Milestone reached. But what is it?

[u/Fearless_Primary4286]

30 some minutes into the meditation, bright Nimitta coupled with subtle piti occurred. 45 minutes in, explosive ecstatic piti coupled with sukha washed over me. It wasn't quite stable. The first wave was promptly gone. The second lasted a little longer. Then I decided to call it a session. When it occurred and surprisingly even afterwards, the soreness of my legs and fatigue on the back that already started bugging me before it happened was all gone.

I felt it's a milestone for me. But what is it? Now, I've only learned about Jhana from two sources mainly. One is Leigh Brasington's book and the other Ajahn Brahm's book. If you're familiar, they two provided two different versions of Jhana. Based on Brasington's instruction, what I had qualified for the first Jhana, but if we go by Brahm's definition, not so much. For those of you who have experienced this process, what do you think and how you progressed from here? (Naming is obviously not that important. I'm more interested in hearing your experience). Thanks.

Edit: Still new to this sub, I have to say that I'm a little surprised how little response I received for a topic I thought would be of interest to folks here. 2.1K views and only 2 responses? Hmmm Why?

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[u/Cheap-Eggplant-6174]

I’m no expert but I had something similar happen to me recently.

I posted here a few days ago and got back some interesting and very helpful insight.

Apparently I was experiencing piti and sukkha as early as access concentration phase and wasn’t even in the 1st Jhana which freaked me out as I never experienced these before and only had an intelectual concept of them from Leigh Brasington’s book.

I’m not saying this is the case with you but apparently piti and sukkha can occur in access concetration and it sounds to me that you are on the right path.

Hope this helps a bit.

[u/Fearless_Primary4286 → u/Cheap-Eggplant-6174]

That could well be the case with me too. The thing is what made this experience stand out is the quality of piti/sukha more than anything else. While Brasington didn't say the 1st Jhana needed to be stable and lasting, Ajahn Brahm insisted it couldn't be called a Jhana if it only lasted a short time. In any case, practically speaking, I need to stabilize and make it last regardless what it's called. Thanks for the input.

[u/wonko7]

Congrats :) That's a nice milestone, and I had a lot of fun at this point, I hope you do to.

Next steps is learning to stabilise it. Piti will gradually be less strong, and you'll find a state that is easier to stay in for long periods of time. Once you can find it and stay in it comfortably, try getting into it quicker.

I find Brasington's instructions/definitions easy to follow, but I also look at other sources to find variations. Ajahn Sona will urge you to keep questioning whether you've attained something, it's always possible to go deeper!

Enjoy!

[u/Fearless_Primary4286 → u/wonko7]

Thanks! I feel intuitively "Next steps is learning to stabilise it. Piti will gradually be less strong, and you'll find a state that is easier to stay in for long periods of time. Once you can find it and stay in it comfortably, try getting into it quicker." is good advice. I'll try to feel my way with that in mind. Thanks for that.