Bagpuss The Gnome:
Something I stumbled on seems to be paying dividends of late. But I'm not certain what is happening, (or if it really is paying dividends) so wanted to find out if anyone had similar experience or knew what was going on...
Instead of diving right into piti/sukha at the start of meditation I have been focusing "inside my head". It *seems* like focusing on the mind as object, complete with this spatial element (dead centre of the skull, maybe a bit closer to forehead than back). The concentration is off the scale (for me). Totally nuts. There's a lot of speeding up of vibrations but also clear progress through the stages of insight. I typically go through the A&P with lots of "free falling", a little fear, exhilaration etc, then the DN --BUT it's like a hot knife through butter --although there is a sense of hanging on for dear life in the A&P, the equanimity is rock solid, like being very matter of fact about a roller coaster ride. All the while, anchored in this odd focus. In the DN it's the same. Crappy sensations come and go, but it's over with very quickly.
As I focus, sometimes piti / sukha arise, get strong, then fade away. But they seem silly things compared with this. I don't know what "this" really is. I thought it was 4th jhana for a while but that seems unlikely.
In EQ things seem to be heading in the right direction, though after about 2hrs I can start to get a good deal of tension in the head. I will have to experiment with dropping the focus at that stage. Maybe it's too much at that point?
Does anyone have a clue as to what is going on here?
I don't have a clue, but I thought I might share my practice notes and see if it is anything similar to what you are experiencing.
Basically I have noticed that there is kind of a gap in communication between my upper and lower body, as well as my left and right brain. Sometimes it feels good to keep my focus on the (lower) body (root, abdomen, chest). Other times it feels "right" to stay in more of a witness(?) mode. There could very well be a correlation between these two in regards to hemisphere (left and right respectively), as I have noticed this before. Taking this only as a working hypothesis though.
So yeah, I will shift my practice focal point back and forth on this x/y scale as pleasantry dictates, following vibrations (it is clear they are not complete or in sync, however...sometimes I can give a guess which nana I am in that moment by what temporal element of the vibration is most clear)
For whatever reason, it is kind of hard for me to see specific nanas and jhanas (really not a fan of this word) at this point on a larger macro scale. I did, however, develop a nasty headache on my left side radiating down into my stomach (nausea) a few nights ago after a couple hours in what seemed like a equaninimous state. Eventually something felt like it kind of slightly dislodged (not completely) and I went to sleep, but I was a bit anxious the next morning wondering if it would return.
Does any of this sound familiar?