Astral Codex Ten

jhāna

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jhāna

Article

jhāna is a recurring concept in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 3 times across 3 issues between October 29, 2021 and July 16, 2024. The archive places it in contexts such as “a bhikkhu enters and dwells in the first jhāna”; “suppression of sensory desire a precondition for jhāna?”; “The jhāna states seem to indicate that after considerable training in maintaining self-reflection”. It most often appears alongside fMRI, jhanas, Scott.

Metadata

  • Category: Concepts
  • Mention count: 3
  • Issue count: 3
  • First seen: October 29, 2021
  • Last seen: July 16, 2024

Appears In

Source Context

Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.

Jhanas and the Dark Room Problem
October 29, 2021 · Original source
I find this to be an elegant explanation of what the heck is going on with jhanas, more convincing than my previous theory. It’s also a strong contender as a theory of beauty - a little different in emphasis from Schmidhuber’s theory, but eventually arriving at the same place: beauty is that which is compressible but has not already been compressed.
Inline links: my previous theory, Schmidhuber’s theory
Secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, a bhikkhu enters and dwells in the first jhāna, which is accompanied by thought and examination, with rapture and happiness born of seclusion (Samyutta Nikaya)
Highlights From The Comments On Jhanas
October 31, 2022 · Original source
[Original post here]
Inline links: here
[Original post here] I. Is Jhana Real? This was a fun one. I think it’s the first time half the commenters accused the other half of lying.
Inline links: here
Okay, “half” is an exaggeration. But by my count we had 21 people who claimed to have experienced jhanas (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21), and 7 who said they were pretty sure it wasn’t real as described (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7).
Inline links: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Consciousness As Recursive Reflections
July 16, 2024 · Original source
The jhāna states seem to indicate that after considerable training in maintaining self-reflection, the minimum number of simultaneous qualia can go down to one. In that case, the remaining one quale will appear to pervade everything. If you don’t have any, you’re unconscious.
Inline links: jhāna states
Advanced meditative states of extreme focus on a single conscious representation such as jhānas should exhibit even fewer, even larger mental oscillations.
Inline links: jhānas
After considerable training in maintaining self-reflection, jhāna states fill this capacity with (in the second jhāna as an example): Joy