Hi all.

I'm wondering if anyone would like to discuss what is an area of significance in my vipassana practice, which is working with the heart/chest area, and the intense physical and emotional phenomena that can accompany this.

My brief practice history - five 10-day retreats in Goenka tradition. 14 months of a fairly consistent 2 hour daily sitting practice using a combination of Goenka style body scanning and Mahasi noting. Definitely had a few A&P events.

So, in my daily sitting practice I find myself returning time and again to the heart/chest area, and as my practice has progressed I have become more acutely aware of the sensations at this area continuously throughout the day. This area is a consistent source of heavy, intense, predominately unpleasant sensations, and sustained attention at this area invariably results in an intensification of these unpleasant sensations, from the physical, (which I may note, for example, as contraction, tightness, heaviness, aching, pain, throbbing, stabbing, piercing, blockage) to the emotional (fear, anxiety, panic, sadness, unpleasantness, aversion). At the times I manage to observe these sensations consistently and with equanimity the area will often open, leading to an emotional release, dissipation or dissolving of the unpleasant sensations, and a sense of lightness and relief. At other times the sheer intensity of these sensations can become so powerful that the urge to wrench myself away becomes unbearable. In the past while on retreat I feel that my greatest breakthroughs have come after sustained attention to the intense sensations and blockages at this area, as well as in the throat and spinal cord. (See this thread for my description of an explosive energetic event that followed such a period.)

My foundation in vipassana has been through the Goenka school. In that tradition, practitioners are explicitly discouraged from maintaining their attention on any specific area or sensation for any longer than a few minutes maximum. The instruction in this tradition is that one should keep one's attention moving, in the body scanning fashion, part by part, piece by piece, and not stay too long with any one area or sensation. The stated reason for this is that if one stays too long with a particular sensation, there may be a tendency for aversion to arise towards unpleasant sensations, or craving or attachment to arise towards pleasant sensations.

While I understand the logic behind these instructions, it is my feeling that as one advances in practice, this approach can become a hindrance to progress. I guess I am wondering if anyone shares this view. I came across an old thread where Tarin and Nick discuss the different approaches to working with the heart center. Here Tarin emphasized his view that confronting this area head-on was central to his stream entry breakthrough. I found this discussion particularly relevant to my own practice, and I'm wondering if anyone out there feels the same way, namely that this area can be the key to certain breakthroughs in practice.

Here are some quotes that I thought might be relevant to a discussion on this topic:

"sometimes...careful and directed attention is needed to open our repeated patterns and deepest knots...The patterns of holding in our body and mind are like knots of energy that have bodily contraction, emotions, memories, and images all intertwined. In this practice we carefully direct out awareness to each level of a knot, feeling into the very center of the pattern. In doing so, we can release our identification with it and discover a fundamental openness and well-being beyond the contraction." Jack Kornfield, A Path with Heart.

"One who is unable to arouse enough courage or energy to look at pain will never understand the potential that lies in it. We
have to develop courage of mind, heroic effort, to look at pain. Let’s learn not to run from pain, but rather to go right in." Sayadaw U Pandita - In This Very Life

"As you progress in mindfulness you may experience sensations of intense pain, stifling or choking sensations, pain such as from the slash of a knife, the thrust of a sharp-pointed instrument, unpleasant sensations of being pricked by sharp needles...when the mental faculties become keener you are more aware of these sensations. With the continued development of contemplation the time will come when you can overcome them and they cease altogether. If you continue contemplation, firm in purpose, you will not come to any harm. Should you lose courage, become irresolute in contemplation and discontinue for a time, you may encounter these unpleasant sensations again and again as your contemplation proceeds. If you continue with determination you will most likely overcome these painful sensations and may never again experience them in the course of contemplation." Mahasi Saysdaw - Practical Insight Meditation

"5 or 6 days into my last retreat (on which i got stream-entry), i was angry at feeling helpless in the face of those tightening and panicky sensations in my chest and throat, and decided that i was not going to have my attention be limited by them any longer. i proceeded to confront them in a very brute force way, determined to outlast/outlive them or die trying. the pain, angst and turmoil was fierce, but it worked, and while i was exhausted, the accomplishment was vitalising. i didnt get path at this point but have no doubt it was a strong support and that some heavy insight was born there". Tarin Greco in this post.

*Edit: Subject Title

if you really understand the logic behind these instructions in the experiential sense, you should be able to answer this question (how much attention to give it?) perfectly in your practice from moment to moment.

if you are experiencing any weird/painful/tense/tight/stressful/throbbing sensations at all, some aversion is already there clouding your perspective, (unless you've come to the point where the only pain you get is physical bodily pain from injury/overuse.) there is unequal treatment of sense experience going on and lack of perfect equanimity, or at times maybe even lack of any decent equanimity. (even when you're thinking "ok, be equanimous, don't react to this unpleasantness" there is already blind reaction going on, otherwise you'd have no reason to think "don't react to this.") but in order for de-conditioning of craving and aversion to happen at the level of arising sensations, the problem sensations need to be observed from a perspective of higher equanimity and objectivity than what habitually happens within that problem perception of the sensation.

it is indeed effective and fruitful to "deal with" or "confront" or "work on" or "focus on" problem areas, but this doesn't mean your attention should necessarily be 100% focused on those areas from moment to moment. rather, your attention should be on those areas only to the extent that you can bring a higher level of equanimity and objectivity to their perception, resulting in effective de-conditioning. this is the part you'll have to experiment with and figure out yourself. how can you give attention to those problem chest sensations the same way you would observe pleasant tinglies in your fingers and toes, with the same level of objectivity, acceptance, interest, relaxation, motivation, and curiosity? can you do that by staring at it and nothing else (very very tough), or would a kind of pinballing of attention back and forth between that area and other less unpleasant sensations do the job, or would it work to scan the body in order with a bit more time spent there, or is it best to juxtapose the attention in the unpleasant area with the perception of something nice and fine, like sounds or pleasantness of the breath? or some combination of these things with your own relaxation/surrendering techniques? your answer to this should ideally change from time to time as you sit in meditation if you're optimizing what kind of tool your attention is offering you from moment to moment.

the only time when i think it makes sense to keep attention totally fixed on the problem area is perhaps in equanimity ñana, when your baseline of equanimity is significantly higher, and attention is so panoramic that there is always subtle calm attention on lots of other things without much effort.

whatever you do, you don't want to be meditating from the feeling/attitude/perspective/mindset that the problem area creates in your mind, but make sure that the difference of "higher eq and objectivity" applied to the area is enough to be obviously clear of the usual habitual perspective.

hope that helps
jill

Wow, thanks jill. As usual I find your advice insightful and illuminating.


Dylan

I'm aware it's an old thread but it describes my experience so I'd like to take the chance, maybe someone is still alive.

I was meditating to some extend for the past year and a half, and just took a Goenka retreat. 

What I'm curious about is way I should approach my situation which involves mentioned heavy chest blockages and pain.
The problem arrises with immense anxiety that comes with certain thoughts. I'm highly anxious and there are certain subjects which are always there to induce such a reaction, when a thought arrises. 

For example, during the retreat, I was in the middle of going through very 'enjoyable' experience when the thought popped my mind. The reaction was fear and anxiety which left me a very solid peace of as it felt a heavy metal in my chest. After a while it turned into needle stabbing in my belly. 

My question I guess is, how do i go from there? I am used to this reaction and am more and more untouched by its occurance, in the way that it doesn't necessarily generate aversion. However, I didn't understand the comment of greater equinimity which is lacking for which the proof is the fact that there is anxiety in a first place.

The issue resolves either around sexuality, certain obsessions and anxiety reactions. Sometimes it comes without a trigger.

Thanks.

The dirty secret here is that those crazy painful terrifying feelings are just muscle tension.  You need to construct a system to keep reminding yourself that they are not actually bad or creating meaning in the universe when they occur.   You can just relax and be happy, cause nothing is actually wrong and you have no real control.  

What works for me is to lean into the pain and the emotion and the shit and just let it fly.  Put one hand on the floor to remind yourself that you are riding the earth and nothing meaningful is happening and then let it rip.  Practice and pretty soon states of mind will arise where the worst crap arises and you dont care at all.  Then, of course, you will suddenly care again and you have the repeat the process over and over and over and over.....