Dear Healer

Are you the same one as "Meditator" who has posted similar themes in this section in past few years? I read it but didn't attempt to reply then. Now I have registered specifically to attempt to reply your questions, but not regarding the aspect of psychotherapy, but in regards to mindfulness meditation practice of the Theravada Buddism as mentioned by Dr. James Spira above.

Congratulation for your meditation achievement which is very unique and few meditators get it, so it is difficult to find those who would understand what you said. Your experience is very important for Mindfullness/Vipassana/Insight meditation of Theravada Buddhism; an important milestone for further spiritual progress. It is a dissociation of awareness from the object of awareness which usually are entangled with each other; the awareness part is very clam and quiet while the object of awareness, which could be various mental states, is separated away, out of the awareness boundary, but still in contact, like water and oil in the same container. It is as if there is another very calm and still observer looking at a mental object beyond his/her self boundary. This experience is similar to that of ordinary people looking at a material object in the surrounding environment but replacing the material object by various mental perceptions such as pain, discomfort or agonized somatic or visceral feelings, or fear, etc.

This state of mind can be achieved in many ways; one way as you have described is by practicing a deep calming meditation (Samatha meditation); the mind remembers this very calming state and when a meditator comes out of this deep calming meditation and continues mindfulness meditation practice immediately, the power of deep calming meditation will enhance their mindfulness practices such that they can discern this body, feeling and various mind states with clarity and with spontaneous acceptance and detachment, which they don’t have to decide or make up their mind to do so; It’s beyond intention. Those who walk this way will achieve what is like another independently floating and glowing mind, persisted all days and nights, amid the chaotic and unruly mind and the very suffering body. It is called “the one who knows”; however this is not the final liberation yet. This method is used mainly by the Forest monk tradition of Thailand and this way of practice is called Samatha-led Vipassana meditation. Those who practice like this are called Samatha-yanik and those who have been liberated by this method are called “Jeto-Vimutta = liberated by mind power.”

This state of mind can also be entered by many other ways such as when mindfulness meditators do it wrong and get stuck and trapped in a very stressful and distressing circumstance such that they suddenly decide to stop doing it, abandoning the strong will or desire to become meditators or to achieve, immediately the compressed mind will spring back forcefully into this state of mind and then “Ureka.” This state might also be aroused by very intense fear or very frustrating and depressing mental states; read the first few pages of “The Now” by Eckhart Tolle.

Another way to develop this mind state is to do direct Vipassana meditation but it must be done properly (it doesn’t mean correctly**) and the mind state akin to what has been described above will occur, but with much weaker intensity and lasting very shortly. It may be called a broadly-open, present-centered, self recollection. This state is beyond intention as well and you have to trick it to occur as frequently as possible in daily life activities, without an intention to do so and might not attempt to hold on to it; the mind will gradually remembers it and it will become stronger in intensity, occurring more frequently and lasting longer; however it might not be comparable to that obtained after the deep calming meditation, but it is enough for usage in developing direct Vipassana meditation. The Pali technical term for this state is “Sati-Sampajanya” and when it arises, the mind state just preceding it may be spontaneously dissolved or coexist in parallel without causing mental agony. However, since it is quite weak, it may not occur in a circumstance with very strong emotional components. It is not the same as the ordinary mindfulness that make people understand their thought contents, or understand what they read, or enjoy movies. It takes times to develop this “sati-Sampajanya” until the mind ceases to entangle with either good or bad mental states. Then further spiritual progression will set in by itself. Those who walk this way is called Vipassana-Yanik and those who have been liberated by this way are called “Panya-Vimutta = liberated by pure wisdom.”

There are various traps or pitfalls in both ways of practices and practitioners of both sides are usually quarrelling with each other as to what is the correct method of practice.