JHANĀS, THE

by Ajahn Brahmavamso

REVISED EDITION 2018

ISBN 978-983-3512-34-8

IJ111/05/18

Size: 5.5” x 8.25”

Pages: 96 pages

“As Buddhist meditation becomes ever more popular in our modern world, it is vital that clear and accurate guidance is available. For many years, there has been an unfortunate lack of thorough instruction in simple English on the deeper states of meditation called Jhāna. Even though the Jhānas are, perhaps, the theme most repeated by the Buddha in the Suttas, and in spite of the fact that the old teachers of the Thai forest tradition encouraged, practiced and taught Jhānas, a description of their development is hard to come by.

The booklet, then, serves to remedy this lack of practical information regarding Jhāna. It continues where I left off in my earlier booklet, the BASIC METHOD OF MEDITATION. It aims to describe the path into Jhāna, the characteristics of Jhāna, and the relevance of Jhāna to insight and Enlightenment.

Without any appreciation of Jhāna, one’s understanding of Buddhism is incomplete.”

~ Ajahn Brahm, from the Preface

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Venerable Phra Visuddhisamvarathera, known as Ajahn Brahmavamso Mahāthera (or simply as Ajahn Brahm) was born Peter Betts in London, United Kingdom in August 7, 1951. He came from a working-class background, he went to Latymer Upper School in London and from there won a scholarship to study Theoretical Physics at Cambridge University in the late 1960s. At Cambridge he joined the university’s Buddhist Society and after a few weeks at the age of 18, he saw a monk for the first time. He knew then that was what he wanted to be. After graduating from Cambridge he taught in a high school for one year before travelling to Thailand to become a monk.

Ordained as a monk (bhikkhu) by Somdet Buddhajahn at Wat Saket in Bangkok in 1974, Ajahn Brahm travelled to north-east Thailand in January 1975 and became a student of meditation master Ajahn Chah at Wat Pa Pong.

He was invited to Perth by the Buddhist Society of Western Australia (BSWA) in 1983 along with fellow monk, Ajahn Jagaro. Later that year the BSWA purchased rural land in Serpentine south of Perth. Ajahn Brahm became the co-founding monk and deputy abbot of Bodhinyana Monastery in late 1983.

Currently Ajahn Brahm is the Abbot of Bodhinyana Monastery, in Serpentine, Western Australia; Spiritual Adviser to the Buddhist Society of Victoria; Spiritual Adviser to the Buddhist Society of South Australia; Spiritual Patron of the Buddhist Fellowship in Singapore; Patron of the Brahm Centre in Singapore; Spiritual Patron of the Bodhikusuma Centre in Sydney; Spiritual Adviser to the Anukampa Bhikkhuni Project in the UK; and the Spiritual Director of the Buddhist Society of Western Australia (BSWA).