Olyver Mith:
Nickolai wrote:
"If you pay attention to the actual aspects of the arupa jhanas; the mental perspectives of space/compassion, consciousness/appreciation, nothingness/equanimity and neither perception nor non-perception/signlessness; then one is bringing to light/focus the natural structure/perspectives of the mind often covered up/distorted by the flow of affect/attention wave/attention bounce/sense of "being"/sense of existing/sense of "me"-ness/sense of presence/sense of location/sense of inner world/flow of sankhara/flow of becoming. This flow of affect often needs to be absorbed (one-pointed/concentrated) for these actual aspects to come to light, but they are always there for everyone at any given time. You just need to lend attention to them. "
My question was: Exactly what kind of "one-pointed/concentrated" attention will absorb the "flow of affect/attention wave/attention bounce/sense of "being"/sense of existing/sense of "me"-ness/sense of presence/sense of location/sense of inner world/flow of sankhara/flow of becoming".
Is the kind of attention that one needs the same kind that one needs to call up those jhana states, or is it just neighborhood concentration or something else? Can one systematically apply this concentration?
I used a kasina for 15 minutes then sat and mentally noted whatever arose centre stage non-stop for 45 minutes. This got me into jhanic territory and subdued the hinderances to a great degree. From there I eventually got 1st path. 1st path did a lot to calm down that flow of affect as well and MCTB 4th did even more to make it sticky-free to a degree. From 1st path then more so at MCTB 4th, I found I had easy access to the arupa jhanas. This is what I did myself. This is the kasina method i used:
http://thehamiltonproject.blogspot.com/2010/12/nicks-current-candle-flame-kasina.html
Also check Ian's sticky thread above on Jhanas to get more ideas on what to do about getting into jhanic territory.
Nick