Hi!

So, yesterday I was trying to sleep, and then I had a chain of thoughts, and it resulted in a thought that was something like "May joy arise"; basically, I immediatly felt a plaesent sensation that might very easily be described as "joy" arising in the stomach, more precisely between the navel and the solar plexus, a bit closer to the second; it obviously spread throught my body, and then I investigated a little more and found that, putting attention a bit closer to the navel, this joy got somehow mixed with very plaesent sexual feelings, wich is quite normal. If I repeat the thing, now I can make it arise basically at any moment.

What surprised me was that I'm used to think about joy as plaesent sensations associated with smiling, or a general sense of wellbeind diffused in my body; seeing that arising in that particoular area of the body was quite surprising for me... I wanted to ask if someone else can relate with this "joy in the stomach" thing...

Bye!

Well, there is the possibility of A&P phenomena, especially with the sexual overtones. In my experience, after you practice vipassana (or jhana) for long enough and go up the nanas (or jhanas) enough times, the mind is able to fabricate experience easier and easier.

If you're speaking in terms of practice... then

this could be 1st jhana or mind and body phenomena.

Energy manipulation seems to be most obvious at the A&P for me, and if that's your baseline, it could be quite accessible at any time. In this territory, I find that I can make a very pleasant energetic feeling arise wherever I want in my body, with precision and speed. In terms of more bare vipassana practice, these feelings appear as bare vibrations of a pleasant nature, going very quickly. And as far as crossing the A&P goes, if I really work my mind to follow these extremely quick vibrations, they spread and my whole body gets enraptured, and the feeling of joy can explode if I so choose. I've also noticed that the intensity varies quite a bit, and if the A&P has been crossed a few times recently, the A&P can be extremely quick, not particularly joyous, and not particularly pleasant (but usually not unpleasant). What practice are you doing? If you're trying to do vipassana, that is a perfect point to go balls to the walls with fast noting (or just noticing) of vibrations. There's a ramp for concentration, and continuous hard effort and application of your technique is prime for launching across the A&P.

A&P territory is prime for working on jhana since concentration is temporarily insane, if you want to tune into the joy aspect and work on 2nd jhana. Whenever jhana is particularly available, I like to take that route and get to 4th and then do vipassana from there.

Howdy,
my personal take has always been, regarding pleasant sensations, if it is clearly of the body it is bliss, if it is clearly of the mind it is joy. joy is subtler but connected. a smile is a physical act which is tied to both bliss and joy and the volitional act can start a chain of events which can lead to either or both. when bliss (or rapture) is forsaken for joy, it can be the demarcation between the 2nd jhana and the third.

tom

Yes, I can relate. I usually use it to get to 2nd Vipassana Jhana...I switch focus to first and count to one(over and over as a mantra) until I feel some concentration happening then move to pleasure at the stomach....build it up with the in breath for a while then let it go and shift to 3rd by looking for subtle vibrations that I can not look at. I focus on breath and let awareness sense the vibes. At some point I drift off and kinda barely watching thoughts occur almost like dreamtime, then sometimes I shift to 4th and stress drops away and I'm all one pointedness....At this point I just try to be aware of everything or if that doesn't work I go back to breath.



Very nice....I love it