bubbles of insight during beginner's meditation

Lady_Alison

Okay so I am a beginner to meditation. Today I followed a guided meditation. Nothing fancy. He only helped to guide the breath and relax the body.

I can say it was extremely relaxing and I got to a point in which I really became the observer and there was a space between me and the thoughts. All very good.

Okay so this is the thing and difficult to describe but I noticed the deeper I get, the more womb like it feels and occasionally I oscillate between "no thought" and light feather like fleating thoughts of insight.. .it doesn't stay long. It seems like there might Be a fount of wisdom way below and I am looking down from the mouth of a cavern...so I am getting little wasps or Bubbles of insight...

Does anyone know what I'm talking about?

Or am I mad?

Zero

youre a mad fool!

Jeffrey

Yeah that's great to hear! I enjoy experiences like that. Your not mad, those were great descriptive words.

Lady_Alison

Literally feels like that sometimes...descend into madness!

Dakini

Yes, great news! Doing well for a beginner--fab! Keep up the good work! : )

but...why does it feel like a descent into madness?

P.S. I put up a special thread, just for you, I think you missed it. It's already sunk down, I'll bring it up again--Islam in Tibet. : )

Lady_Alison

Thank you @dakini...no...it doesn't feel like madness but I do sometimes feel a descent down.

Zero

A mad fool gnawed by hungar went along the road, his shivering frame bent beneath the icy sleet. No house stood there to shelter him from the wintry air. He saw a ruined hut and with a dash stood underneath its roof, a sudden crash rung out, a tile had fallen on his head and how the gaping gash it cut there bled! He looked up at the sky and yelled: "ENOUGH! WHY CANT YOU CLOBBER ME WITH THE BETTER STUFF?"

Lady_Alison

@zero...this story is too advanced for me.

weighted

Nice progress @Lady_Alison!

Lady_Alison

Thanks guys..so this is normal..what a I suppose to do with thelittle bits of insight...some I don't even remember...but they felt very profound.

Only one...I remember feeling that womblike feeling and a small thought "silly, we fear so much when we are allready provided for..."

It just felt good. I realize that I have a huge imagination, so I'm not analyzing anything...I just wanted to know if there is anything we can do with the gift of insight?

zen_world

those are not insights, they are information...
your conscious and subcons. mind is full of information.
When your thoughts slow down, those information will come to surface and most of the time, they mean nothing...
However, if you carefully observe those information and somehow get a pattern then you may discover something about your character or psychology. Then you can turn all these information into insight.
Insight is something that is useful and have practical value.
Not all information turn into insight...

pegembara

This is the insight sought.

“Bhikkhus, visible-forms are impermanent. What is impermanent is suffering. What is suffering is non-self. What is non-self should be seen with right wisdom as it really is thus: ‘This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.’

“Sounds are impermanent… Smells are impermanent… Tastes are impermanent… Tactile-objects are impermanent… Mind-objects are impermanent. What is impermanent is suffering. What is suffering is non-self. What is non-self should be seen with right wisdom as it really is thus: ‘This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.’

Saṃyutta-Nikāya, Saḷāyatanavagga

“And what, bhikkhus, is the controlling-faculty of wisdom? Here, bhikkhus, a noble disciple is wise; he possesses the wisdom that is directed towards rise and passing-away, which is noble and penetrative, which leads to the utter destruction of suffering. He understands as it really is: 'This is suffering.' He understands as it really is: 'This is the origin of suffering.' He understands as it really is: 'This is the cessation of suffering.' He understands as it really is: 'This is the way leading to the cessation of suffering.' This, bhikkhus, is called the controlling-faculty of wisdom.”

~ Saṃyutta-Nikāya, Indriyasaṃyutta, Sutta 10

maarten

Hi Lady Alison,

good to see you are having positive experiences! I remember a Buddhist monk once explained that whenever he needed to answer a question (one that requires insight), he would clear his mind and the answer would come up naturally. I believe it works that way. Thinking can be helpful to trigger something in the mind (I think a lot, i seems useful to me), but insight comes from a place beyond thinking.

Lady_Alison

@maarten...thank you for the link to that free dharma audio file website. It is helping alot

SpinyNorman2

It seems like there might Be a fount of wisdom way below and I am looking down from the mouth of a cavern...so I am getting little wasps or Bubbles of insight...

I get stuff "bubbling up" but unfortunately it's usually old memories rather than insights.
It sounds like you're making progress anyway.

Spiny

BonsaiDoug

[...] occasionally I oscillate between "no thought" and light feather like fleating thoughts of insight.. .it doesn't stay long. It seems like there might Be a fount of wisdom way below and I am looking down from the mouth of a cavern...so I am getting little wasps or Bubbles of insight...

Please know in advance that I'm asking this question merely out of curiosity.

I think I know what you're describing above, but how do you know it's "insight?" What made you decide "insight" as opposed to pretty much anything else?

Lady_Alison

@bonsaidoug...it was more a feeling of love and well being that had no words only that I'm trying to describe it now...words get in the way.

It was original and not mind made. Perhaps I should add that before I started meditation I was in an anxious state and when I finished I was calm, free and in a state of awe. I didn't realize there was depth and space and love there...love is not the right word...like a womb like warm feeling with gentle currents of kind energy ...like everything is going to be okay and I had nothing to fear or be anxious about.

Does this make sense?

I also think that I didn't create the feeling. It was spontaneous. Nor was I trying to seek except the practice of meditation.

So it came up on it's own.

Lady_Alison

But the descent into it was strange and scary at first ...like falling when you are dreaming.

Lady_Alison

At the same time...my mind andthoughts where trying to describe it...but I tried to distance myself from describing it. Description doesn't explain it.

taiyaki

An insight starts with an idea then via meditation it is directly touched.

An insight once seen will always be seen.

Everything else is just an experience.

More than likely you attained a bit of one pointedness or access concentration.

This is the best ground to really investigate phenomena. First with a thought then one pointedly directly touching your experience.

Zayl

I became intently aware that the world did not end at the edge of my sight. That when I looked in a direction, I was looking at eternity. This gave me the perspective to look at myself, the person next to me, the chair I am sitting in, everything as just pieces of brief existence. I was aware that the universe extended in all directions around me without end and that everything is just a part of it, of one great whole. For that brief second I was no one, I was nothing, I was everything. And so was every single thing around me, seen and unseen. I was no different than a grain of sand, no different than the largest star. Everything was just one piece and I felt a very profound calmness, it was nearly paralyzing. I am not a wordsmith, and what I went through in that brief five seconds sitting there with a lit cigarette right after waking up I cannot accurately put into words.

I fully comprehended it all, in its entirety. And then, it was gone.

Lady_Alison

Thank you @zayl ...that was good to me, very discriptive

Zayl

Thank you @zayl ...that was good to me, very discriptive

Not sure how that was descriptive, I was fumbling around really, haha.