Since my breakthrough into the void I have stopped intentionally practicing the pleasure jhanas, although the factors for the first four (material) jhanas keep arising spontaneously, so I could be said to still be experiencing the pleasure jhanas. But not once in all these years, no matter how deep the Samatha I developed, had I ever experience the light nimitta, a sign of deep concentration that manifests as a mind-made disk of light in the visual field, and that forms the entry point to the deeper luminous jhanas. Some people are said to be incapable of experiencing the light nimitta no matter how much they practice, and I just figured that I must be one of them. However, in October 2018 I attended a retreat that Daniel Ingram participated in that focused on the fire kasina practice12. A kasina is an external object on which you focus your attention for a while, then close your eyes and experience a series of afterimages. When the image fades you repeat the process. I used the large circular white light on the ceiling of my cabin at first, which led to a series of afterimages of amazing colours displays. I found this to be an effortless, even fun way of increasing one’s concentration, since the stimulus is so mesmerising. It is a bit like watching a good movie. The mind automatically gets drawn in and you get in a state of flow.
The next day I stared at one of the candles that was set on the dining tables during the meals to help with the continuity of practice. When I closed my eyes, the flame’s afterimage collapsed into a disk with sharp boundaries. That afterimage remained there for the remaining four days of the retreat, and after the retreat as well. It is visible with eyes open when my Shamata is deep enough, especially on solid-colour backgrounds like walls or the sky.
One afternoon during the retreat I was lying down in bed to meditate but I was tired from a workout and knew that I might very well fall asleep. I got absorbed into the nimitta for a whole hour. I even heard my body snore then wake up three times while the mind remained in absorption. Maybe it could be possible to remain aware during a full night of sleep.
I continued to practice with the luminous nimitta on and off for a few months after the retreat but eventually went back to exploring other objects, such as metta, mindfulness of mind, the breath, etc.