Q. On a possibly related note, during meditation I often experience short energy bursts. They occur when I am well settled and concentrated, and able to settle the mind well into the body. They persist so long as I can maintain the particular subtlety of attention – usually just a few seconds, but they will occur again and again until the session ends or I become distracted. They are fairly neutral in feeling-tone, tending a little bit towards pleasurable. Sometimes they make my body twitch a little. When I was at Vajraloka, they sometimes came in short, single bursts while I lay in bed meditating – to the point it felt like they might knock me off the bed! If I have had a lot of stress recently and I lie down or sit up with the intention to ‘feel into’ my physical sensations, they will come up quite spontaneously.

A. It is all about living in the body. You mention in the previous question that you try to retain your attention in the hara. Whilst retaining your awareness down there you should also be retaining your emotional responses due to habits and conditioning, with the aid of that same awareness. By learning to bring this crucial aspect of practice into your daily experiences you will be promoting health and safety in your life, and also bringing stability to your meditation. This is very much to do with turning away from the chattering mind and its blinding consequences and becoming grounded in yourself. So that when you walk you know you are walking, when you stand you know you are standing. Your twitching suggests that it needs to be worked on, as it is indicating you have lots of errant energy. If you have a physical job, so much the better. if you don’t, then find something to help that energy on its way. If it gets worse you may have to consider cutting back on meditation for a while (a good way to test your attachment to sitting), because you don’t want it to cause physical complications, as it often does for those who insist that Dharma practice is about working everything out in the head.