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Technique to obtain a 100% Hard Jhana

or very solid state of Samadhi, with ease.

I originally posted this on Dharmaoverground after a certain revelation I had about my years of
practicing. I've decided to post it here also.

I used to not understand the difference between hard and soft Jhanas. The only Jhanas I have
ever experienced have been those that are 100% void of thoughts with complete stillness of the
mind. After reading some forums a bit I realized that I had never experienced a soft Jhana, and
have only experienced very solid hard Jhanas, aka, very solid Samadhi States. I have been
practicing for many years, and it is only now after reading peoples experienced that I realized
why my practice was different.

I learned about meditation back in highschool. Wanted to improve my concentration, read like 2
articles about it, and tried to meditate. The very first time I meditated in class, I naturally
tried a very particular technique that just made sense to me, and after about 5-10 minutes of
practicing it, I obtained a very hard Jhana. I was in complete bliss, mind was completely silent,
and all that existed was my breath. I stayed like this until my Teacher called me out on sleeping,
though I apparently got in trouble because I had ignored him for 10 minutes without realizing it,
even though I was completely conscious of my meditation object(my breath).

Reflecting back on my many years of practice after reading this forum, I finally figured out why
my method produced such solid results, and I am more than happy to share it.

The Technique

People tend to dichotomize meditation between 2 types, insight, and concentration. Only now
have I realized that this is unnecessary. The meditation that I used to obtain such a rock solid
Jhana my first time meditating, was a combination of the 2 practices.

People when doing insight meditations often just note every sensation that arises, without
concentrating on anything in particular. When people do concentration meditations, they often
just continually bringing the awareness back to the object of meditation, and don't pay much
attention to arising thoughts. When doing this, the result is thoughts/emotions will still arise,
but they are just being ignored while you are focusing singularly on the object of meditation.
This can lead some to get distracted easily.
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Now, it's very simple. Simply combine the 2.

Focus on your breath, keep bringing your attention back to your breath,

but when a thought, emotion, or distraction arises, LABEL IT, become aware of it, do an insight
practice towards it. Hold the distraction in your attention for a brief moment until you feel you
have it, no more than a second or 2,

then let go of it and focus back on the breath.

That's it.

Repeatedly doing this will result in a number of things:

-Concentration will increase, leading to a growing absorption.

-Mindfulness and insight will also increase due to the power of concentration. This will allow you
catch thoughts or emotions as they arising before they can have any effect on you. You will be
able to catch arising sensations and stop them in their tracks.
-The more absorbed you get, the less frequently sensations/thoughts/emotions will arise as you
will become increasingly aware of that region of your mind.
-After a certain point thoughts/emotions/sensations will stop arising all together and the Jhana
will be instantly solid.

Doing this technique there is no soft Jhanas, only pure, Hard Jhanas, with no thoughts.
You will simultaneously be practicing both insight and concentration meditations.

There will be a point where power of concentration grows and grows(if the resources of the mind
allows it), to where you will start hearing your subconscious thoughts with an intense awareness
as if someone were talking in your ear. The deeper into the mind you go, you will need to start
reapplying the Insight technique while maintaining the concentration.

Once you have gone to the deepest parts of the mind, when concentration is at its most
powerful, you will essentially have stopped all ego thoughts. This is, a moment of enlightenment,
though making it permanent takes time, and resources of the mind, as it must rearrange itself.
It can take many sittings and refueling.

Now the deeper into the mind you go, if thoughts begin to arise beyond your control, and the
labeling them isn't working, yet concentration still seems pretty strong, then that is a clear sign
that you need to refuel. If your brain does not have the energy to maintain concentration, then
labeling will grow ineffective and concentration will weaken. The Jhana will grow "soft" so to
speak, but only because the mind does not have fuel.

Practicing insight and concentration together like this is a far superior method than practicing
either one independently. It is far faster than practicing either one technique independently.

Here is another way to look at it, in the sense of a analogy.

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Labeling thoughts and then letting them go is akin to spying a rock/obstacle in the river that is
your consciousness, and throwing it out of the stream of the flow.

The act of concentrating is akin to continually watching the river in order to find rocks and
remove them

The growing power of concentration, absorption, and deepening into the mind is akin to your
sight becoming better, allowing you to spot smaller obstacles/rocks(lower/subconscious
thoughts) in the river and then remove them.

The sharper concentration becomes will determine how deeply into the mind you can go. This is
akin to how steadily the river is flowing and how deeply you can see into it.

Weakening concentration is akin to river-cleaner's eyesight growing weak as he is unable to get

up the energy to eye rocks out in the river. He needs to go eat so he has the energy to focus on
his task and identify the rocks stopping the steady flow of his river.

The longer the river-cleaner goes without cleaning the river, the more rocks will be blown into it
from the wind and will accumulate downstream.

Eventually the river cleaner will grow so skilled at what he does that he can multi-task, while
simultaneously keeping the river clean. This means at a certain level of perfecting this technique,
you can go about your everyday life catching thoughts and distractions as they arise while
staying focused on whatever you are doing. This will prevent any "rocks" or ego-junk from
entering or accumulating in your river while you are not sitting down and practicing. Once this
level is attained, a person can maintain a clear consciousness 100% of the time. Though if one
does not periodically dedicate time to singularly focused concentration, then his ability to notice
very very small 'rocks'(subtle thoughts) will dwindle, and his consciousness/river can slowly
become dirtied.

Through this technique, you will remove all rocks from your river of consciousness, allowing it to
flow freely and purified. Essentially, when all rocks are completely removed from the river,
Enlightenment is attained. For permanent enlightenment to be maintained, one must be able to
keep the river of consciousness clean.

Remember, enlightenment is NOT the peak. Enlightenment is a perfect state of awareness of

things. In regards to how powerfully you can be aware, the depth of awareness abilities must be
developed through sustained and constantly refined concentration. It is through development of
this super-deep awareness that brings a ton of mental energy and access to the so called
'siddhis' and supernatural powers.

Never forget, Concentration and Insight go hand in hand. Each one has it's own qualities that
support the other one.
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While concentration can be built up without any insight, this is akin to a River-Cleaner who is
very very good at spotting the rocks of his consciousness, but his river is so powerful that it can
do it's highest functions regardless of the 'rocks' that dirty it up. This is why many 'powers'
can be attained without enlightenment, but those rocks are still there disrupting the clarity and
purity of the river no matter how efficiently it is flowing. Even if the river is in a state of super
powerful flow, it would still benefit and increase in power by removing those rocks.

So with all this, never forget, Insight and Concentration practices should be one! This is
essentially what the Buddha practiced, and how he attained enlightenment with various powers
so quickly. He would focus on his breath to attain Jhana while staying aware of the true nature
of sensations that arise(by labeling and knowing them).

I hope I have made this as clear as possible. If there are any questions, I will do my best to
answer them!

Good-Luck with your practices

Suite

Here are some obvious signs that you have attained a very hard Jhana, this was my first
experience.

There will be no thoughts, or no worries of thought. You will feel as if you are completely aware
of everything that the mind generates during that given moment, if you entered into the Jhana
through this technique. That means you are aware and able to stop anything that may arise in the
mind. Very soon after entering the Jhana no thoughts will arise and it will be Rock-Solid.

I noticed a number of things after being in such a hard Jhana for even only 5 minutes.
When I exited out of the Meditation, I seemed to be able to know the thoughts of animals, and
feel what they're feeling.

All anxiety is completely gone, a pure emotional state. I instantly knew how to act appropriately
in any given situation depending on what I intended the goal to be. I did not have to think about
anything. There was infact no thoughts in this after-state.

I felt aware of all moving energy in the room, whether it was behind me, or not.

My reflexes were beyond perfect for about 5-10 minutes after leaving the meditation. I was
able to catch flies out of the air with ease.

I noticed pain and temperature had little effect on me, as if I was so focused, and sensation was
just an obstacle in the mind. The moment I labeled it, it would disappear. Though as soon as
concentration begins to dwindle, as in it not being well developed as a natural part of your
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consciousness, then so will your ability to stop rising sensations. This can be prevented by simply
practicing more and stabilizing the states so that they are natural, aka, increasing your mastery
of them.

I noticed my memory was absolutely perfect. I managed to remember anything I tried to

remember in full detail, as if I was reliving it. One particular memory stood out in my mind of
when I came right out of my Mothers womb, I saw my 4 year old sister looking at me(who is 4
years older than me). Though I don't recall much else from that early in my child hood.

I seem to just know things, my creativity was perfect. I was able to write musically perfectly, on
the level of Mozart, flawless, in all aspects. Though as said before, this effect only last as long
as the consciousness is pure and solid, so for me only about 5 minutes at the time.

I could read pages out of a text book and remember every single detail about them and instantly
comprehend them.

I could look at the mechanical lay out of something and fully comprehend instantly how every
thing about it worked and how all of it worked together, along with the purpose of each part.
This effect seemed to last a few days afterwards, but to a weakening degree over the days.

I also noticed that I could go to sleep almost instantaneously if I so desired or tried to.

But over time I also noticed that when I grew to be able to stay in the Jhanas longer, as in my
mental energy was naturally higher, I could substitute Jhana for sleep. I could go into a rock-
solid Jhana for a 20-30 minutes, and it would feel as if I got a full nights sleep. My record was
going 2 months without sleeping. It is said that Samadhi/HardJhana is nothing more than
conscious sleep. And that deep-sleep is Samadhi/Hard-Jhana without awareness. Dreaming is
akin to a soft-jhana. Where the mind is absorbed into sleeping, yet there are thoughts of the
day that arise, and those thoughts create dreams.

There were many other things. To put it shortly, it felt as if the mind was working at perfect
efficiency. Now remember, these things will differ between each person. I have always had a
mechanical and logical attitude towards things. The things I experienced were things I commonly
thought about, such as creativity, music, mechanics, etc. Though there were also subtler things
that I would just notice, such as knowing people and animals emotional states.

The point is your experience will differ slightly based on what you do everyday. Though the
foundation that these experiences arise out of will be the same, assuming you do the technique
properly(which it's very easy ) and attain a hard Jhana, even for a short period of time.