Forum: The Samatha Jhanas

So here is a question: what are things to keep in mind when in jhana? For example, this morning I entered a very deep state--piti and sukkha had fallen away, to my surprise, and my bodily sense was expanding and expanding. Since I have been having a rough couple weeks (months) at work I decided to give over to the state, and noticed between the active process of conditioning the state, and the process of focusing on my object, and maintaining mindfulness (rather than turning into a vegetable), a great amount of tension was present, as we should expect in a high-energy state, with ample ability to investigate. That said, though, this was at the limit of my ability--i can see how it would have been easier to leave the state to stay mindful, or to let mindfulness fall away and just go into the state more, rather than attempt to balance both--does anyone have any comments or advice?

No specific comments here, but I did find this article from Leigh Brasington (who teaches the jhanas) to be thought-provoking: http://www.leighb.com/jhana_fr.htm

The end is especially interesting, where he describes various level of jhana and whether or not investigation is actually possible during those states (and why).

The bandwidth "metaphor" in that piece is very helpful... I'd be curious to read the methods those teachers use somewhere.