Meditation Energy Rush?

[Upasaka Jona]

Greetings fellow followers of the Blessed One.

I am interested if anyone has experienced this, or especially if they know of a teacher that has spoken of this phenomenon.

I am using Ajahn Thate’s method of Buddho meditation- silent repetition of buddho at the middle of the chest (see his guide “Buddho”).

I am reaching a point in meditation where my awareness becomes suddenly pooled in the whole body, centered at the heart, like a switch being flipped. Like the opposite of the phrase being “zoned out”- being suddenly “zoned in”. However, while the sensation feels like is on the -edge- of bliss, I invariably feel waves of shaky energy moving throughout the body. A trembling/shaking as I keep the effort up. I also perceive in my awareness the -potential- for pleasure, as if it is mixed into/hiding in the stressful feelings of these wavelike sensations of shakiness.

While I do think I am getting somewhere, I am reminded the meaning of samatha is calm- this experience itself is not really calm, it is activating, and at times my heart will even pound. Nonetheless it feels like it the edge of something so I have thus far continued with this kammathana.

Any advice or references to teachers speaking of this is greatly appreciated.

May you all be happy, may you be free from all suffering, and may you attain nibbana in this lifetime!

[Sam Vara]

Greetings fellow followers of the Blessed One.

I am interested if anyone has experienced this, or especially if they know of a teacher that has spoken of this phenomenon.

I am using Ajahn Thate’s method of Buddho meditation- silent repetition of buddho at the middle of the chest (see his guide “Buddho”).

I am reaching a point in meditation where my awareness becomes suddenly pooled in the whole body, centered at the heart, like a switch being flipped. Like the opposite of the phrase being “zoned out”- being suddenly “zoned in”. However, while the sensation feels like is on the -edge- of bliss, I invariably feel waves of shaky energy moving throughout the body. A trembling/shaking as I keep the effort up. I also perceive in my awareness the -potential- for pleasure, as if it is mixed into/hiding in the stressful feelings of these wavelike sensations of shakiness.

While I do think I am getting somewhere, I am reminded the meaning of samatha is calm- this experience itself is not really calm, it is activating, and at times my heart will even pound. Nonetheless it feels like it the edge of something so I have thus far continued with this kammathana.

Any advice or references to teachers speaking of this is greatly appreciated.

May you all be happy, may you be free from all suffering, and may you attain nibbana in this lifetime!

This is fairly common, and sounds like pīti. This is even translated as "energisation" by some mediation traditions, and affects people differently. My advice is to relax, be aware that it is a good sign (pīti is one of the components of first jhāna) but don't lose focus on the meditation object, and just be mindful of the energy as it arises. Hopefully it will subside and you will become aware of a calmer energy and a feeling of "rightness".

[Mumfie]

Any advice or references to teachers speaking of this is greatly appreciated.

For a mantra practitioner, rounded vowels and labial consonants are your best friend. It's due to the Bouba-Kiki Effect. So just try this and notice what a difference it makes...

For the next three days replace buddho with one of the following:

Bumbo
Būmbo
Bombo
Bombū
Bobbo
Bubbū
Bobbū

Personally I favour the first, but if the bum part of it makes you think of arses then it might be better to choose one of the others.

[confusedlayman]

Yes its a rush it happens when u keep body still a d free from 5 hinderance but not all rush are same

[Upasaka Jona]

Apologies it took some time to reply, just want to express gratitude for everyone’s replies.

Thanks to you Mumfie for pointing to a deeper level of relationship between mantric sounds/syllables and experience.

And thanks to Sam Vara and confusedlayman- after some research into types of pīti, I do perceive the experience to be related to some level of momentary success in concentration and the arising of pīti- I think I had previously misunderstood how pīti may be experienced based on a common translation into the English word “rapture”.

Thanks again dhamma friends.

May you have every good blessing!

[frank k]

What you're describing is completely normal, experienced by everyone to some degree when doing jhāna, but their body has blockages that need time to dissolve.
https://lucid24.org/sted/7sb/5passaddhi/index.html
especially see section on jhāna constipation.

Contrary to what Samvara says, Pīti in the suttas is not physical. Pīti is all mental, sukha is physical pleasure (like orgasm, eating delicious food, pleasure chemicals in the brain).
Pīti (mental) is going to immediately cause sukha (physical symptoms, for example goosebumps), but it's best to be clear on the difference between those two jhāna factors, becuase when the suttas talk about how to generate pīti, it's talking about the skill of directing your mind to skillful ways to contemplate Dharma and the mental joy from that.

Greetings fellow followers of the Blessed One.

I am interested if anyone has experienced this, or especially if they know of a teacher that has spoken of this phenomenon.

I am using Ajahn Thate’s method of Buddho meditation- silent repetition of buddho at the middle of the chest (see his guide “Buddho”).

I am reaching a point in meditation where my awareness becomes suddenly pooled in the whole body, centered at the heart, like a switch being flipped. Like the opposite of the phrase being “zoned out”- being suddenly “zoned in”. However, while the sensation feels like is on the -edge- of bliss, I invariably feel waves of shaky energy moving throughout the body. A trembling/shaking as I keep the effort up. I also perceive in my awareness the -potential- for pleasure, as if it is mixed into/hiding in the stressful feelings of these wavelike sensations of shakiness.

While I do think I am getting somewhere, I am reminded the meaning of samatha is calm- this experience itself is not really calm, it is activating, and at times my heart will even pound. Nonetheless it feels like it the edge of something so I have thus far continued with this kammathana.

Any advice or references to teachers speaking of this is greatly appreciated.

May you all be happy, may you be free from all suffering, and may you attain nibbana in this lifetime!

[Slowlearner5]

Greetings fellow followers of the Blessed One.

I am interested if anyone has experienced this, or especially if they know of a teacher that has spoken of this phenomenon.

I am using Ajahn Thate’s method of Buddho meditation- silent repetition of buddho at the middle of the chest (see his guide “Buddho”).

I am reaching a point in meditation where my awareness becomes suddenly pooled in the whole body, centered at the heart, like a switch being flipped. Like the opposite of the phrase being “zoned out”- being suddenly “zoned in”. However, while the sensation feels like is on the -edge- of bliss, I invariably feel waves of shaky energy moving throughout the body. A trembling/shaking as I keep the effort up. I also perceive in my awareness the -potential- for pleasure, as if it is mixed into/hiding in the stressful feelings of these wavelike sensations of shakiness.
!

Sounds like good body awareness, purifying from shaky to smoother later, and good concentration, and zoned in could be the beginning of samadhi, which can get stronger over years, with practice imo naturally without trying. This edge of bliss feeling sounds like beginning of a new awareness, you can shift say from the intense edge of gear one into another bigger more sustainable or abiding type gear, say by spreading out (initially bring some awareness to the skin til 1cm outside the body) at the torso or whole body, which is samadhi too more mature imo away from the brain area. It's not the same everyday but generally keeps progressing slowly imo.