Difficult to describe in short, in meditation my chin sank to the breast, then my head started describing a certain kind of orbiting, circling, and tilting.
And he goes on to describe that particular tilting motion.
Vibrating or rocking would it be, or no?
Slow and small increments felt like the outside of his head was orbiting
Well, inside there is a fixed and stable mass, this sort of thing.
Piti.
This is generally referred to as piti, a part of rapture.
Rapture comes in meditation.
If you're in a course, it comes after a few days.
Not for everyone, but if it comes, it comes after a few days, maybe five days, let's say.
And so for some people, piti is getting caught up.
getting in falling into a habit or becoming accustomed you might say like falling into a rut but it can be positive you can fall into the rut of meditation like get into the groove this is the word you get into a groove
and so if it's with some mindfulness then it's quite useful you're enraptured in just being mindful and the mindfulness becomes easier and easier and clearer and clearer but if you get in a groove like this this person's talking about
it it's just a dead end it doesn't lead anywhere so you get into a group many people rock back and forth this is what is most common some people slowly slowly go in one direction until they're lying on their back or so and yeah some people start to go in circles so you have something like that um it's this is this is the point
One of the more crucial points of the meditation practice, according to the Visuddhi Manga, called , where one
purifies one's knowledge and vision by making a decision or gaining understanding of what is and what is not the path.
So at this point the meditator doesn't know what is the path and what is not the path and they have to clarify for themselves or realize for themselves and get themselves on the right path and stop following the wrong path.
So at this point the meditator will be
afflicted by these sorts of experiences and will take them to be the path.
They will have lots of energy sometimes.
That video I did called What the Meditation is Not, I don't think it was actually quite... The problem with that was I still didn't have a partner account, so I only took 10 minutes to talk about something that probably should have taken maybe 20 or a half an hour.
I've given audio talks on the 10 imperfections of insight, I think.
Maybe I can find one of those.
But
Otherwise, I'll try to do another video about the ten imperfections.
If you look it up on the internet, you might find it.
But they're basically, they count ten categories of things that can come.
You feel very happy, you feel very calm, you have these rapturous experiences, you get a lot of energy, you have a very strong
or you gain knowledge, or you realize many things that you didn't think of before, how to run your life, or even things about Buddhist teaching and meditation, and you get caught up in these experiences and run with them.
And so rather than being mindful of them and being objective about them, you cling to them, subtly cling to them, and as a result get off track.
So the key is this teaching that I mentioned yesterday.
Always remember this is not that.
And always remind yourself this is not that.
Whatever it is, it's not that.
And it should be observed objectively just as anything else.
This is the task that we're given in the meditation is to
to set ourselves in objectivity and to become purely aware and to give up our partialities and our subjectivity.
Does that seem to answer what they were talking about?
I guess they continue on.
They said it sort of felt like a trance, but they're not sure.
don't worry about trance put it out of your mind let's talk about meditation there's too much in Buddhism about trances and jhanas as far as I'm concerned jhana is meditate if your mind becomes calm, great if it doesn't become calm, great if your mind becomes calm, that's your mind being calm if your mind becomes clear that's your mind becoming clear good things, great things, don't give them labels don't say this, this, this, that, this, that it is what it is you'll do the best that way
It's my opinion, but there, I knew it.
It is what it is.
That's the key.
I mean, I can call it piti.
You can call it a trance.
In the end, what's going on?
See it for what it is.
One thing that I've said, and I think it bears repeating, is that sometimes you have to tell it to stop.
These piti or rapturous states that you get into, they become very, very physical where you're not really in charge of it anymore.
So you have to really make a demand on your body and tell yourself, stop.
Sometimes it's not enough to say spinning, spinning, or feeling, feeling, because it's already gotten on its way.
You have to actually tell it to stop.
And if you say stop in your mind, and just firmly and politely, no, no, stop.
Tell it to stop.
And then go on with your meditation.
I think I've...
experienced a sort of thing that he's describing.
And like you said, it's kind of a physical thing.
I don't think it's really meditation at all.
It's just kind of a physical phenomenon.
I mean, there is the mental part of it, but it's very subtle to...
The attachment can be very subtle.
Sometimes you just have to give yourself a slap in the face and say, stop.
Back to work.