The "Four Stages of Jhāna" Text

This unit of text is a fragment which is incorporated into many of the early Buddhist discourses. This suggests that it was composed at an early stage in the composition of the discourses. It appears many times as a stand-alone, self-contained unit which composers have placed in many different discourses. For example, of the 152 suttas of the Majjhima Nikāya (The Collection of Middle-length Discourses), twenty six of them include this text.

Truly separating oneself from sensory pleasures and from harmful qualities of mind, one attains and practises the first stage of jhāna, that is, an enhanced body-sensitivity and well-being (pīti-sukha), born of seclusion and accompanied by intention and attention.

From the cessation of intention and attention, one attains and practises the second stage of jhāna, that is, an enhanced body-sensitivity and well-being (pīti-sukha), born of samādhi (an inner tranquility of mind, a state of integration), without intention or attention.

From the fading of the enhanced body-sensitivity and by dwelling with equanimity, mindfully aware and attentive, one enters and maintains the third stage of meditation, of which the noble ones declare, "One dwells pleasantly, with equanimity and mindful awareness", experiencing well-being through the body.

From abandoning well-being and the former abandoning of distress, from the disappearance of joy and grief, one enters and maintains the fourth stage of meditation, a neither-unpleasant-nor-pleasant purity of equanimity and mindful awareness.

In some texts four illustrations of what each of these stages is like are added to this text.