Wisdom Wide and Deep: A Practical Handbook for Mastering Jhana and Vipassana

Once we have completely calmed the mind—stopped thinking and reacting—then we can step over the threshold into our inner being, where everybody really belongs. What we experience at that moment of entry is utter delight. That is an indication that we are in the first jhana. Immediately after feeling this utter delight, the first reaction of the min... See more

Three Wisdom Tools To take this journey inward, we’re going to engage the three prajnas, or “wisdom tools,” of hearing, contemplating, and meditating.6 Hearing, or reading, about something leads to contemplating upon it, which leads to meditating on it. By reading and thinking about this material, you will be engaging the first two wisdom tools. In

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After we have experienced the first jhana, we have to do three things before we open our eyes. First is to recapitulate how we got there, because people have individual ways of doing it. Some get there through lovingkindness meditation, some through watching the breath, some through “sweeping,” or other methods. The second thing we have to do befor... See more