Bruno Loff:
I am interested in your alternative approach to jhana, which seems to put emphasis on eliminating tension rather than generating bliss (or generating anything at all). Though I haven't quite figured out if I understand the set-up correctly. To wit, the technique is:
Perhaps I should write all this down somewhere in particular, as it seems to be easily misunderstood.
You are talking about a technique I described that can only be employed once some degree of jhanic experience is stabilized. The stillness and the PCE qualities are actually the jhanic experience, not something that is attended to in order to produce the jhanic experience.
This is the advice I would give you:
1a) Recognize that you're not fond of bliss because your experiences of it have been contaminated by the attention wave, and the attention wave perturbs your calm;
1b) Recognize that the attention wave is the only thing that can cause feelings of perturbation or irritation or dissatisfaction or lack of calm;
2a) Bliss, apperceived as a physical sensation of pleasure, is as satisfying or unsatisfying as anything else you might experience during a PCE;
2b) You already likely have experienced bliss, apperceived as a physical sensation of pleasure, during past PCEs;
3) If you can generate bliss, you can pay attention appropriately and recognize that it has two components: static unmoving physical pleasure, and attention wave-related stuff that vibrates "over" or "on top of" it.;
4a) If you can generate bliss and analyze it into these two parts during the experience, then, if you breathe in a very relaxing way and pay attention to that, and don't do anything to aggravate the attention wave, the physical pleasure can become stronger;
4b) Not aggravating the attention wave means literally ignoring all the vibratory, affective stuff that comes up (while making sure not to "rest" on it or in it in a subtle way);
5) As the physical pleasure becomes stronger, you will be more able to stop generating the attention wave, either automatically or with minimal effort;
6) The less attention wave you generate, the more PCE-like your experience will be (by definition), and in this context, that is jhana;
7a) Once you have a stable jhana, you can do all sorts of stuff, but a starting recommendation is to just let the jhana be for as long as possible, with no expectations, and take note afterwards of what that does.
7b) The suttas rarely describe decomposing or investigating jhanas; the most obvious example is MN 111, but that is what Sariputta does, and his strongest faculty is wisdom (discernment), not concentration. In my opinion an enormous amount can be accomplished just by letting jhanas remain without investigating them for as long as possible; and that seems to be what the suttas usually describe anyway.
Helpful? (If you want to talk about this at greater length, let's do it in your practice thread.)
How do I tell if I'm doing it right or wrong? (because the PCE always seems somewhat far in my current mode of experience, though when I set my mind to it I can recognize that it is always somehow in the background)
At the beginning, you use the magnitude of physical pleasure to judge whether you're doing it right.
Later, you use the experience of "stillness" (reduction of the attention wave) to judge whether you're doing it right...but, at this point, you will probably not be judging very much.
What to do about sleepiness? (which has always been a problem for me, and for which I am yet to find a solution, since the "increase effort" approach of the suttas only makes me more tense and tired)
Try some green tea, or (if it isn't overstimulatory) coffee or straight caffeine.
Alternatively, you can notice that sleepiness is dullness-tension caused by the attention wave, and see if you can stop the experience of resting your attention on it and go back to paying attention to your breath. (A better cue might be "stop paying attention to the experience of sleepiness".)