Tejananda frames an embodied approach to jhāna: a light samādhi that becomes available once the five hindrances ease, drawing on the Pāli Canon’s descriptions (e.g., vitakka–vicāra falling away in deeper stages) and highlighting how insight can arise in jhāna by attending to impermanence (with the other marks—unsatisfactoriness and not-self—implicit). He distinguishes the physical body from the sensate/somatic body, invites letting go of an imputed center, and emphasises “being the breathing body” rather than observing it as a separate self.

The session includes a guided practice: settling into whole-body somatic awareness, using the breath to help the mind gather, noticing hindrances as anything that pulls attention out of embodiment, then opening to the six sense fields and resting in just sitting. In Q&A, Tejananda addresses rapturous energy (pīti) that can arise with concentration, how to modulate it, and practical ways to stay grounded while allowing ease to develop.

After a short introduction, Tejananda starts the session with a meditation working further with embodiment as an approach to jhāna, infused with metta. He explores the energy body as an approach to this embodiment, while calling on the mindfulness practice as a source of anchoring. Further deepening the meditations through reflections on the absence of an ‘I’ in the meditator’s experience. He ends the meditation with a period of opening out into awareness through the body.

This is followed by a period of chanting and drumming. Tejananda contextualises the ritual and practice overall as an effort towards awakening rooted in ethics. The period of ritual therefore starts with the chanting of the refuges and five precepts.

The session ends on break-out groups where people were invited to share their experience of the retreat so far.

Tejananda presents an embodied approach to jhāna, grounding the work in ethics, recognizing and easing hindrances, and favouring the “whole breath body” over a narrow nostril focus. Drawing on the Ānāpānasati Sutta, he works with a consciously long breath, suffusing awareness through the whole body and calming body and mind; he contrasts later Visuddhimagga notions of access/appanā with the early Pāli sources, and cites the Samaññaphala Sutta’s image of rapture and happiness suffusing the body (the bath-powder simile).

A guided practice follows: settling into the sensate/“somatic cloud,” discerning proliferation versus ease, then choosing what helps now (hara-based breathing, a longer breath, or simple counting) while staying with the whole-body field. In Q&A, Tejananda responds to pain and strong energy—suggesting widening to the full sensitive sphere, including any pleasure, and gently modulating intensity—underscoring how light samādhi and insight can develop together through embodied attention.

Tejananda develops an embodied approach to jhāna, starting with somatic ways to meet the hindrances: locating the heart centre, sensing the central channel, and—even if one isn’t “into chakras”—briefly lifting attention above the head to brighten dullness. Practice moves into whole-field awareness of the “sensitive/energy body” (his “somatic cloud” metaphor), using the breath as an initial anchor and then, as hindrances ease, letting attention rest directly in subtle well-being and pleasure, encouraging a gentle inner smile to support continuity of samādhi.

The session then offers a reading from the Samaññaphala Sutta on the four jhānas—including the description of the second jhāna as “rapture and pleasure born of composure, with unification of awareness”—and closes with chanting the Tara mantra.

Tejananda clarifies working with hindrances, points to recognising the jhāna factors—pīti and sukha—and uses the early-discourse bath-powder simile to describe how pleasure and happiness can permeate the whole body. Entry options include hara-based breathing, a consciously longer breath, or brief counting, always returning to the “whole breathing body” rather than a narrow point of focus.

A guided practice follows: settling into broad somatic awareness, easing effort, letting the body-sense unify, and resting in just sitting when conditions allow. In Q&A, Tejananda addresses modulating rapture, distinguishing happiness from the mere absence of hindrances, and staying grounded by widening to the full sensitive field while allowing ease to develop.

Tejananda clarifies his use of “access concentration,” referencing Leigh Brasington and favouring samādhi as integration rather than narrow “concentration.” He frames the session with the awakening factors (mindfulness, investigation, energy), then sets up practice: establish posture, scan and soften the body, inhabit the whole field, and use mindfulness of breathing to keep returning to the whole body. He names subtle hindrances such as “sinking” and “drifting,” suggests simple returns to the chosen object, and introduces muditā and mettā to counter low tone or discouragement.

A guided jhāna practice follows: recognise when hindrances fall away, allow bodily well-being to show as pleasure (pīti) and a quiet happiness (sukha), and “maintain the conditions” rather than straining for results. The sit closes by widening into open awareness of all six sense fields, after which the group chants the refuges and precepts and the Amitābha mantra.

Tejananda hits the ground running and begins this session by addressing the question – why cultivate Jhāna? He brings out the link between satipatthana, the Jhānas, the hindrances and awakening; bringing attention to how the hindrances arise and cease with the Jhānas developing and deepening insight into the awakening factors. Sati, dhamma nikāyas (investigating experience), virya, piti, tranquillity, samadhi, vipekkha (insight practice), This follows a period of meditation that deepens and builds on the previous sessions’ exploration of the first 2 Jhanas. This is followed by questions and answers and a short ten-minute break.

In the second period of the session, Tejananda gives some more instructions on working with the different dhyanas as centring in different parts of the body. He focuses on the third Jhāna and the image of the body suffused by a lake. This is followed by a period of meditation exploring the third Jhāna.

He ends the session by taking some final questions.

Tejananda Wakeman encourages us to inhabit the whole breathing body while letting go of any image of “the body” and any stance of a separate observer—attending instead to a mass of sensations. Guidance emphasises allowing pīti and sukha to gather with lessened conceptual activity and greater unification, using the image of a spring bubbling up from the lake bed to suggest a more spontaneous ease as attention deepens.

Tejananda gives a short reading from the Kālākarāma Sutta (with its refrain of non-conceiving across the senses) and recalls Bāhiya’s teaching—“in the seen, just the seen”—as a pointer to direct knowing. The session includes chanting the Prajñāpāramitā mantra and ends with a brief period of just sitting, widening into awareness of all six sense fields.

Tejananda frames the session around entering the third jhāna, briefly recapping the transition from the first and second and reading the Buddha’s description in which “one drenches, steeps, fills, and suffuses” the whole body with happiness as pīti falls away and equanimity becomes prominent. He stresses not forcing or suppressing difficult material: turning toward hindrances and unresolved emotion is part of the path, and jhāna is understood as conditioned rather than a refuge in itself.

In practice, Tejananda sets posture and poise, invites releasing contractions, and opens with kindness/goodwill before settling attention in the whole “somatic” field (centred around the hara). Guidance emphasises letting pīti quiet and allowing sukha to permeate the body as samādhi unifies; effort then softens, moving into just sitting and widening into awareness of all six sense fields

Tejananda frames a short jhāna sit and then leads chanting. The session opens by settling posture and releasing obvious tensions, inviting kindness/goodwill as an entry. Attention moves to the felt, “sensitive” body—especially the lower torso (hara)—using breath or whole-body awareness to gather samādhi. Hindrances are noted without struggle, letting energetic pleasure emerge. Guidance then explores the transition through pīti and sukha toward the third jhāna, using the classic lotus simile (being suffused “below the surface”) and highlighting how sukha can soften into equanimity.

Practice continues by intentionally re-finding the second jhāna (returning awareness to the heart/chest to re-engage pleasure) and then easing effort to rest in just sitting, opening to all six sense fields. The session closes with chanting the refuges and precepts and a mantra.

In this session, Tejananda frames the session around entering the fourth jhāna, quoting the Pali canon on “suffusing the whole body with pure equanimity and mindfulness”. He clarifies that contact with the body remains through a subtle “energy body,” not as something mystical but as lived somatic experience.

A short reading is offered to distinguish pīti (rapture) from sukha (pleasure/comfort), drawing on teachings about the seven factors of awakening.

Guidance emphasises allowing the field of awareness to become unbounded, letting any residual pīti/sukha quiet, so that equanimity and clear mindfulness permeate the body as samādhi stabilises. The sit then eases into just sitting, resting in spacious, unaffected awareness.

Tejananda leads a guided traverse of the four jhānas. The sit opens with mettā—kindness and goodwill—suffusing the whole body, then attends to pīti and sukha, noticing hindrances and letting ease return as attention unifies. Guidance moves through the felt spaciousness and subtle pleasure of the third jhāna toward the fourth, emphasizing equanimity and clear mindfulness “suffusing the whole body,” with awareness resting in the whole somatic field and then opening to the six sense fields at zero distance.

The session closes with a short reading that formulates “This is dukkha… this is the arising… this is the cessation… this is the path,” followed by chanting the Ratnasambhava mantra, and a brief period of quiet sitting.

This session begins with a Q&A followed by a longer period of meditation, allowing more time to rest deeper into each Jhāna. Tejananda emphasises throughout the discussion the importance of using your intuitive sense when navigating the Jhānas, which came to the fore and then informed the following meditation.

After the break, there was another short period of Q&A followed by a guided meditation, then led through the first three (and into the territory of the fourth) jhānas: attention rests in the “sensate cloud” of the body, orienting to pleasure and happiness as stability deepens into samādhi. The guidance tracks the shifting balance of pīti and sukha, moving the centre of awareness through the heart and lower torso, and opening into a boundless, spacious field where bliss arises of itself and settles into quiet peace and equanimity.

This session guides a meditation that opens from embodied awareness into the jhānas: attention settles in posture and relaxation, notices what is prominent in experience, and relates lightly to any hindrances through the awakening factors (sati, dhamma-vicaya, viriya). The breath is used as an anchor within a broad, whole-body “sensate cloud”, tuning to pleasure, well-being, happiness, and calm as the practice moves through the first three jhānas and towards the equipoise of the fourth, with awareness relaxing into a spacious, effortless steadiness.

From that basis, Tejananda introduces a pointing-out teaching attributed to Guru Padmasambhava, unpacking three contemplations: past thoughts leave no trace, future thoughts are not yet arisen, and present mind rests in its own condition without fabrication. The emphasis stays on recognising rigpa/vidyā as ordinary, lucid clarity without an observer, and the session closes with chanting the Padmasambhava (Vajra Guru) mantra.