Hello,
This month of group practice is following up on the September samatha jhana study. The founder of this site, Daniel Ingram, set up a Google Hangout so that we can practice and discuss practice together.
I'll open a DhO hangout every sit that I host and post the link here 15 minutes before it starts.
As I'm on the U.S. East Coast, I'll host two daily sits convenient to that time zone:
Morning sit: 05:00 - 07:00 (In the UTC time zone that is 10:00 - noon)
Evening sit: 20:00 - 22:00 (In the UTC time zone that's crazy-early).
I will be traveling later this month, so there are three to four days wherein I will not be hosting either nights or the following mornings.
Other people are welcome to host in their time zone and set up a Hangout in the DhO hangout area or in their own gmail or other means.
There are no teachers in the group; this is basically a two-hour personal "lab period" with peers. Sometimes there's sharing after some sits depending on what people want to do.
Note: there is not a vipassana component to this month. There is no particular reason for this, except that Gotama spoke of anapanasati as being what carried him and I do not separate concentration and vipassana; it has not been my experience that they are separate, but it can help to break concentration into these broad styles.
The purpose of the jhana practice is to train the mind in temporarily abating mental difficulties in order to develop an ability to know arising and passing phenomena with more understanding and with a relaxed, stable concentration as a result of gently tempering five identified mental movements that can hinder relaxed, stable concentration of the mind.
These five hindering movements of mind are said to be: sensory desire, ill-will, sloth-turpor, restlessness-worry, and doubt.Since I am setting it up and will be responsible for hosting, I do want to say a few things:
1. Each person agrees they are responsible for their own practice, including...
2. ...kindness and non-harm for self and others, including if you know samatha practice is too stressful at anytime, stop. The entire point of 2nd and 3rd jhanas are to abate mental stress with the antidotes of piti and sukkha. If stress is peaking, then something needs to be lightened. Perhaps rest, exercise, go for some form of care for yourself. This is not a race.
3. ...having a regular/daily cardiovascular and physical practice (such as swimming, jogging, yoga, walking at a pace that is hard to talk during, rowing). Here is McMaster's University seven-minute scientific workout: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/09/the-scientific-7-minute-workout/?_r=0Many people are drawn to meditate due to depression and anxiety and the mind is hardly ready to deal with the full brunt of depression and anxiety on its own in the beginning and nor should the brain be asked to do all that work when the body and its chemistry on exercise helps so very much, so wholesomely and counteracts nicely the dominance of thinking by giving the body a chance to direct things via adrenoline and breathing and heart rate changes..
4. ...abiding one's normal drug regimen, if any, and not increasing regular caffeine intake, if any. Psychotic breaks in meditation are reported sometimes and I think the monk Yuttadhammo mentioned he has seen one or two that were associated with lots of caffeine/stimulant intake in the practitioner's hope of causing wakefulness in the wee hours and with the excessive and hasty desire to achieve "enlightenment", impatient escape from own mental suffering. It's very okay if you spent the entire time wrestling tipping over with "sloth"; that, I find, is very much part of the training. It actually does help the mind to practice staying upright in the face of an onslaught of natural fatigue
5. ...getting proper sleep. Choose sleep, if in doubt at the outset.
6. iPhones work well with Google Hangout; Google Hangout is wearing on my laptop fan...
With thanks to friends who inspire this, to Daniel for creating and providing the DhO and hangout space and to each person's effort to train themselves sincerely and well, without comparison, to look closely for oneself: "ehipassiko". Good introspective study can be the cause of good outrospective living.
See you tomorrow

Katy
PS: I am listening to the nun Khema lately and here are some of her talks along with the monk Yuttadhammo:
Khema: First jhana Part I:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X4o1Q2QP94
First jhana Part II: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcRp2eFMsRE
Ask-a-monk Yuttadhammo: value of jhana: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF4K0bnxrLA
Ask-a-monk Yuttaghammo: samatha jhana http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnsDC7pchfQ
Khema: the eight jhanas, overview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdxFS-j5oD0
Post your own guides here, too.