J0rrit wrote:Hello there,
I was asking myself yesterday how many laypeople actually experience Jhana? So my question would be who of you did experience Jhana or does experience Jhana on a regular basis? And what kind of practice are you doing? After what time and how much meditating did you experience it?
hello jorrit,
I experience jhana on a regular basis, and I'm a layperson. I'm a husband and a father. I've never been on a retreat.
I'm doing samatha-vipassana as taught by Bhante Vimalaramsi. So I'm talking about "sutta" jhanas, not visuddhimagga jhanas.
I started experiencing the 1st jhana after maybe a year of sitting 30 minutes a day, often only on the bus. After another year or so, (and making time to sit for real at home), I began experiencing the arupa jhanas. Now I've been doing this practice for 7years off and on, and I'm currently working with the 8th jhana. Some days, it takes me an hour to get that deep. Some days I don't get there at all. I'm also working on mastering the jhanas in daily life.. For example, if I had a good long sit in the morning, I can pop into the 4th jhana while sitting in a meeting at work. Then I can direct myself to the 5th, or 6th. If I'm in the right mindset, the 7th. I can still listen to what people are saying, and if I start talking I drop back down, usually. It's often very blissful..
I created this account with a pseudonym, specifically so I could talk about what's possible, without any worry about "bragging" or whatever. I have seen many posts on this site like this, and my hope is to help out, give hope, show that it's possible. Maybe that's impossible.
please feel free to PM me, or ask questions right here.
metta,
jad