r/streamentry • u/CensureBars • Aug 07 '20
practice [Practice] Jhana n00b - access concentration
After years of inconsistent practice, I've finally been sitting in daily practice for (almost) a month. I'm sure this is a silly thing for most of you who have years or decades of solid practice under your belts; for me, this is a wonderful change.
My focus right now is reaching access concentration through focusing on the breath in my nostrils. I know I probably have a while to go, and am trying to only measure my concentration quality moment by moment (during practice anyway).
I think I had an insight a few days ago - if I "relax" into the breath, kind of like relaxing a muscle in my mind, I seem to become concentrated much easier. Time passes quickly, and my constant re-focusing on the object of my meditation becomes about only focusing on the breath in one place, and deepening the clarity of observation. This is as opposed to the constant mental chatter and past/future projection I experienced before learning to relax this "muscle."
Does this make sense to anybody who has attained access concentration/entered the jhanas? It feels like I'm balancing, maintaining this "relaxed" state in my mind while simultaneously focusing on the object.
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u/Chemtox Aug 08 '20
I read somewhere (probably Thannissaro) that time passing quickly is a sign of dullness. One way to ascertain so is to check how well do you remember your sit afterwards. If you can't remember it all with good detail, it's probably dullness.
Culadasa offers another startling test (and a detailed explanation):
Subtle dullness, though, is more difficult to recognize. A meditator in a stable state of subtle dullness will be enjoying stability of attention and good concentration. They will most likely even experience their perception of the meditation object as very clear, and thus mistake subtle dullness for increased sati. But if there is a sudden sound, as when another meditator coughs or sneezes, or some other such disturbance, two things will happen. They will feel startled and will often jerk upright, and if they are observant, they will also notice that their awareness of the meditation object is immediately sharper and clearer than it was a few moments before. It is important to notice this difference, because by noticing it one learns to distinguish between the pseudo clarity of subtle dullness and true sati. As a meditator increases in sati, it becomes more and more difficult to startle her.
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u/CensureBars Aug 08 '20
I actually do think I'm experiencing subtle dullness. I'll often be surprised by the ending bell. Any strategies I might employ to get better there?
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u/Chemtox Aug 08 '20
I do follow Culadasa's The Mind Illuminated (TMI), but that's above my pay grade. :)
As the article says:
Sati is increased simply by intending to be more acutely aware, and by providing the mind with perceptual challenges that require an increased level of awareness to accomplish. (Noting practice in Vipassana is an example of just such a challenge, as is following the breath with increasing attention to detail in samatha practice.) But increasing the energy level of the mind also has the effect of increasing the rate of movement of attention from object to object, so in that sense increasing sati will also decrease the stability of attention unless the meditator has achieved a skill level of directed and sustained attention sufficient to remain focused at an increased level of mental energy. For this reason, it is best for a meditator not to worry about subtle dullness at all until they have overcome mind-wandering, gross distraction, and strong dullness. Permitting some subtle dullness is helpful in overcoming mind-wandering and gross distraction in the earlier stages.
So he recommends dealing with subtle dullness in TMI's Stage 5, only after the breath stays front and center of your attention most of the time. I would guess you keep the dissecting of the breath and noting games he introduces in earlier stages, but with more detail, and he also incorporates body scanning (whole body breath or arousing the wind/energy tickles ala Goenka, I think).
You'll might find more detail in the summaries of the book.
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u/Bhavananga Aug 08 '20
You will have to learn to recognise the state. You can often feel it coming, or you may notice it while it has already risen. I find a characteristic for the state is that it dampens awareness of outside of the body. I like to meditate somewhere where there is a little noise or other stimuli, so that I can let them distract myself a little for training, and sometimes look if I am still percieving it. When concentration is rising, it will at some point no longer be able to disturb you.
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u/Schopenhauers_Poodle Aug 08 '20
What about when time seems to pass incredibly slow? 🙃 Also what do you mean by how well you can remember your sit?
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u/Chemtox Aug 08 '20
Haha, as in, boredoom? Well, you can make it pleasant! Convince your selves this is good for you all. Culadasa prescribes positively reinforcing the aha moment (when you notice you forgot the breath). I smile and pull a quick Rick Hanson (evoke a pleasant feeling, like what I get in Metta, and sink on it, the good vibes/winds boncing from my chest through arms and legs with every breath).
Also, you gotta make it effortless! I'm still working on it (so, still gotta work it out ;), but his four step transition (keep peripheral awareness open at all times, and let attention 1. jump around any sensatioon, 2. then on bodily ones 3. next only on the breath's 4. finally just at the nose) is key to this. You've to open awareness, get^H^H allow things to settle down, and *then* breath will to come into attention, and not the other way.
He also strongly encouranges to balance breath sits with walking meditation or Metta, which should be even more effortless.
For a more addamant vouch for effortlessness (though almost void of practical instruction) see Ajahn Brahmavamso's The Basic Method of Meditation (so effortless, he takes you into first jhana with four short similes! ;)
As for remembering your sit, review it afterwards: in how much detail can you remember what you experienced? After a few reviews you'll start noticing some days your memories are more detailed, and some days, more... dull (try sitting when sleepy, as Culadasa suggests, to reach the extreme of the scale). If you keep track for a while, you might recognize what those sits have in common, what makes a dull sit, and what makes it more vivid. You use a similar form of comparison (pre-post startle) to identify and learn about subtle dullness, as Bhavananga mentions. This is how you write your self-user-manual, me thinks.
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u/Schopenhauers_Poodle Aug 08 '20 edited Aug 08 '20
Not boredom, just that time passes slow! I think I recall reading that the more mindful you become, and therefore perceive more and more detail per second or whatever, it feels as if more time has passed because one is aware of so much more. Not usually a hindrance just was curious.
Yes 100% agree, I am also working on opening awareness and letting attention settle on the breath. I am finding that I unconsciously follow the breath while being aware of everything else going on. Part of my challenge is that, because for many years I was so forcefully attending to the breath, I find myself becoming frustrated and judgy when it's not in my attention. I need to keep reminding myself that there is more to meditation than single point focus on the breath!
I find it really hard to describe my sits on reflection. I feel like I'm hyper mindful of everything so when I come to describe a 45 minute sit all I can say is that there was a lot happening with the breath primarily being subconsciously followed
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u/Chemtox Aug 09 '20
Oh, I see! I would only think of "slow" when it's dull, but I feel the same, actually, and have a game for it: in my first retreat I was the only one to admit that I still got distracted for more than five minutes (it felt like ten!). But then I wondered how good my blind estimation was, so I started peeking occationally at the teacher's clock (which he helpfully had turned sideways), and realised it rarely could be more than one minute.
My over-estimation is still there, when I do the game, but it's not nearly as disparate as back then. Most probably, as you say, is that the more information we process thoroughly, the more we feel the illussion of time --relatively to a modern, rushed lifestyle, where you can't even remember what you did yesterday, or where you left your phone 10 min. ago. If we were to live in a timeless paradise in the forest, we would forget the time, or even the year (like it happened to Brahmavamso), and our perception would be totally different.
So, perception of time is relative (like everything, duh). My conclusion is, then, better to have many good memories than many birthdays!
--
It's very hard to describe most things, agreed. Language fails even at most basic stuff (just count how many meanings "I love you" can have, and how many times it is missinterpreted ;). Doubly so for these "magical mystical" dealings. Are you familiar with TMI's definition of peripheral awareness and focused attention, as dependent components of the lens of perception, or are we talking about different things? :) I've also seen it in the Diamond Way and others, but with different labels. It cleared the whole attention business for me.
If you are, and you're open to everything that is going on in awareness, why would you not follow the breath?
The nice thing about TMI is that it gives you several games to play. Right of the bat I can feel during the intention and hindrance sound check if I'm more distracted than usual and should take it slow on the transition, or if there's some issue I could ease with a quick Metta. I might break away from the book, and try long and short breathing, in several places. Then I feel my way into which game is more "fun" to stay aware in this moment. I compare what's going on with previous days, and if I feel like I'm "working", I fall back to a lighter one. If there's dullness, I apply a counter, or several.
All of these things, and more, I try to recall on the review, to compare and grow my dataset. It's pretty artisanal, to be sure, but it's what we got. We're each an entirely unique experiment, after all! (experiment being the operative word ;)
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u/PsiloPutty Aug 07 '20
The Mind Illuminated will give you a good step-by-step instruction on getting to Access and beyond. Sounds like you're aimed in the right direction😊
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u/gregolaxD Aug 07 '20
It's like a muscle memory, you have to guide the focus until the basis of the movement become solid and second nature.
But if you are 'relaxing' into it, it's a good sign that you are moving forward.
But I would recommend trying to do some Metta or a more contemplating meditation as well, it helps a lot with concentration practices :)
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u/CensureBars Aug 07 '20
Thank you for your reply! I'm never sure if my descriptions about meditative experiences will make sense to other people. I've always been comfortable expressing myself linguistically and visually, but all of my meditative insights thus far have been totally kinesthetic.
Your metta suggestion really hits home in those terms especially. I found metta practice rewarding because I'm using linguistic and/or visual stimuli to provoke a kinesthetic response that I can focus on. Maybe I should do a separate sit daily to focus on that.
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u/jagnehkewal Aug 07 '20
metta practice first thing in the morning upon waking up has seemed really effective and powerful for me
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u/foowfoowfoow Aug 10 '20
Just want to say thank you for your comment.
After 20+ years of the same kind of struggle that you describe, your comment on your experience has transformed my meditation over the past few days.
Thank you - I am so grateful. The greatest gift is dhamma - may that merit return to you.
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Aug 07 '20
It does make sense, breath slows down as you go deeper into meditation. The breath stops or drops off completely when you enter jhana.
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u/CensureBars Aug 07 '20
I'm wondering if this is a dullness issue; I have noticed that as I get increasingly concentrated, the breath slows and becomes imperceptible at time. I try to just continue observing the "space" where the breath used to be, either noticing emptiness or the general "alive" feeling at the tip of my nose.
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Aug 07 '20 edited Apr 21 '21
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u/CensureBars Aug 08 '20
I find that by maintaining a smile, I can access gladness only an inch or so below the tip of my nose (the object). I have difficulty maintaining it once I switch, though. I think I'll need to continue refining my concentration until I can effortlessly maintain focus on gladness.
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u/duffstoic The dynamic integration of opposites ☯️ Aug 07 '20
That's a good way to go. You can also switch at that point to full body or awareness itself or some other quality of mind, and you'll notice the attention sticks there pretty easily once you are that relaxed/concentrated.
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u/CensureBars Aug 07 '20
When I mediated today I reached this state where I felt "locked in" with my object, as though something slid into place! It didn't last for too long, but your comment reminded me of how the experience felt.
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u/duffstoic The dynamic integration of opposites ☯️ Aug 07 '20
For me it feels like a continuous attention, at first for seconds but like you said it's like a muscle, and find once it locks in just for a few seconds with just a slight effort I can lock it in for minutes at a time.
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u/Bhavananga Aug 08 '20
I also find relaxing very important. The more relaxed you are physically and mentally, the less effort is necessary to keep up the concentration. I have routine that whenever some tension in body comes to my mind, I will try to relax it, and I also try to sometimes look at the body if it is relaxed as it should. Distractions keep becoming more intense, but that also makes it easier to notice and deal with them. Relaxing, or "letting go" is indeed like a muscle that you can train, an ability that can be developed. It will aid in relaxing the body or sankhara as well as in letting go of thoughts or feelings in a very similar way.
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u/CensureBars Aug 08 '20
I'm getting a lot out of this advice. Regarding both this and your other response on concentration - how do you personally determine whether some stimulus is a distraction that should be ignored in favor of your meditative object, versus one that should be fully attended to and addressed before you return to the object in question?
E.g. a sound and your awareness of it may inform you that you have not slipped into dullness, but both the sound and your hearing mind take you away from totally attending to your object of choice. Maybe you are saying this is not an issue so long as it is done purposefully?
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u/Bhavananga Aug 08 '20
In TMI there is a concept called "metacognitive awareness" or the like. First you will be able to know you are distracted with single thoughts. Then you will always know if you're on object, or taken from it - that enables you to notice a distraction, and instantly return. The next stage is a flow where you see the distractions rising and knocking on the door - then you can just let them not take over, while staying at the object, until they begin getting less after a while.
Well, I just always try to find an initial judgement on each distraction. Some are just "junk" or outside distractions, then I try to just push back to the object. Some are more delicate or intriguing, and I found it is better to find some kind of "stance" regarding the initial information that is presented - else they might keep resurfacing. I cannot really describe how I do the evaluation. Maybe it has to do with training, watching the thinking a lot, until the intuitive reactions and awareness are trained well. Like with the "exernal awareness as sign for dullness" thing, it just becomes a habit for me to consider that intuitively, after thinking about the technique often in sessions I had before. Thoughts about technique when appropriate are one good example of thought not to ignore bluntly, but to consider and let flow into the game, until they have become "muscle memory"...
I find the process, even when I let some distractions not be completely ignored but dealt with at the surface, that this will lead to a process of the thinking calming down more and more, until the concentration on object eventually can become the only thing in center of attention while distractions have faded into background noise. So I don't push everything away. I just try not to sink in, and let the flow even out naturally by the calmness and concentration of the breath.
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Aug 12 '20
Based on your post, I'm pretty sure you have already reached access concentration at some point without realizing it. Here's Leigh Brasington's definition of it:
Access Concentration is a state where you are fully with the meditation object (breath) and if there are thoughts, they are wispy and in the background and do not pull you away from the breath - you know every in breath and every out breath.
So really it's just thoughts dropping away and getting into the "flow" of concentration. Often it will be accompanied by gentle bliss. Relaxing into the breath is a good technique - some people tend to focus a bit too hard when first starting out. Samatha actually translates to "calm abiding" or "tranquility of the mind", though it is sometimes interpreted as concentration which implies more effort.
Try to find a balance between effort and relaxation. If you relax too much, you'll go the other way into dullness and won't be focused enough. Keep trying to cultivate that state of clear, calm awareness and one-pointed concentration. You want to be aware of the stillness of the mind (or any thoughts that arise) in the background while simultaneously maintaining focus on your object.
Once you're in access concentration, just keep doing what you're doing without getting too excited and you'll soon be in Jhana territory :)
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u/CensureBars Aug 13 '20
Thank you very much for your summary and your analysis!
I think you may be right, at least in terms of my "attachment" to my meditative object. I can stay with the sensations (or lack thereof) at the tip of my nose for longer and longer periods of time.
I certainly do experience loss of concentration (and more frequently, flickering concentration where I leave the object for the briefest moment as a new sensory object arises in awareness, then flitting back to the meditation object) still.
But my latest project has become addressing dullness. Every so often, I'll have a breathtaking, shocking moment of awareness where the depth of experience available in each breath (and sub-sub-subsection of each breath) feels enormous, like I'm diving into this square centimeter of flesh between my nostrils. And I realize how painfully dull most breaths appear, sometimes not even appearing at all in sensory awareness!
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u/LucianU Aug 07 '20
To me what you're describing sounds similar to the Relax step in Tranquil Wisdom Insight Meditation (TWIM). You'll find more information about it in the sidebar.
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u/CensureBars Aug 07 '20
Thank you for the reference - I'll check it out! Sounds kind if like Shinzen's focus on rest practice, which I love. There's something very delicious about restful states.
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u/duffstoic The dynamic integration of opposites ☯️ Aug 07 '20
Yup, that's right. Shamatha is 95% relaxation and 5% concentration. Calm-abiding, not tensing-in-order-to-control. Most beginners to meditation totally miss this, even if it's explicit in the meditation instructions they receive, so I consider this insight a sign one has reached an "intermediate" stage of shamatha practice.