I've been meditating for just over a year now. Currently, I try and do four one-hour sits daily.
This is a very good practice strategy, but you would want to avoid wearing it out. If you find that meditation for us is a refuge, that it is pleasant, and you find some consolation, and therefore some conviction in practicing meditation, then you are most probably getting to the first jhana; because the first jhana is just the first detectable stage of the religious experience. It is not some utterly fantastic experience. that comes later.
I am learning to let go and relax by doing absolutely nothing. I mean not making any effort to try and let go, or to try and relax; not trying to control anything - just letting things be by doing nothing, getting out of the way, letting things develop without any interference on my part.
In the beginning this is a good strategy, because in the beginning we are so used to controlling everything in our lives, that most people do not get to even the first jhana because they are too much involved in controlling the experience.
I've noticed that the mind is totally out of control. Our senses are completely out of our control. Our environment is totally out of our control . There is no control over these unstoppable forces. We are totally helpless. So if everything is hopelessly out of our control, then why should we fight it, or try to control it? Why waste the energy in such a hopeless situation. I think the best thing to do is to totally surrender. Give up completely. Allow everything to be. Go with the flow.
This really is the magic formula for getting to the 2nd jhana, this is why almost every religion has a concept of letting go. In Christianity it is all about "thy will be done." In Islam it is all about submission to god. In Buddhism it is the refuge, etc.
The best place to be in a hurricane is in the eye of the hurricane. Just let everything swirl around you.
The eye of the storm is the still mind of the 2nd jhana, and the rest of the 6 stages of the religious experience; and we do not get there, except by developing ever deeper levels of letting go. However, at some point we must aspire to, and even actively engage in the relaxing process, and the stilling of the mind.
Although I'm not making any real progress, at the moment in my meditation, I'm learning not to worry about it. I've discovered this past year that any desire to have a good meditation leads to frustration, discouragement and suffering.
Yes, we even have to give up our craving for the religious experience to have deeper, and great religious experiences.
The secret, I think, is to be content with whatever arises. Contentment is the antidote to desire. So I'm trying to be content with whatever sensations arise during the course of the meditation. I'm looking for bliss and joy, but I've been largely unsuccessful. However, I do get relaxation when I let go. To want anything causes an irritation. And, I think, that's a hindrance to successful meditation.
Contentment is surely one of the core attainments that comes from a fruitful contemplative life. So, if you keep going, then you will find your contentment will increase, which will deepen your meditation experience, as well as enrich your life.
I sit down on a sofa with my spin as straight as possible. I can't sit on the floor, I have nerve damage in my lower limbs. Maybe a highly adjustable ergonomic chair would be better.
With as much meditation time as one, who attains abundant fruit (phala) from a contemplative life, one tends to hone, and hone, and hone, one's meditation posture. The goal is to find as comfortable a position to sit in, while remaining as deeply relaxed as possible. An erect spine definitely helps the rising of the kundalini. To improve my sitting posture I spent at least a decade practicing yoga every day to transform my body into one that could sit comfortably in cross-legged meditation.
I also worked, and reworked my meditation seat. I found a raised cushion that was slightly ramped rising to the rear smoothly, wihat no wrinkles worked best. And, I found that foam and cotton were not helpful, because they cause heat in my body to pool; whereas wool and silk breath. So, I sat on wool blankets shaped into a wedge, and I rolled the rear of the wedge up against my but, and wrapped it around my butt. I also wore wool or silk pants, and silk under pants, and, if it was cold, then I wore a wool blanket. But, whatever works is important, and if you have nerve damage, then a couch maybe the best thing for you.
Some people find laying down meditation works best for them. Shiva and Siddhartha Gautama found laying down meditation worked best for them. They are commonly represented in laying down meditation posture. Laying down meditation posture is a posture all mystics develop, because you cannot go OOBE without it. Also, you cannot meditate all night long sitting up, so Laying down meditation posture is best for that. This is when we develop lucid dreaming, the OOBE, and the traversing of the upper 4 stages of the religious experience.
Some find standing posture works best for them. Standing in meditation is just finding a comfortable stance and relaxing deeply into it, and stilling the mind, etc. The Tai Chi standing posture is an excellent example of a well developed standing meditation posture.
Walking meditation is another posture that is described in the suttas, and it works for many. The practice of Tai Chi and Chi Gong, are excellent examples of walking meditation.
I studied Tai Chi the year after I took up a meditation practice. I found the standing and walking forms of Tai Chi worked excellently for me to develop my standing and walking meditation practice. However, remembering the 64 posture form I found not conducive to deep meditation while walking. Instead I took the basic concepts behind Tai CHi and thru out the form and just walked about in deep meditation while moving my body and arms in a Tai Chi-like manor. I found doing so worked very well at developing deep meditation states.
There is a guy, Millennium Twain, I met in Santa Monica, he later moved to Ojai. I taught him the walking and standing forms that lead to jhana. He made at least one YouTube video on it. He calls it "jhana walk."
Jhana DreamTime Walkers. The video does not seem to work anymore.
I place my attention on the breath. Sometimes I breath long breaths or short ones. I find a comfortable rhythm. Maybe this is controlling the breath? But it feels good.
If, whatever we do is relaxing, comforting, and feels good, then it probably leads to the religious experience (jhana). However, when I meditation I just let the breath do whatever it is going to do, while I observe it.
When the mind becomes still, then I observe the still mind as a meditation object. As the pleasant, blissful, charismatic sensations of the religious experience arises, then I take each one of them as a meditation object as they arise. This means at deep levels of the religious experience I have many meditation objects.
It is a little like listening to an orchestra perform a complex piece. An audiofile will here every instrument. In the same way, a skilled contemplative will sense in great detail all of the subtle phenomena of the religious experience.
I also experiment with just letting the breathe find its own natural pace.Then I let go and relax, but there are no sensations of bliss and joy. There are clouds of fog like sensations in my head which are neither pleasant or unpleasant. Well, maybe the odd little burst of pleasant sensations, but nothing strong and enduring.
Learning to take comfort in the practice of meditation, and even find the practice of meditation, not just a refuge, but pleasant, leads to the first jhana.
Sometimes there is a strong pressure sensation that builds up in my head when I let go and relax. It's like the magnetic repulsion of two magnets of the same polarity. This energy manifests as a pulsating, bouncing, turbulent, intense swirl in my head. It wants to move upward as if it were a buoyant, helium balloon drawing my head upwards. Or, it feels as if my head is being stretched upward and my face is being stretched and distorted in all kinds of ways, i.e. my nose is where my eye is, etc...Sometimes there is a strong downward pressure at the roof of my mouth. I guess it's a distortion of the senses.
This is a religious experience. This is jhana. These sensations are the jhana-nimitta, or charisms.
This makes following the breath very difficult.
When the charisms (jhana-nimitta) arise, is when you dump the meditation object, and use the charisms as your new meditation object. Obsessing over the meditation object, and ignoring the charisms is why most people who meditation never have a religious experience.
I've also had occasions where evenly-suffused, intense sensations pervaded the head. It was a relaxing experience. The breath became interesting and easy to observe. I wasn't bored with it, nor did I have feelings of aversion for it, because it wasn't to my liking. This feeling sometimes lasted for five to ten minutes or so, and is at times accompanied by a tranquil, silky, smooth and faint breath.
These are more charisms (jhana-nimitta). So, when they next arise, then use them as your meditation object, and dump the cognitive meditation objects, such as the breath, body scanning, Satipathana etc.
There are no feelings of piiti and sukkha. Perhaps these sensations are waiting just around the corner, and all that is needed is to tranquilize the breath further.
The deeply emotional experience of bliss, (piiti) and joy (sukha) are indeed just around the corner of this experience; however, the charisms (jhana-nimitta) constitute bliss (piiti). Every one who has not had a religious experience has no idea what bliss, and the charisms are.
I notice that when I'm bored or have aversion for the breath, when I'm not satisfied with the breath -- thinking arises and takes hold.
This is true for all contemplatives. So, learn to find comfort, bliss and joy, in the charisms (jhana-nimitta).
One thing I've learned over the past year is if I hear a sound during meditation, it's just a sound. I don't let thoughts about it to proliferate, i.e. "Those damn neighbors! Will they ever stop that irritating noise." The noise causes a disturbance in my central nervous system. That's all. I let it slide, I let it subside by itself. I just sit there and observe my meditation object. That's what I try to do.
This is skillful means, and leads to equanimity, which is the definition of the 3rd jhana.
Sometimes I use other objects of meditation, such as the sound of tinnitus in my ears.
When did you develop tinnitus? What were the conditions that caused it?
Sometimes I use the sensation of letting go as my meditation object.
Using the sensation of letting go as a meditation object is very good.
I experiment.
So, overall I think I'm in the pre-stages leading to the first jhana. It's taken me a year of hard work to get to this point.
Experimenting in the early stages of meditation practice is a good thing. Keep searching for what calms your mind and relaxes you, and comforts you. However, it looks to me like you are beyond the beginning stages and you are bumping into the charisms, but you did not know what to look for, or how to respond to it. I hope my responses here will help you and others to deepen your meditation experience.
