Hello! I'm a meditator who has been working on developing the ability to get into jhana reliably for about the last year and a half. While I have been able to hit the edges of it and gotten into first jhana (in the sense described in the book Right Concentration) on at least a dozen occasions, I don't have reliable access to it.
If you're concerned about evidence, there has already been some small amount of scientific study of the jhanas, and more research that is currently underway. For example, Leigh Brasington, the author of Right Concentration, had EEG and fMRI measurements taken while he went through the 8 jhanas, and you can read the paper here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23738149/
There are a few reasons why it is not more common:
1) While some people are able to get there in just a few months, that is fairly rare. You have to get to access concentration, which is a fairly deep state of concentration which for most people requires hours upon hours of sitting and practice.
2) It's possible to do it wrong and dig yourself into a whole. To reach jhana, you have to drop conceptualization. It's easy to think you're dropping conceptualization while instead piling on more layers. Trying to push to make something happen makes it not happen. Wanting to get into jhana (in the moment, in the wrong way) can stop jhana from arising.
3) Most people who teach mindfulness to the masses are not teaching the kind of meditation that leads to jhana. They are teaching one to remain aware, centered, in the moment, etc., which can help, but don't lead to jhana on their own. You have to develop single-pointed concentration in order to enter jhana, and most mindfulness teachers don't teach you how to do it. The techniques to enter jhana are usually only studied and practiced by the kinds of meditators who spend hundreds of hours per year in their sitting practice.
4) The route into jhana can be quite bumpy. You have to sit through hours and hours of boredom with nothing seeming to happen, and often physical discomfort in the body. Once you get past that, developing concentration often causes various psychological issues and traumas to arise--things that may be bugging an individual under the surface, but which they often push out of conscious awareness. It's actually an opportunity to face your emotional struggles and get some substantial level of healing with regard to the underlying problems, but it can be frightening, scary, and potentially destabilizing if too much comes up at once.
Hello! I'm a meditator who has been working on developing the ability to get into jhana reliably for about the last year and a half. While I have been able to hit the edges of it and gotten into first jhana (in the sense described in the book Right Concentration) on at least a dozen occasions, I don't have reliable access to it.
If you're concerned about evidence, there has already been some small amount of scientific study of the jhanas, and more research that is currently underway. For example, Leigh Brasington, the author of Right Concentration, had EEG and fMRI measurements taken while he went through the 8 jhanas, and you can read the paper here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23738149/
There are a few reasons why it is not more common:
1) While some people are able to get there in just a few months, that is fairly rare. You have to get to access concentration, which is a fairly deep state of concentration which for most people requires hours upon hours of sitting and practice.
2) It's possible to do it wrong and dig yourself into a whole. To reach jhana, you have to drop conceptualization. It's easy to think you're dropping conceptualization while instead piling on more layers. Trying to push to make something happen makes it not happen. Wanting to get into jhana (in the moment, in the wrong way) can stop jhana from arising.
3) Most people who teach mindfulness to the masses are not teaching the kind of meditation that leads to jhana. They are teaching one to remain aware, centered, in the moment, etc., which can help, but don't lead to jhana on their own. You have to develop single-pointed concentration in order to enter jhana, and most mindfulness teachers don't teach you how to do it. The techniques to enter jhana are usually only studied and practiced by the kinds of meditators who spend hundreds of hours per year in their sitting practice.
4) The route into jhana can be quite bumpy. You have to sit through hours and hours of boredom with nothing seeming to happen, and often physical discomfort in the body. Once you get past that, developing concentration often causes various psychological issues and traumas to arise--things that may be bugging an individual under the surface, but which they often push out of conscious awareness. It's actually an opportunity to face your emotional struggles and get some substantial level of healing with regard to the underlying problems, but it can be frightening, scary, and potentially destabilizing if too much comes up at once.