How much does condition of the body affect the ability to get jhana?

[Tad]

How much doee aging, health issues, and other body conditions affect jhana?

[Rodan]

I am not experienced enough to speak to things like aging; but with respect to health or bodily conditions, I do imagine it becomes more difficult if one is experiencing a flu or any other such symptoms, but I would imagine jhana or always being in a state of jhanic saturation should help to ameliorate these conditions. I speak from mild experience on my end. I had arm, leg and lower back pain initially in my sits and they frankly disappeared as I kept accessing jhana more and more. You might say, well you simply got used to the posture, but these were cleared up almost instantly during the middle of a sit. I have also found jhana to completely melt away any tension in my body.

I am a bit superstitious so I see jhana to be a mystical energy that could potentially heal the body and mind.

[Jhanananda]

While I certainly found access to jhana definitely reduced the pain factor in rheumatoid arthritis; nonetheless, it is no panacia.  As old age and illness takes over my life nonetheless both pain and jhana are constant companions.  It suggests that gaining consistent access to jhana prior to old age may be a profound aide to the inevitability of old age and its associated pain and decrepitude.

[Tad]

Thanks for replies. Considering that jhana requires good energy flow in the body and as the body ages the energy levels tend to go down, would you say that with aging body it becomes harder/requires more time to attain states of jhana?

[Jhanananda]

It might be more difficult for an older person to do the amount of meditation necessary to develop access to the states of samadhi, so I do recommend younger people to take up a contemplative more seriously so that they have developed skill in depth in meditation before they get too old and sick to engage in meditation with sufficient effort to bear fruit.

[Naman]

I wanted to rephrase this same question, i had that on mind for sometime now,,,

once you gain that expertise to get into jhanas, does the physical illness hinder or increase the time to enter into them,, i can vaguely rembr you mentioning somewhere on youtube comments that u can get into jhana in few mins/ or secs cant recall correctly, so during the times when you were struggling hard with COPD, did the time taken to enter jhana get increased?

[Jhanananda]

Hello, Naman, and thank you for posting your inquiry. The take home I would like people to get from my life is taking up a rigorous, self-aware contemplative life when one is young and in good health before one gets old and sick, because skill in access to the deep states of samadhi simply require long sitting sessions of an hour or more on a consistent basis. Instead we see in Asia most Buddhists lead a life of devotion until they are old and retired, then they put the robes on and pretend to be holy and pretend to understand the dhamma, meanwhile they make a career out of marginalizing people who learn to meditate deeply.

Regarding my life, since I developed deep meditation starting at the age of 20, and maintaining a daily deep meditation practice throughout my life I can drop into the deeper states of samadhi first through 5th stages of samadhi with little effort even today.  So, while I depend upon machines to stay alive, and often lying in bed, it is just a long meditation session for me.

[Naman]

Your life have been exemplary for all of us who are on the path. Thankyou for your feedback and guidance:)

[Jhanananda]

Thank you, Naman, it was such a pleasure hearing from you again. May your rigorous, self-aware contemplative life bare abundant superior fruit.

[KriyaYogi]

Tad I have been doing Kriya Yoga for almost 15 years daily.  There is a perscribed set of techniques used in it to generate a Kundalini rising, then after a session you absorb the Kundalini and go quickly into a deep state.  I don't have particular chronic illnesses yet at age 39 but I notice more muscle tiredness and general tiredness.  I notice the visualization technique to raise Kundalini is more tiring to do.

-David

[Jhanananda]

David, I have had the classic kundalini experience many times in my 50 years of daily meditation practice.  The only thing that seems to make it happen is first understanding that the stilling of the mind is a critical stage, which means there is no technique.  Then extending that meditation session as long as I can, which is at least an hour to 3 hours.  In my experience kundalini, and the other phenomena of deep meditation are natural phenomena that arise from a dedicated contemplative life.  However, I would agree with the premise of this thread that a healthy body is an aide to deep meditation.

[KriyaYogi]

I think my experience is similar.  Kundalini doesn't usually rise during the training for me but afterwards during silent meditation.  Sounds similar to your experience.  The Kundalini Yoga seems to accumulate a resiorvoir of energy during the practice for me then the energy is 'released' after during stillness.

-David