| | Hello everyone. I'm just now starting into practice, and I'm beginning to think that I may have accidentally traveled part of the progress of insight before I ever even thought of formal practice, or even began studying the Dharma. I have started with Kenneth Folk's 3-Speed Transmission method. I'll paste in my practice notes from today and yesterday. I'd like to get as much insight into my experiences as possible.
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First day: Noting body sensations.
I will not be using my phone as a timer again. I was interrupted at around 37 minutes. I will complete my 45 minutes tomorrow. I might even do another sitting today.
I had some trouble finding a stable position. I had to sort out my cushion setup twice in the session. I found a spot that I could stay in the Burmese pose without issue.
in the first half, or so, of my session I frequently noted tension It almost bordered on burning, but it did not quite reach any definable sensation other than tension. I had a few notes of itching, especially in my throat (my body does not appreciate cold weather or my smoking habit). I had a few early notes on pulsing (heartbeat). I noted hearing a few times, as well as seeing (computer light through my eyelids. I noted pressure quite few times. I also noted warmth and coolness. Somewhere along the way, I began to take note of slight rocking in my body. It started as a gentle back and forth sway. After my final pose adjustment to a solid position, the "wobbling" as I named it, became increasingly pervasive. It progressed through different stages. At some times it came as a circular sway of my torso, other times it seemed almost as though my abdomen was trying to rotate on it's own, independent of the rest of my body. It became so intense that it felt as though my upper half was moving through at least a 3 or 4 inch arc. As the "wobble"/"sway" reached it's highest intensity ( began focusing on it, it was too strange to let go of, as my focus resolved, the more intense it became) waves of sensation began to slowly creep through my body, starting at my waist and fingertips, moving up to my neck. They seemed to dissipate before they hit my face. Only a few waves came through before the phone rang. It was a terribly jarring experience. When I snapped back into the world I was confused, as though I had taken a long nap, ...Cont.
...and was abruptly woken up. I was somewhat dazed through the phone call. Once the call was finished, I felt so disturbed that I decided to come document the session, instead of finishing the final few minutes. Even as I sit here writing, if I focus on my body, the sway begins to return slowly. Being brought out of my focus so swiftly was incredibly disconcerting. I'm still a little confused. I think it might be time for a coffee.
Aside from the odd movement, that I was not in control of, I did note some numbness and associated warmth. A few times I almost became aware of objects, but they were gone before I noted them.
Any insight into what I just experienced would be greatly appreciated. Thank for being here everyone.
***One of the members on kennethfolkdharma chimes in and tells me movements and energies are called "kriyas"***
Just finished a second session of body sensation notation. I went for a full hour this time, although I got a bit antsy at 45 minutes and looked at the clock.. Guess that impulse was a bit to strong to note away. This sitting was similar to earlier, with less pronounced kriyas in the upper body. I lost track of my notations quite a few times. I just zoned out past most sensation. Some numbness, warmth coolness, shaking trembling wobbling. Hearing came up a few times. Lot's of tension. I think the spontaneous movement focused in my legs more this time, so they felt tense and shaky quite often. I found an alarm for my laptop, that pulls it out of sleep mode when it goes off. That way I had less light, and no risk of phone calls. The alarm sound was an Asian flute with birds. The transition back was much better like that. Actually, I'm not really sure I actually left. I am still zoning out and getting the kriyas again when I do. I'm very calm now. Kind of detached. It's very neutral mood. I don't think much would bother me. Even my nicotine cravings are rather subtle.
I have a few things to add from the last 24 hours.
Last night, after my last report, I went to pick up a friend from work. It was about 15 minutes after I posted last, and I had to sit and wait in the car for them to get ready to leave. I dropped back into my practice, very close to where I left off. There were things happening around the car, but I didn't really put any significance to them. Mostly sounds. I was very comfortable. It was difficult to note anything other than warmth from my heater.
After that I went and hung out with friends, had a meal, played some games. When that was done, I hopped in the shower and sat down under the water I went into practice there, hoping maybe I could note better with heavy stimulus on my body. The sensation from the water didn't really "come home." I was lying down at first, I still didn't really feel attached to any of the sensations enough to bother noting them, other than when I forced myself to pay attention to sensations. I sat up sideways, and then the water was directly on my head, then I stared being somewhat overloaded by the water in my face, so I moved to where the water didn't directly beat down on my head at the strongest points of the stream. I had quite a few good notes on the feel of the water while sitting up. At that point thoughts started interfering with my focus on sensation, so I tried to note them as "thinking" but one of them was a thought concerning my recent situation that took my entire idea of my life and identity I thought I had, which motivated my "hopeful search". I became overwhelmed by fear and emotional pain. This provided some physical anxiety to note, as well as physical depression. The emotional aspect gave away to just the physical sensations associated with it as I noted. I was so overcome by the feeling in my body that I could not concentrate on noting, and I stopped, finished my shower, and went to bed. Cont.
***This is where I break apart the 2 days. Day 2 is noting body sensations as pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral***
After church (Unitarian Universalist, in case you wondered what a Buddhist was doing in church) I came home and started watching and listening to Dharma talks on Buddhist geeks, etc. (I'm really drawn to the pragmatic Dharma)
During a rather long video about the progress of insight, presented at the Cheetah house by Daniel Ingram. I found myself going into a state, just while watching. I've been doing that recently, noting at random times, even before I came here. This time was different though. I was actually having the involuntary movements while just sitting, watching a video. The experience of the movement has never been as intense as the first time. I has slowed to a minor wobble. I was in a rather tense state, I was just feeling unpleasant. It got more intense through the video. In the video, Ingram mentioned that movements like that could be indicative of A and P. He also mentioned that people could actually reach that state and the following Dark Night without ever hitting a cushion. Recent radical alterations in my mental state (in the last couple of months the life I thought I had was upended. I realized that everything I thought was just me was a sham, and I went within a 2 week span from a firm subscriber to Richard Dawkins' brand of militant atheism, to an intrinsic knowledge that there was something more to reality than could be seen. This was after a long period of said atheism, and sensory indulgence, but at the same time, I knew that things were not permanent, except for the things I clung to like a vice. I was not a difficult admission that the noble truths were true, when I finally found them) led me to wonder if I had been in this "dark night" for (10-15?) years. I was rather spiritual back in my late teens, and even before. I had 2 periods of disconnection from that. One before when I was in high school, and then again after a brief reconnection with my spiritual side, the last disconnect lasting until...
...about the beginning of December just passed. The idea that a radical alteration of self-perception could be the end of a cycle of non-practiced induced DN, would actually make some sort of odd sense. I just don't know. I'm trying to not read anything into it, but after the things I've been through, it's hard to dismiss the idea... I could use some feedback from someone who knows this subject very well.
Alright, after that aside, I'll get back to practice notes.
Throughout this unintentional meditation I was in (I could tell because of the way I was dropping into body view mode, and the slight sway in my body) I became very dissatisfied with just about everything. I was hungry, but nothing sounded good. I ate, the food was unpleasant, and my hunger was still not sated. I was thirsty, but water didn't really help. My cigarettes tasted like hell, but I still wanted them, one after another. No matter what I did, nothing was right. I decided to go to the cushion for my new exercise, noting body sensations as pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral. For about 20 minutes I noted everything as unpleasant. It got to the point where I could not even sit, so I decided to lie down. Shortly after The change of scenery, all of the unpleasantness subsided. I stayed there for a while. It seemed like an hour, but it was just 30 minutes. I had to force myself to note anything that wasn't extremely overt. I had some thoughts, but they were elusive, at best. Finally, I felt strange energy crawling very slowly up my back. one side then the other, rinse, repeat. They were not anything but neutral. In fact, everything after the "all unpleasant" state was neutral. Even loud-ish sounds from the other room were neutral. Nothing was bad, but nothing was good either. At that point I decided to sit back up. Back in Burmese pose, I continued to note pretty much everything as neutral. After 30 minutes of that, I just decided ...
... I was done with the sitting. I just could not seem to note much of anything. There were sensations, but they held no real bearing on my situation. I figured it was possible that I had psyched myself into an unproductive state after watching that video. I am feeling skeptical that I would have actually progressed through some of the path after having never practiced. At the same time I felt like I was in the places that I saw on the video. I really just don't know what is going on. It doesn't really bother me right now though. I feel kind of ambivalent about the whole thing.
I would like to know if I'm really where it looks like, or if I could have just psyched myself into the whole thing.
If it helps, when I had the profound spontaneous movement yesterday, I felt rather pleased by it. It was strange, but I liked the whole thing. I neglected to report how I felt afterward, because I was too busy thinking about the body sensation notes, since that was what I was supposed to be doing. It's been easy to dismiss the thoughts and emotions that go with the sensations. They just come and go, just as the body sensations I note do. Very unlike the following states of mind, wherein the only echo of the movement and "energy" remained. I am calm after this session, but it is not the same kind of calm I reported after the sittings yesterday. I just kind of exist.
With any luck, I have been thorough enough over the past couple of days.
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As you might be able to tell, I'm a bit confused by all of this. Any insight would be great, thanks. |