Unbound Joy.
Ungraspable Freedom.
Coaching for learning the Jhanas and recognizing Nonduality
Jhanas
Beautiful, absorptive meditative states — from ecstatic bliss, to deep quiet contentment, to a dissolving into formless peace — taught through learning to open to your emotional life rather than override it.
Nonduality
Underneath the sense of being a separate self trying to find completion, there’s a freedom already present — unconditional, and available to be recognized right now.
ABOUT
Jonas Mahari
Discovering nonduality has been the single most impactful thing in my life. Over time, it has led to an immense reduction of my suffering and to a baseline wellbeing that still surprises me.
Learning the Jhanas has had an immensely healing and integrating effect on me, teaching me to relate to my emotions — especially the difficult ones — with a kindness I didn’t have before.
I’ve attended 20+ retreats, lived several months in a meditation center, and been coaching since 2021. I’m trained as a Three Principles coach, completed the Unified Mindfulness Foundations Teacher Training, and currently teach the Jhanas as a lead facilitator with Jhourney.
A CLOSER LOOK
Jhanas
The jhanas are eight states of meditative absorption, ranging from ecstatic bliss, to deep quiet contentment, to a felt sense of unity or dissolution into formless peace. They’re an important practice in some schools of Buddhism, and in recent years have become more accessible to a wider public of meditators through several contemporary teachers. There are different interpretations of what the Jhanas are, how deep an absorption they entail, and what their main purpose is. I teach the open aware Jhanas, most strongly influenced by the Jhourney approach: rather than building strong concentration on an object like the breath, as is often taught, you learn to cultivate such a genuine, embodied enjoyment of a positive emotion that the mind becomes fully absorbed in it.
The jhanic states are by themselves incredibly beautiful and healing. But what makes this approach especially potent is that in order to reach them, you’ll have to meet the emotions you’ve been avoiding too, and learn to open toward them instead of suppressing them. Since much of our suffering comes from trying to avoid challenging emotion, learning to relate to them with openness and kindness instead can be really transformative. So learning the Jhanas this way usually entails a deepening of emotional intelligence, working through shadow material, and expanding our ability to hold and enjoy emotional intensity. But instead of a grim grinding through pain, this approach is about bringing wonder, playfulness and self-compassion to your experience, and learning to find more and more enjoyment in everything that shows up
Nonduality
We usually experience and think of ourselves as a separate entity — a someone somehow living inside a body, a thinker of thoughts and controller of the body, moving through a world that is solid and out there, separate from us. Inherent in this mode of being is the sense that something is missing, a sometimes subtle, sometimes strong search for something that could complete us.
Nonduality points to the possibility of recognizing that this separation is only apparent. The sense of being this separate entity can be seen through. We discover ourselves to be not what we thought we were — what we discover is no-thing: not separate from anything, not graspable by the mind, not bound by time.
Recognizing Nonduality can be very simple — it’s really just seeing something that has already always been here, but has been overlooked. But it can also feel difficult and elusive, both because of our deeply ingrained habit of trying to figure it out with the conceptual mind, which gets in the way of simply looking at what is, and because of the expectations we hold about how this recognition should look, which can lead us to disregard what we see simply because it’s so simple and obvious.
Without the sense of being the separate self, the search for something better than what is can relax. The background of restlessness can dissolve. There can be a freedom from believing the thoughts and stories about who you are, from needing to earn your own okay-ness, from feeling like life is a difficult puzzle you need to figure out. There can be a sense of truly coming home in an existential sense — of a peace and joy that has no reasons, and of an ungraspable freedom.
Approaching Nonduality, we encounter more and more paradoxes — that’s just the nature of moving beyond the linear, dualistic mind. One of them is that it’s at the same time something really simple and obvious, something we on some level already always knew — and mind-blowingly amazing and wonderful.
When working together toward nondual recognition, a lot of what I do is point you directly at this overlooked, already present dimension of being, and deconstruct the conceptual overlays that seem to veil it. There isn’t much to teach or learn here — it’s really about you looking with openness and curiosity at your actual experience. Only what you see for yourself will make a real difference for you, so my role is less that of a teacher giving you new knowledge, and more that of a guide directing your attention to the relevant things.
How do the Jhanas and Nonduality relate?
The Jhanas are specific meditative states, attained through applying a specific technique. Recognizing nonduality is becoming aware of something that’s always already the case, independent of states and techniques. You can experience nondual states in the later Jhanas and yet have no clear recognition of Nonduality. You can be clearly aware of Nonduality and have no access to the Jhanas, or even a meditation practice. Yet both share a common result: they reduce the habitual resistance we bring to our experience, and with that, the suffering we experience.
Opening up emotionally through jhana practice reduces the neurotic struggle that’s one of the hallmarks of the sense of separation. The nondual experiences of the later Jhanas can serve as entry points into exploring nonduality more directly. And on the other hand, if the recognition of nonduality goes deep or settles in enough, states of deep bliss and peace are often a side effec, so that the Jhanas may open up much more easily, or even happen spontaneously.
How we work together
Sessions look different depending on you and what you’re focused on — it can be more technical work refining jhana technique, a systematic inquiry into the nature of self, or a more free-flowing conversation.
I like to work with live exploration — looking directly into experience together, or guiding a meditation dialogically, adjusting in real time to what you’re experiencing.
Pricing
€110
/ session
€110 / session
I usually suggest starting with at least 3 sessions, so we can build some momentum together. If cost is a barrier, reach out anyway — we can usually find something that works. A free introductory call is always available first, so we can figure out together whether this is a good fit.
What clients say
“When I started doing sessions with Jonas, I had already been on the spiritual path for years, but no matter how long or hard I meditated, a real breakthrough would not come.
It was only in the sessions with Jonas that I experienced profound insights into a deeper truth. I saw through the falseness of the ego ‘I’ and even the illusion of the world as it is usually perceived. In those moments, I often burst into deep, joyful laughter, as everything suddenly became so clear and obvious. This brought a silence and peace within that I had been searching for throughout my spiritual journey.
For me, Jonas is a very special, beautiful human being who has a unique gift for helping people go deep within themselves. I am deeply grateful to him, as he has changed something profoundly in my journey.”
“After years in the Three Principles and a retreat where I’d struggled to navigate the Jhanas, I was looking for support that could meet both my background and my experience. Jonas helped me bridge my understanding of the Three Principles with the direct experience of the Jhanas. His kindness, clarity, and simple approach made deep awareness feel natural and accessible – something woven into life rather than reserved for retreats. Working with him brought a sense of ease and confidence to my practice, and a deeper appreciation for how ordinary and profound awareness can be.”
“Jonas is a real gift in my life. I‘ve met other teachers, but only with him I finally saw clearly what before I knew only on a intellectual level. Each time we speak, he points me back to my true nature, and helps me to see through the veil of thinking and illusion.
Even if they are just short glimpses, but these moments of clear seeing are so profound that they are changing completely my view of the life and the world as I knew it before.”
“I’ve been working with Jonas for several months. Despite my own years of consciousness work, I’m very grateful to have found him. Through his clarity and presence, he helps me see more clearly that I don’t need to identify with my intense thoughts. This gives me inner spaciousness, healthy neutrality, and greater equanimity. If you want to learn more about yourself and achieve greater inner peace and clarity, I warmly recommend Jonas!”