Skip to main content

Jhana constipation is made much worse by doing Vism. Jhana breath meditation, such as Pa Auk Method.

 

Pressure/tension in face/teeth during meditation

Post by karunametta » 

Hello all,

I know there are some similar topics on this, but I couldn't find anything that was directed towards my situation.

So I've been doing a lot of anapana-sati meditation lately (~3-4 hours a day) and now that i've been keeping to that schedule consistently I'm constantly experiencing pressure/tension from my '3rd eye' area down to my top row of teeth. This happens while in meditation and often throughout the day just from gaining momentary awareness/concentration. I've been experiencing this now for about a week or so, maybe a little longer.

About my practice: I focus on the sensations of the breath passing on the underside of my nostrils and above the upperlip. I don't feel as if I'm "forcing" the concentration or doing anything different from my previous practice that would cause this tension/pressure. I'm approaching the point where I'm just beginning to see some nimittas that are for sporadic, almost like a strobe light at high frequency. They'll only last for a split second as I get distracted from the breath haha. The pressur ein my head just feels like at my forehead someone is pumping air into my third eye as if to expand it. It's kind of the same for my nose area but more like sinus pressure, but all the way down to the bridge between my nose and mouth. My top row of teeth feels like I have braces again and they were just adjusted lol.

Not sure if information helps, but I feel as if this tension/pressure is getting in the way of allowing myself to fully relax into the breath and I'm starting to develop the slightest aversion to it that I think it's creating a hindrance. The aim of my practice is towards developing the first jhana.

Any advice? Sorry if this is too vague, I can happily be more specific. The pressure in my third eye is making it hard for me to write/think clearly...

Thank you!


another example:

Re: Hyperventilating while meditating

Unread post by Inedible » 

It happens for me when I focus on my breath at my nostril opening. It goes away if I can shift to following the stomach moving in and out. The trick is to keep my attention from going back into my head. You could try sitting in a chair with your feet flat on the floor and imagine the breath moving in and out the K1 acupuncture point on the balls of the feet. It is a grounding technique. K1 is called the bubbling spring and it is a strong yin point.


frankk comment:

Jhana constipation takes time to work out no matter if you practice meditation correctly or not, but at least if you do the 16 steps of breath meditation correctly as the Buddha taught, especially step 3 developing sensitivity to breath sensation throughout the entire physical body, instead of focusing tightly and "one pointedly" in the nostril area (to the exclusion of the rest of the body), it won't exacerbate the problem with toothaches, neck aches,  headaches, having your eyes hurting and crossed over from trying to stare at a breath nimitta, etc.


For example, user Kamran answers nicely by referring to B. Thanissaro's breath meditation instructions taught according to the Buddha's words in the suttas.


Re: Pressure/tension in face/teeth during meditation

Post by Kamran » 

Ajahn Lee's method 2 (below) discusses relieving pressure in the head (headaches/tension) by moving your focus from the nostrils to the abdomen. Focusing on the nose causes headaches and tension for some people.

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/thai/lee/inmind.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanissaro Bikhu's online talks ( http://dhammatalks.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ) also mention dealing with head pressure by using body scans to spread your awareness through the whole body in order to create a centered, but broad focus.

 


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Advice to younger meditators on jhāna, sex, porn, masturbation

Someone asked: Is porn considered harmful sexual.activity? I don't have a sex life because I don't have a partner and I don't wish to engage in casual sex so I use porn to quench the biological urge to orgasm. I can't see that's it's harmful because nobody is being forced into it. The actors are all paid well and claim to enjoy it etc. The only harm I can see is that it's so accessible these days on smart devices and so children may access it but I believe that this is the parents responsibility to not allow unsupervised use of devices etc. Views? Frankk response: In another thread, you asked about pleasant sensations and jhāna.  I'm guessing you're young, so here's some important advice you won't get from suttas   if you're serious about jhāna.  (since monastics are already celibate by rule)   If you want to attain stable and higher jhānas,   celibacy and noble silence to the best of your ability are the feedstock and prerequiste to tha

SN 48.40 Ven. Thanissaro comments on Ven. Sunyo's analysis

This was Ven. Sunyo's analysis of SN 48.40: https://notesonthedhamma.blogspot.com/2024/05/exciting-news-honest-ebt-scholars-like.html And here is Ven. Thanissaro's response to that analysis: I think there’s a better way to tackle the issue of SN 48:40 than by appealing to the oldest layers of commentarial literature. That way is to point out that SN 48:40, as we have it, doesn’t pass the test in DN 16 for determining what’s genuine Dhamma and what’s not. There the standard is, not the authority of the person who’s claiming to report the Buddha’s teachings, but whether the teachings he’s reporting are actually in accordance with the principles of the Dhamma that you know. So the simple fact that those who have passed the Buddha’s teachings down to us say that a particular passage is what the Buddha actually taught is not sufficient grounds for accepting it. In the case of the jhānas—the point at issue here— we have to take as our guide the standard formula for the jhānas, a

1min. video: Dalai Lama kissing boy and asking him to suck his tongue

To give more context, this is a public event,  * everyone knows cameras are rolling  *  it's a room full of children * the boy's mom is standing off camera a few feet away watching all of this * the boy initiated contact, he had already had a hug with Dalai Lama earlier and then asked Dalai Lama for another hug which triggered this segment  17 min. video showing what happened before that 1 min. clip and after, with some explanation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT0qey5Ts78 16min talk from Ajahn Acalo with his thoughts on Dalai Lama kissing boy, relevance to Bhikkhu monastic code, sexual predators in religion in general, and how celibate monastics deal with sexual energy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK2m0TcUib0 The child's comments about the incident in a filmed interview later https://www.marca.com/en/lifestyle/world-news/2023/04/18/643eba5d46163ffc078b457c.html The child: It's a great experience It was amazing to meet His Holiness and I think it's a great ex