www.nalandastore.com

The  Buddhist jhanas—successive states of deep focus or meditative  
absorbtion–demystified. A very practical guidebook for meditators for  
navigating their way through these states of bliss and concentration.

One of  the elements of the Eightfold Path
the Buddha taught is Right  Concentration: the one-pointedness of mind
that, together with ethics,  livelihood, meditation, and so forth, leads
to the ultimate freedom from  suffering. The Jhanas are the method the
Buddha himself taught for  achieving Right Concentration. They are a
series of eight successive  states, beginning with bliss and moving on
toward radically  nonconceptual states. The fact that they can usually
be achieved only  during prolonged meditation retreat tends to keep them
shrouded in  mystery. Leigh Brasington is here to unshroud them. He
takes away the  mystique and gives instructions for them in plain,
accessible language,  noting the various pitfalls to avoid along the
way, and then providing a  wealth of material on the theory of jhana
practice–all geared toward  the practitioner rather than the scholar.