- Hello Daniel,Probably the most important thing I am going to say is that I agree totally with you and with Ian that "this concentration subject can develop in a variety of ways". There are seemingly an infinite number of variations possible, and what we are really trying to do is to identify those aspects that are more or less universal.In the your message just previous to this one you had asked:"how then do you understand the experience that many have of very vivid, pure, bright and stable lights as nimittas for this meditation? They are obviously mental phenomena, but are not lacking in color or shape nonetheless... Nor am I referring to the distracting and unstable photisms and tactile "images" that occur earlier on in the concentration process."And:"Where I am going with this is that some teachers like Brahmavamso and Pa Auk seem to be talking about what appears to be a mentally created form that has both color and shape, is stable and can appear as quite pure and self luminous. I have had this experience as well. This cannot be what you are calling the Uggaha nimitta, since according to your categories this is just the bare sensation of the breath. But if I have understood you take these are not true patibhagga nimittas either."I would like to address this question first, and then elaborate by working with the excellent formulation you used in the present message. Here I believe we are talking about two completely different phenomena that have been repeatedly confused with each other.One is a perception of illumination or luminosity that arises spontaneously after one has reached the Upacara level of concentration, which may or may not involve shapes, which may or may not involve colors other than white, and which occurs in association with a variety of other well-known and well-described phenomena involved with piti-sukha. References to it frequently occur in the literature on samatha, and it is utilized as a major component in "light and sound' meditations in other traditions. It is referred to specifically in the Visuddhimagga and the Insight meditation literature as the first of the 10 Imperfections of Insight, and there also it is associated with the arising of piti-sukha. (As I have asserted several times previously, that stage of Insight practice, 'vipassanaupakkilesa', marks the achievement of Upacara samadhi, and is indispensable to Insight because it is not until the meditator has reached Upacara that the true progress of Insight begins.) As far as I have been able to determine, this illumination is completely independent of and unrelated to the specific meditation object, and is almost universal.
The second is a very refined and abstract perception (appearance) of the meditation object itself that has been labeled as the patibhagga nimitta, or 'mental counter-part appearance', and occurs in mature Upacara samadhi in conjunction with the meditator's approach to the Appana level of concentration. This phenomenon may or may not be experienced and described in a visual way, may or may not involve elements of light and color, but is always directly related to the meditation object in some subjectively apparent way.When the illumination phenomenon occurs, it may be taken as the meditation object at that time in place of the meditation object that was originally used to achieve this level of concentration, as is done in light and sound meditation, and as Brahmavamso and others appear to be doing. The illumination can then give rise to its own pattibhagga nimitta. If the illumination is ignored and the meditator continues with their original meditation object, the patibhagga nimitta of that meditation object will arise.I don't necessarily say that these nimittas with apparent color and form are not pattibhaga nimittas, just that they are not nimittas of the breath. Abstractions of non-sensory visual phenomena perceived in visual terms are entirely within the realm of the mind rather than the senses, and that is all that is required for the mind to entire Appana.OK, so that is what I understand these terms to refer to, and how I use them. Now I would like to just go through a description of what happens to the appearance of the meditation object in breath meditation and (hopefully) clarify why it is that I apply these terms the way I do.The Beginning Breath and the Parikamma NimittaWhen one begins to meditate on the breath at the nose, there is a noticing of the in-breath and the out-breath. The meditator has the concept that she is a discrete being with a body, and that there is a nose as a part of the body, and that it is surrounded by a substance called air, and that this substance can be caused to move through the nose, and that this movement is bi-directional and is known as breath. There is actually only minimal awareness of the sensation that is occurring. The attention immediately moves from the sensation to the mass of mental formations that has been constructed to account for sensory experiences like this, and what is known to conscious awareness is not the sensation, but the mental constructs. In order to sustain the attention on the breath, the meditator engages with the breath by noticing the beginning, middle, end of the in-breath, the pause, the beginning, middle, end of the out-breath, the next pause, etc. All of these are concepts. They are all complex concepts constructed out of simpler concepts.For example, conscious awareness takes as object the sensation from the body tactile sense as the air first strikes the skin at the nostrils. Then conscious awareness shifts to the mind sense and perceives that sensation, knows it as a mental formation or concept consisting of a combination of other concepts such as nose, touch, air, beginning, in-breath and so forth. Then conscious awareness returns to the body tactile sense and takes as object the sensation produced by the ongoing flow of air past the skin at the nostrils, immediately following which it goes back again to the mind sense to know that sensation in a similar way as first-part-of-the-middle-of-the-in-breath or some such.This is the parikamma nimitta, the initial or preliminary appearance of the breath, no more than a refined version of the ordinary non-meditative perception of the breath. This appearance of the breath continues to predominate for a very long time and until a significant degree of skill in sustaining attention on the breath has been achieved.The Pure Sensation of the Breath and the Uggaha NimittaAt some point, continuity of attention has been mastered, the mind no longer wanders, the breath is rarely if ever lost or forgotten. Once attention has become stable enough, a teacher may instruct the meditator to make observation of the breath non-conceptual, to just focus on the sensations that are occurring. Now, because attentional continuity has been mastered, the primary objective becomes to achieve an increased degree of one-pointedness. Even without this kind of instruction, the meditator will soon enough discover that, through habituation, all of that conceptual noticing is no longer necessary to keep the attention engaged, and all of that conceptual thought is also just a distraction from the simple observation of the breath. Now the mind follows the breath naturally, and so awareness of the sensation (which is in truth the only thing that was ever present other than conceptual formations anyway) begins to predominate.Although the meditation object is still the breath, it is now the sensation of the breath in a very real sense, relatively free of conceptual formations, and this marks an important change in the appearance of the object. This change in appearance is distinctive enough that it seems to deserve a label of its own, and since it has been acquired as a result of all the practice that has gone before, the label uggaha nimitta, or acquired appearance seems very appropriate.[What follows in the next paragraph will not necessarily occur unless the meditator has been trained to identify what is known as 'subtle dullness' in the Shamata tradition, and has overcome subtle dullness through cultivating intensity and clarity of sati, or mindful awareness]. As she becomes more and more skilled at one-pointedly observing just the sensation, more subtle bits of conceptual baggage drop away as well. At some point she may suddenly become aware that she no longer knows which of the two patterns of sensation that arise and pass away in alternation is the one from the in-breath and which is from the out-breath. She is also aware that she could know in an instant, but that a distinct and separate shift of the attention away from the sensation to the conceptual formations of the mind would be necessary. At another time she may suddenly realize that the apparent location in space of the sensations no longer coincides with where her nose should be, that it is off to one one side or above or below. She knows that all she needs to do is to turn conscious awareness to the conceptual formation of the body shape and position, and then the two will immediately coincide, but once again, it will involve a separate attentional shift. The product of this awareness is a profound insight into nama and rupa.And although this is a very one-pointed meditative state, the meditation object is still very much tactile sensation.The Subtle BreathI am not quite sure what you are describing here. You describe it as "apprehended through tactility", and if that is accurate, if it is definitely tactile in nature and quality, then it would probably fall into the same category of sensation-stripped-of-concept as the examples I used above, and I would agree with you in labelling it uggaha nimitta. But because of your choice of words, or at least my understanding of them, it doesn't really sound tactile. Because it sounds so abstract and you decribe it by analogy, and because it is so directly related to the meditation object, the breath, if you are in a very one-pointed state of concentration when this arises I would be more inclined to suggest it is in fact a patibhagga nimitta. The only other thing I can think of at the moment that it might be is an awareness of prana. Do you do this practice using the surface of the abdomen over the third chakra rather than the tip of the nose? When doing the body-scanning process that I call 'experiencing the body with the breath', awareness of prana and energy currents within the body sometimes does occur.Stable but Dull Light and The Final Very Beautiful, Self-luminous and Clear ImageA meditator can achieve a high degree of one-pointedness with the sensation of the breath (uggaha nimitta) that will still be unstable enough that subtle distractions in the form of thoughts arising in the 'background' of awareness can occur, or she can slip into subtle dullness. Preventing these lapses requires an ongoing vigilance and a periodic 'tightening up' of awareness on the sensation of the breath to sustain it. But eventually this one-pointedness becomes self-sustaining and effortless. When this effortless one-pointedness occurs, the meditator has entered into Upacara Samadhi.Having entered Upacara Samadhi, the meditator will typically begin to experience some unusual things that either had not occurred previously in her meditation, or that had occurred only occasionally, briefly, and unpredictably before. All of these phenomena are extremely variable in the way they are experienced from one person to another in terms of both how they manifest and their intensity, and they can (and will) change in the same individual over time. They can be categorized according to the 6 sensory domains in which they occur. As best I can tell, the first two of these, in the order I will present them here, seem to be universal, across all people, and all meditative disciplines that achieve Upacara Samadhi. The third, which is the main one of interest in this discussion, seems to be very nearly universal, but there may be some exceptions. The fourth is not so common, and the last two are uncommon to rare.- The mind sense and mental states: To a greater or lesser degree, there is a mental state of joyful happiness, emotional bouyancy, it is energetic and may have a coloring of expectancy, as though something very wonderful is happening or is about to happen. This can range from just a mellow sort of happiness and sense of well-being through to an ecstatic, exuberant joyfulness that bounces the meditator right out of concentration. It is most often the last of the six to be experienced fully, but waves of happy feeling can also be among the very first things to be experienced in this process.
The body sense: All sense of bodily pain and discomfort disappears, and there is a pleasurable sensation that spreads throughout the body. Some people will feel as though the body has become weightless and floated up off the cushion, some will experience a new inner body image as radiantly beautiful and perfect in every way, perhaps as the body of a Buddha or Tara or an angel, etc. At the very least, there will be a sense of bodily comfort and well-being and freedom from all of the annoying aches and pains and pressure spots that are usually the result of sitting still in meditation for a long time. The meditator can now sit perfectly still in complete comfort so long as this state persists, sometimes for hours. This usually accompanies or immediately precedes the joyful feelings described above.The visual sense: There is an awareness of light, an illumination. There is an enormous variability in how this is experienced. It may seem to pervade all space evenly, or it may be located in one specific place. It may seem to arise from within the meditator, from a point in front of and above them, or from everywhere at once. It may begin as a faint light that grows brighter, or as sudden brilliant flashes, like lightening. It may be colored, it may go through a series of different colors eventually becoming white, or near white as in a pale lavender, violet or green. There are probably those who experience it in the yellow-orange-red part of the color spectrum, but I've not encountered that so far in my limited experience. It can be subtle, and not everyone pays notice to such things if it is not intense. In trying to establish a reference for where someone was in their practice, I have had to ask them to close their eyes and tell me if it was the same as when they were meditating in order to find out that the light was present. Pa Auk and Brahmavamso's descriptions are very typical. This experience of light usually precedes both the bodily sensations of pleasure and comfort and the mental state of joy and happiness.The experience of illumination can be taken as meditation object and cultivated to become a pattibhaga nimitta for entry into Appana Samadhi. I would agree completely with Pa Auk and Brahmavamso that what they are calling pattibhaga nimitta is in fact pattibhaga nimitta. But it is not the pattibhaga nimitta of the breath. It is the pattibhaga nimitta of illumination taken as object.The auditory, olfactory, and gustatory senses: Often but not always, there will be an auditory experience ranging from a buzzing, whining or ringing in the ears to the sound of beautiful music or choirs of angels singing in the distance. Occasionally people will experience a very pleasant odor, like flowers or incense. More rarely someone will experience a sweet flavor in the mouth, a nectar. These are all more likely to occur early on, before the light experience or in conjunction with it, but it seems they can also happen later together with the bodily pleasure.I predict that someday someone will find that specific brain regions involved in processing specific sensory modalities go into synchrony when these phenomena occur.There are a few other points I would like to make for the sake of others who read this.1. These issues about what is or is not a particular nimitta are more relevant to scholars than than they are to either meditation teachers or practitioners.2. Understanding these phenomena, and when, why and how they occur is very valuable for teachers, and it doesn't matter at all what label they are given. But unless someone has no teacher, they are better off not concerning themselves with these things. Any mind is malleable, but a mind that has been trained in these concentration disciplines is much more so. Reading and thinking about these things can easily create expectations, judgements, and false experiences that can get in the way of real meditative achievment. Progress in samatha doesn't require that one know anything at all about either the nimittas or the piti-sukha phenomena. They will just happen as a natural result of the cultivation of one-pointedness.3. Similar to these discussions of what is or is not a particular nimitta, we have previously had discussions of what is or is not Upacara or Jhana, leading to such terms as 'Jhana Light' and 'Jhana Heavy', depending upon whether or not awareness has been withdrawn from the senses or not. You have more recently suggested that we can think of them all as jhana, just different degrees of jhana. I agree, with you completely.But the most important thing of all about what I call Upacara and others have called Jhana Light is that the mind is not withdrawn from the senses. This is the most valuable and important meditative state that can be achieved. It is the basis for Insight. The deeper sort of Jhana is too one-pointed. Unless it comes easily, I would discourage anyone from pursuing this very deep sort of Jhana until after they have achieved Stream-Entry. Then it is important, before then it is not.I can only repeat once again how much love and respect I have for you, Daniel. It is unfortunate that my excessively reclusive tendencies have kept us from meeting in person before now. I am much more open to the world than I was then, and I hope there will be another opportunity.With metta,Culadasa
Daniel <drbf2@...> wrote:Dear Culadasa,After my last post, I thought that this format might make clearer what I am pondering over. I apologize for the confusion:There seem to be these levels and varieties of perception of the nimitta that I can id+entify: at one time or another I have experienced them all.> >The beginning breath: Culadasa refers to this as the parikamma nimitta; I don't call it anything.The pure sensation of the breath: Culadasa calls this the uggaha nimitta; I call this the parikamma nimitta.The subtle breath: This is what I call the uggaha nimitta apprehended through tactility; I am not sure how Culadasa refers to this. For me it feels like a motionless airy mass, soft and still; it can be moved about, expanded and contracted by an act of will; it can fill the whole body; very nice! I thin+k this one too can have a variety of manifestations, but I find that it is amenable to mastery, or alteration by act of intention.Stable but dull light: a mental luminosity with color that does not appear to be self luminous. It is stable and can be used for concentration. This is what Brahmavamso and Pa Auk refer to as the uggaha nimitta; I think this might be an alternative to the previous "tactile" uggaha nimitta, a kind of branch in the path of anapana dvelopment. Anagarika Munidra told me once that you have a choice in anapana as to how you develop the nimitta, via mental tactility or visually.The former he told me was actually a different route for developing the air element meditation without the use of a kasina.+The final very beautiful, self-luminous and clear image, but it has mental color and shape, like a jewel or an image of the sun: Pa Auk and Brahmvamso and possibly also the Vis M. version of the patibhagga nimitta for anapana. This emerges from the earlier duller one.A clear uncolored and formless mental impression that is perhaps the patibhagga nimitta that evolves from the previous "tactile" pathway of development; this seems to be what Culadasa means by the patighagga nimitta.I am not trying to be excessively picky here, but I am beginning to suspect that this concentration subject can develop in a variety of ways.All comments appreciated!With love,Daniel
Do you Yahoo!?
With a free 1 GB, there's more in store with Yahoo! Mail. Dear Culadasa,
> >
What a wonderful clarification on the subject of the anapana nimitta and its evolution! Your clear and meticulous articulation has put the last pieces in their place for me, and resolved my doubts on this issue. The relief is palpable as I have been carrying these questions around for some years, and they do have a real impact on this practice. I would find that when I begin to enter the place of clear luminous tranquility, my mind would waver as to the proper direction in which to take attention. Your explanation about the nature of the luminous phenomena vs. the actual anapana nimitta was the crucial missing piece for me. The effect was immediate as I was able to move forward in my anapana practice this morning with ease.
> >
I enjoyed your very precise description of the uggaha nimitta, recognizable by its ability to "separate out" from or exist without the internal bodily imagery. I am familiar with this experience, but had not thought to understand this as part of the "spatial distortion" phenomenon that can sometimes occur during this phase, or to fully recognize the nature of this process and its importance. You description of how the bare sensation looses even the relationship to the concept of in and out breath, was also a fine point very worthy of mention, and for me, a very noticeable point in the evolution of my own experience. Your clear mention of it was a much-needed reinforcement that the direction of my attention at that point is still correct.
> >
The ability to identify and describe particular subtle perceptions of this nature and to order them properly is one of the best features of your writing. I truly hope that you plan on publishing this body of knowledge for the sake of posterity. This kind of refined expertise in a meditation subject is rare, and it would be a shame if only a handful of your students were the inheritors of your knowledge. This knowledge belongs to the world.
> >
The time and trouble you have taken to create this posting (as well as others) is considerable, and I don't want you to wonder if you are being heard or if the trouble is worth it. You have certainly been of great service to me, and a true example of a "good friend."
> >
Thank you,
Daniel
--- In jhana_insight@yahoogroups.com, Culadasa <culadasa@y...> wrote:
>
> Hello Daniel,
>
> Probably the most important thing I am going to say is that I agree totally with you and with Ian that "this concentration subject can develop in a variety of ways". There are seemingly an infinite number of variations possible, and what we are really trying to do is to identify those aspects that are more or less universal.
>
> In the your message just previous to this one you had asked:
> "how then do you understand the experience that many have of very vivid, pure, bright and stable lights as nimittas for this meditation? They are obviously mental phenomena, but are not lacking in color or shape nonetheless... Nor am I referring to the distracting and unstable photisms and tactile "images" that occur earlier on in the concentration process."
> And:
> "Where I am going with this is that some teachers like Brahmavamso and Pa Auk seem to be talking about what appears to be a mentally created form that has both color and shape, is stable and can appear as quite pure and self luminous. I have had this experience as well. This cannot be what you are calling the Uggaha nimitta, since according to your categories this is just the bare sensation of the breath. But if I have understood you take these are not true patibhagga nimittas either."
> I would like to address this question first, and then elaborate by working with the excellent formulation you used in the present message. Here I believe we are talking about two completely different phenomena that have been repeatedly confused with each other.
>
> One is a perception of illumination or luminosity that arises spontaneously after one has reached the Upacara level of concentration, which may or may not involve shapes, which may or may not involve colors other than white, and which occurs in association with a variety of other well-known and well-described phenomena involved with piti-sukha. References to it frequently occur in the literature on samatha, and it is utilized as a major component in "light and sound' meditations in other traditions. It is referred to specifically in the Visuddhimagga and the Insight meditation literature as the first of the 10 Imperfections of Insight, and there also it is associated with the arising of piti-sukha. (As I have asserted several times previously, that stage of Insight practice, 'vipassanaupakkilesa', marks the achievement of Upacara samadhi, and is indispensable to Insight because it is not until the meditator has reached Upacara that the true progress of Insight begins.) As far as I
> have been able to determine, this illumination is completely independent of and unrelated to the specific meditation object, and is almost universal.
>
> The second is a very refined and abstract perception (appearance) of the meditation object itself that has been labeled as the patibhagga nimitta, or 'mental counter-part appearance', and occurs in mature Upacara samadhi in conjunction with the meditator's approach to the Appana level of concentration. This phenomenon may or may not be experienced and described in a visual way, may or may not involve elements of light and color, but is always directly related to the meditation object in some subjectively apparent way.
>
> When the illumination phenomenon occurs, it may be taken as the meditation object at that time in place of the meditation object that was originally used to achieve this level of concentration, as is done in light and sound meditation, and as Brahmavamso and others appear to be doing. The illumination can then give rise to its own pattibhagga nimitta. If the illumination is ignored and the meditator continues with their original meditation object, the patibhagga nimitta of that meditation object will arise.
>
> I don't necessarily say that these nimittas with apparent color and form are not pattibhaga nimittas, just that they are not nimittas of the breath. Abstractions of non-sensory visual phenomena perceived in visual terms are entirely within the realm of the mind rather than the senses, and that is all that is required for the mind to entire Appana.
>
> OK, so that is what I understand these terms to refer to, and how I use them. Now I would like to just go through a description of what happens to the appearance of the meditation object in breath meditation and (hopefully) clarify why it is that I apply these terms the way I do.
>
> The Beginning Breath and the Parikamma Nimitta
> When one begins to meditate on the breath at the nose, there is a noticing of the in-breath and the out-breath. The meditator has the concept that she is a discrete being with a body, and that there is a nose as a part of the body, and that it is surrounded by a substance called air, and that this substance can be caused to move through the nose, and that this movement is bi-directional and is known as breath. There is actually only minimal awareness of the sensation that is occurring. The attention immediately moves from the sensation to the mass of mental formations that has been constructed to account for sensory experiences like this, and what is known to conscious awareness is not the sensation, but the mental constructs. In order to sustain the attention on the breath, the meditator engages with the breath by noticing the beginning, middle, end of the in-breath, the pause, the beginning, middle, end of the out-breath, the next pause, etc. All of these are concepts. They are
> all complex concepts constructed out of simpler concepts.
>
> For example, conscious awareness takes as object the sensation from the body tactile sense as the air first strikes the skin at the nostrils. Then conscious awareness shifts to the mind sense and perceives that sensation, knows it as a mental formation or concept consisting of a combination of other concepts such as nose, touch, air, beginning, in-breath and so forth. Then conscious awareness returns to the body tactile sense and takes as object the sensation produced by the ongoing flow of air past the skin at the nostrils, immediately following which it goes back again to the mind sense to know that sensation in a similar way as first-part-of-the-middle-of-the-in-breath or some such.
>
> This is the parikamma nimitta, the initial or preliminary appearance of the breath, no more than a refined version of the ordinary non-meditative perception of the breath. This appearance of the breath continues to predominate for a very long time and until a significant degree of skill in sustaining attention on the breath has been achieved.
>
> The Pure Sensation of the Breath and the Uggaha Nimitta
> At some point, continuity of attention has been mastered, the mind no longer wanders, the breath is rarely if ever lost or forgotten. Once attention has become stable enough, a teacher may instruct the meditator to make observation of the breath non-conceptual, to just focus on the sensations that are occurring. Now, because attentional continuity has been mastered, the primary objective becomes to achieve an increased degree of one-pointedness. Even without this kind of instruction, the meditator will soon enough discover that, through habituation, all of that conceptual noticing is no longer necessary to keep the attention engaged, and all of that conceptual thought is also just a distraction from the simple observation of the breath. Now the mind follows the breath naturally, and so awareness of the sensation (which is in truth the only thing that was ever present other than conceptual formations anyway) begins to predominate.
>
> Although the meditation object is still the breath, it is now the sensation of the breath in a very real sense, relatively free of conceptual formations, and this marks an important change in the appearance of the object. This change in appearance is distinctive enough that it seems to deserve a label of its own, and since it has been acquired as a result of all the practice that has gone before, the label uggaha nimitta, or acquired appearance seems very appropriate.
>
> [What follows in the next paragraph will not necessarily occur unless the meditator has been trained to identify what is known as 'subtle dullness' in the Shamata tradition, and has overcome subtle dullness through cultivating intensity and clarity of sati, or mindful awareness]. As she becomes more and more skilled at one-pointedly observing just the sensation, more subtle bits of conceptual baggage drop away as well. At some point she may suddenly become aware that she no longer knows which of the two patterns of sensation that arise and pass away in alternation is the one from the in-breath and which is from the out-breath. She is also aware that she could know in an instant, but that a distinct and separate shift of the attention away from the sensation to the conceptual formations of the mind would be necessary. At another time she may suddenly realize that the apparent location in space of the sensations no longer coincides with where her nose should be, that it is off to one
> one side or above or below. She knows that all she needs to do is to turn conscious awareness to the conceptual formation of the body shape and position, and then the two will immediately coincide, but once again, it will involve a separate attentional shift. The product of this awareness is a profound insight into nama and rupa.
>
> And although this is a very one-pointed meditative state, the meditation object is still very much tactile sensation.
>
> The Subtle Breath
> I am not quite sure what you are describing here. You describe it as "apprehended through tactility", and if that is accurate, if it is definitely tactile in nature and quality, then it would probably fall into the same category of sensation-stripped-of-concept as the examples I used above, and I would agree with you in labelling it uggaha nimitta. But because of your choice of words, or at least my understanding of them, it doesn't really sound tactile. Because it sounds so abstract and you decribe it by analogy, and because it is so directly related to the meditation object, the breath, if you are in a very one-pointed state of concentration when this arises I would be more inclined to suggest it is in fact a patibhagga nimitta. The only other thing I can think of at the moment that it might be is an awareness of prana. Do you do this practice using the surface of the abdomen over the third chakra rather than the tip of the nose? When doing the body-scanning process that I call
> 'experiencing the body with the breath', awareness of prana and energy currents within the body sometimes does occur.
>
> Stable but Dull Light and The Final Very Beautiful, Self-luminous and Clear Image
> A meditator can achieve a high degree of one-pointedness with the sensation of the breath (uggaha nimitta) that will still be unstable enough that subtle distractions in the form of thoughts arising in the 'background' of awareness can occur, or she can slip into subtle dullness. Preventing these lapses requires an ongoing vigilance and a periodic 'tightening up' of awareness on the sensation of the breath to sustain it. But eventually this one-pointedness becomes self-sustaining and effortless. When this effortless one-pointedness occurs, the meditator has entered into Upacara Samadhi.
>
> Having entered Upacara Samadhi, the meditator will typically begin to experience some unusual things that either had not occurred previously in her meditation, or that had occurred only occasionally, briefly, and unpredictably before. All of these phenomena are extremely variable in the way they are experienced from one person to another in terms of both how they manifest and their intensity, and they can (and will) change in the same individual over time. They can be categorized according to the 6 sensory domains in which they occur. As best I can tell, the first two of these, in the order I will present them here, seem to be universal, across all people, and all meditative disciplines that achieve Upacara Samadhi. The third, which is the main one of interest in this discussion, seems to be very nearly universal, but there may be some exceptions. The fourth is not so common, and the last two are uncommon to rare.
>
> The mind sense and mental states: To a greater or lesser degree, there is a mental state of joyful happiness, emotional bouyancy, it is energetic and may have a coloring of expectancy, as though something very wonderful is happening or is about to happen. This can range from just a mellow sort of happiness and sense of well-being through to an ecstatic, exuberant joyfulness that bounces the meditator right out of concentration. It is most often the last of the six to be experienced fully, but waves of happy feeling can also be among the very first things to be experienced in this process.
> The body sense: All sense of bodily pain and discomfort disappears, and there is a pleasurable sensation that spreads throughout the body. Some people will feel as though the body has become weightless and floated up off the cushion, some will experience a new inner body image as radiantly beautiful and perfect in every way, perhaps as the body of a Buddha or Tara or an angel, etc. At the very least, there will be a sense of bodily comfort and well-being and freedom from all of the annoying aches and pains and pressure spots that are usually the result of sitting still in meditation for a long time. The meditator can now sit perfectly still in complete comfort so long as this state persists, sometimes for hours. This usually accompanies or immediately precedes the joyful feelings described above.
>
> The visual sense: There is an awareness of light, an illumination. There is an enormous variability in how this is experienced. It may seem to pervade all space evenly, or it may be located in one specific place. It may seem to arise from within the meditator, from a point in front of and above them, or from everywhere at once. It may begin as a faint light that grows brighter, or as sudden brilliant flashes, like lightening. It may be colored, it may go through a series of different colors eventually becoming white, or near white as in a pale lavender, violet or green. There are probably those who experience it in the yellow-orange-red part of the color spectrum, but I've not encountered that so far in my limited experience. It can be subtle, and not everyone pays notice to such things if it is not intense. In trying to establish a reference for where someone was in their practice, I have had to ask them to close their eyes and tell me if it was the same as when they were
> meditating in order to find out that the light was present. Pa Auk and Brahmavamso's descriptions are very typical. This experience of light usually precedes both the bodily sensations of pleasure and comfort and the mental state of joy and happiness.
>
> The experience of illumination can be taken as meditation object and cultivated to become a pattibhaga nimitta for entry into Appana Samadhi. I would agree completely with Pa Auk and Brahmavamso that what they are calling pattibhaga nimitta is in fact pattibhaga nimitta. But it is not the pattibhaga nimitta of the breath. It is the pattibhaga nimitta of illumination taken as object.
>
> The auditory, olfactory, and gustatory senses: Often but not always, there will be an auditory experience ranging from a buzzing, whining or ringing in the ears to the sound of beautiful music or choirs of angels singing in the distance. Occasionally people will experience a very pleasant odor, like flowers or incense. More rarely someone will experience a sweet flavor in the mouth, a nectar. These are all more likely to occur early on, before the light experience or in conjunction with it, but it seems they can also happen later together with the bodily pleasure.
> I predict that someday someone will find that specific brain regions involved in processing specific sensory modalities go into synchrony when these phenomena occur.
>
> There are a few other points I would like to make for the sake of others who read this.
>
> 1. These issues about what is or is not a particular nimitta are more relevant to scholars than than they are to either meditation teachers or practitioners.
>
> 2. Understanding these phenomena, and when, why and how they occur is very valuable for teachers, and it doesn't matter at all what label they are given. But unless someone has no teacher, they are better off not concerning themselves with these things. Any mind is malleable, but a mind that has been trained in these concentration disciplines is much more so. Reading and thinking about these things can easily create expectations, judgements, and false experiences that can get in the way of real meditative achievment. Progress in samatha doesn't require that one know anything at all about either the nimittas or the piti-sukha phenomena. They will just happen as a natural result of the cultivation of one-pointedness.
>
> 3. Similar to these discussions of what is or is not a particular nimitta, we have previously had discussions of what is or is not Upacara or Jhana, leading to such terms as 'Jhana Light' and 'Jhana Heavy', depending upon whether or not awareness has been withdrawn from the senses or not. You have more recently suggested that we can think of them all as jhana, just different degrees of jhana. I agree, with you completely.
>
> But the most important thing of all about what I call Upacara and others have called Jhana Light is that the mind is not withdrawn from the senses. This is the most valuable and important meditative state that can be achieved. It is the basis for Insight. The deeper sort of Jhana is too one-pointed. Unless it comes easily, I would discourage anyone from pursuing this very deep sort of Jhana until after they have achieved Stream-Entry. Then it is important, before then it is not.
>
> I can only repeat once again how much love and respect I have for you, Daniel. It is unfortunate that my excessively reclusive tendencies have kept us from meeting in person before now. I am much more open to the world than I was then, and I hope there will be another opportunity.
>
> With metta,
> Culadasa
>
> Daniel drbf2@y... wrote:
>
> Dear Culadasa,
> After my last post, I thought that this format might make clearer what I am pondering over. I apologize for the confusion:
> There seem to be these levels and varieties of perception of the nimitta that I can id+entify: at one time or another I have experienced them all.
> >>
> The beginning breath: Culadasa refers to this as the parikamma nimitta; I don't call it anything.
> The pure sensation of the breath: Culadasa calls this the uggaha nimitta; I call this the parikamma nimitta.
> The subtle breath: This is what I call the uggaha nimitta apprehended through tactility; I am not sure how Culadasa refers to this. For me it feels like a motionless airy mass, soft and still; it can be moved about, expanded and contracted by an act of will; it can fill the whole body; very nice! I thin+k this one too can have a variety of manifestations, but I find that it is amenable to mastery, or alteration by act of intention.
> Stable but dull light: a mental luminosity with color that does not appear to be self luminous. It is stable and can be used for concentration. This is what Brahmavamso and Pa Auk refer to as the uggaha nimitta; I think this might be an alternative to the previous "tactile" uggaha nimitta, a kind of branch in the path of anapana dvelopment. Anagarika Munidra told me once that you have a choice in anapana as to how you develop the nimitta, via mental tactility or visually.The former he told me was actually a different route for developing the air element meditation without the use of a kasina.+
>
> The final very beautiful, self-luminous and clear image, but it has mental color and shape, like a jewel or an image of the sun: Pa Auk and Brahmvamso and possibly also the Vis M. version of the patibhagga nimitta for anapana. This emerges from the earlier duller one.
> A clear uncolored and formless mental impression that is perhaps the patibhagga nimitta that evolves from the previous "tactile" pathway of development; this seems to be what Culadasa means by the patighagga nimitta.
>
> I am not trying to be excessively picky here, but I am beginning to suspect that this concentration subject can develop in a variety of ways.
>
> All comments appreciated!
> With love,
> Daniel
>
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