Vipassana jhanas

Vipassana jhanas are steps that describe the development of Vipassanā meditation practice as described in the Burmese Theravada tradition. They contrast with samatha jhanas. A common description as outlined in the commentorial tradition opposes the concentration attained by practicing samatha meditation called the jhanas, and the concentration attained by practicing vipassana meditation called "neighborhood concentration" (upacara samadhi).

Sayadaw U Pandita describes four vipassana jhanas:

• The meditator first explores his body, then his mind, discovering the three characteristics. The first jhana consists in seeing these points and in the presence of vitakka and vicara. Phenomena reveal themselves as appearing and ceasing.
• In the second jhana, the practice seems effortless. Vitaka and vicara both disappear.
• In the third jhana, piti, the joy, disappears too: there is only happiness (sukha) and concentration.
• The fourth jhana arises, characterised by purity of mindfulness due to equanimity. The practice leads to direct knowledge. The comfort disappears because the dissolution of all phenomena is clearly visible. The practice will show every phenomenon as unstable, transient, disenchanting. The desire of freedom will take place.

The only further steps are the knowledge of attaining nirvana.

Vipassana knowledge

This description of vipassana practice is a way of developing vipassana knowledge through direct experience. The vipassana jhanas as taught by U Pandita contrast with the samatha jhanas as described by Buddhaghosa in the Visuddhimagga. According to Buddhagosa's method, jhana practice is separate from vipassana. One's mind becomes absorbed in fixed concentration on the object and the meditator must come out of jhana to practice vipassana. However, jhana as taught by U Pandita allows for insight practice while in jhana. The meditators mind does not merge with the object but rather becomes ever more still while the flow of experience is still observable and is analysed in terms of the three characteristics.

Samatha and Vipassana

According to Sayadaw U Pandita, samatha and vipassana are not two separate practices. Samatha, or concentration, leads to jhana (mental stabilisation). In jhana there is no mental discursiveness, or very little, as the aim is to calm the vibrations of thought and mental activity. At this stage the meditator becomes very peaceful and blissful. Vipassana (insight) happens while in jhana. All the changes that happen to the ego, and which lead to nirvana, originate in jhana and are experienced through intuition and a connection to a deeper level of awareness that is beyond normal discursive thinking.