I had strange things showing up while meditating

Upvote:-1

Buddhism does not teach practising controlled deep breathing for 5 minutes.

Your question is not related to Buddhism.

When deliberate deep breathing is practised, strange things happen.

For example, i recall seeing a video (here) of a superfit 11 times world surfing champion faint & collapse while doing deep breathing.

Buddhist meditation is about making the mind clear (free from greed & craving) so the mind naturally observes natural calm breathing.

Upvote:1

A good way to look at you experience is like driving a car or walking. The two serve a purpose - to convey you from one place to another. What you encounter on the way, however, is ultimately arbitrary and unimportant. For instance, I could be driving to Pittsburgh from my home in New York City. I may travel down Interstate 80 and notice the trees along the highway. Maybe on another trip, I'll be especially aware of the gas stations or the number of truck I pass. None of those things are important. What is important is me getting from New York to western Pennsylvania.

From a Buddhist perspective, when we meditate, our goal is to calm and focus the mind to better prepare it for insight into unwholesome preoccupations like ignorance, self, and craving. Anything that is not aligned with undoing these unwholesome roots is just a side road, a tourist trap, etc. that distracts us from our main purpose which is enlightenment.

Don't get me wrong, some of these sights can be pretty interesting. I mean, I almost always stop and gape at the Delaware Water Gap as I'm driving out west. But if we focus on these sights, crave them, and become too interested in them, we'll never get to where we are meaning to go.

Upvote:3

Your question is about immersion, so let's address that first:

AN4.41:1.1: “Mendicants, there are these four ways of developing immersion further. What four?
There is a way of developing immersion further that leads to blissful meditation in the present life.
There is a way of developing immersion further that leads to gaining knowledge and vision.
There is a way of developing immersion further that leads to mindfulness and awareness.
There is a way of developing immersion further that leads to the ending of defilements.

Your question can then be understood as asking whether there is bliss, knowledge and vision, mindfulness and awareness and the ending of defilements. If not, then this is not right immersion.

Studying more in the suttas, we read that immersion is preceded by seven other steps. We must therefore ask ourselves if those steps have been followed:

AN6.63:13.1: And what is the cessation of sensual pleasures? When contact ceases, sensual pleasures cease. The practice that leads to the cessation of sensual pleasures is simply this noble eightfold path, that is: right view, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right immersion.

And yet even the first step is mysterious. What is right view?

SN45.8:3.1: And what is right view?
Knowing about suffering, the origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the practice that leads to the cessation of suffering.

These are the four noble truths. Without knowing the four noble truths, we fall into wrong immersion.

Keep studying the suttas. Keep meditating. Find a good teacher. Be a good person.

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