Hey all,

This is my first post here. Until I started reading Daniel Ingram's e-book on this site, my meditation practice has been largely passive, and I'd never experienced anything I would call absorption. When I started reading about the shamatha jhanas, however, I felt inspired to get on the cushion and really try to fix my attention for ten minutes or so.

I started by just watching my breath. Any time a distracting though popped into my head, I just labelled it "thinking," and brought my attention back to my breath. After a while, I began to feel pressure on my forehead. Normally when this happens, I find myself alternating between focusing on that and my breath, but this time, determined to really fix my concentration on a single point, I began to focus on the pressure on my forehead, letting the attention on my breath fade into the background, and continuing to label distracting thoughts "thinking."

After a bit, I found I could stop trying to focus on the pressure and let it be without much effort. Sometimes it would seem to move around, but for the most part it stayed pretty localized between my eyebrows. I felt the occasional pleasant tingle along my skin, and a lightness of my body.

The part that really stuck with me as unusual, however, is this: at one point, as I observed this pressure, the darkness of my eyelids (my eyes were closed during all this) seemed to get darker somehow, like it was enveloping me, as if that darkness went beyond just the backs of my eyelids. The best way I can think to explain this was that I experienced myself somehow behind my eyes, inside my skull, like my reference point was no longer my body, but some experience of self inside my body.

So here's my question: did I experience the first jhana? It was unlike anything I'd ever experience meditating so far, and I'd like to hear what other more experienced meditators have to say about it, as well as any helpful tips to further help my concentration practice. I haven't been able to get back to that state since the first time, but I've been working on better mastering my access concentration now.

I would consider that first jhana yes, not based on your experiences of self etc, but on other things you've said...

Heres my interpretation of 1st jhana,
-in a very naturally concentrated state (on whatever object), as in, no effort needed at all to keep focus on it.
- the state can come out of nowhere , within seconds (often after a short time it feels like you were LOSING concentration), OR over a period of time and slowly.
- Its not necessarily guaranteed you'll be able to hold onto it, but for a few minutes anyway you are very awake, very aware, and very relaxed.
- It simply feels really nice and relaxing, you are completely "in the zone" and not feeling any need to apply effort to stay in the zone.
- thought can arise, but it is very weak, very subtle and very short


Im probably not as experienced at meditation as others here, but thats just my 2c.

Im basing what I said on this:



This may have been a progression after it, but be mindful not to make presumptions (i.e. the self moving around etc)


But tbh, I dont really understand what may have happened you in the second paragraph.

Hi Andrew.

I am prone to this kind of pressure in the forehead as well. It seems to be caused by over-concentrating. Try to rest your attention much more lightly on the touch of the breath (or the whole breath, as it seems you may be doing). If you feel the pressure start to build, before it takes root try to physically relax the skin around that area - wiggle your eyebrows or whatever else might work to dispel it. The object is the breath, not the discomfort caused by focusing to tightly on it.

For me, taking this pressure as the object was a dead end. You may have better luck with it but I doubt it.

These days I rarely get this and don't have to physically frown or raise my eyebrows to dispel it. I can do it mentally, reverting to a physical nudge in the right direction only if really necessary. The biggest part of the trick is the catch it early! The rest is just experimenting till you find the right balance.

The sona sutta is well worth reading in this case I think.

Disclaimer: Im a world class striver and I'm still learning lessons like this the hard way.

Hope my own experience of this is useful to you.