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Have you ever had the feeling of “losing” your body during a meditation practice?  Namely, of losing the sensation, the feeling of your body?  I don’t speak here about a distraction, but about something that is the result of a practice, something which happens during the meditation practice.  Suddenly, after a breath phase, generally after an exhalation, we realize that, for a brief instant, we no longer feel the body.

When this happens, many practitioners feel a reaction of fear and move a hand suddenly, or the shoulders, the head, or open their eyes, without understanding that they are losing a unique occasion.  In fact, they don’t lose anything in particular, nothing wrong has happened; the body is always and still present.  It is only that, in such moments, “something” in our self withdraws and this is a perfect occasion to experience something of that particular form of focus defined by the word meditation.  Of course, this doesn’t necessarily coincide with an experience of a pure state of meditation.  Such states can have different levels of depth, each of which could bring different experiences.  But, what is certain is that such experiences could be a “gateway” to deeper and more intense experiences.  The only suggestion is to not stop such feelings because of fear.

It could happen that, in those moments, even breath could become almost imperceptible, giving the feeling we are no longer breathing.  Or, it could actually happen that our breath stops for a few moments.  It is a condition of stillness, and in particular, of silence.  Our associative, automatic thoughts vanish, leaving us in such an empty and pure state we had never before perceived:  the Silence.  This silence can become deeper still, could be transformed and depending on the sensitivity of the apprentice, to shift into different levels.

Surely, this is not an experience to be feared; on the contrary, it is a gift, an occasion.

We do not have to fear about our breasth and our body, if we don’t feel them at such moments:  they will be there, when the meditation practice ends.