Here's my practice logs leading up to tonight: http://www.dharmaoverground.org/web/guest/discussion/-/message_boards/message/4647893
Basically, I've been really intensely practicing for a few weeks now, noting all day, sitting whenever I can throughout the day. The past week, I've had growing intense pains throughout my body, and the past two days, weird slippery tensions in my skull. Last night there was this intense intense buildup of pressure as my evening sit progressed, lots of flickering and being overwhelmed, but no release.
But tonight I sat down for my third or fourth sit of the day, very quickly hit what I'm taking to be the first jhana. (Intense brightness, radiating joy, pleasurable tingles, sharp concentration). I've been trying to get there for a while now, but have mostly just been skirting the edge till tonight.
After resting there for a while, I turned my attention to my body and started noting the crap out of everything. Very quickly, pain arose in the usual way, and I noted the crap out of it. After a few minutes of this, the strobing pulses of light got faster and brighter than they ever have, and I felt intense blissful energy everywhere. The light hung out in the upper-right corner of my vision for a long time, and I found myself looking upwards. It stayed bright for maybe 3-5 minutes, and then I returned to my usual posture, the light dimmed, and my body felt like it was surging with energy. I just stayed there and observed it quietly for about ten minutes until mental chatter arose about A&P/Dark Night/Etc.
Whaddya think? Is shit serious now? :-)
