Time: 60 minutes

Situation: A quiet room with my eyes closed, half lotus.

Experience: I centered my attention on my breath and within a few minutes I experienced the sensation of pressure building-up between my eyes. I allowed my attention to shift to that sensation. I observed the minute sensations that made up the "pressure" and watched its borders shift, grow, and recede. I also became aware of the physical pleasure of the sitting posture, especially in my arms and torso, and experienced several waves of very intense pleasure course through my entire body. Afterwards there was a slightly more spacious quality to my awareness and later several strobe-light effects behind my eyelids.

This session was characterized by a feeling (pretty sure imagined) that I was "sitting funny;" as in that my head and neck were sort of angled off to the right. My neck actually became stiff in a way that corresponds to that feeling, so maybe it wasn't imaged. I also experienced a lot of shifting emotional states during this session - I cycled rapidly through doubt, frustration, and despair. At one point I thought only, "I just want to get out!" Also I had a great, great deal of trouble keeping my attention focused on the object, as well as a host of glowing, abstract visuals unfurling behind my eyelids.

Observations: I had a lot of trouble concentrating during this sensation. Also, lately I've found myself very touchy emotionally, both on the cushion and off. I definitely feel like I'm in the Dark Night.When I'm off the cushion and find myself trying to avoid unpleasant feelings and mental states (or alternately trying to grasp onto pleasant ones) I've tried to consistently shift my attention to those mental states to see the three characteristics in them - I've also tried to cut myself some slack for being human and slap a smile on my face for the sake of those around me, all with varying degrees of success.