Bagpuss The Gnome:
Not for the first time, but not for a while...
I was lying in bed paying gentle attention to the breath at the start of some involuntary meditation last night and all of a sudden there was a zzzzzing....... (like when it's all quiet in the kitchen late at night and the fridge motor suddenly kicks in, weird, but that's the best analogy i can come up with!) and I was locked-in to an experience.
There was a lot of heart fluttering and general mind chatter as it was wholly unexpected but i managed to keep the chatter down enough, and try to stay focused on the breath at the nostrils. It lasted for a few minutes i guess. I could feel the vibration of the "jhana" through my body as a semi-pleasant, but also kind of unsettling solid sensation but oddly found it hard to concentrate on the breath much (or more precisely, hard to feel the breath).
I had a lot of body sensation before this came on. I generally do.
I almost put this in End in Sight's "letting go" thread but we've got enough interesting tangents there already! As a point of interest I'd love to hear what any of you make of this experience.
Hey man, I think it was access concentration. Something very similar just happened to me this weekend. I was also in bed, but I wasn't "sleepy," as it was first thing in the morning.
I had waves of pleasure and heart palpitations, and a feeling of extreme focus. Mine laster longer than a few minutes, but after about five minutes or so I had to pull out because my girlfriend work up and started talking to me. I think the pleasure was one of the jhana factors, and, if you or I had been able to stay longer in this state longer, I believe we might have been possible to develop jhana (by focusing on the pleasureable breath).
Here is an account of what happened to me, which is over on another thread.
NOTE*
Something definitely happened during my practice today.
I was doing samadhi meditation. I decided to try counting, which , for some reason, I never liked the ideas before, but thought I'd give it a shot. Counting 1-10, then back down from 10-1, focusing on the breah just in front of the nostrils the whole time as well. I was surprised that I was often unable to make it through 10, let alone back down to 1. I did this for about half an hour, counting all the while, but also focusing on my breath. I also started the practice of "noting" the intrusive thoughts, labeling them, which I've never done before. It was the Ron Crouch page, which finally inspired me to try counting, and also, to "note" intrusive thoughts and sensations http://alohadharma.wordpress.com/how-to-meditate/
Anyway, around the half hour mark I suddenly started getting these flashing purple clouds in front of my eye (which were closed), and it felt like my head opened up into a cave (instead of being the usual block of stone -- solid feeling), then it felt like a vice was gently squeezing my temples and forehead, I got washes of tingles and pleasurable feelings in my body and head (brief though). It felt like my face got very tight -- that is the best way I can describe it -- like the skin got pulled tight. And my lips started trembling against my will, literally shaking, mostly the top lip. I noticed that particularly on the out breath, the breath felt nice, pleasurable. I was then able to quite easily count 1-10 and then back down from 10-1. At one point I got another wash of pleasurable feeling, and my heart started palipitating, again, against my will. I feel like the palpitations kind of chased the pleasurable feeling away. Then, I kind of stabilized into the tight faced, lip trembling, cavern headed, easy to count 1-10 and then 10-1 zone. I was actually doing this in bed next to my sleeping girlfriend. She woke up at this point and started talking to me, so I opened my eyes and responded. It wasn't like I "poofed" out of this head-space, though. It continued and lingered to a certain extent, even with my eyes open. I decided to continue meditating with a focus on the breath, counting, with my eyes open (which I don't usually do), and I was able to easily count up to 10 and then back down again to 1. No purple clouds, though, with the eyes open. After having stopped focusing on the breath and counting, I felt like I could have just sat there, focusing on nothing, for a while. After walking around and doing stuff, the feeling left after about ten minutes.
I should note that I've had similar kinds of experiences when I was doing this type of meditation a year or two back. This felt stronger, however, with the lip trembling and head vice-y stuff. I think the counting and noting helped, and I was surprised it happened in bed with my girlfriend sort of flopping around and the cat on my lap...