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What did I experience?

Ficus_religiosaFicus_religiosa Veteran
edited June 2010 in Meditation
A little while back, when meditating (samatha) something happened which blew me away. I focused on my breath, noticing how it went in and out, and how it stopped between in- and exhalation.
Normally I count 1-10 on the exhalations, then start over until I'm calm and able to just follow "in", "out", and then cease to think.
This evening it went really well. Suddenly I "saw" my breath.. It was like seeing a new, strange animal or something. I didn't think anything, only noticed my breath. It was extraordinary..
I guess I got something "right", but what exactly? I haven't "been there" since

Comments

  • JeffreyJeffrey Veteran
    edited June 2010
    I would say you had an interesting experience in which you saw your breath. Isn't that what happened?
  • Ficus_religiosaFicus_religiosa Veteran
    edited June 2010
    Yea, that is what happened :) I try to get as calm and relaxed every time now
  • shenpennangwashenpennangwa
    edited June 2010
    Ficus_religiosa wrote: »
    Yea, that is what happened :) I try to get as calm and relaxed every time now

    Careful.
    The moment we start trying to repeat an experience we start practicing with hopes and fears and start pursuing pleasurable meditative states.
    They can be quite addictive and are serious obstacles to the path.
  • GuyCGuyC Veteran
    edited June 2010
    Shenpen,

    While I mean no disrespect Shenpen, I would disagree, at least on the following grounds. Perhaps your warning has its place for someone who can and frequently does reach a high level of Samadhi, I don't know, but at the level of just watching the breath it seems over-cautious to me. Or perhaps you meant that we should be careful if we are only looking at the outcomes and ignoring the causes? In which case I agree.

    Ficus,

    It seems to me that the Buddha encouraged pleasure in meditation. Two of the Jhana factors are "piti" (rapture) and "sukkha" (happiness/pleasure). The key is recognizing what caused this pleasurable experience. This is why it is important to reflect at the end of the meditation on cause and effect. How were you meditating? What attitude did you have towards your meditation object? and what occured as a result?

    Don't be scared of pleasure in meditation. Cultivate the causes which lead to pleasure in meditation, this is (as I understand it) Right Effort. Not only is this no danger (in my unenlightened opinion) to achieving liberation, it appears to be necessary.

    I could be wrong though, I am not enlightened, maybe pleasure and happiness should be avoided at all costs. However, Nibbana is described as "Ultimate Happiness". I would have thought there would be a cause and effect relationship between practicing the Noble Eightfold Path and realizing Ultimate Happiness. What do you think?

    With Metta,

    Guy
  • truthseekertruthseeker
    edited June 2010
    These things happen.

    According to my experience they cannot be controlled. They pop up occasionally, especially in the beginning, but the danger is not positive attachment, but negative attachment, meaning that if you have several such experiences, you might be disappointed if you find they are non-repeatable. If you hit a long plateau after this could be demotivating...

    I remember a series of sessions that involved seeing intense beautiful colours and lights, and the colours varied from session to session, and then -blip- nothing... oh my, what a pity, back to the breath...

    Cheers, Thomas
  • Ficus_religiosaFicus_religiosa Veteran
    edited June 2010
    Thanks for the responses.

    shenpen:
    I am aware of the danger, and when I say that I try to get as calm and relaxed as I was, I do not do so to "force" a reaction. I read somewhere, that if meditating is boring, then we should just notice that it's boring. It's part of the exercise :)

    guyC
    I would have thought there would be a cause and effect relationship between practicing the Noble Eightfold Path and realizing Ultimate Happiness. What do you think?

    If I understand your question right, my answer is: I expect the Path to lead to different good experiences like the one I just had practicing anapanasati, while you get "more and more enlightened". I don't think it's just an "aha"-experience, which suddenly comes out of the blue (for us normal people). Buddha sat down and meditated until he reached Nibbana, but I think you don't just do that from scratch. One step at a time :)
  • GuyCGuyC Veteran
    edited June 2010
    I agree.
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