Following is the discussion earlier today i had with Jhananda. I wud like to hear what others have to say as well.
"ME:
I m now regularly meditating. My question is should i strive to put in more
hours or should i achieve for greater penetration(intensity) because i noticed
that i can reach a thotless state but if i stay longer there my mind tends to
wander off after sometime. Its like mind gets bored(i m not sure if i should
call it boredom, cause i dont feel restless or irritation or dullness but
crispness of meditation starts getting muddled by thoughts) cause nothing
interesting is happening.
Will extending the amount of time i meditate ascend me faster through jhanas?
And i would like it if u can point out the stage im at, i see that
white\golden color are always there but dispersed. That bright orb will appear
sometimes only while meditating, though i hear the ringing everytime. What
does this mean? Have i reachedthird jhana or not ? and yeah sometimes mind
wanders off into some thoughts. Sometimes they r in the background only with
periods of thotlessness.
How should i go about it, i used to meditate for about an hour two times a day
few days back. Now i reduced to 30 mins only.
HIM:
It is good to find that you are meditating regularly now. It is likely with
more time spent in meditation one will achieve greater depth and
penetration.
It is good that you are arriving at a still, thoughtless state. It is quite
normal for the mind to reassert itself over and over again, during a long
meditation sit, so this is another reason why longer sessions are advised
for those who wish to penetrate to deeper levels of meditation, because then
one becomes habituated to a still mind, instead of a busy mind.
Before we start a contemplative life we are often habituated to attending to
an out of control mind, so it can take years to bring the "monkey-mind"
under disciplined control. We do this with attending to regular long
meditation sits, as well as bringing our mindful-self-awareness to keeping
our mind still throughout the day.
So, when we become skilled at long meditation sits, then we will find that
we will drop into deep meditation (aka jhana) sooner in our meditation
sessions, which will bring us to greater depth in less time and effort.
The still mind is the second jhana. It is the gateway to deeper levels of
meditation experience.
When the various charisms (aka nimittas) arise, then we are in the 3rd or
deeper level of meditation experience. For instance, the ringing, and
scintillating light are common in the 3rd and deeper levels of meditation
experience.
The luminous light orb is a characteristic of depths from the 4th to the 5th
jhana. So, you are doing well, but at meditating only for 30 minutes you
are not likely to go deeper than the 2nd jhana. Whereas, meditating for an
hour or more, 2 or more times a day, is likely to bring you to the 3rd and
to 4th jhana, and deeper.
ME: (This part, i really wud like to how other people r going abt it)
One thing specifically i want to knw.. I have been trying concentrating in third eye region where i see light.. Or in the ringing....but i cudnt somehow cross over.. Uk the transition phase u talk about..
Now that i try and recall the two three times when i did, it happend when i reached a total silence and i tried to be lost in third eye region or ringing in ear... Now also if i try to lose myself in the blissfull feeling of meditation, i feel that i can cross over.. But i never felt so with intently gazing into the light !!
Is it so ? Shud i be going after nimitttas with an intent to dissolve in them ? Otherwise my eyes flutter, trying to gaze into that light.
The dissolving feeling i can relate to going into sleep... Where we dont put effort to bring sleep on,, but we rather just lose ourself in the feeling of sleep and let it take over.
Whats your opinion or how people or specifically u experience it?
HIM:
At first we may have trouble integrating the charisms together. I found after decades of deep meditation that I acquired greater depth in meditation when I learned to meditate deeply, while attending to all of the charisms, such that they become a multi-sensory orchestra of charismatic bliss in deep meditation, which I dissolve into. Perhaps one day you too will find this in your deep meditation states.