First and Second Jhana

Ayya Khema speaks to retreatants partway through a retreat. She recaps the factors of enlightenment covered so far, warns against inflated ideas of one’s own attainment, and says knowing the teachings matters less than practising them. She then explains how concentration on the breath matures into the first jhana, the five factors of absorption set against the five hindrances (she compares sensual desire to debt and drowsiness to imprisonment), and the delight that arises.

She describes the second jhana, built on joy, and advises reviewing the experience afterwards, never during it, since the understood experience is what becomes wisdom.