Dhyana

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Dhyana
Sanskrit Name
Romanization	Dhyāna
Devanāgarī	ध्यान
Pali Name
Romanization	Jhāna
Devanāgarī	झान
Sinhala	ඣාන
Chinese Name
Hanyu Pinyin	Chán
Wade-Giles	Ch'an
Cantonese IPA	sɪm4
Cantonese Jyutping	sim
Hanzi	禪
Jiantizi	禅
Korean Name
Revised Romanization	Seon
McCune-Reischauer	Sŏn
Hangul	선
Hanja	禪
Japanese Name
Romaji	Zen
Kanji	禅
Vietnamese Name
Quốc ngữ	Thiền

Dhyāna in Sanskrit or Jhāna in Pāli refers to a type or aspect of meditation. It is a key concept in Hinduism and Buddhism. Equivalent terms are "Zen" in Japanese and "Chán" in modern Chinese.

Dhyāna in Buddhism

In the Pali Canon the Buddha describes four progressive states of absorption meditation or Jhāna. The Jhānas are said by the Buddha to be conducive to detachment but they must not be mistaken for the final goal of nibbana. The Jhānas are states of meditation where the mind is free from the five hinderances (craving, aversion, sloth, agitation, doubt) and incapable of discursive thinking. The deeper Jhānas can last for many many hours. When a meditator emmerges from Jhāna their mind is empowered and able to penetrate into the deepest truths of existence.

There are four deeper states of Buddhist meditation called the immaterial attainments; sometimes these are referred to as Jhānas, but the word Jhāna is never used to describe them in the oldest Buddhist texts.

In East Asia, several schools of Buddhism were founded that focused on dhyāna, under the names Chan, Zen, and Seon. According to tradition, Bodhidharma brought Dhyāna to the Shaolin temple in China, where it came to be transliterated as "chan" ("seon" in Korea, and then "zen" in Japan).

Jhānas are normally described by the way of the mental factors which are present in these states

1. Movement of the mind onto the object, Vitakka (Sanskrit: Vitarka)
2. Retention of the mind on the object, Vicāra
3. Joy, Pīti (Sanskrit: Prīti)
4. Happiness, Sukha
5. One-pointedness, Ekaggatā (Sanskrit: Ekāgratā)
6. Equanimity, Upekkhā (Sanskrit: Upekṣā)

• First Jhāna : Vitakka, Vicāra, Pīti, Sukha, Ekaggatā

The five hinderances have completely disappeared and intense unified bliss remains. Only the subtlest of mental movement remains - perceiveable only by those who have entered the second Jhāna.

• Second Jhāna : Pīti, Sukha, Ekaggatā

All mental movement utterly ceases. There is only bliss.

• Third Jhāna : Sukha, Ekaggatā

One half of bliss disappears (joy).

• Fourth Jhāna : Upekkhā, Ekaggatā

The other half of bliss (happiness) disappears, leading to a state with neither pleasure nor pain, which the Buddha said is actually a subtle form of happiness (more sublime than pīti and sukha). The Buddha described the Jhānas as "the footsteps of the tathāgata".

Traditionally, this fourth Jhāna is seen as the beginning of attaining psychic powers.^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}

Dhyāna in Hinduism

See Dhyana in Hinduism.

See also

• Rupajhana
• Arupajhana
• Samadhi
• Bhavana
• Muraqaba

External links

• [Explanations of jhana by Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan]
• [Digital Dictionary of Buddhism] (log in with userID "guest")
• The Buddha's [descriptions of the first four states of dhyana] in the Pali Canon (Anguttara Nikaya V.28)
• [Jhana, the Joyful Home of the Way] by the contemplative recluse monk Sotapanna Jhanananda (Jeffrey S, Brooks)
• [Dhammakaya Meditation]

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