Hello Jeff,
Jeffrey Thomas Nieves:
About two weeks ago, I did an hour sit of concentration, and when I finished I felt really spaced out. Now I usually feel a little bit "high" after meditation, but it only lasts a half hour or so. This was a different. I felt out of it. Almost like the place from which I observe the world was pushed to the side or just not in the right place. ... It's tough to put the experience to words. It was somewhat akin to feeling slightly drunk. My functioning was pretty normal, but it somehow felt like more work.
I like the response given by Richard Zen. Especially his emphasis on "knowing" the state you are in when it is occurring. Your reference to "feeling slightly drunk" suggests a dull mind state (which may be akin to a trance-like state). You want to endeavor to avoid going into any kind of trance-like state, so that the mind remains sharp, resilient, focused, maleable, workable, and established on its object with clear comprehension of the object at all times. This prepares the mind for the practice of
vipassana or insight contemplation.
Check out Thanissaro Bhikkhu's descriptions of dull mind states in his brief essay
Jhana Not by the Numbers and see if it is similar to what you have experienced. If so, the application of
sati (mindfulness) can help to alleviate the experience.
Take note of references such as the following in his essay:
Strong concentration is absolutely necessary for liberating insight.
To gain insight into a state of concentration, you have to stick with it for a long time. ...
The first was the state that comes when the breath gets so comfortable
that your focus drifts from the breath to the sense of comfort itself, your mindfulness begins to blur, and your sense of the body and your surroundings gets lost in a pleasant haze. When you emerge, you find it hard to identify where exactly you were focused. Ajaan Fuang called this moha-samadhi, or delusion-concentration.
In both these states of wrong concentration, the limited range of awareness was what made them wrong. If whole areas of your awareness are blocked off, how can you gain all-around insight?...This is why Ajaan Fuang, following Ajaan Lee, taught a form of breath meditation that aimed at an all-around awareness of the breath energy throughout the body, playing with it to gain a sense of ease, and
then calming it so that it wouldn't interfere with a clear vision of the subtle movements of the mind. This all-around awareness
helped to eliminate the blind spots where ignorance likes to lurk.Richard Zen:
Expanding my equanimity to more objects, than only infront of me, helped to reduce brain fog, but that's because some forms of thinking are allowed in vipassana. You want thoughts to be not considered separate from other experiences. It's all interdependent Consciousness-objects.
I would look into more descriptions of proper concentration practice to make sure you really are paying attention and not just drifting. There should be strong knowing of the experiences up until the 4th jhana. After that then it should start getting more strange but a sense of knowing is still there.
By suggesting the expansion of "equanimity to more objects," he is also implying an increase in mindfulness (
sati). Mindfulness in this sense equates with "knowing awareness" of the moment as it is happening. Not just awareness, but actually knowing (with wisdom and insight) where you are and what you are doing in that moment
with mental clarity. You don't want the mind to begin to become dull or trance-like during these moments. If you feel that dullness coming on, you need to increase mindfulness to combat it in order to avoid that "feeling slightly drunk" feeling.
As long as the headachy experience is not intense and throbbing, you are likely just experiencing what all meditators experience when their concentration becomes increased: a sense of pressure in the center of the cranium as though a balloon is expanding there, creating the sensation of pressure. The experience of such pressure can be used as a nimitta hearlding increased concentration when one is attempting to enter into
dhyana or
samadhi. It all depends on how one responds to such phenomena whether or not it can be used to deepen one's practice.
In peace,
Ian