Insight Journal: Your new book, Right Concentration: A Practical Guide to the Jhānas, came out this October. Can you tell us a little about it? Leigh Brasington: The first part is basically the instructions I give during a retreat. I start out by saying, “You can't learn the jhānas from a book, but if you want to learn the jhānas from a book, here's the best that I can do.” There’s an introduction to what the jhānas are, as well as a bit about the necessary prerequisites like sīla, guarding … [Read more...]
Leigh Brasington
Instructions for Entering Jhāna
These instructions have been taken from a nine-day retreat offered by Leigh Brasington at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies in April of 2002. The Pali word jhāna (Sanskrit dhyāna) is sometimes simply translated as "meditation," but more accurately refers to an "absorption" into a very focused, very stable state of concentration. In the classical tradition there are several stages of jhāna, each one more focused than the previous. Some people will experience some of the jhānas on this … [Read more...]
Sharpening Mañjuśrī’s Sword
Leigh Brasington has been practicing meditation since 1985 and is the senior American student of the late Ven. Ayya Khema. Leigh began assisting Ven. Ayya Khema in 1994, and was authorized to teach in 1997. He teaches in Europe and North America. Leigh, you are a teacher perhaps best known for guiding people through an exploration of the jhānas, stages of concentration meditation known as “absorptions.” But this is not all you do, am I right? For my day job I’m a software engineer. I live … [Read more...]
Emptiness and Freedom
About 100 AD, a man later known as Nāgārjuna was born into a Brahmin family in southern India. By the time he was twenty, he was well known for his Brahmanical scholarly learning. However, after an encounter with some serious dukkha, he began studying the works of the Buddha. Supposedly in three months he had mastered the early scriptures, but they still left unanswered questions. At that point he encountered an old monk who followed the Mahāyāna tradition. Nāgārjuna was so impressed by the … [Read more...]
