The Related Suttas Collection 40.2

1. By Moggallāna

A Question About the Second Absorption

“They speak of this thing called the 'second jhāna'. What is the second jhāna? It occurred to me: ‘As the thougths being born and the sustained analysis going on are stilled, a bhikkhu enters and remains in the second jhāna, which has the (mental) joy and (bodily) pleasure born of samādhi, with internal clarity and mind at one, without thougths being born and without sustained analysis going on. This is called the second jhāna.’

And so … I was entering and remaining in the second jhāna. While I was in that meditation, perceptions accompanied by thougths being born beset me due to loss of focus.

Then the Buddha came up to me with his psychic power and said, ‘Moggallāna, Moggallāna! Don’t neglect the second jhāna, brahmin! Settle your mind in the second jhāna; unify your mind and immerse it in the second jhāna.’

And so, after some time … I entered and remained in the second jhāna.

So if anyone should be rightly called a disciple who attained to great direct knowledge with help from the Teacher, it’s me.”