I'm posting this in the "what was that?" forum ...

I have had a recent experience and I am wondering if it is recognized as a thing and if it means anything in particular...

I often get a kind of, what I call a "spiritual feeling" where I feel very realxed and feel good will. I usually  attribute it to meditating or doing relaxing tai-chi and qignong exerices.

I also started noticing I would get this feeling when I walked along a certain path near a pond. The last time I was there I was watching to see if it would come over me and I noticed it happening as it did. It seemed like what was happening is that I was just relaxing. It was a particular kind of relaxation, it was not like I was feeling sleepy or falling asleep, I was fully awake but it was just that tension or stress was falling away because the environment had nothing in it, like traffic or a lot of people, to keep me on my guard. I'm not sure how to convey what I mean by a "spiritual feeling" it relates to the feeling of good will, not feeling selfish, love of nature (the universe).

Since I recognized the feeling as something that I often experience and I understood that I produce the feeling by relaxing, I thought maybe I can keep it going permanently just by checking myself every now and then and trying to stay relaxed. The kind of meditation I do is a relaxing kind of meditation and I also consider relaxing tai-chi and qigong exercises part of my practice. And I have had this feeling continuously now for several days.

The feeling is a bit hard to describe. It's like there is an inner me that is relaxed even if my body is reacting with an emotion. Like the physiology is doing its thing but I'm somewhat dissociated and am observing it without "owning" it. Like this afternoon, I was expecting a package and the tracking web site said it was delivered but I couldn't find it at my door. Physiologically I reacted with stress and I was acting a little flustered when I contacted the store that shipped it, I could see my body was reacting with stress but the inner me was still felt calm. Or if someting that happens that disapponts me and I feel depressed, I used to think, "this is bad I'm supposed to be free from dukkha, I shouldn't be feeling like this", but with this feeling I am trying to explain, I feel like "okay my nervous system is depressed but who cares, it doesn't matter, I'm still here, I still have this nice relaxed spiritual feeling and I'm okay."

Has anyone else experienced this? Is there a name for it?

Thanks

What you describe here sounds very much like metta/lovingkindness, or perhaps more generally just an opening to ecstatic experience. Good stuff! Angeles Arrien has a really good description of the Healer archetype which is associated with this in her book The Four-Fold Way. She notes that the way of the Healer is often characterized as being connected with nature. 

Ken McLeod also writes about the four ways of working here. While most of us will have a particular archetype that we identify with most strongly, we can all find ways to work with each of them.

The natural state.

I was going to say the same, the natural state

Hi Jim,
 
I get this experience often too. Especially in nature, bushwalking & beach swimming etc all induce this state.
 
I'm hesitant to call it anything to avoid creating yet another conceptual layer / belief.
 
Regardless, remember the important things about any experience:

• No state is permanent
• As a famous Burmese monk (whose name I have forgotten, sorry) said to a student who had spent 10 years practising meditation in the forest. “These are just experiences. Enlightenment is not an experience!
• Don't get attached

 
Enjoy!
 
UBF