Meditation

A very peaceful meditation this morning. Usually, when I am as busy as I am this week--with reading, with interviews and preparations for my next "Art of Outrage" podcast, and with the other writing chores that preoccupy me--my mind is all over the place; trying to find directions, trying to find solutions, trying to find words... This morning, though, I was unusually successful in finding and maintaining focus and concentration. And at the end, I was rewarded with a curious sensation that I cannot remember having felt before: all the molecules in my body seemed to start swimming apart and at the same time to merge with everything around it, leaving me with the sensation of pure energy. I have felt that sense of the contours of the body melting before, when the distinction between self and other simply disappears; but never, that I can recall, this sense of swirling, almost dizzying energy. And I notice that the feeling persists, even fifteen minutes after meditation.

I have been reading a manuscript on the concept of "becoming" by Than Geoff these past few days, and just yesterday came upon a section on the jhanas--the states of deepening experience in meditation; and I wonder whether this was one of the jhanas I was experiencing--or whether my mind was fantasizing such an experience, based on the reading? It was by all means a very pleasant experience, and one that I will watch for in the future. I should also go back into the text today, to see whether it corresponds with anything I read with less than full attention.