A long time ago, I made sure I could get into the first couple jhanas. And it was fizzy, exhilarating, even a little thrilling, but also in some sense really boring. Like it was sort of "contentless" and palpably "wasn't going to go anywhere," or something. Like it didn't really plug into my metaphysics, goals, or meaning. So I very consciously didn't bother to pursue it further. "Enlightenment," though, is a completely different ballgame, in my experience.
That said, learning to get into them is instructive (though not critically so, as best I can tell); there are some nice feedback loops and transferrable skills. And I could see them being a good investment for some people, modulo goals and opportunity cost.
The classical texts tend to push them as a prerequisite for enlightenment, I think, though debates as to whether they're really necessary have been going on for thousands of years. In my experience, they are not necessary.
A long time ago, I made sure I could get into the first couple jhanas. And it was fizzy, exhilarating, even a little thrilling, but also in some sense really boring. Like it was sort of "contentless" and palpably "wasn't going to go anywhere," or something. Like it didn't really plug into my metaphysics, goals, or meaning. So I very consciously didn't bother to pursue it further. "Enlightenment," though, is a completely different ballgame, in my experience.
That said, learning to get into them is instructive (though not critically so, as best I can tell); there are some nice feedback loops and transferrable skills. And I could see them being a good investment for some people, modulo goals and opportunity cost.
The classical texts tend to push them as a prerequisite for enlightenment, I think, though debates as to whether they're really necessary have been going on for thousands of years. In my experience, they are not necessary.