Right Concentration: A Practical Guide to the Jhanas

by Leigh Brasington

If you are craving to experience a jhāna, you have the hindrance of wanting. You have to set aside such craving—those expectations—to be able to enter the jhāna. Setting aside expectations is certainly easier said than done. The best advice I can give you is to refrain from what Ayya Khema called “result thinking.” Don’t focus on what you hope or think or expect should happen. Ayya offered a simile that you might find helpful. Suppose you want to drive from your home to, for example, a retreat center many hours away. Suppose someone gives you excellent directions. If the directions start out by saying something like, “When you get to the end of your street, turn right. When you get to such and such a highway, turn left,” it does you no good to start looking for the retreat center as you drive down your street toward the first turn. In order to use the directions properly, you don’t focus on the destination; you determine where you currently are and what you’ll need to do next when you arrive at the place where you change from what you are doing now to something new. This is exactly how to approach learning the jhānas. Gain an understanding of the directions. Determine where you currently are and what “landmark” to look for so that you will know when to take the next step. Don’t focus on, or even think about, the destination.