sfoobar wrote:Hey there! I’ve got some questions regarding recent experiences in my meditation practice, preferably from someone more experienced than I am.
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Today something strange happened. My body startet to feel really small, from the neck downwards. At the same time my head felt really big. Like these action figures, I don’t know what they are called. The ones with tiny bodies and a really big head.
At the same time it was as if my whole awareness was filled with breath sensations. I really don’t know how to properly describe it. I could not just feel the tip of my nose, but it seemed as if my whole mind was filled with the breath sensation.
At the same time I just started smiling. There was no joy or even rapture, I just noticed I got a really big grin on my face.
Now my question is: Am I on to something there? Is this access concentration, or even the beginning of a jhana? Maybe some of you experienced something like this before and could help me out
Hi sfoobar,
I have experienced almost exactly the same thing, except my concentration focus was on the lower belly.
This is a phenomenon resulting from increased concentration. How do I know this? I got excited about it, lost focus on the breath, and the sensations disappeared.
I think this is just something we see on the way to jhana. There are plenty of accounts to be found where people describe feeling as though their head is floating, levitation feelings, body feeling solid like rock, etc, etc. It's a sign your concentration is getting there. But I don't think this is jhana. It may be access concentration. I think it may be the nimitta; although this is most often described as a white light, I would imagine that people with different primary sensory modalities would experience the nimitta differently. But this is speculation.
The great thing about meditation is that we don't have to 'know' what a phenomenon is - keep focus on the breath, and regard the phenomenon as you would a mountain, or an interesting tree, while on a journey somewhere in the car. If you stop and spend a long time looking at the tree, you don't arrive at your destination.
Good luck with your meditation!
"Does Master Gotama have any position at all?"
"A 'position,' Vaccha, is something that a Tathagata has done away with. What a Tathagata sees is this: 'Such is form, such its origination, such its disappearance; such is feeling, such its origination, such its disappearance; such is perception...such are fabrications...such is consciousness, such its origination, such its disappearance.'" -
Aggi-Vacchagotta Sutta
'Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return.' - Genesis 3:19
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