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Yes. And I told my teacher all about it. " Try again " was his only response. But he didnt smile. So I asked one of the more experienced novice monks ( now known as Ajahn Xxxxx ) what I had done wrong. " Nothing " he replied. " "Try again ".
Outstanding advice. Bliss or listless. Try again. Back to the cushion for this crustacean ass . . .
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BhanteLuckyAlternative lifestyle person in the South Island of New ZealandNew ZealandVeteran
edited January 2013
I got a good lot of bliss for about a month or two of meditations. It was during the Rains Retreat in 2011. I was living at a monastery, just doing normal breath awareness, sometimes doing body awareness when my concentration was good, and gradually a nice buzz started to arise. It rose and rose over days and weeks until it reached the stage where I would sit down to meditate, and within about 30 seconds I'd be floating and tingling in a cloud of bliss, pleasure, vibration, and goose-bump gorgeousness for an hour. It wasn't jhana, as I could think and reflect on it and sort of cast my awareness around a bit. The monks said it was probably a "corruption of insight", or an "imperfection of insight" like Mahsi Sayadaw describes as "rapture" or in pali language "piti":
There arises also rapture in its five grades, beginning with minor rapture. When purification of mind is gained, that rapture begins to appear by causing "goose-flesh," tremor in the limbs, etc.; and now it produces a sublime feeling of happiness and exhilaration, filling the whole body with an exceedingly sweet and subtle thrill. Under its influence, he feels as if the whole body had risen up and remained in the air without touching the ground, or as if it were seated on an air cushion, or as if it were floating up and down.
The monks said to keep on doing what I was doing and not get attached to it, as it would side-track me. I kept on keeping on, and after a month or two it faded right away. Towards the end it got kinda coarse, jangly, and distracting. It was still bliss, but it had lost its attractiveness... oh it's hard to describe. Anyway, it passed and then I was able to concentrate more on everything else, without getting distracted and drawn in with enjoying the bliss. I still really enjoy it when I get bliss in walking meditation. For some reason that triggers it for me sometimes, especially with really really slow walking.
Comments
And I told my teacher all about it. " Try again " was his only response. But he didnt smile.
So I asked one of the more experienced novice monks ( now known as Ajahn Xxxxx ) what I had done wrong.
" Nothing " he replied. " "Try again ".
Back to the cushion for this crustacean ass . . .
It was during the Rains Retreat in 2011. I was living at a monastery, just doing normal breath awareness, sometimes doing body awareness when my concentration was good, and gradually a nice buzz started to arise. It rose and rose over days and weeks until it reached the stage where I would sit down to meditate, and within about 30 seconds I'd be floating and tingling in a cloud of bliss, pleasure, vibration, and goose-bump gorgeousness for an hour.
It wasn't jhana, as I could think and reflect on it and sort of cast my awareness around a bit. The monks said it was probably a "corruption of insight", or an "imperfection of insight" like Mahsi Sayadaw describes as "rapture" or in pali language "piti": The monks said to keep on doing what I was doing and not get attached to it, as it would side-track me. I kept on keeping on, and after a month or two it faded right away.
Towards the end it got kinda coarse, jangly, and distracting. It was still bliss, but it had lost its attractiveness... oh it's hard to describe.
Anyway, it passed and then I was able to concentrate more on everything else, without getting distracted and drawn in with enjoying the bliss.
I still really enjoy it when I get bliss in walking meditation. For some reason that triggers it for me sometimes, especially with really really slow walking.