Well, as for working with the shakra's or other energy practices, I think I'm with J Groove at this, it might not be the best time for me to extensively dive into new practices like these. I've allready got enough stuff to attend to, and amidst of all confusion it's actually quite comforting to have a clear goal like stream entry accompanied by clear instructions.
But as pavel put it:
Pavel:
I have experienced a fair amount of chakra activity during my sits despite not looking, expecting, or wanting to work with this kind of phenomena.
I've also noticed this. I've become aware of my emotions in places like the low abdomen, the solar plexus, my chest, my throat and my forehead¸ places where I never consciously noticed any sensations before i started doing vipassana practice.
I also noticed the coincedance that these area's are exactly the same places where shakra's are depicted in yoga-flyers and the like. Before that i never took chakra-talk that serious to be honest.
Pavel:
..the first sign of me being in the Dark Night are very hard and heavy sensations on my torso chakras, with some accompanying unpleasant emotions floating around the belly, chest and the solar plexus.
I experience exactly this on very regular basis, almost every day. Damn, it seems there's no denying it: this must be what dark night feels like. Oohh, the misery ;-)
Pavel:
One thing that helps me is not to think of it in this way - instead I observe the emotions that other people experience and understand them to be their own, then I observe my own emotions and understand them to be my own, then I choose what to do according to the situation rather than the emotion. A lot of the time this may suck a lot and a lot of the time the emotions will affect my actions somewhat. But thats all good.
Thanks, that sounds like very workable advise, i'll see if this can get me somewhere.
Pavel:
Perhaps one more thing:
(...) there will be constriction, holding, stopping, forcing and other physical phenomena that make these emotions appear more unpleasant than they actually naturally are (in Buddhism they are sometimes made fit into 3 general attitudes/actions - aversion/attraction/confusion, even simply watching out for those 3 play out moment-to-moment can be awesome) - there is a whole myriad of reactions that take practice and strong insight skills in order to be noticed (and it is worth it to do so). (...)
Thanks alot also for this advise, also very workable. I'm not sure if my skills are strong enough yet to notice alot of this but I'll start to look out for it.
Thanks so much for thinking along guys, I really appreciate it.
And some fun is definately coming up in a few days, as next wednesday I'll be flying to malaysia to visit the MBMC for a week or four. First time for me to meditate longer then the 10 day goenka treat, so i'm quite excited. Let's see how much closer this can get met to stream entry.
Cheers,
Noah