Does Jhana (Lite Jhana/Leigh Brasington) turn the world from endurance to easeful?

[u/tea_and_samadhi]

For a lot of people life really has one large purpose, to endure until consciousness ceases. That's it, to endure.

And that seems like an extremely painful way to exist and leads to short term harmful action solely for the experience of relief. Take food and drug indulgence, or even having children when one can't provide.

My question is, does jhana make life not just easier, not just more endurable...but actually easeful and joyful? Or does it just make life less shit, but it's still a shit that we need to endure? I will obviously have to remove ill health and physical disease as a factor from this question.

Looking for hope here. Looking for motivation. Looking for a real way out not just after death for a better rebirth or no rebirth at all, but looking for a way out of suffering in this very life.

Can the jhanas as taught by Leigh Brasington make one actually happy to be alive? And I really mean that, happy to be here.

[u/Adaviri]

I have never heard anyone say that jhānas alone would have brought the kind of insight that would result in a complete or even near-complete reduction of suffering - or an establishment of likewise near-complete joyfulness and happiness.

What truly brings about these things is insight into the 'two wings of the bird of Bodhi': insight into emptiness and insight into compassion, which manifest as equanimity and all the forms of love and beauty, respectively. Emptiness of self, of phenomena, of everything you can name, quite literally. Compassion and love for everything and everyone.

However, jhāna does almost always bring about quite a lot of significant insight. They show that joy and happiness are not in fact states that are in any real sense dependent on external conditions, but states that the mindstream steps into, fabricates.

They show that these states are actually always readily available, even though - as many have here said - it is very rarely viable for someone to keep on generating and manifesting these states all the time. In fact, doing so can be prone to lead to unpleasant symptoms, like headaches and such, especially the first few form jhānas. :)

But this is very insightful, it is very freeing and a happy and joyful thing, for sure! Even though it won't free you completely, perhaps not even close. Jhānas are a huge, huge 'life-hack', of this there is no question, and it's no wonder that they're slowly becoming more and more mainstream.

As they give insight into how the positive is generated and fabricated, how it springs principally from the internal, they also give insight into the converse: that suffering, pain, displeasure and so on are also equally fabricated.

So in conclusion/TL;DR: Jhānas greatly promote happiness, joy, and freedom in life. They give insight into how emotions and energy states, pleasures and pains, are fabricated, and how to manipulate these states at will.

However, they are very unlikely to completely liberate you alone, or bring about lasting happiness that does not require constant mental work. 🙏

Peace and happiness to you, my friend! Be well. :)

[u/NibannaGhost → u/Adaviri]

What emptiness/insight practices have you and from observations of other people made the most impact after gaining the sufficient samadhi?

[u/Adaviri → u/NibannaGhost]

The field of insight practice is so wide and deep - a true open plain, the Dharmic 'Wild West' - that the question is difficult to answer in great detail. Different practices have different impacts on different folks. This is natural, for everyone's conditioning is unique.

However, statistically we could say that most students seem to get the most initial insight benefit from inquiry into no-self/anattā. Some people greatly benefit from aniccā practice as well, since it can reveal much about both the emptiness of phenomena, of time, and even of causality if deeply applied.

Probing into the whys and hows of their suffering is incredibly healing as well, and opens up both great insight into Emptiness as well as Compassion. Not just contemplating the generalized Four Noble Truths, but instead by using that very same formula applied to particular pains and sufferings: Noticing that one suffers and getting a handle on it; inquiring into the views that the mind holds that beget or mandate that suffering; realizing that, since views are empty, the suffering can cease; and finally pursuing a path of inquiry to help that suffering understand its own emptiness as well. That causes visuddhi/catharsis/purification.

Ultimately the most important facet of Emptiness is the emptiness of views, since all happiness and suffering rests on views. Nothing but views, through and through. All those with deep insight know this. :)

There are a lot of techniques for insight practice, like dozens at least I am aware of. But perhaps this is enough for now! 🙏

[u/NibannaGhost → u/Adaviri]

This gives me a clearer picture of what we’re doing here with practice. Do you have some practices that are anatta focused?

[u/Adaviri → u/NibannaGhost]

Sure! It's not perfect at all - I was rushed on time as I recorded it, and it's perhaps a little bit too involved in guidance - but the easiest way for me to share here is to link you to a guided meditation I have on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzAbi7k1qTI

[u/NibannaGhost → u/Adaviri]

Nice a guided meditation is perfect ,, I’ll try it out!