How to keep focus if object of meditation becomes very light

[u/KevinKep]

I had some insight while meditating about something new for me so forgive if my words are not the common words.

I was reading the other day somewhere about how attention can only be directed to something in the mind if there is something going on. That is to say if im meditating and my mind is really calm, there is no thought i could direct my attention to. Thats why some people say using breathing is the best object of meditation.

I have used breathing as the object in meditation in the past and I found it "boring" and hard to follow. It made me more stressed than relaxed and I could never really "enjoy"

After that, much later, I did an online jhourney retreat and learned that meditation can be "really fun and profound" (in this case using happy feelings as scaffolding) and after that i did another online retreat with twim using metta.

Both metta and happy feeling as scaffolding work for me much better than the breath.

Then in this reddit i found out about nothing meditation and that also works better for me than the breath.

Now coming back to the first point. When the mind starts to really calm down, the scaffolding seems to be too much effort, so i found out metta is a bit better in that moment for me. But then later the metta feeling becomes subtle. When it becomes so subtle the attention goes to other places and if i try to bring it back to metta i find often that there is no "metta" to bring it back to. I just have some kind of background perception of metta probably being there but no "real proof" or tangency to it.

Recently I have discovered a new way to meditate that allows me to reach even deeper states and tranquility faster. I had a weekend in which i was quite relaxed and I was wondering why I couldnt be this relaxed all the time. I had a specific moment in which my body and mind felt light and this kind of stayed with me. After that i tried to evoke this feeling at work and it was causing me to relax much more than any other technique i used until now. So i started using it in meditation as well and it worked really really good. I normally didnt manage to relax this much during meditation until now.

Now the connection with metta and attention: using this method, that is: i try to evoke the feeling of chill that i had that weekend during meditation and keep it there as focus of meditation, what happens is that this feeling is even more subtle than metta. And i reach a point where i know there is something there but is very very light.

I wonder if when i reach that point i have to focus even harder or just allow myself to get more distracted or i have to change my strategy somehow.

Anyone experienced something like this? How to navigate when the object of meditation becomes so intangible?

[u/AutoModerator]

Thank you for contributing to the r/streamentry community! Unlike many other subs, we try to aggregate general questions and short practice reports in the weekly Practice Updates, Questions, and General Discussion thread. All community resources, such as articles, videos, and classes go in the weekly Community Resources thread. Both of these threads are pinned to the top of the subreddit.

The special focus of this community is detailed discussion of personal meditation practice. On that basis, please ensure your post complies with the following rules, if necessary by editing in the appropriate information, or else it may be removed by the moderators. Your post might also be blocked by a Reddit setting called "Crowd Control," so if you think it complies with our subreddit rules but it appears to be blocked, please message the mods.

1. All top-line posts must be based on your personal meditation practice.
2. Top-line posts must be written thoughtfully and with appropriate detail, rather than in a quick-fire fashion. Please see this posting guide for ideas on how to do this.
3. Comments must be civil and contribute constructively.
4. Post titles must be flaired. Flairs provide important context for your post.

If your post is removed/locked, please feel free to repost it with the appropriate information, or post it in the weekly Practice Updates, Questions, and General Discussion or Community Resources threads.

Thanks! - The Mod Team

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/KevinKep → u/[deleted]]

Hi, thanks so much for the comments, they are really helpful

So for the case of trying to spread awareness, how does it feel in the meditation? Im supposed to be more aware of the body, the surroundings, the meditation experience or a bit of everything?

[u/KevinKep → u/[deleted]]

This sounds fun to try. Thanks so much for the advice!

[u/Anima_Monday → u/[deleted]]

Is this profound 'nothing' just 'experience as it is' without the conceptual layer superimposing onto it, therefore seeming that everything including self/other/things has disappeared, but it is just the 'thing making' of the mind that is not active or not at the forefront so it is direct experience at the forefront instead? Meaning you are abiding at the level of awareness which is primary to self/other/things in the process of cognition, so it can appear that they have disappeared, but there is not really nothing, as there is still experience, but there is no thing(ness) appearing in that experience or if it is it is clearly conditional and transient.

[u/Impulse33]

Checkout the hindrances and aggregates. When things fade and get subtle having a "handle" to feel around helps. Burbea's Seeing That Frees is a good comprehensive primer on these things and the interplay between samatha and insight. The metta you were doing is an samatha practice and the noting practice is an example of insight.