First Jhana...a description

[Son]

DOES ANYONE HERE HAVE EXPERIENCE OF THE FIRST JHANA?

If so, could you please be so graceful as to share it with us? I've been attempting to attain it and have only reached the approximate-jhana.

And how did you reach the 'approximate jhana'? By abandoning the hindrances. So rather than worrying about not having 'attained' jhana yet, just keep patiently putting forth the causes that will eventually issue it forth. In other words, the positive qualities of mind that specifically overcome and subdue the hindrances. I see it as a game of cause-and-effect. You keep putting forth the causes, and when the time is right, there arises the effect. It can actually be fun (so long as you take it seriously and with the proper respect it is due). Mindfulness searches out the mind for any one of the hindrances. You see which one is most prominent, and apply the specific remedy, wiping it out. I won't say it's easy, rather it's the most challenging thing I've ever attempted!...but it's still fun, (well, sometimes) just as I imagine mountain climbing is also fun, despite requiring immense effort and the tolerance of a measure of pain, initially. (I don't know if any of that made much sense to anyone, but I hope it did).

As I said, I think quite a few of us have tasted the first jhana and don't recognize it, due to expecting bright light or god knows what. Let's forget all those presuppositions, and rather ask: Were the hindrances totally absent? Was the mind under control, calm, clear? Was there piti-sukha spreading through you / your body / whatever-you want-to-call-kaya? Was it a pleasure superior to sexual pleasure? If so, how do you know that wasn't actually jhana, but only dipped in to, but not as yet remained in? Maybe it just 'needs a bit of work',..

Just keep working on abandoning the hindrances, then, at the right time, one thing leads to another...imhe...

I haven't ever expected any such things. Yet I'm sure I have not attained jhana.
What I was asking for is for anyone who has to share the experience. Not to correct my own fantasy of it. It simply takes time and effort to reach that point. Hopefully, no one here is searching for a fantasy of jhana to try to "reach," like a mystic seeking union with a deity.

It's a simple request.

[manas]

A clarification that some might find useful (or not).

I had heard some persons say that jhanic (or near-jhanic) piti-sukha is 'better than sex pleasure' and I kind of wish I hadn't heard them say that, because it set up a misconception in me, that persisted for years and hindered my development.

Because orgasm is the topmost physical pleasure most people have experienced, when someone is told there might be something better than that, their mind will construct something quite inaccurate, imagining that 'ok, so if orgasm is this much, then piti-sukha must be that much!'. But in my experience, piti-sukha isn't the same type of pleasure. It's said to be 'vivekajam' - 'born of seclusion'. Not like 1,000 volts blasting through your loins as in orgasm, but rather, a gentle, sweet, spreading sense of ease and happiness (through your entire body) that although not as 'strong' as sex, you would never trade for it. Like the difference between a great meal (sex), and a warm, kind embrace that makes you feel truly loved (piti-sukha). Yeah piti-sukha is superior, but ime, not in the way we might have been led to believe...

metta.

[Son]

A clarification that some might find useful (or not).

I had heard some persons say that jhanic (or near-jhanic) piti-sukha is 'better than sex pleasure' and I kind of wish I hadn't heard them say that, because it set up a misconception in me, that persisted for years and hindered my development.

Because orgasm is the topmost physical pleasure most people have experienced, when someone is told there might be something better than that, their mind will construct something quite inaccurate, imagining that 'ok, so if orgasm is this much, then piti-sukha must be that much!'. But in my experience, piti-sukha isn't the same type of pleasure. It's said to be 'vivekajam' - 'born of seclusion'. Not like 1,000 volts blasting through your loins as in orgasm, but rather, a gentle, sweet, spreading sense of ease and happiness that although not as intense as sex, you would never trade for it. Like the difference between a great meal (sex), and a warm, kind embrace that makes you feel truly loved (piti-sukha). Yeah piti-sukha is superior, but ime, not in the way we might have been led to believe...

metta.

In the near-jhana, you can easily understand what they mean. It's false to say that it is "better" than sexual pleasure. It is just that the pleasure experienced is not at all limited like sexual pleasure is, and so you are able to enjoy it so much more. So I expect, that once you exceed from near-jhana and actually attain the one-pointedness of jhana, it is likened to sexual peak, in the orgasmic sense.