meditating
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why do I feel so light when meditating? like as if i'm going to go out of my body? i'm scared to let go dun know what will happen so I deliberately bring myself back? but feeling is also very joyful so free dun know use what words to describe.
in my mind I just tell myself to be with buddha cos I know they will guide me protect me.
its only the moment of that lightness occurrs I feel I must not let go.
just awhile of meditating an hour has passed. never realise time flies when in meditating.
feel extremely fresh n energetic after that, I look fresh n radiant in mirror too.
no kidding...
any1 has meditating experience to share?
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I felt my sense leaving me...
its hard to explain....
I called out to shakyamuni buddha to guide me on the proper path.
I felt a sense of freedom. also see nothing else except brightness of the color of yellow flame. felt my body very light peaceful almost leaving....
felt joyful so free too joyful to be true tat becomes kinda scary.
maybe i'll get used to it?
I tell myself to let go everything .... just give out love n compassion n feel everything around me naturally.
my whole sense just became so light n clear almost losing touch to my self. but i'm too rooted tats y I still can't let go fully....
I believe buddhas will guide me... I must trust them..... -
I think you have entered samadhi but I do not have the experience to verify it. I think you should speak to a Buddhist teacher.
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yeah u are right. I should seek advice from a buddhist teacher.
last time were fingers losing 'senses' now its my entire being.
don't wish to lose this 'touch'.
yeah perhaps it really needs great deal of courage to enter vipassana in order to realise so much truth.
each time I practice I take an hour but time flies its like close eyes awhile open, 1hour gone.
yeah...the dharma practice & meditation in the right thought right mind could bring a step closer to truth & liberations.
all these are not planned, each time is a different experience. all comes naturaly unexpectly. -
Yes, ask your dhamma master about your experiences during meditation. Do you have a dhamma master?Originally posted by paperflower:I felt my sense leaving me...
its hard to explain....
I called out to shakyamuni buddha to guide me on the proper path.
I felt a sense of freedom. also see nothing else except brightness of the color of yellow flame. felt my body very light peaceful almost leaving....
felt joyful so free too joyful to be true tat becomes kinda scary.
maybe i'll get used to it?
I tell myself to let go everything .... just give out love n compassion n feel everything around me naturally.
my whole sense just became so light n clear almost losing touch to my self. but i'm too rooted tats y I still can't let go fully....
I believe buddhas will guide me... I must trust them.....
From what I heard from Ajahn Brahm talk, meditation is good and is beneficial.
When you are deep in meditation, you lose sense of your body and your surroundings. Do not be too attached to the peacefulness and try to focus on insight. -
thanks
u all hv been very helpful n kind to me.
I hvn't got a dharma teacher yet. still searching or awaiting?... it'd be a blessing to me if my teacher appears.
hehe... teacher, where in the world are u? -
Which temple did you go to regularly? Have you gui yi ceremony yet, ie take refuge in the triple gem?Originally posted by paperflower:thanks
u all hv been very helpful n kind to me.
I hvn't got a dharma teacher yet. still searching or awaiting?... it'd be a blessing to me if my teacher appears.
hehe... teacher, where in the world are u?
Why not you go to One eternal dhamma centre and consult his dhamma teacher? -
yes will visit soon.
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I practice ananpana-sati - The in and out breath meditation. I had such experience once.Originally posted by paperflower:I felt my sense leaving me...
its hard to explain....
I called out to shakyamuni buddha to guide me on the proper path.
I felt a sense of freedom. also see nothing else except brightness of the color of yellow flame. felt my body very light peaceful almost leaving....
felt joyful so free too joyful to be true tat becomes kinda scary.
maybe i'll get used to it?
I tell myself to let go everything .... just give out love n compassion n feel everything around me naturally.
my whole sense just became so light n clear almost losing touch to my self. but i'm too rooted tats y I still can't let go fully....
I believe buddhas will guide me... I must trust them.....
During one of my sitting, I was very peaceful and quiet. Then I had this experience, I seem to leave my body and watch the "I" that was sitting there meditating. I fellt very light like floating in the air. All went well until a question pop up in my mind. "If I am sitting there meditating, then who is the one watching "me" meditating". With that I came out from the mediation trying to grab the "I" that represent "me". It seems very much like the out of body experience but I am very aware of what was going on. -
that was interesting, linyu
thanks for sharing. -
perhaps i was "leaving" to enter the next stage but i was too afraid to let go. i didn't fully willing to let go.....
if i surrendered and let go...... i would have entered jhanas.........?
i went thru the link on the edited version on Ajahn Brahmavamso's talk on meditation - the heart of buddhism.
i totally agree with what he said & thats how i felt too......., "It was inspiring to read the books but that was not good enough. It was when I meditated and became peaceful, very peaceful, incredibly peaceful, that something told me that this was the most profound experience of my life. I wanted to experience this again. I wanted to investigate it more. Why? Because one deep experience of meditation is worth a thousand talks, or arguments, or books, or theories. The things you read in books are other people's experiences, they are not your own. They're words and they might inspire, but the actual experience itself is truly moving. It's truly earth shattering because it shatters that which you've rested on for such a long time."
here's the link:
edited version of a talk by Ajahn Brahmavamso -
have good read on them
truly inspiring.......
one more paragraph that wakes me up -
"The difference between thought and reality is the difference between, say, reading a book about New York and going to New York. Which is more real? When you're there, you smell the air, you feel the atmosphere, you sense the character, all of which are things you can't write in a book. The truth is always silent. The lie is always with words." -
When the Body Disappears.......
Remember "con men," "con women" as well. These con men can sell you anything! There's one living in your mind right now, and you believe every word he says! His name is Thinking. When you let go of that inner talk and get silent, you get happy. Then when you let go of the movement of the mind and stay with the breath, you experience even more delight. Then when you let go of the body ,all these five senses disappear and you're really blissing out. This is original Buddhism. Sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch completely vanish. This is like being in a sensory deprivation chamber but much better. But it's not just silence, you just don't hear anything. It's not just blackness, you just don't see anything. It's not just a feeling of comfort in the body, there is no body at all.
When the body disappears that really starts to feel great. You know of all those people who have out of the body experiences? When the body dies, every person has that experience, they float out of the body. And one of the things they always say is it's so peaceful, so beautiful, so blissful. It's the same in meditation when the body disappears, it's so peaceful, so beautiful, so blissful when you are free from this body. What's left? Here there's no sight, sound, smell, taste, touch. This is what the Buddha called the mind in deep meditation. When the body disappears what is left is the mind.
What you're seeing in such deep meditation is that which we call "mind," (in Pali it's called Citta). The Buddha used this beautiful simile. When there is a full moon on a cloudy night, even though it's a full moon, you can hardly see it. Sometimes when the clouds are thin, you can see this hazy shape shining though. You know there is something there. This is like the meditation just before you've entered into these profound states. You know there is something there, but you can't quite make it out. There's still some "clothes" left. You're still thinking and doing, feeling the body or hearing sounds. But there does come a time, and this is the Buddha's simile, when the moon is released from the clouds and there in the clear night sky you can see the beautiful full disc of the moon shining brilliantly, and you know that's the moon. The moon is there; the moon is real, and it's not just some sort of side effect of the clouds. This is what happens in meditation when you see the mind. You see clearly that the mind is not some side effect of the brain. You see the mind, and you know the mind. The Buddha said that the mind released is beautiful, is brilliant, is radiant. So not only are these blissful experiences, they're meaningful experiences as well. -
wah. paperflower.
You have such wonderful experience.
How long you have been practising meditation?
Maybe you should seek a dharma teacher, so that you can have a even faster improvement on meditation or even opportunity to guide other people as well.
I once hear from a zen master saying that before reaching ding4 (or samadhi I think), your body will be like being pilled of layer by layer. If you have attained samadhi, pls cherish it and use it to have dharma observation and eventually give you wisdom.
Be careful that there is this level in meditation, which if one learn beyond it, may cause some side effect. -
yes i promise myself i will help & guide & save others (anyone from up to below from past present to future)..... when i have fully arrived.
thanks justdoit77 -
perhaps a lesson could be learnt....
that would be how when a person including me die/dies losing the senses..... feeling them fading away.... leaving the body but the mind is still there.... going into somewhere..... somewhere deep and deeper......
eventually we all have to leave our body. leaving is letting go without bringing anything else along except the mind is left. the teaching of death? death - the greatest dharma teacher of letting go,..... lesson of impermanance, the repeated cycle..... -
Good to know that you're interested in and have been experimenting with meditation.
If you're interested in the "good and special" feelings/effects that one experiences through meditation, then I'd say you're doing very well. You probably don't need a teacher, because you can just continue replicating those experiences and building on them.
If you're interested in true liberation and realization of the true nature of reality, then I'd say those that you mentioned are not important. (Not based on my own words, coz I'm not a good meditator, but based on advice from many of my Buddhist meditation teachers of various traditions). If you are keen to gain enlightenment, then you have to let go of the attachment to these experiences, and also to let go of the fear of not having such experiences.
The various pleasant/unique experiences that you said, one of my teachers calls it "meditative moods". He said that, meditative moods are not realization. Because once you're out of meditation, it's not there. It's just a meditative mood that arises because of the various causes and conditions were present for it to arise, and therefore it would subside and disappear when the causes and conditions are absent. Just like ice-cream can make us temporarily happy, but doesn't give us ultimate happiness; similarly such meditative experiences can make us happy for the moment, but it doesn't give us ultimate bliss. Instead, the danger is that, once you start to fall in love with such experiences, you'll keep wanting them - and these experiences become your goal of pursuit, and distract you from the actual goal which is Complete Liberation/Enlightenment.
Another of my teachers used an eg. Like if you stand on a stage and look down from it, and you see many heads below... and then you exclaim "Wow I see so many heads! Incredible! Unimaginable! This is wonderful, miraculous." Well, that's silly... because actually it's normal...nothing special.... that when we stand on the stage and look down we'll see many heads. Nothing special to be delighted about.
Similarly, when we meditate, it is normal and nothing special to have certain experiences... and it would be equally silly to revel in it when these experiences appear or feel disappointed when they don't.
Pls don't be mistaken, I'm not trying to say you're silly *grins* Most of us do get excited when we have such experiences. That's where the trap lies actually... that's why the meditation teachers often warn us again and again not to hold on to these experiences, not to hope for them, not to pursue them. When they come, let them be. When they go, let them be.
As what the other forumers suggested, it is extremely important for us to obtain ongoing guidance from qualified meditation teachers. Meditation cannot be learnt just from reading.
Besides going to Jen Chen (where the forum owner goes to); other places include Cakkavala Meditation Centre (they have regular meditation sessions at Cheng Beng Buddhist Society, on Saturdays 7.15pm); Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery (www.kmspks.org). -
hi wanderer good morning! wow very early post! your mind is working on & on & on yeahh.....
i'll read yr post again....
thanks for the advices -
how abt attending meditation retreats?
I once attended a meditation retreat at PKS, quite interesting and you can get to know a few friends as well there. -
hi wandererOriginally posted by _wanderer_:Good to know that you're interested in and have been experimenting with meditation.
If you're interested in the "good and special" feelings/effects that one experiences through meditation, then I'd say you're doing very well. You probably don't need a teacher, because you can just continue replicating those experiences and building on them.
If you're interested in true liberation and realization of the true nature of reality, then I'd say those that you mentioned are not important. (Not based on my own words, coz I'm not a good meditator, but based on advice from many of my Buddhist meditation teachers of various traditions). If you are keen to gain enlightenment, then you have to let go of the attachment to these experiences, and also to let go of the fear of not having such experiences.
thanks for commenting, advices, compliments.....
before u post this, i have already thought of not wanting to keep a diary of my experiences because letting go starts from the very 1st experience. i dont wanna have so much bubble foams to clear at the base at the end of the day... hehee....
wow u really think i don't need a teacher? wow great foresight and intuition u have over the protocol!
amazing....... u could tell.....
great thinkers and achievers perform best alone yeah? a great example is shakyamuni buddha, don't u agree, wanderer? but the willingness & motivation to seek advice and guidance is good too. instead of clinging on to ego-centered self or proudness. agree, wanderer?
every experience comes naturally if u have been meditating u would be able to understand what i mean. i'm not practicing daily, i just discovered. i know its hard to be comprehended by some. i treasure the lessons learnt in every experience if u disregard even the small before the huge ones occur then how to attain enlightenment?even that is also an attachment. composure and consistency is needed all the time. agree? this my 1st small experiences. whats realisations? whats the actual meaning to it? u know? everything comes naturally isn't it just as u said. u get my point? hehee.....
a meditator is a meditator. the minds like to wander thats why differentiating occurs, then what is yr mind for? even that is an attachment. its your mind thats thinking assuming..... examining....
theres no right and no wrong......
to be continued.... as i'm working at my desk. -
before i continue......
i'd like to add on....
meditating alone is not enough. daily actions speech thought counts alot. even this typing in the post with whatever attitude in mind matters alot to the path to enlightenment.
when yr mind is clear and purified, it will be as clear as the river water that flows..... flowing into the deeper depths. without a clear observations and thoughts u'll never be able to know if the pond is deep or not cos it is muddy. -
Have you heard of Vipassana meditation?
It is known as insight meditation, observing the flow of the breath when you breathe in and then breathe out. You also observe your thoughts when you breathe in when they arise, and then breathe out when that thought perished or no more, just like the law of impermanance.
For example, when your skin is itchy, just observe the sensation and tell yourself that the itch will only last a few moments and it will not last forever.
When the itch does disapper, you realise it is the same with the law of impermanence, arising for a moment, and then disappear totally after a while.
That is the contemplation of Impermanency, Anicca.
Or you meditate observing the flow of your breath only. If you find that a kind of peace envelope you, do not be too attached to the peace either cos if you do, its attachment. -
I think what wanderer said is that if you only want to reproduce those 'good and special feelings', then you do not need any teacher because it does not lead to liberation.Originally posted by paperflower:
Anyway I used to have very 'good and special feelings' in meditation too.. which are very spectacular. My dharma teacher also denounced its importance.
From wanderer: As what the other forumers suggested, it is extremely important for us to obtain ongoing guidance from qualified meditation teachers. Meditation cannot be learnt just from reading. -
some people r lucky don't hv to work on sundays but I hv to work hehe....
ok.... to continue bit by bit...
(hey we r lucky to be borned at tis age yeah? if not dun knw how many poor pigeons will be used n exhausted :mrgreen
knowing n attachment is 2 different meaning obviously any1 can tell. without knowing n being aware we wont even know we r attaching unconsciously.
the mind really works n wanders... see its illusions?
my experiences mean a lot to me by knowing recognising acknowledging them. attachment is tricky camouflage isn't it. I do admit I hv attachments so does anyone. but here I never forget my lessons nor will I bring them along with me.
no worries, wanderer.... its yr mind thinking i'm thinking u r thinking i'm silly. what's there grasp?
see how yr mind wanders, wanderer? hehe...
i'm very open to criticism! -
I understand, an eternal. I understand what he/she trying to say. u r so kind
let him/her speak for himself/herself. be brave to stand by each own's sharing of knowledge.