Comment from Ganapathy Raman
Time: December 31, 2007, 11:19 pm

It is a very good reading for those who want to start meditation… I am also one of those who want to initiate myself for meditation… Hope I can take on the valid points mentioned for carrying out the mediation…

Thanks once again for the valuable tips/points and references…

Wish U All A Bright and Prosperous New Year 2008..

God Bless U all…

Ganapathy Raman
Chennai, India

Comment from Owen
Time: July 6, 2008, 2:25 am

Hello Bodhipaksa,

Thank-you for this introduction to meditation. As I have no one to ask I have a few questions of you to see if I am engaging correctly. I have meditated once a day for four days now. I use your audio stream above two times in a row and then continue to sit for about 30 minutes total.

By the end of the second round I can feel waves of what might be called relaxation travelling parts of my body in what can best be described as resulting in numbness. When I get these sensations my body feels slightly numb and responds slowly when I go to move. This is not the gone-to-sleep numb that a foot might get. I am wondering if this is a state I should be trying to achieve as I seem to be able to get here more quickly each time. Or is this a result of bad posture.

During this morning’s session I had a strange sensation. When I was trying to be aware of my body as a whole I had a sensation were I felt like I had been rung like a bell. Waves of the above relaxation travelled down my core and out each appendage only to reflected back inwards. For a moment I felt as if I was resonating. Is this something I should be looking to reproduce?

This leads me to a final question, is the focus of meditation to be aware of the parts of your body as in the above audio, or is it to follow these other sensations as they arise? A friend suggested I try meditation as a way to focus. Am I being distracted in my pursuit of other sensations?

Thank-you for introducing me to this gift,

Owen

Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: July 6, 2008, 1:14 pm

Hi Owen,

I’d appreciate you saying more about what you mean by “numb”. I had a couple of students years ago who talked about a kind of “numbness” that they took to be a good sign, and I could never get clarification about what they meant. “Numb” means lacking in feeling, and you say you’re feeling waves of sensation, so I’m not sure what you’re describing, exactly.

The general sense I get though, is that these are encouraging signs. The sense you get of the sensation that was like being rung like a bell sounds very much like what we call a nimitta, which is a sensation that arises when the mind is becoming concentrated. At a certain level of stillness and concentration the mind often finds an alternative object of concentration that you can switch your attention to. Sometimes this alternative object is an image, or it can be a sound, or it can be a physical sensation as in your case.

This, as I’ve mentioned, is a good sign, and it’s a good idea to pay attention to it — without getting excited. Getting excited about it and grasping after the sensations undoes the stillness you’ve given rise to.

Trying to make these sensations happen is also counterproductive. You didn’t make them happen in the first place — they just arose spontaneously as you became still and concentrated — and trying to recreate the sensations will actually cause disturbances in the mind that will prevent you from becoming still.

So appreciate the sensations when they are present, and pay attention to them, but don’t try to make something happen.

Comment from Owen
Time: July 10, 2008, 6:47 pm

Hello Bodhipaksa,

In response to your inquiry about my sensation of numbness.

I have followed and given attention to this sensation over the last week of meditations. In retrospect, the sensation of “numbness” might better be described as “stillness”. For me it is the withdrawing of movement (at least conscious movement) resulting in the quieting or stilling of the body that gives the sensation.

As mentioned before I follow your audio stream through twice. On the first pass I tense and then relax the muscles in each body area as you bring my attention to it. I wiggle my toes, one at a time (if that is possible), arch the foot, and so on. On the second pass my tensing is imperceptible. By now the body is very relaxed and I focus my thoughts on the muscle groups and what it felt like to move them, but never actually moving the body part.

Most of my sensation is on my skin. On the first pass I might feel an air current across my leg, or the need to itch. By the end of the second pass the skin gives little to no sensory response. If anything it feels “dry”. This is what gave rise to the term numb.

On a body part by body part basis (i.e. feet, lower legs, etc.) I do not get sensations of energy, or heat, or tingling coming in after the relaxation. It is only once my complete body is stilled that I get the waves of “relaxation”. The feeling is euphoric. I would term these body waves, as no sensation occurs on the skin. The waves seem to flow from the core outwards in anywhere from one to five waves at a time. No sensation of tingling or heat or energy. I call them waves of “relaxation” as my body seems to let go with each wave and become less tense as if the sub-conscious muscle tensing is let go.

Owen

Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: July 24, 2008, 8:03 am

Hi Owen,

Apologies for the belated reply. I’ve been rather busy in the last couple of weeks.

What you describe all sounds good. You’re doing a very thorough body scan, especially with going over the whole body twice. I don’t think I quite get what you’re talking about with the numbness or “stillness” in the skin, but individual experiences do vary, so it might just be that my system behaves differently in meditation than your does. But what you describe sounds wholesome!

The waves of relaxation that you’re experiencing within the body are a good sign. The technical term for these is priti (Pali: piti) and it’s often translated as “rapture.” Often priti is accompanied with a deep sense of happiness, which is technically called “sukha” (same in both Pali and Sanskrit). Both are a sign of developing stillness and concentration.

It’s important simply to accept these experiences as normal, and not to get excited about them. In other words we accept them with equanimity, without clinging to them. Sometimes people get all worked up and excited that something is happening in meditation, and want to make something happen by, for example, trying to prolong the experiences.

But priti is essentially a transitional phenomenon. It arises when we’re moving into a deeper state of concentration and stillness and when (as you note) the body is letting go of very subtle tensions. And it passes, because there’s only so much to let go of, and it leaves a deeper and more stable state of mental sukha in its wake.

The thing to “do” with priti is simply to let it be (practice equanimity), and to continue relaxing into it so that it pervades the entire body. It will eventually seem to fade into the background, and that’s where equanimity is again essential, because if we’re trying to hold on to the priti we’ll either try to “make it happen” or we’ll panic at the thought of it subsiding.

But as mentioned, when it does permeate the body and subside, there’s a deeper state of bliss left behind. In the post-priti state there is often no inner chatter at all. The mind (or at least the speaking part of the mind) becomes completely silent. There is still thought, but it’s a more subtle and intuitive kind of thought that doesn’t require inner dialog.

I guess what’s happening is that the left brain is becoming quieter and the compulsive activity it often exhibits dies away and the right brain more active.

Technically what I’m talking about here is the transition from the first to the second dhyana. There are four of these dhyanas altogether.

Anyway, all the best with your practice. It does seem to be going well.

Take care,
Bodhipaksa