Hi:

So i've been practicing meditation by watching my breath at the nostrils. I keep circulating between different styles of meditation, but now have more or less decided to stick towards one dominant style (instead of doing vipassana one day, and shamatha another etc.). Most of the literature I've read suggests watching the breath at the nostrils, so I've decided to focus on that.

However, once i spend a couple of hours doing my nostrils-based meditation, my head always seems to feel a little clogged-up. It's a little difficult to describe the feeling, but what it boils down to is that i desire to focus on some other type of object instead - say watching the breath without localizing my attention to a particular spot or watching it to the abdomen.

So my question is this - can jhana be achieved by alternating between watching the breath at the nostrils & watching the overall breath? Any thoughts or experiences you may have here will be very helpful!

thanks!
TJ

imho, the rote method of getting these jhana stages should be the first method employed.

Instead of focusing on your nostrils, consider the fact that the olfactory bulb (one of the 12 Cranial Nerves) protrudes forth into the sinuses and acts like an air meter - the fast the air flow over it, the stronger the excitatory signal produced by the olfactory nerve.

Also consider that like an air hose, the larger the internal pressure of the hose, the stronger the walls of the hose need to be in order to sustain the pressure balance.

With that in mind, I devised an identification exercise for the air passageways - simply take some time and investigate everywhere the air touches and how you might use muscular input to affect the local air pressure there. So pulling air sharply at the nostrils activates the noseflaps, try the crown of the nose, etc, all the way down (but do go gently on the sphenoid sinus, too forceful there and that's simply a recipe for a headache) - then from a position of action, derive inaction: let the sinuses and air passageways go completely.

This turns out to be very relevant the more you slow your breath down. Eventually you want the preponderance of motion to be contained within the Diaphragm-Psoas-Perineum dynamic. One thing that hinders progress in that area is the buffering of air pressure provided by the sinuses - basically by using them to facilitate the movement of air, you are taking emphasis off the diaphragm.

Make sure you begin the descending motion of the diaphragm from the lower rear (inferior posterior) and continue that motion down, down, down, for the entire length of breath. What this does is "root" or "anchor" the breath - the diaphragm connects to the anterior longitudinal ligament near the lumbothoracic junction, adjacent to the psoas muscle - so you can just about include a very subtle waxing and waning of the entire spine when breathing deeply. Part of the reason for anchoring the diaphragm motion is that you want to let a smooth wavelike motion pass over the foramina in the diaphragm - the very sensitive openings through which pass the Vena Cava, Aorta, Esophagus, vagus nerve. The smooth motion also helps avoid stimulating the vagus nerve, which will also hinder progress - rough motion there will invariable stimulate the heart and lungs to do their thing.

So basically getting to the very deep stages requires this streamlining of the breath mechanics, consciously or not. The idea with this rote method is to bring the flow of air beneath the threshold of turbulence in the air passageways - turbulence is basically little circular vortices that for around the nooks and crannies that steal energy from your breath. Below the threshold of turbulence we dont get the Cranial Nerve stimulation that sets off neural firing chains that eventually result in higher brain stiimulation - aka the manifestation of thought-stream-energy.

Bringing the focus to the rote physical in this way blazes a secondary path of least resistance for this root-core energy that you may harness via the practices before it manifests as thoughtstreamenergy, leading to a calmer, clearer mind.

Of course one may get there with other methods, but this is what I found worked best for myself over the last ~8 years of my studies

Interesting!

Do you have any taoist practice under your belt? This sounds much like what I was taught, and the goal is to have a breath cycle every 1 or 1 1/2 minute...

Any taoist practice? Heh, that's a pretty broad question...not sure if that's sorta fishing for some other goodies, hehehe (I might, depending on what's you're interested in..) Although imho the goal is not simply a length of breath. A breath cycle over a minute is marvelous indeed!

Good point Bagpuss, I did a lot of work with embryonic breathing, lower dantien breathing in troubleshooting these processes - so the "whole body" emerged out of the practice, really...and kept going beyond my perception. The net positive energy from the practice absolutely helps fuel further deeper meditation.

Hehe, even with no taoist terminology in your previous posts, you wrote as one. Easy to spot, isn't it? I just asked because people came to DhO from very different backgrounds.

If interested, you may add your opinion at this thread.

hehe, true...a taoist is a scientist, after all ;) AT's a good site, I've interacted with Keith a bunch over the years and consider him a friend and a good source to bounce ideas off of - I first ran into him 5, 6 years ago on taobums. I dont know if he appreciates what a good site that is/was, he's changed and added many things as his own practice has evolved - it started mainly as a way to organize his own thoughts and practices. That's another reason I've wound up focusing so much on the fundamentals of breathwork and grounding, so that the other things I do have a path of least resistance to fall back upon...safely I dont know if I have anything to add to that thread at the moment, but perhaps I will later!

If you follow the instructions in the Anapanasati Sutta you'll see that the Buddha recommends you expand attention out to the whole body before calming the breath down to a minimum (or cessation) which is where jhana is developed.



I highly recommend "The Breath as a Vehicle for Liberation by Thanissaro Bhikkhu (translator of the above linked sutta). He has some very useful advice on developing jhana as he walks through the 16 steps of mindfulness of breathing in this talk.