How To Tell If You Have Access Concentration?

[How to be wise]

I've been doing concentration practice for a while, but I'm not sure whether I have access concentration or not. Is there any way of testing whether one has access concentration or not. 

[Chrissy j]

You just get hyper tuned into what you are concentrating on and it is much more focused on. The first time it hit me it was kind of scary. You'll probably know when it does happen. I would also try to find what is best for you to focus on. I'm not sure why some things are easier then others. I prefer to concentrate by looking at something nice and plain like a little box. 

[onacloudynight]

"Whatever method you use to generate access concentration, the sign that you've gotten to access concentration is that you are fully present with the object of meditation. So if you are doing metta [loving-kindness meditation], you're just fully there with the feelings of metta; you're not getting distracted. If you're doing the body sweeping practice, you're fully there with the sensations in the body as you sweep your attention through the body. You're not thinking extraneous thoughts, you're not planning, you're not worrying, you're not angry, you're not wanting something. You are just fully there with whatever the object is."

"If your practice is anapana-sati, there are additional signs to indicate you have arrived at access concentration. You may discover that the breath becomes very subtle; instead of a normal breath, you notice you are breathing very shallow. It may even seem that you've stopped breathing altogether. These are signs that you've arrived at access concentration. If the breath gets very shallow, and particularly if it feels like you've stopped breathing, the natural thing to do is to take a nice, deep breath and get it going again. Wrong! This will tend to weaken your concentration. By taking that nice deep breath, you drop down the level of concentration. Just stay with that shallow breathing. It's okay. You don't need a lot of oxygen, because you are very quiet." -Leigh Brasington

Edited August 10, 2017 by onacloudynight