rightconcentration

Right concentration refers to the intentional cultivation of a stable and receptive brain chemistry via sequential progression through neurochemical states. The sequence proposed here is speculative but fits with how we can induce neuroplasticity, while tracking perfectly with my own experience.

We are going from ‘jagged phasic dopamine’ (agitation) to ‘stable elevated tonic dopamine’ (rapture, focus). We are lowering norepinephrine (stress, sticky thoughts) and increasing serotonin (wellbeing, neuroplasticity, quieting of mind-wandering).

You do *not* need a quiet mind. The masters talk of quiet-ing the mind: the process involves allowing your mind to release old thoughts so that it is empty. The entire thing can be thought of as a defrag for your brain, during which the fragmented data will rise to the surface and be washed away.

You’ll have more joy trying to swim like an olympian while wearing armbands than you will trying to mimic the silent mind of a 40-year Zen master. They climbed the mountain one step at a time, and this is how you plant your foot.

Preparation

Monks start with walking meditation and chanting to ‘purify the mind’. This is a high stimulation meditation or moderate stimulation meditation to get you warmed up for the real thing.

It is important to remember that all concentration below must be relaxed concentration. If you force it, you make your dopaminergic environment spiky, which will reinforce thought-emotion loops instead of releasing them.

All the buddhist traditions use these on-ramps. You should do the same.

Jhāna 1: focus, dopamine +, norepinephrine -

“a bhikkhu enters and dwells in the first jhāna, which is accompanied by applied thought and sustained thought, with rapture and pleasure born of seclusion.”

In this state you still have complete thought-feeling loops going through your mind. You are starting to be able to observe the loops and you can feel the dopamine (rapture) begin to increase, in fits and starts.

The rapture, for me, feels like electric tingles in the fingertips and skull. For others it can feel like vibrations or currents. As you settle and lose your threat response, norepinephrine will lower and your thoughts will become less sticky. It’s important to note that NE will *not* lower if you are forcing attention and you will not enter the jhāna.

Jhāna 2: dopamine + +, serotonin +, thoughts -

“With the falling away of vitakka and vicāra (applied and sustained thought), with internal confidence and unification of mind, he enters and dwells in the second jhāna”

The ‘falling away’ of thoughts does not mean you have a silent mind. When leaves fall from a tree, they are still leaves; they are just no longer attached to the tree. The thoughts are still thoughts, but they are no longer attached to the emotional charge or sense of permanence. The thought-feeling loop is being broken.

For this phase I find a pleasant sensation in the body and let my mind melt into it. Confidence and unification of mind means that you are releasing the effort to direct your mind. Let it ebb and flow with the currents in your body.

This is where the dopaminergic tingles are the strongest. You might hear a sound and it triggers a ripple of them from your cheekbone all through the side of your body. You might feel pools or waves in your brain as your thoughts are processed. You might feel like you have balls of energy floating above your palms. Enjoy it. This is pleasant stuff. Enjoying it is the point: the enjoyment brings more dopamine and serotonin and steps you up to stage 3.

Observe the thoughts. They are a welcome part of this. The thoughts are disembodied; free floating and easy to release. These thoughts coming to the surface are the ‘releasing of sankhāra’ in the buddhist texts, or the ‘reorganisation of affect’ after a trauma release. They are your brain going through a defrag process and are a sign of progress. The thoughts are ‘falling away’; this is good.

Jhāna 3: dopamine stabilises, serotonin + +, thoughts - -

“With the fading away of pīti (rapture), he dwells in equanimity, mindful and clearly comprehending; he experiences sukha (pleasure) with the body. He enters and dwells in the third jhāna …”

After a while the tingles will start to fade. Between jhāna 2 and 3 is where I most feel the physical manifestations of thoughts / kamma / sankhāra, like pressure waves around the face or skull. This is where the language really start to fragment and you become more aware of the somatic manifestations associated with your subject matter.

There is still no need to suppress words. The elevated and stable dopaminergic tone is bringing them to the surface and removing their emotional charge. You might find fragments of words repeating, or new thoughts appearing. This is fine; just don’t follow them. It will be effortless by this point since you are so equanimous that you don’t really care about their presence.

This is where the though-feeling loops really start to disintegrate. You are replaying traumatic themes (like the belief in a lasting self) in a totally safe neurochemical environment, and this is removing the suffering associated with them.

Jhāna 4: dopamine stable, serotonin stable, thoughts minimal

“With the abandoning of sukha and dukkha, and with the previous fading away of joy (somanassa) and grief (domanassa), he enters and dwells in the fourth jhāna, which is neither-painful-nor-pleasant and has purity of mindfulness due to equanimity …”

This is where both your dopamine and serotonin are stable at an elevated level. You have minimal fluctuation in the tone of either neurotransmitter and are in a state of total equanimity. You can tune in to any part of your body and observe any feeling without becoming attached to or repulsed by it. Thoughts are still there but are totally discharged of emotion.

The process of getting here is not one of ‘applied concentration’ in the sense that you concentrate and concentrate and concentrate some more, like on the proverbial math problem. It is applied concentration in the sense that you manipulate your brain chemistry to make it easier to concentrate.

The way you do that is step by step: you use an on-ramp, you sit in safety and seclusion and drop your threat response, you focus on a lovely tingly sensation in your body, you allow your thoughts to just be and to spool out, and then gradually you become suffused with a feeling of warmth and wellbeing. Once that is all done, you find you are sitting there totally aware yet totally stable: minimal fluctuations in your chemical makeup.

… and then you turn your mind to fixing your problems and understanding your being.

The elevated tonic dopamine will mean your brain is receptive to un-learning things and finding new pathways through convoluted thought processes. 

The elevated serotonin will naturally suppress your mind wandering (the default mode network) and encourage neuroplasticity.

That is all. It is creating a neurochemical makeup which is receptive to the trauma therapy that the buddha laid out in right effort, and the insight he details in right mindfulness.

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note: I am referring to the jhānas required for enlightenment as described in the suttas, not the largely unattainable commentarial jhānas.