Hello everyone!

I think I passed what you guys would call A&P about two weeks ago. I dont do noting meditation. Im meditate primarly with mindfulness of breathing and metta bhavana but lately Ive also started 'just sitting' practice. I also try to be mindful as much as I can during the day.

About 2-3 months ago my hand started trembling and shaking during intense metta meditations. This progressed slowly to it shaking and trembling in almost all meditations. Then 2 weeks ago it started feeling like there was energy moving in the hand even after the meditation and this made it very difficult to sleep. Then the same night after staying awake until 3 am the energy suddenly started increasing and started going through my whole body. Down to the feet and toes and upp to the head! and afterwards my spine felt very warm. A very intense experience and the day after my awareness felt a bit expanded but mostly it didnt take as much effort to stay mindful. Then after this I had something of a hypomanic episod of about 4-5 days with energy surging through my body in the early morning.

After a week it mellowed out and I can now sleep regularly. According to MCTB I would now be in DKN, and I had after the hypomanic phase quite a bit of anxiety which is not that bad now.. I feel kinda normal but maybe with a bit more awareness then before.

In all of this I havent had any 'insight' experience.. The only thing I felt at sometimes was a bit like 'whats the meaning of all this treadmilling you do in life', which  I felt after the initial intense AP-like experience.

Can you go through A&P without getting insight? I dont really feel a DKN.. can my experience be something else? Can concentration-practices lead to just an energy release without DKN?

Cheers
/Callez

Hello Calle, welcome!

This is definitely piti. Piti is a phenomenon that is common to several different things: Access Concentration, 1st / 2nd jhana, and A&P. Without knowing more about your practice it is hard to give an exact diagnosis, but, in any case, those phenomena have so many commonalities that we can say some things for sure about your experience.

1) The unusual sensory experiences that you describe are the insight experience in themselves. You now know that certain things are possible which you did not know (from direct experience) before. You have accessed what different traditions call prana, qi, ki, piti, and other names.

2) You could say that you have awakened that phenomenon, since from this point on in your practice it will most likely pop up again and again. It is fair to call this a little awakening, as some teachers do.

3) You have set things in motion. Your practice will probably be markedly different from this point on than it was before.

4) An alternative way to view what has happened is that you have improved the "sensitivity" of your attention, that is, the threshold above which subconscious sensations become available to your mind as conscious phenomena. Subtle sensations which were already there but you didn't have the concentration power to notice are now available to attention, and now you can do fun stuff with those.

If you keep doing concentration practices (like metta), any DN effects should be very manageable.

I do believe I crossed the A&P, what information can I give you guys to diagnose it? My event came during the night, not during meditation, and it started like energy pulsing in my hand that then spread throughout my body.. the days after I was in a somewhat 'hypomanic' state. I didnt have to sleep and my mind was racing.

I think I feel some of the dark night effects with dissolution and sometimes a bit of fear of 'losing myself'. I can get these surges of a background sadness almost bringing me to tears, I usually dont end up crying though I would like to since that can be a bit of a release.

Daniel Ingram says you should meditate a lot during DKN to progress.. is this really necessary? I dont have the possibility or time to do intensive retreats or many hour of meditation every day. Will I not go forward then? Can I do 30 min of 'just sitting' and slowly but surely reach EQ (I dont have experience with noting)? I am usually quite mindful during the day.. can that be sufficient?

Cheers
/Callez