Right Concentration: A Practical Guide to the Jhanas

by Leigh Brasington

For each of the first four jhānas, we have a simile. For this first one we find: Suppose a skilled bath attendant or his apprentice were to pour soap flakes into a metal basin, sprinkle them with water and knead them into a ball, so that the ball of soap flakes would be pervaded by moisture, encompassed by moisture, suffused by moisture inside and out and yet would not trickle. In the same way one drenches, steeps, saturates and suffuses one’s body with the rapture and happiness born of seclusion, so that there is no part of one’s body that is not suffused by rapture and happiness. (DN 2.78) We have here a picture of what life was like at the time of the Buddha. You didn’t go to the store and buy a bar of soap. You had your skilled bath attendant or his apprentice get a metal basin and pour soap flakes into it, pour water in, and then mix the soap flakes and the water until he had a ball of soap. This picture matches quite well the frenetic energy of the first jhāna. The first jhāna is not a calm, peaceful state. Its energy is pretty intense, and this simile gives a fairly good idea of the lack of calm and of the frenetic energy that is present in the first jhāna. There’s an effervescent quality to the first jhāna that can also be gleaned from the simile.