How to complete the first Jhana? I have read once you have reached the bliss stage you should take your focus off the object and on the blissful sensations and hold it. Then in time you will be in Jhana. But i also read in other sources you should just stay with the object and one pointed focus will rise that way. Which is it? This confuse me. I've reached bliss i kept focusing on my earth kasina but before i could fully enter the first jhana i felt my breath fading and it scared me out of my mediation. So i don't know if focusing on my object would have allowed me to reach jhana.
In my understanding of the instructions I received, for the first Jhana, you should switch your focus on the bliss and "say" to yourself: "wow, this is awesome, this is sublime, this is so peaceful, I don't need anything else, this is so much better than any worldly achievement, finally, I can rest in this state, so good! I did it!" etc. The idea is to create a self-sustaining emotional loop, when your own awe &amp; praise of this state feeds back and creates more joy and bliss - and then maintain it for as long as you can, "to thoroughly penetrate and wash your mind". It is important to NOT  let oneself feel that this deliberate generation is silly and contrived - because it is essential!

Then at some point the very act of making an effort to feed it starts feeling  too coarse and counterproductive - and then you stop feeding it, but the feeling of overall "rightness" remains -- and that's how you drop into the second Jhana. According to my instructions, this must not be rushed though, it's best to hang in the first Jhana for as long as you can, and only go into second Jhana when it happens naturally by itself.

Don't worry about breath etc. - the body is a survival machine that works great on autopilot. You don't need to tell the body how to beat the heart or to breathe etc. - it will take care of all that while you focus on meditation.

EDIT

What's unique about Buddha's approach to meditation is how it makes use of the Third Noble Truth to achieve concentration via suchness and suchness via happiness. You let go of coarse and then progressively finer cravings for "something else", until you reach coarse suchness which is euphoria, then fine suchness which is equanimity, and then pure suchness which is spontaneity. On each level of "letting go", you focus on the experience of relief and happiness associated with letting go. First Jhana is when this "experience of relief" takes a coarse form of comparing it with the drama of worldly life ("oh this is so good" etc) to create emotional loop of joy as I said above. Then, you let go of that comparison and keep joy, then you let go of joy.

P.S. I generally disagree with Ajahn Brahm's interpretation of Jhanas (and reification of them in general), but even he recognizes the importance of cultivating bliss:


  Understanding this, one needs to put more value on developing delight when one is watching the breath, and cultivating that delight into a strong sense of beauty. [...] Whatever skillful means one employs, by paying careful attention to the beauty alongside the breath, the beauty will blossom.  
  
  Do not be afraid of delight in meditation. Too many meditators dismiss happiness thinking it unimportant or, even worse, thinking that they don’t deserve such delight. Happiness in meditation is important!