• Entering the Jhanas is an excerpt from my book Right Concentration on the Lion's Roar website - the website of Buddhadharma: The Practitioner's Quarterly where the excerpt appears in print.

• The following is a hypertext enhanced version of a paper presented to the American Academy of Religon/Western Regional meeting on 25 Mar '97. It contains a bibliography and links to other sites that discuss the Jhanas.
  Sharpening Manjushri's Sword - The Jhanas in Theravadan Buddhist Meditation

• I spent the month of May 2006 on retreat at the Forest Refuge with Ven. Pa Auk Sayadaw. The following details some extra curricular exploration of the jhanas while more deeply concentrated than described above.
  Jhanas at the Forest Refuge

• I spent 9 1/2 months in 2011/2012 on retreat at the Forest Refuge. Ven. Pa Auk Sayadaw was again teaching jhanas for 4 months of that time and I got to explore more of his teachings, as well as do other practices.
  Nine and Half Months at the Forest Refuge

• Next is a reprint of an article that first appeared in Insight Journal, Fall 2002. It is a transcription of a talk I gave at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies in April of 2002.
  Instruction for Entering Jhàna         (also a short essay of Instruction for Generating Access Concentration)

• From that same course at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies comes a transcription of a talk on the The Five Aggregates.
  The Five Aggregates

• There is no real agreement among Jhana teachers as to what exactly the Jhanic state are! I have written a paper that outlines the various methods that I have heard about:
  Interpretations of the Jhanas

• One of the most profound and deepest teachings of the Buddha is Dependent Origination. Here's a tenative start to addressing some of my understanding of this most important teaching:
  Dependent Origination: The 3 Lives Model - NOT!

• A little known sutta in the Sutta Nipāta is probably the earliest teaching on the links of Dependent Origination. A study of it sheds much light on what the Buddha really was teaching when he taught Dependent Origination.
  Sutta Nipāta 4.11 - Kalaha-vivada Sutta: Quarrels & Disputes

• As the mind moves from that of an unenlightened worlding to that of enlightenment, it passes thru various stages on the path. These are described in the suttas - and in a more detailed form in the commentaries. The following chart shows the classic teaching on these stages:
  The Seven Stages of Purification and The Sixteen Insight Knowledges

• I encountered some interesting research on Devadatta, the Buddha's so called evil cousin. How much do we really know about this person - and how much is myth and legend created for other purposes?
  Devadatta

• "Mindfulness is always wholesome." Really?!? I know the Abhidhamma teaches that, but there are over 40 places in the suttas that speak of "wrong mindfulness."
  Mindfulness Is Always Wholesome - NOT!

• One of the more important concepts in Buddhism are the teaching on Vedana. Unfortunately this word is often mistranslated and misunderstood.
  Vedana Does Not Mean Emotions!

• "What view of the world should one have, So as not to be seen by the King of Death?" The Buddha's answer points to an expanded role for Mindfulness over what is usually being taught today in the Secular Buddhism/Mindfulness movement.
  Unicorns Never Die

• The Buddha said that his teaching was difficult to understand. The teaching on not-self may be the most difficult of all. It often leads to this frequently asked question:
  If There Is Not a Self, What Gets Reborn?

• The 5 Daily Recollections are important insight practices. They are phrased from the relative view, but there is actually a way to work with these on the ultimate level as well.
  The Ultimate View of the 5 Daily Recollections

• If you really want an English word to translate dukkha, the best one I know of is "bummer".
  Dukkha is A Bummer

• Survival and the Four Noble Truths.
  Nobody Gets Outta Here Alive

• The Alayavijnana is the storehouse consciousness of the Yogacara (and Tibetan) schools of Buddhism. It's supposedly where are the "seeds" of unfulfilled kharma are stored. But it ain't what it's popularly thought to be:
  The Alayavijnana Is Just Like the Internet

• Buddhism has developed into many forms with many teachings. However a close look at the suttas of the Pali Canon reveals the essential teachings of the Buddha.
  The Essence of what the Buddha Discovered

• Successful meditation practice has a required prerequisite practice: ethics, morality, sila.
  The 5 Precepts
  
  
• The Gradual Training is the most complete description of the training undergone by the monks and nuns of the Buddha's Sangha. It appears in a number of suttas with different factors given in various suttas. This is a chart of what factors appear in which suttas and how often each factor occurs:
  The Factors of the Gradual Training As Found in Various Suttas

  There is also the handout on the Gradual Training from a course I taught at BCBS on 10-12 Oct, 2014.

• The Gradual Training contains a number of striking similes used to illustrate its key components. These have been gathered into a single web page for easy reference and study: The Similes from the Gradual Training.

• The first item of the Eightfold Path is Right View. I taught a weekend course entitled Understanding Is the First Step: The Buddha's Teachings on Right View at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies on 23-25 May, 2014. This is the slideshow from that course.

• Just what does Awakening (aka Enlightenment) mean? There are maps of the 4 stages of awakening found in the suttas and other Pali literature. This is a summary of (mostly sutta) descriptions.
  The 4 Stages of Awakening - various sources

• The phrase "cessation of consciousness" occurs multiple times in the suttas. But just what is meant by that phrase?
  What does "cessation of consciousness" mean?

• How should someone approach the 10,000+ suttas of the Pali Canon, especially from a viewpoint of one engaged in critical thinking?
  The Authenticity of the Suttas of the Pali Canon

• The first full bhikkhuni ordination of women in the sangha of Thailand’s most famous meditation master, Ajahn Chah, took place on October 22, 2009 - but not without considerable controversy.
  The Recent Controversy Regarding the Full Ordination of Women in Theravadan Buddhism

• Was the lower status accorded women in the Pali Canon actually based on the words of the Buddha?
  The Questionable Authenticity of AN 8.51/Cv.X.1 - The Founding of the Order of Nuns

• The second of the Long Discourses is a very important sutta - and a really excellent story as well. So how authentic is the story?
  Thoughts on the Authenticity of DN 2 - The Fruits of the Spiritual Life

• What did the Buddha mean when he said "The World is Empty"? What is the experience of emptiness like? How deep does the rabbit hole go?
  4 Levels of Experiencing Emptiness

• I taught a weekend sutta study course for BCBS in June, 2023, on book 5 of the Sutta Nipata - The Way to the Far Shore. The link is to the "handout."

• The following essays were written as part of a 1996 class on the Buddhist Suttas taught by Gil Fronsdal. They are my reactions and responses to various Suttas from the Digha and Majjhima Nikayas or to scholarly papers the class read as background for the study of the Suttas. These are the first papers I'd written since graduating from college 25 years before. I present them much as I wrote them, with spelling mistakes, awkward grammar (remember I'm a computer programmer, not a writer), and sometimes a missing context. Nonetheless I hope they may be of benefit to you. If you have questions or comments please feel free to e-mail me at
  • Don't Mistake the Finger Pointing at the Moon for the Moon A Parody
  • Arguments for the Importance of the Jhanas in the Suttas
  • When the Lion Roared, the Sound was "Greed Leads to Dukkha!" Digha Nikaya 26
  • The Great Discourse on the Lineage Digha Nikaya 14
  • The Buddha's Last Days Digha Nikaya 16
  • The Dangers of Spiritual Materialism Majjhima Nikaya 30
  • Sensual Pleasure Majjhima Nikaya 22
  • Ethical Conduct Majjhima Nikaya 60
  • Mental Proliferation Majjhima Nikaya 18, 19, 20, 131 - 133

At times I receive e-mail asking me various questions about Buddhism. Below are excerpts from some of my replies:

• Is Meditation Boring
• Not Self
• Rebirth
• A Christian College Student Asks About Buddhism
• Extinguishing Passion(?)

Miscellaneous Buddhist Essays:

• The 3 Schools of Buddhism
• Rules To Live By

Miscellaneous Essays

• Time is Only an Illusion
• Freewill, Determinism and Santa Claus
• Concave, Convex, Waves, Particles, Freewill, Determinism
• We Are Sunlight Animated Stardust
• Brasington's Corollary to Occam's Razor
• Dark energy - NOT
• The Low Food Diet
• I Remember Paul

Interviews

• The following are hypertext enhanced versions of an interview with me that appeared in the Northwest Dharma News in January, 1997. I discuss the Jhanas and the upcoming retreat that I taught at Cloud Mountain Retreat Center in February, 1997.
  Interview about the Jhanas and teaching meditation
  Longer, unpublished, unedited version with more about the Jhanas and my background

• The following interview with me appeared in Northwest Dharma News in January, 1999.
  Interview from Northwest Dharma News

• The following interview appeared in the Modesto Bee on November 24, 2001 and is about a day-long retreat and the Jhanas.
  Interview from the Modesto Bee

• The following is an unedited version of an interview that appeared in the Bohdi Garden Newsletter in the summer of 2004.
  Bodhi Garden Newsletter interview.

• An interview to listen to - on mp3:
  Leigh Brasington interviewed by Stephanie Nash about The Jhanas, December 10, 2006.

• Stephanie Nash interviews Leigh Brasington
  Several short YouTube videos on what jhanas are, how one works with them in one's practice, dependent origination, etc.

• Video Interview with Willoughby Britton of the Cheetah House
  Leigh Brasington on the Dark Night   7 Jan 2013   39:30

• Jhanas, Lucid Dreaming, and Letting There Be Just Seeing in the Seeing
  from the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies's Insight Journal, 25 Dec, 2015

• An interview in Tricycle Magazine: The Richest Vein in All of Buddhism. It's a discussion of my book Dependent Origination and Emptiness.

Political Essays

• I've written an anti-Creationism essay entitled The Two Biblical Stories of Creation. Warning: This may rock your Christian faith if you take the Bible literally!

• It's troubled times we live in. So How big is your us?

• I have a political diary at the dailykos.com blog which you can find here.

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Leigh Brasington / / Revised 29 Aug 23