| | Finally something happens! I realized that the breath counting just wasn't doing it for me, and knowing that I am a very visual person, I decided to try these instructions. I'm pretty sure they are from Kenneth Folk.
1. Get a kasina object. You only need one. Cereal bowls or small plates work great. It should be about 8-10" in diameter, without designs. Earth colors are best, as they don't give you eye strain. 2. Prop the bowl against the wall. 3. Sit about 4-6' away. 4. Stare at the bowl. 5. Let us know what happens. (You may be amazed at the antics a simple cereal bowl can perform.)
So, I found a round eight inch black plastic lid and double-taped it onto my white wall at my sitting eye level. Then I sat about 4-5 feet away and started counting breaths. I didn't expect much, but as always, I was hopeful.
I was amazed at what my kasina object did. It was surrounded by bright light, it popped into 3D, it even seemed to rotate like a planet, and then it disappeared! I was surprised, but it came back in a few seconds, and this went on and on, with lots of strange effects. However, I did not feel like this was getting me to any jhana. I kept trying to relax more, and kept watching for about another fifteen minutes ... THEN it happened. Definitely an altered state. My vision, that had been focused solely on my kasina object, suddenly went wide and I could see the entire wall at once. My body fully relaxed when this happened, and it felt very, very good. It was different. I was locked in.
I kept expecting to lose it, but it was very stable. It was like my outer vision was more in focus than the center, but I could see everything fine. Sometimes the kasina object stopped doing much of anything, once it disappeared for about five seconds, but the state continued even if it just looked like a black lid. It was very strange feeling, but not in an unpleasant way. It was very pleasant.
For a while I tried relaxing more, to see if anything else would happen, but nothing did, so I stopped at about 40 minutes. |