Nikolai .:
What is your current practice? Have you tried noticing (and perhaps noting) the mind states that accompany such experiences of the whole body buzzing with sensations? Such as noticing the mental pleasure? Or the 'intuitive trap feeling'? What does your current practice look like?
Nick
Hi Nick,
Thanks so much for your reply - this my first time here and I'm grateful I found this place. In terms of practice I'm sitting at least twice daily (2 hrs). I also maintain some Muslim/Sufi practices - reciting Quran, prayer, contemplation of the Names/Qualities of Allah [I have a muslim background which I began to see in a completely different light after shedding it then rediscovering it again through clearly seeing the undercurrent that pervades all spiritual traditions - to me most religions are like George Orwell's Animal Farm, if you're immature you see only the story about the animals and completely miss the point :-)]. Anyway....
My practice has been both concentration and insight (since I finished my first retreat in October I began insight). I fluctuate between them depending on how I feel about my ability to focus depending on whats going on in my life and my psychology.
I recently found out about noting (I guess when the student is ready the teacher appears! oddly enough I found out about noting and about MCBT at the same time - I'm just about to finish MCBT after I type this and it certainly gave me fresh perspectives on things I have not considered before) so I began to play with that but I don't want to cannablize my yet immature scanning abilities by scattering my effort during my sittings - so I started adding noting sporadically during the day (while walking, eating, thinking, etc - which I find intriguing as I started having strange experiences during sleep - but thats another topic and I yet to see if it persists - too early to comment about it).
I will test drive noting as you indicated and come back and report. It just seems to me that although I feel that something is going on, I cannot articulate it to myself and I sometimes doubt if I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing. But then again I've learned through experience over the last few years that things will unfold as things will unfold since God/Dharma (whatever you wanna call it) only works best if you allow it to work unobstructed by illusions of control or "personal" contribution. I just want to do what I can so that I'm not actually the obstruction - hence my question here :-).
Thanks again.
AT (Ahmed).