and how to Relate to them
Practice can bring a variety of spiritual experiences in meditation. This table lists 22 of the most likely ones. Then we discuss details and how to approach them.
25 Spiritual Experiences in Meditation
| Selflessness | Experience of the non-existence of the ego |
| Mahakaruna | Overwhelming Compassion for all beings |
| Shamatha | Stability, Clarity, and Power |
| Nyams | Clarity, bliss, non-thought |
| Vipashyana | Insight |
| Bodhicitta | Awakened Heart |
| Sukkha | Bliss |
| Non-duality | Inseparability from the external world |
| Perceptual Alterations | Colors, dissolution of perception, enhanced-precision |
| Samadhi | Super-focus |
| Six Paramitas – Pure Virtue | Generosity, Discipline, Patience, Exertion, Concentration, Jnana |
| Physical sensations | Cosmic body, tingling, enlarged hands, head, dissolving body, energy flow |
| Out-of-body | Seeing your body from above |
| Projection | Going to different places and realities |
| Transcendence | Surpassing ordinary experience |
| Devotion | Overwhelming love for wisdom beings and teachings |
| ösel | Luminosity |
| Shunyata | Non-being of phenomena |
| Adhisthana | Blessings |
| Yoga | Union with Guru Mind |
| Sambhogakaya | Communication with unseen wisdom beings |
| 4 Formless States | Infinite Space, Consciousness, Nothingness, Neither nothing nor something |
| Symbolism | Messages of profundity embedded in exeperience |
| Immanence | Touching Divinity |
| Suffusion of Life | Energia pervasion of all phenomena, including the 5 elements |
| Satori | Enlightenment Experience |
Table of Contents
Lights or Luminous Dissolution
Multi-colored or bright lights filling the space. Streamers of light, objects dissolving into light. This is a fascinating, but quite common experience. Scientifically, it’s caused by an optical phenomenon. The retinas tend to constantly ‘redraw’ visual perceptions as the eye moves. When the eyes remain very still, the visual fields becomes ‘saturated’ and the perceptions tend to dissolve into light.
Symbols
Phenomena take on a symbolic meaning, with everything having a rich communication to it. It’s wonderful to feel that messages are embedded in things to be extracted at will.
Synesthesia
Cross-over of sensory experience – tasting visual forms, hearing smells, and so forth. This occurs in non-meditators, as well. I’ve never experienced it, but it can be quite bewildering.
Distorted Body Sensations, Tingling and Energy
Oversize body parts. Insubstantial feelings of body. Energy moving in unique ways.
The meaning of spiritual experiences.
Spiritual experiences in meditation are meaningful and useful. However, they have a downside, which is their addictive quality. They feel outstanding in general. They feel like something’s happening. But this is an ego trap. If the ego gets a hold of them – which it will if they happen – then it absorbs them into itself. The ego becomes an ego based on its spiritual experiences the more that a person has.
This isn’t inescapable, of course. You can work with these. And in fact, that’s the way to approach spiritual experiences. They can be good, meaningful, and extremely useful as signifiers on the path of enlightenment. They can also be used to enhance your path.
Using spiritual Experiences in Meditation to Deepen the Path
The general method is to examine the spiritual experience for its essence. What is it at its very core? Not to give the game away, but it’s not surprising to anyone studying Buddhism. The essence is emptiness and/or luminosity. Emptiness is another spiritual experience. The key instruction is to rest in the spiritual experience for as long as it sustains itself while looking directly into it.
Do not grasp. It’s okay to sustain the experience as long as you’re not grasping onto it for the experience itself. Sustain it to see its essence, which means to realize that all phenomena are mind. The experience itself is mind, in essence, or pure awareness. If you sustain it with that in mind, then you’re using it properly.
The test is when the meditation ends, how easily do you let go of the experience? Here is our course on increasing spiritual experiences.
Secrets of Meditation for Anxiety
Like millions of people, you may have suffered from anxiety for years. Meditation, yoga, peaceful music – it never works. It takes too long, and it’s not stable. Why? Because peace is treated as a cause for freedom, but it’s not – it’s the result. The cause to free yourself from anxiety is completely different.
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Conclusion: Spiritual Experiences in Meditation
Spiritual experiences are a normal part of a meditative journey. In fact, with genuine meditation, they become somewhat inevitable. If you’ve been meditating for a while and haven’t had any, it’s advisable to work on the fundamentals of meditation, to determine what meditation actually is, and to make a strong commitment to meditating properly, and to deepening meditation. And then enjoy the journey. Without getting too fixated, the journey should also be enjoyable.
May all beings be happy
May all beings be peaceful
May all beings be safe
May all beings awaken to the light of their true nature
May all beings be free
