Nice Pawel, I like it.
~D

Hi Pawel,

Thanks for sharing. You might appreciate Ken Wilber's take on the pre-trans fallacy.

Brilliant. I learn so much from your posts, Paweł with an ł.

Fascinating Pawel, is there any published work on this ?

My understanding is the the brain is still developing the ability to process sense data after birth, it is not so much that we loose ability but gain it. Sense data arrives into different parts of the brain largely related to when those senses were developed during our evolution e.g. smell is the most recent and hooks into newer area of the brain.

Did you take a look into the pre-trans fallacy ?

Thanks for the post Pawel.  

I'm extremely iintrigued by the nondual so-called "direct" teachings and Zen. I really appreciate all your writings on this topic and plan to review them some more.  In this post, however, I'm immediately hitting a roadblock in the suggested visualization exercise.  Can you offer a pointer to simplify things?

You suggest visualizing an object.  Okay, how about an apple or a paper coffee cup like the one on my desk?  I guess i can do that okay.  I mean, not perfectly - the image is hard to see with eyes open, taking in what i would refer to as the real world.  And when i close my eyes the image doesnt improve that much.  I see darkness and various lights, most of which seem to be the images left over from the flourescent light office.  

And how exactly do i take the imagined image into the real world?

How am i doing so far?  Is this an exercise that should be done in a darkened room?  Or am i simply not far enough along the path?  From time to time, I've felt that my third eye is openeing up but have had few breakthroughs.

best,
Alex

do you think we are born with open chakras and they change with our development, in the same way as the brain is very interconnected before it grows bigger?

Thanks for the link Pawel, interesting reading.  

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synaptic_pruning :

The infant brain will increase in size by a factor of up to 5 by adulthood. Two factors contribute to this growth: the growth of synaptic connections between neurons, and the myelination of nerve fibers; the total number of neurons, however, remains the same. Pruning is influenced by environmental factors and is widely thought to represent learning. After adolescence, the volume of the synaptic connections decreases again due to synaptic pruning.

At birth, the neurons in the visual and motor cortices have connections to the superior colliculus, spinal cord, and pons. The neurons in each cortex are selectively pruned, leaving connections that are made with the functionally appropriate processing centers. Therefore, the neurons in the visual cortex prune the synapses with neurons in the spinal cord, and the motor cortex severs connections with the superior colliculus. This variation of pruning is known as large-scaled stereotyped axon pruning. Neurons send long axon branches to appropriate and inappropriate target areas, and the inappropriate connections are eventually pruned away.

that's great Pawel, i will put some intention and effort into this.  I will let you know about the results after some serious effort.

This may take some time to get to.  I dont imagine it will come right away but i hope that i can fire up my concentration to make it easier and more fun.  My wife and daughters leave on Saturday, leaving me some alone time.  I'm off for a 5-day retreat in Batavia on the 18th but i'm going in without expectations.  

in terms of path, a meditation teacher has suggested to me that i'm at second or third path.  But i havent worried too much about that.  Mostly working on the Koan "What am I?" and realizing how meaningless my thoughts are.

Pawel,  thanks for responding again.  and you're right--i did take down a short list of experiences--i figured you never actually asked.  and though i'm on the fifth year of practice, i realize im a novice compared to posters like you who should be writing books or teaching classes.

i like the way you've super-simplified paths and incorporated the concept of intention.  i was talking to my zen group about intention today but nobody seemed to understand or care about my difficulty in locating it.  I've read what you wrote a few times and i'll go back to MCTB to make sure i understand the paths.  i kind of like what a teacher at CML in Vermont said about the jhana system last summer: "just insert enough equanimity (once you get it going) and the path takes care of itself...In fact, you could say the same thing about the Dharma," is what i think i heard him say.

i enjoy your posts and will definitely reread these ones.  And for the record, i repost experiences: first goenka (2011) reached extreme bright lights and joy on day 3, unable to sleep, i experienced bolts of energy through my body on day 9: this resulted in sense of ease greater than i'd ever experienced and serene happiness by day 10.  I figure this was my crossing of A&P though i could definitely be wrong ... Shinzen Noting retreat (2013) got to deep equanimity on day 3-5.  Feel like i entered 1st Jhana at home months later.  Able to sit 2hrs but not longer... Pushed myself near end of Jhana retreat in 2014 til legs stopped shaking then everything disolved.  Drove 8-9hrs home after retreat then following Morning balls of fire (concentration?) moved through me as i lay in bed for 1.5hrs....  Now I'm doing Korean Zen which is fun though its hard to forget about the sensations running through and into my face, going into my eyeballs (is this what Adyashanti means by turning eyes back 180 degrees?).  Asking myself the koan "Who am I?" and giving up on wanting strange experiences (kind of).   

off to reread MCTB then bed.  

Best