Rūpajhānas
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rūpajhānas (Sanskrit: rūpadhyāna "meditations of form", literally "form meditations") are successive levels of meditation in which the mind is focused on a material or mental object: it is a word frequently used in Pāli scriptures and to a lesser extent in the Mahayana scriptures. Each higher level is harder to reach than the previous one as it relinquishes an attachment to one of the positive experiences of the previous state. The meditations of form are distinguished from arūpajhāna (Skt: arūpadhyāna "formless meditations") which are meditations focused without material or mental objects (i.e., meditations on infinite space, on infinite consciousness, on nothingness, and beyond perception and non-perception)