ABSTRACT
Throughout the previous chapters, I state that what I seek to demonstrate in my analysis of the jhānas is that this model of four successive states exemplifi es a gradual development of an awakened awareness of experience. I suggest that the jhānas designate a gradual spiritual ascent in which each step signifi es a more clarifi ed perception of experience. This position contrasts with the traditional Buddhist conception that views the jhānas as altered states of consciousness disconnected from sense experience and therefore not relevant for seeing reality clearly. Relatedly, following Rupert Gethin, I suggest that by progressing from one jhāna to the next, the mind gradually develops the seven factors of awakening until they are fulfi lled as ‘awakening factors’ ( bojjhaṅgas ). Put simply, I argue that the jhānas actualize the aim of Buddhist meditation: they purify the mind from that which obstructs clear seeing and fulfi l those qualities that can awaken the mind. My suggestion was that through the attainment of the jhānas, one can experience intimately a different mode of being; this mode is very different from ordinary cognition, in which the mind constantly reacts, interprets, rejects and desires. By progressing through the jhānas one gradually de-conditions the tendency to prefer, compare, interpret and react. Although the process of de-conditioning culminates in the attainment of nibbāna , it deepens when one attains the four jhānas .
