| | I made a few changes in my routine before practice in an effort to move from Dark Night into at least Low Equanimity. Decided to use a seated posture instead of Burmese for various reasons, this had the effect of creating more contact points to note which proved interesting later in the session.
- Being seated did nothing to affect the shaking experienced during the move from 2nd to 3rd vipassana jhana. What was noticeable was the root of the movement in the coccyx area, obviously kundalini related goings on there but no Event like full-on arising of the sensations. Just something which is now becoming welcomed as a marker point rather than viewed as a distraction, it's all just sensation to note so acceptance sets in as I surrender to it and it subsides.
- I realised tonight that I have a soft spot for Dark Night. There's something tranquil and deep about it, a dryness like cracked earth but the terrain has it own beautiful flowers if we only had the eyes to see them. We don't experience emotion so deeply as during Dark Night, in my opinion. I noted sensations of "thinness", like a really fine membrane between observer and observed. There was a physical sense of "hollowness" when images of the body passed, like seeing zigzagging energy ricochet against these more densely packed "edges" of the body.
- Since working with samatha jhanas I can totally see how addictive they could be. I need to work on avoiding solidifying sensation, particularly thoughts, into jhana, something which occured at least eight times tonight and which did more to set me back than just stopping completely would have done. Very distracting indeed! There's a definite sense of the mind drawing itself to the jhana, a grasping for something solid. When I realise I'm in a samatha jhana there's a sense of the state blurring out as it fades before the sense of focussing on the sensation itself which clears the screen, so to speak.
- To avoid falling into jhana, I tried open-eyed vipassana. This immediately helped as I practice being mindul at all times during my daily life and led to literally seeing the flickering of any visual phenomena encountered. With open eyes I could bring up samatha jhanas as I noted which was something I've never tried before, the visual field could be made to open up, focus in and shift to see that shimmering effect I've mentioned before while still noting sensations of the space between my feet and the floor, the points of contact I mentioned earlier at my backside and thighs, sensations of pain in my lower back all seen to arise and pass.
All in all, a more clear and noteable practice than I've had in about a week. I'm just going to stick to what I've been doing and go with what comes. If anyone can offer any advice or opinion then I'd be grateful.
Cheers! |