Hi,
Adam Frisoli:
Thanks for your response. I've been lurking here for a while and have learned a ton from your posts across the site - so thanks for those as well!
No prob, you're welcome.
Adam Frisoli:
However, I do suspect that I have a little further to go in understanding these vibrations conceptually. I understand that they are ultimately to be perceived experientially, but I can't shake the sense that I would benefit from "getting" it in the most conventional sense with slightly more clarity. I could be wrong, and I might need to simply spend the cushion time to find what you and Daniel have described. However, perhaps you'll indulge me just a little bit more . . .
They are very simple once experienced; you may want to just sit and investigate until you have an "ah-ha" moment regarding them. Don't try looking for something specific that references your conceptions, just try to experience the full depth of feeling in your index finger (or whatever) and see what happens. Each sensation you perceive, try to see if it's actually several different sensations.
Adam Frisoli:
1) Are these vibrations visual? Did you see matter physically break up?
Vibrations can be perceived visually (there is a long thread about this somewhere from the DhO migration), but you don't literally see matter break apart; it's more like a type of ripple or visual distortion.
Adam Frisoli:
2) Did you try to "see" these vibrations, or did you just focus on the three characteristics and allow the vibrations to unfold on their own?
I tried to perceive them in all the ways ways I could think to try (a general sense of investigation).
Adam Frisoli:
3) Do the vibrations appear the same way to everyone (generally speaking)?
I can't say that for certain, but I presume that it is similar (we all have human brains, after all); that notion is also supported by the ability to reliably communicate about our experiences of them.
Adam Frisoli:
4) If so, what are some of the most commonly shared characteristics of them?
Tough to say, and I'm not sure it would be useful at all to try...
Adam Frisoli:
5) The perceptual field of conventional, day to day reality and the field in which the vibrational fields arise: where do they meet? How are they related and how do they differ?
They're fundamentally the same (hence the index finger example above). The aim of vipassna is to perceive the day-to-day world of experience at a vibrational level (hence the loosely tossed around phrase "penetrate reality").
Adam Frisoli:
I will say that I can definitely perceive some sort of light "film" overlaying all of the objects in my visual field when I am focused. Sometimes during meditation with open eyes this film becomes increasingly texturized, rich and deep, as if increasing the contrast ratio when doing color correction of visual media. Is that something, or am I just being indulgent? If yes, it is related to the vibrations at all? My gut says yes?
You may be onto something with that, although perhaps just as a source of motivation to investigate experience, so as to possibly discover / resolve that "film." The film and vibrations may be "related," but I haven't thought about it much. It does not seem very relevant to the other topics of this discussion anyway.
Trent