Meditation

The Pali Jhana, the Sanskrit Dhyana, the Chinese Ch'an, the Korean Seon, and the Japanese Zen all mean Meditation.

Meditation is a tool.

The Four Jhanas (Four Meditations) are tools:

1. The first jhana (meditation) is the rapture and pleasure born of seclusion from the five senses. The first jhana may seem to come and go, to strengthen and weaken.

2. The second jhana is the rapture and pleasure born of concentration. It's the perfection of samadhi. The “doer” vanishes. The second jhana is stable, no rising and falling as in the first jhana.

3. The rapture of the first two jhanas disappears in the third jhana, leaving behind serenity.

4. The serenity of the third jhana disappears, leaving what Venerable Ajahn Brahm calls “the bliss of no more bliss.” The fourth jhana exhibits true tranquility.

Meditation, jhana, zen = Tool. Don't get enraptured by the tool. Meditation (jhana or the jhanas) is/are not something to hang onto or to long for in and of themselves—they're tools. The finger pointing at the moon is not the moon.