T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log - Discussion
T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
T, modified 4 Years ago at 12/18/19 6:58 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 12/18/19 6:50 AM
T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsI sat with that easily for some time just letting it do its thing, and my eyes picked up sort of wave-like patterns that undulated on my eyelids. They were basically a really dark, deep blackness, and the waves were a lighter gray, wisp kind of thing. Sometimes they would come down like drooping campaign bunting, one big one, or one or two - top down. Sometimes they were vertical and moving across. Sometimes they just moved and shaped out there in front of my eyes. Once in a while, they would form into a circle (perhaps a nimitta, based on descriptions). I wasn't able to do anything with it aside from watch it - it would go away if I tried anything. It seemed as though they may have been coinciding with the breath in some way, but it wasn't obvious enough for me to notice - it was just an impression.
I then heard a noise in the house and my mind took it in, while observing the patterns visually. I noticed that it kind of moved the waves a little, hearing the noise. I also had a thought of something akin to "hearing doesn't know sight" or somehow the idea that one is separate from the other entirely. I then promptly forgot it, it seemed, and had a thought "uh oh. whatever just occured to me seemed useful and/or important" but I was unable to grasp it... so I let it be forgotten.
Then I was having some kind of thought about...what I really don't recall..it was as if my mind was mid-way through the thought and it got totally cut off very abruptly - just a hard stop - and it was like I suddenly came out of warp speed in Star Wars/Trek. As if "I" was suddenly there realizing my thought got totally gutted, and then everything immediately (quicker than quick) went "whoosh" and came back as if it were catching up to me. Any of you fans out there might be able to visualize what I mean, except remove the light when traveling at warp. The moment when they exit warp and hit normal speed - everything zooms in like bright lines and then sooo quickly is like "pow!" and you can see the planet(s) ahead. It was like that, except it was as if everything was catching up to me, not the other way around. I was stable in the black zone and then things came zooming in. Hard to articulate....
The designs and patterns inside my eyelids were gonzo. It was a very rich, deep, dark kind of black, though. Nothing else at all visually, and yet it had some kind of depth and interest to it in a very warm and comfortable way. I preferred that nothing to the neat patterns I was viewing formerly. The patterns slowly came back, and eventually the nimitta-like, greyish smoke ring donut came back, too. I tried to go into the center of it, but it wasn't happening. It just broke up and when I'd say oh well, it would slowly re-form only to break up again.
Then I got up and went about my day. Another sit down. Kind of fun!
Bardo, modified 4 Years ago at 12/18/19 7:35 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 12/18/19 7:34 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 263 Join Date: 9/14/19 Recent PostsHello T.
What you wrote here is a very significant observation and one that, should you come to look more deeply at it, will reveal further interesting aspects about the nature of what we perceive to be inner-world, outer-world, and how consciousness is streamed between the two through the senses to produce a binary perception. The ear hears a noise. One becomes conscious of that noise and the mind interprets that noise through naming and forming. A feeling arises then comes a need to change ourselves or the environment in some way. These are the aggregates respectively: form, consciousness, perception, feeling, and intention. They are typically delivered in this order: form, feeling, perception, intention, and consciousness.
What I read from you is that you were able to remove yourself from this process and watch the entire thing play out perhaps not in the detail I've described but nevertheless, the bare framework was there. It does often appear to us that the senses operate in their own dimensions for instance, seeing does seeing things, and sound does sound things... and so on. I cannot say much more about this as I'm only writing at the level of my current experience.
However, what I do observe a lot of in me is how consciousness is streamed through the aggregated structure of self through the six senses. Senses perceptions are many events and have no relation to each other but the mind has such momentum it strings all these sense perceptions together to produce a stream of consciousness. Because of this the mind itself develops its own sense perceptions called thought so it can keep itself going even at the absence of external sense perceptions. We can see this when we go to sleep at night. The discontent mind dreams in name and form because that is how it is conditioned.
You can observe the aggregates in yourself in many ways throughout the day if that is how you choose to incline your practice.
Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 4 Years ago at 12/19/19 6:14 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 12/19/19 6:14 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 7134 Join Date: 12/8/18 Recent PostsT, modified 4 Years ago at 12/19/19 8:50 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 12/19/19 8:50 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsI have no idea where I am or have been. I've been at it for about 14-15 months really diligently. 1 hour minimum each morning and 30 to 60 minutes every night for the last four or five months. Before that, it was just an hour every morning. I can relate to lots of descriptions of things and have had some moments of clarity where I physically felt lighter and life was "easier" after - until it settles and becomes the new normal; the things I learned that made life lighter are still present, but it is now ingrained; One forgets how much they weighed pre weight loss until they pick up a heavy load again - ideally, with an awareness that it can be set down now...but none of it is obviously any of the pieces and parts described on the path of insight, except in small ways.
I know fear and anxiety well (though that has never been a thing for me) from this process; I know super chill and everything's cool maaaan from this process; I know everything is exciting amazing and I can't wait to tell everyone how wonderful it all is from this process; and I know deep existential dread from this process (also formerly never a thing for me)... maybe one or two things that would easily point to as A&P (like two stone figures shooting/connected by lightning back and forth between them), but the confusion arises because there's no clear cycle.
However, in no way has any of that been linear in the ways described elsewhere. Putting out a log just felt like a thing to do so... I did.
T, modified 4 Years ago at 12/20/19 3:25 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 12/20/19 3:25 PM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsIt was calm and peaceful abiding, I suppose.
Anyway, at some point, my mind felt a little foggy, in a sense. I suddenly jolted. I thought perhaps I had nodded off, but I was so alert. It happened again a few minutes later; still felt very alert. I checked in on my level of alertness and felt very sharp. I resolved to see if I was nodding.
I found that, instead, I would feel a sort of brain fog... the eyes would literally feel kind of dense...the back(ish) of my head would have a kind of sensation, and a part on the left side, also. This would feel kind of like tiredness sort of, but much more specific. It occurred to me that it was in relationship to a memory playing out in a sort of daydream fashion. I followed this through and as the memory ended, I would snap mentally to an alertness that felt like returning from nodding off. I decided to watch another and felt the gathering described, and even felt a sort of mental sinking occurring both physically and in a sort of "settling" sense. Then, the memory would conclude and I would snap back - feeling like having nodded off except I was alert and watching if occur. It was marvelous. It wasn't really continuous, but there also didn't seem to be any kind of "gap," as is being long debated in other places on here.
So I watched for pieces of it as it happened and even sought a memory to continue the process, just to witness it. It was different than the normal narrative mind going, for sure.
So this went on for some significant piece of the sit and then the bell tolled for me... so I got up very fascinated.
T, modified 4 Years ago at 12/24/19 4:31 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 12/24/19 4:31 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsI am tuned in and paying attention, and the sits are nearly boring. There is nothing in particular happening, I'm not the least bit drowsy. My mind doesn't wander far, if at all. I say nearly boring because it isn't actually boring. Simply sitting and breathing, hearing life happening, etc. is enough to keep my attention honed in; it just isn't anything of particular note. No jhanas, but I am very relaxed and have absolutely no problem sitting the hour plus.
Last night, I said to myself "let go of whatever is keeping you in bland land, man"
Nothing yet.
T, modified 4 Years ago at 12/25/19 2:39 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 12/25/19 2:39 PM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsToday, I did the normal hour in the morning and a couple half hours throughout the day. During this last one, I had a mental image of a kind of dharma wheel out in space. No thoughts about it, just a mental impression and it was made out of sort of space/stars/nebulae. There was an effort to try and turn it inside out - which seemed impossible - but I had the impression of an idea how and began to kind of invert it through the hub... sort of. I immediately got kind of excited about doing that and brought focus onto turning it inside out... and it all immediately disappeared. sigh.
I keep trying to remember about holding a peanut in the ocean!
T, modified 4 Years ago at 12/30/19 4:54 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 12/30/19 4:54 PM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsThe major thing has been how I feel while not meditating. I had a major headache yesterday that originated (it seemed) with tension near the shoulder blades and up into the neck, particularly in the back. THe muscles that extended up into the back of the skull were tight and my head was very unhappy. I tried to soldier it out, but felt ill so I took tylenol. It lessened the pain, but it was there throughout the day. I felt somewhat better toward night. This morning, I felt fine. Then, I sat for about 2 hours 15 minutes and have since been feeling... icky and off. Tightness has returned to the same places, though not causing a headache. My stomach feels nauseous. It isn't necessarily related, but I'm putting it out here in case someone can point to something useful I should be doing to help. I did some metta in the sit today, but everything felt murky and unclear and generally I've felt that way since the sit.
T, modified 4 Years ago at 12/31/19 7:25 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 12/31/19 5:11 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsThis morning, my hour sit was 'chaotic' mentally, though I had no physical aversion to sitting. The mind was all over the map and concentration never came together. My thoughts and attention were totally unbridled and free! ha. Much to my chagrin, though I have tried to simply accept that's what it was and move on.
T, modified 4 Years ago at 1/1/20 4:56 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 1/1/20 4:56 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsAfter reading much of the book, I have such a clear understanding of what I'm aiming for with meditation and daily awareness and noting; it isn't some lofty goal a'tall, nor is it mumbo-jumbo.
As a result, last night's sit and this morning have been... great? I hesitate to qualify, but it is certainly something different. Last night I was in a kind of awareness oblivion for the duration.
This morning I did an hour, starting with the breath and a light body scan. What I noticed first, upon waking, was that noting was automatic, in a sense. I had qualified myself previously as a terrible noter. I didn't get it. I was forever forgetting to note and hadn't read anything that clicked as to why it works.
Anyway, after I noted my way to sitting comfortably, scanned the body slightly, and began noting the rise and fall, noises, and what-have-you... I realized that I was much more immediately and clearly noting thinking, wondering, imagining, remembering, planning and was very, very quick to return to the breath, as well as note shifting and stretching movements. It feels as though noting is just... so simple. Except I was so tuned into the narrative brain that it was being drowned out...? maybe.
The sit was very straightforward. No bells and whistles. I was incredibly focused, felt incredibly fresh, and noted (seemingly) everything there was to be noted. I had no real shifts to anything discernible, but I was certainly jacked up on existence as it is. At one point, however, I did try to return to the breath and realized (in the first moment with alarm, and then with pleasure and internal laughter) that I had no word for "falling" as I noted "rising" and "falling" of the breath. It did come back to me after three or four of them, but for a while it was just... gone.
When I got up, I continued noting the hell out of living and continue to do so now, several minutes later.
T, modified 4 Years ago at 1/3/20 7:03 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 1/3/20 7:03 PM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsI find noting gone interesting and also hard to keep up with. I note an action, then another action begins before the first one is actually gone, so I find I'm doing something like "hear...see....(hear) gone...hear...(see) gone..." and so forth. They overlap and once in a while it gets kind of confusing, in a way, but I just try to keep at it.
I find that after doing a little early jhana to get excited and focused, I can go along pretty well. Sometimes I get into what feels like equanimity and then it's even simpler to track what occurs. After a while of that, I just sit and do some shikantaza. I find that is when the gone-noting makes any kind of blank outs happen. It hasn't happened while noting yet.
T, modified 4 Years ago at 1/4/20 6:58 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 1/4/20 6:58 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsI got up and my neck was back to painful and stiff and I felt tired. After my wife got up, I went back to sit the other half hour.
Again, I angled for just sitting; plain and simple. Again, all sorts of quick shifting and rapidly hit and equanimous feeling that was pervasive and made me crack a soft smile. I just sat and felt so.... content. I remained alert. Nothing particular to report. It felt, at one point, like there was some kind of jolt of a... major shift of sorts, but not "in your face" kind of shift. Just a quick - hey, where'd I go? Weird. I still feel super alert.
That was the only thing going on. I had some peripheral thoughts and considerations swirling around, but I just sat quietly in the middle and was so very, very content and comfortable.
The bell tolled for me - I ignored it and sat another five minutes or so because it was so luxurious of a sit. When I got up, my neck pain is 100% gone and I feel like a million buckeroos.
Onward.
Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 4 Years ago at 1/5/20 5:17 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 1/5/20 5:17 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 7134 Join Date: 12/8/18 Recent PostsT, modified 4 Years ago at 1/5/20 5:49 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 1/5/20 5:49 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsLater, I sat for a half hour and it was very peaceful and quiet. Not much to report for that sit. It was comfortable and quiet inside.
I woke up just before 0100 and was wide, wide awake and felt totally refreshed. I decided to sit for a few - probably 15 minutes. In that sit, it was wide and easy, though not expansive. As most insights seem to go - this seems incredibly obvious - but I realized that thoughts, my narration, and the perspective of the viewer are three separate entities. Meaning - I realized that my narration is more or less optional regarding thoughts. If I narrate the thought, it is grabbing it; if I don't, it just keeps on keeping on and I can kind of see it like an apparition of what it becomes once narrated. I had already seen the separation of viewer and thoughts, but missed the narration bit.
That felt interesting enough for one midnight sitting, so I went back and lay down, though I was still totally refreshed and awake. I just did some breathing exercises and relaxed. Suddenly, my attention did this really, really expansive sort of thing and I had this instinct "oh shit - this is it!" and tried to see what was happening. Attention sort of ballooned out, away and around, and then came back around behind me. That was it. Anticlimactic, but it was definitely a different feel. After sitting a little longer, I had this vision of a grand staircase with some number of landings ahead of me. It was white, marble stairs and railings with a lovely blue carpeting. Not sure where it goes/went.
Eventually, I did an hour sit this morning. It started out very restful and cheerful and relaxing once again. I was very, very comfortable and really just enjoying sitting there. At some point, in retrospect, I have no idea how long into the hour...I had the thought that being kind to myself was being kind to all others (and the reverse. Kind of occurred in one idea). Then, I had this attentional shift in a strange way. It was like in the old cartoons where the character is heading to his lair, so he sits in a chair against a short wall... the wall then spins around and the character is on the opposite side of the wall inside the lair. Anyway, it was kind of like that, expect it didn't feel as though I moved, necessarily. It was more like my awareness swirled around me 180 degrees.
The rest of the sit was super duper peaceful and chillllllll. I "came out of it" right about 4 minutes before my bell was set to go off.
Rad.
T, modified 4 Years ago at 1/9/20 7:03 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 1/9/20 6:54 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsThe fire kasina has been fun. I can't report anything funky and fun, but it is enjoyable seeing the red dot and the different color and patterns that can surround it sometimes. I just like doing it - I suppose it is helping concentration, but I am just enjoying it.
The sits lately have been quite effortless, though not as "deep" as they had been prior. I find myself very alert and focused on sensations. I have been using the Shinzen noting when I note - grouping similar senses into one single phrase instead of giving them each their own.
I have found that this method has kept me more alert than the other noting I was doing. I can't guess as to why, perhaps it is unrelated. More involved in occurrences both in and out, but less of a zen zone.
That said, I have noticed in this method that I go along noting like so... hear, see, hear, hear, hear, feel, see, feel... at some point it just snaps kind of out of sync. (note: I also note gone, but that is hard to demo in writing) It's not controllable, although kind of. I have noticed that it seems to occur at the conclusion of a "see" thought. Some visual image passes mentally, or some memory concludes... and I kind of blip out. I'm very quickly back (thus the blip) and realize there was a moment of blip. It feels as though my body kind of jerks (similar to nodding off), but I can't determine if that is simply the sensation of it. My body is still in the place I last knew it to be - I'm not chin-to-chest or anything. I also know it is very, very quick, because other hear senses haven't changed enough in the interim to have been long. I'm certain I don't fall asleep; in fact, I have been very awake and rested for days, and I am very aware of it happening up until and right afterward.
I sleep great for about 7 hours and wake up at 4 without issue. I go all day without yawning and really enjoy the daily activities, and go to bed around 9 just to keep a solid routine. I'm not necessarily "tired" by then, but I am comfortable to lie down and do some quick noting before falling asleep and stay asleep for 7 straight.
Regarding the ability to "control" the blip. If I note it as a blip and consider what it was, and then think "let's see about that again," I can sometimes get a blip to happen again within a couple minutes, sometimes three in an hour. It seems to depend on just how zen-ed out I am, and whether I intend to try again, but then simply go back to noting diligently. If I try to, it doesn't happen. Perhaps a subtle difference, but I imagine any readers here will get the idea.
EDIT* Forgot to mention that I have been consciously turning my crossfit workouts into meditation practice. I remember some allusion to physical activity (marching) in MCTB2 being possible for that, so I decided to do it on purpose. Essentially, I turn it to basic noting and try keeping my attention grounded as low, physically, as I can. So yesterday, it was running, box jump overs, rowing - combinations of those. I would basic note "left, left, left, right, left" while running; "up, 1, down" for box jump overs; "bend, push, bend, push" for rowing. I found that I really maximized my physical ability beyond my norm. It was partners, and while resting I would note my footfalls as I walked, or my in/out breath. At the end, I was dizzy and very, very winded, though I hadn't noticed it one bit during the noting. It was great. I am so, so very sore today.
That's the view from here.
T, modified 4 Years ago at 1/11/20 4:50 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 1/11/20 4:50 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsSits have been just sitting and noting. Very alert and zero tiredness (all day and also during sits), but nothing kind of "going on" during the sits.
This morning's hour sit, I just sat down. As in - I didn't have any real intention. I didn't get up to my alarm, I laid around a bit, finally had the impetus to go sit come up so I did... and just sat down. My mind wandered all over god's creation and I was aware of it from an observer perspective - never truly losing myself into the wandering. At some point, I felt a drop like an elevator and went down about four floors. It was fun so I tried to tune into the drop (maybe jhanic in nature) and it wasn't very eventful. I simply felt very clear, alert, and observant. So I just kept letting the mind do as it might.
That continued the full hour. I'd have the seemingly random and unidentified elevator drops and just watch whatever seemed to be randomly occurring. I continue to be very balanced in my daily life and not really ever getting tired mentally.
T, modified 4 Years ago at 1/12/20 4:35 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 1/12/20 4:35 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsThis morning was quite terrible as far as sit goes. I did my daily routine. Immediately, I was uncomfortable, but I just soldiered on. That lasted the entire time, sort of crescendo-ing throughout the hour. It felt like my focus was a mess - actually, non-existent. I tried following the breath with a mantra to help, but I wasn't able to keep track. My mind felt like a busy, busy place. I couldn't relate any one thread here, exactly, but I kept getting pulled around with what was going on and totally and completely forgetting my intent.
Somewhere around halfway through, maybe, I heard what was maybe the nada sound? I haven't heard it before, so I'm unsure. It was definitely not an external stimulus. It sounded like two of those wooden blocks clunking together once. It had a very interesting tone to it, but sounded faint.
Throughout the sit, I noticed that I kept realizing I was hunched forward/curled in. Kind of like falling asleep, but I wasn't, and it was my entire torso. I would realize that and then straight up slowly - a while later (15 minute maybe) I would notice it again.
As the sit went on, I started to worry about how much longer I had left to sit. I felt very overwhelmed by what was going on in my head. I had tried to start metta twice. The first time, I had trouble remembering how to even begin (odd and concerning, if I had been able to remember I was doing that, which wasn't until later). The second time, I was able to access the phrasing, but only got through the first four or five words of my phrasing when I realized I had forgotten the first time, and couldn't fathom why; I use it all the time. It worried me a little and felt out of hand. I did manage to get through one round before my mind just went elsewhere and I wasn't able to continue the metta anymore.
I was very uncomfortable and in "pain" for the latter half hour of the sit. The mind was feeling pretty wild. I began feeling ill at ease with it all, anxious, etc. Then, it started to rain. I was sitting beneath a skylight, so I could hear it start very, very slowly... one drop at a time, and slowly increase. This felt naturally soothing and stopped my freaking out, but not how painful sitting was. The bell tolled for me, but I resolved to power through a little longer to prove a point to myself (I guess). I listened to the rain, noting gone after each drop walloped. I felt less edgy, anxious, and worried.
I've seen/heard people talk about how their practice, in certain stages, can feel like going back all the way to the beginning again - but this felt worse than that to me. I never had much trouble focusing when I first began meditating, though I obviously worked with discomfort and what method helped me best maintain focus. This was like negative progress, though I know it isn't like that, necessarily.
T, modified 4 Years ago at 1/13/20 5:18 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 1/13/20 5:18 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsAt some point during the day, it became kind of exciting. I was driving back from somewhere and it felt like an adrenaline rush more than anxiety. I have always been an adrenaline junky, so I channeled this into something super awesome to experience. It was like driving too fast (I wasn't) or riding a roller coaster, or sky diving. Somewhere on that spectrum depending on the moment. I would give it consideration and let it roll without doing much.
I sat 45 minutes before bed, which was different than earlier. I was much more able to focus, or at least some semblance thereof. I just did breath focus and sat. Though the mind did stray some from time to time, it was relatively focused on the breath. I wasn't very comfortable after the first 20 minutes; my back started hurting as well as my legs. I kept on keeping on. I inclined toward jhanas (I really only have the lower 4 with any success), but they weren't happening.
This morning, I sat an hour. Started out uncomfortable and continued, but I sat through. I kept with the breath and was able to focus alright. In the beginning the mind was quite clear and featureless. Various stories came and went; I followed a few, but was aware I was doing so. I inlined toward the jhanas again, but only felt like 1 happened...maybe 2. At some point, I think I may have dropped to 3 because my core felt very warm, but my arms and chest had a very cool sensation, if somewhat clammy. There was something interesting about the field of focus, but I'm not sure I can articulate it. I stayed there the rest of the sit without any changes in focus, attention, or the body feeling.
T, modified 4 Years ago at 1/13/20 3:03 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 1/13/20 3:03 PM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent Posts...and I just started crying. I was so damn happy for the guy and for his skill, and for our maintaining of innocence to go forward naive and believing in magic, and their honoring of his abilities. Just cried.
That came out of left field and has to be related to my practice.
T, modified 4 Years ago at 1/18/20 4:54 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 1/18/20 4:54 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsYesterday, it came back! I did a 45 minute sit and was excited to do so. During it, there was zero sloth/torpor/boredom that would mix into past sits. Discomfort certainly existed after a half hour or so (I was sitting in a different way than I usually do, and on a different surface, so I'm surprised I made it that far), but it was kind of... there. It wasn't pain in the sense of a deterrent and something I was battling with. It was just noticed as what would be interpreted as pain, but wasn't coming through that way exactly. At one point, I had a strange sort of jolt at the bottom of the out breath. I had been very, very relaxed. I could sort of recreate it at the bottom of the out breath if I really tried to relax absolutely everything in my experience. It would result in this sort of jolt.
This morning, during my morning hour, it was basically the same, but the pain seemed even less interesting and relevant to anything. I could check it out if I chose, but it was kind of "down there" and not necessarily relevant to "me."
So the drop out/jolt thing happened, seemingly randomly as I got super relaxed. I decided to play with it a bit, inquisitively. During the out breath, I would just try and relax as much as possible - mentally and physically. Kind of let go. It felt kind of like, as I descended, I could just drop right out of the body, in a sense. I would reach the bottom and feel very open, and there would be a jolt and the in breath would start. I kept doing it and found that my concentration seemed to deepen out of curiosity, I imagine. I kept monitoring it - relax, open, let go.. jolt...in breath.
I think I've decided that I finally found the base, base impulse to in breath...? I'm really not sure.
I definitely in-breathe after the sort of jolt. The jolt, as I'm calling it, isn't like holding your breath and having a strong desire to breathe. In fact, I let go and didn't respond to the impulse in that way, and the jolt came separately without the impulse feeling, and after. It originates somewhere deep down and comes up from "the bottom" and then up through, and subsequently I breathe in. It is hard to truly see if one causes the other. On the way down, it feels like I'm letting go to an extent that my body would just fall apart/away/open, and the jolt brings me back up and in. Hard to articulate. I get the same feeling of the mind in that moment - like it is opening and I can see it totally relaxing and it could also fall apart/away/open completely and - zingo. Except... jolt.
T, modified 4 Years ago at 1/21/20 6:02 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 1/21/20 4:34 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsIt used to be that I would focus, following the breath, maybe play with access to the early jhanas, and get all "other worldly" sometimes. None of that happens.
I sit with the breath.
That about sums it up.
I don't recede inside or relax into anything or...see beyond the immediate moment in communion with the mind-at-large or whatever.
I sit with the breath.
I'm aware of it and follow it. Watch it. I'm alert and hear/smell everything around me that presents itself; and I just sit there. I'm comfortable for nearly the entirety of the 60 minutes each morning (and any timeframe each evening), and nothing happens. This morning I had some small early jhana action as far as body sensations. Instead of the strong piti that overtakes the body, it was just a full body "oh, this is so nice." It was very fine and subtle. I focused on it for several minutes and let the enjoyment just wash all around, but it was very calming and relaxed and not what I understood as piti from the past where it was quite forceful.
Nothing seems to be happening, basically. I've been following the breath now for probably... 500 hours? Right in there somewhere. Sittin' with the breath.
Irritable today.
Edit:
The past several nights at the end of my sit, or right after, I have been telling myself that I intend to be aware during the dream state. I've been in some of the dreams aware. It's hard to tell time spans, or whether I'm aware for 1 out of 4 dreams, or if there is only 1 dream. However, sometimes I'll wake up to go to the bathroom, lie back down, and go back to the same dream and still be aware, at least for a while. I haven't figured out how to actually do anything in there, yet, but I'm aware I'm dreaming and watching things play out. It isn't fully lucid with an ability to change anything, though sometimes I do.
Not two, not one, modified 4 Years ago at 1/21/20 3:24 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 1/21/20 3:24 PM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 1047 Join Date: 7/13/17 Recent PostsMetta to you T
Malcolm
T, modified 4 Years ago at 1/23/20 5:03 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 1/23/20 4:58 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent Postsand awoke
to the simple, beautiful truth.
I marveled at elegance
I danced with creation
I fell asleep to the truth,
and awoke to myself.
I wander between
groping
clumsily in darkness.
Not two, not one, modified 4 Years ago at 1/26/20 1:15 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 1/26/20 1:15 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 1047 Join Date: 7/13/17 Recent PostsT, modified 4 Years ago at 2/5/20 6:16 AM
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RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsYesterday and the day before, despite the head cold. I was fine. I felt fairly serene and basically continually present. There wasn't a ton of mind discourse and distraction.
Today, I'm tense inside and kind of angry.
edit: I was reading Kenneth Folk's article on jhana and nana (the wiki here) and he describes concentration. It occurred to me...
I have no problem following the breath whatsoever. I can count from 1-10 dozens of times without losing track in the least. Thoughts still occur and pass through, but they never grab. I always stay on track. He notes that being concentrated means being able to count 1-10 two or three times without wandering. Well, I'm able to do this four or five times that without much effort... yet nothing feels like it's happening whatsoever.
I don't have the vipassana abilities that many people here talk about. It just doesn't seem to happen - he notes that those who concentrate well seem to struggle with it. Seems to be me, perhaps...?
Great. So what do I do?
T, modified 4 Years ago at 2/7/20 8:56 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 2/7/20 8:56 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsI did some meditating from bed last night. This morning I got in 40 minutes of my usual morning 60 before my daughter woke up.
I was very alert and engaged the entire time. I started with Metta - very concentrated and aware. I did that for about 10 minutes, I would guess. I then settled into just being focused on whatever was there. The surface of my body was very cool, if not somewhat slightly cold, but everything below the surface was very warm and I could feel many of the processes occurring. The usual - tingling of the scalp, the sensations of sitting and feeling where it touched itself, the digestive sensation in the stomach, and such.
In summation - just very alert and concentrated. I did not bother counting breath because I have good concentration already and I think it has been overly used, potentially; if that makes sense. I still need some guidance on what to do when you have lots of concentration, but little other direction.
Anyway - I was very alert and tuned in to life and my bodily systems. Really without effort. Then a thought about one of the systems of the body or something going on popped up... and I mentally said to myself "words just get in the way," and my mind loosened up... almost physically. My brain sort of relaxed in a physical way - or so it felt. My sense of space widened a bit. It was pleasant. That's just it. The coolness of the body surface remained the entire sit, the sense of space was widened slightly, and I was very concentrated and alert. Nearly bored...but that's not quite the right term.
T, modified 4 Years ago at 2/16/20 8:34 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 2/16/20 8:34 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsFor a while now, I've been having more awareness in and of my dreams. Sometimes, I know I'm dreaming, but not in enough of a sense to think of controlling it. I wake up to go pee, or something, and then when I get back to sleep the dream had continued and I jump back in very quickly. Sometimes, living in a sort of in between during the awake part. Last night was the first time that I really had the sense I could control it, but I didn't. In part, because the instance when I realized it...I was afraid; In two different dreams. As I was aware and it has been haunting me, this is part of the practice, and it bled over into the sit (and life) today.
Dream 1: Going about my business doing whatever and suddenly, this very ominous dude shows up. A regular looking guy, in his way, but with an energy that is very dark and nervous-making, with undertones of fear. In this dream, I was only kind of lucid, but he stood out in stark contrast to the feel/background/sense of the dream. It was alarming. He definitely meant me harm in the dream. I don't recall what he did to my dream self, but it wasn't nice.
Dream 2: I brought my grandmother on vacation to Ireland or Iceland. We were touring. There was a beautiful lodge we boarded at. In the night, as I was walking in the hall of the lodge, this dude appeared. Same dude. Big, biker kinda guy, very negative dark energy and scary. I was much more lucid for this one. I felt afraid, but I knew it was a dream and decided to approach him. There was someone else with him, who was slightly less menacing. Anyway, we stood looking at one another. Again - the contrast between the dream reality and the texture of this part of the dream were remarkably different. Like... Having the Terminator show up on the animated set of Trolls. I think he hit me and I felt the emotional reactions one would, though no pain. I turned to walk away, deciding against violence, and he kicked me extraordinarily hard in the back - sending me flying (literally) down a very long flight of stairs into a very, very dark corridor. Knowing it was a dream, I just let go and flew down.. hit and rolled. Went on with my business and lost lucidity. I made a conscious decision to let it go in the dream, but apparently, I also let go of lucidity. The power of the dude (as I'm calling him) was palpable still in the dream for as long as I was still in it. It was palpable when I awoke. It followed me through my sit - with flashes of the dude and his aura. When I think about it now - still a heavy, dark, dread kinda feeling.
I'm aware this is me - or at least a creation of my own mind. However - it's dark, baby...real dark. Not something I'm aware of in normal business. I watched Steven LaBarge after seeing him mentioned (Linda...?) and I believe him that there's nothing to be afraid of, but it surely doesn't feel that way. The dude definitely wanted to end me. Maybe it's an internal fight going on as I finally unravel the self? The fear was the ego?
The sit today was a straightforward get concentrated and then just...settle. I did an hour. It was good. Getting focused was easy. I was fairly comfortable except some leg, lower back pain toward the last 15 minutes (I would guess). Nothing notable about the sit, per se, except the dude appeared a couple times and I had that same sense of fear/dread/worry. He's definitely gonna get me, kinda thing.
Chris M, modified 4 Years ago at 2/16/20 2:11 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 2/16/20 8:42 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 5407 Join Date: 1/26/13 Recent PostsRelax! Stop trying so hard. The word "concentration" as applied to jhana meditation is a hopelessly misleading term. Jhana isn't about laser-bean focus. It's about soft, fuzzy relaxed focus.
Also, the times when I felt my practice was stalled, was useless, was quiet and boring, almost always turned out to be the times when stuff was happening in the background but going unnoticed. It'll come. It will come.
Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 4 Years ago at 2/16/20 2:11 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 2/16/20 10:31 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 7134 Join Date: 12/8/18 Recent PostsAlso, the times when I felt my practice was stalled, was useless, was quiet and boring, almost always turned out to be the times when stuff was happening in the background but going unnoticed. It'll come. It will come.
I’ll second that. I still have a hard time believing that myself, when I’m in the midst of it, but it is pretty clear when I read through my practice logs. Breakthroughs tend to come after a period that really sucks subjectively.
I don’t think I mentioned Stephen LaBarge but someone likely did so either in my thread about lucid dreamless sleep or in my log.
Not two, not one, modified 4 Years ago at 2/16/20 11:44 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 2/16/20 11:44 PM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 1047 Join Date: 7/13/17 Recent PostsWith much metta.
Malcolm
T, modified 4 Years ago at 2/17/20 6:51 AM
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RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent Posts60 minutes, as always. Metta to get hot-to-trot and then just sat there "looking around." Thank you all who have given suggestions, as I've found having those options to mix in makes the shikantaza that much better when I turn to it.
I did find part way through the sit that it felt like my... brain, in a sense...was pulling up and to the left. My eyes felt as if they were drifting up that way, kind of like rolling back, but not actually. It hit a bliss spot.
So I sort of inclined attention up and in that direction again... sort of moving my eyes up and to the left, but again... I don't think I was actually moving the eyeballs (lids were closed). Once again... a bliss blip. I found I can do that over and over. I also found I can sort of keep it up in that zone and hold the on button. It was interesting. I didn't get bored, exactly, but I did decide to give it up after a few. I wasn't sure what would happen if I just sat there doing that - it felt like I could give myself a seizure or something. Not alarming or even concerning.. I just stopped.
The rest of the sit was peaceful and I was alert. I found some interesting shapes inside the eyes - been keeping my eye out for the space that I hear other people talk about which is just out in front of the face, but there wasn't anything to fall into yet.
good times.
edit: at work, just tried the mind/eyeball thing without any concentration and the soda fountain still runs on command.
Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 4 Years ago at 2/17/20 7:03 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 2/17/20 7:03 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 7134 Join Date: 12/8/18 Recent PostsLinda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 4 Years ago at 2/17/20 7:06 AM
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RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 7134 Join Date: 12/8/18 Recent PostsT, modified 4 Years ago at 2/17/20 7:19 AM
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RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsLinda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 4 Years ago at 2/17/20 7:30 AM
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RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 7134 Join Date: 12/8/18 Recent PostsAh. Oh well. I'm not confident that I have experienced them either or if I have just scripted myself into experiencing something that matches my idea of it. I'm not even totally sure whether there's a difference between those options. Regardless of which, I'm sure that the experience can be much more refined compared to what I have experienced.
T, modified 4 Years ago at 2/17/20 11:22 AM
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RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsLinda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 4 Years ago at 2/17/20 11:26 AM
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RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 7134 Join Date: 12/8/18 Recent PostsT, modified 4 Years ago at 2/19/20 8:16 PM
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RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsAs advertised, it creates a nice, large after image.
I quickly got into seeing shimmering yellow within the very, very red dot. Outside there would be blue rings, yellow, rings, and very, very dark black rings. The space around it would darken into a crisp darkness as the dot hung in the visual field. Eventually, the dot sort of disappeared and turned into a teal triangle. (this is all over a course of time, snipped). The teal triangle made itself into a square, then back to a triangle. It spun around like wheel of fortune. THEN - I noticed it got larger and my overall internal vision was kind of hued very, very lightly with that same teal, even as the triangle was spinning in the middle. Edit: there were also periods around this territory where there would be scalene and right angle triangles around the field (two to four at a time) that would be teal. Kind of like looking at shards of glass lying on a very dark background, and they even kind of glinted sometimes.
For brief periods right around those transitions - from dot to teal shape - I would get lost a moment. The mind would just dart off into some random sort of dream-sequence and then snap back to the teal shape.
A couple of times, the triangle went purple. For a short period, the triangle was hollow and it was as if I were passing through thousands of them consecutively - kind of like a tunnel. They were purple for a while, then they were yellow, and teal (order uncertain on the latter two).
It was a wild ride - no idea why I didn't start doing this when I first read it in MCTB2.
Oh yes, lots of body bliss and joy. I see how it can be distracting. It was more potent than the meditative version and made me nearly giggle a couple times. The heart rate was slightly elevated. Energy was certainly up. It seemed to ebb a little (or I forgot about it) during the brief dream sequences and the "tunnel run." As I go through the fire kasina book, it seems like maybe that's because I managed to let it go and focus better, which led to those possibilities. Not sure, but it's fun!
T, modified 4 Years ago at 2/26/20 6:14 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 2/26/20 6:14 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsLater, lying in bed, we were discussing something and I related that the situation was akin to the chicken and the egg. It's an endless cycle - which could possibly have come first? My mind just started going off on that idea and sort of... racing, I guess you could say. Not actually in a manic sense, though, just quickly going to a thing and looking at it deeply, yet in a very big way, and then another. So it first snapped to an acorn and an oak tree - one acorn is every tree, but one tree is every acorn. Endless. Every rain storm is every stream, is every, cloud, is every storm, is every... endless. Which came first - the adult human or the baby? Endless. It all appeared so dramatic and vast and I felt hugely expansive and it was breath-taking. Pretty sure my heart rate spiked. It was marvelous. Lasted for a little while as the mind went from idea to idea taking in the breadth of it. I eventually fell asleep.
Woke up very early and couldn't sleep, so I hit the kasina practice. It was fine, progressing through the red dot and in/around the zone of the deep back hole tinged with teal/yellow, oort cloud with a hole, kind of thing... and back and forth.
Then I transitioned into my normal morning hour long sit. I had zero difficulty settling in. The gong went and zoom-o, I was tuned up. I didn't need the breath at all, or even notice it. I was just sitting and being aware. I realized quickly that I could feel my brain literally tense around ideas and sensations and that I could relax it by... sort of zooming out. I was very aware of what was going on in the mind, but I could also shift to hearing and it would be very, very dominant - filling my head. Then I could switch to vision (eyes closed) and dissect the swirlies and white/black war going on in the eyelids, I didn't switch over to sensations, but I'm sure it would have been a similarly intimate sense. It was kind of fascinating how different this sit was to others. My daughter would cough in her room and a tiny piece of attention would zip and peek - and then zoom back to the whole thing I had been attending to originally; watching the mind.
I hit the bliss fountain to see what would happen - still worked. I had a couple arm jerks, which caught me off guard. Hadn't happened for a while.
I had a couple of occasions where I was quite focused on the visual patterns and what came up mentally (going back and forth), and I would go into a kind space that is maybe hypnagogic in some way. I've seen the term here, but had no idea what it meant. I heard the etymology on a Michael Taft podcast and it really felt like that - going toward the god of dreams. I wasn't asleep, most certainly, but I was also not exactly present aside from my mind paying attention.
Perhaps this is what a formless realm jhana feels like? I don't have a gauge. I definitely was unaware of my body and, now that I think of it, almost all my senses aside from.. well awareness isn't a sense. So I was unaware of all my senses. So maybe?
At some point, the bliss button was hit for me - as opposed to the method I've found of popping it on.
It was cool.
Interestingly, five minutes before the gong, I was just totally over it. Not averse to practicing at all, I could have continued sitting; I was just over it. That's the only way to describe it. So I got up.
T, modified 4 Years ago at 3/10/20 7:07 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 3/10/20 7:04 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsTo try and gin up some excitement again, I did some kasina. That kind of backfired because I went from all in, feeling all the excitement, getting all buzzing... and then when I went back to it the next day it was totally vague and hard to pay attention and ended up being a bit frustrating. I realize this points directly at some kind of obvious phase/stage due to the meditating on the kasina, but it was still annoying.
However, it has regained me some traction in motivation and I'm back on the cushion each day. The time change is really a pain in the ass and for the first time in quite a long while, I'm fighting drowsiness. It is different than drowsiness from the past, though, as I seem to maintain more overall awareness in the face of it than I used to.
I see lots of ways the self is created. I matter-of-factly recognize a number of ways in which it is ultimately false. Yet the goddamned thing won't go away long enough for me to have a zappo insight so I can... what's the word.... grok it deeply?
Side note: I notice certain emotions appear... seemingly randomly. Well, that's not it. Somewhat out of context and potentially disproportionate to the cause. Example: I work in public safety. There was a large meeting for emergency planning and preparation for the novel coronavirus. I was struck by the group in the room all sitting down to the table in the face of something many of them find unnecessarily terrifying and trying to plan how they will help other people. Every time some new party would speak, I would feel like breaking down in tears.
T, modified 4 Years ago at 3/14/20 7:58 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 3/14/20 7:58 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsLetting go of all experience is letting go of suffering.
I was sitting. Deep in some place meditative. I kept having these little moments of shift where I'd be deep in, watching some kind of thought, and then just sort of shift really quickly and unexpectedly in the amount of attention scope... kind of. I'm not very good at explaining it.
Anyway, I was deep in there doing this and my mind started to chatter a little, and it seemed to be addressing me. Or at least speaking to me in the third person. I can't really recall what about. That, in itself, should have been it's own clue, but as it went, it finished the sentence and added "my name" to it; except it wasn't the name I was given at birth (Tim). It was Chris. In the very moment it happened, it made some kind of schism in my mind where everything stopped, quite literally. A moment later, I realized that my mind had called "me" by my "wrong name" which was kind of hilarious in its own way. The realization was pretty complete that I'm not that, though, and am instead something else.
All I was left with were the two ideas above, which just sort of echoed and resonated throughout my very, very quiet, peaceful, and open mental space. I had a very clear feeling of utter detachment from my physical being, though a sense of "me" was still coordinated up and around my head-space. It was clear that it was more like looking "through" that space as opposed to living from it. Sort of. Incomplete, sure, but definitely noticable.
Chris M, modified 4 Years ago at 3/14/20 8:45 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 3/14/20 8:45 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 5407 Join Date: 1/26/13 Recent PostsT, modified 4 Years ago at 3/14/20 11:53 AM
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RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsMikhail Zybin, modified 4 Years ago at 3/14/20 3:32 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 3/14/20 3:32 PM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 57 Join Date: 2/16/20 Recent PostsT, modified 4 Years ago at 3/14/20 6:31 PM
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RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsEvery oak tree on the planet started from this one acorn in my back yard. Literally.
T, modified 4 Years ago at 3/17/20 6:23 AM
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RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsAnyway -
The formula itself is the same. I sit sixty minutes in the morning, and generally 15-30 in the evening. Between, the life is lived as prescribed.
I start with the breath counting to ten, though much of the time it hardly seems necessary. I'm already paying attention and already the mind focuses on what's happening in experience. Much more rarely, it will comment on what's happening via some passing thought.
Then, kind of nothing happens; yet everything is happening. I lose no focus, nor do I get drowsy or foggy. Nothing crazy happens as far as mental images, or energy bursts, or I don't know... anything really; yet everything is just happening. In fact, one passing thought as I watched was simply "life occurs."
It is much more possible to sit truly without moving - it isn't that discomfort isn't present - I just don't care. That's maybe not the right way to put it. I'm aware there is discomfort and just let it be there. It isn't really a problem, I guess.
So I dabble seeing thoughts, I hear things that go on, I see wispy formations in my eyelids, I play with sensing the whole body, then a hand, then my forehead or nose... and just do that for an hour. There's not much to it, but it's still very enjoyable and feels useful somehow.
Oh. There was one odd moment where it was as if someone shined a flashlight into my right eye from up and to my right. It was super quick. There wasn't anyone around with a flashlight, so it must have been mind generated, but nothing dramatic happened afterward. Obviously, that means it was a deep, deep realization. I'm plumbing the depths of my nonexistent soul by way of light flashes.
Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 4 Years ago at 3/17/20 6:44 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 3/17/20 6:44 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 7134 Join Date: 12/8/18 Recent PostsT, modified 4 Years ago at 3/18/20 6:21 AM
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RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsThe sits themselves are nothing remarkable, and yet I'm amazed at the lack of self-directed thinking in a narrative sense. Maybe the knot is untangling.
Perhaps sits aren't supposed to be remarkable.
Perhaps the very thing is remarkable.
Maybe... I'm remarkably unremarkable.
How wonderful.
How very silly.
Chris M, modified 4 Years ago at 3/18/20 6:46 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 3/18/20 6:46 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 5407 Join Date: 1/26/13 Recent PostsT, modified 4 Years ago at 3/22/20 6:03 AM
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RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsIt's a kind of comitragedy of everyone doing all this work to SEEEEEEE something that simply is, and is.. everything there is. The attempt at getting to it actually distances one from it in the first place. Well... in the second place? Once the mind gets rolling at all, you're not there, you're in the mind stream which is never in the present - well, that's not true, either, exactly. The mind stream is present as it arises, but the minds processing of it is immediately past/future. It's a tricky thing sometimes to ride the razor's edge of BAM. Here. Now.
Relaxing helps a lot. Letting go, as they say, helps a lot. Didn't make sense to me for the longest time.
T, modified 4 Years ago at 3/26/20 7:08 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 3/26/20 7:08 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsBeen sittin', as one does. I had a grand weekend of opening and it was a game changer in a big way.
That said - today is Thursday, and I noticed yesterday in the evening and continuing into today something annoying.
Old unskillful habits and things that were long gone are just cropping up and giving me hell. Old thought patterns, primarily, that revolve around an idea of "me" as the story of the world is told from "my perspective." The latter has been gone for some time, and the former much more recently. However, they were gone. Seemingly gone, gone.
Weeeeelll, not so fast, grasshopper.
In a sense it is like I am being bombarded by these old things. I find them.. not repulsive...that's not the right word. So they surprise me, because that's not how things have been operating for some time now. I don't buy into them - in fact I've done really well at seeing them and sloughing them off. They are generally the kind of thing that would lead to dukkha if I paid attention to them. Instead, they're creating dukkha because they are coming up all of a sudden after a very, very long period of calm and peacefulness. I'm trying not to be overly averse to them and create more dukkha, but it is annoying. I'm guessing it points to being "somewhere" other people would recognize, but I frankly don't understand any of this "stages" business.
Perhaps I began a new spiral, as Linda/Polly likes to refer it. That feels right somehow. Hopefully it isn't a downward one!
Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 4 Years ago at 3/26/20 7:59 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 3/26/20 7:59 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 7134 Join Date: 12/8/18 Recent PostsNot two, not one, modified 4 Years ago at 3/26/20 2:08 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 3/26/20 1:51 PM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 1047 Join Date: 7/13/17 Recent PostsWhat you are doing is just right - notice them and renounce them, leading to their cessation. But don't obsess about getting rid of them, as that involves contracting around the self, and you don't want that. Also, you don't have to get rid of all of them. It's fine just to sit with them, noting they are impermanent, not-self, and a cause of suffering.
You can also remodel them a bit over time through the four right exertions. However, in my view it's worth having a bit of programming, and not aspiring to be be just a blank state. Some of our personal history is worth honouring, particularly for householders. It's worth enjoying and living within the skillful connections we have to others. But now you have more of a choice - which sankharas do you want?
Malcolm
T, modified 4 Years ago at 3/28/20 7:10 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 3/28/20 7:07 PM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsExcept, now I know what they mean. It's seen differently by the brain, or something. The whole idea of the thing is where it is, or whatever weirdness comes out. Yea. That. You can tell a tree between you and a field is most definitely round by just looking at it - the light bending around it and such, I guess is how I would describe it. It's very three-dimensional and very obviously at a different depth than the meadow, or the trees distant, or whatever else. The same with a house in the distance, or my wife raking leaves between the tree, the meadow, and the house distant. It's really fun to walk in the woods and I've been playing around with it all week.
So that's been happening. At the same time, as I said above, I've been on the struggle bus with habits cropping and grumpiness, though relatively mild aside from the mental proliferation of old habits. I've been fine, though.
Just said for about 45 minutes. After concentrating for a while, I just rolled on it. After a while, I had a sort of blip out. Eventually, my mind was hovering over "the train" when it took some kind of turn back toward "me." It went fast, and as I said, I was kind of hovering above the train as it went. When it jogged hard left, I almost lost it. This was all some kind of visualizing... in a way. Not intentionally so.
At that moment, the mind visually slammed right into a label (kind of literally) that said "I" and the label was in front of.. whatever was perceived as me by the mind; I was sort of observing from the side. The label was clearly separate from the thing it was placed in front of, and clearly separate from either the viewpoint of me or the thing it had been placed in front of. EDIT: This is hard to describe because it was more like a label hovering in the middle of space, but I perceived my viewing it as my awareness, but also seeing that what was behind and around the label as my awareness. ::END EDIT. The label then kind of flew off in a different direction. My mind shifted very hard and abruptly and went quiet. It was obvious enough what it meant.
I then went to an apple and considered an apple believing itself to be Macintosh, or perhaps $1.00. Then, the mind went after the apple since it isn't apple, either. It's... and the mind really quickly ran through image of apple, image of tree bud, branch, tree, ground, rain, soil, etc. Then it went back to the apple and the apple kind of... poofed out. Not explode, disappear, or disintegrate... but like what might happen if you blow someone's cigarette smoke puff. It just.. separated away into nothing.
I directed my mind to a visual of my dog. Same thing happened, sort of. He poofed. Then my daughter. She poofed. Then my neighbor, he poofed. Then my house, it poofed. Then I turned it at my body.
It didn't poof. Not exactly. It wasn't all there, though, either. For the first time, though, I was able to see what it means to be outside the confines of the physical form. My.. aura or whatever, was definitely outside the boundary of my arms, my torso, my legs, etc. Except there was a squeezed feeling keeping me very much inside my skull space. It was like everything else emanated beyond my body, but was still stuck in my skull in one spot. Like a shoe too tight. And yet I had the knowledge of my awareness filling the space around me - even beyond what felt like "my aura."
So I went back around with objects and poofed them into vapor a few more times. Then I went back to check the aura. The tightness of the noggin' was reduced, but the skull still felt too tight. I could kind of feel the aura outside of it, but it took some real paying attention.
The body was easy. It didn't take much thinking about it to feel "me" beyond the body from the neck down. Like depictions of a magnetic field I have seen, in a sense.
Anyway - I wanted to sit and screw with that forever, but it ended. Couldn't tell you why. I was very concentrated, very comfortable, and in it...but it was over, apparently. Eyes abruptly opened, head shook to loosen up, and I headed down to journal. *big shrug of the shoulders*
Doesn't feel any different at the moment.
T, modified 4 Years ago at 3/31/20 7:56 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 3/31/20 7:56 PM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsI've decided that I actually do have (warning: buzzword) cessations, after all. However, the clarity is not at all what I understood and really don't have a ton of clarity on the moments surrounding, but they are becoming more possible to look at.
I went back to pore over MCTB2 for some reference. I'm not completely sure I get it, but it's definitely one of these things happening - from what I can tell right before blanking out, it's that the "mind followed a phenomenon to its final and complete disappearance and didn't do the strange, blinking-out, glossing-over thing that it typically does regarding this gap between moments." This is in reference to the suffering door (page 261) and makes a lot of sense. It always happens right at the end of a thought, or the conclusion of the one I'm watching, that is. I have long been "an intellectual" and held brain power and thought above all else; that is to say super attached to thought and the power of the brain. I'm being shown clearly in these moments how intransigent and ephemeral thought truly is, and how having clung to it, with belief in control, for so long was quite the suffer fest. Thought has been one of the plaguing factors, whereas the physical difficulties and such that others have really didn't slow me down much.
Anyway - So I sit down and count the breaths 1-10 over and over until I feel it is no longer necessary. It's just a vibe. I then switch to simply monitoring experience. No noting or anything, just monitoring experience. I sometimes get the expansive attention mode, sometimes I just stay tight on experience, sometimes, I get sort of spacey - it really isn't the same every time. If it is, it changes before I really take note of it. Anyway, then a thought will come passing through - usually involving some visual aspect of the mind. As that nears whatever conclusion there is - BONK. Then I'm left with a blank sort of mental stare of "WTF" and a much lighter feel. The last two times, I resolved to review it, and the same thing happened a little bit later.
I'm either learning something or training myself to pass out sitting rigidly. Only time will tell!
Tune in next time for - Who The Hell Knows!!?? - the random sit log where absolutely nobody knows what's going on because nobody's here!
T, modified 4 Years ago at 4/1/20 8:41 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/1/20 8:41 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsI developed a very painful right hip flexor. I sat with it for 55 minutes, but had to eventually straighten the leg. It isn't tight. I stretch and it's all fine. Just most annoying while seated in meditation. I'm sure I'm supposed to investigate this, but I'm not entirely sure how. I was focusing on it a lot to try and investigate - it didn't show me what it needs to yet, just got different kinds of "pain."
I don't view it as pain occurring to me - I just view it as - there's a sensation that kinda sucks.What kind of sucky sensation? Hmm... burning, throbbing... tightness...
I believe I'm going about it "the right way," but it's just there in a big way. May I see what must be seen in short order.
T, modified 4 Years ago at 4/1/20 6:59 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/1/20 6:59 PM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsI dropped in pretty quickly on the breath this evening. Did about 45 minutes.
I started exploring sounds. My daughter has a noise machine that runs and I was listening to that until it started to break down into a kind of wave form, as in I could feel the waves on the ear drums type thing. Then I picked up some other noises, and noticed some body sensations, including the breath. Then they just began increasing. I tried to hold them all at once and not "focus" on any one of them, yet give them each attention in awareness... kind of. It resulted in something that felt mildly overwhelming. I was feeling so many body sensations and hearing so much throughout the area. Then I realized I was thinking and tried to hold thoughts in the same way. That was much harder. It was very difficult to hold the thoughts the same. When one came up - it was like a magnet to my focus, and just sapped it straight away. I would relax and note it was thinking and try to hold everything else again, only to have thought sap my attention. That's what I did for the sit.
Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 4 Years ago at 4/1/20 7:50 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/1/20 7:50 PM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 7134 Join Date: 12/8/18 Recent PostsT, modified 4 Years ago at 4/1/20 8:27 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/1/20 8:27 PM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsLinda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 4 Years ago at 4/2/20 6:04 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/2/20 6:04 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 7134 Join Date: 12/8/18 Recent PostsTim Farrington, modified 4 Years ago at 4/2/20 6:45 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/2/20 6:44 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 2464 Join Date: 6/13/11 Recent PostsI dropped in pretty quickly on the breath this evening. Did about 45 minutes.
I started exploring sounds. My daughter has a noise machine that runs and I was listening to that until it started to break down into a kind of wave form, as in I could feel the waves on the ear drums type thing. Then I picked up some other noises, and noticed some body sensations, including the breath. Then they just began increasing. I tried to hold them all at once and not "focus" on any one of them, yet give them each attention in awareness... kind of. It resulted in something that felt mildly overwhelming. I was feeling so many body sensations and hearing so much throughout the area. Then I realized I was thinking and tried to hold thoughts in the same way. That was much harder. It was very difficult to hold the thoughts the same. When one came up - it was like a magnet to my focus, and just sapped it straight away. I would relax and note it was thinking and try to hold everything else again, only to have thought sap my attention. That's what I did for the sit.
I hope I'm not crashing the party here! There is something so beautiful and intimate about a practice log, and this is like coming into the meditation hall late and trying to find a quiet place in the back without fuss, while everybody gets on with business.
I can relate to the being able at some point to notice disparate sensations and trying to hold them all in awareness, and the resultant speeding up and sense of it being mildly overwhelming. Sometimes when I stay with that, sort of overwhelmed, with this sense that it's just not a "sustainable" practice, as it takes everything I've got just to keep up with doing it ineffectually and cluelessly, and I don't do the usual lapse into thoughts, am able to say stay basic, breath, body, word (for me), while trying to attend to everything in a big whirling fuzz, there is a shift to something that i tentatively think of as some of kind synesthesia, as if in trying to attend to all the background stuff from the various sense doors, the mind finds a synthetic way of making it simple and fluid. which is sort of lovely to flow with, and is a clear relief, until I start trying to figure out how to live in this nice new flowing way now and for all eternity and bestow bliss on all i meet, and so forth, and have to let go of that as the cramps of my achievement grasping set in, back to the basics, grasshopper, 1, 2, 3, breath, body, word.
Thanks for sharing this log. It's literally in-spiring--- I'm a breath watcher from way back, myself.
T, modified 4 Years ago at 4/2/20 7:02 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/2/20 7:02 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsLinda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 4 Years ago at 4/2/20 7:19 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/2/20 7:19 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 7134 Join Date: 12/8/18 Recent PostsSometimes when I stay with that, sort of overwhelmed, with this sense that it's just not a "sustainable" practice, as it takes everything I've got just to keep up with doing it ineffectually and cluelessly, and I don't do the usual lapse into thoughts, am able to say stay basic, breath, body, word (for me), while trying to attend to everything in a big whirling fuzz, there is a shift to something that i tentatively think of as some of kind synesthesia, as if in trying to attend to all the background stuff from the various sense doors, the mind finds a synthetic way of making it simple and fluid. which is sort of lovely to flow with, and is a clear relief, until I start trying to figure out how to live in this nice new flowing way now and for all eternity
And I can relate to that. I suppose not trying to figure it out is the trick. It probably needs to settle, and trusting that it will makes the porocess less frustrating.
T, modified 4 Years ago at 4/2/20 8:12 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/2/20 8:12 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsTim Farrington, modified 4 Years ago at 4/2/20 8:38 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/2/20 8:38 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 2464 Join Date: 6/13/11 Recent PostsNo way I'm getting stuck with jikijitsu duty. Much better to be whacked than to whack, being the whackee is so straightforward and simple.
Tim Farrington, modified 4 Years ago at 4/2/20 8:40 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/2/20 8:40 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 2464 Join Date: 6/13/11 Recent PostsIf I'd known you were laying claim to this kind of high achievement, I would have showed up several lifetimes ago.
T, modified 4 Years ago at 4/2/20 6:56 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/2/20 6:56 PM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsDecided I wanted to see a white nimitta, so I did three or so rounds of breath. I must have been pretty concentrated already, because I did, somewhat to my surprise. The mind was incredibly pleased about this development and the body subsequently so. It wasn't clear, certainly. It was more like a very strong suggestion of a circular nimitta in the murk, with a slight black outline. It would move around a bit and wobble, disappear and come back. It was very piti inducing.
Then I sat and worked to get the sounds occuring all coming in. Then the sensations. Then I lost track of whether I existed physically aside from the head, a faint sensation of hands, and legs. The neck and torso felt like air and nothing. Then, a few times I couldn't tell if I could feel my face or hear it. It was like I could feel my cheek through my ear. My brain was very confused about this, but it was happening.
I opened my eyes, seemingly on a whim, to try and toss in the visual field. I never meditate with eyes open (I have terrible vision, for one) so I wasn't sure if this would ruin the experiment. It didn't. There were no lights aside from the glow of the rainy evening through a skylight. Each time I would incline toward opening to audio and felt sense, the visual sense would move toward all white. It wasn't exactly like clouding over. More like the lines between things turned white which made the lighter background start going kind of solid as whitish smoke. Kind of. If I stopped trying to hear/feel everything all at once, it would go back to normal. Once I started sort of "backing up" to get it all in at once, it would go white again.
I played with that a bit until I didn't.
I worry the log is creating a thing. I was excited about this new sense and wanted to log it. Why? Ew.
T, modified 4 Years ago at 4/4/20 9:10 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/4/20 9:10 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsTried it later, at home, and flopped. haha. Friggin' minds...
I sat yesterday in the morning about an hour total, with some sweet yoga moves in between. I'm kind of a muscle-y, tight person, but I managed to cram myself slowly into position. I see why people like it. I never had an appreciation before. The sitting was legitimately simply sitting and being aware. I've been realizing that, at least for now, that's all there is to it. I'm not ending up in any jhanas that I notice, though I can note some kind of transitions that feel more akin to insight stages, which seem relatively delineated. Relative, is the very key term.
I sat again in the evening. Same deal.
Last night before bed, I laid down and the mind went quickly to watching the action of the eyelids. Then I had this very wispy and vague, yet visually... almost there...images. I would say thousands of them, in color, flashed before my visual mind screen. Not strobing exactly, but kind of. Frame by frame, images of people and events that I have no idea what they were. They weren't concrete enough to say. However, I saw so many images of people of all walks of life and ages, some of whom it felt like I recognized, but I don't know them. I couldn't name anyone. They just felt familiar in a sense - not all of them, but the impression was of familiarity. Anyway... lately, I've been having some mini-visions come up of this same black woman that kind of looks like a young Oprah prodding me here and there as I sit quietly. It seems helpful and the person seems very familiar and well intended as a mind creation. I have no idea what it's about, but... whatever.
I sat today for 45 minutes considering the truth of it all. Who cares if there's nothing behind the curtain? I'm well aware that humans aren't special. I've known that since I was very young. Never believed we held a special status on earth - we're just capable of far more destruction. Even if the stories aren't of true, ultimate substance, they're still the experience of life (at least this one) that we have access to. If you don't buy in, or do, it doesn't matter at all. The life is still there being lived in the form one is experiencing it as. Turning toward the negative potential of that will likely have an unhappy ending for the story - but the story is still "you" in some fashion and you'll still have to deal with it, because though illusory, we're still tied up in this "reality." That's all there is, really. I think if one is extremely tied to the amazing nature of themselves - that drop in the stomach is far more painful and dramatic than it is for other versions of the story.
Additionally, one who is extremely depressed and woe is me and hates themselves...well that's just another version of being tied to the nature of themselves - it is the equal and opposite of being a complete narcissist; or is it? Instead of being in love with themselves totally, they are simply dedicated to hating themselves... still entirely focused on themselves...only to learn they aren't special in either case.
Therefore, both those kinds of stories suffer greatly at the time of the big reveal and go on these really rough roller coaster rides after a realization. One, perhaps, experiences such pain at the loss of their special, special self... the other feels great relief and love with the world at realizing they aren't the complete and utter loathing they formerly believed; they are simply part of a loving movement that exists. Full stop.
I find it interesting that many of the major spiritual teachers share that what brought them to the path and realization was total self loathing, or at least on a scale of it.
I wondered a time or two why the dark night didn't drag me through the mud like others. Well, I think there's a version in the middle of these two story-believers where some parts of the path are already known. Some stories aren't surprised to find they may be unique, but aren't "everything" in either direction, and that "we" hold no special place in this existence. So.. it's kind of business as usual. The insights are very interesting and absolutely transform the vision of the story and the interpretation of existence. It can be a huge relief, but it doesn't fundamentally change the storyboard, in many senses.
So... insights are very helpful, though can be very painful for some story believers.
Enlightenment is nothing, really. At least, nothing tangible.
Getting in touch with all six senses equally/simultaneously, perhaps, which certainly changes the "flavor" of the story as some say.
I don't actually know. I'm not enlightened. I suspect you aren't either. However, some here do have something to share with the rest of us. Some have contact with all the senses and interpret them differently than the ordinary mind. That's worth sharing - being in contact with that makes existing as simply as it always was...yet far more obvious. First, though... I would get your shit together. If you're obsessed with yourself in any regard at the start of the journey - it's gonna fucking hurt. If you can manage to squeeze toward the middle of the spectrum before the ride starts - it will be fun, interesting, revealing, jaw-dropping, exciting, sad, confusing... I suppose one could say it will simply be life. Just don't get tied to that either. This is what the Buddha was trying to tell everyone, maybe. Daniel Ingram, too. Don't forget the trainings...it will help you move from one of the potential extremes on what is actually something like a circle or sphere maybe... of self loathing/extreme self-love before getting in touch with all sensate reality.
I'm off to get in touch with my senses equally (by that, I mean all six the Buddha described).
If none of this makes sense, I probably did it well.
Tim Farrington, modified 4 Years ago at 4/4/20 9:29 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/4/20 9:29 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 2464 Join Date: 6/13/11 Recent PostsT, modified 4 Years ago at 4/5/20 8:27 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/5/20 8:27 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsI started watching the breath for a while and then my mind went to "may I be of benefit to all beings" so I took it as a mantra and rolled with it. After a bit, my mind flashed to spiders pouring into/out of my mouth like in some horror flick. Then it went to worms, maggots, flies, and such consuming my corpse, though in some flashes it still had life in it. It wasn't particularly alarming, per se. It was interesting, in a sense. I was pretty settled in meditation, so I just observed the images and considered the point of my demise and the benefit it would do to all the lower beings of the realm. It passed at some point.
Then my mind focused on the "voice in my head." I decided to try and track the sensations of self made by that voice. Well, it came to a point where the voice in my head is actually in my throat/mouth/jaw and not exactly in my head. It just sort of seems that way. I realized that it is very subtle, but the voice in my head is really coming along with very small sensations of physical speech in the same place it is experienced when speaking aloud. I relaxed this and tried to make the voice in the head without that, and I couldn't. The voice in my head doesn't appear to be in my head - it just seems that way. The sensations are surely elsewhere, from what I can tell.
During the sit my right foot happened to fall asleep. As I sat, done formally, looking at it stretched out in front of my regaining new sensation...it occurred to me that the foot and the feeling of the foot were most definitely "out there in space," in some sense. The foot was precisely where the foot was and all associated sensations were out there were the foot was.
It seems like this should be revelatory and yet benign all at once.
That's kind of how I think of the process end "end point"...revelatory and yet completely bland and regular.
T, modified 4 Years ago at 4/6/20 8:05 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/6/20 8:05 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsGuess I'll keep trying.
T, modified 4 Years ago at 4/8/20 7:26 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/8/20 7:26 PM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsWim Hof was having a sale on his 10 week course (50% off) so I sprung for it. I've been doing the breathing exercises and other items for three days. It's really quite something. The body experience was not what I was expecting at all. We'll see how it goes. It's fun.
I've been listening to a lot of Michael Taft podcasts, trying to understand D.O. better, and feeling a sense of "I know something is happening, but I haven't the fainest clue WTF it is."
Still sitting. This morning, I sat 45 minutes. I went for some quiet noting. I found that I was quiet free and into it. Nothing of particular interest there.
This evening, I sat maybe 20 minutes. I find that, due to the breathing techniques mentioned above, I can get some serious body awareness going. Much better than before - at least for the circulatory system. So tuning into the breath proper (beyond the idea of breath) is really easy and a different experience than before. So I did that and felt all vapor-like. Then I dropped it and floated away.
At some point, I had a very, very vivid visualization (my first so very real) that I was seeing through my eyelids and looking at my hands in front of me - except I wasn't. I realized that the hands in front of me weren't mine, but another male's hands. I didn't recognize them at all. The hands were texting/receiving texts on a large iPhone. I couldn't read the texts, but it was between an iPhone user and an android user based on the colors. It was bizarre. It was jarring and threw me out of whatever I was in (not a bar, anymore, I'll have you know).
Anyway - it was bizarre.
It was fun. I'll try not to hang onto it.
T, modified 4 Years ago at 4/9/20 8:10 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/9/20 8:10 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsTim Farrington, modified 4 Years ago at 4/9/20 8:43 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/9/20 8:43 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 2464 Join Date: 6/13/11 Recent PostsT, modified 4 Years ago at 4/9/20 9:15 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/9/20 9:15 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsEssentially, he directs you to hyperventilate in a controlled manner, then exhale and hold as long as you can. This leads to really interesting body sensations and you can really "get into your physiology" as he describes it. You do that about three times and then stretch - eventually I think he has you do push-ups and such. In the videos, he talks about directly touching the parasympathetic nerve and learning to control your fight/flight response - which is what he does in order to withstand the cold shirtless and such.
The only thing I get out of it so far is really amazing sensations throughout the circulatory system and the ability to really feel that even when I'm not doing the exercises.
Tim Farrington, modified 4 Years ago at 4/9/20 9:59 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/9/20 9:59 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 2464 Join Date: 6/13/11 Recent PostsEssentially, he directs you to hyperventilate in a controlled manner, then exhale and hold as long as you can. This leads to really interesting body sensations and you can really "get into your physiology" as he describes it. You do that about three times and then stretch - eventually I think he has you do push-ups and such. In the videos, he talks about directly touching the parasympathetic nerve and learning to control your fight/flight response - which is what he does in order to withstand the cold shirtless and such.
The only thing I get out of it so far is really amazing sensations throughout the circulatory system and the ability to really feel that even when I'm not doing the exercises.
T, modified 4 Years ago at 4/15/20 2:05 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/15/20 2:05 PM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsIn the evening I do about 45 minutes. Those I attack somewhat differently. I start directly with noting and skip any working up concentration or real effort to that end. It's interesting because I approach it like Che suggests and does, and it's nicely matter-of-fact, as he does it. At some point, I just lose noting and get into some.... strange territory. I can't really note as I lose the thread, but I'm not lacking in awareness of what's happening. It's just really odd territory that I can't describe. There, but not there.
My vision seems permanently changed to be expansive, bright, clear. I can see how my body moves when I walk because my vision actually shifts around as I do it. It's not dizzying, as one might imagine, it's quite lovely.
Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 4 Years ago at 4/15/20 2:51 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/15/20 2:48 PM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 7134 Join Date: 12/8/18 Recent PostsCongratulations for that shift in your vision! For me it has revolutionized my daily life. I no longer walk out in front of cars, scaring the crap out of people.
Papa Che Dusko, modified 4 Years ago at 4/15/20 3:34 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/15/20 3:32 PM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 3048 Join Date: 3/1/20 Recent PostsIt sure feels different to my old Shamatha, where I would be in a way spacey, but the feeling of self would still be there in the desire to get back into those hot-house flower, fragile Jhanas which I could not have off the cushion with me all day. So I would go back for the "fix" (sitting).
In Noting the Stream of Consciousness WITHOUT LAPS something else takes place. SatiPa really flows into the life off the cushion. Mind, just like our musscles needs work out of course and thats what we do when we sit to practice. Here the sitting is not like going back to the cushion to get that "fix" but as back to the Gym
Another curious thing really is that Jhanic experiences/absorbtions can happen even during Noting Aloud with open eyes.
Tim Farrington, modified 4 Years ago at 4/15/20 4:18 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/15/20 4:17 PM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 2464 Join Date: 6/13/11 Recent PostsIn the evening I do about 45 minutes. Those I attack somewhat differently. I start directly with noting and skip any working up concentration or real effort to that end. It's interesting because I approach it like Che suggests and does, and it's nicely matter-of-fact, as he does it. At some point, I just lose noting and get into some.... strange territory. I can't really note as I lose the thread, but I'm not lacking in awareness of what's happening. It's just really odd territory that I can't describe. There, but not there.
My vision seems permanently changed to be expansive, bright, clear. I can see how my body moves when I walk because my vision actually shifts around as I do it. It's not dizzying, as one might imagine, it's quite lovely.
Waiter, I'll have what he's having.
(edit) Waiter, I'll have what he's having, please.
Not two, not one, modified 4 Years ago at 4/15/20 4:21 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/15/20 4:21 PM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 1047 Join Date: 7/13/17 Recent PostsIn the evening I do about 45 minutes. Those I attack somewhat differently. I start directly with noting and skip any working up concentration or real effort to that end. It's interesting because I approach it like Che suggests and does, and it's nicely matter-of-fact, as he does it. At some point, I just lose noting and get into some.... strange territory. I can't really note as I lose the thread, but I'm not lacking in awareness of what's happening. It's just really odd territory that I can't describe. There, but not there.
My vision seems permanently changed to be expansive, bright, clear. I can see how my body moves when I walk because my vision actually shifts around as I do it. It's not dizzying, as one might imagine, it's quite lovely.
Waiter, I'll have what he's having.
(edit) Waiter, I'll have what he's having, please.
Certainly Sir, an excellent choice. One of our most popular. It'll be along shortly, right after you've finished the Amuse-bouche, Soup, Entre, Fish, Sorbet and Main. Ah, I see you are well into the soup already ...
Malcolm
Tim Farrington, modified 4 Years ago at 4/15/20 4:31 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/15/20 4:31 PM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 2464 Join Date: 6/13/11 Recent PostsIn the evening I do about 45 minutes. Those I attack somewhat differently. I start directly with noting and skip any working up concentration or real effort to that end. It's interesting because I approach it like Che suggests and does, and it's nicely matter-of-fact, as he does it. At some point, I just lose noting and get into some.... strange territory. I can't really note as I lose the thread, but I'm not lacking in awareness of what's happening. It's just really odd territory that I can't describe. There, but not there.
My vision seems permanently changed to be expansive, bright, clear. I can see how my body moves when I walk because my vision actually shifts around as I do it. It's not dizzying, as one might imagine, it's quite lovely.
Waiter, I'll have what he's having.
(edit) Waiter, I'll have what he's having, please.
Certainly Sir, an excellent choice. One of our most popular. It'll be along shortly, right after you've finished the Amuse-bouche, Soup, Entre, Fish, Sorbet and Main. Ah, I see you are well into the soup already ...
Malcolm
Mais garcon, le soup-bowl, she is so very DEEP. I am, how you say, lured by the tantalizing aroma and the bright clarity of the broth. What IS this soup, s'il vous plait? She is marvelous. Was it zees soup zat Monsieur T had?
T, modified 4 Years ago at 4/15/20 8:12 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/15/20 8:12 PM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsIt isn't affecting my interactions with people, but it feels like a serious knot of something wound up tight as a mother slight above the heart and into the throat. It's most definitely not a medical issue... I imagine it is what someone feels like who has panic attacks...? I've never had one.
If so, it's a very physical version of it, with mental clarity and the rest of my body is totally calm. I'm not sure how to accept it enough to go away, or at least learn WTF is causing it.
Nicky, modified 4 Years ago at 4/15/20 9:37 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/15/20 9:36 PM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 484 Join Date: 8/2/14 Recent PostsNot two, not one, modified 4 Years ago at 4/15/20 11:14 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/15/20 11:14 PM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 1047 Join Date: 7/13/17 Recent PostsNicky, please cease and desist from your anti-semitism, coded or otherwise. This is not the forum for it. I have encouraged you to see that you have a preujdice and could do well to investigate and address this as part of your own practice. But as the anti-semitism is being emitted with increasing frequency and candour, I ask you respectfully, and directly, to stop.
I have great respect for your sutta scholarship and interpretation, most of which I think is extremely helpful to people. However, anti-semitism is not helpful to this discussion, or this forum. Or to buddhism.
Malcolm
Nicky, modified 4 Years ago at 4/16/20 1:27 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/15/20 11:56 PM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 484 Join Date: 8/2/14 Recent PostsAlso, the comments on any scholarship you personally imagined are obviously untrue since you were unable to understand what I posted. The words of the Buddha came to you but you had to run away to Sujato.
Discussing kammic cause & effect is not racism. During the 2nd Watch of the Night, the Buddha saw, using psychic powers, with his Divine Eye, the moral rise & fall of beings due to their kamma. This moral rise & fall was unrelated to race. It was related to kamma.
During the Buddha's time, the Brahmins, like Jews, believed they were a Chosen People, born from Brahma's mouth. But like Jesus in his Parable of the Good Samaritan, the Buddha admonished the Brahmins, saying a person is 'Brahmin' ('Holy') due to their actions rather than due to their caste/tribe.
To say German cities were bombed in WW2 because the German government started a war is not racism. It is a statement of (conventional) fact. To say Putin said 85% of the 1st Bolshevik Gang was Jewish, or to say Jews (eg. Rosa Luxemburg) led attempted Bolshevik revolutions in Germany in 1918-19 or Polish Jews joined Soviets in an attempted Communisation of Poland in 1919 are statements of (conventional) fact. They are not racism. They are actual history; the same as saying the Buddha Gotama was Indian is a statement of (conventional) historical fact and not racism.
Also, Buddhists are not known for circumcizing their children. Considering circumcism may possibly be the cause of anxeity may lead to healing. Do you think circumcision is violent? Or is it racist? Do you think Israelis' claiming hummus, falafel & baba ganoush is Jewish cuisine is cultural appropriation or covetousness? Or is it racist? Do you think the Christian New Testament written by Jews is antisemitic? Or is it a statement defining an alternate religious path? Thanks
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism_and_the_New_Testament
John 7.13
Nicky, modified 4 Years ago at 4/16/20 1:23 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/16/20 1:23 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 484 Join Date: 8/2/14 Recent PostsMetta to you T
Malcolm
Returning to topic, what is expected to be acheived from the above? Thanks
Not two, not one, modified 4 Years ago at 4/16/20 1:26 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/16/20 1:26 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 1047 Join Date: 7/13/17 Recent PostsThe comments on any scholarship you personally imagined are obviously untrue since you were unable to understand what I posted. The words of the Buddha came to you but you had to run away to Sujato.
Discussing kammic cause & effect is not racism. During the 2nd Watch of the Night, the Buddha saw, using psychic powers, with his Divine Eye, the moral rise & fall of beings due to their kamma. This moral rise & fall was unrelated to race. It was related to kamma.
During the Buddha's time, the Brahmins, like Jews, believed they were a Chosen People, born from Brahma's mouth. But like Jesus in his Parable of the Good Samaritan, the Buddha admonished the Brahmins, saying a person is 'Brahmin' ('Holy') due to their actions rather than due to their caste/tribe.
To say German cities were bombed in WW2 because the German government started a war is not racism. It is a statement of (conventional) fact. To say Putin said 85% of the 1st Bolshevik Gang was Jewish, or to say Jews (eg. Rosa Luxemburg) led attempted Bolshevik revolutions in Germany in 1918-19 or Polish Jews joined Soviets in an attempted Communisation of Poland in 1919 are statements of (conventional) fact. They are not racism. They are actual history; the same as saying the Buddha Gotama was Indian is a statement of (conventional) historical fact and not racism.
Also, Buddhists are not known for circumcizing their children. Considering circumcism may possibly be the cause of anxeity may lead to healing. Do you think circumcision is violent? Or is it racist? Do you think Israelis' claiming hummus, falafel & baba ganoush is Jewish cuisine is cultural appropriation or covetousness? Or is it racist? Do you think the Christian New Testament written by Jews is antisemitic? Or is it a statement defining an alternate religious path? Thanks
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism_and_the_New_Testament
John 7.13
I'm sorry Nicky, but I regard that as a bad faith response.
Nobody has forced you to label philosophers as Jewish and thereby somehow less relevant, to say that Jews were responsible for their own bad karma in the holocaust, to imply Jewish influence behind the scenes led to wars, or to blame anxiety on male circumsion. And yet that is what you have done. To now claim that these are all just logical responses, and similar to the issues others face, and that you weren't really having a go at the Jews is completely specious. It is the behaviour of a soundrel.
You are clearly pushing an anti-semitic agenda under the guide of buddhist dharma, and then being dishonest when challenged.
MODERATORS: Can you please prevent this bad faith anti-semitic posting. People have been quite tolerant, but really this goes beyond the pale.
Nicky, modified 4 Years ago at 4/16/20 1:48 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/16/20 1:30 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 484 Join Date: 8/2/14 Recent PostsWhere is the metta & tolerance?
Where is the Buddhism?
Best to study history rather than engage in false speech.
Possibly you should ask Yahweh to ban Wikipedia.
https://youtu.be/rRkDK00oMxQ
Wiki
Wiki
Wiki
Not two, not one, modified 4 Years ago at 4/16/20 1:42 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/16/20 1:42 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 1047 Join Date: 7/13/17 Recent PostsWhere is the metta & tolerance?
Where is the Buddhism?
Best to study history rather than engage in false speech.
Possibly you should ask Yahweh to ban Wikipedia.
Wiki
Wiki
This is more evidence that the protestations of innocence were false speech. Please stop Nicky, and go reflect on the sankharas that are behind all this. They are holding you back.
Nicky, modified 4 Years ago at 4/16/20 1:58 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/16/20 1:50 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 484 Join Date: 8/2/14 Recent PostsBuddhists do not engage in prejudice, which included favouritism.
For example, do you object against this. Should this be censored?
The Rohingya have also lost a lot of their arable land, which has been confiscated by the military and given to Buddhist settlers who have migrated there from other regions of Myanmar
In modern times, the persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar dates back to the 1970s. Since then, the Rohingya people have been persecuted on a regular basis by the government and nationalist Buddhists .
After eight months of analyzing whether the persecution of the Rohingya in Rakhine State satisfied the criteria for genocide, the study found that Burmese government, with the help of extremist Buddhist monks, was responsible for ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Rohingya.
Wiki
Tim Farrington, modified 4 Years ago at 4/16/20 2:19 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/16/20 2:17 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 2464 Join Date: 6/13/11 Recent PostsIt isn't affecting my interactions with people, but it feels like a serious knot of something wound up tight as a mother slight above the heart and into the throat. It's most definitely not a medical issue... I imagine it is what someone feels like who has panic attacks...? I've never had one.
T, remember that just yesterday i wanted to have what you're having! You're in a great place, as far as i can tell.
The chest stuff brought to mind again a recent awakening-to-chest stuff experience of mine, which also brought up:
Tim: The heartbeat so strong brought back a fun memory. I was on a retreat with Richard Moss and a crew, somewhere in some southern California deserts he loves to frequent, early in the 2000s, and during one meditation it was just all heart thudding, all the time, in a way i had never experienced. I mean, i was a breath guy from the get go, my heartbeat at best was faint and really kind of abstract almost all the time, like the touchpoint of my thumbs when i started this round: drowned out by everything else, basically, imperceptible. But here it was, wham wham wham, for half an hour. I wonderd if it did that all the time and if I had just somehow opened up to it, that this was in fact just a normal heartbeat, perceived, or if i was having an anxiety attack, or going insane in a whole new way, or what. At the meal afterward, i ended up at his table, and I asked him if he ever noticed his heartbeat. He said, "Of course," like, Duh. So I decided to not panic and just see how it went. In retrospect, it was a little fast that day, possibly even in a feedback loop with the excitement of percieving it in such strong sensate fashion, but basically normal.
If so, it's a very physical version of it, with mental clarity and the rest of my body is totally calm. I'm not sure how to accept it enough to go away, or at least learn WTF is causing it.
Waiter, Garcon! I STILL want to have what he's having, please.
Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 4 Years ago at 4/16/20 2:24 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/16/20 2:24 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 7134 Join Date: 12/8/18 Recent PostsPapa Che Dusko, modified 4 Years ago at 4/16/20 2:30 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/16/20 2:28 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 3048 Join Date: 3/1/20 Recent PostsIt isn't affecting my interactions with people, but it feels like a serious knot of something wound up tight as a mother slight above the heart and into the throat. It's most definitely not a medical issue... I imagine it is what someone feels like who has panic attacks...? I've never had one.
If so, it's a very physical version of it, with mental clarity and the rest of my body is totally calm. I'm not sure how to accept it enough to go away, or at least learn WTF is causing it.
I've had this for the last few weeks. Also the pressure point in the throat can change from central to just left side and after a few days or so moves to the right side of the throat.
I like to slab a label "initial stages of insight" on it and move to Noting it and all else. It might not be the initial stages stuff but I don't care. Pondering too much about it is of no use. Noting it is of Much use
To be honest when I had this a few weeks ago I felt so bad thinking it's a throat cancer that's spreading up into the pressure area of my head and down the neck into my chest Dunno about you but I feel confident to stick a label "initial stages" label on it and move on
T, modified 4 Years ago at 4/16/20 5:49 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/16/20 5:49 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsT, modified 4 Years ago at 4/16/20 5:52 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/16/20 5:52 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsLinda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 4 Years ago at 4/16/20 5:53 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/16/20 5:52 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 7134 Join Date: 12/8/18 Recent PostsTim Farrington, modified 4 Years ago at 4/16/20 6:00 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/16/20 6:00 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 2464 Join Date: 6/13/11 Recent PostsChris M, modified 4 Years ago at 4/16/20 7:31 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/16/20 7:31 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 5407 Join Date: 1/26/13 Recent PostsGood morning, curious.
I've sent you a private message about all this. Please read and reply.
I've locked two topics because of this and will review all of the comments in them. Meantime let's all stop posting about this, for now, take a deep breath, and try to get back to our usual cacophonous ranting at each other.
Thanks,
Chris Marti
DhO Moderator
Tim Farrington, modified 4 Years ago at 4/16/20 7:38 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/16/20 7:38 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 2464 Join Date: 6/13/11 Recent PostsGood morning, curious.
I've sent you a private message about all this. Please read and reply.
I've locked two topics because of this and will review all of the comments in them. Meantime let's all stop posting about this, for now, take a deep breath, and try to get back to our usual cacophonous ranting at each other.
Thanks,
Chris Marti
DhO Moderator
Dear Moderator,
Could you please suggest someone for me to direct my next wave of rabid cacophonous ranting toward? Or should I just see what arises?
Chris M, modified 4 Years ago at 4/16/20 7:41 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/16/20 7:41 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 5407 Join Date: 1/26/13 Recent PostsTim Farrington, modified 4 Years ago at 4/16/20 8:03 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/16/20 8:03 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 2464 Join Date: 6/13/11 Recent PostsWell, see, that's why i'm asking in advance, so i'll be prepared to rush in and drop a ton of bricks in the wrong spot on a good old hair trigger, rather than risking the urdge passing before i can wreak proper havoc.
T, modified 4 Years ago at 4/16/20 9:04 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/16/20 9:04 PM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsMy wife picked the flim.
You must be kidding. Anyone seen Life As We Know It?
It was not a break, but man did I love it. What a fucking trip.
"y aun mas alla...amor"
parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha!
I won't become a cold nihilist, or if I do, it will be ever so brief - as she said, "y aun mas alla, hay amor."
I don't do it for me, anyway. Not anymore. I do it for you.
Tim Farrington, modified 4 Years ago at 4/16/20 11:04 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/16/20 11:04 PM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 2464 Join Date: 6/13/11 Recent PostsLinda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 4 Years ago at 4/16/20 11:10 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/16/20 11:10 PM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 7134 Join Date: 12/8/18 Recent PostsT, modified 4 Years ago at 4/17/20 6:39 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/17/20 6:39 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsLinda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 4 Years ago at 4/17/20 6:47 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/17/20 6:47 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 7134 Join Date: 12/8/18 Recent PostsT, modified 4 Years ago at 4/17/20 6:48 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/17/20 6:48 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsRather, I sat down, but I had slept in so by the time I closed my eyes, it was time to get up again. It was good to limber up the legs...
Last night, I dreamt I was in some processing plant of sorts... like MEPS, only it was an entirely unknown purpose. I never learned the purpose, but it was gearing up for some real shit based on the processing; shaving heads, ditching clothing, separating from known things and people. My family utterly terrified, other dudes going through the process were disappearing left and right (after shitting themselves in these weird... containers/tubes, for lack of a better term). I, on the other hand, was all for it. I went through the process and was quite interested and excited in the outcome (which I never learned), and was telling my family it would be totally fine, no worries, hakunah matata.
The setting was kind of like those Saw movies. It had that sort of grungy feel to it. The processing personnel were non-existent, and yet there. There was one sort of entity, in the form of a female, who was in charge. She was stern and merciless, but kind. Weird, right?
Anyway. I woke up and missed out on the big reveal. Apparently that has to happen awake.
My mind is messing with me and I like it.
Tim Farrington, modified 4 Years ago at 4/17/20 6:51 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/17/20 6:51 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 2464 Join Date: 6/13/11 Recent PostsT, modified 4 Years ago at 4/17/20 6:53 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/17/20 6:53 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsRegardless - the premise is quite as the title says. Life is a mindfuck and just when you think it's dandy - a bus hits your therapist. Or pregnant wife. Or someone shoots themselves. Or someone falls in love with "the wrong person." Then you realize it's all a meaningless and uncontrollable mess... until someone puts some context into the idea regarding love.
"Life brings you to your knees. It brings you lower than you think you can go. But if you stand back up and move forward, if you go just a little farther, you will always find love."
shargrol, modified 4 Years ago at 4/17/20 7:32 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/17/20 7:32 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 2664 Join Date: 2/8/16 Recent PostsT, modified 4 Years ago at 4/17/20 8:06 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/17/20 8:06 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsGeorge S, modified 4 Years ago at 4/17/20 8:09 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/17/20 8:09 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 2722 Join Date: 2/26/19 Recent PostsRather, I sat down, but I had slept in so by the time I closed my eyes, it was time to get up again. It was good to limber up the legs...
Last night, I dreamt I was in some processing plant of sorts... like MEPS, only it was an entirely unknown purpose. I never learned the purpose, but it was gearing up for some real shit based on the processing; shaving heads, ditching clothing, separating from known things and people. My family utterly terrified, other dudes going through the process were disappearing left and right (after shitting themselves in these weird... containers/tubes, for lack of a better term). I, on the other hand, was all for it. I went through the process and was quite interested and excited in the outcome (which I never learned), and was telling my family it would be totally fine, no worries, hakunah matata.
The setting was kind of like those Saw movies. It had that sort of grungy feel to it. The processing personnel were non-existent, and yet there. There was one sort of entity, in the form of a female, who was in charge. She was stern and merciless, but kind. Weird, right?
Anyway. I woke up and missed out on the big reveal. Apparently that has to happen awake.
My mind is messing with me and I like it.
Hi T,
There is so much that could be said about this dream, however I wouldn't want to send any signals.
It looks like your subconscious is acting as a clearing house for some stuff that has been going down on here recently. Thanks for taking that upon yourself!
Best
agnostic
T, modified 4 Years ago at 4/17/20 8:37 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/17/20 8:37 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsThat is, until I began meditating with regularity. I still cap and act, but I am much more likely to share my compassion and resolve the emotions.
Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 4 Years ago at 4/17/20 1:15 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/17/20 1:15 PM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 7134 Join Date: 12/8/18 Recent PostsT, modified 4 Years ago at 4/20/20 8:46 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/20/20 8:46 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent Posts...though this past weekend the sitting, also. I had been doing 60 morning and 25-45 evening for quite a while. For whatever reason, I just wasn't into that at all for the weekend. I still sat once per day, but mostly I did the WHM breathing and felt the body. That's not to say things haven't been kinda going on anyway, I suppose. My log is aytpical, I think, so I'll just continue with it, anyway.
The sits I did were always attention to the breath, followed by either noting or open awareness with some noting interspersed. The motivation, drive, and excitement was absent on all of them.
Conversely, I was walking at work (outside) Friday and was struck yet again by visual space. I took a few extra laps of the area to just soak in it. Every time I go outside and cast my gaze anywhere beyond... eight or ten feet, it's just expansive and bright and nuanced. Each and every time, it swells the heart with joy. I am beginning to notice how the sense of "me" in the seeing is simply not there, which is at least part of why it is so joyful. It's just seeing - but in the seeing there is true beauty. I live in a rural state, so there are so many opportunities to observe it. I started noticing it Friday even among the buildings and structures and people, though. That was new-ish. I spent as much time as I could doing that all weekend. Sunday morning, I was sitting on the couch early just sipping coffee, gazing out the window... and decided there was no reason that it would be different inside and up close than outside and expansive... I looked at my coffee table and there it was. Depth and beauty right there, the books, coffee cup, glass of water (!!!), and the table itself. Just really... robust..? Huzzah! Joyful.
My copy of the book suggested by agnostic somewhere on here came Sunday, also (the one by Boowa). I flipped through it and found a chapter delineated by Boowa weeping openly, moved by the dharma. I could relate, as I extrapolated the joy from seeing into the other senses, I could imagine it would be overwhelming in...beauty... I guess might be a word for it. I also sat contemplating how one interprets another's writing/discourse, etc. based on their view of the world. I say this because agnostic's take on the guy was more of a rogue with very, very rough edges. I have no doubt that's in some part true and I take note of the places pointed to - but there's also the truth of being moved to tears by the dharma. One not of the world being very touched by the world. Everything is mind-bending and makes us question a viewpoint.
Let's see... those were my cliffnotes. The meditations themselves have seemed dry and uninteresting. I can sit fine, but it's almost like my heart's not in it at whatever phase I'm in. The noting is just saying words - nothing else going on. Boring-ish.
SO!! To get all mystical and less boring - Saturday afternoon some weirdness happened. Linda - this is for you since I think you embrace the bardos or work with light or something along those lines. I apologize if that's making light of your practice - I don't understand it so I'm trying to articulate my rudimentary perspective on it in the previous lines.
My daughter is two. We sat down for a midday meal, and she pointed at a light in the next room (recessed ceiling light) that was on, and said she lived there. I asked several different items in that area I thought she might be pointing to, all of which were "no, there" in response.
Me: You live in the light?
Her: Yea! I see you. I see mommy, daddy, doggy. I come!
Me: You saw me and came here?
Her: Yea!
Me: And you live in the light?
Her: Yea! I come!
Anyway - woowoo for sure. It was unsettling in some ways for me. I opted to just thank her for coming to me, which seemed to please her greatly.
Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 4 Years ago at 4/20/20 9:02 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/20/20 9:02 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 7134 Join Date: 12/8/18 Recent PostsThat visual spaciousness is some cool stuff, indeed.
T, modified 4 Years ago at 4/20/20 10:11 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/20/20 10:11 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 280 Join Date: 1/15/19 Recent PostsGeorge S, modified 4 Years ago at 4/20/20 12:15 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/20/20 12:08 PM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 2722 Join Date: 2/26/19 Recent PostsGeorge S, modified 4 Years ago at 4/20/20 12:34 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/20/20 12:34 PM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 2722 Join Date: 2/26/19 Recent PostsLinda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 4 Years ago at 4/20/20 10:31 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/20/20 10:31 PM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 7134 Join Date: 12/8/18 Recent PostsLinda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 4 Years ago at 4/20/20 10:33 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/20/20 10:33 PM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 7134 Join Date: 12/8/18 Recent PostsI enjoy them too!
Tim Farrington, modified 4 Years ago at 4/25/20 6:23 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/25/20 6:23 AM
RE: T's (likely sporadic) Practice Log
Posts: 2464 Join Date: 6/13/11 Recent PostsMy daughter is two. We sat down for a midday meal, and she pointed at a light in the next room (recessed ceiling light) that was on, and said she lived there. I asked several different items in that area I thought she might be pointing to, all of which were "no, there" in response.
Me: You live in the light?
Her: Yea! I see you. I see mommy, daddy, doggy. I come!
Me: You saw me and came here?
Her: Yea!
Me: And you live in the light?
Her: Yea! I come!
Anyway - woowoo for sure. It was unsettling in some ways for me. I opted to just thank her for coming to me, which seemed to please her greatly.
It's how to see your way in through the bardo of rebirth, all right. Good job, kid. You too, Dad.