Meditation and Pleasure I have three simple questions relating to pleasure. I have tried meditation many times without generating pleasure. Thus:

1) What level of skill permits meditation to release pleasure? How advanced must one be for this effect?

2) Is focused meditation -- i.e. shamatha -- the only meditation conducive to pleasure? Are there meditations more conducive to pleasure?

3) Is there still attachment when we want the benefits of pleasure not for themselves, but for an altruistic or wider goal?

These are my questions,
Thank you.
1) What level of skill permits meditation to release pleasure? How advanced must one be for this effect?
Ability to enter and abide in 1st Jhana is needed for deriving pleasure from meditation. This involves gaining access concentration (upacara samadhi) and then shifting focus to a pleasant sensation in the body or smile etc.
This is one of the simplest guides I've found for entering jhanas:

Instruction for Entering Jhana (by
Leigh Brasington).

You can also refer to:

9 Jhanas -- The First Jhana: Pleasant Sensations
The Jhanas in Theravada Buddhist Meditation --
Part 2: How to Enter the Jhanas

From the first link:

You watch the breath until you arrive at access concentration, and then you let go of the breath and shift your attention to a pleasant sensation. There is not much point in watching the breath that has gotten extremely subtle or has disappeared completely. There's nothing left to watch. Shift your attention to a pleasant sensation, preferably a pleasant physical sensation. You will need a good bit of concentration to watch a pleasant physical sensation, because a mildly pleasant feeling somewhere in your body is not nearly as exciting as the breath coming in and the breath going out. You've got this mildly pleasant sensation that's just sitting there; you need to be well-concentrated to stay with it.
The first question that may arise when I say &quot;Shift your attention to a pleasant sensation&quot; is &quot;What pleasant sensation?&quot; Well, it turns out that when you get to access concentration, the odds are quite strong that some place in your physical being, there will be a pleasant sensation. Look at this statue of the Buddha: he has a smile on his face. That is not just for artistic purposes; it is there as a teaching mechanism. Smile when you meditate, because when you reach access concentration, you only have to shift your attention one inch to find the pleasant sensation.

2) Is focused meditation -- i.e. shamatha -- the only meditation conducive to pleasure? Are there meditations more conducive to pleasure?
I don't know about all the meditation techniques available, but out of vipassana and shamatha, shamatha is conducive to gain pleasure and tranquility. Some times you get pleasure out of vipassana as well, but it is not conducive for that, the objectives are different.
3) Is there still attachment when we want the benefits of pleasure not for themselves, but for an altruistic or wider goal?
Like for practicing for eightfold path and liberation? Then no. If it is for mundane or daily activities, it is easy to get attached to the pleasure.