analogy of watching the rising and falling of the abdomen like a hunter waiting for the mind to show up with its tendencies is very useful.
I think it's in the commentaries.
It may have been from the Buddha himself.
I think the Buddha used it as well.
But the commentaries talk about this.
After a while there is nothing but a pleasant glow.
Does wisdom arise spontaneously or do I need to do more?
But if it were so easy we could just sit with a pleasant glow and wisdom would arise.
No.
That pleasant glow is a problem for you because you find it pleasant.
The single most common
hindrance in meditation that we come across is pleasant sensations.
that whenever I go to give a talk somewhere there will always be at least one person in the audience who has this problem who has been practicing maybe for years and feels like they're not getting anywhere because they come to a situation where there is nothing but a pleasant glow I've answered this question many times on YouTube as well I'm sure many of you or some of you have listened to this answer and know what I'm going to say
The pleasant glow could be classified as piti, rapture.
It could be classified as sukha, happiness.
It could be classified as tranquility, though probably not.
It depends exactly what the experience is.
You describe it as a pleasant glow.
I would call that rapture.
I would guess that that's probably not just happiness, but it's kind of a static charge, this excitement in the mind.
It may be kind of a calm excitement, but there's an energy involved with it.
Now, whatever you classify it as, it's an experience.
It's an experience that comes as a byproduct of meditation practice.
It is impermanent.
It is unsatisfying in the sense that it can't last forever.
And it's uncontrollable in the sense that you can't turn it on and turn it off.
When you sit down and meditate, meditate sometimes or maybe all the time, it comes by itself.
It's not yours to control.
You happen to be in a situation where it comes often based on the activities that you undertake, but it is not under your control.
To confirm that, you can give up your attachment to it and start to say to yourself, happy, happy, or liking, liking, or feeling, feeling, however it...
presents itself to you.
And you'll find if you're persistent in acknowledging both the happiness and the liking of it, that just like everything else, it begins to disappear.
But when you don't do that, you're actually encouraging it.
And so the question, well, is that a bad thing?
It's a bad thing if you want to gain wisdom, because no, wisdom will not arise unless you're being objective, unless you have a clarity of mind, which you're lacking by enjoying this pleasant glow.
Nothing wrong with a glow or a feeling or a sense of rapture.
They can actually be quite useful because they provide you with energy and tranquility in the mind.
But as soon as you begin to find it pleasant and enjoy it, even subtly,
Usually it is quite subtle and it doesn't feel like you actually are clinging to it.
But if you're not acknowledging it, then
in almost all cases you're clinging to it and you can realize this by at the very least you have delusion about it the idea that it's me that it's mine and by acknowledging feeling feeling happy happy liking liking whatever however it appears to you you'll see that it ceases and you'll see that it isn't you'll come to realize that it isn't actually something that you can depend upon
isn't actually the true, isn't the path, it isn't the true goal of meditation.
And that is a piece of wisdom, it's an understanding.
So that is wisdom, and that is the path, and that will lead you closer to freedom from suffering.
So, wisdom is not something that you can create, it's not something that you should try to actively cultivate in the sense of thinking or reflecting or puzzling out reality, asking questions about reality.
It is something that will arise by itself, but it will only rise
You only arise if you are objective, if you have the clarity of mind, which you don't have when you're clinging, when you're enjoying.
So be very, very careful about pleasant sensations.
They are not the path.
I did a video about the ten of them some time ago called What the Meditation Is Not, I think.
And you can watch that if you want to learn about the others as well.
There's lots of good things that can come up that will only get in the way of your practice if you cling to them.