In the third stage of this meditation practice we let go of the counting and simply follow the breath as it flows in and out. This is the Mindfulness of Breathing proper, and if I were forced to introduce the Mindfulness of Breathing practice in two minutes then this is what I’d teach — simply paying attention to the sensations of the breath.
Jump to a section:
- The “gaining idea” in meditation
- Remember to check in with your body
- Balancing alertness and relaxation
- Using anchors in stage three
- Thought trains
- Breathing, not breaths
- Guiding, not controlling
However, by saying that I don’t want to devalue the earlier two stages, which are important aids in helping us to practice effectively in this stage of the practice and important practices in their own right.
Here’s an outline of the practice so far:
Stage Zero
Set up your posture, as described in the posture guidelines, developing awareness of the body and relaxing as best you can.
Stage One
Then, becoming aware of the breath as the central experience within the body, begin counting after each out-breath, counting in cycles of ten breaths. When you notice the mind wandering, gently bringing it back to the breath. Notice the gently relaxing quality of the out-breath.
Stage Two
Moving into the second stage of the practice, begin counting just before each in-breath, again counting ten breaths before starting over again at one. Notice the gently stimulating quality of the in-breath.
When you feel ready, move onto the third stage.
Stage Three
In the third stage of the practice, drop the counting, and just follow the breathing coming in and out. Pay particular attention to the transitions from an in-breath to an out-breath, since those are the places where you’re most likely to become distracted.
See if you can notice the breathing as a continuous process — not as a series of in-breaths and out-breaths, but as a never-ending stream of sensation connected with the movements of the body, and the sensations of the air flowing into and out of the body.
You can listen to an MP3 guided meditation that will lead you through the first three stages of the practice by clicking on the player below:
The “Gaining Idea” in Meditation
If you’ve been working methodically through this practice you know the score by now. Try doing all three stages for a few days. Practice them every day, if possible, and get to know them well.
Watch out for any tendency to want to skip over one stage (maybe because you don’t like it as much as the others). Each stage has its own special function, so remember to do them in the correct order.
You might want to make your meditation a little longer now, perhaps five minutes per stage, making fifteen minutes.
Shunryu Suzuki, the famous Zen teacher who founded the San Francisco Zen Center and who was a major influence on Western Buddhism, talked about “the gaining idea.” This rather awkward but incredibly useful phrase points to the problem that arises in our practice when we’re hungering for results. We want be enlightened right here and right now. Or we simply want to rush on to learn the whole practice so that we can check that off our list of things to do. The gaining idea is a major hindrance to developing skill in meditation.
As Suzuki Roshi said, “When a gaining idea arises in our practice, it is a sign that our practice is in trouble.” The reason for this is that we’ve actually incorporated our restless, grasping mind into our meditation practice. Our practice has been taken over by the mind that craves, yearns, and tries to appropriate results without following the path that leads to those results.
These attitudes of grasping, craving, and greedy hunger are the very things that cause us suffering in the first place. Because we suffer we want to meditate, because meditation is the antidote to craving and suffering. And then what happens? Our craving takes control of the meditation! It’s as if the antidote to the poison itself accidentally becomes contaminated with poison!
It’s useful if you learn to recognize this gaining idea, this notion that somehow your best interests will be served if you rush through the practice. That notion is false. Meditation is about letting go of grasping so that we can experience freedom. So start doing that now by deciding that you’ll pause where you are right now, and that you’ll explore the stages of the meditation practice and really get to know them before you move on to the next stage.
As part of that exploration come back to this section and read a bit more about the issues that can arise in this stage of the practice.
Perhaps this is a good time to remind you of your body. I’ve emphasized that it’s important to set up your posture at the start of a period of practice. Doing this provides you with better conditions for meditating.
It’s like making sure, when you’re building a fire, that your kindling is stacked just right and that your matches are dry, so that you’ll end up with a good blaze instead of a pile of smoldering wood and a bad temper.
But when you take your attention away from your posture in order to be more aware of your breath, you’ll often find that your posture starts to drift. You might find that some parts of your body start to sag, while others become tense. And these changes lead to mental and emotional changes.
The tension in your shoulders might be related to some anger you’ve started to experience. The sagging in your spine might be related to a feeling of despair that’s crept in. If you relax your shoulders, the anger will start to disappear again. If you straighten your spine, you’ll start to feel more confident again.
As you become more proficient at meditation, you’ll learn that you can periodically take your attention away from your breath for a split second in order to check your posture and make minor corrections. You’ll get so good at doing this that you’ll be able to effectively keep a continuous awareness of your breath.
Remember learning to drive? You probably found that at first you’d take your attention off the road to change gears and when you took your attention back to the road (several long seconds later) you’d find that you’d drifted off towards one side or that a red traffic light had mysteriously appeared from nowhere. Later, you’ll have found that you were able to change gears without significantly taking your awareness from what was going on around you.
The same thing happens in meditation – we learn to deal with the seeming complexity of managing our posture and what we’re doing with the focus of our attention – elegantly and even effortlessly. A good way to start practicing this skill of monitoring your posture without disrupting your practice is to check and correct your posture in between stages.
You might want to do this every time you move from one stage to another. Later, you’ll find that you can integrate monitoring your posture into your practice in the way that I’ve described.
While stage one of this meditation practice helps to develop more calm (by emphasizing the qualities of the out breath), and stage two helps to develop more energy and awareness (by emphasizing the qualities of the in breath), the third stage emphasizes both the in breath and the out breath equally. This helps us to blend the calm relaxation of the first stage with the energized awareness of the second stage.
In our meditation practice we are ideally developing a sense of energetic calm awareness, or a calmly energized awareness. While doing stage three you can be aware of the constant oscillation between the calming out breath and the energizing in breath, and allow the qualities of the out breath and of the in breath to permeate each other.
Modifying an analogy the Buddha himself used, you can think about making dough. When you’re making dough, what you’re doing is taking two contrasting substances – a wet one and a dry one – and combining them together in a perfectly balanced blend.
If you have too much water, then you’ll have a sticky mess, while if you have too much flour, you’ll have a dry, cracked ball.
Get the proportions just right, and you’ll have dough that is perfectly pliable and workable. (The Buddha’s analogy involved a “bathman or bathman’s apprentice) blending soap powder and water — presumably the Buddha was more familiar from his earlier life with bathing in luxury spas than he was with baking).
Just as the right balance of flour and water (or soap-powder and water) produces a pliable mixture that can be used appropriately, this stage of the mindfulness of breathing meditation practice helps us to develop pliability of mind; to get our minds into a calm and energetic state where we can work to develop a much greater degree of concentration.
If the first two stages have gone really well, letting go of the numbers can allow us to develop a deeper and more balanced concentration. However, if we haven’t managed to develop enough calmness in the first two stages, then it’s easy to get lost in the third stage.
This often happens because the counting has been acting as an anchor for our awareness: it stops us from drifting too far away from the breath. So if we let go of the counting we can often float off into distraction.
One way to retain an anchor while letting go of the numbers is to use a physical sensation in the body as an anchor. I sometimes use the physical sensations in my hands in the same way as I use the numbers.
Sometimes at the end of every out-breath I take my awareness to my hands in order to keep me grounded. I use the sensations in my hands much as I’d use the numbers.
The physical anchor is a more refined anchor than the counting because it’s non-verbal — it cuts down on the amount of thinking, so that your mind can develop a deeper level of stillness.
Other times I maintain awareness of my hands throughout the cycle of each in-breath and out-breath. When I breathe in there’s a sensation of rising in the body and so I have a general sense of the gap between the hands and the breath widening. In each out-breath there’s a feeling that the body is sinking, and so I get a sense of the connection between the hands and the breath narrowing. So I notice the connection between the hands and the breath, and this helps keep the mind from wandering off.
Partly I think this works because it makes the practice more interesting. But partly I think it’s something to do with introducing a “stretch” into the practice. What I mean is that I’ve noticed that when my mind stretches to accommodate two separate sensations it seems to calm down very quickly. I can’t explain this, but I offer it as a tool that might be useful.
Other “stretches” involve being aware of the space outside my body while focusing on some inner sensation (like the breath), and being aware of sounds outside of myself while following some inner sensation.
You might want to play around with this idea of creating a stretch in your awareness and see what happens. Just notice two very different and geographically separate sensations, and pay attention to both simultaneously. And notice what the result is.
We talk about “trains of thought.” You can think of these as being like real locomotive trains that pull into a busy station and then go rattling off. Most of them don’t go anywhere that we particularly want to go (most of them are to do with worrying, getting angry, running ourselves down, etc). But our mind is like a little kid that’s very restless and curious, and keeps going through the open doors into the carriages.
Before we know it we’re miles away from where we wanted to be (in dangerous territory, often!), and it takes us forever to get home.
By learning meditation you can learn just to watch the trains pulling up and pulling away, being aware of them and choosing not to get into them.
Are there any trains we want to get into? Yes. Some thoughts can be useful, if they are thoughts that guide us toward our immediate experience. For example, we can say to ourselves things like “Staying in the moment … there’s just this moment.” Thoughts like that take us deeper into our meditation.
One difference between useful thought trains and those that take us into distractions, is that when we’re reflecting (as opposed to being distracted), we know what we’re thinking and why, and what effect those thoughts are having). By contrast distracted thoughts are like dreams — we don’t know we’re in them until we “wake up.”
But it can take a while to recognize which thoughts are useful and at first it’s not a bad idea simply to treat all thoughts as distractions and to let them all depart from the station of the mind while you “just sit” on the platform.
There’s another way that the third stage of the mindfulness of breathing meditation, in which we drop the counting of the first two stages and simply follow the breath flowing in and out, is a progression from those two stages.
The progression consists in sensing the continuity of the breathing process, through having an unbroken awareness of the breathing rather than in having an awareness of individual breaths.
When we’re counting out-breaths (as in the first stage of the meditation practice) or counting in-breaths (as in the second stage) there’s an inevitable tendency to experience the process of the breathing as being chopped into bits. There’s an in-breath. Then an out-breath. Then another in-breath. Then another out-breath. We may acknowledge pauses between the in and out phases, so that we mentally chop the breathing into four parts: in / pause / out / pause.
Now actually the breathing process isn’t quite like that. It’s not really divided into discrete parts. When you watch the breathing closely in meditation you’ll see that the in-breath shades into a feeling of fullness, which then shades into the release of the out-breath. Then the increasing sense of emptiness at the end of the exhalation shades into the beginning of the next in-breath. There are no distinct beginnings or ends. There’s just one continuous process that changes its character over time. It’s much like looking at a rainbow. There are different colors, but when you look at where one color shades into another you’ll see there are no distinct transitions.
We’re practicing mindfulness of breathing, not mindfulness of breaths.
When we experience the breath as chopped up then there’s a tendency for our awareness itself to become discontinuous. We actively experience the in-breath, then the mind goes a bit floppy for a moment, then we pay attention to the out-breath, then the mind goes a bit squidgy again. Somewhere during the times when the mind is taking a little vacation from vividly noticing the breath it decides instead to get absorbed in some thought or fantasy, and we don’t have the mental sharpness to stop it from going on a little (or perhaps a long) wander.
When we get to the end of the second stage and stop counting we have the opportunity to experience the wholeness of the breathing rather than the chopped-up-ness of in-out-in-out. And so our awareness itself becomes more continuous. We’re less likely to get distracted. The mind becomes more attuned to the subtler sensations where the breath is changing from an inhalation to an exhalation, and vice versa. And we develop a very pleasant sense that we have a continuous thread of awareness running through our experience.
So practically, what this means is that we follow the sensations of the breath as it flows in, noticing the sensations of movement becoming subtler as the sensations of fullness are becoming stronger, noticing the “cresting” of the inhaling as it releases from fullness into the emptying of exhaling, noticing the sensations of exhaling becoming stronger as the body moves faster and as the exhaling happens more slowly, bottoming out into an increasing sense of emptiness, until the emptiness gives way to a sense of filling. And so on, and so on. It’s actually hard to put this in writing because for the sake of clarity in writing I have to use commas and periods, which suggests a succession of discrete experiences rather than an ever-evolving transition within one single experience, which is the process of breathing.
Another approach would be, next time you’re following the breathing (and maybe that’s right now) seeing if you can notice any absolute boundaries and discontinuities within the process of the breathing. I think you’ll find there are none, and that as your sense of the breathing becomes more continuous, so too does your sense of the continuity of your mindfulness.
The great hypnotherapist, Milton Erickson, told a story about how one day, when he was a boy, a riderless horse wandered into the farmyard outside his home. Milton had never seen this horse before, and had no idea where it lived, but very soon he had the horse back where it belonged. How did he do this?
Well, he sat on the horse’s back, got it to start walking, and then every time they came to a turn in the road, he paid attention to the almost imperceptible movements of the horse’s body that told him where it wanted to go. And once young Milton had sensed in which direction the horse wanted to head in, he encouraged it to do so. It turned out that the horse knew its own way home, and all Milton had to do was give it a little gentle guidance — or encouragement to trust its own instincts.
It’s similar with our breathing. I’ve said that in the mindfulness of breathing practice we’re not controlling our breath. On the other hand I’ve also suggested that you can use deep breathing, or breathing into the belly, or breathing into the upper chest, etc., as ways of altering your state of mind. This might sound contradictory, but it’s not really. When we change the pattern of our breathing, we don’t have to exert any control. We can gently guide the breath without controlling it, as Milton did.
Had Milton tried to tell the horse where to go, he’d never have got it home. Horses, after all, are trained to follow orders. Instead he used a more subtle technique of being aware of where the horse wanted to go, and then reinforced that desire with some gentle guidance. The horse soon got the idea.
We all are riders of horses, in a way. Our breathing is generally under the control of subconscious processes, and it has to be said that our subconscious, by and large, does a pretty good job of keeping breathing. The subconscious rarely fails to carry out its tasks, which is more than can be said for our conscious minds (how often do we go upstairs to get something and then forget by the time we get there what it was we wanted?). So let your subconscious do what it’s good at.
When you want to change your breathing, say by breathing into your belly more deeply, then all you really have to do is to take your awareness into your belly to give your subconscious a gentle hint, and then let it do the work. In this way, we gently guide our breath rather than control it.
What’s Next?
The fourth stage of this meditation practice helps us to have greater focused attention. You can learn about that here.
You can also learn more about this meditation practice in my book, Wildmind: A Step-by-Step Guide to Meditation.
18 Comments. Leave new
Yes¡¡¡I’ve recognized this gaining idea in my practice, because I’ve suffered so much, that I wanted results inmediately, I had a vague idea that this craving wasn’t good, and now I confirm that. Thanks.¡¡
what about focusing on the sensation of air moving through the nostrils while your on the in breath? Would that be a good anchor?
I find that works, but only if I keep my attention on the nostrils and some other very specific part of the breath, such as the movement in a very particular part of the abdomen. Otherwise what I get is the sense that my awareness is on one rather generalized experience of the breath rather than “stretched” between two different sensations. The “stretch” seems to create the conditions for a sense of spaciousness to arise, and in that spaciousness exists stillness.
If i find it hard to settle in this stage, I often make a humming noise whilst exhaling, just for 1 or 2 exhales; this brings my focus back to the breathing. But also acts as a ‘stretch’ because I’m concentrating on the sensation of breathe as one thing, and the sound as another.
Sounds are a good way of creating a “stretch” and thus bringing in a sense of spaciousness. You can also just listen to ambient sound while keeping the breath at the center of your awareness, or even be aware of the space in which the sounds exist, so that you have a sense of your consciousness being really expansive and open. All these things help bring stillness quite quickly.
I have always been a vivid dreamer, but sadly my entire life has been plagued with horrendously frightening dreams which then lead to hallucinatory sleepwalking and injury. Also, I rarely feel like I have slept at all.
After a few nights of practicing meditation, I have experienced positive and interesting dreams with no sleepwalking. Last night I was blasted into space by the americans from an air force base with a particularly architecturally fantastic mirrored building, where there was a Blackbird plane on display (this plane beat everything there was at top trumps). A friend I haven’t even thought about since school (15 years ago) was along for the ride, I think we were humanity’s last chance. Unsure how it ended but for once I was not being attacked by monsters and waking up screaming/sweating.
So, just to say thanks, I’ve not even touched the surface of the information on this site, and already there has been a major change which, if permanent, will indeed change my life in a big way.
Thanks for making this information publically available. Keep up the good work.
I also find that using what you call a ‘stretch’ causes the mind to become calm quite quickly. My practice involved feeling the breath in my lungs, trying to ‘feel’ my entire body, without the thought of sight, and also to listen for the sound of silence in the room. I know this doesn’t sound logical but there is a presence of silence that you can tune into doing all three seems to force the mind to surrender. Now my question is what happens after you mind becomes quiet? I seem to lose focus shortly after this point…
Hi Mark,
Essentially there are three factors to be worked with — calmness, contentment, and concentration. If you’re losing your focus it would seem you’re doing fine with the calmness but not so well with the concentration (you didn’t say anything that indicates what’s going on with contentment). explaining how to work with developing greater concentration could amount to a complete course in meditation, but a few quick pointers could include:
I hope this is of some help.
I appreciate the guidance to graduate to watching the seamless nature of the breath sensations. From my experience and that of others (from 5 to 90+ years) with whom I shared different modes of ‘Focusing on breathing’, counting the breaths is easier for beginners. They are able to develop some awareness starting from zero awareness. Gradually they can advance to finer modes as explained in the above article.
For absolute beginners,it is very useful to develop periodic though crude awareness of breaths,throughout the day from the time one wakes up till again lying down in bed to sleep.
I have been teaching different modes suited to different activities of the day as explained in this brochure in my web site
https://countingbreaths.com/brochure-us.pdf to absolute beginners from age 5 to 90+ years.
As can be seen from the testimonials on page 3 and 4 of the above brochure and more in my web site http://www.countingbreaths.com, the benefits derived even from these crude modes practiced casually when lying in bed and waiting for sleep, on waking up so on, are phenomenal.
Not every one is interested in deep meditation or enlightenment. Most are happy to relieve their stress by doing a little without allotting time for its practice and enjoying a little benefit. Let us develop different modes and encourage all levels of practitioners. Some of the beginners will advance to higher levels but most are happy with sound sleep, which is guaranteed by these simple modes.
maybe you’d like to correct the typo ‘letting got’ to ‘letting go’. It wouldn’t matter usually but letting go is kind of key.
cheers.
Duly noted and corrected. Thanks.
Hi
I have been practising „mindfulness” meditation and I am not quite sure how to deal with emerging thoughts.
I have a problem.
When doing the exercise, I focus on the breath. When I notice that I have other thoughts,
I gently push them away and continue focusing on the breath.
However, I do not pay extra attention to observe my mind looking for emerging thoughts.
I focus on the breath only, and notice these thoughts automatically.
Due to the fact that I only focus on the breath, I am unable to notice some thoughts,
which are too faint or short or semi-conscious.
I have been meditating for quite a long time, and I have read several sources.
They all tell you to focus only on the object of meditation (breath, mantra,…).
They take granted that you will notice thoughts automatically(without looking for them).
However, I have found that if I do the exercise this way, 2 things happen:
1, I am less aware of my thoughts, and often only notice them when my attention has already drifted of completely
(this happens quite often).
2, I also have some faint semi-conscious thoughts (these are barely above my perceptual threshold,
therefore I am unable to detect them, unless I pay extra attention to looking for them in my mind).
Can you give me some suggestions.
Is it all right, if I focus on the breath only, and fail notice faint or semi-conscious thoughts
and drift off for longer periods during meditation.
Or should I try to pay extra attention: not only observe the breath, but observe the mind for any emerging thought?
Thank you for answering
Hi again, Galadriel.
I wouldn’t suggest “pushing thoughts away,” and would suggest you think more in terms of allowing thoughts to pass through, and letting go of them when you find you’ve become caught up in them.
Yes, that’s fine. You don’t need to pay any attention to them. Just follow the breath.
Well, that’s when you have to become aware of your thinking, and to consciously let go of the thoughts, coming gently back to the breath.
It’s fine simply to observe the breath, but once you’ve gained a higher degree of mental stillness it’s possible to notice thoughts as they begin to arise, and when this happens you can choose to let the thoughts go without ever getting caught up in them. I don’t think many people get to that point very often, but it’s worth working at this when you sense that the mind is becoming stiller. Otherwise, just keep following the breath and letting go of thoughts once you realize you’ve become lost in them.
Hi
I am doing stage 1 – 30 times stage 2 -30 times, by that time, my breath become less obvious and can’t feel the in and out. I can see some people faces ( old, ugly, scary can’t explain) which I never met them in my life. kind of pictures coming. why it happens?. should I let it go and keep calm. I think it distracting the meditation
Hi. The fact that your breath is becoming less obvious is a very good sign, signaling that you’re developing a state of calmness and focus. What you need to do at this point is to shift your attention either to pleasant sensations of energy (piti) that you sense in the body, or to any happiness (sukha) that has arisen. It’s probably because you’re not doing that that these images are appearing to you. They’re technically a kind of samapatti, where the mind, not having become used to stillness and a consequent lack of stimulation, provides its own stimuli — usually of a slightly bizarre or unpleasant form.
I briefly tried to practise meditation a few years ago and during that time my concentration would wander – I’d catch myself at a count of fifteen or more and realise I’d ‘zoned out’. I started again only a couple of weeks ago and found I could get to ten and start back from one many times without distraction. Then I had a session where I mentally uttered the words ‘let go’ near the beginning of my meditation and felt everything melt away, as if being propelled in the void. I was aware but concentrating on nothing and I thought this to be real progress. Since then I seem to drift into a hypnagogic/ semi dream state (thoughts leading to thoughts – mostly abstract) and I stop counting altogether. I lose awareness as this seems to be a wholly passive state. It is the same as when falling asleep and my mind just wanders off. Am I mentally fatigued? What can I do to pull myself back? I focus on my breathing, the rising and falling of my abdomen but it’s a struggle as of late. Also, it is preventing me from meditating for longer than 10 minutes or so as I feel I will end up asleep.
Hi, Alexander.
This sounds like either the hindrance of sloth and torpor, as it’s called, or perhaps a more subtle experience of what’s known as “drifting,” where the mind is caught up in thoughts.
Paying attention to the abdomen is precisely the wrong thing to be doing in these circumstances, and it may well be that main cause of what you’re experiencing. Paying attention to the abdomen is a great way of slowing the mind down and creating calmness. It’s like the brake on your car. But you don’t want to drive with the brakes on, which is what you’re doing.
Instead, try paying attention to the breathing higher in the body — up in the upper chest and head. You should find that more stimulating.
Your “letting go” experience sounds pleasant. It’s good to let the mind rest from time to time…
Thank you for you prompt reply. I’ve read up a little on the hindrance of sloth and torpor and I think you have correctly diagnosed the issue. It seems, after reading a few articles, that I may have only a minor problem to over-come and the first steps towards this have been traversed. I will resume practise tomorrow and implement your suggestions. Best wishes.
Another thing you should watch out for if your posture. And tendency toward slumping, and to closing the chest, will promote sloth and torpor. It’s very hard to diagnose this yourself, so if you want to take pictures of yourself, from the side, while meditating, feel free to send them to me. One technique that works well is to set up a videocamera, and to take stills from various points in the meditation. That gives you time to forget that you’re on camera, and so you won’t be “on your best behavior.”
Posture isn’t normally a problem for me, however, I’ve had a back problem recently and have had to resort to using a wall for support. While not slumping in this position it does take away a significant amount of effort. I was at the doctor’s yesterday and have been given medications but today the pain is greatly worsened ruling out any meditation at all. This is a shame as my Zen meditation pillow arrived today but for now I will have to just practise relaxation whilst lying on my back. I will report back once my back is improved and let you know if the improvement in posture sees an improvement in mental energy and focus during meditation. Thanks.
After about 4 months of meditation, the strangest experiences have been occurring when I meditate and sleep. I see bright lights (sometimes just a single, central light) that can be so bright it’s as if I’m meditating with a commercial spot-light on me. (Yes, it is that bright.) No longer do I see “blackness” when I close my eyes or fall asleep. Sometimes I “burn-up” with body heat. Also, my dreams, while pleasant, have turned bizarre. In one dream everything was chromey-metallic and even my voice sounded metallic. (In that dream, I told myself, “Where am I? I don’t think I want to be here.” And then I awoke.) Last night, I seemed to have been in the future with buildings, towns, even energy sources that are nothing like we have today. The experiences are positive, and I am gaining an immense sense of how we are connected and the world cycles/persists/continues. But, are my meditation “lights” and dream experiences typical?? Thanks.
Hi, John.
Meditation experiences are so varied that almost everything that can happen does happen. Odd dreams are quite common, especially when beginning meditation or when doing more intensive meditation on retreat. (One retreat my dreams were in neon outlines and in cartoon form, and I used to have lots of dreams of looking into the sky and seeing huge planets hovering above the earth. Sometimes there have been Buddhas and bodhisattvas in my dreams).
I often have the perception of light during meditation, although not while I’m asleep. This is described in Buddhist texts as well. The light itself can be an object of meditation, and in fact I’d encourage you to simply be aware of the light.
As long as you feel these things are positive, then that’s fine. If there’s anything at all that seems worrisome, to you or to others who know you, then please let me know.
Bodhipaksa, my meditation has been going fairly well since I last commented but I am having some difficulty with my awareness. Following on from your earlier suggestions I have chosen to take my awareness away from the abdomen and into the head (I have opted for the third eye region). I have no problem fixing my attention on that spot as I inhale up through my nose and find it quite easy to feel/visualise the flow from my nostrils into this area. It is on the exhale I find that I am, after a few minutes, losing focus of this area. There is no real sensation from the exhale that I can attribute to the third eye area and find my mind wanders to minor discomforts (back, sinuses, jaw) or simply drifts. Should I be following the breath whilst being aware of the third eye or should I fixate my awareness on the third eye and allow the breath to pass through it?
Hi, Alexander.
I’d actually meant for you to pay attention to the physical sensations of the breathing that arise in the head. I’m curious why you chose the “third eye.” I put the term in quotes because it’s not part of my vocabulary for either practice or teaching. It’s not a part of the body I routinely pay attention to. Having said that, I’m struck by the fact that I can feel sensations connected with the breathing just about everywhere in the body: less so in the head, although perhaps that’s just because I haven’t been looking. It’s possible that if you relax more into your awareness of the breathing, you’ll start to notice sensations there, but I’d suggest simply paying attention to the breathing itself.
I was drawn to the third eye as I used to do a lot of basic chakra meditations and thought it may be beneficial but I don’t think it is (definitely not at this stage). I’m now doing as you said and just paying attention to the breath without forcing too much to fixate on any one area (as it seems either tension or distraction results) and the results are positive. I’ve been using all the resources on your wonderful site and it is all a great help to my practise – despite this being in the comments for stage 3 I am only just starting to add a little of stage 2 to my routine so will keep at it the way I currently am for a month or two more before seeing what stage 3 involves. Many thanks.
That sounds like a good move. Please do let me know how you get on.
Is it just me, or time is very relative when your doing this exercise? I put an alarm on my cell phone for several minutes and they passed in a matter of seconds. I am very interested on your opinion about this matter. Thank you!
Well, as they say, time flies when you’re enjoying yourself. When meditation’s a struggle, time can seem to crawl by, so it’s a good sign that you felt that time was passing quickly.
Hello Bodhipaksa,
After a period of time of doing stages 1 and 2, I’ve now progressed in the last few days, to stage 3. It has typically taken a fair bit of discipline to meditate for even 30 minutes up to this point…due to body discomfort, restlessness etc. Today I had what felt like a breakthrough experience. I stuck with the counting stages for at least 10 minutes each…and even went back to them after starting stage 3, when I found that I wasn’t anchored firmly enough…then finally achieved enough calmness to feel ready for Stage 3. Fairly soon after beginning stage 3, I began to notice that my hands felt very large, accompanied by a deepening, drifty feeling, but also quite focused…there was a sense of a choice to just let go and let this happen, and that if I did, I would go deeper. I just keep focusing on my breath…this focus felt more and more pleasant and effortless. I had a physical sensation of almost travelling deeper inside myself and becoming very ‘small’ within my physical body which felt more and more like just a ‘field’ of some kind, kind of like a bubble around me. I almost felt like my awareness (basically ‘I’) was like a nucleus in a large spacious cell, and that my body was like the cell membrane with just sort of a fuzzy sensation. It wasn’t that I didn’t have thoughts arising, but I had no difficulty letting them go…the focusing and breathing was much more appealing to me. When my physical sensations and mental processes began to pull me out of this state, I opened my eyes and 50 minutes had passed without so much as a change in position (beyond correcting my posture a bit)…unheard of for me prior to this point. It felt so rewarding! As I’m doing more reading and exploration, I’m hearing terms like ‘access concentration’ and ‘jhanas’…I know very little about these at this point, but am wondering if the experiences I’m describing might possibly fall into either of these categories. Your thoughts would be appreciated. Thank you :)
Sounds like first jhana to me. Good!
Wow! That feels good :) I had been feeling somewhat discouraged for the past week…just seemed like my meditations weren’t feeling very satisfying…felt a fair bit of resistance…so I was questioning myself a fair bit, as has been my lifelong tendency. So this was a good wake-up call to stick with things, and just accept what comes without judgment…without labeling things as ‘good’ or ‘bad’. Acceptance seems to be the general theme these days…it seems to be the antidote to struggling. :) Thank you so much for your reply!
Ah, yes. It’s very important to accept the ups and downs of practice. That applies to the “ups” as well. It’s important not to get elated when we think things are going well.
Thank you…I’ll definitely keep that in mind. :)
I am practicing meditation for few years (watching thoughts and feelings). Earlier I was so anxious I need to be “inside” the thoughts. Even if I am physically in a meeting and I am seeing the people who are talking, but I won’t hear theam. Now I moved out of that mode. I am able to focus on. Sometime my body shakes during meditation. Even my body bend forward during meditation. I am getting thess symptoms for some time. But I am not sure whehter I am progressing well. Please let me know or suggest for my progress.
Hi, Radhakrishnan.
It’s very hard to know what’s happening without talking to you more extensively. From what you say you’re able to be less caught up in your anxious thoughts, and more able to be present. That all sounds good. I wouldn’t be concerned about the shaking — things like this are quite common and are often the sign that the meditation practice is working. It sounds like it may be a form of prīti (pīti in Pāli).
Hi
Can one meditate lying down on one’s back? Is it less fruitful than the other method?
Thanks
Hi, Mukta.
This article might answer your questions about lying down to meditate.
All the best,
Bodhipaksa
Hello Bodhipaksa,
Many thanks for the wonderful work you’re doing, the site is very helpful and clear.
I’ve been practising zazen for a year now, and within the last two months have had a recurrent experience during meditation. These involve being completely absorbed by an intense yellow vibrating light, qualitatively ecstatic or electric. The light swirls, and as the experience progresses, so does the intensity of the swirling. The most powerful of these I had today, in which the vibrating light was roaring. Time and physicality were gone. It was indescribable and quite shocking.
The experience is both unpleasant and pleasant. Very intense. Once I return to my body I find that my heart rate is soaring. The reason I write is that in a way the experience, despite being extraordinary, is worrisome. I haven’t any formal guidance nor have I sought a teacher. Now that my practise has reached this point I feel it necessary. I think I may start a course on here. What would you advise at this point?
Thank you
Hi, Pho.
Thanks for your kind comments about the site and about the work we’re doing.
I’m familiar with the kind of experience you describe. It’s not a helpful state, but nothing to be worried about. If it’s what I think it is, it’s a particular kind of samapatti that arises when the mind is becoming calmer and more concentrated, but where the meditator hasn’t yet become fully grounded in their present-moment experience of the body and mind. I see it as the result of mild sensory deprivation. The mind, lacking its normal input and lacking its normal level of internal activity, starts generating these mildly hallucinatory effects. Often they are swirling lights, although sometimes they involve distorted perceptions of the body.
I’d have thought this kind of thing was more common in focused meditation compared to zazen, which is much more of an open-focused state where there is a broad range of perceptions, giving the mind much more to pay attention to. So I’m going to guess that in your zazen you’re tending to focus quite narrowly on the breath, or some other sensation. If I’m wrong, please forgive me and put me straight…
What I’d advise you do is to pay much more attention to the details of your physical experience, including sensations from all over the body, and sensations arising from the outside world, and not just the breathing. Even when you’re paying attention to the breathing, do it in a very full-on way, noticing a wide range of sensations from the front of the body, the sides, the back, the surface, the depths, the belly, the chest, the throat and head…
And if the swirling lights re-appear, just note that that’s happening, but redirect your attention to your actual physical experience.
People who are prone to this kind of samapatti are also prone — and this is good news! — to having clear and vivid nimittas arising in meditation. A nimitta is a “sign” — often arising as an image — which is very clear and stable. They emerge as they mind is settling down, and if paid attention to in a non-grasping way, they’ll lead you into a much deeper level of calmness and concentration. In this case, the mind is finding you a subtler object to focus upon. So watch out for the arising of a similar experience to your swirling lights, but one that is lucidly clear and (probably) very still and stable.
As for courses, I’m currently doing most of my teaching on Skype, and some of those courses are at a time suitable for people in the UK (I’m assuming that’s where you are, based on your IP address). But I’m probably not starting any new courses until the fall, although in just over a month, when my current courses end, I’ll probably keep meeting with people on Skype in a more informal way, where we sit together and then discuss what’s going on in our practice. You’d be welcome to join in with one of those. Alternatively, Sunada is running our web-based courses, and if you like I could pass your email address on to her and she will make contact.
All the best,
Bodhipaksa
Hello Bodhipaksa,
Thanks for the prompt, detailed and informative response. Greatly appreciated.
Haha ahh you’ve described my practice perfectly. I used the term Zazen carelessly and may have misunderstood its true meaning. I started meditation in this style; A choice less awareness in which I’d pay attention to the breathing, though not exclusively to it, allowing my attention to wander from feeling to thought for instance, then back to the breathing as an anchor. From what I’ve understood this more resembles the open awareness of Zazen you’ve described. I practised in this manner for what may have been the first two months.
Since then I’ve adapted a method on this site. I currently spend 5 minutes counting after the exhalation. Five minutes counting before the inhalation. Then I drop the counting and spend five minutes in general awareness of the breath; The rising and falling of the stomach and other associated sensations. Then 10 minutes following solely the sensations of the breath around the nostrils! Then 5 minutes of loving kindness. As you predicted, my meditation is mostly on a single object!
How could I structure my session on this basis? I’d like to balance open awareness with focused awareness for their associated benefits. Especially after reading an article on here about open awareness having an improvement on creative, divergent thinking! Maybe replace 10 minutes of my session with the open awareness I described (to ensure that I’ve understood)?
Another query relating to this is how to use meditation in relation to tasks that necessitate thinking. I’m a university student and should currently be doing an essay. How would one use what they’ve learnt in meditation to think more effectively? Apologies for the vague question, I’m finding it difficult to verbalise the issue.
Ah I’m glad the opportunity may arise with the nimita for a deepening of concentration and calmness!
If you could pass my email on to Sunada that would be great, I think a web based approach would be better suited for me at the moment.
Thanks a lot!
I think what you’re doing is fine, on the whole. In other words the way you’re structuring your meditation is perfectly appropriate.
I suspect (again this is just my best guess) that the problem is just that you’re allowing yourself to be seduced by the swirling lights, and the more you pay attention to them, the more intense that experience becomes. So as you’re practicing within the structure you’re using, just don’t pay any significant attention to the lights. Acknowledge that it’s happening, but see it as a distraction just as you would with passing thoughts, and keep bringing your focus back onto the breathing or lovingkindness. Becoming absorbed in the lights will stop you going deeper into your meditation practice. It’s probably a question of fine-tuning your attention.
But also try to have as full an awareness of the breathing as you can. As I like to say, “Mara makes work for idle minds.” In other words, if you don’t give your mind plenty to do in terms of paying attention to the breathing, it’ll find plenty to do, whether that’s excessive thinking or the kind of experience you’ve been having.
It wouldn’t surprise me if you had nimittas starting to arise before long, and if you ended up in jhana soon thereafter. But do let me know how you get on.
I’ll certainly pass your email address on to Sunada.
All the best,
Bodhipaksa
I’ve been reading widely about meditation, and always come back to Wildmind because it’s so straightforward and clear. So thank you for that!
But I’ve become very confused about what to do about thoughts in meditation. I have a very analytical mind and as soon as I start observing thoughts I go off into immense detail about how useful they are, how emotionally charged, what I should be doing with them etc. etc. – and quickly find I’ve left my breathing far behind, not just with the thought train but with operating the whole railway network!
Early on in my meditation experience (I’ve been meditating daily for about eighteen months now) I used to feel a thought bubbling up and just not go there, keeping focused on the breath. I grew concerned because I thought suppressing thoughts was unhealthy. Now I find I’m alert for thoughts all the time; I’m breathing happily and then suddenly ‘hey, no thoughts! I wonder when the next one will come along?’
I’m really not sure where to go with this. Any advice would be really, really welcome!
With many thanks for your wonderful site,
Helen
Hi, Helen.
Just keep letting go of your thoughts. When you get caught up in them, just gently return to the breathing. You’re not “supressing” thoughts by doing this; you’re simply not putting energy into them. The thoughts vanish on their own. Suppression, in standard Buddhist terminology, is something completely different — it’s forcing thoughts out of your mind by forcing your attention onto an object like the breathing. It’s regarded as a last resort. Some Vipassana people sometimes talk about doing anything in meditation as “suppression” but this is a misuse of the term.
When you get a thought like ‘hey, no thoughts! I wonder when the next one will come along?’ then just do the same thing. Let the thought pass through. It’s no different. It sounds like you’re regarding this kind of thought as being a big deal, or perhaps as some kind of failure. It’s neither. It’s just a thought. It seems you may be clinging to the idea of not having any thoughts at all, and since it’s unreasonable to assume that your thoughts will cease (unless you go very deep indeed into meditation) it would be more helpful to appreciate the calm that is there, while it’s there. Try smiling when you notice that kind of thought. And see if you can relax your attitude a little. Find a spirit of playfulness and appreciation and love.
Greetings,
I am an infant when it comes to meditation but have been experiencing some very unusual sensations. Today as I meditated I began being pulled to the left. I allowed the steady movement and put up no resistance. It was pretty cool but it has left me wondering if it means anything. I eventually was leaning to my left until I felt the pulling subside. I also feel waves as if I am in the ocean. Can you please shed some light on what this all means??? If it means anything at all :-)
Thank You!
These kinds of experiences (samapattis) are fairly common in relative beginners, and they tend to arise when the mind is starting to settle down. They’re not of any significance in themselves, and in fact becoming interested in them will prevent you from going deeper in meditation. They seem very similar to the kind of thing people experience under sensory deprivation, and I think of them as mild hallucinations that arise because we’re not used to the mind being calm. So I’d suggest not playing around with them and instead just keep returning to the meditation practice.
You may later find that a different quality of experience emerges. These experiences (nimittas) are more related to the meditation practice itself, have an esthetic quality to them, and will help you get more concentrated if you pay attention to them. In my experience people who are prone to samapattis are also prone to nimittas.
I meditate everyday in the morning for 1.5 hrs.
Its peaceful. Its magical.
But after the meditation I get an immense urge to lie down and fall asleep.
I dont feel tired.
Sleep just comes to me.
Is it normal? I have been meditating for the last one month.
Sometimes even in the evening I meditate for an hour.
When I open my eyes, everything is blissful.
But it always ends in sleep.
Please help.
Thanks
What are you doing in your meditation practice, Kumar? What are you paying attention to? How are you sitting?
Strange though it may seem I found this advice very challenging. My life is difficult at the moment and the thought of relaxing and finding a spirit of playfulness honestly seemed so impossible I found it deeply distressing – it’s what I want more than anything (I am by nature a playful, creative person) but it felt so far away. That rang big alarm bells for me as someone who struggles with depression and anxiety. (And I admit I may have yelled at the screen, somewhat unreasonably!)
To cut a long story short, your kind and innocuous comment showed me just how bad things have become, and I’ve been able to work on it.
I’ve stripped the complications out of my meditation practice and I’m just enjoying the calm when it happens and letting the thoughts drift off and do their own thing without troubling me. I imagine enclosing them in a little bubble and then I softly blow them away with a little wave. It’s so, so much better than all that analysis!
It sounds so simple to advise someone to be more playful, but it can be both challenging and very, very important. Thank you.
Good morning! I wanted to share some of what I experienced this morning. I feel as though I have finally had the experience in stage three that I have been reaching for. I have not allowed myself to move forward to stage 4 until progress has been made, and it’s been a disappointing couple of weeks. Today, rather than focusing on my hands as an anchor, I searched for my heartbeat in my chest. Once I found it’s rhythm, it sort of took over. My whole body seemed to sway slightly with my pulse and I could feel it through my whole awareness. My breathing became more natural, and my usual internal chatter was gone. I felt myself slip into a sort of trance state and my conciousness felt like it was floating above my body. I began to see and feel these warm ripples of light moving upward across what seemed to be my field of vision, but maybe it was more my field of awareness. They weren’t a focus or a distraction, they were just there. I had a couple of random thoughts sort of flit though my mind, but it was as if I was in a room with an echo and those thoughts came from somewhere else in the room. Then, the lights faded away, and my mind reattached to my body little by little. I am trying not to be carried away by my positive feelings about what happened, because then I will be trying too hard to make it happen again. What is this experience? Is it still categorized as mindfulness meditation? The focus on my breath is what got me there, but I wasn’t even really aware of my breathing toward the end. The after effects are quite lovely as well. I feel so relaxed and have a sort of soft tingly feeling throughout. With years of practice, is this something that people can have happen every time? Thank you for any insight on this.
Hi, Meghan.
Sorry for the delayed reply, but in the last few days since you’ve posted I’ve had a family outing, an illness, and a day of intense work.
The experience you describe sounds like an access concentration state that’s gotten a bit unbalanced. There are a couple of different kinds of “unusual” phenomena that can appear in access concentration — which is where the hindrances are starting to calm down and the jhana factors (roughly put, calmness, joy, energy, concentration) are beginning to emerge. One type is a bit “trippy” and a bit ungrounded, and that’s what your experience sounds like — in particular the detachment from the body and your description of this as a “trance” state. There are positive aspects to this kind of experience, obviously (the calmness, for example) but spiritually they’re not very useful. I wouldn’t suggest trying to recreate the experience. Often people describe flowing patterns of light, etc. Sometimes there are slightly unpleasant or disturbing sensations, which you don’t seem to be describing. These kinds of experiences tend to be more common in people who haven’t been meditating for very long.
The other kind of experience (called a “nimitta”) that can arise around access to the beginning of jhana is superficially a bit similar, but more grounded. Nimittas can be images or sensations in the body, but they help us go deeper into jhana. They tend to be very stable, still, and esthetically pleasing.
People who experience the first kind tend to experience the second kind as well, so I’d suggest steering your attention so that it’s more rooted in your physical experience. Stay in touch with the body. if you notice the “trippy” stuff arising, just note it and keep on with the practice.
Sorry if this sounds like a buzz-kill! You’re definitely moving in the right direction, and you’re close to jhana. The problem is you’re taking a little detour, by the sounds of it. I stress the “by the sounds of it” because it’s always hard to interpret other people’s meditation experiences, especially when we’re not face to face.
Good morning Bodhipaksa. I just realized that in my above message, I neglected to specify that I was writing to you! My apologies, and I am very much looking forward to your response.
Ps. I’d also like to add that, surprisingly, my experience from yesterday’s meditation was closely repeated today! Although, not quite as deep, and the light pattern was different. Less regular and rhythmic. I noticed that my breathing becomes more shallow in that stage.
Good morning. Thank you for you response. I did find it helpful, and made an attempt to redirect myself this morning. I tried again to focus on my hands, and it did seem to get somewhere. I began to feel my heartbeat throughout and the gentle sort of sway that comes with it. I made an effort not to get lost in it and kept my focus on my breath. For a moment those light ripples came again but I managed to send them packing. After a few minutes, I began to “see” this light in front of me. It was this soft oval glow, like a candle flame. As strange as this may sound, it felt like the light was looking back at me. It was only there for a moment, because then the recording started wrapping up and broke my focus. I think maybe I should move on to Stage four tomorrow? I definately felt that I could have gone deeper with more time.
This whole process is getting easier now. I am no longer fighting with the need to control my breath and am having an easier time keeping my internal chatter at bay. I took a day off from meditation until I heard back, and noticed a difference in myself. I was less patient with my kids, and more tired at the end of the day. I am asking myself what I am hoping to get out of this practice. I can’t really answer that very well. I think I just want to move forward through life happier, more peaceful. And I am! I have been less caught up in the daily annoyances of life and feel an overall outpouring of happiness and love for my family.
What do you think of the little light that was with me today? I definately was more grounded and felt like I was scratching at the doorway of something… Am I ready for stage 4? I suppose I should read it now. Thank you in advance for your response and guidance. Have a happy day.
Hi, Meghan.
That soft glow looking back at you sounds much more like a nimitta. Yes, I’d definitely suggest you move on to the fourth stage. The refinement of focus in that stage may well be helpful. In the long term though you’ll probably find that you don’t really need to be dependent on “stages,” and that your meditation simply has its own internal dynamic, shaped by an awareness of what works and what doesn’t work. If the soft light, or something like it, reappears, then pay attention to the nimitta along with the breathing, and see what happens.
It’s going to be important not to “try” to make anything happen. Any kind of grasping beyond a very mild effort to stay with the practice is going to be unhelpful, and it’s useful to think more in terms of relaxing into the practice.
All the best!
Thank you! I have noticed that I have moved through the stages a little more at my own pace, loosely guided by your recording. I have been going in with no expectations, and accepting the fact that I may have an “unsuccessful” session each morning. Things seem to be progressing and I am happy about that. I think it is no coincidence that we focus on the hands while we avoid “grasping” at anything. We focus on the breath while not controlling it and focus on the hands while not reaching. So what’s next? To focus on the nimitta while not letting go of our awareness? Am I oversimplifying? Again, I am so grateful to have some guidance in this. Is this light possibly me looking at myself? This is giving the term “love and light” a more literal meaning. =)
It’s hard to say what the next stage would be for you. It’s possible to move more deeply into jhana, letting go of thinking (that’s second jhana), then becoming more absorbed in the feeling of joy (that’s third jhana), and then moving closer in to the object of focus so that even joy is left behind and there’s a deep peace (that’s fourth jhana). That’s the samatha route. It’s also possible to simply be with your experience and let go of the sense of there being an experiencer and a thing that is experienced. That’s the vipassana route (or at least that’s one vipassana route). These are not mutually exclusive routes to take, and in fact both are to be encouraged. But I’d suggest that you mainly focus on deepening your experience of samatha by developing more experience of jhana, and from time to time relax so deeply into your experience that the experiencer/experienced division falls away.
It’s kind strange something that is happening to me: whenever I sit and start focusin, it’s seems that the middle part of my chest, just below the heart (and I am sure it’s not the heart) starts pumping in a strong, powerful way. Can anyone relate to this? Thanks :D
Hi, Felipe.
One of the things that can happen in meditation is that as the mind settles we start to notice subtler sensations in the body. There are a lot of nerves in the area you’re talking about: there’s the vagus nerve running all the way down to the intestines, and also the celiac (solar) plexus. And there are of course lots of blood vessels. It’s possible that you’re picking up on some rhythmic activity connected with those nerves or vessels.
Sensations like these have no inherent value, but since they tend to be noticed when the mind is becoming more still, they can be seen as signs (“nimittas” in Sanskrit) that we’re heading in the right direction. So just notice them and recognize them as a good sign.
I would like to present my sensations of zazen meditation. I’m practicing zazen for 5 months, but during meditation I have a lot of sensations which I couldn’t explain. Very often I have really big shaking of my stomach and body, like something goes from stomach to head and another direction. That is some kind of tension which flows around my body, before 5 months, when I started, that were stronger than right now. Some times that tension like a ball gets be quiet and stays in one part of body and I could feel that tension goes to be released through sweat on top of head or in area of stomach. Sometimes I feel really big tension in stomach and my muscle goes to pinch, and once that tension explodes and I feel then like a some kind of electricity on whole body. Is that some kind of good sign that everything is ok? But I also could say that before 5 months I was totally crazy man, right now totally different person. Btw I started to use this meditation cause of social phobia. Right now sometimes I say to myself, “me and social phobia, are you crazy hehe”, im really satisfied with zazen, the meditation brings to me new life. I couldn’t imagine that when I was happy person last time, I totally don’t remember that sometimes in my life I felt this happiness than right now. That is zazen :) What I need to know: is that shaking normally?
Hi, Srdjan.
This is something you should really talk with your Zen teacher about. I don’t want to give advice that might conflict with what you’re being taught elsewhere. But this kind of shaking is a form of what’s known as priti in Sanskrit, or so I would assume. In this particular form it’s not necessarily common, but it’s quite normal.
I would like to find some Zazen teacher here in my country but here is no one, I’m practicing zazen according of advice from youtube, just breathing and getting concentration to stomach and breathing, when some though goes to my mind I just leave like that and let to pass by itself. Right now, very often, on my mind don’t come any thoughts during zazen meditation, that situation brings to me to be more relaxed and getting better concentration on breathing and watching sensations if they come. But sometimes I could say everyday I have one of sensations, that pumping like Filipe described, I get also, my stomach goes to pump himself sometimes I think that could explode :) but in that situation I feel there is pumping like a ball, and goes to up, to chest and finally in my head, and head goes to move left and right, that lasts maybe 10 seconds, after that everything is fine, my body is relaxed and prepared for another sensation. Till right now I didn’t see any lights, I didn’t experience that, but I don’t care and think to much about that sensations and also sensations which I didn’t experience, everything will be in right time. The point is how I feel right now and 5 months ago. Sometimes I wake up early at morning and see nature around me , people, animals, and take a deep breath and for first time in my life I feel happiness in my heart and butterfly in my stomach :), I have different point of view of people, everything around me. For the first time I feel love, I feel beauty of everything. With teacher or without him, zazen changed me and I could say I’m very rich man cause I met zazen, did somebody experience crying cause of happiness, right now if I could do that, I could hug the whole earth planet and say “I love you so much”
Hi, Srdjan.
I’m glad to hear that you’re a happier person.
With regard to the sensations, I’d suggest just not paying too much attention to them as long as they keep passing and don’t seem like they’re harmful. Just let them arise and pass, and notice all of this happening without judgement.
Hello,
I am able to meditate everday after my prayers for almost 30mins. during meditaion I see many colours specially green and blue and these green colours make patterns and form circle or as if its like embracing with arms aroung and forming a circle, then these colours move in a circle and form a chakra it looks like the universe in green, i enjoy this very much.I saw today in green many hands ( Palm) fingers pointing outwards and forming a circle. what are these that i am seeing and what do they mean.what do these colours mean, my eyes are becoming red is it normal. It would be great if you can guide me. I am meditating for more than 25 days now.
Hi, Pritis.
I’ll write a fuller post about this at some point, but I’ve dealt with this in the post above: “Some of the things you might experience might seem a little odd. A common example is seeing patterns of moving lights. This is a good sign, in that you are moving into a deeper state of concentration. But it’s best not to pay much attention to those lights or they will turn into a distraction and slow your progress.”
It’s the last part that’s key. These lights are of no spiritual significance, and in fact they’re just a distraction. They are a sign that you’re on the right track, but you need to pay attention to the physical sensations in your body, and not get lost in the random imagery that your mind is generating.
Excellent article!
I have an issue with meditating and am curious what you think about it. I involuntarily focus/strain my eyes (though closed) when trying to be aware of breathing. I try to relax the eye, but it always ends up paining as I automatically start concentrating and that creates stress to the eyes.
You might want to try a peripheral vision exercise I teach.
Thank you for this beautifully enlightening article. It helped me understand that I’m on the right track with my practice. Peace to all.
The only thing I disagree with you on is time speeding up during meditation… one of my favorite things about meditation is that ten minutes feels like an hour to me… it lets me remember that at twenty years old I have all the time in the world to sit back and sort my problems out and to live. Thank you for the article.
Hi Bodhipaksa,
in some previous article, you wrote following text:
“Just let them arise and pass, and notice all of this happening without judgement.”
Right now I have physical sensation in my body, rising pressure in stomach, sometimes shaking, right now I always notice that and let that sensations to pass, but you wrote that “WITHOUT JUDGEMENT”. What you did exactly mean? What is actually judgement? I read about zazen meditation that to allow all thoughts to be shown and mention during meditation. What in situation if that thoughts is actually judgement, and what will be if you judge. Could zazen goes to wrong direction?
Maybe that is my prejudice, cause I couldnt believe that im going to happiness and good life. For me zazen is miracle, that changed my life totally, for short time I am totally different person with totally different point of view to anything. Could zazen hurt?
I have been meditating with Sound Healing Meditation Music(Delta waves) for 45 minutes and started doing it three times a day yesterday, once a day for about 2 weeks maybe. I feel sensations throughout the right side of my body down my side and down my arm sometimes feeling a little bit on my left side. Its a tingling feeling and kinda warmth. What is this? Also been having more vivd dreams and actually talking in full sentences and paragraphs for the last 2 nights my husband says and I do remember it sort of it wakes me a little. It was a dream of an unpleasant time in my life but I awoke and decided it was time to let that part of my life go for good. Is this normal?? Is what I am mediatating to bad? Causing these dreams?? Please help so new to this and trying to heal so many things in my life including Bi-polar disorder. Thank you!!
Hi, Eva.
I’m afraid I’ve no knowledge of Sound Healing Meditation Music or what it does (or is supposed to do). The tingling feelings sound quite normal. This is what Buddhism calls “piti” or “priti” (in Pali and Sanskrit respectively) and it’s something that commonly happens as we’re relaxing and becoming calmer.
It’s also not uncommon to have more vivid dreams when you begin meditating, or if you’re doing more meditation than normal. Talking in your sleep — I don’t think I’ve heard of that one before.
You haven’t said anything that I find particularly concerning. If you were doing the kinds of meditation I teach I’d suggest just continuing and seeing how it goes. In fact I’d recommend doing some more traditional meditations.
All the best,
Bodhipaksa