So, I've been doing shamatha in fits since 2009. I've had a few periods where I'd be doing it every day for three weeks, getting inbetween 20-40 minutes a day. Some of these periods have been interrupted by serious drug binges and intentionally cultivating a distracted mind- really trying my hardest to just zone out. That's passed now, and I've gotten back on the shamatha horse. I've been at it for three weeks now- I've always logged every one of my sessions. I really had to try hard and forgive myself and start off again slowly, with even ten minute sessions, twelve minute sessions. I've been ramping it up slowly, and now I sit for thirty minutes.

Well, I just got out of a twenty-eight minute sit, and had an interesting experience. The tone of my concentration seemed to markedly change. I just joined here and was kind of feeling crappy about myself and where I'm at, and that was a bit of a distraction. I decided to just continue.

I'm guessing what was about twenty minutes in or so, instead of the normal "wrestling" feeling I have, trying to really keep my concentration as deeply as possible on the sensation of the breathe, I changed my attention from sort of visualizing the stream of air traveling up through my nose to just the sensation on the tip of my nostrils. It felt like I suddenly "blew through something", and instead of wrestling it felt a lot more like relaxing. I spent a few minutes basically trying to keep as calm as I possibly could to clarify my vision on the sensation in my nostrils. I was pleased because I didn't have to bothered by whether I was inhaling or exhaling.

The feeling of "self-pity" I had just before I switched my attention instantly vanished. I guess the key thing is just that instead of a kind of "active" concentration, it felt more receptive and trying to be peaceful, which felt sort of novel.

I noticed I was sort of smiling at some point during this- I don't know if I would call it "rapture", but I certainly felt at ease.

I feel like I tend to get concerned with, "did I attain the first jhana yet? did I attain the first jhana yet?", and my own reaction to this is to just sit down again and keep focusing, because regardless of my experience I should always be able to go deeper (for a while, I imagine). I shouldn't be so concerned with what I've attained.

Can anyone give me their thoughts on what this could be? Maybe it'd even be good for me to just hear that I should just shut up and sit down.

Sounds like you got to access concentration, which is really very pleasant. This may not seem like a great accomplishment, but in fact it really is important, and a necessary step to master before anything else happens. So sit with it, work with it, get used to the shift into it, and then at some point you'll take the next step.

A little rundown of the five "jhanic factors," might be useful here. They can be thought of as the general ingredients to a good samatha practice. Vitakka -- directed attention. Vicara -- sustained attention. Piti -- rapture. Sukha -- joy, ease, contentment. Ekaggata -- single pointed focus. The first two describe your efforts and are under your control, the last three are fruits of those efforts and can slip you into jhana.



It sounds like you had some sukha going on. In my experience, piti, or rapture, isn't relaxing but an effervescent feeling accompanied by energy, pleasure and sometimes a ringing in my ears. Sukha is relaxing and has a "letting go" quality to it.

If you can increase the amount of time you sit for, it can help crank things up, even just an extra five or ten minutes.

Thanks, that's helpful.

So since this experience, I have dramatically ramped up my time. Just within the past twenty four hours I sat for 28 mins, then 38, and then just now for 61 mins.

My process now is basically solidifying a visualization of the air going up through my nostrils, and when I feel solid with that, I switch to the sensations on the tip of my nostrils. This is less visually directed, but looking back it's still a weird kind of mix between physical and visual. I think I can recognize that as mind / body, though my intention while I'm sitting is to solidify, not break down, this is just something I'm realizing in hindsight.

I notice when I get deeper into this second object, the tip of my nostrils start tingling. It's more like it's been tingling the entire time but I don't notice it until I get this deep, almost. It feels sort of pleasant- I read that getting into the absorption states has to do with switching the attention on the pleasurable sensation(s) that arise from being deeply focused, so I tried putting my focus on the general pleasantness of that.

My feeling is that I wasn't deep enough and I'm jumping the gun, because my attention still feels sort of "granulated". I can still see it switching around off the sensations on the tip of the nose, but I catch it so quick that it's just really minute.

This 61 minute session actually started off with about forty minutes of a lot of anger and a lot of frustration and a lot of story spinning, but I kept on through it, and eventually I was able to actually get my attention on the breathe, and my anger began to subside, and the normal process that I'm getting used to began (of solidifying the visual of the stream of air, then switching to the tip of the nostrils).

Where I used to feel impatient trying to sit for an hour, now it's really not a factor. I could definitely have kept sitting there if my timer didn't go off, and when it did I felt a slight like, disturbance upon opening my eyes. It was very sudden.

My own take on this is that I should just keep at it and in time I'll gain more control, and a pleasant sensation will arise and then I guess I'll be practicing stepping into an absorption.

Any advice or comments on this?

Learn to enjoy what you are doing! Impulses that arise...really only last 30, 45 seconds without any furtherance. With regard to these thoughts or feelings, an old master once said "leave the front door open, leave the rear door open - but do not invite them to stay for tea!" The brain builds neural networks based upon habit and experience, so when a particular entrained path sympathetically resonates for one reason or another, you will have these thoughts and feelings arise. The way to end them is to take that energy potential and train it elsewhere! Focusing on it, positively or negatively, will reinforce the old path. Its the same as hatred will never cease by hatred, it will only cease by love - a new path to emblazon. The energy potential of the old will gradually lessen as you focus your efforts towards the path you wish to cultivate.