Introduction

This book is about the four jhānas in the early Buddhist meditative path. It is about the way the early Buddhist texts in Pāli conceived and described the progression of the meditative path culminating in complete liberation. It is about the relation between the deepening of liberating insight ( paññā ) and the attainment of the four jhānas . It seeks to offer a fresh look at how these path-factors interrelate and integrate into a coherent model of the path to awakening in the Pāli Nikāyas.