Deep Jhana Meditation
Video + Coaching w/Vern.

About

[Page updated 1 Jan 2025]

Contact Vern here >

This page covers the “About” for Jhana8.com and founder, meditation teacher, author, and coach, Vern Lovic. If you’d like to skip this page and send Vern a comment or question, just go to this page – Contact.

What is Jhana8? The website name refers to the 8th Jhana in Theravada Buddhism. The eighth Jhana is the final Jhana Buddha experienced before enlightenment.

Photo of Vern Lovic, meditation teacher, author, and coach.
Ahh, the shaka sign. Something I adopted while staying in Hawaii for years. It means, hang loose. No worries. No stress.

Who are you? Vern Lovic, I’m an American living in Thailand for the last 20 years.

Location? Krabi, Thailand.

Education? I have a BA in psychology and an MA in rehabilitation counseling psychology.

Work Experience? For nearly four years, I worked with children as a counselor and Big Brother (Tampa’s Respite Program) for kids who had been sexually and physically abused by caretakers and strangers. For just over a year, I also worked at the Cognitive Rehab Institute in Tampa, FL. to help adults and teens who had suffered traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Since 1996 I’ve been working in the tech field. Currently creating online businesses and selling them. One of my passions lately is KrabiNature.com where I create bird tours, reptile tours at night, and bug, frog, bat, spiders & scorpions tours! It’s great fun!

Path? Here is an abbreviated look at my meditative path and attainments (VIDEO).

Links

Books written

All of my digital and paperback books for sale are listed here – Amazon Author Page.

If you’re considering reading one of my books, the easiest to get started with is MFB A 22-Day Course. It’s short and very easy to read. I wanted that book to be the easiest book to teach meditation ever written. I didn’t quite succeed, but it has been read by over 80,000 people since 2008.

Meditation background? I began in the mid-1990s. There’s a bio below if you’re interested in finding out more.

Do you have any videos? Yes! My YouTube page is Jhana Meditation (Meditation for Beginners).

Why Aren’t Your Meditation Books Free?

This question is asked more times than probably any other. I understand why. It seems odd to pay for information about meditation. Doesn’t it?

I put hundreds of hours into making this website and the videos at YouTube. I would have gladly done it as a public service, but I wasn’t (and still am not) in a position where money doesn’t matter. We recently had baby #2 and with trying to recover from a loss of income during COVID, our finances are tighter than ever.

Living in Thailand is a blessing and yet it comes with some obstacles to get over. One obstacle is that foreigners cannot be employed doing jobs Thais can do. There is a long list of occupations that are off-limits for us, so my job possibilities are few. I can teach. I can work for a dive shop as a dive instructor. I don’t like to dive, so I’m left with teaching.

I’ve taught some and to be honest, I feel like I’m doing the kids a disservice. I’m not really a teacher of kids. I enjoy it, but that’s kind of beside the point!

So far, I can still work online, so that’s what I do.

So I write. I make websites. I sell a website when possible. I keep those sites that are dear to me, like Jhana8.com.

I offer the books for a small fee – never more than around $10 for a paperback and the eBooks are usually $4.99 or less.

I do understand that even these prices can be impossible for some people to manage.

So I offer any book you want for free in that case. Just email me and let me know you’d like the book, and I’ll send a PDF version.

Fair enough?

🙂

Donations?

Some people have asked if they can make donations to us here. We’ve lived in Thailand for 20 years and never accepted any donations. Recently I was asked again by someone if they could donate.

Nearly 30 years ago, when the deep Jhanas were first experienced, there began this state of mind where money meant nothing important. It wasn’t the focus anymore. It wasn’t thought of much except to get through the month. Luckily before I got well into these deeper states of meditation I had already created some small online businesses that were doing OK.

Over time, and as my oldest daughter reached 15 the other day I realized that this complete absence of focusing on money isn’t sustainable anymore. There are bills to pay with 2 kids and I’m trying to play catch up.

I love to work, and have been working on creating websites, writing books, making videos, and now coaching meditation.

Unfortunately, we’re not in a position where things are taken care of and it has been a real struggle since one of our websites was hacked pre-Covid and Covid helped to destroy most of our other income streams.

So, with that said, if you’d like to donate – I mean really love to donate and it won’t hurt you financially – our Paypal.com address is: [email protected]. Better to just copy/paste it into PayPal to be sure it’s right. If you don’t have Paypal but have Crypto – just let us know and we’ll send you our Bitcoin address (empty at the moment, but can accept transfers).

Thank you for your help and kindness, it’s so much appreciated.

Pages: Contact | Privacy

Social Media

Why Jhana 8?

I’ve been considering whether to create a site like this for some time. A visit to YouTube to search for videos about Jhana turned up only a few Buddhist monks from Thailand, USA, and India talking about what the Buddha said about Jhana.

That was odd to me because there are many people that have experienced some level of the Jhanas – and yet – why isn’t anyone telling about it?

Why isn’t anyone helping those who aren’t having Jhana?

I’ve been lucky or blessed or however you want to term it – to have spent time in all eight Jhanas. Before I even knew they had a name. Hence the name of the site – Jhana8.com, because Jhana.com was already taken!

Was it difficult to reach a place where Jhana would visit?

Sure, it was difficult… but mostly it was sort of fun and difficult. That might sound like a contradiction to many of you who have worked hard to go further down the path and hope to see Jhana.

The bad news is… it doesn’t just arrive on its own.

The good news is… you can prepare yourself by following a few simple practices.

Getting there is up to you. Neither I, nor anyone else can give Jhana to you. There is some work to be done. It isn’t complicated, but it is important to follow closely the suggestions I’ll give you to open the door.

Vern’s Bio (abbreviated)

It’s probably much easier to watch this video, but if you want to read it, have fun!

A little about my background.

I had training in meditation from a Thai doctor in the USA. He was my father-in-law for a while. I think the simplicity of his teaching was to my benefit. I think it’s profoundly difficult for Buddhist monks and others attempting to follow strict Buddhist methods of meditation to get very far down the path.

Evidence for that is over the past 20+ years of looking I’ve not met many people at all who have experienced Jhanas 2-8. And, I’ve looked hard. I know of a few people that appear to have had some of the higher Jhanas… but I haven’t met them in person. Certainly, some of their descriptions seem to be right on.

Here in Thailand over the last 19+ years, I’ve met many Theravada monks and nuns… abbots of Buddhist temples. I have yet to find someone who is enlightened.

That’s very strange to me.

Is it strange to you?

There are millions of people across the globe attempting to do what the Buddha originally did. They’re not going about it the way the Buddha did though. They’re following the Buddhist system which came after Buddha reached Nibbana.

How many were successful over the course of history? How many had definitely gone up to and through the 8th Jhana?

I’m not sure, but I fear there may be very few.

Where are these people?

How many have experienced the eighth Jhana or beyond? One out of 10,000? 100,000? One out of 100 million?

Those numbers don’t add up for me. It doesn’t make sense that I can get to a stage where Jhanas came within a year. Without a teacher. Just by following what the Buddha did and without following the Buddhist rules for monks.

I’m nobody special I assure you. Whether what happened before my birth in this body had anything to do with anything at all – I don’t profess to have the slightest idea. I don’t believe in reincarnation – rebirth – karma – or anything like that. Not yet, anyway. The option is there, and my mind is open to whatever is experienced. I am not close-minded to possibilities.

I say yet because there have been some experiences I cannot explain logically, with my rational mind – they happened – no doubt.

How did they happen?

I’ll go into it some on this site with some of my meditation journals from years back – and some recent ones. The topic here is Abhinna. There are said to be 6 supernatural powers that become available to some people as they progress down the path.

Jhana8 is for those who would like to experience Jhanas. I’ll do my best – with what I know, to share with you how you can reach these states of mind.

I know they are not unattainable. I firmly believe your past lives (if such things exist) have little or nothing to do with whether you can experience Jhana in this life.

The problem is, that you are in a catch-22. You have probably been taught that Jhana is either the path to enlightenment or part of the path… to the ultimate freedom from pain… from suffering.

Buddhists call suffering – dukkha. I’m not well-versed in what Buddhists call different experiences and factors of meditation. I didn’t know any of them (virtually) when I started to sit and watch the breath.

You need not know them either. Believe it or not.

This site was created with the intention of being a “Meditation for Beginners” site, but with some advanced tips and articles about what meditation does to someone who goes through the Jhanas and other experiences.

The path.

As one goes along the path there are many changes that happen, and I enjoy writing about them here.

I hope I can help even one person – beginner or expert – experience Jhanas. If I can do that – wow, what a cool thing to have shared with someone else!

Maybe it will be you?

I think it’s not that difficult… the main problem will be getting over the main problem that exists which is this:

Jhana won’t visit you unless your mind is free from attachment… from craving, from excitement about possibly experiencing a Jhana state.

It need not be completely free from these things, but at least for minutes at a time as you meditate, yes, there must be no trace of them. It may sound impossible, I know.

But, the mind in the meditative state as you concentrate fully, 100% on the breath, is able to sort of blank the mind. Craving or excitement about possibly reaching Jhana is not present as strongly, and sometimes not at all.

How can you forget about Jhana’s importance? As soon as you grasp at it for just a fraction of a second your chance at starting a Jhana just slips away.

It might be very close to coming, and yet – when you get excited, anticipate it, crave it… it fades away.

The less important Jhana is to you – the better chance you have of experiencing it.

Monks and other regular practitioners of 20+ years have a much smaller chance of having Jhana visit… you might have a much better chance.

Myself – I had very little knowledge of levels or states that occur in the mind as one meditates. Jhana didn’t mean anything to me when it came… sure it was amazing… but, I was following a very simple process… watch what happens… don’t attach to it with the mind. It will pass.

And everything that came up did pass.

Jhana 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 all passed as I let go of the features present in the mind as the Jhana was taking place. It is much easier not to grasp at Jhana when they are not built up in your mind as part of the ‘end-game.’

Even better if you don’t even know what they are at all, like I didn’t.

Have I been enlightened? Honestly, I’m not sure what that word means, or if it really has any objective meaning in today’s world. There is a lot of disagreement about what the word means. What the state is. Ajahn Punnadhammo even says there is no way to describe enlightenment to an unenlightened person.

Buddha is said to have reached this stage that he and others called ‘enlightenment.’ Nibbana.

What if, during our meditative path, we reach a different stage? Something similar or different? What if our path is slightly different, or even exactly the same, and yet we reach a stage that is not the same?

Buddha was a different person. In a different era. With vastly different beliefs. With a history of contemplation and meditative practice. Even denying himself basic things… food, sleep, sex.

I’m not at all sure we should want what the Buddha had. But, we’ve been told we should.

But I’m not convinced.

I think there are MANY other end-games that can result from a practice of focusing on the breath.

I seem to have reached one.

My mind has changed – no doubt. My current state of functioning is quite different from anyone I know or have heard about.

Am I enlightened in the same sense as the Buddha, 2567 years ago?

No, I think not. But I’m not really sure what enlightenment means. I don’t know what to believe it is… who can really talk about it unless they’ve experienced it?

So, that is a bit of what this site is about. Have a look around here and see if there’s anything you can take into your practice that might help you change for the better as a person.

That’s where the real magic of meditation occurs. Not so much in trying to end up in the same place a guy did 2567+ years ago.

With metta, compassion, and concern for you,

Vern Lovic
Krabi, Thailand

More about Vern, experiences overview + more, state of Vern’s mind, Questions/Answers

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8 thoughts on “About”

  1. Hi Vern,

    I am an electronics engineer and an MBA in finance and marketing. I have had a good career of about 14 years but about 10 years ago i caught my nemesis, depression and anxiety. I lived with it for about 9 years (with medicine providing no satisfactory solution) and an year ago i had to quit my job because of panic attacks – 3 to 4 per day. To someone who may not know how that feels like I would say – good!! nobody should know what that feels like.

    I quit my job and taught myself how to meditate. Concentration, momentary concentration, mindfulness of breath, body, thoughts, feelings, emotions, everything – the whole 9 yards. I meditated for 3-4 hours every day. I was unemployed and fully committed to the idea of hacking my brain. I am employed again and thus have only about an hour and a half each day to meditate.

    Since the last couple of months I have been practicing jhanas 1 to 6. jhanas 7 and 8 elude me.

    Just started reading about you and your site – i haven’t explored all of it – and what I have read so far made me want to get in touch with you. I haven’t explored the ‘how to’ of gaining the siddhi powers. I am inclined to believe that they are a con. but I am open minded in the sense that I would not pass a final judgment on anything unless I have conclusive proof of either position (yes or no) preferably through my own direct experience.

    I would love to interact with you. By email at first and hopefully by skype or telephone call in the future. I am not some kook writing in as kooks do, I am not a troll trying to pull you down. I desperately seek someone who has experience of the jhanas ( and the siddhis / abhinnas) and someone who is not at all religious – just like me.

    I have started a blog to help people. I have put up 5 or 6 posts so far. It is styled like a self help book and it will always be free for ever. Its my contribution towards helping folks eliminate suffering. Please do go through it. It kind of establishes me as – not a kook. 🙂 Here is the link. https://skillfulbeing.blogspot.com/

    I am a very proud, very private person. As a consequence I have a great deal of respect for other people’s personal space and privacy. Do interact with me, you might enjoy it. And if you don’t, we will have a chilled beer, sitting in our respective cities and bid each other farewell.

    From Mumbai, India
    Aaditya

  2. I think we did chat by email since this… if not, please email me at the contact page on Jhana8.com. Cheers!

  3. Hi Vern. Anumodana for providing this collection. May I suggest that you put a date in each file to say when it was last updated. Also be very useful to have the GPS coordinates.

  4. Hi Mike, OK I will try to do that. Makes sense. Anything in particular you want gps for? I can do now. Cheers…

  5. are you still around? I just saw this again and thought it would be nice to see where you are on the path…

  6. Hi Vern,
    I have communicated with you before. It’s a long-shot, but I’ll be in the Roi Et area from approx Feb 12-March 8. Not sure where you are right now but if you are within a few hours drive I would love to catch up for a chat if possible. Many things in common-aside from meditation snakes. Hope all is Good for you and family. Cheers

  7. Hi Ken, I’m going to just miss you. I’ll be coming up to Mukdahan to do a Savannakhet border crossing shortly after you leave. 🙁 We can do a video chat if you want. Let me know! Cheers man.

  8. Hi again Vern,
    Sorry about a delayed response, I have been waiting to ascertain my latest holiday schedules. Looks like I’m still leaving Roi et area tomorrow for Bangkok so will probably miss you unless you happen to be passing through Bangkok between the 5-9th March. Not sure where you are living just now? Anyway, it was worth a try and would have been great to discuss Thailand in general as I’m still entertaining the idea of living here for a year or two down the track. Also to discuss meditation including a “Savikalpa Samadhi” (best match) experience I had several decades ago which changed my life. Similar to an NDE regarding a Bliss and primal Reality “beyond” time and space, but essentially beyond description. Also likewise very interested in your Jhana experiences-and snakes of course! Anyway, Cheers for now or email me if you wish.

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