| | Author: mpavoreal
Thanks for the feedback, Trent! I was thinking kasina practice would be simple, straightforward exercise to build up concentration. Got disorienting that I managed to generate all kinds of interesting forks from the beaten path. So coming back to the basic instructions to try again.
" are you feeling the mind expand and/or contract?" Recently I've been trying to keep refreshing and holding a palpable sense of the kasina -- as if someone just popped their face into my view, using counting the breath to 10 as a background reminder. With this approach I haven't really had a sense of expansion or contraction as much as just fixation on the color (unless wandering off in thought).
"Do lights become vivid or blurred?" On my laptop screen, I'm staring at the red-on-blue PowerPoint slide kindly posted on this site. I think what I'm experiencing so far is retinal effects from eyes relaxing or contracting. Most often an opaque, retinal overlay that makes the red color more vague. I've been just focusing on whether I'm concentrating on it rather than how it looks so far. (Looking forward to trying a natural object like a plate.)
"Do aspects and feelings in the mind dominate that normally are not nearly as apparent?" Not since I stopped doing the perimeter visualization. Afterwards, though, there sometimes seems evidence of more concentration.
I don't exactly know what that means to access jhanas, but definitely want to do it! I need to read more and understand the theory better. My main motivation is trying to beef up my ability to pay sustained attention while doing daily-life mindfulness, and have more insight power for noting practice. The extent to which I can pay attention and be aware has been pretty pathetic a lot of the time, -- for years.
Thanks again, Mark |