Jhāna — a series of deep meditative absorption states — is oddly contentious in Buddhism. Odd because Buddhist scriptures clearly emphasize the importance of jhāna, yet debate persists about its role in meditation for spiritual growth. In the Eightfold Path, Right Concentration is defined by the four jhānas. The Buddha often stated, “There is no jhāna for him who lacks insight, and no insight for him who lacks jhāna.” These states repeatedly appear in the Pāli scriptures and subtly in teachings like the Seven Bojjhaṅgas and the Ānāpānasati Sutta.
Despite this, figures like Thich Nhat Hanh have argued that jhāna practices were rejected by the Buddha and inserted into sutras posthumously. These meditative states, including the Four Form Jhānas and the Four Formless Jhānas, were techniques the Buddha was taught by Ālāra Kālāma and Uddaka Rāmaputta but supposedly dismissed as they did not lead to liberation from suffering.
A closer look reveals misconceptions about the relationship between “formless jhānas” (better termed “formless spheres” or āyatanas) and “jhānas of form.” Contrary to common belief, the Buddha never mentions learning or practicing the jhānas with Ālāra and Uddaka. Instead, he speaks of the “sphere of nothingness” learned from Ālāra and the “sphere of neither perception nor non-perception” from Uddaka, indicating these teachers did not instruct him in the four jhānas.
Some Buddhists correct that Ālāra and Uddaka taught the Buddha the latter āyatanas (spheres) because these are sometimes erroneously considered the seventh and eighth jhānas in later commentaries, though the suttas distinctly separate these as different practices.
In praxis, meditators, including myself, have realized that one can experience the āyatanas without first traversing the jhānas, contradicting traditional yet unsupported assumptions. Various sutras describe achieving āyatanas directly through meditations like the six-element practice and divine abidings, indicating multiple pathways to these states beyond the jhānas.
Before his enlightenment, the Buddha recalled experiencing the first jhāna under a rose-apple tree in childhood, discerning it as the “path to Awakening.” This realization is significant because, under Ālāra and Uddaka, he attained higher āyatanas without prior experience of the jhānas, underscoring that the conventional pathway to awakening might be misunderstood.
The processes of jhāna and āyatana differ considerably. Jhāna involves gradual focus narrowing, eliminating initial thoughts, bodily pleasure, then joy, leading to one-pointed tranquility. Conversely, entering the āyatanas broadens awareness, balancing internal and external sensations until distinctions like “inside” and “outside” dissolve, resulting in a unified field of awareness.
Equanimity is a shared requisite for both jhānas and āyatanas: the former culminate in equanimity, while certain practices like the divine abidings and six-element meditation foster direct āyatana experiences.
The Buddha intuitively understood that jhāna was more conducive to liberation despite his mastery of the āyatanas. Whereas āyatanas may align with a pre-Buddhist religious view of self merging with the cosmos, jhāna’s detailed awareness allows a practitioner to see personal experiences’ impermanence and the non-self nature, essential for true awakening.
In conclusion, jhāna and āyatana should not be conflated nor seen as mutually exclusive from insight (vipassanā). They embody synergistic, complementary practices. Discerning the Buddha’s teachings shows a radical shift from cosmic unity towards internal observation for spiritual liberation, deemphasizing cosmic speculation in favor of self-examination and insight.