befriend wrote:In my first post I did say I was doing one pointed concentration and times of practicing metta, the one pointed concentration was observing the breath at the upper lip, this led to access concentration and my mind involuntarily puffed this up into thinking, "look at me, my mind is more fine than a deva or whatever grandiose notion"
Yes, it's for this reason that you might want to reflect on whether the type of meditation you are doing needs a possible adjustment. Wholesome is as wholesome does, so to speak. It might be that your mind would involuntarily puff
anything up into this type of thinking; or it might be that your mind would puff
the type of concentration to which you refer ("access") into this type of grandiose thinking.
I think it's worth playing around with, anyway, to see if you can find a type of meditative practice that does not have such results.