Dream Walker:
dat Buddha-field,
The topic is "Please Describe Your High-EQ "Formations"
If you have been in High EQ and expereinced formations would you please be so kind as to describe the expereince phenomenologically.
Though you are very well read, direct expereince not an intelectual understanding of a subject is what is being asked here.
Thanks,
D
Hi D,
I responded in the way I did due the fact that it seemed like people were describing how they experience equanimity itself. My point was that one's experience of EQ is not an experience of the formations surrounding consciousness of equanimity.
So to directly answer your question, I experience formations as stress. The stress around equanimity is extremeley subtle!
Here is what I hope is a relatable example...
Imagine being in a really bad mood, everything in the world is pissing you off today. Someone sneezes on you and you just lose it, telling them what a gross horrible jerk they are. Normally, you be a little grossed out, maybe even a bit ticked, but not today, you straight up lose it.
So what was different today? What is this thing we call a 'bad mood'? A bad mood is gross formations on the level of mind and body. Being sneezed on was not a different physical event than on a day when it would have just grossed you out, right? But something about
you was different.
You were holding tension and stress in your body that caused you to perceive things more aggressively. Events in your day were more colored by your bad mood, independent of the events themselves. The tension that colors your experience of having a bad mood are the formations. The formations were not 'the being sneezed on', nor were they even the anger. They were what led you to react with anger. AKA Your Karma, your intent, your volitional formations.
Later that oh-so-shitty day, you sit down to meditate. At first your mind is still in a tizzy about what a shitty day it was, but all of a sudden something relaxes. Your mind slows down and even your body feels lighter. Your shitty day seems to matter less all of a sudden and you're no longer in a bad mood. What just happened? You released from those formations that were coloring your day. You let go of the stress you were holding in your bodymind. This is what the Buddha means when he says to 'calm bodily fabrications'. Let go of the stress you are holding.
The point is that this still occurs all the way up through experiences as pure as equanimity, and THAT is what we are trying to discern. Am I making sense? Do you see why it's a weird question to ask how you experience formations? Formations are always experienced as stress in the mind, no matter how subtle. Obviously there is a lot of nuance, flavor, and difference to how they occur... but it's like asking 'how do you experience the nature of your bad mood?' You're pissed! That's how.