Hello, I have been lurking for a while and was wondering if anybody cared to shed some light on an experience I had. I have been sitting short durations for a few years now 20-40 mins (breath noting and counting and recently more bramhaviharas). Recently on a week long retreat I sat a two hour and in the second hour the violent nausea, shaking, hot and cold flashes, pouring sweat/cold sweat, sure that I would shit my seiza bench, whole body agony was in full effect. when the bell rang at two hours I bolted to the toilet. You can laugh here. Of course, nothing came out of any orifice and everything went away except for intense ringing/wa-wa vibration in ears, especially left ear. It went away after 30 mins or so. I checked in with a teacher on staff and shared my experience. He was generally nice and supportive with a slight "yup, this all sounds totally run-of-the-mill" (which was totally fine and stabilizing), but when I mentioned the hot/cold it seemed to really pique his interest. Anyway, I just left it in the cupboard of "interesting experiences- go have some more when you can", but figured this was a good place to maybe get some insight into what that was. thanks! BTW I didn't find an "introduce yo'self" place so, Hi!

howdy,
in kenneth folk's post "idiots guide to dharma diagnosis"  he posits that anytime the predominant experience of sitting is lots of bodily pain, you are experiencing the nana of "the three characteristics", or 3c's, or the third stage in the progress of insight.  i don't think diarrhea is specifically mentioned ;-) but it sounds generally unpleasant.

how was your abitlity to stay with the object at that point?  were you sticking to it like glue or were you too overwhelmed by thinking of the distance to the bathroom?

cheers

tom

Thank you for the input. I need to find the Dharma diagnosis text. I am still figuring out how to navigate the site. In answer to your question, no. I totally freaked and tried desperately to get some of the bliss and calm I had been floating on for the few days previously from the shamatha/metta I had been doing. The background maybe is significant that I had been in acute pain and emotional suffering by day 2 of the retreat. I shifted from noting to shamatha/metta and by morning of day 3 was floating around like a blissed out hippy. On day 4, the same facilitator that led the long sit and interviewed me after advised me away from using shamatha/metta too much and taking a "bypass" from the dukkha I was having

http://www.dharmaoverground.org/web/guest/discussion/-/message_boards/view_message/3540720#_19_message_98873

that should get you there

Thanks!