page_title: Buddhism
section_title: Four rupa-jhāna
hierarchical_section_title: Buddhism / Common Buddhist practices / Meditation – Samādhi and Dhyāna / Four rupa-jhāna
caption_attribution_description: English: Seated Buddha, Gal Viharaya, Polonnawura, Sri Lanka Français&#160;: Bouddha assis du Gal Viharaya, Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka
context_page_description: Buddhism is the world's fourth-largest religion with over 520 million followers, or over 7% of the global population, known as Buddhists.
  Buddhism encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and spiritual practices largely based on original teachings attributed to the Buddha and resulting interpreted philosophies. It originated in ancient India as a Sramana tradition sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE, spreading through much of Asia. Two major extant branches of Buddhism are generally recognized by scholars: Theravada and Mahayana.
  Most Buddhist traditions share the goal of overcoming suffering and the cycle of death and rebirth, either by the attainment of Nirvana or through the path of Buddhahood. Buddhist schools vary in their interpretation of the path to liberation, the relative importance and canonicity assigned to the various Buddhist texts, and their specific teachings and practices. Widely observed practices include taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha, observance of moral precepts, Buddhist monasticism, Buddhist meditation, and the cultivation of the Paramitas.
context_section_description: Buddhist texts teach various meditation schemas. One of the most prominent is that of the four rupa-jhānas (four meditations in the realm of form), which are "stages of progressively deepening concentration". According to Gethin, they are states of "perfect mindfulness, stillness and lucidity." They are described in the Pali Canon as trance-like states without desire. In the early texts, the Buddha is depicted as entering jhāna both before his awakening under the bodhi tree and also before his final nirvana (see: the Mahāsaccaka-sutta and the Mahāparinibbāṇa Sutta).
  The four rupa-jhānas are:
  First jhāna: the first dhyana can be entered when one is secluded from sensuality and unskillful qualities, due to withdrawal and right effort. There is pīti ("rapture") and non-sensual sukha ("pleasure") as the result of seclusion, while vitarka-vicara (thought and examination) continues.
  Second jhāna: there is pīti ("rapture") and non-sensual sukha ("pleasure") as the result of concentration (samadhi-ji, "born of samadhi"); ekaggata (unification of awareness) free from vitarka-vicara ("discursive thought"); sampasadana ("inner tranquility").
  Third jhāna: pīti drops away, there is upekkhā (equanimous; "affective detachment"), and one is mindful, alert, and senses pleasure (sukha) with the body;
  Fourth jhāna: a stage of "pure equanimity and mindfulness" (upekkhāsatipārisuddhi), without any pleasure or pain, happiness or sadness.
  There is a wide variety of scholarly opinions (both from modern scholars and from traditional Buddhists) on the interpretation of these meditative states as well as varying opinions on how to practice them.
caption: Seated Buddha, Gal Viharaya, Polonnawura, Sri Lanka.
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