Arupajhana: Formless Meditation

There are two main categories of Buddhist meditations: those that soothe or calm the mind (Samatha) and Vipassana. Rupajhana is a four-level Samatha meditation on form and involves letting go of familiar feelings. Arupajhana are the next four levels deeper and involve meditations on the formless - i.e. space, consciousness, and complete emptiness. This is a deep and profoundly rejuvenating practice that takes you on a journey from physical reality to an absence of physical reality, and back.

Transcript

Hello,

My name is Dr.

Brett Wade.

Welcome to this Buddhist meditation called Arupayana.

In this meditation,

We'll pass through four levels of Rupayana,

Which are form meditations,

As we relinquish our attachments to positive feelings.

Once we leave the fourth Rupayana,

Known as equanimity or balance,

We will pass into four formless meditations.

These are the Arupayanas,

Formless.

If you're ready,

Let's begin.

Start by finding yourself in an upright and dignified posture.

See that your hands and feet are in a symmetrical position.

Sitting straight,

But not holding yourself rigidly.

Close your eyes if that feels okay for you.

Otherwise,

Just have a defocused gaze downwards at about 45 degrees.

As we enter our first Rupayana,

Begin to notice how you're sitting.

Notice the chair or the cushion that you're sitting on,

And just notice how it contacts your body.

You might notice some parts of your body make more contact than others.

Notice the temperature of the room on the tip of your nose.

Notice everything you can hear.

And notice how you're feeling.

I want you to now let go of all those things that you were just paying attention to.

That's level one,

And letting them fade into the background,

Coming deeper down.

As you enter into this next deeper state,

This is the state of bliss.

It's just under the surface.

Come into this wonderful feeling of bliss.

Bliss is the combination of happiness and joy.

See if you can notice tingling perhaps throughout your body,

The tingling of happiness and joy.

Notice how relaxing it feels.

Happiness,

Joy,

It's very uplifting feeling.

Just bathe for a moment in bliss.

Now release half of your feeling of bliss as you come into our third rupa yana.

I'd like you to release joy.

Just come down into this third level and experience just pure happiness.

Happiness is very light,

It's ebullient.

Allow the corners of your mouth to be so soft that they begin to rise up.

You have nothing else to do,

Nowhere else to be.

Happiness.

Now I'd like you to begin to release that feeling of happiness and we'll come back to it to allow yourself to descend deeper down.

Coming into this fourth rupa yana,

You experience equanimity or balance.

It's a wonderful feeling of not feeling one way or the other,

Not happy but not sad.

Just right in the middle.

Just stay with that feeling for a moment.

We're about to step off into infinite space.

We're entering the rupa yanas.

These are formless meditations.

To come into this fifth level,

Which is the first rupa yana,

Release that feeling of equanimity or balance.

And let's move into this feeling and awareness of infinite space.

There's no object,

No feeling,

Infinite space,

Vast emptiness.

I'd like you now to become aware that in this space,

The only thing that exists in fact is consciousness,

Just awareness or consciousness.

I'd like you now to release the awareness or consciousness and come down into level seven.

This is our third rupa yana.

And as you release consciousness,

You become aware that there's nothing.

There's not awareness.

Just stay with that for a moment.

I'd like you now to release this feeling of nothingness and come into our deepest level,

Our eighth level,

The final rupa yana.

In this state,

I want you to notice that there is neither the ability to perceive nor the ability to We're about to start to make our way back up through these seven levels above us,

Seven levels coming higher up eventually to our first level.

First of all,

Let's come back to level seven.

This is the level where there's just nothing,

Not even the experience of consciousness.

Coming higher up into our sixth level,

We realize that consciousness comes back.

Our space is filled with consciousness,

Awareness,

And awareness that we exist.

Moving higher up into level five,

We come to the understanding that there's infinite space,

But the space is empty.

Make your way higher up and let's step onto that firm surface of equanimity,

Back to rupa yanas.

Feel that sense of balance,

Not feeling one way or the other.

Come back higher up,

Come back up to happiness.

This wonderful feeling begins to wash over you as your corners of your mouth begin to raise up beautiful happiness,

Nothing else to do,

Nowhere else to be,

No responsibility but to self.

Let's come back up now to that level of bliss.

Let's bring joy back to happiness and fuel this sensation of bliss all throughout your body.

Maybe little bubbles of bliss are bubbling up all over you.

It's a wonderful feeling just under the surface.

And finally,

Come right back to where we started,

The very first rupa yana,

Noticing how you're sitting,

Noticing where the chair or a cushion makes contact with your body,

Noticing the temperature of the room on the tip of your nose.

Notice everything that you can feel and everything that you can hear.

And notice how you're feeling.

Maybe it's different than when we started,

Maybe it's the same,

Either way is fine.

Gently bring some movement back into your fingers and toes.

If your eyes are closed,

Just gently allow them to come to an opening position.

I hope you've enjoyed this meditation,

Our rupa yana,

As we pass through four levels of form meditation,

Rupa yana,

Into four levels of formless meditation,

Rupa yana,

And then back up.

This is one of the most important meditations in the Buddhist tradition of both Theravada and Mahayana.

It's been my pleasure guiding you and I hope to guide you again in another meditation.

Peacefully,

All.

Reviews

Lovely little jhana sampler! Most Buddhist traditions would spend months just getting to the first jhana. The process is slow and powerful. But there’s much to be said for this approach, as long as we recognize we’re mostly just imagining these states, rather than experiencing them

I was pleasantly surprised to experience something of all the jhana's in such a short time. Thank you.

Loved it. Thank you ❤️🙏

✨Thank you so kindly for that ❤🌠
Namaste 🙏🏼 🌸 🌿 🌺 💫🌸

Thank you for the guidance, I shall hold these states in mind for future meditations and found it a helpful way to reach that state beyond presence. Namaste x

Very new concept for me. Loved it. ✨

So expansively calming & blissful! 🙏

One of my absolute favorite guided meditation on this app. Very efficient to find stillness. Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge 🙏🏻

Wonderful guidance, a mini journey into the boundless corners of the Universe

Voice is very pleasant, following this method going deeper through the 8 levels was new experience, the deepest level was challenging/evasive. Ten min is a good start, by the same token it feels too short. Thank you for opening this door.

Thank you dr Brett, I really enjoyed this meditation, but it seems I have a long way to go x

This was wonderful, thank you 🙏🏻

Great meditation, Thank you 🙏💛

Thanks 🙏 for the information and the guidance. It was very useful for me.

I found this a fascinating approach to a technique that was new to me (though one I could relate to based on past experience).

I would not recommend this to someone completely new to meditation, and I have a sneaking suspicion this is the kind of practice that takes years to master—ie, hours and hours and hours to work with/through each of the seven individual levels. I don’t think this is something one could fully “get” in under ten minutes.

That said, it’s a terrific introduction and invitation to explore deeper. I certainly plan to learn more about it myself.

Interesting to pass through the different stages of meditation and it was so what I needed tonight!!

Wow. Good quick overview of those levels. I must admit the formless ones are kinda scary. I'm definitely exploring this further.

This meditation was amazing and soo powerful! Namaste!

Thank you for this overview of the levels. Though too quick to really linger in any it was super helpful to use to recognize where I am during my longer sits.

Very nice. Thank you! 💕🙏