The meditative importance of the jhanas has recently been noticed in meditation communities around the world, especially in Theravada communities. The attainability of jhanas is detailed comprehensively in the early Buddhist texts, but the question of finding a teacher who can offer a roadmap to the attainment of these states of mind is thornier.
Having worked as a former investment banker in New York, Ven. Seeladassana now teaches in Sri Lanka, leading Sihanada International Meditation Community. He teaches people from around the world, many of them immersed in busy professional and family lives. Ven. Seeladassana has made attaining the jhanas as taught in Buddhaghosa’s Visuddhimagga as one of the core rubrics of his meditation guidance. Many of his students have reported being able to move in and out of these states of mind. He is well known among his disciples for teaching students to recollect past lives and use that to help guide meditation practice (pubbenivasanussati).
While the jhanas have attained an almost kind of mythical aura to them, especially in the context of the collective Buddhist memory of the Buddha having been the figure of our world who first attained the jhanas and then Nibbana (Nirvana). Ven. Seeladassana has sought to demystify the jhanas in a direct, sober, and practicable teaching style so that his students can experience the jhanas and track their progress for themselves.
In this sense, he is part of a broader intellectual awakening in the Theravada meditation movement (particularly in Sri Lanka and Sri Lankan diaspora communities) that advocates a return to the true essentials of the Dharma: the practice of, at the very least, what the early textual tradition taught about meditation.
Buddhistdoor Global (BDG): You founded Sihanada International Meditation Community to teach meditation according to Buddhaghosa’s Visuddhimagga and other commentaries in the Theravada tradition. Can you explain the importance of Buddhaghosa and the Sinhalese commentaries in the context of modern meditation and the jhanas?
Ven. Seeladassana (VS): We need to understand the Visuddhimagga in the context of a technical meditation manual that encompasses portions of the Three Baskets (Sutta, Vinaya, Abhidhamma), and enables clear and precise meditation. Its importance cannot be overstated. I think most of us think of meditation as sitting and watching our thoughts. But we forget that before the Buddha, there were many traditions and ascetics preaching and doing the same thing. None of them were attaining enlightenment as we Buddhists would understand it.
Jhanas are becoming rather popular right now, but there are questions around how to recognize them. Is every blissful experience encountered in meditation a jhana? Are we imagining them? Could our minds be deceiving us? How do we navigate what is right and wrong? The Visuddhimagga provides a roadmap for that and gives us the prerequisites and meditative objects for jhana practice. It even tells us how to sit and who to associate with for strong practice. So at Sihanada we spend a good deal of time following this text to understand meditation. It helps to prevent us reinventing the wheel, so to speak.
Ven. Buddhaghosa used Sinhala commentaries as a basis to compile and translate into Visuddhimagga, hence one sees stories of powerful meditating monks in the text. These stories also serve as an inspiration for us in Sri Lanka and sanghas around the world.
We must understand what our destination and progress is if we are to be serious meditators. If the goal is Nibbana, then we need to have right concentration, and jhanas are a part of right concentration. And to reach the jhanas, we need texts like the Visuddhimagga as the base source material or manual, which provides a much more comprehensive guide than many of the books in our millennium or century. Details and clarity as identified and defined by the Visuddhimagga are important so as we can understand, without deceiving ourselves, our progress.
BDG: “Jhana” can be described as a consciousness, and one of your core ideas is that these are attainable states. Why has their attainability been apparently downplayed in modern Sinhalese Buddhism?
VS: There are several factors, at least in Sri Lanka. One explanation is that jhanas were misidentified by a portion of the population with mystical practices of ancient India. So some people do not think jhanas are part of the Buddhist tradition, which is completely disproved by the Theravada texts themselves.
Another aspect we can consider is the modern history of Sri Lanka. If we understand colonization and imperialism, we can see that large portions of Sri Lankan culture was suppressed, including the Dhamma and meditative traditions. For a large period of modern history, meditation and its nuances were suppressed or pushed to the fringes. There was a revival of the vipassana methodology in the 1950s, especially from Myanmar with the Mahasi technique of Mahasi Sayadaw. The pure vipassana approach gained traction in Sri Lanka over the sixties, seventies, and eighties, and there was a perception that it was easier to focus on vipassana and neglect practicing concentration (samatha). And one more point is that many people still feel that jhanas are “too” blissful and they might end up attached to it.
There are lots of misconceptions here, and what must be emphasized is that the Buddha himself advocated the realization of the jhanas. Even the view that vipassana is easier than jhana practice is not correct. One positive thing I see is that things seem to be changing in Sri Lanka. Modern media and access to information has helped to shift perceptions, and many now see jhanas as part of the legitimate Dhamma. And prominent scholars are transmitting this, particularly in monastic communities. So there is a positive shift, but it goes back to: what are the jhanas, how do we identify them, and how do we practice them. Even though we have the desire to practice them, we need to know if we are doing so correctly.
BDG: This seems especially important, since Sri Lanka is a bastion of Theravada Buddhism.
The stokes of the Noble Eightfold Path are grouped into sila (virtue), samadhi (insight), and panna (wisdom). In the modern period, Sri Lankans and Theravadin Buddhists have tried to navigate these categories, with most emphasizing virtue over insight and therefore practicing jhanas. But developing concentration is a critical bridge between virtue and wisdom, as it strongly supports insight and is the proximate cause for wisdom.
Strong concentration is essential, especially in this time period. In the Buddha’s time, people’s lives weren’t so frenetic; now in the age of technology and social media, we actually need more levels of concentration to get a similar level of wisdom.
BDG: How important is the ability to be able to see into the past lives of others?
VS: There are two main meditation methods to see into our past lives. First is through vipassana meditation, where we discern nama and rupa (mentality and materiality) backwards. Another way is based on discerning through concentration, which is based on methods even before the Buddha’s time. This centers on abhinna, which is obtained by developing the eight attainments for the 8 kasinas and mastering them in 14 ways. This leads to a very high level of concentration and control that allows people to see into their past lives, depending on their capabilities.
You can also see into other people’s past lives. If a meditator has meditated in a near past life, it is possible to retrieve meditation objects that then allows them to progress quicker. I have had meditators, meditating with me for a long time, telling me that they seem to make faster advancement with a certain meditation object, so I think there is a correlation which then helps us to streamline the process.
Some yogis that have seen other people’s past lives also tell me that there is a sense of equanimity that arises, especially when seeing the stream of past births and karma, and the ups and downs of rebirths in samsara.
BDG: How would you characterize the steps toward the successive jhanas in a context of everyday practice, according to the Visuddhimagga?
VS: The most difficult part of jhana practice is attaining the jhanas. Then there is the question of maintaining these states. The Visuddhimagga offers several meditation subjects to choose from on the practice that leads to jhana attainment.
I spend a lot of time figuring out what the best meditation subject is for a meditator. Once that is established, it is about observing, understanding, and guiding the meditator. Everyone is different, and therefore needs tailored guidance. Meditators need to have some basic prerequisites: a certain level of virtue, such as keeping the Five Precepts, for example. Other factors listed are cleanliness, external and internal, having good friends suitable for meditation, and environment.
I do not ask yogis to meditate for long periods of time at the beginning, but I do ask for consistency. As meditation progresses and I sense momentum, I start pushing for more. When someone attains some level of jhana concentration, then it is a matter of maintaining that concentration. This means doing the Five Masteries, such as being able to enter into jhanas whenever we choose, or emerging quickly and smoothly from a state of jhana. Steadying the duration, and at a time determined by the meditator, is one more mastery. Finally, adverting and reviewing, which go together, means discerning the five jhana factors: initial application (vitakka), sustained application (vicara), joy (píti), bliss (sukha), and one-pointedness (ekaggata).
Once these steps are done for one jhana, then meditators are to move to the next jhana, which is outlined in the Visuddhimagga.
BDG: As a teacher living in Sri Lanka, you stress the importance of being able to retreat into a secluded forest environment to practice. How do you teach your students, many of whom are busy professionals how to reach the right balance so that they are in a good position to reach the jhanas?
VS: Any person, depending on their paramis or perfections, can attain jhanas. They do not have to be an arahant to do that. We do not consciously publicize the discussion of attainments, but rather help people attain those levels of concentration, so there is a base foundation of this experience that can then be identified and compared with the text. Discerning and understanding these experiences allows the jhana awareness to spread from the practical side. Of course there is a large amount of intellectual and theoretical knowledge, but this does not substitute for the practical experience of things.
On seclusion: of course, a quiet environment is wonderful for someone to dive deeper. But most of my students do not have access to a hermitage. “Building a mental bridge” between daily activities and that peaceful, quiet time to meditate is critical. Once that mental connection is established, then it is a question of guiding that student back and forth between those “realms” without disrupting the student’s everyday lifestyle. There are some things to consider: we can ask students to meditate in short bursts throughout the day, or to meditate early in the morning or late at night. Meditating during commuting to work, or before going to bed, are methods that different students have found useful. We attempt to instil an inclination to meditation in disciples. This will allow for meditation to be integrated seamlessly into daily life.
It is my responsibility to create the patterns that allow students to have higher levels of concentration, and help them move fluidly and effortlessly between the world of the everyday and that of “seclusion.” We end up at the point that the two worlds begin to merge, where both become one. It is about sustainability and consistency, and I focus on guiding students to that consistent path so that they are able to move in and out of the jhanas, hopefully for the rest of their lives.
See more
Buddhism & Happiness – Venerable Seeladassana (YouTube)
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