Upekkhā means that your mind is free of love, hatred, delusion or fear

Question:  Is it possible to attain jhāna without seeing nimitta?

Than Ajahn:  Yes. Jhāna is not nimitta, but in the process of attaining jhāna you might have some nimitta. Some people might have, some people might not have. Some people after they have attained jhāna, they start to have nimitta, some people don’t. The point is not to become involved with nimitta because the goal of samādhi is to keep your mind peaceful and calm. If you become involved with nimitta your mind will not be peaceful and calm and you might not have the strength to resist your kilesa after you come out of samādhi, but if you have just plain samādhi without any nimitta, your mind will remain peaceful and calm during the samādhi session and when you come out of samādhi you will have upekkhā.

Upekkhā means that your mind is free of love, hatred, delusion or fear. So when the mind sees anything, after it comes out of samādhi, it will not be disturbed by what it sees, because it has upekkhā. However this upekkhā is temporary. After you come out of samādhi for a while, upekkhā will gradually disappear and you have to go back to samādhi again, to regenerate this upekkhā.

You need upekkhā in the development of vipassanā or wisdom. You want to have your mind to be able to see the truth of all things, to see that everything is aniccā, dukkha, anattā. If you see that everything is aniccā, dukkha, anattā, you will have nothing to do with things, you will get rid of them, you will not be disturbed by them. If you are attached to them, it will make you unhappy, it will make you sad because it will one day leave you or separate from you.

Question:  If someone attains first jhāna, can he sees ghosts?

Than Ajahn:  Don’t worry about it, just keep on practising. The jhāna that we want to get into is the fourth jhāna, and the way to get to the fourth jhāna is to focus your mind on one object only, either your breath or mantra, Buddho, Buddho. Just keep focusing on those objects, either your mantra or your breath. Don’t worry which jhāna you are in, and don’t worry whether you see anything or you don’t see anything.

If you have good feelings, don’t pay attention to it, just keep on focusing (on your object of meditation) until your mind comes to a sudden stop like falling into a well and then everything will be empty and blank and your mind will be peaceful and happy. That’s the destination of samādhi practice. If you haven’t got into that point, keep on focusing on your mantra or on your breath.

Question:  In stillness, do we become happy?

Than Ajahn:  Yes, this is samādhi but it is temporary. After you come out of samādhi, your happiness disappears and your desire will come up and if you are not careful then your desire will make you go and look for some other kind of happiness like going to look for a drink, look for coffee, or watch tv and this will make you attach to it and addicted to it and you will find it difficult to go into samādhi if you let your mind looks for this kind of happiness. So once you come out of samādhi, you must resist all your desires to go look for other form of happiness and bring your mind back again to samādhi as soon as possible.

By Ajaan Suchart Abhijāto