Hello,

On Tommy's outdated blog:

http://downtoearthdharmablog.blogspot.co.il/2011/10/access-concentration-pragmatic-approach.html

He mentiones that using the base of the skull as object can get someone into hard jhanas... unfortuenly he never made a post how to use the base of the skull as object since one can't feel the breath sensations there...

Did anyone have success in getting into Jhana with the base of the skull, and care to explain how it is done?

PS: I did try to contact him but looks like he is totally absent

Are you sure you can't feel the breath there? I might be pre-jhana but I think I can feel breath sensations anywhere in the body. There are like subtle contractions and expansions at the base of the skull just like at any spot in the body. 

howdy,
"the breath" is just one object one can choose to use as an object for concentration practice.  i suspect that in tommy's post he was in a phase of his practice where he was experiencing a lot of energetic sensations in that area of his head.  this is just a suspicion but one i have some personal history with.

when these sensations become predominant they are a good point of focus for concentration. in this case, you focus your attention on the sensations which appear there, in my case, about where you'ld expect the spine to connect to the skull, and keep your attention there: on the sensations.

a candle flame (which he mentions in that post amoung others) is another very good focal point and less dependent upon obvious sensations in that region. 

even the term "the breath" can mean different things at different times to different people.  even to the same person...what is the breath?  you can break it down a million ways or count it as one "thing" in its vast collection of sensations.

as mentioned in the previous response that same breath can include the sensations you might be looking for.  try following your breath.  visualize a "round trip", visualize inhaling up the spine and through the base of the skull and continuing with the out breath through the third eye and connecting in an arc with the throat chackra, down the front, closing the circle at the lower chackra as the outbreath changes to the in breath.  this may tie the breath cycle to different points in your body..even the one you are choosing to be special.

cheers

I used to think that I could feel my breath everywhere, here was my theory:

The act of inflating and deflating the lungs necessarialy creates pressure changes in the air passages, at every point from nose to base of lung.  At any point in the air passage I could feel those pressure changes.  I had this impression that those pressure changes would literally radiate away from the air passages, pass through tissues to every point of the body, and I could feel the wave of pressure change in all those parts of my body, it was a subtle tinling that radiated away from the point of my air passage I was focused on.

But then I realized, I could experience that same sensation of a 'traveling pressure wave' whenever I wanted, intependent of breath, by simply casting my attention along a trajectory from one part of the body to another.

Now it seems I can pretty much notice sensations a any part of my body, once I settle down and focus my attention.  I think this has been very helpful in my meditation practice, and I credit my first Goenka retreat for helping me develop that skill.