Hey Droll,
I've had a lot of success with the jhanas recently and I think it really comes down to the meditation method and the mindset. What method have you been using for jhana practice specifically? I know Jhana and samatha are generally referred to as concentration, but a much better way to think of them, IMHO, is "absorption." Concentration implies effort to me, and jhana is basically the practice of becoming effortless. Think about the effort we expend to watch TV. We don't sit there trying really hard to stop our thinking and follow the plot line, we just watch with a comfortable attention and generally lose track of our thoughts. In fact, most people use TV to unwind after a long day because they can become engrossed in it and be separated from their problems - this is exactly what jhana does. It separates us from the 5 hindrances temporarily by giving us something very interesting to distract us away from them. Have you ever had someone get mad at you because you unintentionally ignored them while watching something? You were doing jhana at that moment!
I feel a pleasurable sense of bliss-anticipation build in my navel center and heart center, I let it build naturally or focus on it to coax it into building in a metta-like way, then I get the feeling it should be exploding outwards into bodily bliss but instead I feel a lump build in the top of my throat/base of my head area accompanied by the continued feeling that the bliss is being blocked and welling of tears in my eyes.
I had something similar when I first started hitting the jhanas. This is caused by too much "doing" I think. I was trying to help it along, but that's just not how it works. You need to relax into the moment. Something that helped me was saying to myself, "Even this little bit of bliss is nice. If it increases, great, but if it doesn't, I'll just sit here and enjoy the comfort." If you're focusing on the lump in your throat, you're not watching the bliss itself, so the bliss fades away. More than anything, you could call this The Practice of Ignoring Unpleasant Things. If there's anything that's distracting you, just accept it as it is, leave it alone, and place your attention back onto the pleasant feelings. Eventually those nice feelings will just suck you in!
The best method I've found to enter jhana is body scanning. The first jhana involves strong bodily sensations, so body scanning is a kind of direct entry method. It's also what the buddha suggested:
[3] He trains himself, 'I will breathe in sensitive to the entire body.'[2] He trains himself, 'I will breathe out sensitive to the entire body.' [4] He trains himself, 'I will breathe in calming bodily fabrication.'[3] He trains himself, 'I will breathe out calming bodily fabrication.' [5] He trains himself, 'I will breathe in sensitive to rapture.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe out sensitive to rapture.'
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.118.than.htmlWhat I usually do is this: breathe into the feet, inhale from the feet, breathe into the lower legs, inhale from the lower legs, breathe into the upper legs, inhale from the upper legs, and onward to pelvis, hands, lower arms, upper arms, stomach, chest, neck, and head. If you breath in and out while watching a body part, it has a specific feeling to it, almost like it's pulling and pushing. This will cause a tingling feeling in that area of the body. That tingling is exactly the same feeling that the bliss of the first jhana is, and all you need to do is become absorbed into it like it was a good TV show. After you make a few passes through the body, you will develop a kind of full body awareness. Try holding the whole feeling of your body for a few breaths. If you get distracted, just do another pass. Remember to let go of everything - pretend you aren't meditating and you have no goals, you're just sitting and relaxing after a hard day. Just because it feels good doesn't mean it has to be difficult, just unwind, let go, and take a little vacation. If it doesn't work right away, at least you'll come out of relaxed and feeling nice. Think of yourself yourself as a soft fluffy kitten curled up on a big easy chair in front of the fireplace. I usually do jhana after a shower because I feel more relaxed. Fill you mind with comfort and serenity.
As for distraction, don't worry about thinking. The voice in your head won't prevent you from entering jhana. We have a kind of foreground and background attention we can keep on things. If you can keep at least 50% of your attention on your bodily sensations, the blissful feelings will rise on their own. There's nothing much to do except relax and watch. If you feel excited when things start to happen, that's no big deal, just treat it like any other thought and let it go back into the background awareness.
If you happen to get to the first, and you notice the feelings of bliss are fading away, don't get disappointed or try to increase them, this is just the natural progression to the next jhana. If you cling to the first/second, you'll actually skip the third and end up in the fourth one in a very weak form - I used to do that a lot. Instead, if the rapture starts to fade, just watch how it moves and dissipates. I've found it tends to settle into the heart/stomach area and create a warm contentment which is actually nicer than the bliss. Just keep in mind, once the ride's started, you don't have to do much of anything to keep it going. The jhanas will come and go on their own as long as you stay seated with your eyes closed and your hands behind the saftey rail. XD
I hope this was helpful! I wish everyone could do jhana; the world would be a much nicer place.
P.s. As an afterthought, you can do this method while walking around too. I've been using these ideas to get rid of my anxiety. You just have to remember that bad feelings can be absorptions just like good feelings. If you want them to go away, you just accept them as they are, and then allow your attention to rest on something else and become absorbed into that. I've found a general attention on the space around me can trigger pleasant feelings pretty quickly - that whole "stay in the moment" thing.