Frequently Asked Questions

Content

Retreat Information

  • The jhanas are a series of highly pleasurable altered states of concentration. They appear in both Buddhism and Hinduism (under different spelling), and appear similar to states described in other mystical traditions, including Christianity, Mormonism, and Islam. Depending on the context, they’re used for different purposes, ranging from a direct route Enlightenment to a warmup exercise for other meditation.

    Newcomers to jhanas also frequently use it as a launchpad to explore other contemplative and ethical practices.

  • The jhanas are profoundly blissful and can have cascading positive effects, like a “mentality of abundance” that can make it easier to engage in values-aligned behavior. Practitioners often use hyperbolic terms, such as “life-changing,” “better than sex,” and “they completely absolved me of the notion that happiness comes from outside myself.” Preliminary brain images support these descriptions, suggesting jhana meditators have learned to turn on the pleasure centers in their brain without external stimuli. One of our favorite jhana practitioner quotes is “Why would I have a second piece of chocolate cake when I know I can beat that by 100x in 10 minutes with my eyes closed?”

  • New technology and new trends suggest teaching the jhanas at scale is newly tractable. Jhana practice used to be thought of as rare and limited to monastics, but in the last 5-10 years jhana practice has been rapidly growing — new books have been published, new teachers have become famous, and new communities of practice have popped up.

    Early brain images have caught the attention of top universities — Harvard and McGill have new studies underway — and consumer-grade neuroimaging tools have gotten better and cheaper. Breakthroughs in machine learning have made possible more accurate interpretation of biosensor signals from e.g. EEG.

Meditation Techniques and Comparisons

  • We don’t want to swap what the Buddhist’s call “right effort” for instant gratification. But “hard work” can also mask poor pedagogy and stagnant practice.

    Access to the jhanas can have profound mental health benefits, increase motivation and ability for other forms of contemplative practice, and cascade into relationships and communities. We believe in helping people access these states in ways that are accessible, safe, and effective.

  • There’s a paradox in meditation between the method, which hinges upon “letting go” and the objective, which rests on a clear intent. In the same way that teachers correct practice via instruction, we hope our feedback will help users learn how to navigate this paradox more effectively, not less.

  • There is disagreement about what exactly constitutes a jhana, ranging from something available to any committed meditator to something that only one in a million people will experience in their lifetimes. We’re less interested in establishing a consensus definition, and more interested in a particular phenomenon: a growing group of people (we estimate a few thousand) appear to have learned to enter into extraordinarily pleasurable, non-addictive states that they often describe as “life-changing” with only a few dozen or a few hundred hours of practice. We don’t have an opinion on whether these should be called jhana-lite or not called jhana at all. We just want to make these states more accessible.

  • The number of jhanas vary on the context; we’re currently interested in the most accessible version of the first four jhanas (in many Buddhist contexts these are known as the Material or Form Jhanas) that people still regularly refer to as “life-changing”.

  • Language like “avoiding years of stagnant practice” can raise concerns of “spiritual bypassing” (the use contemplative practice to avoid unresolved psychological issues) and “spiritual materialism” (the never-ending chasing of peak states).

    Our experience with the jhanas is that they’re much more of an opportunity for enhanced wellbeing than they are a risk for more suffering. But just like any tool, they can be used more or less skillfully. The jhanas don’t magically make one’s past psychological conditioning disappear, nor do they diminish the value of living with purpose and in community. Fortunately, jhana meditators often report the mental health benefits help them navigate these challenges more effectively.

  • Different traditions have different views on the role of jhanas in spiritual development. Some believe the jhanas should be ignored on the path to bigger and better things. Others think they’re essential.

    Whether one side is Puritanically anti-pleasure and the other indulgent, we don’t feel qualified to say. All the meditators we know describe the jhanas as a tool rather than a completion to an ongoing journey of wellbeing.

Introduction to jhanas

  • A typical day on retreat has a few main components:

    Morning and evening group sessions: we’ll be together as a group for about three hours a day (1.5 hours each in the morning and evening). We’ll spend this time doing group sits, instruction, and meditation exercises that we’ve designed to teach specific aspects of jhana practice.

    On in-person retreats, we facilitate daily yoga and workouts, as well as a cacao ceremony and breathwork at the beginning of the retreat

    For the rest of the day, we’ll ask you to put the techniques we’ve described into practice. We suggest meditating for 6-8 hours a day while on retreat, doing a combination of sitting and walking. Depending on your past practice experience, we’ll work with you to create an individualized schedule.

  • Yes! Thus far our retreat satisfaction and jhana success rates are almost identical for online and in-person retreats. NPS of online retreats has been over 80%, and well over half of online participants experience jhana.

    Online retreats offer an opportunity to create your ideal meditation environment, including location, practice schedule, and food. On the other hand, in-person retreats offer a feeling of community that can be hard to replicate online. Ultimately, we think the choice comes down to personal preference.

  • Our online retreats work best with time zones in the Americas, Europe, and Africa.

    While we've welcomed global participants, those in Asian and other time zones may find the schedule challenging due to significant time differences to align with US time zones. We don't recommend joining from these regions as it could impact your retreat experience, however if you're still interested, please email us to discuss. 

    Regardless, please sign up for updates as we plan to support additional time zones in the future.

  • The main difference between them is that on a work-compatible retreat you practice ~1.5 hours before and after work on weekdays, and aim for ~8 hours a day on weekends. On a fully online intensive you aim for 8 hours every day for the whole duration of retreat.

    Work-compatible retreats are designed to minimize time off from work. Instead of a full day of programming on each day of the retreat, we’ll ask you to join us for a full day on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, two weekends in a row. In the week between, you'll meditate for two hours a day while working. This makes retreats more accessible and provides a valuable opportunity to integrate meditation into your day-to-day life.

    During an online intensive retreat, we’ll provide a full day of programming for every day of the retreat.

  • This is *not* a standard silent meditation retreat — it’s compatible with your work week! However, it’s still an intensive.

    You complete back-to-back weekend intensives, and meditate 3 hours/day throughout the week:

    - Friday, Saturday, Sunday: 8+ hours per day, maintain retreat conditions

    - Monday - Thursday: 1.5 hours of morning meditation before work, 1.5 hours of evening meditation just before bed

    - Friday, Saturday, Sunday: 8+ hours per day, maintain retreat conditions

  • Our current retreat methods don’t involve any neurotech or biofeedback, but this may change over the coming months.

  • For in-person retreats, we highly recommend fully unplugging for the duration. In cases where participants have continued to check email and make calls during retreat, they’ll often say at the end of the retreat that they wished they had turned off their devices.

  • Traditionally, these states are taught on retreats where talking is discouraged. This type of sensory deprivation aids concentration, and is conducive to exploring new meditative states.

    The more you reduce work commitments, email, and communication with people you live with, the more successful you’ll be on retreat.

    As a caveat, we’re running a work-compatible retreat as an experiment. These guidelines apply to those weekend days. We’ll be providing guidance on how to maintain mindfulness during the work week.

  • While you are involved in the retreat, we ask that you minimize external stimuli that will distract from your meditation practice. Ultimately, there’s not a one size fits all answer, but we want you to get the most out of the experience. Typically, we suggest the following:

    On days that the retreat is fully active, try to limit social interaction to 1hr a day. Plan ahead, and try to bring what you’re working on in your practice into that interaction.

    On days when you are working we recommend setting aside a couple of blocks each day to practice. Otherwise, you’re free to go about your day as usual.

  • We ensure that our retreats have a few spots for scholarships. If finances are a blocker for you, let us know what in the interest form what price would make the retreat feasible while being a positive commitment, and we’ll see what we can do!

  • While meditation’s benefits to mental health are well-documented and can be profound, it may also surface difficult emotions or experiences, presenting risks that may be greater for individuals who have a history of recent or unmanaged mental health issues.

    We recognize the trust that retreat participants are placing in us, and we take our responsibility to each attendee’s safety and well-being seriously. To be confident that we can consistently meet this responsibility, we ask that all attendees share some information with us about their mental health histories during the retreat sign-up process, so that we can provide the right level of support. Attendees who don’t provide this information will not be able to join us on retreat. If necessary, we may also get in touch to do a pre-retreat call.

    We are currently following criteria inspired by Imperial College London’s exclusion criteria for psychedelic research. This includes:

    Current dependence to alcohol or illicit substances

    Lifetime history of or current psychotic disorder/mania (schizophrenia, bipolar, drug induced psychosis)

    One or more immediate [1st degree] family members with a current or previously diagnosed psychotic disorder

    History of suicide attempt that required hospitalization or presence of suicide/serious self-harm risk

    Current use of psychotropic medication (e.g., antidepressants, antipsychotics, mood stabilizers)*

    Diagnosed borderline personality disorder/ complex-PTSD

    * Antidepressants are an exception – we’ve had people join us successfully in the past on antidepressants, and we’ll reach out to discuss if we can support you.

    We’re also asking people to not attend that meet two additional criteria: diagnosed eating disorder with active purging or diagnosed dementia.

    We understand this policy is imperfect, and we hope to expand our capacity to support a broader range of individuals on future retreats. If you have any questions about how this policy might apply in your particular situation, we’re happy to discuss with you; please reach out to us at retreats@jhourney.io.

Policies and Recommendations

  • The jhanas are a series of meditative absorptions that progress from extreme joy to extreme peace and beyond. We believe the goal of jhana meditation should be to learn how to experience these states and integrate them into your day-to-day life to improve your own life and the lives of the people around you.

    Vipassana meditation uses a variety of techniques (including noting, following the breath at the nose, body scanning) as a way to recognize the fact that experience is impermanent and constantly changing.

    While both techniques have value, we are more focused on jhana meditation because we have found it to be more personally beneficial.

  • Goenka and Jhourney have very different teaching philosophies. The Goenka organization has deep admiration for their guru, S.N. Goenka, who died in 2013, but as of 2024, was still doing all retreat lectures worldwide via video and audio recordings from 1990. You’re asked to follow a particular technique very rigidly. At Jhourney, we attempt to avoid a sense of gurus and rigid techniques in favor of experimentation. We provide guidelines and share what we’ve seen from other students, and then expect you to be the “lead scientist” so to speak and use our instructor team as advisors. One of our favorite phrases is “run your own experiments!”

    The meditation techniques emphasized on Goenka retreats are very different from the ones emphasized on Jhourney retreats. Goenka retreats use only breath meditation and body scans, with a little loving-kindness at the end. Jhourney retreats adapt to student experiments, but our starting instructions are much more embodied loving-kindness and intentional relaxation.

    The Goenka retreat experience is also a very rigid, more silent experience (e.g., getting up at 4am, less than 8 hours of sleep a night, forced attendance to group meditations, 10 minutes of question at most per day). There are benefits to such structure, but on a Jhourney retreat, we expect you to sleep well – even nap instead of meditating – so that when you do meditate it can be at full strength. We also practice silence on many of our retreats, but it’s punctuated by more Q&A. We have found the jhana meditation to be more rewarding, which is why we’re excited to teach it!

    Both Jhourney cofounders attended Goenka retreats on their own journeys. We’re grateful for the Goenka organization and think they’re doing wonderful work making meditation retreats available for free.

  • Online Retreats:

    • 30+ days prior to start date: Full refund

    • 15-30 days prior to start date: 100% credit toward another retreat

    • Less than 15 days prior to start date until start date: 50% credit toward another retreat.

    In-Person Retreats:

    • 60+ days prior to start date: Full refund or credit

    • 31-60 days prior to start date: 100% credit towards another retreat.

    • 15-30 days prior to start date: 50% credit towards another retreat.

    • Less than 15 days prior to start date: Unfortunately, due to the significant fixed logistical costs, we're unable to provide a refund.

  • We’ve all been inspired by Buddhist teachings, and while the jhanas predate Buddhism, the Suttas provide excellent practice instructions for learning them.

    That said, we’re not interested in teaching morality or Buddhist metaphysics on our retreats. We’re focused on helping people have deep meditative experiences using whatever tools are most efficient for that goal.

    If you’re interested in a more traditional Buddhist retreat, we’ve worked with many teachers over the years that we’d be happy to refer you to.

  • Our retreats are beginner friendly! We welcome participants who have never meditated before, as well as more experienced meditators.

  • We often get asked for recommendations about resources for self-studying the jhanas (below) or advice on how to maximize the odds of success on retreat.

    The biggest predictor of success on our retreats is mindset and ownership. When participants arrive excited to run their own experiments in their meditation practice and take ownership of their own learning journey, they inevitably end up having meaningful experiences. As such, we’d recommend focusing on mindset and being excited to practice for 6+ hours a day on retreat.

    One of the most common mistakes we see people make when learning the jhanas on their own is over-efforting – they’ve often heard jhanas are a “concentration” practice and attempt to force themself into some state. On retreat with us, we’ll frequently use phrases like “work smart, not hard,” “‘concentration’ is a mistranslation; ‘collectedness’ is a better word and you get collected via relaxation,” “this is a feeling meditation; focus on the emotional experience in-the-body.” One practice that seems unlikely to encourage bad habits while also teaching many of these building blocks for jhana is Non Sleep Deep Rest guided meditations (NSDR). You can find many recordings of varying lengths on Youtube.

    More broadly, working up to a ~30 minute a day meditation practice can be helpful coming into retreat to make sure you’re able to hit the ground running with longer sits.

  • We recommend checking out Michael Taft, Leigh Brasington, and Ayya Khema’s guided jhana meditations on Youtube. Some of our favorite books on the jhanas include Right Concentration (for those who want a quick, simple understanding as to what the jhanas are, their background, and Leigh’s style of teaching) and Path to Nibbana (for those looking for immediate practice instructions). Rob Burbea’s lectures Practicing the Jhanas are also excellent in written and audio form (they’re more nuanced and we think are best for those who already have a steady practice and some jhana experience).

Meditation Philosophy and Practice