Dhamma Wheel Buddhist Forum

Hi all,

Been struggling with Anapanasati for a while, literally not being able to find the breath. Then, a few days ago there it was, back again. This happened after just relaxing into a sort of awareness of the generic feeling of my whole body. This awareness seemed to shrink into a very focussed concentrated awareness of just the breath. Then, out of the blue came a palpable feeling of excitment, really quite uncomfortable really and not Jhana(ish) in the way I would have expected - or maybe it was, but it left me feeling like I'd had a small electric shock.

Now for the rest of that day and for the ensuing few days I felt really really low. Very low mood and low self esteem as well as feeling really vulnerable. I am fine now...it lifted almost as quickly as it came.

I'm not a wilting daisy nor am I prone to whining about my feelings so for this to happen after such an unusual experience seems odd.

What do you think?

M...

When you say that your awareness shrunk to "just the breath" do you mean that your awareness changed from a whole body awareness to just the spot you observe the breath from (ie the tip of your nose/your upper lip) or that your full body awareness and your spot of observation (tip of the nose ect) merged into a single breath awareness?



Metta

The term anapanasati covers a lot of ground. Can you describe how you were meditating in more detail?

To me the breath also usually becomes the central point of awareness after a gentle body awareness. That's because the breath is the most prominent sensation in the body, so that's where my attention is drawn to. I am not sure what the excitement feeling was, but I wouldn't give it importance. Just keep with the breath until it begins to be very fine and peaceful and it is the only thing you are aware of.

The sad/low feeling I would say had no direct connection with the meditation.

From a fellow practitioner,

reflection wrote:To me the breath also usually becomes the central point of awareness after a gentle body awareness. That's because the breath is the most prominent sensation in the body, so that's where my attention is drawn to.

You know, that statement has had a massive impact on my practice. I have been labouring for months as to what I am doing wrong after all these years and there it is in a sentence...relax, allow the attention to find its own home rather than forcing (albeit subliminaly) it to 'attach' to a point.

Thanks 'fellow practitioner'...!