If someone with Jhana is ill or unwell, can they enter into Jhana to relieve the pain or to feel well even though he has a fever?
So even when he is near death and feels a lot of pain, can he enter into Jhana and not feel pain while in Jhana and he will be reborn in the Brahma realm?
Will the pain prevent him from entering Jhana if he has already mastered the jhana?
Listen to ajahn brahm meditation retreat talks on YouTube, he frequently addresses this question.
Yes, can get into Jhāna if sick, it cuts off physical pain.
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Thank you for answering, Venerable Sir. That’s really great. I hope I can attain Jhana one day.
Samyutta nikaya SuttaCentral
- With Assaji, from the Khandhasamyutta nikaya
“Sir, I’m not all right, I’m not getting by. My pain is terrible and growing, not fading, its growing is evident, not its fading.”“I hope you don’t have any remorse or regret?”
“Indeed, sir, I have no little remorse and regret.”
“I hope you have no reason to blame yourself when it comes to ethical conduct?”
“No sir, I have no reason to blame myself when it comes to ethical conduct.”
“In that case, Assaji, why do you have remorse and regret?”
“Sir, before my time of illness I meditated having completely stilled the physical process. But now I can’t get immersion. Since I can’t get immersion, I think: ‘May I not decline!’”
“Assaji, there are ascetics and brahmins for whom samādhi is the essence, equating immersion with the ascetic life. They think: ‘May we not decline!’
What do you think, Assaji? Is form permanent or impermanent?”
“Impermanent, sir.” … “Is consciousness permanent or impermanent?” … “So you should truly see … Seeing this … They understand: ‘… there is no return to any state of existence.’
If they feel a pleasant feeling, they understand that it’s impermanent, that they’re not attached to it, and that they don’t relish it. If they feel a painful feeling, they understand that it’s impermanent, that they’re not attached to it, and that they don’t relish it. If they feel a neutral feeling, they understand that it’s impermanent, that they’re not attached to it, and that they don’t relish it. If they feel a pleasant feeling, they feel it detached. If they feel a painful feeling, they feel it detached. If they feel a neutral feeling, they feel it detached. Feeling the end of the body approaching, they understand: ‘I feel the end of the body approaching.’ Feeling the end of life approaching, they understand: ‘I feel the end of life approaching.’ They understand: ‘When my body breaks up and my life is over, everything that’s felt, being no longer relished, will become cool right here.’Suppose an oil lamp depended on oil and a wick to burn. As the oil and the wick are used up, it would be extinguished due to lack of fuel. In the same way, feeling the end of the body approaching, they understand: ‘I feel the end of the body approaching.’ Feeling the end of life approaching, they understand: ‘I feel the end of life approaching.’ They understand: ‘When my body breaks up and my life is over, everything that’s felt, being no longer relished, will become cool right here.’”
Note the section: “Assaji, there are ascetics and brahmins for whom samādhi is the essence, equating immersion with the ascetic life. They think:
“Ye te, assaji, samaṇabrāhmaṇā samādhisārakā samādhisāmaññā tesaṃ taṃ samādhiṃ appaṭilabhataṃ evaṃ hoti:
Bodhi translation:
22.88. Assaji
On one occasion the Blessed One was dwelling at Rajagaha in the Bamboo Grove, the Squirrel Sanctuary. Now on that occasion the Venerable Assaji was dwelling at Kassapaka’s Park, sick, afflicted, gravely ill.
As in preceding sutta, down to:
“Then if you have nothing for which to reproach yourself in regard to virtue, Assaji, why are you troubled by remorse and regret?”
“Formerly, venerable sir, when I was ill I kept on tranquillizing the bodily formations, but now I do not obtain concentration. As I do not obtain concentration, it occurs to me: ‘Let me not fall away!’”
“Those ascetics and brahmins, Assaji, who regard concentration as the essence and identify concentration with asceticism, failing to obtain concentration, might think, ‘Let us not fall away!’
“What do you think, Assaji, is form permanent or impermanent?”—“Impermanent, venerable sir.”… —“Therefore … Seeing thus … He understands: ‘… there is no more for this state of being.’
“If he feels a pleasant feeling, he understands: ‘It is impermanent’; he understands: ‘It is not held to’; he understands: ‘It is not delighted in.’ If he feels a painful feeling, he understands: ‘It is impermanent’; he understands: ‘It is not held to’; he understands: ‘It is not delighted in.’ If he feels a neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling, he understands: ‘It is impermanent’; he understands: ‘It is not held to’; he understands: ‘It is not delighted in.’
“If he feels a pleasant feeling, he feels it detached; if he feels a painful feeling, he feels it detached; if he feels a neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling, he feels it detached.
“When he feels a feeling terminating with the body, he understands: ‘I feel a feeling terminating with the body.’ When he feels a feeling terminating with life, he understands: ‘I feel a feeling terminating with life.’ He understands: ‘With the breakup of the body, following the exhaustion of life, all that is felt, not being delighted in, will become cool right here.’
“Just as, Assaji, an oil lamp burns in dependence on the oil and the wick, and with the exhaustion of the oil and the wick it is extinguished through lack of fuel, so too, Assaji, when a bhikkhu feels a feeling terminating with the body … terminating with life … He understands: ‘With the breakup of the body, following the exhaustion of life, all that is felt, not being delighted in, will become cool right here.’”
So the Buddha clearly indicates that it is not Samadhi that is the essence. He then gives a discourse about the khandhas and at the end Asaaji, despite having lost his ability to reside in jhana, attains arahat.
Here are some notes from Bhikkhu Bodhi’s translation
Spk: He kept tranquillizing in-and-out breathing when
he dwelt in the fourth jhana, where breathing ceases (36:ll;
IV 217,s-9**). Because he had fallen away from all the meditative**
absorptions that he had previously attained, he
thought, “Let me not fall away from the Teaching.”
174 Spk: Samādhi-dassa samādhi-sīmaññāti—samādhiṃ yeva sīlañca samāpattiñca maññanti.
“In my Teaching, that is not the essence (sāra); the essence is insight (vipassanā), the path (magga), and the fruit (phala).”“In my Teaching that is not the
essence; the essence is insight, path, and fruit.”
175 Spk says that at the end of the Buddha’s exposition of the
three characteristics, Assaji attained arahantship. Spk
explains that the Buddha introduces the following passage
to show the arahant’s constant abiding. See too 12:51,
where the same text is coupled with a different simile. The
present version is also at 36:7, 36:8, and 548.e
there was a post by Venerable Subhuti on his method.
Brahmavamso method
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Jhāna is very fragile.
In 2012, I came back to Pa-Auk Mawlamyine after 6 years in Sri Lanka. I asked the medical monk how many malaria cases there were. He said only 1. I said sādhu! and was very happy. However, it was a nun from a Western country. She was that one person. She was a good meditator and finished the course. She was different from the other women yogis, who get caught up in the social turbulence of living with other female yogis. She was very calm and very different and lived up to her name (I won’t say). She was the one person that year who got malaria. She lost her nimitta. I’m not sure what happened to her or where she is. I wish her the best.
I know a monk who finished the Pa-Auk course. Often those who finish the course “stress test” their concentration to see if it is real. This monk lost his nimitta after going to a very dangerous part of the forest with 3 walled mud kutis (by design to be scary). Last I heard it has not come back.
Ajahn Brahm has told monks that he “plays jhāna up” in order to get people motivated. You can read my article Ajahn Brahm’s Dark Jhāna. As usual, he tells people not to read the commentaries or Abhidhamma and then makes things up according to what he feels like saying. Probably based on his experience. But just because one experiences things, it does not mean it is correct. Christians experience things. We also have a list of upakkilesā (false enlightenment … or impediments to enlightenment).
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Thank for this detailed answer, Venerable Sir, and also thank you, Robert for the information.
I have some quick follow-up questions. How does one protect their Jhana? If one practices up to the equanimity towards all formations vipassana stage and loses Jhana, do they still have access to that stage? Can they still discern ultimate mentality and materiality?