Four Stages of Absorption

Jhana, the Pali term rendered in Sanskrit as dhyana, names a sequence of meditative absorptions described throughout the earliest Buddhist texts as central to the path leading to liberation. The Pali canon consistently describes four form jhanas, each defined by the presence or absence of specific mental factors: the first combines applied and sustained thought with joy and pleasure born of seclusion; the second drops thought and sustained attention, leaving joy and pleasure born of concentration itself; the third drops joy, leaving equanimous pleasure; the fourth drops pleasure as well, leaving only equanimity and mindfulness, purified and refined.

Beyond these four, the texts describe four further formless attainments, absorptions on infinite space, infinite consciousness, nothingness, and neither perception nor non perception, extending the sequence into progressively more abstract objects of concentration. The Buddha's own account of his awakening night describes him passing through the four jhanas before turning that concentrated mind toward insight into the nature of suffering and its ending, which is part of why jhana is treated across most Buddhist traditions as a necessary or at least highly supportive foundation for liberating insight rather than an end pursued for its own sake.