The Attainment of the Second Jhāna
The formula for the attainment of the second jhāna runs as follows:
With the subsiding of applied thought and sustained thought he enters and dwells in the second jhāna, which has internal confidence and unification of mind, is without applied thought and sustained thought, and is filled with rapture and happiness born of concentration.1 (Wr. tr.).
As we saw, the first jhāna is to be attained by eliminating the factors to be abandoned and by developing the factors of possession. In the case of this first jhāna the factors to be abandoned are the five hindrances – sensual desire, ill will, sloth and torpor, restlessness and worry, and doubt. The factors of possession are the five jhāna factors – applied thought, sustained thought, rapture, happiness, and one-pointedness. The attainment of the second jhāna repeats this same basic pattern, only raising it to a different and higher level. At this level the factors to be abandoned are the two initial factors of the first jhāna itself – applied thought (vitakka) and sustained thought (vicāra), the factors of possession are the three remaining jhāna factors – rapture (pīti), happiness (sukha), and one-pointedness (ekaggatā). Hence the formula begins “with the subsiding of applied thought and sustained thought,” and then goes into the jhāna’s positive endowments.
1. “Vitakka vicārānaJ vūpasamā ajjhattaJ sampasādanaJ cetaso ekodibhāvaJ avitakkaJ avicāraJ samādhijaJ pītisukhaJ dutiyajjhānaJ upasampajja viharati.” DN. 1:74.
Before he can enter upon the practice for reaching the second jhāna, the meditator must first become thoroughly familiar with the first jhāna and perfect it through the five kinds of mastery – mastery in adverting, in resolving, in entering, in emerging, and in reviewing. Then, after achieving such mastery, he enters the first jhāna, emerges from it, and begins contemplating its defective features. These defects, according to the Visuddhimagga, are two: first the attainment is threatened by the nearness of the hindrances, and second, its factors are weakened by the grossness of applied and sustained thought.1 The former we might call the defect of proximate corruption, the latter the inherent defect. Though the first jhāna is secluded from the hindrances, it is only a step removed from the non-jhānic consciousness and thus provides only a mild protection from the hindrances. If the yogin is not mindful his contacts with sense objects can incite the defilements and thereby bring the hindrances into activity once again. Pleasant objects tend to stimulate the hindrance of desire, unpleasant ones to stimulate ill will, all five hindrances tend to break out from the deep flow of the subconscious held in check only by the rudimentary force of concentration found in the first jhāna. To ensure himself of further protection from the hindrances the meditator realizes that a deeper level of absorption would be helpful. Thus he aspires to reach the second jhāna which is at a further remove from the hindrances.
The inherent defect of the first jhāna is its inclusion of vitakka and vicāra. When striving for the first jhāna these appeared to the yogin to be helpers in the struggle against the hindrances, vitakka directing the mind onto the object, vicāra anchoring it there preventing it from drifting away. But after mastering the first jhāna the meditator comes to see that vitakka and vicāra are relatively gross. They are gross in themselves, and also by reason of their grossness, they weaken the other factors. The rapture, happiness, and one-pointedness associated with applied and sustained thought, he sees, are not as powerful and peaceful as they would be if they were freed from applied and sustained thought. Hence he regards vitakka and vicāra as impediments needing to be eliminated. As the Buddha explains in the Po::hapada Sutta2, what the meditator previously perceived as subtle and actual subsequently appears to him to be gross and harmful. Then he eliminates it by attaining a higher jhāna.
The meditator thus comprehends that in spite of his mastery of the first jhāna, his progress is not fully satisfactory; the first jhāna – the cherished object of his early striving – itself turns out to be defective, corrupted by the proximity of the hindrances and by the grossness of its factors. He then calls to mind his theoretical knowledge of the second jhāna. He reflects that the second jhāna is free from vitakka and vicāra, that it is therefore more tranquil, subtle, and sublime than the first jhāna. While vitakka and vicāra appear gross, rapture, happiness, and one-pointedness appear peaceful. By so reflecting the meditator ends his attachment to the first jhāna and engages in renewed striving with the aim of reaching the second jhāna.
1. PP., p. 161. Vism., p. 125.
2. DN. l:178-203.
The meditator applies his mind to his meditation subject – a kasi5a or the breath – repeatedly concentrating on it with the intention of overcoming applied thought and sustained thought. When his practice is sufficiently matured the second jhāna arises equipped with its three factors – rapture, happiness, and one-pointedness.
The thought process (cittavīthi) by which the second jhāna is attained is similar to that for the first jhāna. The process can be represented by the following diagram:
A B
_______________ _______________________________
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
… … … … bh l ch m p u a g jh bh bh bh bh bh bh bh bh The Second Jhāna Thought Process
Here the top line A represents the past moments of consciousness preceding the jhānic process and B the moments that follow the second jhāna, when the mind returns to its passive bhava/ga state. Here bh=bhava/ga; l=vibration (bhava/ga calana); ch=break off (bhava/ga upaccheda); m=mind-door adverting (manodvārāvajjana); p=moment of preliminary work (parikamma); u=moment of access (upacāra); a=moment of conformity (anuloma); g=moment of change-of-lineage (gotrabhū); and jh=second jhāna. Again, in the case of a quick-witted meditator, the moment of preliminary work (parikamma) is not found for the reason that he can bypass it and go directly to access.1 From this diagram it is seen that the cognitive process issuing in the second jhāna centers on four preliminary moments plus the moment of the jhāna. These four moments gain the general designation “access concentration” (upacāra samādhi), though technically speaking only one is singled out as the moment of access. An important difference obtains between these access moments leading into the second jhāna and the moment of jhāna itself. Whereas the second jhāna moment is free from vitakka and vicāra, the latter are still present in all four preliminary moments. Only in the moment of absorption concentration of the second jhāna are vitakka and vicāra totally eliminated.
After stating that the yogin enters and abides in the second jhāna through the subsiding of applied and sustained thought (vitakka-vicārāna. vūpasamā), later in the descriptive formula the Buddha says that the second jhāna is “without applied thought and sustained thought” (avitakka. avicāra.). This phrase appears at first sight to be an unnecessary repetition of the first, but the Visuddhimagga defends this choice of wording, showing that the second phrase is not redundant but fulfills a different function. The commentator points out that the opening phrase is stated, firstly, in order to show directly that the second jhāna is attained through the surmounting of the gross factors of the first jhāna; secondly, that the internal confidence and unification of mind, mentioned immediately afterwards, come about with the act of stilling applied and sustained thought, and thirdly, that this jhāna is without applied and sustained thought,
1. The diagrams for the third and fourth jhānas also are similar to this with the exception that the jh signifies the third and fourth jhāna as the case may be. See Nārada, Manual., pp. 216-18.
not through their bare absence as in the higher jhānas or in elementary sense consciousness, but through their actual stilling. But the first phrase does not state blankly that the second jhāna is devoid of applied and sustained thought. To make this latter meaning explicit a separate phrase is needed; hence the words “without applied thought and sustained thought.”1
Because the second jhāna is free from vitakka and vicāra it is called the “noble silence.”
Once when the Venerable Moggallāna was meditating in seclusion he wondered “What is it that we call ‘noble silence’ (ariyo tunhībhāvo)”? Then it occured to him:
When with the subsiding of applied thought and sustained thought a bhikkhu enters and abides in the second jhāna, which has internal confidence and unification of mind, is without applied thought and sustained thought, and is filled with rapture and happiness born of concentration, then this is what we call noble silence.2 (Wr. tr.).
Vitakka and vicāra are as we saw, conditions causing vocal activity (vacīsa/khāra). As the CūXavedalla Sutta says: “Having first had applied thought and sustained thought one subsequently breaks out into speech; therefore applied and sustained thought are activity of speech.”3 When vitakka and vicāra, the springs of verbal activity, come to a stop inner mental verbalization also comes to a stop, replaced by a profound inward silence of the mind. Since this stilling of vitakka and vicāra occurs at the level of the second jhāna, the jhāna acquires the name “noble silence.”
Internal Confidence (ajjhatta+ sampasādana+)
With the subsiding of applied and sustained thought the mind of the meditator gains internal confidence (ajjhatta. sampasādana.). The term sampasādana, which we translate as “confidence”, signifies the factor of faith (saddhā). As it is said in the VibhaKga: “‘Confidence’: faith, the placing of faith, trust, conviction.”4 Since faith, according to the Abhidhamma, is present in every wholesome state of consciousness, it must also be present in the first jhāna. However, in the first jhāna the meditator’s faith is not well established due to the presence of vitakka and vicāra, which produce thought waves obstructing the emergence of full clarity and serenity. Thus because this faith lacks full clarity and serenity it is not called “confidence”. The Visuddhimagga explains:
1. PP., pp. 163-64. Vism., p. 130.
2. “Idha mayhaJ āvuso rahogatassa patisallīnassa evaJ cetaso parivitakko udapādi. Ariyo tuLhībhāvo ariyo tuLhībhāvoti vuccati, katamo nu kho ariyo tuLhībhāvo? Tassa mayhaJ āvuso etadahosi: ‘Idha bhikkhave bhikkhu vitakkavicārānaJ vūpasamā ajjhattaJ sampasādanaJ cetaso ekodibhāvaJ avitakkaJ avicāraJ samādhijaJ pīti sukhaJ dutiyaJ jhānaJ upasampajja viharati. AyaJ vuccati ariyo tuLhībhāvo’ti.” SN. 2:273.
3. MN. 1:301.
4. Vibh., p. 268.
The first jhāna is not fully confident owing to the disturbance created by applied and sustained thought, like water ruffled by ripples and wavelets. That is why, although faith does exist in it, it is not called ‘confidence’.1
When vitakka and vicāra are made to subside the mind of the meditator becomes very clear and peaceful. Then his faith takes on the quality of “full internal confidence.” To indicate this maturation of faith through the stilling of vitakka and vicāra, “internal confidence” is mentioned in the description of the second jhāna but not in that of the first.
Faith (saddhā) or confidence (pasāda) is a necessary factor in the development of the Buddhist spiritual path and a very important aid to the progress of meditation. In the suttas confidence is seen to arise in three crucial stages – first at the time of listening to the Dhamma, second with the attainment of the second jhāna, and third with the attainment of stream-entry (sotāpatti). In each case confidence arises only when the mind is settled and free from wavering.
The first stage of faith is illustrated by the stock canonical passage: “A householder or a householder’s son or one born in another family hears that Dhamma. Having heard that Dhamma he gains faith in the Tathāgata.”2 The faith gained by hearing the Dhamma of the Tathāgata functions as the germ for all higher achievements. It leads to the going forth into the monastic life, the training in morality, concentration, and wisdom, and the achievement of the jhānas and stages of deliverance. Thus the Buddha says that “faith is the seed” (saddhā bīja.).3 The Dhammasa/ga5i A((hakathā calls faith the “forerunner”
(pubbangamā) and “precursor” (purecārikā): “So faith is the forerunner, the precursor to one who is giving gifts, observing the precepts, performing sabbath duties and commencing culture.”4
The faith that emerges in the second jhāna is indicated by the term “internal confidence”
(ajjhatta. sampasādana.). The word sampasādana has two connotations: one is faith in the sense of belief, trust, or conviction; the other is tranquility and serenity. We find the first indicated in the AKguttara Nikāya, where it is said: “I myself, lord, from this day forth whatever faith I had in those fools the unclothed – I winnow it away in a strong wind, or I let it be carried away by a swiftly flowing river.”5 The second is intended in the following statement of the Dīgha Nikāya: “And seeing the tranquility of the gods of the community of the thirty-three he expressed his pleasure in these verses.”6 Both these
1. PP., p. 163. “Pa:hamajjhānaJ vitakkavicārakkhobhena, vicitarangasamākulaJ iva jalaJ, na suppasannaJ hoti, tasmā satiyā pi saddhāya sampasādanaJ ti na vuttaJ.” Vism., pp. 126-27.
2. MLS. 1:224. MN. 1:179.
3. SN. 5:77.
4. Expositor, 1:l58. “EvaJ eva dānaJ dadato sīlaJ rakkhato uposathakammaJ karoto bhāvanaJ ārabhato saddhā pubbaJgamā purecārikā hoti.” Dhs.A., p. 163.
5. GS. 2:211. “EsāhaJ bhante ajjatagge yo me bālesu nigaL:hesu sampasādo taJ mahāvāte vā opuLāmi, nadiyā vā sīghasotāya pavāhemi.” AN. 2:l99.
6. Dial. 2:21l.
meanings are relevant to the second jhāna. On the one hand the meditator gains stronger confidence in the Triple Gem as the truth begins to dawn upon him through his practice;
on the other, because of this confidence, he gains serenity or tranquility. Hence the Dhammasa/ga5i A((hakathā points out: “Faith is said to be tranquility. Through connection with it, the jhāna is also said to be tranquilizing, as a cloth when steeped in indigo is called indigo.”1 The close relation between faith and mental clarity is demonstrated by the Dhammasa/ga5i A((hakathā’s explanation of the faculty of faith (saddhindriya):
It [faith] has purifying, or aspiring as its characteristic. As the water-purifying gem of the universal monarch thrown into water causes solids, alluvia, waterweeds and mud to subside and makes the water clear, transparent and undisturbed, so faith arising discards the hindrances, causes the corruptions to subside, purifies the mind and makes it undisturbed.2
These two characteristics of trust and tranquility come to prominence with the elimination of vitakka and vicāra in the second jhāna.
The third stage of faith is the confidence arisen with the achievement of stream entry.
This faith is qualified as “confidence born of understanding” (aveccappasāda) or
“rational faith” (ākāravatī saddhā) because it develops through direct insight into the Four Noble Truths: “He sees the Noble Truths with understanding.”3 (Wr. tr.). The Buddha explains the third degree of faith as follows:
Monks, in anyone in whom faith in the Tathāgata is established, rooted, supported by these methods, by these sentences, by these words, that faith is called reasoned, based on vision strong; it is indestructible by a recluse or a brahman, or devas or Māras or Brahmā or anyone in the world.4
Unification of Mind (cetaso ekodibhāva+)
To explicate the meaning of the phrase “unification of mind” (cetaso ekodibhāva.), the VibhaKga merely offers the standard Abhidhamma definition of one-pointedness as found in the DhammasaKgaLi:
1. Expositor, 1:255. “SampasādanaJ vuccati saddhā. Sampasādanayogato jhānaJpi sampasādanaJ.
NīlavaLLayogato nīlavatthaJ viya.” Dhs.A., p. 213.
2. Expositor, 1:157. “Sā panesā sampasādanalakkhaLā ca saddhā, sampakkhandana lakkhaLā ca. Yathā hi rañño cakkavattissa udakapasādako maLi udake pakkhitto paKkasevālapanakakaddamaJ sannisidāpeti;
udakaJ acchaJ karoti vippasannaJ anāvilaJ evameva saddhā uppajjamānā nīvaraLe vikkhambheti kilese sannisīdāpeti cittaJ pasādeti anāvilaJ karoti.” Dhs.A., p. 162.
3. “Yo ariya saccāni avecca passati.” Dines Anderson and Helmer Smith, eds., Sutta-Nipatta, New ed.
(Pali Text Society [Publication Series] Vol. 72. 1913; reprint, London: Luzac & Co., 1965), v. 229.
4. MLS. 1:382. “Yassakassaci bhikkhave imehi ākārehi imehi padehi imehi byañjanehi Tathāgate saddhā nivi::hā hoti mūlajātā pati::hitā, ayaJ vuccati bhikkhave ākāravati saddhā dassana mūlikā, daXhā, asaJhāriyā samaLena vā, brāhmaLena vā, devena vā, mārena vā BrahmuLā vā kenaci vā lokasmiJ.” MN.
1:320.
The stability, solidity, absorbed steadfastness of thought which on that occasion is the absence of distraction, balance, imperturbed mental procedure, quiet, the faculty and the power of concentration, right concentration.1
This makes unification of mind synonymous with one-pointedness and concentration.
Though one-pointedness is present already as a factor of the first jhāna, it only gains special mention in the formula for the second jhāna since it is in this jhāna that concentration first acquires eminence. The concentration of the first jhāna, being subject to the disturbing influence of applied thought and sustained thought, is still imperfect. In the second jhāna, however, where these gross factors have been suppressed and the mind is purified by inner confidence, one-pointedness becomes stronger and more stable. The Visuddhimagga explains the eminence of this mental unification in its etymological account of the term:
Here is the construction or the meaning in that case. Unique (eka) it comes up (udeti), thus it is single (ekodi); the meaning is, it comes up as the superlative, the best, because it is not overtopped by applied and sustained thought, for the best is called ‘unique’ in the world. Or it is permissible to say that when deprived of applied and sustained thought it is unique, without companion. Or alternatively: it evokes (udayati) associated states, thus it is an evoker (udi);
the meaning is, it arouses. And that is unique (eka) in the sense of best, and it is an evoker (udi), thus it is a unique evoker (ekodi=single). This is a term for concentration.2
Concentration (samādhi)
This jhāna, or the rapture and happiness of this jhāna, are said to be “born of concentration” (samādhija.). The concentration that gives birth to this jhāna can be understood in two ways – either as the earlier stages of concentration leading up to the second jhāna or as the concentration immediately associated with the second jhāna itself.3 To reach the second jhāna the meditator had to pass through three earlier degrees of concentration – the preliminary concentration of his initial endeavor, access concentration, and the absorption concentration of the first jhāna. All three of these stages can be seen as the concentration giving birth to the second jhāna. Alternatively, the concentration giving birth to the jhāna can be identified with the one-pointedness contained in the second jhāna itself. As in the case of the phrase “unification of mind,”
special emphasis is placed on this concentration to show its secure establishment following upon the cessation of applied and sustained thought. Vitakka and vicāra hinder advanced concentration because they activate discursive thinking, which disrupts one-pointedness. The Visuddhimagga points out, in regard to the concentration of the
1. See Ch. IV, p. 144.
2. PP., pp. 162-63. “TatrāyaJ atthayojanā. Eko udetī ti ekodi; vitakkavicārehi anajjhārūXhattā aggo se::ho hutvā udetī ti attho. Se::ho pi hi loke eko ti vuccati. Vitakkavicāravirahito vā eko asahāyo hutvā iti pi vuttaJ va::ati. Atha vā, sampayuttadhamme udayatī ti udi; u::hapeti ti attho. Se::ha::hena eko ca so udi cā ti ekodi; samādhiss’etaJ adhivacanaJ.” Vism., p. 126.
3. Ibid., p. 105.
second jhāna, that “it is only this concentration that is quite worthy to be called
‘concentration’ because of its complete confidence and extreme immobility due to absence of disturbance by applied and sustained thought.”1
Rapture and Happiness (pītisukha4)
Rapture and happiness in the first jhāna, as we saw, are described as born of seclusion (vivekaja. pītisukha.). In contrast, the rapture and happiness of the second jhāna are said to be born of concentration (samādhija. pītisukha.). The pre-jhānic condition for the arising of rapture and happiness in the first jhāna is seclusion, which means the suppression of the five hindrances in access concentration. The preliminary condition for the arising of rapture and happiness in the second jhāna is the concentration of the first jhāna. Thus when rapture and happiness are said to be “born of concentration,” this can be taken to indicate that their source is the first jhāna concentration. However, the phrase can also be understood to mean that they are born from the concomitant concentration of the second jhāna, as the Visuddhimagga allows.
Because they are not weakened by the gross factors of applied and sustained thought, the rapture and happiness of the second jhāna are more peaceful and profound than those of the first. In the Dīgha-Nikāya the Buddha explains how the rapture and happiness experienced by the meditator in the second jhāna pervade his being so thoroughly that there is no single part of his body that is not affected by them:
And his very body does he so pervade, drench, permeate, and suffuse with rapture and happiness born of concentration, that there is not a spot in his whole frame not suffused therewith. Just, O king, as if there were a deep pool with water welling up into it from a spring beneath, and with no inlet from the east or west, from the north or south, and it does not rain from time to time, still the current of cool waters rising up from that spring would pervade, fill, permeate, and suffuse the pool with cool waters, and there would be no part or portion of the pool unsuffused therewith.2
General Remarks on the Second Jhāna
As the first jhāna has five factors, the second jhāna has three – rapture (pīti), happiness (sukha), and one-pointedness (ekaggatā). The two factors present in the first jhāna but absent in the second are the two gross elements which have been made to subside –
1. PP., p. 164. “Atha kho ayaJ eva samādhi samādhīti vattabbatam arahati, vitakkavicārakkhobhavirahena ativiya acalattā suppasannattā ca.” Vism., p. 127.
2. Dial. 1:85. “So imaJ eva kāyaJ samādhijena pītisukhena abhisandeti parisandeti paripūreti parippharati nāssa kiñci sabbāvati kāyassa samādhijena pīti-sukhena apphu:aJ hoti. Seyyāthapi mahārāja udakarahado ubbhidodako tassa n’eva assa puratthimāya disāya udakassa āyamukhaJ na pacchimāya disāya udakassa āyamukhaJ, na uttarāya disāya udakassa āyamukhaJ na dakkhiLāya disāya udakassa āyamukhaJ devo ca kālena kālaJ sammā dhāraJ anupaveccheyya. Atha kho tamhā udakarahadā sitā vāri dhāra ubbhijjitvā taJ-eva udakarahadaJ sītena vārinā abhisandeyya parisandeyya paripūreyya paripphareyya nāssa kiñci sabbāvato udaka rahadassa sītena vārinā apphu:aJ assa. EvaJ eva kho mahārāja bhikkhu imaJ eva kāyaJ samādhijena pītisukhena abhisandeti parisandeti paripūreti parippharati nāssa kiñci sabbāvato kāyassa samādhijena pītisukhena apphu:aJ hoti.” DN. 1:74-75.