Breath meditation tips

[Tad]

Hello Mystics,

I wanted to start a topic for discussing practical tips on making breath meditation more effective. I will start.

1. If your mind feels very agitated especially if you are doing meditation after a long day at work or so, I find that it really helps to take some time just to sit with closed eyes and let the mind naturally slow down. You will notice that the mind will naturally start catching the breath.

2. Sometimes when the mind feels dull during the session and it is hard to concentrate, I find that it helps to switch from feeling both breathing in and out to putting emphasis on breathing out alone.

3. Doing some stretches before meditation helps alert the mind and improves concentration.

4. During longer sessions of 1 hour or more if the mind or body start feeling very tired, I find that it helps to take a quick break after about 45 min/ 1 hour to relax legs and get the blood flowing in a different direction. Then go back to meditation.

[Jhanananda]

Thank you, Tad, for posting your findings in a skillful meditation strategy.  When I was a married householder raising 2 children I found doing laying down meditation when I got home from work helped me a great deal. 

I of course gave my children and wife some time to great me when I first arrived home, and when there was a natural time for me to take a break I would go into my meditation room, and lay down for an extended period of deep relaxation. 

After that session I would return to the family gathering for diner, and communion.  Then after helping wash the dishes and clean the kitchen, and putting the children to bed with an inspiring story, then I returned to the meditation room for an extended silent meditation that started with bare attention upon the breath in search of depth waiting for a still mind and deep sense of calm to settle upon me before retreating to bed for the night filled with lucid dreaming and out-of-body travel.

[zenbooster]

Hi!
I have stopped using the neural headset for the time being, about after I caught states from pleasant goosebumps to ecstasy several times, and began to practice anapanasati. Recently, these pleasant sensations arise in almost every meditation session, and even, sometimes, persist for some time after! What's it? Charismatic phenomena?
Speaking of them... When I feel pleasant sensations, like goosebumps at the base of the back of my head and on my back, or hear a thin whistle in my ears louder than usual, should I completely switch my attention to these phenomena, or partially, while keeping my attention on breathing?
Is it allowed to meditate sitting on the edge of the sofa with a straight back, reclining, or lying down? Does the lotus pose have any significant advantages over other poses?

2. Sometimes when the mind feels dull during the session and it is hard to concentrate, I find that it helps to switch from feeling both breathing in and out to putting emphasis on breathing out alone.

- this is familiar to me. Sometimes, especially if you meditate before going to bed, you begin to feel that you seem to stop understanding what is happening, as if awareness is fading, or the object of meditation is shifting from the nostrils to something else, and you suddenly realize it... It helps me more to make an effort and start concentrating again on the sensations that arise in the nostrils when inhaling and exhaling. It's probably noticeable that I use an online translator, but I hope that I managed to convey the idea

[Jhanananda]

This sounds like an excellent report, zenbooster, if you are finding "states from pleasant goosebumps to ecstasy several times," and the sound charism, which means you are likely to be making it to the 3rd stage of samadhi.

Regarding when to shift focus in the meditation from the breathe to the charism, I start with light attention upon the breath and when the charisms arise I might switch my focus to the charism, or I often find that my awareness can include a number of items once the charisms arise, so I look at the charisms as a multi-sensory symphony which I attend to, while relinquishing my attention to anything that involves the physical body and the physical senses, such as the breath.

Regarding posture: I never found full lotus conducive to depth in meditation, but crossed legs without placing one leg on top of the other has been very conducive for me to depth of the 4th stage of samadhi.  However, to get passed the 4th stage to the deeper 4 stages of samadhi I found lying down meditation works best for them, because the deeper 4 stages of samadhi are in my experience out-of-body, so getting deeper requires meditating lying down, and I do that after my evening session of sitting meditation just prior to bed, then I lie down in bed and continue my meditation lying down, this typically results in an OOBE.

[zenbooster]

Is it normal, however, that most of the time I focus on charisma, and only occasionally return to breathing? It was like that last night. Before going to sleep, I sat on the edge of the sofa, closed my eyes, and almost immediately heard a thin squeak, after which waves of goosebumps covered me. It was so intense that I involuntarily thought - "wow!" When the intensity faded, I returned to breathing, tracked literally a couple or three breaths, noticed that tinnitus was getting worse. When I turned my attention to the increased sound, the waves of goosebumps rolled again, then I turned my attention to them, and they became even stronger. And so on in a circle, for 20 minutes.
By the way, then I had a lucid dream with false awakenings and subsequent immersions in a lucid dream.
What do you advise to do next to get to the 4th jhana? Just practice regularly? How long do people usually have to practice to move from the 3rd to the 4th jhana? Though it's probably different for everyone...

[zenbooster]

 
Found answers to my questions in this thread:
https://fruitofthecontemplativelife.org/forum/index.php/topic,96.0.html

[Jhanananda]

Is it normal, however, that most of the time I focus on charisma, and only occasionally return to breathing? It was like that last night. Before going to sleep, I sat on the edge of the sofa, closed my eyes, and almost immediately heard a thin squeak, after which waves of goosebumps covered me. It was so intense that I involuntarily thought - "wow!" When the intensity faded, I returned to breathing, tracked literally a couple or three breaths, noticed that tinnitus was getting worse. When I turned my attention to the increased sound, the waves of goosebumps rolled again, then I turned my attention to them, and they became even stronger. And so on in a circle, for 20 minutes.
By the way, then I had a lucid dream with false awakenings and subsequent immersions in a lucid dream.
What do you advise to do next to get to the 4th jhana? Just practice regularly? How long do people usually have to practice to move from the 3rd to the 4th jhana? Though it's probably different for everyone...

It sounds like you are doing very well, zenbooster. Just keep it up, and keep in mind there is no rush to a "finish line." Just keep meditating regularly, and deeply until the day you die, and as you die just mediate as you are doing to negotiate the immaterial domains to the highest levels. Then you will be a god/deva.

[Jhanananda]

Found answers to my questions in this thread:
https://fruitofthecontemplativelife.org/forum/index.php/topic,96.0.html

Good work, and keep going.