Alex M E:
Hello everyone, i've been meditating for almost a year now and recently (past few weeks) i've been making sure i at least practice once a day for however long i can. I've also been taking down notes like how long i was meditating, how many times in the day, if it was inside or outside lol (kind of a habit of mine to take notes in general).
Anyway i know im not a seasoned meditator and usually when i meditate i feel calm and peaceful but still have chatter going on in my head like in daily life (just less) or even a song stuck in my head.
Today tho, i had listened to a chant of the heart sutra and had one part of it stuck in my head while meditating. I thought it wasn't going to stop so i decided just to accept it and continue anyway, but eventually and suddenly everything in my mind seemed to quiet completely and my head felt very clear. Along with that i had an unusual feeling of spaciousness, sensations on my hands and face, and an extreme deep soothing calm. I was able to remain like that for a time but couldn't really go anywhere with it since this is new to me.
I know there are people that are wayyyy more experienced then me on here and was wondering if they can share some insight with me :].
Assuming that you are sincere in your pursuit of meditation and study of the Dhamma, I will venture to comment on what you have presented.
It's good that you are taking notes; keeping a journal in the beginning of establishing a practice in meditation can be very beneficial, as it gives one an opportunity to look back and see whatever progress they have made over a period of time. It also serves as a way to document your journey (especially for yourself, not so much for others), allowing you to recall specific meditative events that occurred and to watch how your perception of these events changes over time.
Did you notice the clue you presented that seemed to make a difference for you regarding how you normally experienced meditation, and the change that occurred in the session that you wrote about? If you did, then you gained a bit of insight about how to bring that state into fruition the next time around. Buddhist meditation techniques are about bringing calm (
samatha) and insight (
vipassana) into sharp relief, being able to discern when these two qualities are present and learning from that experience.
Alex M E:
Is this actually anything significant?
or is this normal?
If you are asking: "Is that what access concentration is like?" Then it very well may have been; or may have been even more profound. Achieving that kind of clarity of mind is what is essential to being able to examine the Dhamma in more depth on the path to achieving awakening. If this is what you are asking about, then, yes, what you experienced was a significant moment. But its significance depends on what you decide to do with it from this point on.
It won't amount to anything unless you obtain some guidance concerning where you wish to take this new found ability to calm and quiet the mind. There is a reason for being able to accomplish this. But if you are not clued into that reason, you may well spend your time just spinning your wheels in the sand!

And that would be sad indeed, and not good for your overall practice and study.
The term "access concentration," as you should know if you've been studying this area of meditative teaching with any diligence, is simply a level of concentration necessary for being able to pursue deeper levels of concentration, using absorption (jhana) as a vehicle and tool for learning. Access concentration in itself is not that difficult to achieve; although depending on the severity of the conditioning of the mind it may prove to be difficult to pin down in the beginning. What one does with it
after they've been able to achieve it is what can make the difference in the quality of the journey they experience afterward.