Hi Leo. I'm very grateful to have found your YouTube channel about two years ago, and delved through your materials since. Obligatory thank-you for your work. I respect your time, so short version of my question in bold, long version after:
What degree of structure (e.g. maps of stages of insight, Nanas, Jhanas, etc) do you think is helpful to know as one does consciousness work?
Recently I had a consciousness-shaking meditation experience. While practicing a basic mindfulness meditation, focus on the breath grew more concentrated, until I felt a warm tingling in intermittent parts of my body. I noted the warm feeling for a second, and it started growing more vibratory. Then for a moment I felt a ton of fear, because up until this point nothing had happened in meditation that had me questioning my perception of the world or reality. I remember a feeling of surrender, and the fear swiftly leaving and being replaced by the warm, vibrating sensation, which then grew into an intense and really pleasurable high. My sense of being changed dramatically. I opened my eyes and things looked different. I looked down at my legs and they sort of blended in with the white acrylic of the tub I was sitting in. I got up, looked in the mirror, and perceived my face differently. My pupils were very dilated even though the lights were on, and a bunch of other weird stuff.
My experience since, though, is sort of like you described in this video:
Unless I'm meditating and having a similar experience (which has happened a couple times, getting more frequent), I typically don't feel very connected to what happened. Even my description above is probably disingenuous to the experience. I've researched online to try and figure out what this experience was, and have only really gotten more confused. It was undoubtedly an altered state of consciousness, but what state? I really don't know.
My question boils down to: Is it fruitful to try and assess what it was, and if so,do you suggest a particular track, e.g. stages of Vipassana or Samatha Jhanas? Should I just forget the labels and keep meditating? I know you lauded the post below, so I'm curious if you have a recommendation.
