Anapanassati - 3 (Jhanic Transformation/ Cittavisuddhi)

The Factors of the First Jhāna

The first jhāna possesses five component factors: applied thought, sustained thought, rapture, happiness and one-pointedness of mind. Four of these are explicitly mentioned in the formula for the jhāna; the fifth, one-pointedness, is mentioned elsewhere in the suttas but is already suggested by the notion of jhāna itself. These five states receive their name, first because they lead the mind from the level of ordinary consciousness to the jhānic level, and second because they constitute the first jhāna and give it its distinct definition.

The jhāna factors are first aroused by the meditator’s initial efforts to concentrate upon one of the prescribed objects for developing jhāna. As he fixes his mind on the preliminary object, such as the breath, a point is eventually reached where he can perceive the object as clearly with his eyes closed as with them open. This visualised object is called the learning sign (uggahanimitta). As he concentrates on the learning sign, his efforts call into play the embryonic jhāna factors, which grow in force, duration and prominence as a result of the meditative exertion. These factors, being incompatible with the hindrances, attenuate them, exclude them, and hold them at bay. With continued practice the learning sign gives rise to a purified luminous replica of itself called the counterpart sign (paṭibhāganimitta), the manifestation of which marks the complete suppression of the hindrances and the attainment of access concentration (upacārasamādhi). All three events-the suppression of the hindrances, the arising of the counterpart sign, and the attainment of access concentration—take place at precisely the same moment, without interval (Vism 126; PP 131). And though previously the process of mental cultivation may have required the elimination of different hindrances at different times, when access is achieved they all subside together:

Simultaneously with his acquiring the counterpart sign his lust is abandoned by suppression owing to his giving no attention externally to sense desires (as object). And owing to his abandoning of approval, ill will is abandoned too, as pus is with the abandoning of blood. Likewise stiffness and torpor is abandoned through exertion of energy, agitation and worry is abandoned through devotion to peaceful things that cause no remorse; and uncertainty about the Master who teaches the way, about the way, and about the fruit of the way, about the way, and about the fruit of the way, is abandoned through the actual experience of the distinction attained. So the five hindrances are abandoned. (Vism 189; PP 196)

Though the mental factors determinative of the first jhāna are present in access concentration, they do not as yet possess sufficient strength to constitute the jhāna, but are strong enough only to exclude the hindrances. With continued practice, however, the nascent jhāna factors grow in strength until they are capable of issuing in jhāna. Because of the instrumental role these factors play both in the attainment and constitution of the first jhāna they are deserving of closer individual scrutiny....