RE: New to Insight Meditation :) Any Advice/ Discussion/ Welcomed

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Daniel M Ingram, modified 12 Years ago at 8/26/11 2:00 AM
Created 12 Years ago at 8/26/11 2:00 AM

RE: New to Insight Meditation :) Any Advice/ Discussion/ Welcomed

Posts: 3268 Join Date: 4/20/09 Recent Posts
I managed to make it through 11 minutes of your podcast and had the following impressions and wished to give the following advice, as you would seem to be new to this forum and fora in general:

1) You really need to read around here and get a sense of how to describe experiences phenomonologically rather than repetitive "wow, that was so amazing" again and again. There are lots of great examples of people doing this.

2) You are going to have to learn some terminology: check out things like the Progress of Insight section of MCTB, found in the wiki.

3) You need to find a way to make your questions, experiences and points in a more succinct and straightforward way so as to attract the sort of answers and interactions I suspect you are looking for. I personally pride myself on my attention span, and 11 minutes of the audio was all I could take: not to be critical, just being honest and hopefully in a way that will help get you more of what your are looking for.

During those 11 minutes there was not one concrete description of any meditation experience, nor any concrete question, nor anything else I could latch on to beyond the fact that some undescribed meditation experiences had impressed you and you had no language or examples of how to describe them so that someone else could relate to them, which generally makes me think Arising and Passing Away (see flagged first post on Recent Posts forum area for more on this).

Can you take some time to look around, read a bit, and give it another go?

Helpful?

Daniel
richard emanuel, modified 12 Years ago at 8/26/11 7:47 AM
Created 12 Years ago at 8/26/11 5:16 AM

RE: New to Insight Meditation :) Any Advice/ Discussion/ Welcomed

Posts: 3 Join Date: 8/24/11 Recent Posts
HI Daniel,

Thank you very much for your reply,
Im sorry that i rambled on so much but this is exactly why i put it up as to see if any of it although vage rings true with others.

I do try to conclude some things at the end if you do have the patients another time to see if there is any better information there that you think could be useful. But im so thankful that you have taken so much time for me already. Thank you very very much emoticon

I have never been taught about meditation properly, Only I had a particular experience. I was staying in Thailand and whilst being a keen photographer was drawn to the beauty of the many temples. But during my time there i visited Wat Phu Khao Noi Temple on kho phangan. I spent almost the whole day there with monks and in particular a trainee monk to be called Toy. I offered to help in general tasks as he was sweeping and tidying. He would not allow me to help him and instead offered me a book written mostly in Thai, but there was a section on mindful walking and the 6 stages...

Heal up, Lifting, Moving, Lowering, Touching, Pressing

Toy tried the best he could with very limited words to simply describe taking things in and letting them go to acknowledge sensations.
After almost a full day at the temple taking photos watching others prey and monks meditate even whilst doing actions such as sweeping the floor, something made sense to me and i just continued to do this in my daily actions until now. (this was 12 months ago)

The book had a few things to avoid and the first one was reading and writing..??? part of a sense restraint which also included no sleeping longer than 4 hours, which i must admit im very guilty of.

It said Buddha said

When you see, Just see
When you hear, Just hear continued for all the senses but ending with not a real sense saying "When you know, Just know"


So this has been the basis of what i have tried to do in meditation, a continuation of the walking meditation in other sensations and also even tho i know there are hundreds of books available and as i can see now excellent web pages to find out more "descriptions of sensation" but i almost feel that i see why the book said do not read or write about it as it solidifies something that i feel can not. Same lines as a million words cant describe a sunset or even the colour red, it simply is.

But i feel that my experiences has truly changed me for the better in the least, so even if i continue the same way i have been i feel i will make progress, I think its best i dont try to label things i simply want to know where do i go next.... my question is simply where do i go to find the seeds of information as the book i read in thailand that can allow you to achieve what i think have been experiences out of nothing "Impermanence" Im scared if i know what im looking for i wont find it.

I have looked into the teachings and apply these (suffering, impermanence, no self) and i know these will always be the main lesson to always go back to as i dont feel even tho experiencing them individually is quite easy its there relaionshps that hold true to me which is something i think i will always have to re-check depending on what im analysing with them., but interestingly i find a lot of what has arisen has been from breaking down bad sensations rather than good. Im now a vegetarian after a "flash" that occurred 6 months ago and i didnt even have to "try" i was and that was that.

But in a nutshel i meditated in the beginning just for the fact that i found it extremely relaxing, I am a record producer / sound engineer so the task of analysing and breaking music (vibrational energy) down into its constitute parts is a developed skill i already have how to hear interactions between harmonics and not the harmonic ect, i feel insight meditation is the same thing.

Resulting in washes of mixed colour in my body, a place where ive felt ive been looking back at my "self" i know my descriptions are rubbish but almost like im a teacher in a school play yard watching children fight over sweets at break time. To the teachers its a futile part of their day but to the kids its the most important.. almost that kind of feeling looking back at my "self" which in this analogy where reality is the kids fighting. Ive had really broken down moments where ive felt things slow but also increase in proportion eg the slower things move past the more love i can capture, which as a physicist also makes perfect sense but in physics the faster things move the more mass they gain as energy and mass are the same thing so a reversed e = mc2 the slower things move past the more love. hahaha aw im sorry guys im ranting again!


Im so sorry Daniel for rambling on again now. I am sorry if i have wasted your time. I promise i will endeavour to ground myself tho and start to learn certain vocabulary. Im not looking for anything this is what is strange i wish to continue following instinct. But i have to say its a lonely place as the majority of people i know simply laugh and assume i must be a bit mad...Being Buddhist in the welsh valleys is very tricky emoticon)

Peace and Love and thanks again emoticon

Richard
richard emanuel, modified 12 Years ago at 8/26/11 7:54 AM
Created 12 Years ago at 8/26/11 6:28 AM

RE: New to Insight Meditation :) Any Advice/ Discussion/ Welcomed

Posts: 3 Join Date: 8/24/11 Recent Posts
Very Quickly ... I read over the progress of insight and i can honestly say ive experienced all up to The Arising and Passing Away.. but i cant click on further titles as it says i do no have permission to read further. ?

I have ordered your book also emoticon
T Dan S-, modified 12 Years ago at 10/13/11 5:48 PM
Created 12 Years ago at 10/13/11 5:48 PM

RE: New to Insight Meditation :) Any Advice/ Discussion/ Welcomed

Posts: 69 Join Date: 5/3/11 Recent Posts
the full book is on interactivebuddha.com, if you were unable to find a full version and wanted to read more.

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