The Jhanas are real. I used to deeply explore the Jhanas for ~4-6wk (mostly Rob Burbea's lectures), and now I have mostly stopped (busy with other things atm). Writing down my thoughts about Jhana, my tips to my pre-Jhana self, lessons learned etc, while the memory is fresh. The Jhanas are real. This is a crazy fact. All the things they say about bliss on demand, infinite blah blah, they're real. Hard to put to words obviously, but the closest phrase I have to convey the feeling is "infinite happiness" (on J3). Jhanas are transformative. I have never seen anyone, not a single soul, who went into a spiritual lecture (any r*lig*on doesn't matter) and came out transformed. An actually different human being. But the Jhanas did that to me. Baseline happiness is ~10x, and when it's at its peak (in J3), it's just.. I have not found an IRL event that compares. [1] I have not reached J4-J8. J3 is absolutely wonderful and lovely, it's a refuge from the world that I can access anytime I want. Tried going to J4 but I don't think the J3 is ripe yet. Tbh I'm not that interested in J5-J8. I successfully achieved J1 on busy coffeeshop couple times, and that suggests to me J1-J4 can be had anytime, anywhere. Which is absolutely wonderful. Pre-J1, I tried metta, visualization, "energy body," and all kind of stuff (I forgot), and what got me into J1 is the simplest technique, which is breathing as Michael Taft suggested (search youtube). Ymmv, it's a good idea to try it all. If I were to summarize: - J1: under a waterfall, yellow, heavenly light - J2: floating in a river, "head halo", pink cottonball - J3: submerged in a lake, submerging hot iron into cool water Water in this analogy is happiness What each Jhanas revealed to me: - J1: altered states exist and can be achieved purely through meditation - J2/J3: infinite happiness is real, and it does not come from the outside world The most important tip I have for my pre-J1 self when getting into Jhana is don't muck with anything. Don't touch anything. Things happen, the impulse is to panic, mess with it, poke it, etc. DON'T!!! I got a piti that would've evolved to J1 on my first day of my Jhana practice, panicked real hard, and the piti ran away. Took ~1.5wk before I achieved the same strong piti but later on I relaxed into the piti and boom J1. Another tip for my pre-J1 self: piti need not be "crawling," it's already everywhere surrounding you, you just have to tune into it like a radio. The biggest hurdle was pre-Jhana to J1. After J1, the next Jhanas I experienced were just about letting things evolve (it's that simple, really). I learn all these by myself. The materials that helped me: - tweets by @nickcammarata - the Jhana blogpost by @nayafia - Michael Taft technique (pre-J1) - Right Concentration by Leigh Brasington - tweets/talks by @jhanatech and blogposts of Jhourney's participants - tweets by @bayeslord - Rob Burbea's talks (post-J1) I highly suggest you give it a shot (if you are inclined). The Jhanas are wonderful, and honestly idk why it's not taught to every single human being on Earth. [1] It's not that a single Jhana event triggers transformation, it's a result of continuous, serious practice for weeks.