Types of meditation, reasons for same:

Samatha:

I'm at a stage I guess where I have a very good idea of what I'm supposed to do -- pay attention to the object of meditation (for me the breath) -- and a lot of intermittent success at doing just that for an extended period of time.
I'm working on it with patience for the most part. Lately I can really tell that I am on the verge of falling into the first jhana which gets me thinking about what is happening which takes my concentration off of the object and I'm back to where I started. I just keep sticking with it. There is no hurry.

From doing this for several weeks now for some reason I've noticed a heightened awareness of vibrational and rapturous activity in my body, a lot of activity in the middle of my forehead (especially when I am concentrating on work) and a lot of energy in my chest. Oh, and I also have that cicada sound in my right ear almost all the time.

The energy in my chest, lately, has felt a lot like anxiety -- the kind of anxiety I haven't been feeling for a couple of years now but that I used to have quite often and quite strongly from time to time.

I'm wondering if what I have is really anxiety though. It may just be a strong feeling that reminds me of anxiety from the past and so I tend to interpret it as anxiety.

The energy in my chest, lately, has felt a lot like anxiety -- the kind of anxiety I haven't been feeling for a couple of years now but that I used to have quite often and quite strongly from time to time.
I'm wondering if what I have is really anxiety though. It may just be a strong feeling that reminds me of anxiety from the past and so I tend to interpret it as anxiety.


-michaelmonson

A friend mentioned something similar once, in that she kept having this gripping sensation in her chest she associated with sadness. And then one day she realized she was feeling that gripping, but she was happy, not sad. So it sort of dawned on her the physical sensation didn't necessarily have to link up to the thoughts or emotions the way she expected.

In any case, I've had that kind of energy in the body fairly often, and it's interesting how it can be associated with different emotions. I recall times it came up in the chest, for example, but it didn't spin off a bunch of thoughts about something worrisome. It was just a vibration or gripping feeling in the chest. And it took me some hours to realize there wasn't anything to worry about, because I kept feeling like I should be finding something to worry about, just because of that association.

Oh, and just to add, since I'm feeling really chatty today, I don't usually do samatha practice, but last time I did (with breath as object) it generated a ton of energy in my body, especially in the chest/heart/upper abdomen. Why does it do that? Just a side effect of paying close attention to that area of the body?

A friend mentioned something similar once, in that she kept having this gripping sensation in her chest she associated with sadness. And then one day she realized she was feeling that gripping, but she was happy, not sad. So it sort of dawned on her the physical sensation didn't necessarily have to link up to the thoughts or emotions the way she expected.In any case, I've had that kind of energy in the body fairly often, and it's interesting how it can be associated with different emotions. I recall times it came up in the chest, for example, but it didn't spin off a bunch of thoughts about something worrisome. It was just a vibration or gripping feeling in the chest. And it took me some hours to realize there wasn't anything to worry about, because I kept feeling like I should be finding something to worry about, just because of that association.

-ona

Years ago I took a social psychology class and read this famous experiments in which people were caused to have the same strong feelings but in different social contexts. The result was always that humans seem have "feelings" that are kind of neutral basically that their minds than make into something good or bad.
I guess I should give more detail on this and I'll try to find some.

Years ago I took a social psychology class and read this famous experiments in which people were caused to have the same strong feelings but in different social contexts. The result was always that humans seem have "feelings" that are kind of neutral basically that their minds than make into something good or bad.
I guess I should give more detail on this and I'll try to find some.


-michaelmonson

Yeah, that sounds interesting! Let me know.

http://faculty.uncfsu.edu/tvancantfort/Syllabi/Gresearch/Readings/A_Schachter1.pdf

Of course, they may now have been long disputed.