Four Dhyana and Eight Samadhi

Four Dhyana and Eight Samadhi
May /6/ 2023—May / 7/ 2023

Hello everyone, welcome to our Dharma talk at Dharma Rain Meditation Center.

The Shurangama Sutra says: Controlling your heart as the precepts, reaching the Samadhi due to the precepts and getting the wisdom because of Samadhi. We call it Three Non-Outflow studies. Since last month, we have begun to discuss and study the three Non-Outflow studies, precepts, Samadhi and wisdom. I believe we have already understood the origin and importance of “precepts”. Three Non-Outflow studies conclude the Eightfold Path: The right speech, right livelihood, proper conduct is precept studying, right effort, right mindfulness, right Samadhi are the samadhi learning, right view and right resolve are wisdom learning.

What is the precepts? There is nothing more than self-discipline, by eliminating the improper thoughts in our heart, which we have already discussed, we have to work hard in the precepts, Taking the heart has no improper thoughts as the original study, taking the anatta as the right conduct, keep your pure heart steady, gradually the self-nature will show up.

What is Samadhi? There are seven nouns in Sanskrit that are translated by the Chinese as “定”. There are subtle differences between them. These seven nouns are Samadhi, Samapati, Samahita, Dhyāna, Samatha, Dadharma-sukhavihra and Citta-eka-agrat etc.

Indian Buddhism believes that as long as the mind is not scattered, one can be called Sancha. In all three realms, Buddhism attaches particular importance to four kinds of Dhyanas that are equally important for wisdom and Samadhi. It is also called Zen samadhi. The Buddha often says that the Samadhi which means right Samadhi. How can we attain the right Samadhi? We should keep no thoughts from our heart. The Diamond Sutra said: “If you have enough faith and clear heart, you will see the truth.” The truth is remaining undisturbed, is Samadhi. If there is a tiny thought from your mind, it creates so many ignorance and afflictions; then your heart can not be balanced. Therefore, we call it right Samadhi when there is no thought in the heart. When we attain that, all the wisdom will show up naturally. The cultivation needs samadhi power that keeps us far away from temptation from evil, everything in our daily life also.

The rich cannot be kinky; the impoverished cannot be moved, the mighty cannot be bent, great people need samadhi power. Understand the theory above, would be easy for us to understand what wisdom is? My heart has wisdom originally. Our self-nature equals Buddha’s nature which is magical and incredible. Just because we saw the false as truth, did not realize the four elements are an illusion, we covered our self-nature. If we can understand the anatman, we will see no phase, then when the body is empty, all wisdom, and nature are present naturally. That’s the reason we say that attain the anatman then your self-nature will show all the wisdom.

It is natural to talk about “four Dhyana and eight Samadhis” when we mentioned Samadhi. The right Samadhi is Samadhi of heaven of form realm and the heaven of the formless realm, which of course beyond the desire realm, we call it four Dhyana and eight Samadhis. Four Dhyana and eight Samadhis are gradual steps; we may find mid-samadhi between the steps. The advance of each of the eight steps can be divided into three different kinds by Southern Buddhism as parikamma-samadhi, upacara-samadhi and appana Samadhi.

There are four stages of deep collectedness which are called the Rupa Jhāna (Fine-material Jhāna). For each Jhāna are given a set of qualities which are present in that jhana:
The initial signs of almost reaching the First jhāna is your samadhi power increased. The obvious sign of entering the first jhāna is the sensation of movement, itching, cooling, warmth, astringency, slipping, lightness, and heaviness that occurs in the body. It is called “Zen Touch.” All kinds of Zen touches make people feel happy. There are five kinds of merits (characteristics) before the First jhāna:

1. Finding (sensation), sense and start to think about the feeling from the certain circumstances and situation from Samadhi;
2. Serve (observe), continuous and in-depth observe, think about the feeling from certain circumstances and situation from Samadhi.
3. Piti, feel happy because of the joy of Samadhi.
4. Sukha, Jhāna makes the whole body enjoy the pleasure.
5. Ekaggata, focus on the Jhāna now, no heavy and mess in the heart.

After that, we would attain the first jhāna: The five hindrances have completely disappeared, and intense unified bliss remains. Only the subtlest of mental movement remains, perceivable in its absence by those who have entered the second jhāna. The ability to form unwholesome intentions ceases. The remaining qualities are:” directed thought, evaluation, rapture,pleasure, the unification of mind, contact, feeling, perception, intention, consciousness, desire, decision, persistence, mindfulness, equanimity & attention”.
Second jhāna: All mental movement utterly ceases. There is only bliss. The ability to form wholesome intentions ceases as well. The remaining qualities are: “internal assurance, rapture, pleasure, the unification of mind, contact, feeling, perception, intention, consciousness, desire, decision, persistence, mindfulness, equanimity, & attention”.

Third jhāna: Half of the bliss (joy) disappears. The remaining qualities are: “equanimity-pleasure, the unification of mind, contact, feeling, perception, intention, consciousness, desire, decision, persistence, mindfulness, equanimity & attention”.

Fourth jhāna: The other half of bliss (happiness) disappears, leading to a state with neither pleasure nor pain, which the Buddha said is actually a subtle form of happiness (more sublime than pīti and sukha). The breath is said to cease temporarily in this state. The remaining qualities are: “a feeling of equanimity, neither pleasure nor pain; an unconcern due to serenity of awareness; unification of mind, contact, feeling, perception, intention, consciousness, desire, decision, persistence, mindfulness, equanimity & attention”. Traditionally, the fourth jhāna is seen as the beginning of attaining psychic powers.
On the basis of the four jhāna, we may continue to cultivate, to eliminate the perception of physical existence and attain the four formless Samadhi. The first empty boundless jhāna would let you the endless emptiness by your own consciousness, the heartbreaks away from the boundless physical body, as a caged bird ran away from the cage, free to fly.

The common feature of the four Dhyana and eight Samadhis is that the mind is constantly focused on one environment and not distracted, that is the Bhavāgra heaven. Since the Bhavāgra heaven has a rely on realm, it can not go beyond or eliminate the birth and death; it does not attain the lokuttara-jhana. After the Buddha Samukyamuni left the palace and family, he spentt six years to cultivate the Samadhi and attained the Bhavāgra heaven jhana; he found there is no ultimate approach of extrication, then he turned his cultivation into the lokuttara-jhana, finally he attained the enlightenment.

Our topic today is called Four Dhyana and Eight Samadhis. However, the Four Dhyana and Eight Samadhis are not our ultimate goal. Imagine that when the Buddha attained the Bhavāgra heaven, he would not be able to break through the realm. If we set up a target of cultivation like enlightenment or become a Buddha, how should we set up our Samadhi cultivation goal?

The Platform Sutra said: “The Zen is left phase from outside world and stable in the inner world called samadhi.”

The Heart Sutra says: “When Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara was practising the profound Prajna Paramita, he illuminated the Five Skandhas and saw that they are all empty, and he crossed beyond all suffering and difficulty.” The so-called “practising the profound Prajna Paramita” means Samadhi, also remind us to observe and keep our self-nature when we practice Buddha’s Dharma, when we practice the profound Prajna Paramita, we can see the Anatta and all the troubles and pains are relieved, we may attain the great comfortable realm.

This also goes back to what we said in the first lecture of Zen: “There is no other Dharma, you have to understand your heart and your self-nature is equal to Buddha’s nature”. We have sufficient nature, just like a cup full of clear water, because of our improper thoughts and desires, we start to shake and begin to mix in sands, as long as we keep the precepts and follow Buddha’s teaching, we will calm down and restore our original features. This calming process, we call it Samadhi, we can do it naturally. As the Buddha said, each being will surely become a Buddha. Every being will certainly be able to attain the right Samadhi, because this is the necessary path to attain the enlightenment and become Buddha.

Thank you for the listening!