| | Forum: Practical Dharma
Aside from the advice to keep paying attention to sensations, does anyone have any input about all the unusual bodily phenomena that accompany the first and early second vipassana jhana?
While in a way these things are a tremendous boon because they literally make manifest the not-self, changing, and stressful nature of phenomenon, and even better, provide some really interesting, very hard-to-miss objects (e.g., the individual sensations that make up breath-of-fire like breathing), and do break up a lot of tension, they also suck. I have a strong suspicion that there are some yogic practices related to dealing with arm-flapping, violent shaking, excess heat, etc. On one or two occasions I've tried to hide in samatha jhana but found that can actually intensify the phenomena, even if one isn't being mindful.
Currently, the advice I got is to shift from sitting to standing practice to balance the concentration involved with energy, to walk briskly, and to eat plenty of food to "stay grounded". Does anybody have any thoughts? |