I’m so glad some of the ideas seemed potentially useful. And yes, I find the superego / inner critic to be one of the most challenging obstacles to our spiritual unfoldment out there, and often hard to identify.

One thing that’s sometimes helped piti to move more freely for me is to allow the “love affair with the beautiful breath” to…[Read more]

A few details from your message jumped out at me. First, you mentioned some “fairly big things” that haven’t happened for you, but were your motivation for engaging the practice. That’s a perfectly reasonable orientation; who would commit this sort of time without expectations of results, after all? Then again there’s always a danger,…[Read more]

I believe what you’re experiencing is inherent to the practice. Traditionally (at least with the luminous jhanas – the meticulous distinction between the three jhana levels was something I hadn’t seen before TMI), piti can become increasingly unsatisfying and even feel “coarse”, and drop away, paving the way for the transition to the…[Read more]

I’m so glad the ideas seemed useful, and I look forward to hearing how your explorations go.

> Also I have tied reformulating my motivation to be more inclined to exploring rather than trying to attain greater concentration.

Nice. I remember a teacher (Ajahn Brahm?) referring to the “love affair with the breath.” It’s an image I like…[Read more]

First I’d say that it sounds like you’ve done some really useful exploration of what’s happening in your practice. I think that willingness to experiment and take a deep dive into what’s arising for you is key to “making the practice your own” and progressing.

There are some good reasons to try using the breath at the nose as your…[Read more]

I was also going to suggest exploring Somatic Experiencing, and specifically starting by reading some Peter Levine. I’ve found his work really useful in broadening my understanding of trauma – there are a variety of possible sources that we might consider relatively innocuous.

I’d add that trauma work is distinct from other…[Read more]

>expand awareness/ shift focus from meditation object to expanding awareness

has been very helpful for me in my own practice.

I had a tendency to move quickly to watching the breath at the nose, and to then really look hard for increasing levels of detail. This would often bring in sinking…[Read more]