Meditation by Matteo Pistono

Author:Matteo Pistono
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hay House
Published: 2017-09-12T04:00:00+00:00

By opening my mind and heart completely, may I discern clearly the way to be of most benefit to others.

* * *

How to deal with strong emotions and ‘experiences’ during meditation

When we cultivate a calm body and mind in meditation as well as develop some degree of single-pointed concentration, it’s not uncommon to have powerful surges of energy. Sometimes we experience these as strongly felt emotions. For individuals who have a strong visual disposition, there may be some kind of visionary experience. I’m not going to suggest an interpretation of any of these experiences. But I will offer this: if or when strong surges of energy seem to disrupt your meditation, you don’t need to be particularly surprised, distressed, or elated.

What are you to do with these rather powerful experiences? In the context of the meditation practice presented thus far, the instruction is simply to return to the method: treat the strong surge of energy, emotion, or vision as any other cloud-like movement that arises and dissolves in the sky-like space of your awareness.

You might ask, “Shouldn’t I figure out what these experiences mean during my meditation?”

If you want to investigate various kinds of meditation experiences through intellectual inquiry, you will have ample time to do so after your meditation practice concludes. But as far as formal meditation practice goes, the intent is to calm the body and mind and cultivate a non-distracted and attentive awareness that is not swayed by whatever emotions or visions or energies arise.

Once when I was on a strict Vipassana meditation retreat for a few weeks in Nepal, I had the very powerful feeling that I was levitating. We were practicing body scanning over and over during our 90-minute meditation sessions and each day we were meditating for 10 sessions, so it was rather intense. We were encouraged not to open our eyes, or shift our legs from half-lotus, or move our hands from our lap. But on the third day, I began to feel as though I was meditating about six inches off the ground. I was sure I was actually levitating.

Then on the next day I not only felt that I was levitating, but also that I was rocking from left to right like a pendulum.

I continued the meditation method, though I was nearly certain that what I was feeling was actually happening. It was quite exciting. I remembered reading stories of great yogis who could levitate and I thought that this experience must signify that I was on the precipice of grand meditative realizations!

After five consecutive days of having these feelings of levitating and swaying while I was meditating, I decided to ask a senior instructor about it. I described my experience to her, half-expecting a congratulatory response.

She grinned slightly and said in a matter of fact way, “Just open your eyes. See for yourself.”

Sometimes reality checks come in the most painfully obvious ways!

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.