Unsteady sensation during samatha

[umop_3pisdn]

Today I had a peculiar sensation nearing the end of my hour of anapanasati, what I perceived as a gradual unfolding of 'enstatic' phenomenon eventually resulted in a sensation that my body was swaying in some way, though perhaps not in such a gross sense, but it felt a little like dizziness which made me a bit uneasy of if I was maintaining my equilibrium and naturally undermined some of the tranquility that I had developed. I've had other peculiar bodily sensations before and I've never placed much significance on them, and indeed that isn't my intention now, but rather those others weren't nearly so intrusive, and I raise this question because it seemed like an obstacle and one I'm not sure how to approach should it occur again. I am not sure if it was due to dullness, or poor core body strength revealing a genuine instability with the gradual falling away of the grosser features of awareness, or whatever. While I found that being mindful of the sensation reduced my feelings of disorientation, that then means that I was no longer attending to the breath. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions as to what might be happening? My session otherwise felt like it had the directionality that samatha 'should' have, and what I mean by that is that I probably observed the process go further than I ever have before, but while many other times I've felt the beginnings of what I must assume was piti, there wasn't much of that this time at all.

[Ben]

greetings upside down,
It appears to me that you are just becoming increasingly more sensitive to sensations you were previously not so aware of.
It is potentially another distractions so if, or when, it happens again: maintain your awareness on the object of meditation.
kind regards,

Ben

[umop_3pisdn]

Thank you, Ben, that rings true to me. If it does occur again it will be a challenge to divert my awareness from it, but I suppose that isn't a bad thing!

[Ben]

Hi Upside Down
No, its not a bad thing.
There in lies the training. Its dealing with hindrances head-on that we overcome them.
Wishing you the very best with your practice.
with metta,

Ben

[mikenz66]

Hi U.

I am not sure if it was due to dullness, or poor core body strength revealing a genuine instability with the gradual falling away of the grosser features of awareness, or whatever.
While I found that being mindful of the sensation reduced my feelings of disorientation, that then means that I was no longer attending to the breath.

As I've said on other threads I get swaying happening if I lose mindfulness and energy.
http://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.ph ... 37#p196816
The style I practice, I'd go with being mindful of the swaying, but increasing your mindfulness on the meditation object, as Ben suggests, should achieve the same thing.


Mike

[reflection]

When the senses don't get a lot of stimiles, they do things like this. Especially the sense of the position of the body: One can feel to be floating, sinking into the ground, leaning over, swaying, etc. This is very normal. Usually it only happens ocasionally and it'll not be a constant factor in your meditation, so no need to worry about it.

[tiltbillings]

When the senses don't get a lot of stimiles, they do things like this. Especially the sense of the position of the body: One can feel to be floating, sinking into the ground, leaning over, swaying, etc. This is very normal. Usually it only happens ocasionally and it'll not be a constant factor in your meditation, so no need to worry about it.

These sensations can actually be rather fun to play with, doing loop-to-loops and other such things, though one probably should not play with these odd sensations too much.

[reflection]

Yup.