Thanks for the link Lal. I’ve read the post. Though, my point might have not come across fully. Allow me to use Ajahn Brahm’s own words from his book, found in the link below. This is section: “PART THREE The Landmarks of All Jhana” I bolded the parts I was directly or indirectly referring to:
“No thought, no decision-making, no perception of time. From the
moment of entering a jhana, one will have no control. One will be unable
to give orders as one normally does. The very idea of “what should I do
next” cannot even come up. When the “will” that is controlling vanishes
away, then the “I will” that fashions one’s concept of future also
disappears. The concept of time ceases in Jhana. Within a Jhana, one
cannot decide what to do next. One cannot even decide when to come
out. It is this absolute absence of will and its offspring, time, that give
the jhanas the feature of timeless stability and that lead to jhana states
persisting, sometimes for many blissful hours.
Non-Dual Consciousness. Because of the perfect one-pointedness,
because attention is so fixed, one loses the faculty of perspective with in
Jhana. Comprehension relies on the technique of comparison, relating
this to that, here to there, now with then. In jhana, all that is perceived
is non-dual bliss, unmoving, compelling, not giving any space for the
arising of perspective. It is like that puzzle where one is shown a still
photograph of a well-known object but from an unusual angle, and one
has to guess what it is. It is very difficult to comprehend such an object
when one is unable to turn to over, or move one’s head to look at it this
way and that. When perspective is removed, so is comprehension. Thus
in jhana, not only is there no sense of time, but also there is no
comprehension of what is going on! At the time, one will not even know
what jhana one is in. All one knows is great bliss, unmoving,
unchanging, for unknown lengths of time.
Awareness of Bliss that Doesn’t Move. Even though there is no
comprehension within any jhana, due to the lack of perspective, one is
certainly not on a trance. One’s mindfulness is hugely increased to a
level of sharpness that is truly incredible. One is immensely aware.
Only mindfulness doesn’t move. It is frozen. And the stillness of the
super, superpower mindfulness, the perfect one-pointedness of
awareness, makes the jhana experience completely different to anything
one has known before. This is not unconsciousness. It is non-dual
consciousness. All it can know is one thing, and that is timeless bliss
that doesn’t move.
Afterwards, when one has emerged from jhana, such consummate onepointedness of consciousness falls apart. With the weakening of onepointedness, perspective re-emerges and the mind has the agility to move
again. The mind has regained the space needed to compare and
comprehend. Ordinary consciousness has returned.
Having just emerged from a jhana, it is usual practice to look back at
what has happened and review the jhana experience. The jhanas are
such powerful events that they leave an indelible record in one’s memory
store. In fact, one will never forget them as lone as one lives. Thus, they
are easy to recall, with perfect retention of detail, after emerging. It is
through such reviewing right after the event, that one comprehends the
details of what happened in the jhana, and one knows which of the
jhanas it was. Moreover, the data obtained from reviewing a jhana forms
the basis of insight that is Enlightenment itself.
The Five Senses are Fully Shut Off. Another strange quality that
distinguishes jhana from all other experiences is that within jhana all the
five senses are totally shut down. One cannot see, one cannot hear, one
cannot smell, taste nor feel touch. One cannot hear the sound of the
birds, nor a person coughing. Even if there were a thunderclap nearby,
it wouldn’t be heard in a jhana. If someone tapped one on the shoulder,
or picked one up and let one down, in jhana one cannot know this. The
mod in jhana is so completely cut off from these five senses that they
cannot break in.”
Then he shares a story in the same chapter, one of many stories I’ve heard him share:
“A lay disciple once told me how he had “fluked” a deep jhana while
meditating at home. His wife thought he hade died and sent for an
ambulance. He was rushed to hospital in a wail of loud sirens. In the
emergency room, there was no heartbeat registered on the E.C.G., nor
brain activity to be seen by the E.E.G. So the doctor on put defibrillators
on his chest to re-activate his heart. Even though he was being bounced
up and down on the hospital bed through the force of the electric shocks,
he didn’t feel a thing! When he emerged from the jhana in the emergency
room, perfectly all right, he had no knowledge of how he had got there,
nor of ambulances and sirens, nor of body-jerking defibrillators. All that
long time that he was in jhana, he was fully aware, but only of bliss.
This is an example of what is meant by the five senses shutting down
within the experience of jhana.”
Here’s the link to the book:
https://jhana8.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/The-Jhanas-Ajahn-Brahmavamso.pdf
He’s not specifically referring 4th jhana btw. He has clearly stated this happens from the first jhana onward. So my question is, What kind of jhana is this?