Jhana Meditation and Silent Illumination

Introduction 

The derivation of the word Chan is from Dhyana in Sanskrit and Jhana in Pali. Jhana is translated as meditation, meditative absorption or meditative concentration. Jhana meditation practice features in several Pali suttas, and involves progression through four jhanas. These are increasingly subtle states of concentration, experienced as altered states of consciousness.¹

Buddhism crossed the seas and mountains to China in the first century CE and in the early days was close in form and content to Indian Buddhism. The change from the Indian progressive practice of the jhanas to the directness of Zen or Chan developed over the centuries, as Buddhism was influenced by Chinese culture and Daoist thought, in particular the concept of wu wei which roughly means non-doing or non-forcing. Wu wei is very much in the spirit of the Chan practice of Silent Illumination. 

Chan is considered to be a ‘sudden’ school and in principle Chan teaching emphasises the fruit of meditation, which might suddenly become apparent. Whilst much Chan teaching contains advice on how to practise, this advice is considered to be ‘expedient means’, to help practitioners through obstacles, difficulties and misconceptions. There is no attempt to guide meditators systematically through recognisable states of consciousness, as there is in jhana practice. 

In this article I will contrast jhana meditation with silent illumination. Whilst there are some similarities between them, they are different in purpose, method of practice, and in how they are experienced.

Both practices start from recognising the need to live an ethical life and both are informed by knowledge of the so-called hindrances to meditation and how to deal with them, in preparation for entering practice. The importance of preparation was spelt out to Zen Master Dogen, the founder of the Japanese Soto Zen school, by his teacher Chan Master Ju Ching during a retreat at Tiantong monastery in China. The story of Dogen’s enlightenment is well known. One morning, Ju Ching shouted at a drowsy monk, “When you study under a master you must drop off body and mind: what is the use of single-minded intense sleeping?!” (vs. ‘single-minded intense sitting’, a favourite phrase of Ju Ching’s). Hearing this, Dogen suddenly attained great enlightenment. Dogen later asked Ju Ching what was meant by the phrase ‘drop off body and mind’. Ju Ching replied that dropping off body and mind is sitting meditation and when sitting meditation is practised, we part from the five desires, the five hindrances and the three poisons. 

The five desires refer to desire in the five sense realms. The five hindrances are obstacles to meditation: they are sensory desire (wanting), ill will (aversion), sloth and torpor (too little energy), restlessness and worry, and doubt in the sense of lack of faith in oneself or practice. The three poisons are greed, aversion and ignorance: mental factors that drive the wheel of life according to classical Buddhist thought. 

Ju Ching’s formulation of the hindrances is similar to that found in the Pali suttas that refer to jhana practice: in both cases, hindrances are thought of as obstacles that once removed allow the main practice to begin. In jhana practice, it is only after the hindrances are set aside to some extent that “access concentration” can begin to be generated. Ac­cess concentration is a precondition for accessing the jhanas. It is a state in which the mind is very calm and fully present with the method of practice, without becoming distracted. The usual method of practice is to follow the breath (anapanasati in Pali). 

It would appear that the hindrances are regarded in much the same way in the Chan tradition and in jhana practice, but this is not so, at least not in the way Silent Illumination and Shikantaza are commonly taught in western traditions. Instead of being understood as obstacles, the ‘hindrances’, especially those to do with wanting and ill will, can be understood to contain the seeds of our awakening. From this point of view the so-called hindrances can be a spur or aid, and perhaps even an essential part of practice. It is not that this understanding is absent from jhana practice, rather there is a fundamental difference of intention between silent illumination and jhana practice and this results in a different approach to the hindrances. 

The aim of practising the jhanas is to develop samadhi as a foundation for subsequent insight meditation. Samadhi is a state of mind that is serene, clear, and highly concentrated. Insight meditation goes beyond this towards having direct insight into the nature of reality, either through a programme of insight meditation practices or spontaneously. A simile for jhana practice is that it is like sharpening a pencil (by working up to the fourth jhana in stages) in order to begin the practice of insight, or to use a more colourful Tibetan simile, like sharpening a sword in order to cut off the head of delusion. Jhana practice and insight practice are thus done in sequence. 

The principle underlying silent illumination is that samadhi and insight are developed simultaneously, not sequentially. This is a major difference from jhana practice. Both involve formal sitting meditation but the usual advice for practitioners of silent illumination is to keep the eyes open, or at least partially open, in order to avoid going into so-called trance states. Jhana practice is an eyes-closed practice. There is no concern about trance states; rather the jhana practitioner is about to set out on a journey with a clear map of the staging points – the jhanas. 

This difference in approach is related to a second major difference between the two practices: as the practice of silent illumination develops, internal awareness is not lost – rather awareness of the environment tends to widen and sharpen – whereas jhana practice is primarily an inward practice in which awareness of the environment fades into the background.²

The Maha Assapura Sutta: Similes for the Hindrances and Jhanas 

The jhanas are mentioned in several Buddhist suttas. In the Maha Assapura Sutta the Buddha outlines a whole programme of practice referring to the five hindrances, the four jhanas and insight practices. Vivid similes illustrate the abandoning of the hindrances and the altered states of consciousness that occur in each of the jhanas. 

• With respect to the first hindrance, the practitioner abandons longing for the world and dwells in a mind free from longing and greed. This inner freedom is compared to the situation of someone who has lived for a long time under the burden of crippling debt; when the debt is paid off the person is ecstatic and full of joy. 

• Abandoning ill will and dwelling in a mind that is compassionate is compared to the experience of being cured of a long-term illness.

• Abandoning dullness and dwelling in a mind that is mindful and clearly comprehending is like the freedom experienced on being

released from a dark prison.

• Abandoning restlessness and worry and dwelling free from agitation with a peaceful mind is like escaping from the tyranny of slavery and being at liberty.

• Abandoning doubt is compared to getting to the end of a journey across a wide desert without dying of thirst along the way!

In the Sangaravo Sutta, there is a different simile for the five hindrances involving water in a pot. Someone looking into the pot would not be able to see their face in the water if it were coloured with red, yellow, blue or orange dye (sensual desire), or if it were boiling up and bubbling over (ill will), or covered in slimy moss and water plants (sleepiness) or stirred by the wind and producing waves (agitated), or turbid, stirred up and muddy with the pot placed in a dark place (doubt).

Overcoming the hindrances is not seen as the work of a few hours of meditation practice. They are regarded as significant obstacles and overcoming or weakening them in the course of one’s life results in a sense of joyful freedom and release, opening the way for meditation to deepen.

After overcoming or – more realistically – substantially reducing the five hindrances, the meditator is able to practice breath awareness (anapanasati) to enter the first jhana,³ in which there is rapture and happiness with some mild discursive thought in the background. Rapture and happiness pervade the whole body, just as water pervades a paste that is fully saturated. The idea is that this state is physical and intense, yet there is containment.

In the second jhana, there is internal confidence and unification of the mind. Discursive thoughts subside, but rapture and happiness continue and pervade the whole body, just as cool water might entirely and evenly pervade a lake in a hot climate. At this stage rapture and happiness have a quality of lightness and coolness; there is more subtlety than in the first jhana.

In the third jhana, the meditator dwells happily in mindful equanimity, without rapture. The image is of a lotus flower that doesn’t break through the surface of a lake, but is steeped in cool water throughout. This simile points to a sense of inner spaciousness, with equanimity in the body that is reflective of the state of the meditator’s mind during meditation.

In the fourth jhana there is neither pleasure nor pain. Joy and dejection have disappeared, there is a purity of mindfulness born of equanimity. The image is of the whole body pervaded by a pure bright mind.

A well-trained meditator might progress through the jhanas in a single period of concentrated practice, but beginners can take a long time to learn how to do this.

Once the fourth jhana has been established and is stable, the practitioner is ready to begin the practice of insight. Traditionally, this was directed to specific topics. The three mentioned in the Maha Assapura Sutra are meditation on past lives, on the impermanence of life, and on what are known as the taints. The taints are sensual desire, desire for existence, ignorance of impermanence and ignorance of an understanding that there is no separate, independent, permanent self. In contemporary practice, insight meditation tends to be thematic, e.g., meditation on the body, meditation on the emotions, meditation on states of mind, meditation on not-self and so forth.

Ultimately, insight is another term for awakening. Though insight meditation involves topics or themes, the destination is the same as for Chan meditation: what Chan Master Sheng Yen called seeing the nature, or as John Crook once put it, seeing the nature with a compassionate heart. 

Comparison with Silent Illumination 

Jhana practice and silent illumination both involve some focus on body awareness, especially in the early stages (though silent illumination can also be practised without this focus) and as practice deepens both involve reduction in internal verbalisation, a sense of the boundaries of the body changing and experience that becomes increasingly subtle. 

As already mentioned, the most crucial difference is that in silent illumination, insight and samadhi are practiced simultaneously, not sequentially. In silent illumination there is an emphasis on maintaining a balance between equanimity and serenity on the one hand and subtle non-directed investigation and conscious awareness on the other. When the practice is established, investigation or insight can occur spontaneously and naturally. The content of this investigation is the functioning of the mind itself; unlike for the practices described in the Maha Assapura Sutra, no formal topic or theme is prescribed. This gives the potential for silent illumination to be directly relevant to the immediate realities of the meditator’s experience and life, because whatever comes to mind is noticed, in all fields of awareness, including thought, emotion and sensory experience. 

Another important difference is that states of joy and rapture are not focused on in Chan teaching. From the beginning the attitude to practice is supposed to be one of equanimity; happiness may arise, a sense of spaciousness might occur, obstruction and discomfort may arise, painful feelings may be experienced – in principle all these states are grist to the mill. Though usually people have a preference for pleasurable meditation, meditation is not taught with the intention of generating rapture and happiness.

This is quite different from jhana practice. To enter the first jhana a meditator identifies a pleasant sensation anywhere in the body and focuses on it. This facilitates the development of rapture and happiness, which can become extremely powerful. 

Silent illumination has been called The Method of No Method;⁴ a state of mind becomes established where there is no need for the meditator to ‘do’ anything, awareness stabilises and the mind flows along on its own. Once practice stabilises, the meditative state can carry quite naturally into any other activity. The experienced distinction between sitting meditation and any other activity can even drop away entirely. Ultimately, the term silent illumination is a phrase that points to the nature of the awakened mind. 

In principle, the combination of jhana and insight meditation has the same function as silent illumination practice. They are both paths to awakening and both ways to develop wisdom and kindness in everyday life. 

Spiritual Bypassing 

It is important to understand the function of both types of practice and to be clear about their differences. Without this understanding the essential link to insight practice, whether simultaneous with samadhi practice as for silent illumination, or following samadhi practice as for jhana practice, can be lost. There is then a risk that meditation becomes a form of avoidance, rather than a path in which preoccupation with self-concern is faced and overcome. 

A pitfall in all forms of meditation is getting stuck in the ‘cave of demons.’ This can take different forms, the most common being meditative quietism, a peaceful state of mental blankness or even dullness in which thoughts are suppressed. Other possibilities are attachment to pleasurable states, or becoming stuck in mental self-punishment. 

Of these possible ‘demonic states’, attachment to pleasurable states is the main risk for the jhana practitioner. For silent illumination it is quietism: a state of serenity or even dullness in which thoughts are stilled so that the mind seems silent, but with very little illumination. 

These are forms of spiritual bypassing, a psychological defence mechanism that is used to avoid facing difficulties, uncomfortable feelings, pain and distress. Socially it manifests as niceness and superficial good will, or as detachment, withdrawal and aloofness. 

To leave the cave of demons it is necessary to move on from serenity and in the case of jhana practice, this means using the state of mind generated in the jhanas to begin insight meditation – the mind has to start to move. For a silent illumination practitioner, the move away from dullness is often resisted, because of a misunderstanding that lack of thought in the mind is intrinsic to strong practice. In moving out of the cave of demons, the mind gets going again – the practice is to be aware of this and to see the mind moving without getting caught up in reactivity to what is arising.

The Second Jhana: A meeting point between the two practices? 

The simile for the second jhana, of cool water evenly pervading a lake in a warm climate, is somewhat similar to some of the similes for silent illumination, e.g., snow filling a silver bowl, clear still water in an autumn pool, or the dreaming of a crane flying in empty space.⁵ These similes express something of the experience of the practice of silent illumination.

The state arrived at in the second jhana is perhaps where the two practices meet each other, but the orientation from then on is very different. In jhana practice the meditator goes more deeply inward as indicated by the simile for the third jhana, in which the lotus flower is entirely submerged in the lake, whereas already at this stage the silent illumination practitioner is very aware of the wider environment, which is the backdrop to the experiences referred to by these similes. 

This gives a clue as to how jhana practice might complement silent illumination practice. Whilst there is no need to learn how to practise the jhanas in order to practise silent illumination, nevertheless there is no problem with following jhana practice through access concentration, on to the phase of rapture and happiness in the first jhana, and then to confidence and unification of mind (or ‘self at ease’) characteristic of the second jhana, but then letting go of the inner focus so as not to proceed to the third jhana. The stability achieved at the second jhana can then become implicit in an awareness of the movement of the mind together with a widening of awareness of the environment, as silent illumination deepens.

Notes 

1. The first four jhanas are linked to four further states of consciousness, called the ayatanas in early Buddhist texts. In later texts the ayatanas were referred to as the four formless jhanas, giving a total of eight jhanas. All eight states are preparatory practices for insight meditation, which begins after the fourth or higher jhanas.
2. Neurological correlates of the experience of the environment fading into the background have been observed in a study of an experienced jhana practitioner, whose brain activity was monitored whilst practising the jhanas. Hegarty et al. 2013 Case study of ecstatic meditation: fMRI and EEG evidence of self-stimulating a reward system. http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/653572
3. Brassington, Leigh (2015). Right Concentration: A Practical Guide to the Jhanas. Shambhala, for a guide on how to enter to the first jhana and then move from the first to second and so on up to the fourth jhana.
4. Sheng Yen (2008). The Method of No Method: The Chan Practice of Silent Illumination. Shambhala.
5. Similes from Hongzhi’s poem, Guidepost of Silent Illumination (Translated by Taigen Dan Leighton with Yi Wu) 1991 From: Cultivating the Empty Field, North Point Press 1991