Irakli's Practice Journal (July) - Discussion
Sure, clarification is always good 
The basic progression in anapanasati (mindfulness of breathing) is kaya (body, physical sensations) -> piti (energetic tingling/vibrations) -> sukha (emotions bliss/pleasure/happiness) -> citta (mind). You keep using the breath as an anchor to deepen concentration so you don't get lost in the sensations or thoughts about them.
In this process it is the perception of the breath which is changing. You start out only being able to perceive the physical sensations of breathing - sensations of air in the nostrils, movement of the diaphragm etc. As the breath/body calms down then you don't feel it as much and there is more space for awareness of piti. Piti still feels somewhat physical and coarse, so there is a natural inclination to relax even further and let the piti calm down, which creates the space for awareness of sukha, which feels more refined. Sukha is an emotion so it’s less physical and more "mental", but it still has a physical component which feels something like a warm glow of love emanating from the heart area. This is really the seat of the citta (“heart-mind”) and as it stabilizes you can start to see a light shining in the mind’s eye. This is basically the mind’s perception of itself (stage 9, “experiencing the citta”). It’s sometimes called a nimitta and stabilizing that leads into a harder jhana. Somewhere along this process you lose awareness of the physical sensations of breathing altogether, but there is still a purely mental awareness of breathing in and out and it causes a slight wobble in the perception of piti/sukha/citta. So you just keep relaxing anything that feels tense or unstable. Like Ajahn Brahm says – RELAX TO THE MAX!
When you start out with anapanasati then it’s common to jump around between the physical sensations of breathing in different parts of the body (e.g. nostrils vs diaphragm), but with more practice you start to experience the entirety of the physical sensations of breathing “all at once” (sabba kaya). Likewise with piti, early on you are only aware of it in separate parts of the body, but with practice you become aware of it as something like a single vibrating energy field. That’s why it can be helpful to try to imagine “connecting up” the different areas of piti. I don’t really feel sukha in different parts of the body, other than emanating generally from the heart area. It’s a much more diffuse feeling, like your body has become a cloud of bliss or you are being immersed in a pool of bliss. It’s like the classical description of first jhana:
There’s one other thing to say, which is this weird thing in steps 7-8 of anapanasati about experiencing and calming citta sankhara (“mental formations”), which is defined as feeling (vedana) and perception (sanna). It seems strange right, why should you start experiencing other feelings along with bliss? The reason is because as you deeply relax the physical body then it allows repressed emotions to come to the surface, so you can start experiencing things like anger, shame and fear as well. This often confuses people and they think there must be something wrong, but actually it’s right there in the suttas. Then if you start thinking about these feelings you are creating perceptions (sanna). So you basically just have to relax, keep focusing on the breath and allow whatever feelings come up to be fully experienced and pass, without thinking about them (too much!) This is the natural process of “subduing the hindrances” which is also referred to in the classic jhana descriptions. (It’s also what is happening during the dukkha nanas (“dark night”) in the Progress of Insight model, if you are doing more of an insight practice.)
The basic progression in anapanasati (mindfulness of breathing) is kaya (body, physical sensations) -> piti (energetic tingling/vibrations) -> sukha (emotions bliss/pleasure/happiness) -> citta (mind). You keep using the breath as an anchor to deepen concentration so you don't get lost in the sensations or thoughts about them.
In this process it is the perception of the breath which is changing. You start out only being able to perceive the physical sensations of breathing - sensations of air in the nostrils, movement of the diaphragm etc. As the breath/body calms down then you don't feel it as much and there is more space for awareness of piti. Piti still feels somewhat physical and coarse, so there is a natural inclination to relax even further and let the piti calm down, which creates the space for awareness of sukha, which feels more refined. Sukha is an emotion so it’s less physical and more "mental", but it still has a physical component which feels something like a warm glow of love emanating from the heart area. This is really the seat of the citta (“heart-mind”) and as it stabilizes you can start to see a light shining in the mind’s eye. This is basically the mind’s perception of itself (stage 9, “experiencing the citta”). It’s sometimes called a nimitta and stabilizing that leads into a harder jhana. Somewhere along this process you lose awareness of the physical sensations of breathing altogether, but there is still a purely mental awareness of breathing in and out and it causes a slight wobble in the perception of piti/sukha/citta. So you just keep relaxing anything that feels tense or unstable. Like Ajahn Brahm says – RELAX TO THE MAX!
When you start out with anapanasati then it’s common to jump around between the physical sensations of breathing in different parts of the body (e.g. nostrils vs diaphragm), but with more practice you start to experience the entirety of the physical sensations of breathing “all at once” (sabba kaya). Likewise with piti, early on you are only aware of it in separate parts of the body, but with practice you become aware of it as something like a single vibrating energy field. That’s why it can be helpful to try to imagine “connecting up” the different areas of piti. I don’t really feel sukha in different parts of the body, other than emanating generally from the heart area. It’s a much more diffuse feeling, like your body has become a cloud of bliss or you are being immersed in a pool of bliss. It’s like the classical description of first jhana:
They drench, steep, fill, and spread their body with rapture (piti) and bliss (sukha) born of seclusion. There’s no part of the body that’s not spread with rapture and bliss born of seclusion.
There’s one other thing to say, which is this weird thing in steps 7-8 of anapanasati about experiencing and calming citta sankhara (“mental formations”), which is defined as feeling (vedana) and perception (sanna). It seems strange right, why should you start experiencing other feelings along with bliss? The reason is because as you deeply relax the physical body then it allows repressed emotions to come to the surface, so you can start experiencing things like anger, shame and fear as well. This often confuses people and they think there must be something wrong, but actually it’s right there in the suttas. Then if you start thinking about these feelings you are creating perceptions (sanna). So you basically just have to relax, keep focusing on the breath and allow whatever feelings come up to be fully experienced and pass, without thinking about them (too much!) This is the natural process of “subduing the hindrances” which is also referred to in the classic jhana descriptions. (It’s also what is happening during the dukkha nanas (“dark night”) in the Progress of Insight model, if you are doing more of an insight practice.)
I noticed that perceiving breath sensations in larger areas reduce subtle dullness more rather than small areas. When I overcame subtle dullness, I'd wait and check how it appeared and learned each time I overcame it how it felt like. After overcoming subtle dullness, even subtler dullness would be present but hard to identify, I'd notice only after overcoming it and waiting it arise again. The subtler the dullness I overcame, the more mindfulness I had, overcoming subtler and subtler dullness felt like I was unlocking more of conscious power or mindfulness.
Good stuff. I find that most hindrances are like this (eventually!) - when I get really interested in observing them closely then they tend to dissolve and release the energy that was locked up in them back into the mind to increase the power of concentration/unification. Knowing this, you can actually treat hindrances as a fuel for jhana (oh goody, there's a strong hindrance, should lead to a strong jhana
) Dullness itself often results from avoiding other unpleasant sensations or emotions, so it's always worth digging into it and asking what else might be going on here undetected? (unless you actually just need to sleep, in which case a mini meditation nap is fine )