Loss of Awareness in jhana, and Ramana

I appreciate your reply, M.J. And understand what you’re saying, especially
‘wakeful sleep’. But I still think that inasmuch as ‘the sounding breath’
is self-arising (through deep relaxation in sleep), it offers us a key to
that final door that might otherwise take 20 years sitting in a cave,
something that few of us are willing to do – or capable of doing – these
days. Luckily, Mother is very beneficent.
This remark of yours was especially helpful:

”concentration is not opposed to such total relaxation. The
word 'concentrate' means to focus on one centre, and in order
to experience total relaxation we must be focused in our real
centre, which is our true and essential self.”

I understand now that there's a stage where Concentration and Relaxation
become the same. This is something I had been wrestling with for some
time - i.e. how to remain on the meditation object (which requires some
application of focus/fixation) while at the same time going ever deeper
into relaxation.
Yesterday I visualized 'concentration' as a golden ball gradually
sinking into a deep ocean of relaxation, and found this helpful.
Regarding this from your book
The Happiness of Being page 13 (that you pointed me towards),
how did Sri Ramana know he went through a true ‘physical death’
experience, i.e. that his heart ‘stopped beating’ and that he was
‘out’ for 20 minutes?

Sri Ramana merely simulated the signs of physical death.
But he explained on several occasions that he
did not merely simulate it, but actually underwent the
experience of physical death at that time. Because he fixed his
whole attention so firmly and intensely upon his
consciousness of being, not only did his breathing cease, but
his heart stopped beating, and all the other biological
functions that indicate life also came to a standstill. Thus his
body literally lay lifeless for about twenty minutes, until
suddenly life again surged through it, and his heartbeat and
breath started to function as normal.

To put this into perspective, here is a quote from “The Jhanas”
by Ajahn Brahmavamso, page 29 of 46, distributed free by The
Buddhist Fellowship, Singapore

A lay disciple once told me how he had “fluked” a deep
jhana while meditating at home. His wife thought he had
died and sent for an ambulance. He was rushed to hospital
in a wail of loud sirens. In the emergency room, there was
no heartbeat registered on the E.C.G., nor brain activity
to be seen by the E.E.G. So the doctor on put defibrillators
on his chest to re-activate his heart. Even though he was
being bounced up and down on the hospital bed through the
force of the electric shocks, he didn’t feel a thing! When
he emerged from the jhana in the emergency room, perfectly
all right, he had no knowledge of how he had got there,
nor of ambulances and sirens, nor of body-jerking defibrill-
ators. All that long time that he was in jhana, he was fully
aware, but only of bliss. This is an example of what is meant
by the five senses shutting down within the experience of jhana.

Comment:
Although I disagree with Ajahn B regarding the shutting down of
the five senses in_ all_ jhana states (including the the lower
four jhanas,) this reported experience cannot be disregarded,
and does seem to reference Sri R’s own.

I thought you also might find the following of interest.
It was quoted on the Way-of-Light Yahoo list
that focuses mostly on Tibetan Dzogchen/Mahamudra:

From the Choying Dzod By Longchengpa From Chapter 9:
"Awareness, involving no plans or actions, no coming or
going, entails no time frame or antidote, so drop reification
and effort.
If there is a deliberate frame of reference, it is a cause of
bondage.
Do not rely on any fixed construct whatsoever - let go in evenness!

It is of no concern whether or not all phenomena are timelessly free.
It is of no concern whether or not the way of abiding is pure by nature.

It is of no concern whether or not mind itself is free of elaboration.
It is of no concern whether or not anything has ever existed within
the fundamentally unconditioned, genuine state.

It is of no concern whether or not samsara and nirvana
are by nature a duality.
It is of no concern whether or not all thoughts and expressions
are transcended.
It is of no concern whether or not confused attempts
at proof and refutation are demolished.
It is of no concern whether or not the view to be realized has
been realized.

It is of no concern whether or not you meditate
on the ultimate meaning of the true nature of phenomena.
It is of no concern whether or not you engage in examination,
since there is nothing to accept or reject.
It is of no concern whether or not the way of abiding
has ever existed as the fruition.
It is of no concern whether or not you have traversed
the paths and levels of realization.

It is of no concern whether or not you are free of all obscurations.
It is of no concern whether or not the development and
completion stages perfect your true nature.
It is of no concern whether or not the fruition of liberation is
attained.
It is of no concern whether or not you wander in the six states of samsara.

It is of no concern whether or not the nature of being
is spontaneous presence.
It is of no concern whether or not you are bound
by dualistic perceptions of affirmation and denial.
It is of no concern whether or not you have arrived
at the enlightened intent of the true nature of phenomena.
It is of no concern whether or not you follow
in the footsteps of masters of the past.

No matter what arises, even if heaven and earth change
places, there is a bare state of relaxed openness, without any
underlying basis.

Without any reference points nebulous, ephemeral and
evanescent - this is the mode of a lunatic, free of the duality
of hope and fear.

With unbiased view and meditation,
ordinary consciousness that is caught up in reification
collapses.
Without the entanglements of wishful thinking,
there is no "thing" to strive for or achieve.

Let whatever happens happen and whatever manifests
manifest.
Let whatever occurs occur and whatever is be.
Let whatever is anything at all be nothing at all.

With your conduct unpredictable
you make the final leap into awareness
without the slightest basis for determining what is spiritual
or not,
and so this bare state with no reference point
is beyond the cage of philosophy.

Whether eating, moving around, lying down, or sitting,
day and night you rest in infinite evenness,
so that you experience the true nature of phenomena as their
equalness.
There are no gods to worship, no demons to exorcise,
nothing to cultivate in meditation this is the completely
"ordinary" state.

With this single state of evenness, the uncontrived ruler
that has no pride -
there is oneness, a relaxed and unstructured openness.
How delightful!
Things are timelessly ensured without having to be done,
and free of effort and achievement, you are content.