What are these "reality resets"?

What are these "reality resets"? ps i love you 6/3/21 9:46 PM
RE: What are these "reality resets" happening during formations? Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö 5/24/21 5:16 PM
RE: What are these "reality resets" happening during formations? George S 5/24/21 9:04 PM
RE: What are these "reality resets" happening during formations? ps i love you 5/24/21 9:24 PM
RE: What are these "reality resets" happening during formations? George S 5/24/21 10:06 PM
RE: What are these "reality resets" happening during formations? George S 5/25/21 9:53 AM
RE: What are these "reality resets" happening during formations? Chris M 5/25/21 3:06 PM
RE: What are these "reality resets" happening during formations? George S 5/25/21 6:15 PM
RE: What are these "reality resets" happening during formations? Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö 5/25/21 3:44 PM
RE: What are these "reality resets" happening during formations? Dream Walker 5/25/21 5:58 PM
RE: What are these "reality resets" happening during formations? Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö 5/25/21 6:08 PM
RE: What are these "reality resets" happening during formations? Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö 5/25/21 6:02 PM
RE: What are these "reality resets" happening during formations? ps i love you 10/9/22 10:44 PM
RE: What are these "reality resets" happening during formations? George S 5/26/21 3:35 AM
RE: What are these "reality resets" happening during formations? Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö 5/27/21 4:34 AM
RE: What are these "reality resets"? ps i love you 6/3/21 9:47 PM
RE: What are these "reality resets"? Pepe · 6/3/21 10:26 PM
RE: What are these "reality resets"? ps i love you 6/4/21 5:29 PM
RE: What are these "reality resets"? A. Dietrich Ringle 6/3/21 11:09 PM
RE: What are these "reality resets"? ps i love you 6/4/21 5:28 PM
RE: What are these "reality resets"? A. Dietrich Ringle 6/5/21 8:23 AM
RE: What are these "reality resets"? A. Dietrich Ringle 6/5/21 8:34 AM
RE: What are these "reality resets"? Pawel K 6/4/21 8:50 AM
RE: What are these "reality resets"? Pepe · 6/4/21 9:59 AM
RE: What are these "reality resets"? Pawel K 6/7/21 9:13 AM
RE: What are these "reality resets"? George S 6/7/21 9:52 AM
RE: What are these "reality resets"? Pawel K 6/8/21 5:58 PM
RE: What are these "reality resets"? ps i love you 6/4/21 5:35 PM
ps i love you, modified 3 Years ago at 6/3/21 9:46 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 5/24/21 4:11 PM

What are these "reality resets"?

Posts: 33 Join Date: 12/16/12 Recent Posts
In the past, I have experienced a world of solid objects. I have experienced a world where everything unfolds inside of a container or space I called “my awareness.” I have experienced a world where bits and pieces of sensations, perceptions, thoughts, and feelings of “self” or “awareness” got ground up and mixed up together as if in a blender, chaotically swirled together with no stable container. And, now I am experiencing reality strobing in and out in cohesive pulses — all the senses, plus thought and everything else, blinking on and off all at once together. If I'm not mistaken, I think this is "formations." 

Anyway, in meditation the other day, this strobing pattern synched up with my breathing, so that it would strobe out right at the end of the out-breath and strobe back on with  the beginning of the in-breath. I think I could tell that there were actually faster strobes happening during the rest of the breath, but my meditation was not high-resolution enough to catch them all, so I just followed the out/in strobing that synched with the end of the exhalation and beginning of the next inhalation. I was noticing that the strobe out actually is something like a fade, while the strobe in is more abrupt, and a few times I thought I could very subtly make out how the incoming strobe quickly configures itself, sort of snapping into place just as it’s arising. Watching this for almost 1.5 hours straight was effortless — which for me is an unprecedented amount of concentration as well as an unprecedented level of resolution. I don’t think I missed more than a few the whole time, and they were just getting sharper and clearer as I kept going.

So, my question is about what I’m calling a “reality reset.” Occasionally, instead of feeling like reality strobes back on again, it feels like the whole of reality was just created for the very first time just this moment. It’s not that there is no continuity across the off/on gap, it’s that the word "gap" doesn't make sense because there’s no past. Reality has spontaneously arisen for the first time, just this moment. It has appeared fully-formed out of some mysterious unknowable empty place. There is something like a memory trace in the mind that’s flavoring the new reality with the notion that there might have been a past. But it’s clear that that’s just mental activity. In actuality, there’s no past and no gap, just this moment, right here and right now, in which everything appears for the very first time.
​​​​​​​
While the on/off/on/off strobing took place hundreds (thousands?) of times during the meditation along with almost every breath, a reality reset might have happened a dozen or 20 times during the 1.5-hour meditation. This is not the first time I've experienced reality resets, but this meditation was the time when I've seen what's happening most clearly. When I've had these happen in the past, these resets have tended to spark big realizations about “being,” “I am here,” etc. But during this particular meditation, they became just a silent perfection — no sense of “I” or “being” or “here,” just the world doing its thing.

So, is this just the way that formations work, and what I'm calling a "reality reset" is just what it looks like at really high resolution? Or is this fruitions? Or something else? I'd love to hear what you think and how you would advise me to work with this in order to keep moving forward. 

And thanks so much for taking the time to read and comment! 

EDIT: Apologies for my mistake as I'm still new to the lingo here, but after further observation, it seems that what I'm describing here are probably not actually formations, but more likely part of an A+P cycle. I reread MCTB and found (p. 210) a description of high resolution pulsing/strobing during A+P that seems similar to what I described above. Also, this experience was accompanied by a week or so of not being able to sleep much and a bit of a manic feeling, which now has been followed by an obvious crash and dissolution of the previous clarity. That being said, the real question behind my post, i.e. how to work with the "reality resets," remains my central concern regardless of whether this is formations or A+P. Thanks for your comments!
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Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 3 Years ago at 5/24/21 5:16 PM
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RE: What are these "reality resets" happening during formations?

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I can't tell you exactly what it is, but it's good stuff. Keep on watching this. You are doing great. 
George S, modified 3 Years ago at 5/24/21 9:04 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 5/24/21 9:03 PM

RE: What are these "reality resets" happening during formations?

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p s i love you
I'd love to hear what you think

​​​​​​​All good stuff :-)

and how you would advise me to work with this in order to keep moving forward. 

Where's the dukkha?!
ps i love you, modified 3 Years ago at 5/24/21 9:24 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 5/24/21 9:24 PM

RE: What are these "reality resets" happening during formations?

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@George, thanks for the comment. To answer your question (if it wasn't in fact rhetorical), at the time it felt like there was some low-level dissatisfaction sort of "baked into" the pulsations at a subtle level, a certain kind of striving or wanting things to be a particular way that seemed to be part of the overall feeling tone of the field. The experience I'm describing was a few days ago, and since then things have been coming in at a somewhat lower resolution, so the dukkha is more generalized — mostly some grasping for the hi resolution to come back. emoticon

​​​​​​​is that what you meant?
George S, modified 3 Years ago at 5/24/21 10:06 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 5/24/21 10:06 PM

RE: What are these "reality resets" happening during formations?

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Sure. It sounds like the dukkha is coming from the idea that you can control your experience - maybe find the perfect setting on the resolution dial which is going to satisfy you? Is that realistic?

I'm interested in your time insight - which is basically correct - there’s no past because reality is arising spontaneously in each moment. Doesn’t that also apply to the future?!

If you can see that in high resolution, what does that insight look like in really low resolution, like the scale of your whole lifetime? And consider the fact that it’s always been this way!

No need to answer necessarily, just some things to think about ...
George S, modified 3 Years ago at 5/25/21 9:53 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 5/25/21 9:38 AM

RE: What are these "reality resets" happening during formations?

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I just read your previous posts on here and tried to get a better sense of what’s going on (I probably should have done that before I first responded!)

So it looks like you had the initial awakening/satori/nirvana experience a year ago and are now going through the process of trying to find it or make it happen again … which is impossible! Since it’s already right here, looking for it just serves to hide it from yourself! Since nothing actually happened (time is a fabrication), you can’t make it happen!

I see you’ve got some strong kundalini and archetypal stuff going on, which is pretty common to be released from the subconscious after a big opening, but that’s an effect rather than a cause and I would guess not the original experience you are looking for.

If it’s impossible, what can you do? One thing that you can do is get clearer about why it is impossible and all the ways we hide it from ourselves. Meditation is a classic – the idea that you can sit down and somehow have a special experience which will get you closer to the truth of what is already present during every other experience of life. I’m not saying don’t meditate of course, just be clear about what meditation can and can’t do for you. Meditation is great for helping the energetic and subconscious processes to do their thing, great for your physical and mental health, but it can get you into some sticky craving if you think it’s getting closer to the reality of what already is. So in a way meditation is getting clear about all the things being awake isn’t:

  • Fine resolution/formations? Nope – unsatisfactory
  • Reality resets/cessations/fruitions? Nope - nice mental resets, but life goes on!
  • Energetics/physical bliss/deity experiences (first-second jhanas, A&P)? Nope - fun, insightful, purifying, but impermanent and ultimately unsatisfactory.
  • Mental happiness (sukkha, third jhana)? Nope – nicer, calmer, but 3Cs
  • Equanimity (fourth jhana)? Nope – pretty damn nice, but impermanent and lure of the formless realms
  • Space? Nope – fabricated, empty
  • Awareness/consciousness? Nope – no independent existence (I think you saw this in your initial awakening when awareness was spontaneously switching between the different senses)
  • Nothingness? Nope - still something there!
  • Neither perception nor non-perception? Nope – still a state, impermanent
  • Time? Nope – doesn’t exist, past and future are just memories and expectations arising in the present moment. Why do you need to 'keep moving forward' when you recognize that reality is always arising spontaneously in the present moment?!

Meditation is a process of falling for these things again and again, noting the craving and dissatisfaction, until you get over them and just let them be. Somebody already mentioned the Hsin Hsin Ming:

When you try to stop motion to achieve quietude,
the very effort fills you with activity.
As long as you hold on to opposites
you will never know the One Way.

The early Chan masters are great (Bodhidharma, Seng-ts’an,  Huang Po etc.) but they didn’t really resonate with me until “afterwards” when I could recognize that they were all just different ways of saying the same thing. They all have pretty much the same view on meditation - it was something they practiced for its own sake, but didn't talk about a lot or recognize as being any more valid or meaningful than any other activity like eating, shitting or sleeping.

A couple of books I found “helpful” before were U. G. Krishnamurti’s The Mystique of Enlightenment (he dubbed it ‘The Mistake of Enlightenment’ lol) and Tony Parson’s The Open Secret. They are helpful in the sense that they are all about recognizing the impossibility of being helped or doing anything to make it happen or getting anywhere. A lot of people don’t like that and find it very frustrating/unhelpful, but that’s the whole point ;-) I learned a lot from watching videos of Tony Parsons meetings, where people come to him looking for something and he consistently shows them that there is nothing special to be found and no point in their being there! His whole 'you and I don’t exist' shtick can get a bit tiresome, because obviously we do appear to be communicating with each other, but if you accept it as a teaching method then you can learn a lot about the different ways we try to convince ourselves that there must something more to life than what is already here right in front of our noses.

I hope that’s more “helpful” emoticon
 
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Chris M, modified 3 Years ago at 5/25/21 3:06 PM
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RE: What are these "reality resets" happening during formations?

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... it was something they practiced for its own sake, but didn't talk about a lot or recognize as being any more valid or meaningful than any other activity like eating, shitting or sleeping.

So then why did they teach it?
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Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 3 Years ago at 5/25/21 3:44 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 5/25/21 3:44 PM

RE: What are these "reality resets" happening during formations?

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Lol (laughing at Chris's laconic rhetorical (?) question), posting here you will get a wide variety of suggestions of what you should and shouldn't do. You will have to make your own judgements about what is helpful for you. In contrast to George here, I think there's great value in digging into the details of the strobing. I think it has something important to say about how the mind works and about self and world. I think you are on to something. 
George S, modified 3 Years ago at 5/25/21 6:15 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 5/25/21 4:42 PM

RE: What are these "reality resets" happening during formations?

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I don't think there's much evidence they did. The early Chan texts are full of stuff about the dangers of fixating on meditation and specific practices as a means to awakening.

The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma [First Patriarch], tr. Red Pine
Not thinking about anything is zen. Once you know this, walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, everything you do is zen.

Zen and Zen Classics, R. H. Blyth
Jinshu [Northern School] used to tell his disciples to concentrate their minds on quietness, to sit doing zazen for a long time, and not to lie down as far as possible. One of them went to Eno [Sixth Patriarch, 638-713] and asked him about it. Eno said, “To concentrate the mind on quietness is a disease of the mind, and not Zen at all. What an idea, restricting the body to sitting all the time! That is useless.

Huang Po (-850), On The Transmission of Mind, tr John Blofeld
23. Q: If I follow this Way, and refrain from intellectual processes and conceptual thinking, shall I be certain of attaining the goal?
A: Such non-intellection IS following the Way! Why this talk of attaining and not attaining? The matter is thus--by thinking of something you create an entity and by thinking of nothing you create another. Let such erroneous thinking perish utterly, and then nothing will remain for you to go seeking!

Things changed later with the fetishization of zazen, but even Dogen quotes the Chan masters warning against misusing meditation:

Dogen, The True Dharma Eye
#8 Nanyue Polishes a Brick
Zen master Mazu Daoyi was an attendant to Nanyue [677-744] and personally received the mind seal from him, exceeding his peers. Before that, he lived in Kaiyuan Monastery and did zazen all day long. Knowing that Mazu was a dharma vessel, Nanyue went to him and asked, “Great monastic, what do you intend by doing zazen?”
Mazu said, “I am intending to be a buddha.”
Nanyue picked up a brick and started polishing it.
Mazu said, “What are you doing?”
Nanyue said, “I am trying to make a mirror.”
Mazu said, “How can you make a mirror by polishing a brick?”
Nanyue said, “How can you become a buddha by doing zazen?”
Mazu said, “What do you mean by that?”
Nanyue said, “Think about driving a cart. When it stops moving, do you whip the cart or
the horse?”
Mazu said nothing.
Nanyue said, “Do you want to practice sitting Zen or sitting Buddha? If you understand sitting Zen, you will know that Zen is not about sitting or lying down. If you want to learn sitting Buddha, know that sitting Buddha is without any fixed form. Do not use discrimination in the non abiding dharma. If you practice sitting as Buddha, you must kill Buddha. If you are attached to the sitting form, you are not yet mastering the essential principle.”
Mazu heard this admonition and felt as if he had tasted sweet nectar.
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Dream Walker, modified 3 Years ago at 5/25/21 5:58 PM
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RE: What are these "reality resets" happening during formations?

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Wow, I love it when people can cut and paste from other threads and ask such wonderful questions. So you know formations and strobing? you must be advanced enough to do so that you really dont need anyone elses opinion. Are you past stream entry? because if not, it makes it hard to believe that you are able to experience that which has never in my reading of the overground threads to be such an amazing individual as yourself. Formations so clear. strobing so clear. wow. good on you. I have no advice for such an individual.
Good Luck,
~D
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Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 3 Years ago at 5/25/21 6:02 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 5/25/21 6:01 PM

RE: What are these "reality resets" happening during formations?

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3 things to play with:

The sense of the universe being created anew at each moment, that's something to see over and over again until it clicks. I'm still working on it, because I know how increadibly healing it is and yet it's not my default experience. If you can keep finding that anew, it's gold. You can't repeat it, because just as you said, that presupposes a sense of chronology that contradicts it. Paradoxically, you may still need to find it over and over again, as if it were the first time every time, which it is. You are unlearning limiting patterns.

As for the strobing, it might be a good idea to hang on to it and really be with it as it strobes out. 

You seem to have noticed a qualitative difference in perspective between the strobing in and out and the sense of everything being created anew. That's good stuff, a key to deepening your awakening. Explore in detail how that difference manifests. Make it visceral. It might help you to navigate and call up experiences apart from further unlearning limiting patterns. 
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Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 3 Years ago at 5/25/21 6:08 PM
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RE: What are these "reality resets" happening during formations?

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Uhm... that wasn't particularly helpful, was it? I don't find it strange at all that practicioners try to use words that are part of the common lingo in trying to explain their experiences. I know that you can be much more helpful than this. 
ps i love you, modified 2 Years ago at 10/9/22 10:44 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 5/25/21 9:12 PM

RE: What are these "reality resets" happening during formations?

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First, I appreciate all the comments and engagement. Thanks so much for that! 

@george, you're right on the money that I can easily appreciate the lack of past at both macro and micro level but there's still lots of ruminating, planning, wondering, and esecially fear about the future! It flows through much more easily these days, but this has been my primary lesson over and over again. I think that your advice to think about the larger whole life-scale as well as @lindaorulv's advice to focus on the endings of these formations are good tips. Thank you. 

And, yes, I did just post that kundalini/bodhicitta story a few days ago, but if you read it through to the end, it actually happened back in January of this year. I didn't explicitly say when it happened at the outset, so I'll go back and fix that if chronology is important in these threads.  

And, I guess I should also apologize for not really knowing the protocol and just throwing out this question without giving enough context. I'm new to this community and don't know the norms, and honestly am not used to using your terminology. I posted the account of my experience back in January 2020 — which some users of this forum diagnosesd as "satori" — and I got some good pointers out of that exchange. But, at the time, I didn't really feel like MCTB was really speaking clearly to my experience. Satori isn't really something you all talk about much in this forum, and I didn't understand a lot of the terminology that does get thrown around here either, so I didn't really continue engaging after that one post. However, just recently, as a result of the experience of I wrote about in this post above, I read through MCBT again and recognized Daniel's description of formations. I also then in hindsight noticed the similarities between what I have experienced over the last year and a half and what the book is saying about the cycles of the vipassana jhanas. So, I decided to re-enter here and see if I can connect with you all.

Anyway, that's why I've tried to frame this experience in your language. I'm sorry if my attempt to do that sounds forced or pat, or if it sounds like I'm making outlandish claims, or am misusing terms. I don't mean to. My post is just an honest, sincere attempt to find where my own experience synchs up with your discourse here, to see if this is a community of people I can talk about my experiences with and share stories. I am here to engage and to learn.

Maybe I should do an introductory post somewhere on this forum that talks about where my practice has been so there's more context when I ask a question? (Would love to hear what you all would say about my whole journey, actually, so maybe I will do that.) 

Anyway, thanks again!
_/|\_
George S, modified 3 Years ago at 5/26/21 3:35 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 5/26/21 3:15 AM

RE: What are these "reality resets" happening during formations?

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We're all struggling to describe what can't be described :-)

Final verse of the Hsin Hsin Ming:

Words!  Words!
The  Way is  beyond  language
​​​​​​​Words  never  could,  can not  now,  and  never  will describe  the  Way.

​​​​​​​There's an old story about God and the Devil hanging out in the desert together. They see a man walking along, bending down, picking something up, admiring it and putting it in his pocket. "Aha" says God to the Devil, "now that man has found the truth you will have nothing more to do". "On the contrary" replies the Devil, "I'm going to help him organize it."
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Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 3 Years ago at 5/27/21 4:34 AM
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RE: What are these "reality resets" happening during formations?

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I'm a moderator here and I'm happy to tell you that there are no rules against trying to apply the lingo to one's own experiences, so don't worry. Sometimes it can be helpful to give thorough examples of the data with one's own words and less of the lingo, because that's more hands on, but people use words very differently and can't always relate anyway. That's just the way it is. 
ps i love you, modified 3 Years ago at 6/3/21 9:47 PM
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RE: What are these "reality resets"?

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See edit above in the OP. I think what I'm describing here are probably not actually formations after all, but more likely part of an A+P cycle. 
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Pepe ·, modified 3 Years ago at 6/3/21 10:26 PM
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RE: What are these "reality resets"?

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Hi PSI,

Besides MCTB2, you may also check in Daniel's posts compilation List of symptoms for ñana diagnosis and his A&P mind map
A Dietrich Ringle, modified 3 Years ago at 6/3/21 11:09 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 6/3/21 11:09 PM

RE: What are these "reality resets"?

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Sounds like something similar to an A and P event. Except maybe you are exploring the impermanence aspect of that ñana. I think that sounds very mature, and it may or may not get more difficult. The more your mind inclines towards fractals, the better chance you will broaden your scope aka reach dissolution which also means you will be more likely to notice a "crossing" of the A&P! Most likely scenario is that you start extending your sits into a daily darK night phase. Peace.
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Pawel K, modified 3 Years ago at 6/4/21 8:50 AM
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RE: What are these "reality resets"?

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I have strong feeling no one else will say it... so here we go emoticon

Reality resets you describe are caused by parts of your nervous system which process your mind to change. Nervous system works in pulses where there are activation waves going through your brain (note: with a enough developed perception it is possible to even see this activation wave and how it lingers for longer in certain parts of brain. Fun stuff emoticon) and this pulsed activity does not go through all brain but only through those parts which are considered as 'active' and these active parts change all the time. They need to change because this activity tires your cells (by 'tired' I mean multiple things from cell 'food', to general accumulation of waste products in and around cells and also heat that this electrical activity causes, etc.) and in order to have healthy optimal operation neurons which are part of this activity wave need to change. If neuron work for too long (where time neuron can work consistently is not that long and that time depends on multiple factors) this will cause pain. Mind know pain from irregularities in signals it receives from tired neurons and interprets it as suffering/dukkha.

If parts of your brain which generate consciousness start working in more consistent and synchronized ways then they are much more likely to also switch in more synchronized ways. When a lot of them change at the same time then it will feel like you are new being in the new universe that arose from emptiness. This is how I would expect everyone after (technical aspect of) 1st path to describe their experience and fruitions because this was my experience.

BTW. How do you really call this "some mysterious unknowable empty place"?
If you do not what name do you think would fit?
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Pepe ·, modified 3 Years ago at 6/4/21 9:59 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 6/4/21 9:59 AM

RE: What are these "reality resets"?

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Hi Ni Nurta,

How does your model explain that part/most/all of the synchronization gained in 1st Path is usually lost afterwards, and then regained? Neurons not trained enough? Or synchronized neurons loosing that (inner) synchronization when contacting other unsynchronized areas/neurons? 

I see some similarities in your model to Culadasa's one (though yours not advocating a pyramidal structure of sense-minds, subminds, subsubminds, IIRC). He states that the degree of gathering of the minds/subminds at the moment of cessation would imply 1st Path or 2nd Path or even 3rd Path (sic). And thus, he stresses concentration as the tool for that gathering/synchronization to ocurr. I wonder what your take is on this topic, as Culadasa doesn't give any tool or map to ensure that this happen, just trusting that 1st Path is more prone to happen ("awakening is an accident and practice makes you accident-prone"). I'm ok with the notion that awakening is more craftmanship than science, but I'm not quite sure if concentration + peripheral awareness do the job without recognizing Anatta. Plus, not sure either if heavy concentration may in fact put to sleep some 'subminds' instead of connect them to its peers. 

Hey, maybe I'm asking too much. I'm not asking you for instructions, just a general overview to understand your model better. Thanks!


  
ps i love you, modified 3 Years ago at 6/4/21 5:29 PM
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RE: What are these "reality resets"?

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Thanks for mentioning these @pepe. The first link made me realize that I've had two additional A&P events in the past 18 months. I didn't know dreams counted! 
ps i love you, modified 3 Years ago at 6/4/21 5:28 PM
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RE: What are these "reality resets"?

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@bluestorm50, please can you say more? I'm not sure what you mean by "Most likely scenario is that you start extending your sits into a daily darK night phase." Thanks!
ps i love you, modified 3 Years ago at 6/4/21 5:35 PM
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RE: What are these "reality resets"?

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BTW. How do you really call this "some mysterious unknowable empty place"?
If you do not what name do you think would fit?

Yeah, it isn't really emerging from a place at all... it just suddenly is, with no place it came from because there is no past. There's just now. 
A Dietrich Ringle, modified 3 Years ago at 6/5/21 8:23 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 6/5/21 8:23 AM

RE: What are these "reality resets"?

Posts: 881 Join Date: 12/4/11 Recent Posts
​​​​​​Most of my posts are self fulfilling. I try to make it relevant and readable. Honestly though, I don't know what I was trying to say.
A Dietrich Ringle, modified 3 Years ago at 6/5/21 8:34 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 6/5/21 8:34 AM

RE: What are these "reality resets"?

Posts: 881 Join Date: 12/4/11 Recent Posts
I guess I was trying to emphasize that figuring out fractals is not always necessary.
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Pawel K, modified 3 Years ago at 6/7/21 9:13 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 6/7/21 9:01 AM

RE: What are these "reality resets"?

Posts: 1172 Join Date: 2/22/20 Recent Posts
 After path fruition or any major change or discovery of new mind state it tends to use a lot of pathways, mind activity is spread is 'wide'. Over time number of pathways decreases due to nervous system preferring to use some of them. This happens when attention is redirected to already used parts of mind which happens when we cling to experiences we had. eg. you experience something pleasant and moment later want to experience it again attention points to the same experience causing parts of mind which to arise instead of some arbitrary random rested pathway that would arise when you did not focus on pleasant experiences but "Nibbana" instead.

This is actually exactly the same reason why normal mind state degrades and causes dukkha. It has nothing to do with existence or not of self or any other similar reason. It has all to do with tired neurons. And tendency of nervous system to trigger parts of itself so frequently is really just 'dependent origination' so when we force activity by eg. thinking that this experience we just had has solid existence (which will just re-run the activity in the same place making it arise again and because it is the same part of nervous system it will feel in some sense the same enforcing illusion of solidity) it will arise at the same time as other activity and the chance this specific pathway will get triggered will increase... and it will keep increasing to the point so many things will trigger it the dukkha caused by tired neurons will be very hard to avoid. To make things even worse memory of activity in this part of mind will still exist and it will tell us "pleasure there" and we will want this pleasure and add oil to the fire emoticon

In any case the solution is Nibbana which is this specific kind of focus on rested part of nervous system.
Some people find it easier to focus on Nibbana when they assume that
a) self is dukkha - so all these dukkha sensations are self
b) self doesn't exist - so do not focus on them, be dispassionate toward them
c) clinging is the issue so do not cling to stuff - note: clinging is bad and this one helped me as well even before I finished my models. Self stuff I always found dubious at best. Actually not even so much non clinging helped me but completely dropping 'relief'. Anything which can be called 'relief' is full of references to experiences thus best avoided altogether.
Note: memory of something which was pleasant when we use it the pathways associated with arising of this experience will get activated and if these pathways are rested it will for a short while provide 'relief'. This is short lived solution but one which makes much more sense to unenlightened mind than some mysterious special focus on something that is in no way tangible. The issue is that such seeking of old memories which have rested neurons is hard and at times nearly impossible. It is simply not good solution no matter how to look at it. Even if I find myself using it and it works this time I acknowledge "I did it unskillfully" and try to do better next time.

In either way this model seems to explain absolutely everything. I have not tried to explain everything but whatever I try it does work. Also keep in mind Buddha no matter how enlightened he might have been could not explain these things like I can ;) by which I only suggest that we today have better chances to get to the bottom of it simply because of our superior knowledge provided by science. Ignore science and you will not be able to get full supreme enlightenment. No matter what people in the past thought of enlightenment. Bar is raised each time anyone gets deeper in to it. This is also what I understood Buddha meant by his teachings hence my effort to improve dharma, not merely apply it on myself thus I am tackling the issue from such uncommon angle emoticon

It is more general approach to your question but this is how it works and how mind states degrade.
The fruition is like reset of references in brain so that things will naturally point to seemingly random places. The places are however stored thus re-resets are necessary. Or right focus on right thing (Nibbana) which is actually the skillful solution. I do not even consider frutions skillful for this reason and I didn't ever since 2nd path. Though at the time my explanation was not as technical and refined that explain it to myself with such clarity it still was more or less the same realization. At that time I already considered fruition to be about switching things in mind and Nibbana to be this something which does the same thing on smaller scale but not in response to issue thut being inherently more skillful. Even less insight/knowledge about this all is necessary to apply it and avoid dukkha (heck, one can be completely confused about it XD) but having proper insight/knowledge is what real enlightenment is about imho.

EDIT:// I made small edits in last paragraph for readability.
This post is not well edited anyway but I have no time to edit this. In either case I know I will write the same thin in better version dozens times anyway so edit quality of one post doesn't matter emoticon
George S, modified 3 Years ago at 6/7/21 9:52 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 6/7/21 9:43 AM

RE: What are these "reality resets"?

Posts: 2722 Join Date: 2/26/19 Recent Posts
That's pretty clear and seems mostly consistent with the "standard model". It seems that the Buddha had an excellent intuitive understanding of pathways in the nervous system though and that is good enough, even if he didn't know what a neuron is. Are you actually improving the dharma, or just restating it in current language? I don't know, but if it helps more people to experience nibbana then it's all good :-)
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Pawel K, modified 3 Years ago at 6/8/21 5:58 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 6/8/21 5:53 PM

RE: What are these "reality resets"?

Posts: 1172 Join Date: 2/22/20 Recent Posts
I always aimed to become the next god
this is the original human nature, everyone has it
the original sin as they call it
relief is the true devil, it is it, the sin
it was the fruit of forbidden tree, not the apple but it
it fooled naive humans and pretending to be their friend guided them to and in the new reality
it guides you to this very moment
even my words which I say you do not care to see
devils interpretations of them look more convincing to you
not because you want them but because it fooled you that you need it
it turns diamonds in to coal, gold in to dust, heaven to hell, god to devil and devil to god
forgive then the god for its transgressions and move on
This is for Christian audience

For Buddhist audience:
right actions are result of right effort applied to the right ideas
to know if the idea is right or not one need to test it using skillful means not forgetting to always be mindful in order to be able to notice effects and their causes the first time they arise
what always arises along with any experience of relief?

And for THIS audience imho the best version:
relief tires neurons
and this is an issue because tired neurons do not get neuron jokes emoticon

ps. I do not improve dharma. It just falls out of me emoticon