Looking for support (dynamic jhana+vipassana approach)

Looking for support (dynamic jhana+vipassana approach) Stephan 10/12/20 1:25 PM
RE: Looking for support (dynamic jhana+vipassana approach) terry 10/12/20 1:25 PM
RE: Looking for support (dynamic jhana+vipassana approach) Stephan 10/13/20 2:12 AM
RE: Looking for support (dynamic jhana+vipassana approach) terry 10/13/20 2:04 PM
RE: Looking for support (dynamic jhana+vipassana approach) Stephan 10/15/20 10:33 AM
RE: Looking for support (dynamic jhana+vipassana approach) terry 10/15/20 2:14 PM
RE: Looking for support (dynamic jhana+vipassana approach) Jim Smith 10/12/20 4:31 PM
RE: Looking for support (dynamic jhana+vipassana approach) Stephan 10/13/20 2:26 AM
RE: Looking for support (dynamic jhana+vipassana approach) terry 10/13/20 3:59 PM
RE: Looking for support (dynamic jhana+vipassana approach) Milo 10/12/20 11:21 PM
RE: Looking for support (dynamic jhana+vipassana approach) Stephan 10/13/20 2:35 AM
RE: Looking for support (dynamic jhana+vipassana approach) shargrol 10/13/20 6:08 AM
RE: Looking for support (dynamic jhana+vipassana approach) Stephan 10/14/20 9:46 AM
RE: Looking for support (dynamic jhana+vipassana approach) terry 10/14/20 1:56 PM
RE: Looking for support (dynamic jhana+vipassana approach) shargrol 10/15/20 1:15 PM
RE: Looking for support (dynamic jhana+vipassana approach) terry 10/15/20 2:21 PM
RE: Looking for support (dynamic jhana+vipassana approach) Stephan 10/18/20 10:32 AM
RE: Looking for support (dynamic jhana+vipassana approach) Ni Nurta 10/13/20 3:43 PM
RE: Looking for support (dynamic jhana+vipassana approach) Pepe · 10/15/20 1:00 PM
RE: Looking for support (dynamic jhana+vipassana approach) Stephan 10/18/20 10:35 AM
Stephan, modified 3 Years ago at 10/12/20 1:25 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 10/12/20 11:46 AM

Looking for support (dynamic jhana+vipassana approach)

Posts: 19 Join Date: 7/23/20 Recent Posts
Hi everybody,

this is my first post. I'm a bit nervous and hesitated some time with posting - but yehaw, it’s a great relieve. 

To ease the reading, I summarized the main thing via a picture (thanks to the online whiteboard mural), and structured the rest in a Question&Answer style.

Hope that helps. Have fun and enjoy.

For who could this thread be interesting?
  • Vipassana from jhanic states
  • Empirical, iterative approach 
  • Everybody else who wants to help an potential insight newbie from the south of Bavaria, who tries to be absolute transparent regarding his progress and who did a "lot" of concentration in past (about eight years)


Could you please summarize that monster of a post?



What literature do I know regarding vipassana/insight practice?
In June 2020 I came in intensive contact with insight practice and the following resources:
  • Mastering the Core Teachings of the Budha (Daniel Ingram)
  • Contemplative Fitness (Kenneth Folk)
  • Practical Insight Meditation - Basic and Progressive Stages (Mahasi Sayadaw)
  • Right Concentration (Leigh Brasington)
  • http://thehamiltonproject.blogspot.com/ (Most posts of Nikolai_Halay)
  • Dharma Overground Board (especially: The Hierarchy of Vipassana Practice and 'I don't get the three characteristics')

I started at first with the contemplative Fitness guide from Kenneth Folk, with freestyle Noting (6 sense doors) and the MCTB from Daniel Ingram. I found it in an facebook non-duality group where people go for awakening in an passioned manner. But as soon as I've seen the contemplative fitness guide, and the "straightforward" structure from the map of insight practice - I've fallen in love. Literally. 

The first time in 8 year meditation I've found a community with a clear goal and vision. I love that pragmatic stuff.

How much did I practice the last months?
I’d say I practiced an average about 2 hours per day between June and September. Here and there I made some 1-4 day home-retreats.

What is my progress at the moment?
Here is my critical self-evaluation.

Concentration...
I recognize clear progress regarding the jhanas. I've managed to enter conciously a jhana, saw clearly the piti, the emotional joy, contentment and equanimity and clarity. I recognize that the jhanas 1-4 differ (primary/secondary objects, localities, ...) and can clearly go them up- and downwards.
As I’ve read that it can be an advantage to go into the jhanas (preferably jhana 4 which seems to be a similar mind stage like nana11) and doing than insight.

I orientated to the book „right concentration from Leigh Bransington“ and trained the last four weeks from jhana1 to jhana2 to jhana3 to jhana4. I tried to "master" them more and experience them in different sequences like 1-2-1-2-3-2-3-2-1-2-3-4-3-2-3-4-3-2-1-2-1-2-3-4-… I tried and still try to reach the jhanas as precise and fast as possible to start directly insight from jhana4. Since last friday I'm trying an insight approach from jhana4.

Wisdom...
When I look at the wisdom-training practice as counterpart:  I really don't know. Honestly.

When looking at the maps of insight territory (at the nana stages):

Knowledge of the three characteristics?
Maybe. I’d some insights during my sits like:
  • Crazy these sensations arise totally by their own. My mind seems to forecast the future all the time based on past learnings, but when I look closely the future is totally unpredictable. It’s totally adventure like to see what arises next, because it’s arising on it’s own, without control and effort. Additionally that no one creates that stuff. A bit scary, but that's only one side of the medaille. The other one looks quite impressing and fascinating.
  • Sensations arise and vanish all the time. Especially hearing/smelling/tasting/thoughts. After hearing sensations there is clearly often a mental picture in my head. What about solid objects? In meditation-sits I penetrate seemingly solid objects like the feeling of my back/feet touches the ground or the couch. By doing so I feel vibrations?/heat/pulsing - I don’t exactly know but it definitely is not permanent. But that doesn't happen "on it's own". I really have to penetrate it/look at the sensation some minutes precise and clearly. Yesterday nearly everything was impermanent except the feeling of my elbow - looking at it/penetrating it over some minutes it although pulsed. Than I moved on. My visual/seeing sensations are a bit odd. I don't know/can't remember exactly if I had it before doing insight: At the moment I nearly always see some kind of "grid", "points", flickering!? Like a monitor display which is divided into pixels, e.g. 1024x768 (hopefully I've a higher resolution ;-)). When I'm in deep meditation, with closed eyes, I see when I concentrate on my visual dark field a lot of white flickerings. When I open my eyes, nearly everything is flickering. But single pixels of that flickering grid doesn't seem to differ. I'm sorry really can't say it's just some issues with my eyes (I've no glasses at the moment, but would need some - that's no joke btw.) or if it's just the impermanence of my visual field.

  • I’m not sure how deep my understand regarding unsatisfactoriness is at the moment. When I look for it during a session I clearly can’t see anything satisfying on single sensations. Even the sensations like piti or other which make up my jhanas.


Arising and Passing away?
  • I've never had a moment where everything was impermenanet at the first look. Where so much and fast sensations were recognized that my whole being has been recreated instantly and that I'm recognizing it. There were always permanent feelings (especially physical sensations), which could be penetrated and than dissolved in pulsing or vibration like, but that takes time.

Dark Night?
  • About four month ago as I did some concentration retreats (Nada/inner sound as object) , I had some moments which were pretty shitty. Fear from losing friends, mind and family.
  • Two month ago I had a bad time/bad feelings (emotional and physical) in some parts of my body. Were depressed - but it was more kind of a personal crisis and not an existential/terror like. I just thought about a past relationship with a girl which I never seemed to processed correctly. Pretty hurtful, but I don't think that stuff like that belongs to a dark night.
  • One month ago, a handful of scary/frightful pictures during meditation. Like a zombie, disgusting face, whatever.

But besides that zero, niente, nichts, 0.

Equanimity?
Maybe everytime I enter jhana4 it's kind of...
  • clear
  • focused/very very deep, as if the body would be very wide and distant and can't directly be touched by thoughts/mind
  • silent
  • pain doesn't matter that much (my hardness test was sitting 2.5hours in pain to see and foolproof for me whether I'm in a jhana or just imagine it for myself. This was my evidence, because I can clearly compare it to non-jhanic states)

I try to uphold the jhana4 by focusing on the clarity for some seconds when the intuition tells me to deepen it again. It's approximately round about every five minutes - but just an estimation. After that I go again with noticing/noting.
Well I spoilered it beforehand - this post is full of uncertainity and speculations.

It's nearly impossible for me to evaluate it where I'm - just to much variables and questions at the moment.

What is my strategy at the moment?
The last days since I stabilized jhana4:
  • I'm noticing with „unfabricated awarenss“. I let sensations arise by their own and notice them. I found that my awareness automatically perceives the sensations (maybe 1-10 per second) when I'm in that temporarily jhanic state. It’s like a machine which orientates/aligns automatically into the direction where sensations arise. There is no effort required to perceive the sensations well.
So it feels really completely different for me to note it in that way, compared with noting outgoing from access concentration, - maybe it would be more precise to write: „to let it note“, instead of "to note" because  no-self is directly recoginizeable for me it in that way. This transition from effort to effortless noting/noticing seems to happen as soon as I'm in jhana4.

By the way:
I don't have a definitive evidence or 100% claim if I’m in jhana4. I read the book "right concentration" and based on my body symptoms and my mind clarity I’d say it’s where I’m. Maybe I reached it relatively fast and stable because I did very much concentration practices the last 8 years.

What else?
An empirical, iterative approach supported through my own intuition (and resolvements) do the rest. The specific tactic at the moment is:
  • Enter a deep concentration state (jhana4)
  • Insight practice directly out of jhana4 (noting/noticing) - clearly discerning the three characteristics.
How do I experience noticing the three characteristics in my on-cushion sittings?
I described it above, I try my best to see 'em, most of the time one characteristic specific (e.g. no-self, and after that session I recapulate if insight has been realized, and go on with another characteristic or stay at the same).

But I can say that nearly everytime when I sit down I've the feelng of:
  • is it really the right approach I do at the moment? It's just not that straightforward feeling like described in Kenneth Folks contemplativefitness, as I've the feeling that through entering the 4th jhana I skipped stages which may be important. Yeah, a feeling of lack and doing something not correct.
How long is a session?
A single session lasts at the moment 2 hours. 
  • 0-60min: Stabilizing the jhana 1-4 (playing around, trying to speed up switching between the jhanas) 
  • 61-120min: Discerning the 3 characteristics out of jhana4 via noting/noticing. As soon as I feel that the clarity could be higher I refocuse on the clarity of jhana4 and deepen it again.
Than the timer rings, I stretch myself, maybe take an coffee and repeat the session.

As you can see I treat concentration and insight similar - at the moment I see it as an invest: The better and more safe I'm in concentration, the fast and more precise progress in insight will arise. But that's just an assumption on my site. In the upcoming weeks I'd do an switch to kind of 30min(concentration)/90min(insight), and than to (as fast as possible in jhana4/rest insight).

As I've no direct comparison, I can't say what kind of insight to expect from 2h meditation.

What noting/noticing style do I use?
This is one of my main issues why I created the thread. I just feel really really unsafe at the moment and have the feeling that I need some third person who helps me with inspecting my approaches. Nevertheless: I tried different approaches in an empircal way. I inspected how a technique works for me, and adapt after that my approach.

E.g. six approaches I used in different sessions and tried to evaluate them for my self
  • Doing slow loud noting (approx. 1 notie every two seconds)
  • Doing slow silent noting (approx. 1 notie every two seconds)
  • Doing fast loud noting (With „Beep, Beep, ….“, loud is a bit problematic. Approximately 1-10 per second)
  • Doing fast silent noting (With „Beep, Beep, ….“ in my mind. Approximately 1-10 per second)
  • Doing noticing with „fabricated awareness“. I just search for sensations and notice them fast.
  • Doing noticing with „unfabricated awareness“. The sensations arise by them own and the awareness automatically recognized it
Due to that effortlessness I’d personally say: stay wth the "unfabricated awareness" noticing.

What are my basic conditions till end of 2020?

  • Available time to spend for meditation:  In average 5 hours per day and additionally 20 complete days to meditate in the year 2020.Additionally I communicated it to my environment that most of my free time I'll spend in meditation
  • Retreats: No "outside" retreats are possible. Maybe there are online retreats where I could take part in? I did about 14 days home retreat in sum at home this year. 1x4days, 4x2days, 3x1 day. Regarding discipline it seems to work well.
  • Coaching/Mentoring: I've contact and friendship to someone who realized no-self in a deeply manner. We sometimes send us whatsApp voice messages regarding meditation. "Unfortunately" he's not familiar with Mahasi-Style Noting, Theravada Buddism or the Map of stages of insight and can't directly coach me regarding the practice context. Maybe I should search for another coach who has more access to mahasi-style noting who can help me, I'm not sure.


Why do I go into the jhana at first instead of dry vipassana insight?
There are  three reasons:
  • Acceleration of progress of insight (according to several sources)
  • Fear. I seem to be a pussy wussy and I'm extremly fearful regarding the dark night. Many horror stories and the lack of professional guidance (I'm in no retreat condition/frame where a specialist could guide me through different stages)said to me: Try the jhana4 approach where you're already in a nice territory according to the jhana blog post of the hamiltonproject and the fact that I've read, that 4th jhana and 11th nana are on the same kind of mind strata.
  • Sounded interesting, appealing and right
So, why do I have an issue with my actual approach?
No guidance/mentoring/coaching from outside. I'm not sure if I make progress or not.

Feels like I reinvent the wheel (in comparison to a straightforward guideline) - but I'm pretty sure there are enough people who have answers regarding my questions and can help me. If not, my thoughts are:
  • If'd do insight like taught by Mahasi Sayadaw and written down in his book "Practical Insight Meditation - Basic and Progressive Stages" I'd have a bit more clear way than my approach upwards (jhana4 and than noticing/or whatever feels right) and may not be so uncertain regarding the right progress of insight.

What is your goal, Stephan?
  • I've resolved to reach Stream Entry till the end of 2020.



Why? 
What an adventure. It's wonderful to see now a purpose and vision in my meditation. I meditated the last years without any clear direction. Now, thanks to the emergence of things, I've found the map of stages of insight (or they've found me) and the knowledge+community DhO that it's possible to reach enlightment via dilligent training.

Here I'm. Open, ready and steady.

Now that you know me a bit more...
  • What is your opinion?
  • Do you have an advice for me?
  • There are some options in my head:
    • 1. Searching for a personal meditation coach who can support me on my journey
    • 2. Switch completely to dry insight practice, based on mahasi-style noting mentioned by the Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw 
    • 3. Going the same way further on with my approach. Inspect and adapt.

I really hope that not only me, but that somebody else who struggles in same conditions can profit from the above post. Feel free to contact me.

I'm looking forward to hear/read from you :-), you'd do me a huge favour.

Greets and best from Germany
Stephan

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terry, modified 3 Years ago at 10/12/20 1:25 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 10/12/20 1:25 PM

RE: Looking for support (dynamic jhana+vipassana approach)

Posts: 2424 Join Date: 8/7/17 Recent Posts
Stephan:
Hi everybody,

this is my first post. I'm a bit nervous and hesitated some time with posting - but yehaw, it’s a great relieve. 


Wisdom...
When I look at the wisdom-training practice as counterpart:  I really don't know. Honestly.


I'm looking forward to hear/read from you :-), you'd do me a huge favour.

Greets and best from Germany
Stephan


aloha stephan,


   Beginner's mind is the way. After many years of practice, all I know is that not knowing is true knowledge. My meditation practice is more or less the activity of not knowing.

   The wisdom component, call it prajna, is really what it is all about. Not knowledge.

   Welcome to the club and thanks for the exhalation.

terry
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Jim Smith, modified 3 Years ago at 10/12/20 4:31 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 10/12/20 3:36 PM

RE: Looking for support (dynamic jhana+vipassana approach)

Posts: 1633 Join Date: 1/17/15 Recent Posts
I'm not sure if this will be helpful but to answer questions about how to practice, I think it is helpful to have some understanding about how practices produces the results you are looking for.

You need to be clear about:
  • Why are you meditating? What do you expect to get from meditation?
  • Why / how do the meditation techniques you are considering do what you want to accomplish?

There is a phenomenon called "the illusion of explanatory depth" - where people think they understand something, until they try to explain it and then they realize the don't understand it very well at all. I think this is sometimes a problem for meditators.

When you understand why and how meditation works it will:
  • help you be sure that when you meditate you are paying attention to the important aspects of the technique and not getting distracted by side issues.
  • Also you might have to change how you meditate as you progress.
  • And it will help you choose a technique because you will be better able to chose the technique that matches your individual characteristics.

This is particularly important if you are not studying with a teacher.
  • If you are studying with a teacher he will guide you and you don't need to know how the technique works, you just do what he says.
  • But if you don't have a teacher, you really need to understand how the process works to be sure  you are doing it correctly and spending your time efficiently and effectively.


Some people may say it is not helpful to be too analytical about meditation practice. My opinion is that it is helpful to be analytical when you are designing a practice, but once you start meditating, depending on the technique, you might start to use the mind in a different way.
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Milo, modified 3 Years ago at 10/12/20 11:21 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 10/12/20 11:21 PM

RE: Looking for support (dynamic jhana+vipassana approach)

Posts: 371 Join Date: 11/13/18 Recent Posts
If you can successfully combine jhanas with vipassana you'll have an opportunity to supercharge your progress, so by all means do it if you can.

One tip for this stage is to start your jhana + vipassana sits with an intention to investigate a particular aspect of the three characteristics. Choose just one for each sit. Maybe prime yourself with some good dharma talks as well. You don't need to heavily note so much in jhanas. The great thing is they do a lot of the work of tuning out distractions for you.
Stephan, modified 3 Years ago at 10/13/20 2:12 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 10/13/20 2:12 AM

RE: Looking for support (dynamic jhana+vipassana approach)

Posts: 19 Join Date: 7/23/20 Recent Posts
terry:
Stephan:
Hi everybody,

this is my first post. I'm a bit nervous and hesitated some time with posting - but yehaw, it’s a great relieve. 


Wisdom...
When I look at the wisdom-training practice as counterpart:  I really don't know. Honestly.


I'm looking forward to hear/read from you :-), you'd do me a huge favour.

Greets and best from Germany
Stephan


aloha stephan,


   Beginner's mind is the way. After many years of practice, all I know is that not knowing is true knowledge. My meditation practice is more or less the activity of not knowing.

   The wisdom component, call it prajna, is really what it is all about. Not knowledge.

   Welcome to the club and thanks for the exhalation.

terry

Hey terry,

thanks for your response.

I interpret your post in that way that in off- and on-cushion:
  • I should alway be open about what happens and that whatever concrete "tactic"/technique I'll use (it is, e.g. noting, noticing, doin'g nothing...) underlies the principle of a beginners mind / "not knowledge".
  • So concrete: investigation of the three characteristics: it doesn't matter what I've already realized about that specific topic - just be open about it like I see it the first time.

Did I miss something here?

And thanks for the welcome - I'm already happy to be here and read all these worthful responses :-).
Stephan, modified 3 Years ago at 10/13/20 2:26 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 10/13/20 2:26 AM

RE: Looking for support (dynamic jhana+vipassana approach)

Posts: 19 Join Date: 7/23/20 Recent Posts
Jim Smith:
I'm not sure if this will be helpful but to answer questions about how to practice, I think it is helpful to have some understanding about how practices produces the results you are looking for.

You need to be clear about:
  • Why are you meditating? What do you expect to get from meditation?
  • Why / how do the meditation techniques you are considering do what you want to accomplish?

There is a phenomenon called "the illusion of explanatory depth" - where people think they understand something, until they try to explain it and then they realize the don't understand it very well at all. I think this is sometimes a problem for meditators.

When you understand why and how meditation works it will:
  • help you be sure that when you meditate you are paying attention to the important aspects of the technique and not getting distracted by side issues.
  • Also you might have to change how you meditate as you progress.
  • And it will help you choose a technique because you will be better able to chose the technique that matches your individual characteristics.

This is particularly important if you are not studying with a teacher.
  • If you are studying with a teacher he will guide you and you don't need to know how the technique works, you just do what he says.
  • But if you don't have a teacher, you really need to understand how the process works to be sure  you are doing it correctly and spending your time efficiently and effectively.


Some people may say it is not helpful to be too analytical about meditation practice. My opinion is that it is helpful to be analytical when you are designing a practice, but once you start meditating, depending on the technique, you might start to use the mind in a different way.
Hey jim,
thanks for underlining the important parts - that helps much. I've often came in contact with the "illusion of explanatory depth". I experience it like you've described it: 
  • Sometimes I think I'm pretty firm in a topic, talk about it, and realize that there is a lack of structure and understanding 

Regarding the three topics:
  • You need to be clear about,
  • When you understand why and how meditation works it will
  • This is particularly important if you are not studying with a teacher: "But if you don't have a teacher, you really need to understand how the process works to be sure  you are doing it correctly and spending your time efficiently and effectively."

Pretty helpful, I'm going to add it to my actual approach when I'm taking a resolvement for the meditation session and reflect about my clearness/understanding. Thanks a lot emoticon

These points intensifies my questions belonging searching for a teacher/coach/mentor.
I think I see it similar like you: that the fastest way how things can be understood is via fast feedback loops with an expert. 
Stephan, modified 3 Years ago at 10/13/20 2:35 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 10/13/20 2:35 AM

RE: Looking for support (dynamic jhana+vipassana approach)

Posts: 19 Join Date: 7/23/20 Recent Posts
Milo:
If you can successfully combine jhanas with vipassana you'll have an opportunity to supercharge your progress, so by all means do it if you can.

One tip for this stage is to start your jhana + vipassana sits with an intention to investigate a particular aspect of the three characteristics. Choose just one for each sit. Maybe prime yourself with some good dharma talks as well. You don't need to heavily note so much in jhanas. The great thing is they do a lot of the work of tuning out distractions for you.

Hi Milo,

that sounds great.

Great tip. I often felt overstrained: improving jhanas, investigation of the three characteristics, switching noting/noticing techniques - and all of that during one session. It seems that I just opened to much doors during meditation which, yeah, overstrained me.

I'm going to go for more little tiny baby steps per session. One after another. These tip fits perfectly together with the other answers, awesome emoticon.

Much appreciation, thx!
shargrol, modified 3 Years ago at 10/13/20 6:08 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 10/13/20 6:08 AM

RE: Looking for support (dynamic jhana+vipassana approach)

Posts: 2326 Join Date: 2/8/16 Recent Posts
Stephan, sounds like great practice.

I didn't quite find it in your write up... but where would you say your "cutting edge" is in your practice? In other words, what sorts of experiences leave you feeling unable to continue, unclear what to do next, doubting your practice, etc.? 

If you were working with a meditation teacher and could only ask one question, what would it be?
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terry, modified 3 Years ago at 10/13/20 2:04 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 10/13/20 2:04 PM

RE: Looking for support (dynamic jhana+vipassana approach)

Posts: 2424 Join Date: 8/7/17 Recent Posts
Stephan:
terry:
Stephan:
Hi everybody,

this is my first post. I'm a bit nervous and hesitated some time with posting - but yehaw, it’s a great relieve. 


Wisdom...
When I look at the wisdom-training practice as counterpart:  I really don't know. Honestly.


I'm looking forward to hear/read from you :-), you'd do me a huge favour.

Greets and best from Germany
Stephan


aloha stephan,


   Beginner's mind is the way. After many years of practice, all I know is that not knowing is true knowledge. My meditation practice is more or less the activity of not knowing.

   The wisdom component, call it prajna, is really what it is all about. Not knowledge.

   Welcome to the club and thanks for the exhalation.

terry

Hey terry,

thanks for your response.

I interpret your post in that way that in off- and on-cushion:
  • I should alway be open about what happens and that whatever concrete "tactic"/technique I'll use (it is, e.g. noting, noticing, doin'g nothing...) underlies the principle of a beginners mind / "not knowledge".
  • So concrete: investigation of the three characteristics: it doesn't matter what I've already realized about that specific topic - just be open about it like I see it the first time.

Did I miss something here?

And thanks for the welcome - I'm already happy to be here and read all these worthful responses :-).


   You missed the fact that I don't think you "should" do anything. To the contrary, you "should" do nothing. The goal of achieving stream entry in a finite amount of time is likely to lead to the illusion of progress.

   As a "concrete" goal, investigating the three characteristics is wonderful. Let's do that.

   All phenomena are impermanent. All apparent static objects are actually flowing. Use time lapse and slow motion photography and everything can be seen to be changing, bit by bit  The particles are all wave-forms. "The finest clothes turn to rags." All things arise and pass away. By training ourselves to see the changing nature of all apparent objects, we can realize that everything we strive for is changing before our eyes. We haven't the mental ability to conceptually organize all the data. During the 1992 total eclipse on the big island, anticipated for years, all the tv cameras and observatory commentators were situated on the sunniest beach for the great event. We saw it wonderfully well up mauka, but they were covered in transient clouds and missed the whole thing. One would-be observer mourned: "We can predict an eclipse hundreds of years in advance, but we can't predict the weather a half hour from now." We have an underlying intuitive integral grasp of reality as a whole that enables us to cope with it even in our dimmest moments, when nothing seems to make sense. Call it open mindedness, or mindfulness, or beginner's mind, and respect and expect the imminent arrival of insight in all situations without trying to predict it in detail, or cling to it when it arrives. Drink deep, and keep your cup empty. There is great danger in imposing an erroneous view on events just to escape the feeling of ignorance and incomprehension. It can lead to assuming you are enlightened and have entered streams you haven't even encountered yet.

   All phenomena are non-self.  We are born with an integral, intuitive view, with subject and object all one, there being no "me" distinguishable from some externality, all is one pearl. This is the nature of perception, that individual streams of sensation from the big five and numerous proprioceptors are all integrated by the sixth sense, the "mind" as integrator and creator of the world, but which is not separate or different from the senses it integrates. The individual blades of grass in a clump all communicate with each other through proximity and chemical, electric and acoustic signals, but they are one clump, not separate. So our world arises in conjunction with naming and sharing with "others" but is not an individual thing we create as an individual but an impersonal collectivity we create as a greater social organism. And even this collective we call humaity is just a clump of sentience, all other species each with their own interpretative world. The phenomena an organism perceives are in the context of the species' collective world, and reflect the organism's instinctive priorities. What this amounts to is that stuff just is, and even our wills are just more impersonal phenomena. True freedom and understanding involve knowing there is no self who desires, only life being life. Celebration and gratitude.

   All phenomena are unsatisfactory. Every good thing has a dark side. Nothing good can last. Letting yourself go leads to a hard landing. But there is more to it than this. Phenomena appear because I desire them. If I'm hungry I see the object of my hunger whether absent or present. The more I obsess, the more good things escape, while if I am patient and put desire out of mind, good things fall into my lap. It is in my wanting, grading, judging that unsatisfactoriness appears. In truth what is satisfactory is already decaying into its opposite, and what is unsatisfactory is already becoming acceptable. It is in the nature of (transient) "things" - all themselves products of desire - to appear pleasant or unpleasant, or some degree of neutral, as we judge them benign or malignant. Smell in particular gets characterized as good or bad. Whatver is measured is found wanting; there is no perfect circle in phenomena.
 

   You get the idea, bra. Prajna. Meditation helps.


terry




Ich finde dich in allen diesen Dingen,
denen ich gut und wie ein Bruder bin;
als Samen sonnst du dich in den geringen
und in den großen giebst du groß dich hin.
Das ist das wundersame Spiel der Kräfte,
daß sie so dienend durch die Dinge gehn:
in Wurzeln wachsend, schwindend in die Schäfte
und in den Wipfeln wie ein Auferstehn.

~rainer maria rilke




I find you, Lord, in all Things and in all
my fellow creatures, pulsing with your life;
as a tiny seed you sleep in what is small
and in the vast you vastly yield yourself.
The wondrous game that power plays with Things
is to move in such submission through the world:
groping in roots and growing thick in trunks
and in treetops like a rising from the dead.
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terry, modified 3 Years ago at 10/13/20 3:59 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 10/13/20 2:59 PM

RE: Looking for support (dynamic jhana+vipassana approach)

Posts: 2424 Join Date: 8/7/17 Recent Posts
Stephan:
Jim Smith:
I'm not sure if this will be helpful but to answer questions about how to practice, I think it is helpful to have some understanding about how practices produces the results you are looking for.

You need to be clear about:
  • Why are you meditating? What do you expect to get from meditation?
  • Why / how do the meditation techniques you are considering do what you want to accomplish?

There is a phenomenon called "the illusion of explanatory depth" - where people think they understand something, until they try to explain it and then they realize the don't understand it very well at all. I think this is sometimes a problem for meditators.

When you understand why and how meditation works it will:
  • help you be sure that when you meditate you are paying attention to the important aspects of the technique and not getting distracted by side issues.
  • Also you might have to change how you meditate as you progress.
  • And it will help you choose a technique because you will be better able to chose the technique that matches your individual characteristics.

This is particularly important if you are not studying with a teacher.
  • If you are studying with a teacher he will guide you and you don't need to know how the technique works, you just do what he says.
  • But if you don't have a teacher, you really need to understand how the process works to be sure  you are doing it correctly and spending your time efficiently and effectively.


Some people may say it is not helpful to be too analytical about meditation practice. My opinion is that it is helpful to be analytical when you are designing a practice, but once you start meditating, depending on the technique, you might start to use the mind in a different way.
Hey jim,
thanks for underlining the important parts - that helps much. I've often came in contact with the "illusion of explanatory depth". I experience it like you've described it: 
  • Sometimes I think I'm pretty firm in a topic, talk about it, and realize that there is a lack of structure and understanding 

Regarding the three topics:
  • You need to be clear about,
  • When you understand why and how meditation works it will
  • This is particularly important if you are not studying with a teacher: "But if you don't have a teacher, you really need to understand how the process works to be sure  you are doing it correctly and spending your time efficiently and effectively."

Pretty helpful, I'm going to add it to my actual approach when I'm taking a resolvement for the meditation session and reflect about my clearness/understanding. Thanks a lot emoticon

These points intensifies my questions belonging searching for a teacher/coach/mentor.
I think I see it similar like you: that the fastest way how things can be understood is via fast feedback loops with an expert. 

   There is a traditional hindu story about a man searching for a great gem, who searched for years until a wise man pointed out to him that the gem was set in his forehead.

   The sufis speak of a man riding his horse everywhere, frantically searching for his horse.

   The fastest way may be the slowest way. 


   More concretely (for you), the search for a teacher could turn someone up whose teachings may lead you astray. The fish eagerly seeking nourishment may find bait and a hook. Entanglements are the antithesis of freedom. Beware of taking on obligations; no legitimate teacher requires anything. The sufis say, "When entertaining a sufi, always remember that he needs no more than a crust of bread."

   The idea of an external teacher is an illusion several times over. Nothing is truly external, everyone you meet is your projection based on perceived similarities. No one is higher than your imagination. Improve your inner sense of worth and you will see more worthiness, not the reverse. Make yourself a good student and a teacher will find you. It doesn't matter whether the teacher is embodied or not.

   The sufis say there are three books everyone must read. The first is the book of revelation. In the quran it is written that, if all the seas were ink and all the trees made into pens, they could not write all the words of god; the quran can be written with fifty drams of ink, so the true quran is revealed by every word uttered from the mouth of god, that is, every word from every mouth and all unspoken communication, even interspecies Then there is the book of creation, the whole world reveals the hand of god, the essence of being, in every detail beautiful, just and compassionate. And lastly the book of the self, of nature, the way of life, ourselves one strand.


terry






LIEBES-LIED
(rainer maria rilke)

Wie soll ich meine Seele halten, daß
sie nicht an deine rührt? Wie soll ich sie
hinheben über dich zu andern Dingen?
Ach gerne möcht ich sie bei irgendwas
Verlorenem im Dunkel unterbringen
an einer fremden stillen Stelle, die
nicht weiterschwingt, wenn deine Tiefen schwingen.
Doch alles, was uns anrührt, dich und mich,
nimmt uns zusammen wie ein Bogenstrich,
der aus zwei Saiten eine Stimme zieht.
Auf welches Instrument sind wir gespannt?
Und welcher Geiger hat uns in der Hand?
O süßes Lied.



LOVE SONG

How can I keep my soul in me, so that
it doesn’t touch your soul? How can I raise
it high enough, past you, to other things?
I would like to shelter it, among remote
lost objects, in some dark and silent place
that doesn’t resonate when your depths resound.
Yet everything that touches us, me and you,
takes us together like a violin’s bow,
which draws one voice out of two separate strings.
Upon what instrument are we two spanned?
And what musician holds us in his hand?
Oh sweetest song.
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Ni Nurta, modified 3 Years ago at 10/13/20 3:43 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 10/13/20 3:43 PM

RE: Looking for support (dynamic jhana+vipassana approach)

Posts: 1070 Join Date: 2/22/20 Recent Posts
Very nice summary.
Stephan, modified 3 Years ago at 10/14/20 9:46 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 10/14/20 8:52 AM

RE: Looking for support (dynamic jhana+vipassana approach)

Posts: 19 Join Date: 7/23/20 Recent Posts
shargrol:
Stephan, sounds like great practice.

I didn't quite find it in your write up... but where would you say your "cutting edge" is in your practice? In other words, what sorts of experiences leave you feeling unable to continue, unclear what to do next, doubting your practice, etc.? 

If you were working with a meditation teacher and could only ask one question, what would it be?

Hi shargrol,

experiences like:

  • I've a lack of an expert opinion (mentor,coach,professional) who can evaluate from his more experienced view if I'm going in the right direction.
  • In other words I fear to go in the wrong direct without recognizing it. As I wrote in the above post, my assumption was: the only way to evaluate it my own progress (without having an third opinion) is to look at the stages of insight, see if my experience/symptoms which I make matches the criteria of certain stages (e.g. A&P, Dark Night, ...).
  • As I can't perfectly see myself matching the criteria mentioned in the nanas (e.g. like described by Daniel Ingram or Kenneth Folk) I'm strongly reflecting my own progress.  I've read that these maps reflecting an idealized Yogi, who may not exist, but that's my point. What will be 'my' way?
  • It's that uncertainity which I feel... Maybe due to my lack of knowledge/insights which I haven't had yet. Or maybe I did? If a crazy A&P or a hardcore Dark Night woul've been recognized than I would say - OK, there is kind of a progress. But as I'm going not completly the way like described in contemplativeFitness or some else, and instead the "jhana way", I mave have the feeling that I've missed something.

In school there is a book with tasks I've to do. I can clearly check if my results match with the correct solution. I hope you can understand what I mean. This really seems to be my main point. And to add here: Daniel Ingrams Book and Kenneth Folks Guide are excellent written and a pure gift. I trust the writings just far more than my own knowledge or possibility to transfer the written things into real practice - I'm just human and make errors or misinterpret the written things. 

Regarding the question I could ask the teacher:

  • A very good question... Hmm. I wanted to sleep one night over the question, which one question I could ask that meditation teacher. I hoped that some magical super power question would arise in my head. After one day waiting time now... I guess I would ask him:
Dear teacher - How can I recognize when I'm sailing into the wrong direction?

But I may've found an answer to this question:

  • Maybe this desire or requirement will be satisfied if I'm going to create kind of a practice log in the DhO in which I write into regularily, and hope that the readers can guide me/give me feedback if there should be any questions from my site, or if it is recognized that I'm doing something wrong.

Thanks for helping me to reflect so intensely.
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terry, modified 3 Years ago at 10/14/20 1:56 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 10/14/20 1:56 PM

RE: Looking for support (dynamic jhana+vipassana approach)

Posts: 2424 Join Date: 8/7/17 Recent Posts
Stephan:
shargrol:
Stephan, sounds like great practice.

I didn't quite find it in your write up... but where would you say your "cutting edge" is in your practice? In other words, what sorts of experiences leave you feeling unable to continue, unclear what to do next, doubting your practice, etc.? 

If you were working with a meditation teacher and could only ask one question, what would it be?

Hi shargrol,

experiences like:

  • I've a lack of an expert opinion (mentor,coach,professional) who can evaluate from his more experienced view if I'm going in the right direction.
  • In other words I fear to go in the wrong direct without recognizing it. As I wrote in the above post, my assumption was: the only way to evaluate it my own progress (without having an third opinion) is to look at the stages of insight, see if my experience/symptoms which I make matches the criteria of certain stages (e.g. A&P, Dark Night, ...).
  • As I can't perfectly see myself matching the criteria mentioned in the nanas (e.g. like described by Daniel Ingram or Kenneth Folk) I'm strongly reflecting my own progress.  I've read that these maps reflecting an idealized Yogi, who may not exist, but that's my point. What will be 'my' way?
  • It's that uncertainity which I feel... Maybe due to my lack of knowledge/insights which I haven't had yet. Or maybe I did? If a crazy A&P or a hardcore Dark Night woul've been recognized than I would say - OK, there is kind of a progress. But as I'm going not completly the way like described in contemplativeFitness or some else, and instead the "jhana way", I mave have the feeling that I've missed something.

In school there is a book with tasks I've to do. I can clearly check if my results match with the correct solution. I hope you can understand what I mean. This really seems to be my main point. And to add here: Daniel Ingrams Book and Kenneth Folks Guide are excellent written and a pure gift. I trust the writings just far more than my own knowledge or possibility to transfer the written things into real practice - I'm just human and make errors or misinterpret the written things. 

Regarding the question I could ask the teacher:

  • A very good question... Hmm. I wanted to sleep one night over the question, which one question I could ask that meditation teacher. I hoped that some magical super power question would arise in my head. After one day waiting time now... I guess I would ask him:
Dear teacher - How can I recognize when I'm sailing into the wrong direction?

But I may've found an answer to this question:

  • Maybe this desire or requirement will be satisfied if I'm going to create kind of a practice log in the DhO in which I write into regularily, and hope that the readers can guide me/give me feedback if there should be any questions from my site, or if it is recognized that I'm doing something wrong.

Thanks for helping me to reflect so intensely.


    You can recognize you are going in the wrong direction because you know you don't know what you are doing or where it is taking you. You have a map in your hand but you don't recognize the waymarks so are now asking passersby which way is up. 

   If you are thinking that a "hardcore dark night" is "some kind of progress," you definitely "trust the writings...more than knowledge."

   This sort of approach, as though enlightenment were some kind of rocket science you can master and then go places, leads only to further delusion and disappointment.

   Meditation is like an exercise in spiritual fitness. One becomes grounded in peace and acceptance, one endures without resistance, one gradually acquires a quality of persistence in core values, a reliable integrity. The goal being simple fitness for life, engaging in a great deal of obsessive effort for dubious "progress" can only lead to distortion, delusion and exhaustion. After awhile you'll decide that all this effort is pointless and you will be worse off than before. Or maybe you will be so "successful" at reproducing the phenomena you read about that you will no longer have to meditate or make any effort to be a better person.

   Any sort of "teacher" is someone you employ to help you achieve better judgment. It is your development and you cannot gve up responsibility for it to a teacher, tradition or set of writings. There are no external authorities who can reveal your heart to you, you need to commune with yourself.

   It's all a dark night, bra. Turn on your love light.

terry




KOW KOW CALQULATOR
(Steve Miller Band)

Kow kow calqulator
Was a very smooth operator
Had himself a pet alligator
Kept it in a chrome elevator, yeah
When the sun began to shine
The alligator come outside
Kow kow played the chimes
Together they would go for a ride
As they travelled with a heavy load
They came across a dead horse at the side of the road
With two generals standing at each end
Fighting over whose fault it had been
And all that's left was this war
And they couldn't get things back together like they were before
Well, listen
Turn on your love light
Turn it on, let it shine
Inside your heart
Let it shine, turn it on
Your love light
Turn it on
Turn it on
Let it shine
Inside your mind
So many times kow kow had heard it said before
Oh, don't, lord, don't go near that door
The cause of our evil you'll uncover
Because of our misery you discover
Well, misery seeks it's own company
Kow kow had heard it said
Now he sits there crying
Oh, with his hands across his head
Kow kow calqulator
Oh, a very smooth operator
Get back in your elevator
Kow kow calqulator
Turn on your love light
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Let it shine

Songwriters: Steve Miller
Stephan, modified 3 Years ago at 10/15/20 10:33 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 10/15/20 10:32 AM

RE: Looking for support (dynamic jhana+vipassana approach)

Posts: 19 Join Date: 7/23/20 Recent Posts
terry:
Stephan:
terry:
Stephan:
Hi everybody,

this is my first post. I'm a bit nervous and hesitated some time with posting - but yehaw, it’s a great relieve. 


Wisdom...
When I look at the wisdom-training practice as counterpart:  I really don't know. Honestly.


I'm looking forward to hear/read from you :-), you'd do me a huge favour.

Greets and best from Germany
Stephan


aloha stephan,


   Beginner's mind is the way. After many years of practice, all I know is that not knowing is true knowledge. My meditation practice is more or less the activity of not knowing.

   The wisdom component, call it prajna, is really what it is all about. Not knowledge.

   Welcome to the club and thanks for the exhalation.

terry

Hey terry,

thanks for your response.

I interpret your post in that way that in off- and on-cushion:
  • I should alway be open about what happens and that whatever concrete "tactic"/technique I'll use (it is, e.g. noting, noticing, doin'g nothing...) underlies the principle of a beginners mind / "not knowledge".
  • So concrete: investigation of the three characteristics: it doesn't matter what I've already realized about that specific topic - just be open about it like I see it the first time.

Did I miss something here?

And thanks for the welcome - I'm already happy to be here and read all these worthful responses :-).


   You missed the fact that I don't think you "should" do anything. To the contrary, you "should" do nothing. The goal of achieving stream entry in a finite amount of time is likely to lead to the illusion of progress.

   As a "concrete" goal, investigating the three characteristics is wonderful. Let's do that.

   All phenomena are impermanent. All apparent static objects are actually flowing. Use time lapse and slow motion photography and everything can be seen to be changing, bit by bit  The particles are all wave-forms. "The finest clothes turn to rags." All things arise and pass away. By training ourselves to see the changing nature of all apparent objects, we can realize that everything we strive for is changing before our eyes. We haven't the mental ability to conceptually organize all the data. During the 1992 total eclipse on the big island, anticipated for years, all the tv cameras and observatory commentators were situated on the sunniest beach for the great event. We saw it wonderfully well up mauka, but they were covered in transient clouds and missed the whole thing. One would-be observer mourned: "We can predict an eclipse hundreds of years in advance, but we can't predict the weather a half hour from now." We have an underlying intuitive integral grasp of reality as a whole that enables us to cope with it even in our dimmest moments, when nothing seems to make sense. Call it open mindedness, or mindfulness, or beginner's mind, and respect and expect the imminent arrival of insight in all situations without trying to predict it in detail, or cling to it when it arrives. Drink deep, and keep your cup empty. There is great danger in imposing an erroneous view on events just to escape the feeling of ignorance and incomprehension. It can lead to assuming you are enlightened and have entered streams you haven't even encountered yet.

   All phenomena are non-self.  We are born with an integral, intuitive view, with subject and object all one, there being no "me" distinguishable from some externality, all is one pearl. This is the nature of perception, that individual streams of sensation from the big five and numerous proprioceptors are all integrated by the sixth sense, the "mind" as integrator and creator of the world, but which is not separate or different from the senses it integrates. The individual blades of grass in a clump all communicate with each other through proximity and chemical, electric and acoustic signals, but they are one clump, not separate. So our world arises in conjunction with naming and sharing with "others" but is not an individual thing we create as an individual but an impersonal collectivity we create as a greater social organism. And even this collective we call humaity is just a clump of sentience, all other species each with their own interpretative world. The phenomena an organism perceives are in the context of the species' collective world, and reflect the organism's instinctive priorities. What this amounts to is that stuff just is, and even our wills are just more impersonal phenomena. True freedom and understanding involve knowing there is no self who desires, only life being life. Celebration and gratitude.

   All phenomena are unsatisfactory. Every good thing has a dark side. Nothing good can last. Letting yourself go leads to a hard landing. But there is more to it than this. Phenomena appear because I desire them. If I'm hungry I see the object of my hunger whether absent or present. The more I obsess, the more good things escape, while if I am patient and put desire out of mind, good things fall into my lap. It is in my wanting, grading, judging that unsatisfactoriness appears. In truth what is satisfactory is already decaying into its opposite, and what is unsatisfactory is already becoming acceptable. It is in the nature of (transient) "things" - all themselves products of desire - to appear pleasant or unpleasant, or some degree of neutral, as we judge them benign or malignant. Smell in particular gets characterized as good or bad. Whatver is measured is found wanting; there is no perfect circle in phenomena.
 

   You get the idea, bra. Prajna. Meditation helps.


terry




Ich finde dich in allen diesen Dingen,
denen ich gut und wie ein Bruder bin;
als Samen sonnst du dich in den geringen
und in den großen giebst du groß dich hin.
Das ist das wundersame Spiel der Kräfte,
daß sie so dienend durch die Dinge gehn:
in Wurzeln wachsend, schwindend in die Schäfte
und in den Wipfeln wie ein Auferstehn.

~rainer maria rilke




I find you, Lord, in all Things and in all
my fellow creatures, pulsing with your life;
as a tiny seed you sleep in what is small
and in the vast you vastly yield yourself.
The wondrous game that power plays with Things
is to move in such submission through the world:
groping in roots and growing thick in trunks
and in treetops like a rising from the dead.

Thank you for your deep words  and the effort for writing it down. I've to admit I'm still processing the content of your other two posts. As soon as I'm ready for an suitable answer - I'll add it.

Have a wonderful time.
Stephan 
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Pepe ·, modified 3 Years ago at 10/15/20 1:00 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 10/15/20 1:00 PM

RE: Looking for support (dynamic jhana+vipassana approach)

Posts: 712 Join Date: 9/26/18 Recent Posts
Stephan:

What literature do I know regarding vipassana/insight practice?
In June 2020 I came in intensive contact with insight practice and the following resources:
  • Mastering the Core Teachings of the Budha (Daniel Ingram)
  • Contemplative Fitness (Kenneth Folk)
  • Practical Insight Meditation - Basic and Progressive Stages (Mahasi Sayadaw)
  • Right Concentration (Leigh Brasington)
  • http://thehamiltonproject.blogspot.com/ (Most posts of Nikolai_Halay)
  • Dharma Overground Board (especially: The Hierarchy of Vipassana Practice and 'I don't get the three characteristics')

Stephan, welcome to DhO.

Check Shargrol's posts compilation, as you'll find plenty of sound advice from a seasoned meditator, given here to DhO members on several aspects of the practice. 

I also suggest that you take a look at the practice logs section as we all learn a lot from meditators that are at our same stages/life situations/etc. It would really help that you start your own practice log, so people here would chime in to help.  Below there's log template that could help both you and your readers, taken from a fellow DhO member at a random day (with a little editing). As you are making multiple sits per day, you can adjust the level of details per sit. Also you can post it on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, don't need to post every day, if that's too much of a burden. 

Niels Lyngsø:

Practice Length: 60 minutes.
Mindfulness:
strong and quite stable. I did a little downregulating of energy a couple of times, since mind was a bit busy.
Technique: Noting for 10 minutes or so, then switched to Open awareness. 
Body: comfortable, soft, bottom of the ocean-feeling, a little backpain, met with acceptance. The last ten minutes or so body got even more still, calmer, a bit dissolved, transparent.
Thoughts: were there maybe half the time, except the last ten minutes or so where there were very few. Maybe a third of them practice related, the rest just random stuff with no emotional charge. A little aversion to practice-thoughts, but also some lightness and forebearance.
Visual field and sound: Nothing much happening, except that for a stretch of maybe 10 minutes the internal generated highpitched note in my right ear pulsated slowly (1-2 hz).
Vibrations: The rotorlike vibration, or something akin to it, came by a couple of times. Also another difficult to define vibration was there. At one point it was as it my noting voice (or just some inner voice) went dadadadadadadadada at maybe 10 hz for a minute or so. It did not feel as if ”I” was behind that intention, and I tried to stop it, but couldn’t, so it had a will on its own.
Emotions, feelingtones etc.: Dominated by ”calm”, ”clarity”, ”comfortable”, ”pleasant”. Also sometimes ”transparency” and ”dissolved”.
General feeling: Calm, even peaceful now and then, content, notes of aversion, no biggie.
shargrol, modified 3 Years ago at 10/15/20 1:15 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 10/15/20 1:15 PM

RE: Looking for support (dynamic jhana+vipassana approach) (Answer)

Posts: 2326 Join Date: 2/8/16 Recent Posts
Stephan:


Dear teacher - How can I recognize when I'm sailing into the wrong direction?

...

  • Maybe this desire or requirement will be satisfied if I'm going to create kind of a practice log in the DhO in which I write into regularily, and hope that the readers can guide me/give me feedback if there should be any questions from my site, or if it is recognized that I'm doing something wrong.

    Thanks for helping me to reflect so intensely.


  • But the short answer about wrong direction is "if you haven't really recovered from your last sit before your next sit... you might be pushing too hard." It's intresting, your body will tell you if you're going in the wrong direction, but the strange thing is people don't always pick up on the signals. 

    Yes, a practice log will really help. A lot of time folks can help point out your blindspot. 

    But really learn to pay attention to your own mental health and slow things down if you think something is wrong. Feeling like something is wrong doesn't mean stop, it means: slow down and pay attention! emoticon
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    terry, modified 3 Years ago at 10/15/20 2:14 PM
    Created 3 Years ago at 10/15/20 2:14 PM

    RE: Looking for support (dynamic jhana+vipassana approach)

    Posts: 2424 Join Date: 8/7/17 Recent Posts
    Stephan:
    [quote=
    ]
    Thank you for your deep words  and the effort for writing it down. I've to admit I'm still processing the content of your other two posts. As soon as I'm ready for an suitable answer - I'll add it.

    Have a wonderful time.
    Stephan 

    process this:


    (from the wilhelm/baynes translation of the yi jing, original is in german...)



    48. Ching / The Well

    above K'AN THE ABYSMAL, WATER
    below SUN THE GENTLE, WIND, WOOD

    Wood is below, water above. The wood goes down into the earth to bring up water. The image derives from the pole-and-bucket well of ancient China. The wood represents not the buckets, which in ancient times were made of clay, but rather the wooden poles by which the water is hauled up from the well. The image also refers to the world of plants, which lift water out of the earth by means of their fibers. The well from which water is drawn conveys the further idea of an inexhaustible dispensing of nourishment.

    THE JUDGMENT

    THE WELL. The town may be changed,
    But the well cannot be changed.
    It neither decreases nor increases.

    They come and go and draw from the well.
    If one gets down almost to the water
    And the rope does not go all the way,
    Or the jug breaks, it brings misfortune.

    In ancient China the capital cities were sometimes moved, partly for the sake of more favorable location, partly because of a change in dynasties. The style of architecture changed in the course of centuries, but the shape of the well has remained the same from ancient times to this day. Thus the well is the symbol of that social structure which, evolved by mankind in meeting its most primitive needs, is independent of all political forms. Political structures change, as do nations, but the life of man with its needs remains eternally the same-this cannot be changed. Life is also inexhaustible. It grows neither less nor more; it exists for one and for all. The generations come and go, and all enjoy life in its inexhaustible abundance. However, there are two prerequisites for a satisfactory political or social organization of mankind. We must go down to the very foundations of life. For any merely superficial ordering of life that leaves its deepest needs unsatisfied is as ineffectual as if no attempt at order had ever been made. Carelessness-by which the jug is broken-is also disastrous. If for instance the military defense of a state is carried to such excess that it provokes wars by which the power of the state is annihilated, this is a breaking of the jug. This hexagram applies also to the individual. However men may differ in disposition and in education, the foundations of human nature are the same in everyone. And every human being can draw in the course of his education from the inexhaustible wellspring of the divine in man's nature. But here likewise two dangers threaten: a man may fail in his education to penetrate to the real roots of humanity and remain fixed in convention-a partial education of this sort is as bad as none- or he may suddenly collapse and neglect his self-development. (my italics - t)

    THE IMAGE

    Water over wood: the image of THE WELL.

    Thus the superior man encourages the people at their work,
    And exhorts them to help one another.

    The trigram Sun, wood, is below, and the trigram K'an, water, is above it. Wood sucks water upward. Just as wood as an organism imitates the action of the well, which benefits all parts of the plant, the superior man organizes human society, so that, as in a plant organism, its parts co-operate for the benefit of the whole.
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    terry, modified 3 Years ago at 10/15/20 2:21 PM
    Created 3 Years ago at 10/15/20 2:21 PM

    RE: Looking for support (dynamic jhana+vipassana approach)

    Posts: 2424 Join Date: 8/7/17 Recent Posts
    shargrol:
    Stephan:


    Dear teacher - How can I recognize when I'm sailing into the wrong direction?

    ...

  • Maybe this desire or requirement will be satisfied if I'm going to create kind of a practice log in the DhO in which I write into regularily, and hope that the readers can guide me/give me feedback if there should be any questions from my site, or if it is recognized that I'm doing something wrong.

    Thanks for helping me to reflect so intensely.


  • But the short answer about wrong direction is "if you haven't really recovered from your last sit before your next sit... you might be pushing too hard." It's intresting, your body will tell you if you're going in the wrong direction, but the strange thing is people don't always pick up on the signals. 

    Yes, a practice log will really help. A lot of time folks can help point out your blindspot. 

    But really learn to pay attention to your own mental health and slow things down if you think something is wrong. Feeling like something is wrong doesn't mean stop, it means: slow down and pay attention! emoticon


    signs...

    somewhere between slow and stop

    yield
    Stephan, modified 3 Years ago at 10/18/20 10:32 AM
    Created 3 Years ago at 10/18/20 10:32 AM

    RE: Looking for support (dynamic jhana+vipassana approach)

    Posts: 19 Join Date: 7/23/20 Recent Posts
    shargrol:
    Stephan:


    Dear teacher - How can I recognize when I'm sailing into the wrong direction?

    ...

  • Maybe this desire or requirement will be satisfied if I'm going to create kind of a practice log in the DhO in which I write into regularily, and hope that the readers can guide me/give me feedback if there should be any questions from my site, or if it is recognized that I'm doing something wrong.

    Thanks for helping me to reflect so intensely.


  • But the short answer about wrong direction is "if you haven't really recovered from your last sit before your next sit... you might be pushing too hard." It's intresting, your body will tell you if you're going in the wrong direction, but the strange thing is people don't always pick up on the signals. 

    Yes, a practice log will really help. A lot of time folks can help point out your blindspot. 

    But really learn to pay attention to your own mental health and slow things down if you think something is wrong. Feeling like something is wrong doesn't mean stop, it means: slow down and pay attention! emoticon

    Thx for the "don't push to hard" reminder again.

    Had the last two days an intense home retreat. I recognized how wonderful refreshing it is for my self if I make a break at a time and just "shut-down". 

    Mindful eating, watching a dharma-talk, maybe a netflix movie if it's such a short period of retreat time. Felt pretty refreshed in the mornings.
    Stephan, modified 3 Years ago at 10/18/20 10:35 AM
    Created 3 Years ago at 10/18/20 10:35 AM

    RE: Looking for support (dynamic jhana+vipassana approach)

    Posts: 19 Join Date: 7/23/20 Recent Posts
    Pepe:
    Stephan:

    What literature do I know regarding vipassana/insight practice?
    In June 2020 I came in intensive contact with insight practice and the following resources:
    • Mastering the Core Teachings of the Budha (Daniel Ingram)
    • Contemplative Fitness (Kenneth Folk)
    • Practical Insight Meditation - Basic and Progressive Stages (Mahasi Sayadaw)
    • Right Concentration (Leigh Brasington)
    • http://thehamiltonproject.blogspot.com/ (Most posts of Nikolai_Halay)
    • Dharma Overground Board (especially: The Hierarchy of Vipassana Practice and 'I don't get the three characteristics')

    Stephan, welcome to DhO.

    Check Shargrol's posts compilation, as you'll find plenty of sound advice from a seasoned meditator, given here to DhO members on several aspects of the practice. 

    I also suggest that you take a look at the practice logs section as we all learn a lot from meditators that are at our same stages/life situations/etc. It would really help that you start your own practice log, so people here would chime in to help.  Below there's log template that could help both you and your readers, taken from a fellow DhO member at a random day (with a little editing). As you are making multiple sits per day, you can adjust the level of details per sit. Also you can post it on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, don't need to post every day, if that's too much of a burden. 

    Niels Lyngsø:

    Practice Length: 60 minutes.
    Mindfulness:
    strong and quite stable. I did a little downregulating of energy a couple of times, since mind was a bit busy.
    Technique: Noting for 10 minutes or so, then switched to Open awareness. 
    Body: comfortable, soft, bottom of the ocean-feeling, a little backpain, met with acceptance. The last ten minutes or so body got even more still, calmer, a bit dissolved, transparent.
    Thoughts: were there maybe half the time, except the last ten minutes or so where there were very few. Maybe a third of them practice related, the rest just random stuff with no emotional charge. A little aversion to practice-thoughts, but also some lightness and forebearance.
    Visual field and sound: Nothing much happening, except that for a stretch of maybe 10 minutes the internal generated highpitched note in my right ear pulsated slowly (1-2 hz).
    Vibrations: The rotorlike vibration, or something akin to it, came by a couple of times. Also another difficult to define vibration was there. At one point it was as it my noting voice (or just some inner voice) went dadadadadadadadada at maybe 10 hz for a minute or so. It did not feel as if ”I” was behind that intention, and I tried to stop it, but couldn’t, so it had a will on its own.
    Emotions, feelingtones etc.: Dominated by ”calm”, ”clarity”, ”comfortable”, ”pleasant”. Also sometimes ”transparency” and ”dissolved”.
    General feeling: Calm, even peaceful now and then, content, notes of aversion, no biggie.
    Thanks for the template Pepe.

    I adjusted it a bit, made for myself an excel, with the points of your template as an input, and cutout the "highlights" and post it regularily in a practice log thread.

    Btw. Practice Log creation - done emoticon

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