There’s been a noticeable resurgence of interest in jhana meditation lately, with plenty of new books and articles on the subject and even organizations like Jhourney starting to hold real-life retreats. But even so, most easily accessible resources in print and online are still either very dense, requiring a fairly hefty bit of background knowledge, or else so stripped down and simplified that they can leave inexperienced meditators with more questions than answers.

My goal with this guide is to fill that missing middle: Providing an approachable, non-ideological introduction to jhana meditation that’s still detailed enough to provide complete newcomers with a solid foundation for putting together a serious practice. I don’t have any esoteric hidden knowledge to share, or even many novel insights of my own, but my hope is that this guide can take a bunch of different strategies for beginning and strengthening a meditation practice and put them all in one place, to be accessed by as many people as possible.

Below, you’ll see links for different sections of this guide. The first section, Introducing the Jhanas, will give a brief overview of what the jhanas are and why they’re so wonderful. The second section, Starting a Practice, has a bunch of practical tips for beginners about posture, timing, and other practical concerns. The third section, Meditation Basics, will give you everything you need to actually get started meditating, and the fourth section, Going Deeper, will help more advanced meditators develop their practice even further. You can also find these pages on the navigation bar above.