Comments on “The Mind Illuminated, a journal: day 20”

Hi dear
“I’m sure that has value too, for some people in some contexts. It’s one way to learn how to manage painful emotions and relationships”

Yes. Jhanas ( as described by Leigh Brasington or similar) have lots of application, they are not only a way of being “naturally” peaceful or/and joyful with a very clear mind but they can also be used in case of very intense traumatic events like grief and loss , such events make you unable to review past events of your life ( sometimes the best parts) because it is too painful, it hurts whether they were good or bad. As a jhana practitioner i discovered that when i was thus concentrated ( particularly in Jhana 2) , it was possible to review my past without any suffering which was impossible in a “normal” state of mind because the trauma i went through was devastating and unbearable. therefore i used Jhanas to review those events a bit like surgery under “mental narcosis” , it was a huge help that most of the time can’t be done ( or needs very long time ) and push people into depression…

There is many way of getting the best of such state of mind, unfortunately many practitioners try to reach jhanas with a very Buddhist approach and forget that Buddha used jhanas in many ways, not only for the ultimate goal ;-).