[MattyBeeMember]

Hey Mike,

I have one observation to make about your characterisation that might help if you choose to focus on the hara again in the future. As you noted, when focusing on the hara there isn’t much sensation to deal with. There is stillness in the hara. I’ve heard it described as “the part the of body that is already always in meditation”. So if you focus your attention there in the future, place your attention on that stillness. Really appreciate it qualitatively, and how it stands out from all the background noise, due to its lack of sensation. It’s like a looking at a hole in the middle of picture.

To do this will require some solid concentration and a broad awareness, so that you don’t lose sight of all the other sensations in the background. As such, you may indeed find it better to practice with another location for now, as Ward suggests.

One observation, too, which I had to learn the hard way and _may_ be useful to you. I held a misconception for years that I should avoid “doing” too much when meditating. I’d heard about all the non-doing and I’d somehow internalised the idea that I should “just observe” the breath, not think, let thoughts come and go. This really limited my progress.

It wasn’t until I read the short chapter, “Just right concentration” in Ajahn Lee’s book here: link that I understood what I was supposed to be doing: I was supposed to using thought to evaluate cause and effect. After all the four noble truths are the truths of cause and effect in the mind. 1) The mind experiences stress. 2) The cause of this stress is the things the mind is doing. 3) There are other things you could be doing with the mind that would not generate this stress. 4) These things are the 8 fold path. It’s a practical guide to mastering the mind.

Meditation is a skill to be learned. So when meditating, it is important to stay continuously aware: What exactly am I doing? Is it working? If not, what can I do differently? This is how we improve. It doesn’t have to be intrusive. Just define your object very clearly and keeping that in mind. Know whether you’re currently observing it, as defined, clearly or not. If not, try something to make an improvement. Did it work? If so, that was skillful. If not, try something else.

Culadasa, Thanissaro and Ajahn Lee all have great suggestions of things you can do to improve the clarity and develop your skill. But ultimately it’s trial and error 🙂 The things that you _do_ should lead towards clarity, calm, and unity. They may be subtle. Or they may require a sledgehammer. Don’t discount the sledgehammer, it can be very effective! Whatever you need to do to deal with the current conditions in the mind needs to be done, and you definitely have to _do_ them and then see if they worked.

Anyway, I may have seriously over-interpreted your post. If so, I am very sorry. I may have read my challenges into your narrative! I just got the sense that you were try to simplify the practice to the point of non-doing and I had to discover myself that that road takes years to travel, and its a dead end 🙂

As always, I’m happy to discuss further if you find anything in the above. We’re all on this path together.

Peace be with you,
Matt

• This reply was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by  MattyBee.

[MattyBeeMember]

Hi Mike,

I no longer use the breath in the nostrils but use the hara as the locus of my attention. The Visuddhimagga suggests that different personality types are best served choosing by different meditation objects. For anxious people, such as myself, an object below the neck is best. And for a range of reasons, I also used to block off the sensations of my body because I have a lot of negative associations therein. Anyway, I learned to meditate on the hara and it enabled States of deep calm that the nose never did.

I would suggest reading Thanissaro Bikkhu’s “With each and every breath”. Then read his teacher’s book, Ajahn Lee’s “Keeping the breath in mind”. They teach a very similar style of meditation as TMI, but more body-focused. These two books taught me to breath in and out of my hara. Then I came back to TMI to take this style of meditation through the stages.

These two short books accelerated my practice exponentially. TMI still provides the underlying framework for the progressive development of my practice, because as you noted, the lessons are applicable to any object of meditation.

You can read Thanissaro’s and Ajahn Lee’s books for free at dhammatalks.org. It’s a wonderful resource.

Feel free to contact me directly if you want to discuss.

Matt

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