Because rapture can be either physical or mental, some of the ways of inducing it will relate to how you adjust the breath; others will relate to gladdening the mind.

"The Pāli word for “rapture” (pīti) is related to the verb pivati, to drink. Several passages in the discourses describe rapture as the food of the Radiant devas, inhabitants of a brahmā world into which meditators can be reborn through mastery of the second jhāna (DN 1; Dhp 200; AN 4:123). “Rapture” thus carries connotations of refreshment and rejuvenation. In the standard similes for the four jhānas, rapture is symbolized by movement: the movement of water through the bathman’s ball of bathing powder in the simile for the first jhāna, and the natural movement of spring water throughout the lake in the simile for the second. Only in the third jhāna, where rapture is absent, does the water of the lake fall still.

Rapture can be felt both mentally and physically, a fact indicated by two passages from the discourses. The description of the seven factors for awakening in MN 118 speaks of the meditator who has attained rapture as a factor of awakening as being “enraptured in heart.” The standard similes for the jhānas speak of the body as being permeated, pervaded, suffused, and filled with rapture when you are in the first and second jhānas.

However, rapture is not a feeling. In other words, in and of itself it is neither pleasant nor painful. Instead, it is more a quality of energy. None of the discourses describe the ways in which rapture may manifest, but later writings indicate that it can take many forms, some very gentle, others very intense: a thrill running through the body, or a wave washing over it. Some people find the resulting feeling of fullness pleasant; others find it threatening. This is largely a matter of perception. A sensation that one person perceives as quenching a thirst, another may perceive as akin to drowning. This fact in itself is an excellent indication of why perception is listed as a factor fabricating the mind, and why experience in dealing with rapture gives insight into how to handle perception skillfully in steps 7 and 8.

The fact that the sensations accompanying rapture can become unpleasant explains why the third jhāna — where rapture fades — is a more pleasant abiding than the second, and why the step of breath meditation aimed at pleasure is listed after the step aimed at rapture.

Training in rapture relates to several other steps of breathing meditation as well. Because rapture can be either physical or mental, some of the ways of inducing it will relate to how you adjust the breath in steps 3 and 4; others will relate to exercises in step 10: gladdening the mind. The highest level of rapture — what SN 36:31 calls “rapture more not-of-the-flesh than that not of the flesh” — is the rapture felt by an arahant when reflecting on the fact that his/her mind is totally free from passion, aversion, and delusion. This would result from the successful completion of steps 12 through 16.

Sukha — the word translated as “pleasure” in step 6 — is the opposite of dukkha (stress, suffering), and like dukkha it has a wide range of meanings. These include pleasure, ease, bliss, well-being, and happiness. In general, sukha can cover both physical pleasure and mental pleasure, although there are cases, such as in the third jhāna, where the mind is equanimous while sensing pleasure with the body. In cases like this, sukha is reserved for the physical pleasure, whereas mental pleasure is allotted a separate word: joy (somanassa).

In the standard similes for the jhānas, pleasure is represented by water: the water being kneaded into the ball of bath powder in the simile for the first jhāna, the water of the cool spring filling the lake in the simile for the second, and the cool water permeating the submerged lotuses in the simile for the third. Only in the fourth jhāna, where pleasure is totally replaced by equanimity, does water disappear from the simile."

~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Right Mindfulness: Memory and Ardency on the Buddhist Path"

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