Ignored instructions; Head stuck in door.

on e, modified 1 Year ago at 9/9/22 5:20 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 9/9/22 5:20 PM

Ignored instructions; Head stuck in door.

Posts: 2 Join Date: 9/9/22 Recent Posts
TL;DR:
Q1. Can focusing on the sensations in my head lead to Jhana?
Q2. Does noting sensations in one spot contradict the Satipatthana teachings?
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At my first Goenka retreat fifteen years ago, I went overboard exploring the sensations in my head and ignored the rest of my body.
I was quite content staying in this region and could maintain my concentration without getting distracted. As a result, I didn't get the most out of the experience.
I gradually realized that I needed to pay more attention to the rest of my body in order to progress. This was a difficult task, as the sensations of pressure in my head ( just behind my nose) had compounded in strength.
Over the next eight (to ten) retreats, I struggled to progress with the body scan. I was always embarrassed that I couldn't body scan like everyone else. I assumed it was because I was lazy or incompetent, so I never mentioned it to the assistant teachers.
Giving up on insight practice, I went to Pa-Auk Monastery in Burma to work on Jhanas. However, the sensations in my head were so strong that I wasn’t able to stick my attention to the point of breath.
I asked the teacher this time, but the advice didn’t resonate. A monk who was at my QA session later said that he struggled a lot with headaches in the beginning because he was “trying too hard”.
I found this helpful- and took the sensations of pressure as a manifestation of my effort. I might have also generated a negative feedback loop due to time spent in aversion to these sensations.
I eventually cut my Pa-Auk retreat short after a month.
*
It has been a decade since I’ve given up on my meditation practice altogether.
MCTB recently introduced me to the Mahasi method & renewed my hope. I imagine this practice to have less roadblocks and plan to explore this in a retreat setting. Focusing on the belly breath seems to reduce the pressure sensations on my face. And even when they do come up, I enjoy noting them and spotting the suffering and impermanence in the experience.
Which brings me to my questions:
Q1. Can focusing on the sensations in my head lead to Jhana?
Q2. Does noting sensations in one spot contradict the Satipatthana teachings?
George S, modified 1 Year ago at 9/10/22 6:32 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 9/10/22 5:44 AM

RE: Ignored instructions; Head stuck in door.

Posts: 2722 Join Date: 2/26/19 Recent Posts
You can use *anything* as an object for jhana, so long as you completely concentrate or absorb the mind in it. You need to take the point of view of the object, to full enter into it, to investigate the sensations as closely as possible, so that there is no longer you and the object - just the object.

Different objects will have different properties.

With a headache, if you are only half absorbed then it feels like a problem of you having a stronger headache, simply because you are more focused on it. As you get more absorbed then the observer fades away, so there is no one left to have a problem with the headache, and it becomes a rich and powerful world of energy, vibrations, visual & auditory effects etc to explore. You need to give up control, to completely abandon yourself to the experience. Think of the headache as a trapped energy source, like rocket fuel, which you are going to tap into and ride to the moon, or wherever else it wants to take you. If you take this approach then the trapped energy should transform over time, becoming more fluid and diffused.

So long as you are mindful of what you are doing, it is mindfulness.

Be creative, don't follow anyone else's instructions! Don't be afraid to experiment. It's your experience to explore and there's nothing wrong with any experience. Yours is the only experience you will ever know, so why fight it and wish it was like somebody else's? Own it. Explore it. Flow with it. See where it wants to take you, what it wants to show you. Every problem is its own solution.

Good Luck! And above all, ENJOY emoticon
shargrol, modified 1 Year ago at 9/10/22 10:05 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 9/10/22 10:05 AM

RE: Ignored instructions; Head stuck in door.

Posts: 2344 Join Date: 2/8/16 Recent Posts
As a general caution... "focusing" is a english word that really emphasizes that there is an I "over here" paying attention to a thing "over there" and many times when people "focus" they are just enforcing a very dualistic and tense relationship with experience. It can lead to years of misunderstanding the basic practice. Practice should not be about developing a superskill that "I" has. It's actually more paradoxical than that.

Some people use the word "dwell in" --- and I like it better, too --- to describe what is done when cultivating jhana. You dwell in sensations, you dwell in the experience. It's pointing to the same basic idea, but this framing is much more gentle and intimate. Aaaaahhhh dwelling in the pleasures of seclusion that leads to jhana, ahhhhhh.   emoticon

Same thing with noting. It's not about "hitting" the object with a note. It's about paying consistent intimate awareness and using periodic note to help ensure that we're still paying attention rather than drifting off into the past or the future or mental fantasies. Basically you become intimate with experience and you note to help maintain consistency. 


Hope this is helpful in some way to somebody somewhere at sometime. emoticon
  
on e, modified 1 Year ago at 9/10/22 4:23 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 9/10/22 4:23 PM

RE: Ignored instructions; Head stuck in door.

Posts: 2 Join Date: 9/9/22 Recent Posts
@George & @shargrol

Thank you for your encouragement, your support and for taking the time to respond.

It means a lot to me. I'm deeply moved by the contents and the way you've articulated your message.

I feel a renewed sense of enthusiasm for the practice.

Words can't express my gratitude.

so...Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
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Dream Walker, modified 1 Year ago at 9/10/22 9:43 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 9/10/22 9:43 PM

RE: Ignored instructions; Head stuck in door.

Posts: 1657 Join Date: 1/18/12 Recent Posts
on e.
At my first Goenka retreat fifteen years ago, I went overboard exploring the sensations in my head and ignored the rest of my body. I was quite content staying in this region and could maintain my concentration without getting distracted. As a result, I didn't get the most out of the experience. I gradually realized that I needed to pay more attention to the rest of my body in order to progress. 
The goenka methodology of scanning the body leaves out all the other sense doors. I would recommend that ALL sensations are worthy of exploring and any sensation that seems like you, or permenent or satisfying should get more investigating as to why it seems so.

If only I was sure,
That my head on the door was a dream
[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7U1k147Qk4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7U1k147Qk4[/url]
Good Luck,
​​​​​​​~D

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