[B ArnoldMember]

…and I would just add, Charles: before I went into this state where auditory sounds were absent – I very explicitly set the conscious intention to enter the first whole body jhana. Explicit in that I internally verbalized the intention several times – each time on the inhale, then returned to breath sensations on the exhale. It’s always seemed strange to me that this should work, but it did seem to catalyze a deeper concentrated state.

When I “surfaced”, I just focused again on whole body breath sensations, then declared the intention again, and once again I seemed to go deeper. I’m going to continue to experiment with this process in my sits and I’ll follow-up as I gain more clarity and familiarity with it.

Metta,

Bobby

[B ArnoldMember]

Hey Charles!

> In order to access and keep the whole body jhanas going does one have to maintain the focus on breathing with the whole body instead of placing attention back on the breath at the nose?

Yes, that is my understanding. The jhana is accessed by widening the field of attention (and sustaining it) on breath sensations in the whole body. I have spent some time with this practice, but probably not enough (I am with you on the needing to not rush things!)

The degree of absorption in this practice seems rather subtle, and I have a hard time differentiating it from just really solid access concentration. As the book says, all the factors that are present in access are also present in first whole body jhana, but it has this “flow” or “groove” quality. The thing is, I often feel like I have this “groove” state in access! Perhaps I haven’t tapped into it.

I tried it this morning, and what did surprise me about it was how effective the widened attentional field was at tuning out sounds, even from perpheral awareness. When I noticed this, my attention started to wobble around, as if to sort of scan the field of awareness for activity. Suddenly all kinds of background noise came rushing in – like the volume knob suddenly being cranked up.

I am unsure though how much to gauge the quality of the absorption on auditory noise in peripheral awareness. There was also virtually no discursive thought, but this has become a consistent trait of my daily practice. There was also waves of physical pleasure and a subtle sense of joy regarding the whole process. Is that “the flow” Culadasa is pointing to? I’m not entirely sure.

I will try practicing some more with this technique and get back and compare notes with you!

Metta,
Bobby

[B ArnoldMember]

Hey Charles,

In my opinion, body sensations and sounds can still be in peripheral awareness while successfully maintaining exclusive focus. The key is that subtle distractions do not occur, because you have developed sufficient introspective awareness, and can refresh the intention to contact and sustain attention on the breath when needed.

I wouldn’t expect at this point to be able to completely tune out sounds and sensations. That, to me, would be a sign of sense pacification, which though that might start at this point, it certainly isn’t completed yet.

Whole body breath awareness practice does help pacify the discriminating mind, and as a result, thoughts are attenuated and/or relegated to peripheral awareness – the felt sense in my experience is that they are kind of wispy and distant, and often not complete thoughts – as if you are vaguely overhearing a distant but passing conversation.

Since the mind loves to glom onto thoughts and follow them wherever they go, this thinning out of thought is clearly helpful when cultivating exclusive focus. Body sensations and sounds are much less seductive by comparison. It follows then that exclusive focus is even easier when thoughts are entirely absent, with the pacification of the discriminating mind – but I don’t think that occurs until the end of stage seven (I think – don’t have my book in front of me 🙂

Metta,
Bobby

[B ArnoldMember]

Hey Charles,

I don’t think it is necessarily faintness per se – but rather a less conceptualized experience of the breath, which can manifest perceptually in a variety of different ways.

I have experienced the loss of the in/out breath concepts you described, but it wasn’t because the breath was so subtle that the inhale/exhale couldn’t be distinguished – the breath perceptions are very vivid, but the mental overlay of the in/out concept is just gone. It is kind of bizarre, to say the least. There is just this perception of raw breath sensations in awareness, almost like one impossibly long inhale, or one impossibly long exhale – it could be either. I experienced this much later though – but I’m sure experience varies.

I also perceive the breath as near frigid in temperature frequently, and out-of-whack spatially in terms with where I think my nose is. Also, I frequently perceive a smoky luminosity that seems associated with it. But – I don’t think any of these perceptions are *required* to finish stage six. I believe the text reads that basically there is this tendency for concepts that typically wrap the breath to start stripping away, yielding an altered (more refined?) perception of the breath.

I read this as a gradual process that starts in stage six, but continues throughout subsequent stages. Others may correct me, but if all you notice is increased vividness of physical sensations, then I would guess that is fine for stage six. More important at this stage, it seems to me, is the quality of exclusive focus.

Metta,

Bobby

[B ArnoldMember]

Have you ever read a book while listening to music? Your attentional focus is the words on the page, but you can still hear the music in peripheral awareness. You are conscious of it in the background, but it is not the focus of attention.

[B ArnoldMember]

Good to hear, no pun intended. And also incentive to keep practicing 😉

[B ArnoldMember]

Thanks Blake and Wiley for your replies!

Blake, I have noticed (frequently) in my sittings that the “volume” on sounds in external awareness varies quite a bit – sometimes sharply diminishing rather quickly, as if receding into the distance or as if the volume knob was suddenly turned down. This sort of thing started happening before the ringing. These volume adjustments continue to happen, but now there is always the ringing as well. Ironically (and similar to you Wiley), the ringing bothers me the least when I am on the cushion, as it tends to change in tone to something more pleasant or even seemingly split into a variety of tones which is strangely enticing. I had considered that the volume stuff was pacification related, and I do recall the bit where Culadasa speaks of outer sounds being replaced by an “inner sound”, but I didn’t think it would be quite like this, or *all the time*!

I take your point regarding equanimity though, Blake. I will use this opportunity for practice!

With Metta,

Bobby

[B ArnoldMember]

Hey Charles,

Thank you – I was able to find some interesting material on Ajahn Sumedho and Nada Yoga.

With Metta,

Bobby

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