A gradual reduction of experience
The dream of existence is a mental process. The mental process creates the dream. Therefore to awaken is to become aware of this mental process. To become aware of the mental process we must stand out of the mental process. This standing out is a gradual reduction of experience.
We have already pointed out that the meaning of the term “ecstasy,” as we use it, means standing out (ec = out; stasy = standing). It is through a process of standing out that a gradual reduction of experience takes place. To reduce experience is to stop mental activity. So in other words, what we are doing is a gradual stopping of mental activity. When one enters the first ecstasy, with the elimination of the five hindrances, and the appearance of the five Constituents of Ecstasy (jhānānga), one has come out of the “world of emotional activity” (kāma loka) and entered a state of tranquillity, which is the first ecstasy (paṭhamaη jhānaη) or standing out, or reduction of experience, or stopping of mental activity.
From there on, one can proceed further, by a gradual reduction of experience, into the other levels of ecstasy. Progress on the path depends on a gradual abandoning or standing out of the former level. What is called samādhi is a gradual reduction of experience. It is like climbing a flight of steps, where at every step forward, we abandon the former step. The first four ecstasies, or standing out, is a gradual reduction of the affective experience. Following is an enumeration of this gradual reduction of the constituents of experience, as one passes through the four ecstasies:
(1) First ecstasy (jhāna) includes:– inference (vitakka), inquiry (vicāra) (= conceptual thinking), serenity (pīti), comfort (sukha), stillness (ekaggatā)
(2) Second ecstasy (jhāna) includes:– serenity, comfort, stillness.
(3) Third ecstasy (jhāna) includes: – comfort, stillness
(4) Fourth ecstasy (jhāna) includes: – stillness, apperception (upekkhā) – (no breathing but respiration).