the knowing dhatus, mind power will not run out, but instead will increase.  This practice of concentration on the knowing dhatus is a way to detach the mind from its tendency to cling to the known, and this will result in changing our mental energy from a coarse and lower level to a more refine and higher level.

Noteworthily, knowing dhatu comprises of various layers of energy.The Buddhists refer to these different energy levels as jhanas. The knowledge of jhanas itself can be claimed as a magnificent development of wisdom by Eastern people because this is a discovery of a very subtle energy of an existing entity, namely the knowing dhatu by using
our own body as an experimenting tool. This is a result of human curiosity in the search for answers on: what is the ultimate truth, the origin and the end? What is the absolute, permanent and indivisible state which can be held on to as a valuable way of living?

In the Western world, historically, people have also investigated such similar questions.  Scientifically, these questions led to the discovery of the atom, atomic structure, energy state of the atom, and Quantum—a discrete quantity of energy (heat and light) in magnitude to a particular frequency of radiation emitted by atoms. The atom is the smallest particle of a chemical element, consisting of a positively charged nucleus (containing protons and typically also neutrons) surrounded by negatively charged electrons.  An atom is made up of energy levels.  And there are tremendous amount of atoms comprising one cell, including a nerve one where knowing dhatus reside.  Naturally, every entity existing in the universe, either in a macro or micro scale, has a core principle to bring balance in its shape, structure and energy state.  The most balanced shape of all forms of entities is the sphere.  And of course, an atom is initself a spheric shape consisting of different layers of energy.  Hence, if we think about an atom, seemingly we think about its energy levels.

Therefore, studying samadha meditation and jhanas is similar to learning about atoms and their energy levels. All knowing dhatus reside in atoms, and different jhanas correspond to different energy levels of an atomic particle.

In the following sections, I am going to teach samadha meditation by using specific focus-points in the body.  There are two major focus-points or bases:

(1) the respiration base and

(2) the heart base.

The main principle for practicing on these two bases is that the mind should be focused on the selected base until it can unite and become one with the knowing dhatu. The training procedure is as follows:

(1) On the Respiration Base

This practice is called anapana meditation. It trains the mind to be aware of respiration—breathing in and out.  You should not pay attention to any arising thought.  Breathing rhythm should be your own natural rhythm, not too long, not too short, not too fast, not too slow, not too rough or not too fine. Do not force or control its rhythm.  You can see whether you are taking the right direction by checking your feeling.  You should constantly feel comfortable during breathing in and out, and it must be accompanied with mindfulness or awareness.  In the process, you will be able to acknowledge a single respiration—breathing in and out.  Repeating any mantra or words while practicing is not required.

At a more advanced state, the respiration will be slower and gentler. Simultaneously, thoughts arise lesser and lesser. The mind is being transformed from a coarse to a refined state.  The state of mind directly varies according to how gentle the respiration is: the gentler the respiration, the more refined the mind.  Gradually, the mind will become stable and calm.  If you can maintain this state for some period of time, you will reach a point where the respiration seems to cease or disappear from your awareness.   At the same time, thoughts also stop arising.  At this stage, you are inclined to sleep. Once you get into this state, you have to alert the mind by means of breathing in and out again.

The respiration base is a point where mindfulness can be maintained easily.  This base is also easy to locate because it is not too deep inside the body.  If you are a beginner and you use a focus-point deeper inside the body, you will find that it is harder to keep the mind concentrated there. It may take longer to calm the mind.

Having arrived at the stage where you are breathing comfortably with your own natural rhythm and when you are aware of your respiration, start observing the place in the nostrils where you can clearly acknowledge the meeting point of air flow.  During the breathing in, air flows in through both nostrils and meets at a certain meeting point inside the nostrils.  The same can be said of the breathing out; air returns from the lungs and meets at the same point before it separates into the left and the right nostrils.  If you are well aware of this point, you should feel cool on the in-breath and warm on the out-breath.  This is the key spot of the respiration base.  Once you have found this meeting-point, direct your mind to focus on it as gently as possible.  Maintain an absolute awareness on this point, and try to unite your awareness completely with it.   If you have difficulties to focus on this spot and feel uncomfortable in your breathing, it means you put your awareness too fast or too hard on it.  In this case, you have to start all over again by lightening your intention and working more gently.

When you clearly focus on this point, you will be able to feel the flow of air touching this spot.  Now,   acknowledge solely what is going on at this spot and ignore all other things.  Do not follow the movement of the respiration.  Let your respiration naturally work at its own pace.
If thoughts arise, do not follow them.  Try to remain aware exclusively on the spot as long as you can.  Then, you will have to gradually decrease the volume of your respiration, shorten its rhythm until it comes to a finer state.  All this has to be done slowly and gently.  If you do it too fast you will feel uncomfortable because at this state, respiration is still coarse, and cannot be forcefully put under control.  Therefore, you should do it as gently and naturally as possible.  Eventually, there will be lesser and lesser amount of air passing through the focus-point.  At this moment, the respiration becomes gentler and slower and you will no longer feel uncomfortable.

Why do we have to decrease the amount of air passing through the observed spot?  The answer is: the more air volume is taken in, the more difficult the mind will be to remain stable and calm.  An untrained mind has a tendency to cling on thoughts.  The process of creating thoughts consumes mental energy.  The more thoughts arise, the more energy is used up.  How is this related to respiration rhythm?  Energy is a by-product of chemical reaction between oxygen and food. The amount of energy produced is closely related to the oxygen volume that we breathe in.   More energy can catalyze a process of thought creation.  To decrease arising thoughts, it is very necessary to cut down chemical factors such as oxygen and food to a minimum.  Therefore, if you keep breathing at your normal rhythm, it will be very difficult to calm the mind.  The less oxygen is consumed, the easier and faster the mind will be stable and calm.

Different Jhanas

If you come to the point where you feel the breathing has stopped-, the air doesn’t flow in and out. Don’t be alarmed. It is only the coarse type of breathing which disappears.  The very refined breath is still there.  Air can flow in and out through your skin pores.  Air consumption is still going on, not stopping.  Your body doesn’t need much air at this stage.  All thoughts which used to disturb the mind now disappear. Here, you have achieved the first jhana.

Right before the breathing disappears, you may feel sharply tight at the respiration base.  Don’t be afraid.  It’s just a reaction of the mind which is now moving into a deeper level of tranquility.  You feel the breath vanishing because the mind now reaches a subtler state than the respiration.  The mind is now at the margin, the outmost energy layer of the atom, the knowing dhatu, at the respiration base. The state of mind is so refined that it cannot be distracted by a regular respiration rhythm.  You will feel as if you are falling down into something, and everything around you gets darker and darker, quieter and quieter.  Don’t be alarmed, now the mind has moved from the margin into the first energy level of the atom. Try to maintain this state, the first jhana.

If you can further maintain the state of the first jhana, after a while, the mind will be able to move into a deeper level of tranquility, namely the second energy level of the atom.  The mind will become more tranquil.  What you will find here, at the second layer, is the gravity force emitted from the center of the atom,   the nucleus.  The characteristic of this force is wave-like pattern.  It consists of light and heavy nodes.  You will be able to acknowledge this force only when your mind is in such a refined state.

In a normal state, we are well aware of the place where we are sitting, our posture and the physical outline of our body.  The wave-like force from the nucleus affects our physical sensations.  You may feel that your body is swaying, or become borderless, or bigger, smaller, taller, or shorter.    You may feel as if your face is twisting or you are sitting in a different direction from where you started.  You may get goose bumps or other strange bodily sensations.  Or you may feel spiritually uplifted, delighted, etc.

All these phenomena are called piti (deep rapture).  They are in the realm of the second jhana. Maintain your mindfulness on the focus-point and observe the phenomenon of piti continuously until it passes away.

At the end of this state, the mind will enter an even deeper level of calmness.  The mind is getting subtler and subtler and moving from the level of gravity force deep into the third energy layer.  Here is the light energy level.  Light will gradually arise, not too bright at the beginning.  The color of the light depends on each individual state of mind.  It can be yellow, with a luminous distant quality.  When the mind gets deeper, the light will become brighter and the color may change, within the seven colors spectrum of the sun (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet).

The light and color that arise are the result of the energy created by mental activities which is stored within the atom. Color indicates one’s physical healthiness.  If the body is in healthy condition, the light will be bright and yellow. The yellow color also demonstrates the quality of metta (loving-kindness).  If one wishes to live a long and healthy life, one should practice metta. Other colors are not mentioned here.  In fact, light can also radiate out around one’s body. People with subtle mind can notice them and be able to tell how healthy you are; what kind of person you are; or what kind of mood you are in.

Once the state of mind is at the third energy level, you are able to acknowledge the arising light because all mentioned lights are located here, at the margin of the third energy level.  Remain equanimous and be fully aware of the focus-point as long as possible.  Your mind will achieve the state of absolute calmness.   If one wishes to progress further in the training, one must detach one’s mind from clinging to the nimitta. To achieve the detachment, equanimity is essential.  Just observe all nimittas as they arise and pass away.  Don’t be aware of the known but the knower. When you are mindful and equanimous, nimitta will disappear. Only the white light remains.

Now, keep focusing on the observed point until the mind achieves an even deeper level of tranquility. The mind will detach itself from the white light.  Eventually, you will arrive at the original and deepest state of the knowing dhatu, whose quality is emptiness.

Prior to this state, you will feel as if you are plunging into something.  At that moment, your self-awareness of what is going on might not be so clear.  It will become clearer once you achieve the state of emptiness.  You will feel that you are penetrating through the white light.  The intensity of the light will decrease until you arrive at the point where there is no light, no color, and no nimitta.  It is just very quiet, calm and peaceful as if you are the only one in the world. It is an experience of infinite borderlessness, and absolute quietness.  Nothing moves.  The mind is extremely one-pointed and solid.  There is no feeling of happiness or sadness but absolute equanimity. The mind is extremely powerful because it unites with the vi๑๑ana dhatu (knowing element).  This mental state is called ekaggatarom. The absolute equanimity is called upekkha. Now, the mind has arrived at the fourth jhana. 

The advantage of practicing samadha meditation by focusing on the respiration base is that it is easy for a beginner.  This selected spot is not too deep inside our body and it is not too difficult to concentrate one-pointedly.  This method can facilitate the mind to arrive at the first jhana. If one selects a point deeper in the body, it will be more difficult for the mind to focus upon.

The disadvantage of training the mind on the respiration base is that its location is too shallow to get into a deeper tranquility in the higher jhanas. The mind can be easily distracted by outside stimuli such as sound which can prevent it from maintaining stability and calmness for a long period.  This could affect one’s progress into the third and fourth jhanas. The way to by-pass this potential obstacle is to train the mind on the heart-base.

(2) On the Heart Base

The First Method

To find out the location of our heart place one hand on the left side of your chest. Once you clearly know the heart’s location, move your hand away, and close your eyes. Now locate the heart by feeling the heart beat.  You must be sure that by doing this its location is the same.

Next, observe the rising and passing away of thoughts and feelings until they gradually diminish and are finally gone.  There are no more thoughts and feelings distracting the mind at this stage. You may feel very sleepy.  You must alert the mind by breathing in and out regularly.   No mantra is required.  Locate the meeting point of respiration (this point is the same as explained in the section on the respiration base).  Then, gently lay your awareness down on this spot.  Gradually regulate your respiration from faster to slower, longer to shorter, from course to refine until you feel the respiration disappears.   At this stage, no thoughts disturb the mind. It is stable and calm.

Now, gently and slowly move your awareness down to the heart base.  Once it gets there, maintain your awareness solely on this area.  For further progress, gradually bring your awareness into the inner and deeper part of the heart.  Remain in this state for a while.  At this moment, you are able to acknowledge a kind of pressure in the heart.  You may feel uncomfortable because the concentrated awareness will increase the air pressure on that spot.  Air inside the heart is being driven out. You will feel heat evaporating out from the heart and through the skin.  This is a mechanism to release the coarse energy from the heart.  Your heartbeat will be slower and gentler until you no longer feel it. At the same time, pressure in the heart decreases until it stops.  Heat also stops evaporating. Your body cools down.  This reaction of heat in the heart can cause some people to sweat profusely.  The flow of air and heat varies depending on individuals.  Now, your mind has achieved the first jhana.

The Second Method

Locate your heart base. Having found it, discard thoughts and feelings by observing their arising and passing away. Maintain this state for a while. In case of sleepiness, alert your mind to be aware of respiration again.  Respiration must be at its natural rhythm. While breathing in, keep your awareness at the heart and stay there until the end of the breath.  Right at the end, hold your breath for a brief moment before breathing out. Keep your awareness at the heart until the end of the out breath.  By doing so, pressure inside the heart is released through the outbreath.  You may feel heat in your heart, chest, face and skin.  Heat evaporates out from the body.  When heat disappears, respiration will become more refined. Now, it means coarse air inside the heart is released out completely.

Try to keep your awareness on the heart area and do not follow the respiration.  When there is no turbulent pressure inside the heart, the heartbeat will turn soft and slow until you cannot feel it.  You may not be aware of your own breathing, seemingly it disappears. Your mind now has arrived at the first jhana.

The quality of tranquility here at the heart base is the same as that which is experienced at the respiration base. The difference is that the former lasts longer. Therefore, it is more advantageous to achieve the first jhana by focusing on the heart base, since you are able to acknowledge the jhana phenomenon more clearly than at the respiration base.  If you want to know jhanas in detail, you should practice samatha meditation at the heart base.

To draw yourself out of a state of deep calmness, you have to move your awareness back to the respiration and prolong each breath-in and out.  By that means, the mind will gradually turn from the refined state to the normal state.

The Benefits of Training the Mind

As previously stated, stability and calmness contribute to enhance mental power. The more tranquil the mind is, the more powerful it becomes.   We already know that there are four levels of mental energy.   But we don’t know yet at which mental level or by which process we can be absolutely free from suffering. These four jhanic states are not yet the answer to this concern.  Rather they are merely a process of suppressing all forms of suffering by means of mental power.  When you are in one of these jhanas, suffering will be temporarily obliterated.  But once you come out of the jhanic state, they will resume.  Although the jhanic state is not the state of being absolutely free from suffering, we can use jhanas as a way to free ourselves from suffering.  This is what we will discuss later.  Suffice it to say that it is very necessary to comprehend the process of getting out of suffering.  Otherwise, the state of jhanas in itself can hinder us from reaching the ideal goal of nirvana.

In the time of the Buddha, there were many belief systems.  Their leaders were utterly confident in their own beliefs and practices. They claimed that their belief systems were superior to others and should be held on to since they lead to the realization of the ultimate truth. Buddha pointed out that there were 62 groups of false doctrines.  Some equated the jhana state they achieved with nirvana, even though some only achieved the first jhana, while others the second, the third or the fourth. Some even equated sensual pleasures with nirvana. None of these belief systems are right. The mind is not the vi๑๑ana.  The vi๑๑ana is not the mind.  The mind is not the knower.  The knower is the vi๑๑ana.

In the present era, it is about time for those who have actually trained the mind and experienced some forms of mental phenomena to question themselves as to whether they have come along the right direction. It is even more so for those who have trained the mind to be calm either at the respiration or heart base.  One may think that one has already achieved a state of being absolutely free from suffering or a phenomenon indicating the state of nirvana.  In fact, this may only be one of the phenomena that characterize the jhanic states. Unfortunately, the mind can easily cling to the third and fourth jhanas, and entertains the illusion that they are nirvana.  In brief, there are four misconceptions related to this point.

1. The First Misconception

In the third jhana, the yellow and white light represent brightness and purity respectively.  In the fourth jhana, emptiness represents peace.  From this, it can be concluded that Dhamma is brightness, purity, and peacefulness.  But in fact, Dhamma is none of these. Nirvana is the state in which the mind detaches itself completely from all energy levels.  It is completely free from the five khandhas (5 aggregates).  Actually, brightness, purity, and peacefulness are just the qualities of energy within the atom.  These characteristics are features of the refined vi๑๑ana dhatu, which is still one of the five aggregates.  How can the mind be free if it still clings to one of the aggregates?

2. The Second Misconception

In the third jhana, when pleasant nimitta appears such as images of The Buddha or an arahant; it may make one believe that one has achieved nirvana.  In fact, these nimittas are just light energy.  How can the mind be free if it still clings to light energy?  The enlightened mind is supposed to cling to nothing.

3. The Third Misconception

In the third jhana, the knowing dhatu is very powerful.  It works in its full power.  At this state, one is able to expand one’s scope of knowing ability, because the mind completely unites with the knowing dhatu. For example, if one wants to know something, one just thinks about it and images will simply arise.  One can know one’s and others’ past and future and thoughts, or even see into other realms of existence.   Some misbelieve that the mind is the knower but, in fact, it is not.  The knowing dhatu or vi๑๑ana dhatu is the knower.  If we do not understand this distinction, we will never be able to experience what it is really like when our mind is absolutely free from the knower, the vi๑๑ana dhatu.

4. The Fourth Misconception

The technique of uniting the mind with the vi๑๑ana dhatu at the heart, in the advanced stage, brings brightness, purity, and peacefulness. It can mislead one to conclude that nirvana can be found in the heart.  One may also confuse the heart with the mind. This way of practice will prevent one to separate the mind from the heart.

Eventually, the mind reaches the inner-most part of the third layer where knowing dhatu resides.   Energy at this level is so pure, and radiates in a clear white light.  This is an extremely subtle level.  At this stage, you feel extremely peaceful, light, fine, clean, and gentle.   No thoughts disturb the mind.  Such state is called sukha (happiness) which accompanies the third jhana.  Of this, Lord Buddha said:

“There is no other happiness comparable to peace.”

Only when one has an actual experience of this state of mind, can one truely appreciate this saying. For sukha in the third jhana is a transcendental form of happiness, superior to all other happiness in the mundane life.  All ariyas have praised such sukha.

If one can maintain this state of mind for a while and if the mind does not yet enter into an even subtler level, the light will become brighter and brighter.  You will then experience, nimitta (a sign, product of a concentrated mind).

The Phenomenon of Nimitta

There are three different ways causing nimittas to occur.  Firstly, they can come from stored images or memories in the brain. Knowing dhatus inside the brain and mind are of the same energy level.  So, the two can mutually transmit. The mind reaches the energy level of the knowing dhatus at the respiration base, and light from other sources such as heart base can flow into the same streamline. Images emerge like pictures on a slide projector, or a motion picture.  The characteristics of the images projected by knowing dhatu are the same as that which appear on a slide.  In the third jhana, the image appears far brighter and clearer than an image you have in your mind in daily life.

Secondly, nimittas can be caused by extra mental power at that moment, and are of two types.  The first type is pure imagination. When the mind becomes fascinated, it clings to the light and transforms it into nimittas. The second type is  nimittas that emerge from collective images stored in the mind.  These images may derive from past nimittas. If one focuses on the
images, one may enlarge, minimize, multiply and increase their clarity as one prefers.

Thirdly, when the mind arrives at the energy level of the knowing dhatu, the mind and the knowing dhatu will become very powerful. At this stage, the knowing dhatus, residing inside or outside the body and
having reached the same energy level, are able to communicate with one another. Due to the universal characteristics of these knowing dhatus, one can expand the scope of knowing ability by sending it out.  For example, if one wishes to know something, one just thinks about it.  Nimittas will flash in just like turning on a TV.  One is able to see things far away, the past and the future or even into other realms of existence. One has the ability to know what another is thinking, or even to see through an object.

These nimittas can be real or unreal, true or untrue depending on what is stored in the mind and the power of one’s imagination.  If the mind gets trapped into nimittas, it will not be able to become subtler and subtler.  In this practice, though one may achieve clarity and calmness, the clinging force of love and hatred can still be there, only temporarily hidden.  Therefore, if we keep training the mind in this way, we will not be able to see the difference between the mind and the heart.  To achieve nirvana, the mind must be free from heart consciousness or manovi๑๑ana which is merely one of the five aggregates. 

Before his enlightenment, Buddha practiced the jhanas from different schools.  If jhanas could have taken him to nirvana, he wouldn’t have had to search for and discover the path to absolute liberation and there wouldn’t have been Buddhism in this world.  In those days, there was only samatha meditation. It is Buddhism that found vipassana meditation as a unique mental practice. Only in this way can one separate the mind from the heart.

Notwithstanding its limitations, jhanas are very useful if one applies them correctly to one’s daily life.  In addition to being a technique of achieving nirvana, jhanas can also be a resting place for the mind regardless of the levels of jhanas one achieves. At the end of a hard working day, the mind loses its brightness, peacefulness, purity and clarity. Besides the mundane forms of rest, training the mind to achieve jhanas is a very good way for resting and energizing it to benefit oneself and others.