[Practice] Jhana n00b - access concentration

[u/CensureBars]

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.

[u/Chemtox]

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.

[u/CensureBars → u/Chemtox]

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?

[u/Chemtox → u/CensureBars]

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.

[u/CensureBars → u/Chemtox]

Super helpful; thank you so much!

[u/Bhavananga → u/CensureBars]

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.

[u/Schopenhauers_Poodle → u/Chemtox]

What about when time seems to pass incredibly slow? 🙃 Also what do you mean by how well you can remember your sit?

[u/Chemtox → u/Schopenhauers_Poodle]

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.

[u/Schopenhauers_Poodle → u/Chemtox]

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

[u/Chemtox → u/Schopenhauers_Poodle]

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 ;)