Kasina Object Meditation

[Ichigo]

Hey Everyone

Other then practicing Anapanasati, I want to give kasina meditation a try as well with a candle flame or a colored circle just to the point the pleasure feelings arise and from there abandoning the object.

Yesterday I attempted to practice on a colored circle in front of me.. but then realized that there are 2 ways of starting at the circle which I am not quite sure about which is correct enough.. let me try to explain it:

1. Let's say I have a red circle infront of me, do I look at the center of the object, intensity on the color redness, like I am trying to see the tiny particles of the texture? another example is, trying to look with intensity at a very small dot on the circle, like trying my best to focus in order to see a tiny spot somewhere.
because after a few seconds when doing that the object becomes foggy and it's like I have to blink or move my physical eyes a bit to get a clear picture of the red circle again without it getting all distorted..

2. I just place my eyes on the red circle without focusing on any specific part of the red circle, you could say the eyes are out of focus.. your eyes look towards the circle and you see it, but you don't look at it directly and straight, but you see that it's there just like now when I type this post I see my lamp on the table, more of a general view, 'knowing of the red circle'
when doing that the circle comes a little bit out of place, it gets a glowing hue around it, it becomes very very sharp.. it get's 3D like, as long as my eyes tend to be in "out of focus" state, however, the eyes aren't exactly placed on the object, but still the mind "sees" it and knows that it's there and seeing the shiny color changes of the object.. however once you move your eyes or blink, the object returns to the normal view.. so you have to again look at the object in such a way and waiting for the eyes to make that shift again.. so you could say something happens to the physical eyes that makes up this kind of illusion.. if that makes any sense..

[Jhanananda]

Hey Everyone

Other then practicing Anapanasati, I want to give kasina meditation a try as well with a candle flame or a colored circle just to the point the pleasure feelings arise and from there abandoning the object.

I practiced meditation upon a candle in the first year of my meditation practice.  I found the candle was not so useful as a meditation object, because it tends to flicker, even in a still room.  It is that flickering that I found distracting.

Yesterday I attempted to practice on a colored circle in front of me.. but then realized that there are 2 ways of starting at the circle which I am not quite sure about which is correct enough.. let me try to explain it:

1. Let's say I have a red circle infront of me, do I look at the center of the object, intensity on the color redness, like I am trying to see the tiny particles of the texture? another example is, trying to look with intensity at a very small dot on the circle, like trying my best to focus in order to see a tiny spot somewhere.
because after a few seconds when doing that the object becomes foggy and it's like I have to blink or move my physical eyes a bit to get a clear picture of the red circle again without it getting all distorted..

2. I just place my eyes on the red circle without focusing on any specific part of the red circle, you could say the eyes are out of focus.. your eyes look towards the circle and you see it, but you don't look at it directly and straight, but you see that it's there just like now when I type this post I see my lamp on the table, more of a general view, 'knowing of the red circle'
when doing that the circle comes a little bit out of place, it gets a glowing hue around it, it becomes very very sharp.. it get's 3D like, as long as my eyes tend to be in "out of focus" state, however, the eyes aren't exactly placed on the object, but still the mind "sees" it and knows that it's there and seeing the shiny color changes of the object.. however once you move your eyes or blink, the object returns to the normal view.. so you have to again look at the object in such a way and waiting for the eyes to make that shift again.. so you could say something happens to the physical eyes that makes up this kind of illusion.. if that makes any sense..

I found your second method more useful, when using a colored disk (kasina) as a meditation object.  I find that we are all good at defocusing upon a visual object, so when we do so with a visual meditation object, then the practice serves as a metaphor for how we can use any sensory field as a meditation object, as long as we can "defocus" from that sensory field, while taking it in as a whole observed plane.

[Jhanananda]

Here is an essay that I wrote some years ago on Kasina, The use of a Visual Meditation Object.  Here is another essay that I wrote on this subject, The Moon as a Kasina, Using the moon as a visual meditation object.  A luminous sphere that appears during meditation is often called a kasina in Asian Buddhism.