Sounds like you've moved through access concentration, into 1st jhana and then on into 2nd. The clarity and lack of effort are almost certainly 2nd jhana related so you now have something to remember these states by, a sort of sensory key to being able to access them quicker than before.

Why not try doing your practice while going about "menial" chores such as doing dishes, perhaps while you're in the bath or have a spare ten minutes to sit with the breath? Extending your practice into daily life is a wonderful and fun way to make progress.

Congratulations and I hope all's going well for you.
- Tommy

To throw out a different possible interpretation, bits of dream imagery coming and going might indicate the hindrance of sloth and torpor, which doesn't have to be about being sleepy (as in have to take a nap sleepy). By 'clarity snap into place,' it sounds like there was definite, moment-to-moment composure or steadiness on the object. That kind of state maintaining itself without any real effort on your part sounds like access concentration to me. As for jhana, I don't read that in your report. There's no mention of joy, rapture, happiness, bliss or of significant changes in perception of posture or spontaneous adjustment of posture, etc. Of course, I'm just going off my own experience, but when I first started hitting samatha jhana territory, the rapture and posture fireworks were an undeniable, mega-wow!

Regardless of what it is, it sounds like a nice breakthrough: Hindrance overcome, concentration strengthened. Useful skills to develop.

Without being able to question you personally in order to gain more clarification about the description provided, and going only on the description given, I'm inclined to agree with Tommy.

What is the "anapana spot"? In your estimation, that is. I've never heard this term used before.


This sounds very much like a dull minded kind of state that is very common with beginners attempting to achieve jhana (and even those who may not be attempting to achieve anything at all, but who are just going with the flow of events during meditation). When I say "dull minded" I'm referring to it being "without sati" or mindfulness. This state could very well be described as "dreamy" in texture as it reminds practitioners of that dream-like, very pleasant state of consciousness that occurs just prior to sleep when the mind relaxes and is about to become enveloped in sleep. This can be a very suggestible state to maintain, which is not good, meaning the mind can become open to the power of suggestion as in an hypnotic state. This semi-hypnotic state is not a state that you want to cultivate. The reason for the lack of alertness and sharpness in the experience stems from the lack of mindfulness when entering it. In order to avoid this semi-hypnotic state, maintain your mindfulness when attempting to return to this relaxed, at ease state which might be described as being jhana.


Now, this sounds like your mindfulness kicked in. And that's a good thing. Because it presents the sharpness, alertness, and clarity that you want to cultivate in the effort to strengthen overall concentration. It is from this state that insight contemplation can take place and can have its greatest impact on your awareness and conscious realization.


That's a very common experience, that is, feeling as though you have difficulty reconstituting the experience. You just have to relax (somewhat) and let it occur for it to re-occur. Once you figure out how to do this at will (so to speak), you will have figured out how to enter it whenever you wish without much effort in doing so. And once you are able to do that, you should be able to also maintain mindfulness at will (although this might take a while to fully develop). And that is a good thing to cultivate. Because it allows you to "see things as they are" rather than how the conditioned mind might erroneously perceive them to be.