In my 20's(I am now 55) I practiced light and sound meditation for 7 years. When I am doing vipassana which I started in March this year (having not meditated for 25 years) I get the 'sound' mainly engulfing me and it is very blissful I must say. I might also get a huge gushing out of the top of my head and that draws me in to. These moments can feel very blissful. I made a conscious effort to ignore these events and have mainly succeeded but sometimes I still get sucked in because I want to or as a 'treat'. What effect will this have on my vipassana? Is it safe to allot some time for that meditation outside of the vipassana meditation? Is it ok toward the end of a sitting to let myself focus on the sound instead? Should I let the sound buzz through me at the same time I focus on my body parts?
4 Answers
You do not go into any detail about what vipassana you are practicing but with the information on hand the following advice:
In insight meditation (vipassana) ALL phenomena have the following qualities:
- Anicca - they are impermanent.
- Anatta - they are not-self.
- Dukkha - that if we cling or have aversion to these impermanent phenomena this creates suffereing.
You 'sound' experience is fairly common, I have it as a constant meditation companion in some form or other, but it falls into the same category of any other phenomena.
These moments can feel very blissful. I made a conscious effort to ignore these events and have mainly succeeded but sometimes I still get sucked in because I want to or as a 'treat'.
There is both clinging and aversion here. Do neither (push away or hold onto) - just view both the bliss and the sound with equanimity. Equanimity is a core skill you are learning in any vipassana practice. So let go of the need to 'control' any of this and just try to see that all these phenomena have the same intrinsic nature as a 'thought', a body sensation, a physical sound. They are all phenomena with the same above three characteristics.
It's not particularly a problem to indulge in pleasant energy sensations, could even be a good thing if it gives you a sense of rest and support - but could also keep you away from doing "the real work" of Vipassana - which at this stage is to identify and release emotional blockages elsewhere in your body.
I get the 'sound' mainly engulfing me and it is very blissful I must say. I might also get a huge gushing out of the top of my head and that draws me in to. These moments can feel very blissful.
- Accept a sound / gushing sensation is there
- Any mind state and / or metal factor create some sensation or the other. Look what sensation are there in the body equanimous attention to its arising and passing until it your body is tranquil.
I made a conscious effort to ignore these events and have mainly succeeded but sometimes I still get sucked in because I want to or as a 'treat'.
- Do not ignore. Just accept it being equanimous, realising its arising and passing, then put effort to bring your mind to a chosen meditation object, frequently reviewing if it is with the object. In breath meditation you can review at the end of each in and out breath.
What effect will this have on my vipassana? Is it safe to allot some time for that meditation outside of the vipassana meditation?
- Vipassana aims to calm the fabrication and help you understand the process that fabrications are created (see things as they are - contact, perception, sensation coming together and you reaction to sensations)
- As long as the technique does not create any fabrications then it is fine
Is it ok toward the end of a sitting to let myself focus on the sound instead? Should I let the sound buzz through me at the same time I focus on my body parts?
- At the end of a session it is always good to focus on thee sounds around you, the touch of your cloths and ground, etc spreading your awareness gradually than being fully concentrated and then leaving it.
Although you want to practise vipassana, but it seems like you show more progress in samatha instead and are on the verge of entering the first jhana.
If this is the case, why don't you try to enter the first jhana and beyond?
Please read "Instruction for Entering Jhana" and "Entering the Jhanas" by Leigh Brasington.
The first article teaches you to use the pleasant sensation on the top of your head (or anywhere else), to access the first jhana. So, it would appear that you are very close to it.
Mastering the jhanas can help you with vipassana later, because the five hindrances are subdued in the jhana states.
