Sven´s "new to theravada" meditation log

30 min noting (last night)
nothing speacial to report. Except near end of session I experienced a tingling sensation. The spot increased over time in spacial dimensions. Reminded me of an experience a year ago which was way more intense.

30 min noting last night
concentration not too well but got better during sit. nice equanimous feeiling developed though.
Energy lump was felt again, this time on other side of the face, roughly similar spot.
Have been feeling enthusiastic/inspired last 2 days.

30 min sit
Noting technique; sit felt unproductive. Off the cushion, a few days earlier, I noticed that I can step out of a negative mindstate like snapping my fingers.

30 min sit
Started with noting but then automatically switched to more subtle observation. E.g. sensations of breathing in the body.
Felt quite absorbed and equanimous after 10 min. Quite an effortless sit besides first minutes.

30 sit last night which, technically, should be in post above. Similar to the one described there.

30 min sit just now:
Had an emotionally difficult day. Noticed tight feeling in chest which I attribute to that. Tried to stay with it and investigate it for subtle changes which I failed to see. No jhanic feelings at all, e.g. absence of piti/sukkha.
Since sit felt not very productive I decided to do an extra 10 min. of noting. Nothing special to report though.

Have been feeling crappy the last 2 days and assumed it´s dukkha nana (fear, future related; desire for deliverance). Feeling of restlessness & axiety.
Decided to do bare bones noting to reach equanimity:
30 min sit
at the beginning of noting I felt hot and had an energy phenomenon on my nose. Felt like a heavy, vibrating pair of glasses on the top of my nose.
Was very restless, thoughts distracted me all the time and I found it impossible to note more than a ca. five (gross) sensations. Logically no feeling of absorption, guess I didn´t even get access concentration (usually some sort of jhana is no problem). Even looked at the timer 4 times, usually I don´t even have that impulse. Just tried my best to work through the sit like a stupid noting-mule.
Feel a bit better though... whatever....

Hello, Sven,

I'm coming in very late, but you wrote this last month: "Made we wonder wether DN exists with and without psychological content."

The answer is "yes", definitely, you can have DN both with or without psychological content.

If you can un-link DN from the idea that there is a psychological cause for it, eventually it reveals itself as a cluster of causeless physical sensations. Those sensations then create irritation, impatience, etc., and engender the "psychological" state.

It's more complex than that, but at least if you can see the DN as causeless, you'll also see it as solutionless, and that's the way forward.

I also find that outlook helpful to keep me from looking for things (or worse, people) to blame during the rough times. It's tempting to see that someone or something is "causing" the problem, and it takes a bit of restraint not to act on that perception.

I don't know if any of this is relevant to your current state, but keep on going

20 min sit noting:
Same energy phenomenon as last night ("heavy glasses on nose") occured but shorter and less intensive.
Concentration was much better just like overall feeling of well-being. Sit was quite equanimous however no presence of sukkha/piti.
Feeing of pressure in the chest was gone (was bad last night), however I think it came back slightly and just for a few seconds.

Reviewing the last weeks I assume I was in A&P and last few days were DN.

@ Rob: Thanks for your input! I have come to the conclusion that DN might have no psychological causes, i.e. just being a mind-state that arises/that one appears to be in. However I assume that the DN can be triggered my extrinsic phenomena (to the mind-state) such as psychological issues. I´ve been reading quite a bit about C. G. Jung and his concep of individuation. As far as I know Buddhism doesn´t have any approaches such as Western depth-psychology. But I thing that Jung´s contribution (he was also a mystic and alchemist) are very wothwhile ideas. What I assume is that, from a psychoanalytical perspective, a "stuck" individuation process might as well have to do with DN just as an "independend" mind-stratum (to use KF´s idea).
Cheers
Sven

30 min freestyle sit:
Started focusing on the abdomen and mental chatter quieted a bit, mind naturally wandered between different objetcts. As soone as I became distracted I went back to focussing on the abdomen.
Investigated sounds here and there (I seem to have a bit of an affinity towards them). At a time sukkha arose but I didn´t care that much (i.e. raising more of it) since I just wanted some freestyle & tranquility.
Nice sit but unspectacular (which is ok).