The jhanas are a series of highly pleasurable altered states of concentration. They appear in both Buddhism and Hinduism (under different spelling), and appear similar to states described in other mystical traditions, including Christianity, Mormonism, and Islam. Depending on the context, they’re used for different purposes, ranging from a direct route Enlightenment to a warmup exercise for other meditation.

Newcomers to jhanas also frequently use it as a launchpad to explore other contemplative and ethical practices.

The jhanas are profoundly blissful and can have cascading positive effects, like a “mentality of abundance” that can make it easier to engage in values-aligned behavior. Practitioners often use hyperbolic terms, such as “life-changing,” “better than sex,” and “they completely absolved me of the notion that happiness comes from outside myself.” Preliminary brain images support these descriptions, suggesting jhana meditators have learned to turn on the pleasure centers in their brain without external stimuli. One of our favorite jhana practitioner quotes is “Why would I have a second piece of chocolate cake when I know I can beat that by 100x in 10 minutes with my eyes closed?”

New technology and new trends suggest teaching the jhanas at scale is newly tractable. Jhana practice used to be thought of as rare and limited to monastics, but in the last 5-10 years jhana practice has been rapidly growing — new books have been published, new teachers have become famous, and new communities of practice have popped up.

Early brain images have caught the attention of top universities — Harvard and McGill have new studies underway — and consumer-grade neuroimaging tools have gotten better and cheaper. Breakthroughs in machine learning have made possible more accurate interpretation of biosensor signals from e.g. EEG.

We don’t want to swap what the Buddhist’s call “right effort” for instant gratification. But “hard work” can also mask poor pedagogy and stagnant practice.

Access to the jhanas can have profound mental health benefits, increase motivation and ability for other forms of contemplative practice, and cascade into relationships and communities. We believe in helping people access these states in ways that are accessible, safe, and effective.

There’s a paradox in meditation between the method, which hinges upon “letting go” and the objective, which rests on a clear intent. In the same way that teachers correct practice via instruction, we hope our feedback will help users learn how to navigate this paradox more effectively, not less.

There is disagreement about what exactly constitutes a jhana, ranging from something available to any committed meditator to something that only one in a million people will experience in their lifetimes. We’re less interested in establishing a consensus definition, and more interested in a particular phenomenon: a growing group of people (we estimate a few thousand) appear to have learned to enter into extraordinarily pleasurable, non-addictive states that they often describe as “life-changing” with only a few dozen or a few hundred hours of practice. We don’t have an opinion on whether these should be called jhana-lite or not called jhana at all. We just want to make these states more accessible.

The number of jhanas vary on the context; we’re currently interested in the most accessible version of the first four jhanas (in many Buddhist contexts these are known as the Material or Form Jhanas) that people still regularly refer to as “life-changing.”

Language like “avoiding years of stagnant practice” can raise concerns of “spiritual bypassing” (the use contemplative practice to avoid unresolved psychological issues) and “spiritual materialism” (the never-ending chasing of peak states).

Our experience with the jhanas is that they’re much more of an opportunity for enhanced wellbeing than they are a risk for more suffering. But just like any tool, they can be used more or less skillfully. The jhanas don’t magically make one’s past psychological conditioning disappear, nor do they diminish the value of living with purpose and in community. Fortunately, jhana meditators often report the mental health benefits help them navigate these challenges more effectively.

Different traditions have different views on the role of jhanas in spiritual development. Some believe the jhanas should be ignored on the path to bigger and better things. Others think they’re essential.

Whether one side is Puritanically anti-pleasure and the other indulgent, we don’t feel qualified to say. All the meditators we know describe the jhanas as a tool rather than a completion to an ongoing journey of wellbeing.

Yes! Thus far our retreat satisfaction and jhana success rates are almost identical for online and in-person retreats. NPS of online retreats has been over 80%, and well over half of online participants experience jhana.

Online retreats offer an opportunity to create your ideal meditation environment, including location, practice schedule, and food. On the other hand, in-person retreats offer a feeling of community that can be hard to replicate online. Ultimately, we think the choice comes down to personal preference.

Traditionally, these states are taught on retreats where talking is discouraged. This type of sensory deprivation aids concentration, and is conducive to exploring new meditative states.

The more you reduce work commitments, email, and communication with people you live with, the more successful you’ll be on retreat.

As a caveat, we’re running a work-compatible retreat as an experiment. These guidelines apply to those weekend days. We’ll be providing guidance on how to maintain mindfulness during the work week.

This is *not* a standard silent meditation retreat — it’s compatible with your work week! However, it’s still an intensive.

You complete back-to-back weekend intensives, and meditate 3 hours/day throughout the week:

- Friday, Saturday, Sunday: 8+ hours per day, maintain retreat conditions

- Monday - Thursday: 1.5 hours of morning meditation before work, 1.5 hours of evening meditation just before bed

- Friday, Saturday, Sunday: 8+ hours per day, maintain retreat conditions

We’ve had participants join retreats from all over the world with successful retreat experiences!

Each online retreat will have scheduled video calls for lecture and instruction. Those will be recorded and posted asap so you can watch them as they fit your schedule.

However, you may doing the schedule a bit “offset” (eg. your weekend may start earlier than when we start the retreat).

Importantly, we will keep a wide window of interview timeslots to ensure you have live, 1:1 feedback with an instructor.

We ensure that our retreats have a few spots for scholarships. If finances are a blocker for you, let us know what in the interest form what price would make the retreat feasible while being a positive commitment, and we’ll see what we can do!

Our current retreat methods don’t involve any neurotech or biofeedback, but this may change over the coming months.