Hello everyone, I've been starting meditating for about 3 months and I have reached a point where I need a clarification regarding the 1st jhanna.

As a brief background (you can skip this paragraph, I guess), I started with 30 minutes a day and made it 1 hour and then upped it to about 80-90 minutes a day. My first lecture was "Mindfulness in Plain English", but I was curious enough and stumbled upon this board where I found about the fantastic Daniel Ingram's MCTB which was a jolt for my practice. I cannot thank him and your community more. Nevertheless, for about two months I was confusing a little bit concentration with insight practice during my sittings and used to observe the breath instead of purely be with it. So there were little or no results regarding the deepening of my concentration (even though the results after 2 months of insight were spectacular for my life). But luckily, I've sensed this stagnation, tried to clear up what was happening, reread some passages from MCTB and browsed this board section and changed my approach during sittings (this was about 10 days ago) and there appeared a result on which I want to ask for your evaluation/diagnose.

There are several day since I've been experiencing a short period of something different towards the ends of my sessions. There is a sudden shift in my state, something more physical than mental. I feel my hands heavy and hot, no more sitting discomfort, things are getting slightly brighter (including my state of mind if I can say so), the heat spreads in my chest and then in all body and I feel I could freeze in that state for long periods of time if I could maintain it somehow. The feeling is pleasurable and unlike anything I've felt (even on psychedelics). Nevertheless, it doesn't last more than a few seconds to a minute because my thought control is not strong enough as not to observe and wonder about this state and soon I sort of get "tired" of keeping this state active and get back to the more mundane feeling of being with the breath and trying to dodge thoughts and impulses. The good thing is that the state keeps reediting itself at each sitting towards the end and after a more properly done concentration interval (mostly when I manage to stay exclusively with my breath more than a minute or so).

So, my questions are: is this a hint of the 1st jhanna, and, if so, what will I have to do to solidify it?

The hardest part of solidifying any state is the "oh shit" and the "wow, cool" effects...Fear and super cool stuff get the mind chattering like a chipmunk instead of calm collected monk. Time and experience helps the most...getting to the same spot over and over lets the mind get used to the state without overreacting...over time it actually gets a bit bored which shifts you to the next Jhana. Keep on keeping on...
Good luck,
~D

Hi Iulian Doroftei and welcome to the DhO.

Further to DW's point about the excited mind eventually relaxing with practice when this occurs...

Iulian Doroftei:
First, you did not have to do anything to make this happen: "There is a sudden shift in my state (...)." That's how natural, release-style jhana training unfolds: one actively practices the first jhana ~ bringing the mind gently-friendly-consistently back to the object ~ and the mind will just produce the jhanas.

Relax and know it's okay if tension arises, if thoughts seem unremitting (not that you need this suggestion, Iulian. I'm adding that general, well-known guidance since this is a jhana thread).

And, for me, this experience that you described is some of the sukkha aspect of jhana. When third jhana occurs, what you've described is for me suffusive, there's just that still state with deep ease-comfort-mild-unexcited pleasure.

Good luck and thank you for your practice.

________
To anyone new to jhana and reading here, the purpose of jhana practice is therapy to tame what are called the five hindrances of mind, to learn one's own mind's habits and mental stabilization develops in the process. The jhanas can become hindrances if they are clung to, and it is natural to cling to them because, as Iulian described, there is pleasure in the jhanas. This clinging may grow and become like the excited "oh wow" mind DW described, and the yearning prevents the jhana.

Just to add to some of the already good advice that's been given, the way to solidify the process is to advance to the second dhyana where the process is caught in a feedback loop that perpetuates itself, without any effort on your part but just relaxing into it and observing the process as it is happening.

In either case, it is the relaxing-into-it factor that will bring success! As Katy said:


The relaxing-into-it process is, in the beginning, easier said than done, just because you are having to "get over" (become accustomed to) the "wow" factor of realizing that the mind is actually doing this. This is where you must practice being equanimous about the process — maintaining a neutral mindset towards the process as it happens. I found that the best way to relax-into-it is to just aim (focus on) calming the mind down even more with each breath, watching how the breath will become more and more shallow as the mind becomes absorbed in the deep developing calm that is happening. By focusing on the calm, you help the mind to develop equanimity toward the process as it is occurring, thus bringing success at extending and advancing the progression to the next (second) dhyana.

You may find some additional hints and insight if you read through the A General, All Purpose Jhana Thread.

Thank you all for the helpful replies and useful links!