Not to sound like a broken record, but it's really one of my favorite things ever when people share legible stuff about meditation 😁 so much sharing to do....
Really cool post. Super simple and easy to follow.
My one question is; do the 'nice feelings' have to be emotions such as joy and contentment, or can they be sensations, such as the warmth of the sun on your skin or a nice tingling in your leg?
i think nice feelings, as in sensations you'd give emotional labels, are more reliable foundations for this type of jhana practice than using pure physical pleasure as the meditation object. but you can use physical pleasure that arises as fuel for an emotional practice. the way to do that is responding to physical pleasure in a way that is likely to create an emotional response.
for example, you can appreciate the physical pleasure, and that can surface gratitude. you can imagine sharing the physical pleasure with another being, and that can surface emotions like love and kindness. or you can savor the physical pleasure, extending its duration and often spiking its amplitude, which is an easier place to trigger a positive emotional response.
so physical pleasure in this type of practice is a gift, an opportunity to create an emotional reponse.
some writings you may find useful that relate to your question:
I'm curious if the congratulating yourself for noticing an unpleasant sensation/ thought with the intention of creating a pleasant sensation ever crosses into bypassing?
Good question. I think many ways of relating to emotional experience could, including this example, but if you are using it in a way that rejects, represses, or removes other emotions from awareness out of aversion, then your jhana practice will stall.
This style of practice, where emotional tone is the object (or one of two objects) of meditation, is about reversing repression of joy, love, contentment, and the other main flavors people collect around in jhana. In order to do that successfully, you're going to have to make friends with the rest of emotional experience.
You don't have to go digging through all your "baggage", the body will offer up what you're ready for on its own.
And this move in particular, appreciating noticing unpleasant sensations or negative thinking, is about rewarding awareness and seeing if nice feelings are available.
We don't push away the unpleasant sensation or negative thinking, we let it hang out in awareness as long is it wants. And it can coexist alongside nice feelings.
Many types of emotional work will help you build inner coherence and make friends with emotions you were previously aversive towards, but not all types of emotional work will put you on the jhana slide.
And one key difference is that in this type of emotional work, we are proactive about increasing the duration of nice feelings in our experience. And one way of doing that is checking more often if nice feelings or pleasures are available, even in the midst of initially unpleasant sensations and feelings.
I’ve recently been intrigued with these jhanic practices and particularly the notion of looking for and savouring the nice feeling, and then the not nice feelings in need of processing will come up anyway. But my past experience with somatic work, parts work and therapy I feel has me in a mindset of looking for the thing to heal first instead of the nice feeling.
There’s a belief that doing that would be bypassing but the deeper layer is probably that I don’t feel worthy of feeling good, which is exactly what comes up when I have been practicing savouring the nice emotions!
Thanks so much for this resource! I've found concise advice like this to really speed up the progression from experimenting with "clunky" effortful moves towards fluid reflexes. Something about fitting cleanly in working memory -> easier to access during practice -> deposits more easily into long term recall
After my first couple jhana experiences I'm finding it hard to stay in the state because soon enough, pronounced tingling in my hands and face tend to dominate the experience, including after the initial "glee" of J1 mellows out. I get spit out feeling some amount of worry and bewilderment along with the nicer parts of the afterglow.
Can I ask you for any pointers? I'm finding it challenging to enjoy or embrace the tingling because it's so aggressive and distinct from the sensations that I like to "pulse" pre-takeoff, but is "embracing" the right challenge to play with? Or are there more physical tips to mitigate those sensations?
It’s not uncommon for worry and resistance to show up because of novel physical phenomena (like tingling). I would not advise intentionally trying to make it go away.
Something I find useful is really exaggerating savoring the sensation as if it’s the best sensation in the world, and continuing to savor any new minor flavors of unpleasantness that cascade into experience after the initial savoring you kick off.
Another approach is welcoming the reaction to the tingling. You’re not in any danger, but maybe fear is showing up or some other reaction. And experimenting with the different forms of embracing that reaction can make it more obvious that the tingling doesn’t have to be a problem.
Or you can book a pay-what-you-want call with me if you want further help: cal.com/blissbrah
Not to sound like a broken record, but it's really one of my favorite things ever when people share legible stuff about meditation 😁 so much sharing to do....
I love the simple clarity, Owen. Here's to finding new layers of non-management and the journey of coming home.
Really cool post. Super simple and easy to follow.
My one question is; do the 'nice feelings' have to be emotions such as joy and contentment, or can they be sensations, such as the warmth of the sun on your skin or a nice tingling in your leg?
hey, fish! glad you liked it.
i think nice feelings, as in sensations you'd give emotional labels, are more reliable foundations for this type of jhana practice than using pure physical pleasure as the meditation object. but you can use physical pleasure that arises as fuel for an emotional practice. the way to do that is responding to physical pleasure in a way that is likely to create an emotional response.
for example, you can appreciate the physical pleasure, and that can surface gratitude. you can imagine sharing the physical pleasure with another being, and that can surface emotions like love and kindness. or you can savor the physical pleasure, extending its duration and often spiking its amplitude, which is an easier place to trigger a positive emotional response.
so physical pleasure in this type of practice is a gift, an opportunity to create an emotional reponse.
some writings you may find useful that relate to your question:
savoring as a daily practice: https://x.com/blissbrah/status/1722388593136800056
sort of similar one: https://x.com/blissbrah/status/2049938481020129619
hope this helps clarify
Fascinating, thanks for sharing.
I'm curious if the congratulating yourself for noticing an unpleasant sensation/ thought with the intention of creating a pleasant sensation ever crosses into bypassing?
Good question. I think many ways of relating to emotional experience could, including this example, but if you are using it in a way that rejects, represses, or removes other emotions from awareness out of aversion, then your jhana practice will stall.
This style of practice, where emotional tone is the object (or one of two objects) of meditation, is about reversing repression of joy, love, contentment, and the other main flavors people collect around in jhana. In order to do that successfully, you're going to have to make friends with the rest of emotional experience.
You don't have to go digging through all your "baggage", the body will offer up what you're ready for on its own.
And this move in particular, appreciating noticing unpleasant sensations or negative thinking, is about rewarding awareness and seeing if nice feelings are available.
We don't push away the unpleasant sensation or negative thinking, we let it hang out in awareness as long is it wants. And it can coexist alongside nice feelings.
Many types of emotional work will help you build inner coherence and make friends with emotions you were previously aversive towards, but not all types of emotional work will put you on the jhana slide.
And one key difference is that in this type of emotional work, we are proactive about increasing the duration of nice feelings in our experience. And one way of doing that is checking more often if nice feelings or pleasures are available, even in the midst of initially unpleasant sensations and feelings.
Awesome, thanks Owen.
I’ve recently been intrigued with these jhanic practices and particularly the notion of looking for and savouring the nice feeling, and then the not nice feelings in need of processing will come up anyway. But my past experience with somatic work, parts work and therapy I feel has me in a mindset of looking for the thing to heal first instead of the nice feeling.
There’s a belief that doing that would be bypassing but the deeper layer is probably that I don’t feel worthy of feeling good, which is exactly what comes up when I have been practicing savouring the nice emotions!
Gonna go shower that with love
Thanks so much for this resource! I've found concise advice like this to really speed up the progression from experimenting with "clunky" effortful moves towards fluid reflexes. Something about fitting cleanly in working memory -> easier to access during practice -> deposits more easily into long term recall
After my first couple jhana experiences I'm finding it hard to stay in the state because soon enough, pronounced tingling in my hands and face tend to dominate the experience, including after the initial "glee" of J1 mellows out. I get spit out feeling some amount of worry and bewilderment along with the nicer parts of the afterglow.
Can I ask you for any pointers? I'm finding it challenging to enjoy or embrace the tingling because it's so aggressive and distinct from the sensations that I like to "pulse" pre-takeoff, but is "embracing" the right challenge to play with? Or are there more physical tips to mitigate those sensations?
Hey, Jay! Glad you’re finding it helpful.
And congrats on having a few jhana experiences (:
It’s not uncommon for worry and resistance to show up because of novel physical phenomena (like tingling). I would not advise intentionally trying to make it go away.
Something I find useful is really exaggerating savoring the sensation as if it’s the best sensation in the world, and continuing to savor any new minor flavors of unpleasantness that cascade into experience after the initial savoring you kick off.
Another approach is welcoming the reaction to the tingling. You’re not in any danger, but maybe fear is showing up or some other reaction. And experimenting with the different forms of embracing that reaction can make it more obvious that the tingling doesn’t have to be a problem.
Or you can book a pay-what-you-want call with me if you want further help: cal.com/blissbrah
Hope this is helpful (: