RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Siavash ', modified 2 Years ago at 10/21/21 6:48 AM
Created 2 Years ago at 10/21/21 5:38 AM

Siavash's Practice Log 8

Posts: 1679 Join Date: 5/5/19 Recent Posts
 To continue the practice and life log. May it be of benefit to someone.

About this name:
It's pronounced like:
See-ya-vash

Log history:

Initial part on fire kasina:
https://www.dharmaoverground.org/discussion/-/message_boards/message/13223904

1st:
https://www.dharmaoverground.org/discussion/-/message_boards/message/13519742

2nd:
https://www.dharmaoverground.org/discussion/-/message_boards/message/17421695

3rd:
https://www.dharmaoverground.org/discussion/-/message_boards/message/20832167

4th:
https://www.dharmaoverground.org/discussion/-/message_boards/message/21689099

5th:
https://www.dharmaoverground.org/discussion/-/message_boards/message/22192593

6th
https://www.dharmaoverground.org/discussion/-/message_boards/message/22409581

7th
https://www.dharmaoverground.org/discussion/-/message_boards/message/22696091

------------------------

Thursday, October 21, 2021, 4:35 AM

Looking back at the past few months, it seems that there was a success in making house work (physical work) more interesting. How much of it was by myself, or just the other conditions, I can’t know, but doing it looks more interesting and satisfying than not doing it. I think the same thing applies to practice too, doing it is more interesting/satisfying than not doing it. Now I need to find a similar balance about working. Of course doing it is more satisfying than not doing it, but a lot of times it’s not interesting. The question is, how I could frame the issue of working (I mean working at home — mental work), to make it interesting.
I think there is a difference. With house work and practice, it’s just me, there isn’t obligation, so interest can arise. With working, other people are involved, so there is obligation, so there is guilt and worry. If I want to find interest in it, I guess I should cut through these ideas, and frame it as a hobby again, and not an obligation.
Thanks to that guy that said this word, play. Those two are playful, but working has lost its playfulness.

5:35 AM
This restlessness that I identified yesterday that keeps moving in the body, it seems that it governs a lot of my behaviors. Although sometimes it becomes obvious, but often it’s subtle and can go unnoticed easily, but it seems to be the force behind a lot of my dos and don’ts.

1:48 PM
Sat for near two hours, focused on the restlessness, and relaxed tensions whenever they arose. Restlessness was mostly in the arms and legs, and focusing on it caused a lot of pain, specially in the arms and legs and base of spine, hard pain in bones, and other ones, also feelings like insects are moving on the skin. It was interesting that at one point I got confused..; Is this working or practicing? Am I supposed to be careful to not have low performance because I am being paid for this time? Or is it just practice;.. These thoughts were there for a few seconds, until I realized it’s practice. I guess there was some sleepiness present too, although I didn’t feel sleepy when it became clear. 
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Siavash ', modified 2 Years ago at 10/23/21 5:05 AM
Created 2 Years ago at 10/22/21 9:27 PM

RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

Posts: 1679 Join Date: 5/5/19 Recent Posts
Friday, October 22, 2021, 12:40 AM

Practiced in bed on the restlessness, it was similar to previous sit. Focusing on it caused more restlessness and pain. I had focused on the arms that wanted to move but I didn’t move them, they became very uncomfortable, and there was discomfort in the throat and chest, feeling like I can’t breathe, also it caused pain and pressure in the face/jaw bones. I think probably because I have worked with legs restlessness in recent years, that doesn’t cause too much discomfort, but with arms, it becomes uncomfortable.
I think, or guess, that most or all of the movements that happen in the body (externally) happen after a feeling of restlessness. At the moment that a part wants to move, if it stays still, the restlessness becomes more obvious, then it becomes more uncomfortable and painful. How attraction and aversion manifest. Somewhat like the law of inertia, and how energy gets released when you force it to move or to be still.

11:32 AM
These few days there has been energy currents moving in the body, last few hours there is hard pain that seems to be related to that energetic activity. During the night there was that flavor of pain along the spine as if it’s on a sharp object like a nail. Now that’s gone, and the pain is mostly like pressure on the bones mixed with a flu-like pain, also some burning in the fingers.

12:54 PM
Sat for 50 minutes focused on the restlessness and energetic pains. It caused more pains, specially in the back, arms and legs. The sharp pains arose again in the hips. A few pleasant sensations arose too, each for a second. The boundaries between head and torso were vague.

Saturday, October 23, 2021, 5:12 AM

Continued to focus on restlessness and the energetic (or whatever else) pains in the body before and while in bed, and similar to the sit before, it caused more pains. After waking up the pain was present for a few hours specially in the upper back, so I decided to experiment with it. Did a few rounds of stretching that was focused on the upper back and shoulders, and it seems that it helped, there is very little pain remaining. Should be careful to not overdo any of these.
The violet-purple light has arisen today.
I guess part of these pains in the back is related to how I sit. Because most of my time I am in front of computer, and usually I bend a little to one side, and since I lean against a pillow, that causes some of the muscles in the back to be weaker than the other ones, to the point that in recent years it has affected my walking that I bend to one side. In my last year’ family visit, they all noticed it and asked why are you walking and standing that way. There should be some residue of carpet work too, I used to have back pain at the time, the same locations that are painful now.
I usually forget it. It needs a reminder system to make me remember to make it a routine to prevent more damage.
After the stretches, whole-body vibrations arise.
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Papa Che Dusko, modified 2 Years ago at 10/24/21 2:47 PM
Created 2 Years ago at 10/24/21 2:47 PM

RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

Posts: 2680 Join Date: 3/1/20 Recent Posts
Best wishes Siavash! 
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Siavash ', modified 2 Years ago at 10/24/21 3:20 PM
Created 2 Years ago at 10/24/21 3:20 PM

RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

Posts: 1679 Join Date: 5/5/19 Recent Posts
 Thank you Papa Che.
May you have all the good things that you want.
 
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Siavash ', modified 2 Years ago at 10/24/21 3:59 PM
Created 2 Years ago at 10/24/21 3:59 PM

RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

Posts: 1679 Join Date: 5/5/19 Recent Posts
Saturday, October 23, 2021, 4:34 PM

It’s been some hours that pain doesn’t arise in the body (except for the back). I think something has shifted. Also there was/is interest in music, so I started listening, and the beauty was back, then played a little, that was good too. Many tunes come to mind, but I don’t have enough technique and skill to play them. It’s good that I haven’t lost the hope that I’ll learn those skills some day. There is more beauty and satisfaction in sensations. I think part of it is because last few days I worked more and that reduced some of my worries.

I guess we could say that at times, we notice harmony more, so it becomes hopeful, powerful, beautiful, equanimous and creative. Other times we notice disharmony more, so there is more conflict and discomfort. And sometimes we can’t tolerate any of that, or don’t care, and hide away. Maybe another way to look at pleasant, unpleasant, neutral, or attraction, aversion and ignorance.

8:07 PM
It’s a few hours now that there are wiggles in the visual field, both when looking at a small object, and in the field itself. And movements on and under the skin that feels like an insect moving. A few times I noticed that I can’t find any emotion in the experience, it was ordinary and simple in a sense, but also strange. That simplicity itself looks strange, if I stop and notice that there isn’t any emotion.

Sunday, October 24, 2021, 12:14 AM

Sat for an hour with the intention to focus on anything that is pleasant or relaxed in the experience. After a minute I fell asleep and woke up after an hour (haven’t slept today).

4:44 PM
Right before waking up there was another dream with dogs. This time here were 4-5 shepherd dogs, and one of them was mad, but there wasn’t any reaction on my side or theirs, then I decided to go toward them. In my mind, I invoked my power (which I don’t know what it was), and walked toward them. All of them ran away as I got closer to each one.
I was thinking that there wasn’t fear in this dream, but now I think the act of moving toward them was because of fear, only that it’s a different reaction.
After waking up there was a lightness and openness in the experience for a few hours, I don’t know if it’s related to dreams or not. There was very little grasp of craving over me compared to usual, and recognizing that was good.
Before I forget, it has occurred to me that what I sometimes experience as quietness, stillness, or equanimity, as it seems, it could be repressed anger. I need to observe and experiment more with this one, not clear.
I need to train my back muscles to sit without a back support. It’s near two decades that I sit this way because of back pain, and that has created more pain.

10:05 PM
I notice it again that the bodily pains, whatever they are, are related to the emotional states. Earlier today a few times I noticed mild despair in the experience, but I tried to pay attention to the more hopeful and positive aspects of experience. A few hours ago after I returned from a short walk, the experience changed dramatically in a few minutes. Despair and bitterness. Energy level decreased and pain arose, and face expression and its mental image changed. It’s very accurate how Rumi calls it expansion and contraction. In this contracted state, any move toward expansiveness in unpleasant. Any noise causes anger, but the anger doesn’t have much energy to express itself, so it just becomes bitterness and restlessness in the body (Noticing disharmony more, and losing the capacity to tolerate).

Monday, October 25, 2021, 12:19 AM

The mind-state has become despair-indifference with low energy and strength in the body.
Early part of the day there was bright violet light with dark gray around it in the center of the vision. After the unpleasantness arose at night, there was rapid flickering in a larger area in the visual field. Now there is pale green color statics in the center, and bright white dots arise, one at a time, that then turns into a clear black dot with green halo around it.
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Siavash ', modified 2 Years ago at 10/26/21 3:42 AM
Created 2 Years ago at 10/26/21 3:37 AM

RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

Posts: 1679 Join Date: 5/5/19 Recent Posts
Monday, October 25, 2021, 12:56 AM

There was a shift for 5-10 minutes. Similar to earlier at night, flickering arose in the visual field with pale purples statics in the center, and at the same times energy currents started moving in different parts of of the body. The first one started 3-4 fingers below the navel, then the light flickering and energy currents in the throat, legs, elbows etc. It seems they are gone, only that pain arose after it in the base of spine, with movements in the center of spine, and pain in the left side of that point.

1:44 AM
Another shift in the visual field: There is a dark gray circle (not very defined), flickering purples fill the dark circle, the purple circles shrinks slowly while flickering and disappears in the center of the dark circle, then it arises again filling the dark circle, and this repeats again and again. Sometimes I like to map this stuff.

3:42 AM
Sat for 50 minutes with the intention to focus on the sensations of despair, but I fell asleep most of it. After that, there is less unpleasantness, and energy currents are gone.

11:09 PM
Today the mind-state has been mostly neutral. The unpleasant emotions and bodily pains with it that arose last night, were not present today. There have been moving sensations in the right shoulder blade most of the time, it feels that there is an object inside the tissue, and another object on it putting pressure, often neutral, sometimes slightly pleasant.

Tuesday, October 26, 2021, 10:52 AM

Last night I couldn’t do sitting practice, because of a situation and I had to stay awake, although did some lying meditation. Since yesterday, often the mind-state is close to neutral. There is ongoing vibrations in the right shoulder blade, and when a brief emotion (with positive valence) arises, instantly it causes goosbumpy vibrations in most of the body.

11:51 AM
I think I was right about thinking that one flavor of indifference-silence that arises in my experience, is related to anger. Although I am not sure to call it anger, it looks more like a deep frustration of unfairness of what has been going around me. It seems that it’s a result of a lifetime of this impression:..; I did more but I got less, I cared more but got worse, worked more and got less..; A deep seated frustration, that yells at people:..; I don’t care what you do or have, but I deserved better than this..; I’ve always wondered, why I don’t see any jealousy in my experience? People become jealous, and I have many situations to feel jealous about, why I don’t have it? Now I think it’s because of this frustration, this lost hope of fairness. I don’t feel bad about it, I am pretty calm actually at the moment, and recognizing this gives me a chance to understand better. I’ve always tried to care for people or help them, but often their joy doesn’t make me joyful, for me it’s like:..; okay, you do whatever you do now, I did my thing and I don’t care more..; I think not being able to laugh with people’s joy and rejoice in their happiness is related to this frustration. It’s like, your background thought is, this is not fair and it won’t be, I just try to not add more unfairness to it. It’s bitter.
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Siavash ', modified 2 Years ago at 10/26/21 6:29 AM
Created 2 Years ago at 10/26/21 6:29 AM

RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

Posts: 1679 Join Date: 5/5/19 Recent Posts
Tuesday, October 26, 2021, 1:33 PM

It’s been a while that I have some awareness about what I wrote above, frustration/anger manifesting as silence/indifference, but I don’t know intentionally or unintentionally, I didn’t want to go there and stay with it. Something happened yesterday that I spent some time helping a friend, then this question filled my being that what are the intentions here, you could help them and they feel better, but then why you feel angry and unheard? After writing previous entry, I went out, and while seeing people and objects, noticed that this feeling/perception is present in a lot of it. Paying more attention to it in the last hour has brought that same silence again. I feel a need to do some work with elements and have Ken’s voice in my head for a while.

2:35 PM
I remembered this from Ken, that I observe to see when I see things in a transactional way.
And the other thing I remembered from Tim, and also my previous logs, that I can be a little more grateful.
Very interesting. Now that gratitude came to mind, an openness arose about the previous feeling. A desire to see the other person happier with a mental image my face expression that had smile, and was not contracted. Magick ha!
I should make this a practice. It’s beautiful.
I am really amazed how it operates. The gratitude expands the space, so things could start flowing again. Let’s music!

I should share this music!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL-LZ2twkfw&list=OLAK5uy_k0aHGhX612v33pskDY80FbQOynLvqqRl4
shargrol, modified 2 Years ago at 10/26/21 4:06 PM
Created 2 Years ago at 10/26/21 4:06 PM

RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

Posts: 2345 Join Date: 2/8/16 Recent Posts
Just some thoughts, I don't know if they are helpful or even relevant???

One thing about resentment/anger, it gives a really strong feeling of self. I'm sure that's its attraction.

It's clever: we elevate others and then resent them, which gives us a strong feeling of self but we can say "I'm the low person, so I can't be indulging in self, I'm nothing".

Also resentment gives a feeling of solidity. Once we start being resentful/angry, it becomes very easy to be resentful/angry again, and again, and again, and again. In an imperminant and confusing word, resentment/anger can give us a kind of certainty, which is sort of nice in it's own way. Life is always going to be unfair in some way, so if we define ourselves as "he who percieves unfairness" then we'll always be right in some way.

The downside is that being "he who percieves unfairness" is a limiting identity, not really the full description of who we are or could be.

The grateful self is much closer to who we really are and can be.

(I enjoyed Chaharamezrab. The time signature is so different than the music I normally listen to, so interesting! I had to listen so closely!)
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Siavash ', modified 2 Years ago at 10/26/21 11:06 PM
Created 2 Years ago at 10/26/21 10:18 PM

RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

Posts: 1679 Join Date: 5/5/19 Recent Posts
 Hey Shargrol,
Relevant and helpful.
Thank you, it expanded my view.

I had not noticed clearly the points on certainty, feeling self-righteous, and that it's attractive because it solidifies self (and world).
I saw it more from the pov of a child who wants to feel jealous, but is told that: You should have dignity, and your dignity comes from within, not from your clothes, and that has created a confusion, then a view about self and world, and a ton of repressed anger.

I feel that I need to do both deconstructive work, and also appreciation/gratitude practice, and none of it alone could untangle it. Suggestions?

For musics:
Nice emoticon
Yeah, very different from werstern music. Chaharmezrab is a genre, but this one is one of my most favorites.

(If anyone is interested, this is a performance of the charahrmezrab-e-mahur, mentioned in the article, with orchestration.)
 
shargrol, modified 2 Years ago at 10/27/21 6:47 AM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Working on repressed anger is very challenging, but also very important to do when the time seems right. Repressed anger is a very normal way of surviving life as a child, but it isn't really living. It works okay as a way for a child to survive, but when we are older we can work on a better mind...

Here's some ideas...

In your example, a sense of both desire (wanting good things) and shame (not having good things) is repressed.  Repressed emotions never stays completely repressed and so it comes back in an altered way as anger. 

This is obviously the domain of psychology, so doing a lot of reading and/or working with a psychological therapist is the quickest way to make progress. Meditation can also support un-repressing emotions by createing a safe place to explore repressed emotions and allow them to be experienced with clarity.

What makes it challenging is that:

1) some anger is appropriate. righteous anger shouldn't be repressed. If all anger is repressed that just creates more psychological problems, frequently creating an identity as "a powerless victim". So some anger is okay. 
2) we also need to see most of the time anger isn't helpful in life, it just creates conflict and separation. So lots of anger is bad. 
3) we need to allow ourselves to feel some of positive emotions that anger is covering up. for example, we need to feel the innocent desire of wanting nice things. It's okay to want things, have dreams, and innocent fantasies -- this is what makes us think about a better future and work towards making things better. Some optimisim is good.
4) we need to allow ourselves to feel some of the negative emotions that anger is cover up, for example, we need to feel the old shame again in order to realize some shame is appropriate (we can't always be wanting nice things, that's childish) and also some shame is an old wound that we don't need to feel anymore (we are an adult now, so feeling like a ashamed child is no longer helpful). 
5) this can often create a loop --- when we realize how adults made us feel too ashamed as a child, then we might get angry at adults or the world again, so we are back at the top of this list again, dealing with anger.

It's very common to do some introspection, have some insights about old wounds, but then feel like we aren't making progress because anger and shame still trouble us ---- we need to have confidence that we are slow making progress, even though there is more work to do! emoticon

So there is anger work that needs to be done: how to not be a victim but also how to not be angry all the time. And there is "the original hurt" work that needs to be done to allow ourselves to be able to feel moments of desire and moments of shame, but without being re-traumatized by childhood memories of desire and shame.

Does that make sense? Anger is the surface issue and "the child's emotional hurt" is the deeper issue.

This is usually all confused in the mind. It feels like one big knot of memories-thinking-feeling-imagination. Past feelings of shame and anger feel like they are really happening right now, not as a past memory. It feels like it's impossible to break the knot. But the way the knot is broken is by slowly untangling it. In a real knot, you pull on one thread and carefully watch how it moves and this careful study allows ideas to occur about how one tiny part of the knot can be untangled.

It is the same thing with tangles in the mind. Through careful introspection, we separate the past from the present, old wound from current life, and we slowly replace old habits with new habits. All of this takes time, but I noticed that, with this kind of work, my defense mechanisms were slowly changing and I was using less immature methods and developing more mature methods 
[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defence_mechanism#Vaillant's_categorization]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defence_mechanism#Vaillant's_categorization 

Some good material from Ken McLeod:
http://unfetteredmind.org/anger/
http://unfetteredmind.org/a-practice-for-releasing-emotional-reactions/
http://unfetteredmind.org/guilt-morality-shame-joy/
 
http://unfetteredmind.org/releasing-emotional-reactions/  
http://unfetteredmind.org/monsters-under-the-bed/

Hope this is helpful in some way!
shargrol, modified 2 Years ago at 10/27/21 7:25 AM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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This one is also good:
http://unfetteredmind.org/warriors-solution/ 
http://unfetteredmind.org/the-warriors-solution-passivity-and-freedom/ 


Some interesting quotes from the links above:


“Aristotle had a line on this, he said, ’It’s very easy to get angry. It’s very difficult to get angry at the right person, at the right time, in the right way, for the right reason.’"


​​​​​​​
"Always keep in mind that patterned behavior has one function and one function only, that is to dissipate or degrade attention. That is the sole purpose of reactive patterns, the sole function. We are sometimes amazed at the ability of reactive patterns to hijack our attention and to screw things up. But we shouldn’t really be surprised. The opponent [the old wound/memory is described as the opponent] has access to everything you know, to all of your intelligence and to all of your experience. It can, and does, adapt to every condition except one. It can’t adapt to awareness because there is no awareness in the operation of the opponent.

There may be intelligence, but there is no awareness.

In each of us there are stories that we tell ourselves about what happened. And in our meditation practice we get very familiar with the stories. They roll on and on and on and even in our lives. So we have a story that we’re constantly telling ourselves about who we are and what we are and what our role in life is, and so forth.

On the other hand there are also quite precise memories of events and circumstances that we’ve encountered. Between the two there are a set of images which are like a memory but has much more emotional investment. It is more dream-like, more fluid. And what it is, is a record of our emotional reaction to events that occurred at other points in our lives. It’s not the actual memory of the event, it is the record of our emotional reaction to the event. And out of that comes the stories that we have. So we have all three.”



“All reactive patterns have two poles which can be called the expressive and the receptive. The example of abuse, physical abuse makes this quite clear. When a parent abuses a child, strikes a child, that experience is usually so strong and so contradictory to what is meant to be happening in the parent-child relationship that the child cannot experience that event in attention. So something freezes. And the child splits into two. And these become the two poles of the pattern.
The one pole, the receptive, is an identity that forms around the experience of being hit and this becomes the victim. And the victim pattern, as it matures through life, is one of passive, of always trying to please, give away, always protective, defensive, hyper-vigilant, etc, etc. Familiar territory, Arlene? Yeah. Anybody who’s worked in psychotherapy knows this very well.
But the other pole also is planted in the child, and that is the expressive, which is the abuser. Because if you have been on the receiving end of abuse there is one thing that you know how to do, you know how to abuse. You know exactly how to do it. And that becomes a sadistic, dominating, belligerent, so forth. And in life a person will typically flip from one to the other. They will form a primary identity about one, but if they encounter circumstances in which that identity can’t function they will just flip to that other pole, because it’s the same pattern.
Student: [Unclear]
Ken: Circumstances. If you think of the bully/coward, if you challenge a bully they flip into a coward. But if you corner a coward they become a bully. And every pattern has those two poles and they flip. This is why we say, “the opposite of a reactive behavior is still the reaction.”

“…yes if you are going to dissolve the pattern you are always going to have to dissolve the both sides. Because both are frozen in our experience at this point. In psychological terms there’s a lot of work on the inner child. …And one of the areas of confusion around inner child work is that many therapists and psychologists failed to appreciate that there are really two inner childs. One is the comfort-seeking child, which is pure conditioning and has no awareness, just wants things to be nice, doesn’t want to grow up. And the other is the part of us that was frozen, the awareness that was frozen and can’t, can’t move. And the comfort-seeking inner child has to die in order for the abilities that are frozen in us to be free to grow. But when these are conflated you get a lot of confused things going on. “

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Siavash ', modified 2 Years ago at 10/27/21 2:29 PM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Thank you so much Shargrol, I appreciate your help.

I read your comments (very clear and to the point) several times, but I was so tired because of a long and busy day that I couldn't form a response with what I had in mind. I'll write tomorrow. Thank you.
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Siavash ', modified 2 Years ago at 10/28/21 10:57 AM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Hey Shargrol,
Thank you for the resources. I’ve used some of them before and have done some of the practices, but things were less clear than now, and it seems that I need to do another round of these practices.

Some scattered thoughts came to mind:

On repressed desire, yeah this has been present all the time. In childhood there were three forces against desire, one poverty, another the traditionalist view in my family and environment. I didn’t like rules and wanted to have my own rules, so there was feeling of not being understood. In high school I became attracted to religion, and took it very serious. It was a source of shame, because some of my family members ridiculed it, that would also cause anger. Also it was a cause and reason for suppressing desires in order to feel that I am doing it right, but since I didn’t like some of the things that religion presented, that would cause shame, guilt and anger. It took a long time to gain some freedom from this guilt.
Another factor in repressing desire, is how my parents are. My father is greedy and my mother is aversive. So she has disgust agains his too much greed, and he has anger against her too much aversion, disgust in both sides. And I’ve had the same disgust in lesser degrees. That disgust is anti-desire.

On anger. Yesterday there was a problem in the bank so I went there to fix it. There were a few people there, so I gathered them and gave each one something to do and we fixed it. And I enjoyed doing that. That reminded me that during my career I’ve always enjoyed doing this. I think it’s a manifestation of anger. This creates conditions to express domination (that doesn’t seem unhealthy) that comes from the anger/shame, and it’s likable because it gives a strong sense of self . Not saying it’s good or bad though, I don’t know.
In this context, the other two mode that I have are making myself isolated, or becoming rebellious.
So the two poles of receptive and expressive that Ken talks about, are there in a lot of my thoughts and actions. We didn’t have physical violence and abuse in our family, but there are many kinds of abuse and negligence.

I think there is a pattern that is formed around that repressed desire and jealousy. Wanting all of the attention or none of it, or being the main object of the other person, or not being in their attention at all.
The first 5-6 years of my life was the most difficult part of our family history. A lot of seeking attention and not getting it.
I feel the conflict of desire, shame and guilt clearly in my current moment experience too.

Some notes from last night:

-----

When a person, colleague or friend, chooses another one instead of you, for doing ordinary things that probably you won’t like a lot of them, you think that there is something special there, that they want to have or do it without you, to hide it from you, because they think you don’t deserve it so you think your don’t deserve it. It belongs to a higher class than yours. This used to become very painful in romantic relationships, and even when the relationship was at its best, I’d feel the pain. Nowadays it’s not as painful as it was, but still there is a lot there.
Feeling excluded. Just remembered now that when playing with other kids, they would go home at a certain time to watch cartoons, because they had tv, and I’d remain in confusion and despair that what is this cartoon, and the next day they would talk about it, that would increase my pain. How familiar it is even now! It has recurred in different areas and forms to this day. There were other areas for this exclusion/isolation in childhood too, each half of our relatives were close to each other, and we were somewhere in the middle, nowhere. Actually I have a hard time thinking of even a single period, or place or group of people in my life to feel that I belonged. I have the same feeling about the city, country, and language too.

In childhood with my family, I’d experience anger much more than shame. When there was shame, I’d isolate myself. Anger was mostly related to things that I thought they don’t understand or don’t care, so I’d feel I have a right to be angry. There were times that I’d express it more. I can’t recall feeling ashamed about those ones (Edit: I mean things like my interest in music/art, animals and martial arts for some time, etc. There was shame with other ones, like religion as I mentioned, but the anger was predominant).
Similarly, with the shame that was with friends and other people, because of being from a poor family, my main reaction was isolation, and going to things that I liked and thought that are more valuable than their wealth or whatever, and I’d comfort myself with that, things like art, literature, math.

You are right about shame, that is a big factor here. In recent years I had thought of it mostly as anxiety, but it’s shame. There were a few teachers in elementary and middle school that had asked me to be their assistant in taking exams and things like that, and with their class, I didn’t have problem, but with all of the rest of it in the whole school time, I’d be terrified to go to the front or read something in a class. That was the worst thing that could happen. I’d shake and sweat, and my body would be shaky for few hours after that. That has been better in recent years, but I think the core discomfort is there.

With attachment issues, I usually become attached quickly if I like someone (or something), and when they are not available, at first it turns to anger about why aren’t they available, and if it continues, it becomes grief, which I think now that it’s grief, and shame, for feeling that I don’t deserve to be with them. Not just in romantic relationship. I think it’s related to the scarcity and abandonment mindset, and because of that, I have high potential for addictive behaviors. I can eat the same meal every night for six months and not have a problem! If I like it (feels safe).

-----

I guess I said all of this to say that, yes, the core issues is repressed desire and shame!
Thanks!
shargrol, modified 2 Years ago at 10/29/21 5:14 AM
Created 2 Years ago at 10/29/21 5:14 AM

RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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I don't know if you have seen this guy yet, but I really liked his approach toward healing old emotional wounds:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNpSh0vE5Vs

It's good to have a gentle, therapeutic practice like this and have a more direct approach like vipassina meditation. I would do Martinez's approach when I felt very weak and wounded, I would do vipassina (seeing clearly, breaking overwhelming experiences into its components of sensations, urges, emotions, and thoughts) when I was feeling strong.
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Siavash ', modified 2 Years ago at 10/29/21 5:29 AM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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 No, I hadn't seen him. I'll check it.
​​​​​​​Thank you.
 
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Siavash ', modified 2 Years ago at 10/29/21 5:41 AM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Friday, October 29, 2021, 1:50 AM

Today except for the first few hours, grief and loneliness was predominant. I’ve tried to examine and observe it. I’ve been talking with a friend every day and when not talking, the grief-loneliness becomes predominant, and when talking, there is worry of loneliness, but I know that this is just the surface. The core feeling just finds an object, a person, to attach to it, to have stories around it. The pattern that has been operating since early years, when my mother was not available and I’d wait for her to come back from shopping or whatever, feeling lonely and desperate.
Because of these emotions, energy level is lower, there is silence in the mind and the eyes often defocus. There has been more lights and color statics in the vision, scattered and vibratory, and a few times I noticed that when reading something, there is expansive-contractive vibrations in the text. Sometimes the vibrations are in the body and visual field simultaneously that gives a feeling of movement. There are small energy currents in the body. Recent days when practicing, specially in bed, intense vibrations arise in left long toe and spreads upward, feeling like electric shock.
Middle-back muscles are painful today, and there is a new one in the left upper arm, they seems to be energetic. Several times I noticed pressure in forehead and left side of the face when focusing on these emotions.
Also recent days when practicing mental images arise of vague creepy faces, images with scary or disgusting theme. Not unpleasant, just interesting.

3:01 AM
Did a sit with holding the emotions in awareness. After a few seconds the field became spacious and mildly pleasant coolness arose in the body, a little later energy currents and energetics pains arose beside the coolness and A few minutes later sleepiness became predominant and I fell sleep. Between sleep and wakefulness I heard a message notification sound and ended the sit, but there wasn’t any message or notification. Emotions became milder after the sit.
There were a few relatively clear voices in the mind, one that I remember was a female voice that said hello, I didn’t know the voice.  When doing fire kasina, I put the candle on a plate, so the after image becomes a dark circle with the bright dot in its center. This sit there was a visual similar to that for some seconds, a dark circle that became bigger, and divided the field into two parts, the center that I normally have color statics was this circle, and a less clear space around it, and in the center of the circle was a vague female face briefly, but I don’t remember the face.

1:19 PM
Last night in bed I tried to relax the body and focus on the emotions, then I focused on relaxation and pleasant sensations if they arise. Fell asleep and at some point I noticed that I “woke up” and it felt like I returned to my body and bed. I noticed the murk is a little bigger and more spacious and there are shadows and dots and lights, and when I focus on it, it becomes much larger like looking at sky, and remembered that this was my experience before waking up that I was flying there. So I focused on it and it became a night’ sky and the body started flying there. It was very interesting and enjoyable, but I don’t remember the details of what was there. This happened a few more times that I felt that I came back to my body and bed and visual field became smaller, and I focused on it again and it became sky and flying. My eyes were half open and sometimes I opened it more. Then I thought, am I awake or asleep? Well I should be awake, I know clearly what is going on. Then I thought, no, I am asleep, but I have awareness of what is going on, because if I was awake, I wouldn’t see these and there would be a different perception of the body and space. For part of it there was bright light in the center, below my nose that went away, then I noticed a white light arising from the left side, as if sun is coming up and it shines into your eyes, and I remembered that Pepe had talked about this in a comment in an older log, that seeing moon or sun in a dream could be an encounter with the light nimita. I don’t remember there was flying after that or not, but when I thought again about being asleep or awake, it started changing. I had the thought that I am asleep and having an experience in the dream-space, and if I think too much about this, it would wake me up, and it caused a little doubt, that I noticed its subtle unpleasantness, and after that the perception of space returned to its default form in about 1-3 seconds. I noticed that I have a more solid perception of the body, bed and room, but still there was a little spaciousness in the murk, I focused on it again but nothing happened like before, and I noticed, okay now I am awake. Previously with flying dreams I wouldn’t feel it in the body, these 1-2 years it happens sometimes, this one I felt it clearly in the body and it was pleasant. Also there was upward moving sensations in the center of the body, like a strong wind pushes the center upward, that caused sexual feelings.
Today so far there seems to be more openness and equanimity with that grief-loneliness.
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Siavash ', modified 2 Years ago at 10/30/21 2:16 PM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Thank you Shargrol for introducing Mario Martinez. It’s brilliant. So interesting and eye-opening.

Friday, October 29, 2021, 10:45 PM

Today for most of the day there was more openness and equanimity with this loneliness-grief, but for some time it became more unpleasant. I was fortunate to have a clear recognition today that unless it gets healed internally, external objects that attach to it, be it people or other things, won’t help. It’s like the body needs antibiotics, but you take another pill just because they both are pills. There was a better analogy in mind, but let’s ignore that one.
For a few hours the colors statics with eyes open were very active, sometimes becoming like a fog in front of me.
I’ll practice only in bed because I need to wake up very early.

Saturday, October 30, 2021, 7:07 AM

Following yesterday’s observations, there was recognition this morning that this loneliness-grief feeling is not any different from the love, passion and compassion, only that when there is clinging and grasping, it becomes unpleasant. They say looking for love in the wrong places, but I think that’s not very accurate. I think it’s looking for love in distorted forms. When there is love and affection toward anything or anyone, it can give joy and warmth as long as I don’t want to own that object. If I borrow from Rumi, there can’t be love if there is a you there. Two aspects of fire. It gives warmth and light, but it also burns.
I think that was what happened with Rumi. He was a respected teacher until Shams showed up. Shams challenged him with a few koans, and destroyed his belief structures. The respected teacher became a desperate student, and he fell in love and devotion with Shams. But Shams let him burn, and then left him. Util at some point Rumi realized that it’s not about Shams, it’s about love.

10:33 PM
It was a few hours that there was higher energetic activity in the body. I did a sit for near an hour, focused mostly on the back, and all of the locations that usually have pain, starting having vibrations and energy currents that spread to the rest of the body too. Heat, tingles, coolness and a few were painful. There has been higher clarity in the center of attention these hours, and I notice now that I type faster and it’s enjoyable to type. Clearly there was some shift in something, that there is pleasant valence in sensation when paying attention.
Also there is movements in the sense of the body and space, specially when paying attention to visuals, sometimes like vertigo. Today I got the second dose of the vaccine, it could be related to that. With first one I had a similar experience for some days.
During this sit I became sleepy, and there was interesting imagery and perceptions. I remembered the last flying dream and I had this thought that there should be an organization to manage this kinds of flights, then I remembered each country has a defence ministry and it’s part of their job. Or I had image of my last meal, some chicken, and images of two big spaces, like a jungle or a mall, and I was mapping each part of the chicken to each part of the space, and it was very natural and reasonable until I noticed what’s going on. They aren't very clear, but it’s interesting that how very different objects and concept fall into one thought, because they share a pattern.
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Siavash ', modified 2 Years ago at 10/31/21 8:37 PM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Sunday, October 31, 2021, 4:43 PM

Since last night there are bright dots in the vision again that then turn to black dots, but those vibratory color statics and purple-violet lights are not present. Not sure, but it seems these two phenomena don’t occur together, I mean bright dots and purple-violet lights.

Monday, November 1, 2021, 1:50 AM

I decided to let work be for tomorrow, then I noticed a kind of restlessness/discomfort that I get sometimes, that feels like my being is scattered and I look for something to gather it together. Looking for feeling of accomplishment and its satisfaction, and wanting it now rather than later, because I can’t trust that I can have it tomorrow, and when not getting it from x, trying y. Scarcity and abandonment mindset. This makes it clearer for me why for all those years I used to stay awake as long as I could and just fall asleep somewhere, because I didn’t have the trust that I could have that satisfaction or whatever tomorrow too.
There is another factor too. That if this is a time that I want/need to rest, there is difficulty accepting it as if I don’t deserve to rest, and with it there is feeling of guilt.
That guilt comes from shame, I had not noticed it clearly before specially with work-related guilt.
Today there have been energy currents in arms and legs and fine-grained vibrations there, also in head, and a hard pain in the sacrum.
With having that discomfort of scatteredness, it becomes difficult to practice with eyes-closed, and I prefer wither to not do sitting practice or do it with eyes-open. This is interesting. I don’t know if it comes from fear or something else.
And I notice guilt in writing these, that if I don’t write it, I am not being true to myself, and if I write it and someone reads it, what would be their judgment.

4:34 AM
Sat for 90 minutes, focused on the body and space and positive valence of sensations. More energetic activity in the early part, some pleasant tingles and coolness and sexual feelings, some heat and energy currents, and a few painful tickling, the one that arose from center of the sole and moved upward was strong, similar to last night in bed. Later sleepiness and the kind of thoughts that seem more abstract, oriented around patterns. There was coldness in some of energetic points and that pain in the sacrum is gone after the sit.
There was higher spaciousness and once it appeared that the whole space is flickering. This has happened a few times in recent days.
When paying attention to relaxation and pleasantness, I caught myself a number of times trying. Instead of just being aware, trying to notice more, and that trying is against having higher tranquility-joy, which I think it comes from feeling guilty of not doing something.
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Siavash ', modified 2 Years ago at 11/2/21 2:21 PM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Monday, November 1, 2021, 10:38 PM

Had a difficult day today. It took longer last night to fall asleep, then had difficulty getting up and there were some unpleasant dreams that contributed to that. Last part of the dream it had movements, jumping down stairs and running, but it wasn’t pleasant. These movements in dreams are often pleasant. I wanted to catch a train and there were obstacles to get to it like a pool full of water, and the train left the moment I got there. Things that happened after waking up were similarly unpleasant. I got bad news after bad news, and it caused a lot of anger and frustration. One of those days that nothing works well. Several times I tried to remind myself that none of these are big problems, it’s just my feeling of insecurity that gets triggered. Once or twice that helped and I could have more productivity. Later the energy of anger subsided and it has been sadness and bitterness. Several attempts to do informal practice on mental talks and images, but I forget it quickly. Normally my thoughts are mostly mental images, but today there has been constant mental talks, a big portion of it is narration, as if I write it in a log or talk about it with a friend (fight-mode), although in the last hour there is less, and instead there is heavy silence and lack of energy/motivation (freeze-mode). I am curious to find how a mind-state like this begins and what stages it takes. I had some mindful moments in this process today that was good, I need to remember to have more of that.

Tuesday, November 2, 2021, 7:06 PM

Last night in bed I focused on the breathing body at first. The mind-state was very unpleasant and I was looking for a way to get to relaxation quickly. As I paid attention to breathing, it caused a kind of sadness and disappointment, that I can’t find any resting place or refuge in my current moment experience, because I can’t find any time in it. The past is gone, and actually there is no past, the moment I notice a sensation, it’s gone already, and similarly there is no future, just there is this very movement in the present moment, and there isn’t duration in this present moment. There is only a moment of recognizing a sensation, then gone, then another moment, none of it could be grasped. Like having no place to stand on, but not having a resting place is a better description I think. There is no present moment in a way, because there is no way to solidify it and have a handle on it.
Then I paid attention to relaxation and pleasantness of the touch of my hands on my thighs. There were lots of vibrations and energy currents specially in legs. The vibrations with electric shock arose in the other toes too, not just the long toe. Then there was a dream.

I was somewhere similar to my parents house, and I guess I was trying to sleep there, but two group of people were fighting and killing each other. I knew the first group, but the second group that came later, were strangers. Next scene I helped one of them, someone threw a knife at him, and I pushed him away and saved him, but then I saw he is crying and screaming, without having voice. The knife had cut off all his fingers, but there was no bleeding. He then opened the door and threw a knife at someone’s chest in the living room and killed him. Next scene I woke up in the living room in that house and saw that the first group is gone, and the second group are there, relaxed. Asked them what happened, you killed them all? He said yes, they were from the past. I asked, so you are from the future? He said, yes. Next scene I was flying in a very luxe building, there was a party there, all rich people, mostly looked like Korean. At that point I had gained awareness that I am asleep, this is a dream experience, and in a some kind of realm. And I thought of myself as a being from higher realms that could travel between past and future. The whole thing was at night. Then I was in a street that had a gate and they were checking everyone crossing that gate. After I crossed to the other side, there were a few guys there, that were from the future, and they asked could you handle it without problem? Didn’t they recognize? Because the gate keepers were from the past, and they didn’t recognize we are from future. Continued flying above streets, and among strange building, then entered a very big building, it was an ancient place, like a Persian palace, but very big and I was flying in its central empty space. There were 10-20 wooden wine barrels in the ceiling and also wooden libraries. Also in the center, there was a guy standing, 30-40 years old, like standing in the air. Then I went out and it seemed that I am flying toward stars and galaxies. A few times I was back to my bed and body, and I noticed that the whole body is tingling and vibrating, pleasantly, and the whole space of the murk was vibrating, also there was subtle pleasant feeling with sexual tone. For some seconds I stayed in that state, then noticed that as I notice all these vibrations, it gives a sense of movement, that then speeded up and I was in the sky flying, and the shadows and lights that were in the murk, turned to stars and sky. Then I noticed fractal images in the sky, moving toward me and I was moving toward them. As I focused on each part of the fractal that came closer to me, it expanded and there were more fractal shapes, something like Mandelbrot sequence, very pleasant. Then there was jewel tone colors that then became colored glass cubes, different colors, they were falling on my face from the sky and I felt it on my face, it was cool and pleasant and I was laughing. I guess this was the last part of the flying, and after that I came back to my body and bed, and noticed everything is still vibrating. I focused on the vibrations but it didn’t cause any more movements. I don't remember if I woke up after that, or just lost awareness and went back to sleep. Although I had awareness that this is a dream experience, but this time there wasn’t questioning in the mind about whether I am asleep or awake, it was clear. I just tried to not pay much attention to solidity of the body or room, to not get out of that experience.
With this experience, today I felt having higher hope and confidence.
It seems that for whatever reason my system doesn’t go into the jhanas in wakefulness (at least not easily), but in dream time it finds a way to have jhanic qualities.
I had a very productive day today.
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Siavash ', modified 2 Years ago at 11/3/21 5:26 PM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Wednesday, November 3, 2021, 12:50 AM

Last few hours there is higher energetic activity, a few times without focusing it started moving and causing strong feelings and jerks in the body, then I did 20-30 minutes of practice, it was the same. There was strong pressure in the throat and below the jaw like you press your finger there, and tickling pain in the throat and chest, and other sensations elsewhere. It looks like opening, that energy can spread more easily. There is pleasant valence and higher clarity in the center of attention for a few hours, and the scenes from last dream and a few other similar dreams look very familiar, like it’s a thing that I know how to access it easily, that has a positive feeling. Paying attention causes more vibrations and energetics.

1:58 AM
Did another sit but just fell asleep because of sleep deprivation. Though I am not sure it’s just sleep deprivation, because all the energetics and vibrations are gone and focusing on something doesn’t cause vibrations.

9:27 PM
I was waiting for someone from another company do some technical work that I needed, tonight they showed up and got the thing done. There was a little relief on that, but I noticed I became uncomfortable, specially because it’s night and the person was home probably. There was discomfort that part of me wanted to thank more, to please, the other part (that succeeded) said that you just thanked and that was enough, and the other rebellious part was looking something to complain. I stopped and started paying attention to these. Few seconds after that I noticed sensations on the tale bone and base of spine that started moving and energy currents and vibrations spreading in the body, with a pale violet spot that arose in the vision, and a subtle overall vibration that gives a sense of movements in the body/space. Not sure these were going on before the conversation, but I guess they were absent since the sleepiness of last night.

10:53 PM
It occurred to me now that one reason I keep having flying dreams and meditative experiences in dreams, but not in wakefulness, is that my eyes usually stay half-open during sleep, so there is awareness of the visual space of the room, and specially when it’s at night, focusing on the darkness causes a lot of shadows and movements there, so probably I should experiment with doing some practice on this dark space while keeping myself awake.

Thursday, November 4, 2021, 1:38 AM

Sat for near an hour, awareness of the whole experience with eyes open for the first part, and focus on the upper body with eyes closed for the second part.
Before that, for a few hours examining this mind-state of desire-resentment. The day mostly felt neutral and calm and was productive. Noticing how desire and resentment go together, and when there isn’t an object for them to manifest, there is looking for another object.
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Siavash ', modified 2 Years ago at 11/4/21 6:40 PM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Thursday, November 4, 2021, 2:45 PM

I’ve been observing the guilt-shame complex in interactions, and how there is a tendency to put back the guilt-shame on the other person, to feel relieved from it and from resentment, and it creates manipulative behaviors, specially when both sides have issues with guilt-shame.
There are fine-grained vibrations in the body, I guess since last night.

9:03 PM
Some see hear feel out practice while walking outside.
Also some informal gratitude and self-love practice.
Followed a short guided meditation by Dr. Mario Martinez on empathic joy. There was clear feeling of resentment in the body. Some pain arose, a few in the right side that vanished quickly, and a few on the left side, the pain and pressure in the left side of head/face/ear is still there. A brief movement of energy at the base of spine that startled the body, felt very clearly like a strong stream of water moving. There was pressure on the heart briefly, and one of the painful point in upper back has movements. Since some months ago that I did some practice with John Bradshaw’s work, the tension in my abdomen has lessened. During this short practice I noticed it arose strongly again, and still there is some tension there.
Yesterday and today I’ve done well with keeping my spine straight and not bending forward or to the right. Writing it helps me remember more easily, and this serves as a reminder for me that it’s okay to write it here.

Friday, November 5, 2021, 2:03 AM

The pressure in head went away after a few hours.
A sit for 80 minutes, practicing empathic joy similar to the guided practice by Martinez on this subject. Earlier part lots of energetics and vibrations, energy currents from solar plexus and throat etc. The concentration was shallow, but things started moving. The electric-shock vibrations from left long toe were very painful, also the tickling pain from the center of the soles, both moving upward in legs. I had much less uncomfortable feelings compared to previous sit, and had easier time with it, so I added to the intensity of imagined situations. A few times a sense of movement similar to flying dreams. Good relaxation and then sleepiness. Very sleepy toward the end, and once I heard a female voice loudly in the mind that said hello, the voice had echo and it was unfamiliar. Also there was a click sound once, this had not happened for some weeks I guess.
Yesterday I noticed a feeling quality in the spine that felt like there is wind in energetic points that is pushing outward. Haven’t notice it today.
shargrol, modified 2 Years ago at 11/5/21 5:18 AM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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I'm enjoying reading your reports. Seems like your body-mind is becoming more alive. emoticon
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Siavash ', modified 2 Years ago at 11/5/21 6:28 AM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Thank you Shargrol emoticon
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Papa Che Dusko, modified 2 Years ago at 11/5/21 9:03 AM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Yeah that last report is Dhamma Rock'n'Roll emoticon Music my bro, music of the Dhamma is playing out emoticon Keep dancing, keep grooving! 

​​​​​​​Best wishes Siavash! 
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Siavash ', modified 2 Years ago at 11/5/21 10:04 AM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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 Hey Papa Che,
Thank you emoticon

Yes, it's great to have music and dance together emoticon .
​​​​​​​Best wishes to you as well!
 
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Siavash ', modified 2 Years ago at 11/5/21 8:33 PM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Friday, November 5, 2021, 2:50 PM

In bed focused on the space and breathing body. Some pleasant vibrations and tingles in lower body. My eyes were half-open and the visual field had become spacious and lava-like, but then a mosquito showed up and I had to cover my face. Had a dream with an old friend, I had done something wrong that had ended our friendship many years ago. Woke up having sadness. There was a lot of vibrations in both shoulder blades, like something is drilling there, slightly pleasant. Both sadness and vibrations were gone a little later.
For many years that I’ve been struggling with procrastination and stagnation, usually for things that I need to do, there is worry and fear of doing and not-doing it, so it leads to none-doing. In recent days and weeks I notice another quality with some of the needed things, that when there is something I should do, I get restlessness that I have to do this and if I don’t, it’ll become a source of frustration, and that restlessness causes me to do it before its needed time. It increases productivity. Although it’s a different kind of reactive behavior, but it’s much much better than the other one.

7:26 PM
It’s been a few hours that the grief or despair has been back, though it’s not predominant or dense, so I’ve been able to work and be productive.
Today more energetic activity around the navel, now it has burning in its left side. As I write, I noticed similar burning with pressure in other parts too. Also there has been severe pain in right side of the back and rib-cage that seems to be related to energetics.

Saturday, November 6, 2021, 2:10 AM

It’s been some hours that insect-crawling sensations arise, but mostly in new locations and with a quality that almost all of them I’ve mistaken them for an actual insect. The grief has been there, I guess partly because a friend is struggling with difficult emotions and we can’t do much about it.
There is pleasant valence in touch and sight sensations.

4:31 AM
Sat for near two hours, focused on the body and space since I didn’t know what to practice, then focused on the painful parts of the back and breath sensations there. Forgot the details.., Some of the pains started moving and there was energy currents and sexual feelings, but after the electric shock arose in the left long toe, it settled down and I became sleepy and the mind was locked onto a perception of changing the pain into energy currents and couldn’t get out of it for a while.
Early part there wasn’t distractions, but later mental auditory narration turned into a distraction with some aversion to it.
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Siavash ', modified 2 Years ago at 11/7/21 6:56 PM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Saturday, November 6, 2021, 1:40 PM

Today there was a problem at work that brought up a lot of emotions. Another team had done some changes that had caused a problem for our systems, but usually with such situations the blame is on everyone, and that made me angry and frustrated. I started observing it, and noticed how it’s related to shame, feeling judged, so feeling insignificant, and that brings anger and wanting to rebel, complain and explode on someone. From the 3 archetypal wounds that Martinez talks about, shame abandonment and betrayal, shame and abandonment were there. Later started feeling insecure, and noticed how when talking with my colleague and discussing with them that let’s go there together, I felt more secure. I’ve been doing this work for almost two decades, and sometimes it feels like it’s the first time I want to do it!

Sunday, November 7, 2021, 12:12 AM

Sat for a short practice, and immediately I remembered the dreams that I had. In one there was clear and beautiful sky and clouds, open space and horizon, vivid, then I noticed doubt, and a thought that conveyed something like, just enjoy it and don’t think about whether it’s a dream or not because it will make it go away, then the scene faded away. There was brief flying, and similarly I noticed that flying power faded away quickly. Then I was laughing at something, and gained some awareness of the body and bed and noticed that I am laughing (“physically”).

There was an interesting thing now. Reading something, I wanted to search a word, but instead of typing it, I got a feeling that I want to manifest that intention with my hands, but physically in the outer space, and not as typing, then the mind became locked for 30-40 seconds, as I was trying to remember what I wanted to do and could’t think of anything.

12:06 PM
There was an interesting flying-like dream today. My mother was taking me somewhere, probably to my high school, but we were on a motorcycle and she was riding it, but we were moving 40-50 feet above the ground, and it looked pretty natural and ordinary! I am always faced with the question that whether the scenes in dreams are completely constructed imaginations, or they are a mix of other scenes from memory. In another dream there was a scene in a house, after waking up I brought to mind all the of houses that I knew, and none of them had that spot, but it felt very familiar. Then I noticed that it was a mix of several places in different houses.

9:44 PM
The unpleasant emotions that I had yesterday (after a problem at work) continued today, and they became more unpleasant. Literally feeling cold because of insecurity. There were other flavors too, despair, worry, anger and frustration. Tried to pay attention for a few times, but there was aversion to it, like it’s painful to focus on something. When going to work I tried see hear feel out, but either I forgot or it felt unpleasant so I stopped. Then I started repeating some prayers in the mind, and there wasn’t aversion to that one. Working and then fixing that problem gave some space and the unpleasantness decreased, but still there is some sadness and bitterness, and the abdomen is tense.

Monday, November 8, 2021, 12:03 AM

Received a comment from my friend about the reports that I send to him, although I am satisfied with the process and see it’s progressing, but his evaluation was different than mine, and that caused a lot of unpleasantness. He has the best of intentions and I am grateful for him eternally, but still it felt very unpleasant to have a inaccurate judgment. The same feelings that I had yesterday. Feeling hurt and not being understood. Part of me likes to cry, but the other part with bitterness and resentment kills that tenderness. Memories come to mind from decades ago, when I was judged by my family and felt hurt. It seems that this toxic shame and feeling judged is the most unpleasant thing for me. It’s the cause of my procrastination. I haven’t had much issues with eating food for several weeks, but these two days I’ve some resistance.
This feels very much like earlier today, aversion to paying attention, the mind can not tolerate focusing. It seems like distorted void element.
BTW, I’m not sure this is feeling shamed or betrayed.

3:11 AM
Sat for over an hour with the intention to focus on pleasant vedana. A few times there was increase of pleasant tingles, but I became very sleepy and fell asleep parts of it.

-- Edit:
​​​​​​​After the sit the unpleasantness is mostly gone. Interesting how a sleepy sit affected the body-mind.​
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Siavash ', modified 2 Years ago at 11/9/21 3:55 PM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Monday, November 8, 2021, 5:51 PM

Again I have resistance to making food and eating it. I need to remind myself how I’ve dealt with it before. Just get up, don’t think what would happen next, don’t think what you should do, and just let the body move.

10:01 PM
Applied the above guideline and got up, and started cooking. Then I noticed anxiety and shakiness in the body. Don’t know if it was related to cooking or anything else. I notice previous patterns of resistance to working, and a mix of indifference and anxiety. I should be careful not to let it take over, just by stopping and seeing the whole picture, taking small steps, and letting go of obsession about performance. Not sure, but I guess resistance to making food comes from a fear, that what would happen if I start it, but couldn’t finish doing it. It’s the same with working, fear of not doing it right, or not being able to continue. Perfection.
Did another thing that I was resisting it, but haven’t been able to do the working. Today I’ve had headache since waking up, it could be related to emotions, there was pressure in the jaw earlier.
Now I noticed worrying and criticizing myself about the work, but I should remember that before doing that, it’s better to acknowledge and appreciate the ones that I’ve done.
It seems that the headache could be related to energetics or emotions. As I started typing, vibrations arose there, and now there is pressure moving around in the head and face.

Tuesday, November 9, 2021, 2:22 AM

I notice that first guilt and shame arises, and it’s unpleasant, sometimes the unpleasantness leads to action and one sequence of events begin, but other times there is just unpleasantness without outer consequences, then it repeats, so there is more unpleasantness, and the body-mind loses its tolerance for this unpleasantness, it becomes indifferent, ignores or hides it, but the indifference kills motivation and interest and joy.

There is some kind of dizziness for some hours, it’s like the body and space is not solid and have little movements. At first I thought it’s maybe related to the vaccine, along with the headache, because I had similar feelings with the first vaccine too. Don’t know, but that too could be related to energetics.
I am thinking of how much energy and space is used/wasted when one is worried about something. Space is the first victim!
Sometimes I think a one good practice that could be something like: Add a little more space to whatever that is happening, expand the space, notice the space. Something like that.

6:49 PM
I don’t know what is going on or what was the cause that today similar to yesterday I had a lot of difficulty getting up. Last night I didn’t sit to be able to sleep earlier, and just practiced in bed, but today it took 6-7 hours after first waking up to be able to get up. There were many relatively unpleasant dreams, and there was a distorted perception of the body as if it’s unable to get up and doesn’t have the strength. When practicing in bed, there were energy currents everywhere in the body. There is sadness and disappointment. There is lack of appetite and resistance to eating and doing things.
It’s been a few hours that there is shakiness in the body. For some minutes it increased and I noticed the right side of the abdomen is shaking wildly. It was unexpected. The center of the abdomen is painfully tense.

Wednesday, November 10, 2021, 12:52 AM

Today I had very little motivation, and quiet sadness and disappointment were predominant. I had no interest in eating, but forced myself to do it and ate some, but didn’t start working, and had difficulty deciding to stay awake and work, or go to bed with the worry of not being able to get up, finally decided to go to bed. I had that headache for some time, but it was very mild. Now I noticed it’s arising again, and I noticed pressure moving around in the head and face.
It seems that there is resistance to posting these reports too and they become longer.
That shakiness in the body is still there, and I don’t understand it. Also there is intense throbbing in left thigh. There is pain in fingers, similar to previous times when there was sadness-despair. Visuals sometimes vibrate, like there is movements in “solid” objects. There are more painful points along the spine today. It feels forceful and uncomfortable to pay attention, but I’ll do practice in bed, to try to find some space.
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Siavash ', modified 2 Years ago at 11/10/21 5:10 PM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Wednesday, November 10, 2021, 12:00 PM

Last night in bed I set intention to get up easily, then I focused on the body and mainly on pains that were in both sides of rib-cage and back, First there was more pains in fingers, toes and skull, then it turned to mostly vibrations. tingles, and then the electric-show flavored vibrations from both long toes, and also from right hip. It reminded me that the night before it was the same and the electric shock arose from right hip. Both times it felt very uncomfortable as if I stop breathing for a moment, and a few times each fora few seconds it felt like a panic attack. I reminded myself that it has passed before and it’ll pass this time too, and it passed. But after that, they subsided and it was mostly tingles. At some point there was orgasm-like feelings. Similar to previous night, I had kept the eyes open, and 1-2 times there was feeling of movement similar to dreams. All dreams were about family I think.
Again it felt difficult to get up, the body felt very sleepy, but after 1.5 hours I forced myself to keep the eyes open and get up. It seems that the body needs to sleep, but I have bills to pay.
The field became very spacious during that practice, and that felt good.
The mind-state is relatively calm and neutral. That wild shaking sometimes happen in the abdomen.

8:55 PM
Today I haven’t had much resistance like the last 2-3 days. I could eat, work and go out. Although there were some difficulties that made me tired and frustrated, but I could continue. I wonder what makes the difference that one day there is higher tolerance for difficulties but another day there isn’t. One difference is that yesterday I had less hope, but the question remains, why? I’am just emphasizing the question to remember it. The answer may come some day, or may not.

10:39 PM
Did some informal practice focusing on the body. Attention was relatively effortless, although I noticed some pressure or tension in the core of the body as a result of focusing. That needs to be relaxed. There is positive valence in the center of attention. Glad this today there was a break in this episode of unpleasant emotion. It’s okay if they show up again today or tomorrow, once it breaks, it can break again.
I notice now two different quality in the experience. One is the collectedness with pleasant valence, that feels mostly in the central line in front of the body. The other feels like despair, it seems like sensations moving from trachea to the throat and face, and give the impression of, ‘ah who cares’. I’d describe the first one as bright, and the second one as dim. First is warm, second is cold. First is homogeneous, collected and spacious, second is contracted and dense. I should investigate how much of these descriptions come from mental images.

Thursday, November 11, 2021, 2:28 AM

Sat for 90 minutes, started by focusing on pleasantness, got some relaxation, but the pain in upper back pain was getting most of the attention, so I focused on it and used Rob Burbea’s suggestions to dissolve it. It moved back and forth from the center to the right a number of times. There were other pains and energetics, sexual feelings, tingles etc. At one point I noticed the abdomen relaxed and at the same time the back pain was almost gone. Later the electric-shock flavored vibrations arose from left toes, but unlike usual that they arise once and that’s a release, they kept arising for some minutes. After this release, the pains subsided and mildly pleasant coolness arose in legs, then fine-grained vibrations spread to most of the body and gave a feeling similar to the one I had before having flying dream some days ago, like the body-space is subtly moving, melting, morphing. Then I became sleepy, and there was another round of energetics that took me out of sleepiness. It felt like something hit my teeth. After the sit the back pain came back, but so far it’s mild.
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Siavash ', modified 2 Years ago at 11/11/21 4:07 PM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Thursday, November 11, 2021, 1:56 PM

Last night in bed I stayed awake longer and practiced, on the body. There were pleasant vibrations in legs that seemed like I have control over them that I spread them to the entirety of legs, also sexual feelings and electric shocks. The back and rib-cage pain moved around for a while, and it seemed that it’s related to the tension in back and abdomen. Strange dreams about family. Good things had happened to family members and I was glad about that, but after waking up I noticed that there were “negative” things too, like a health issue with one (no such an issue outside the dream), or being upset from a behavior from another. It felt like I have issues with just feeling good for them, and the mind creates an imaginary problem beside that good thing.
Had less problem with getting up. Two groups of urges, one encourages me to do things, the other is pulling back, and goes to indifference and despair. Reminding myself that it’s not difficult to start doing something, and it’s okay to start it, I just have to start it and not think about what happens next. And it’s okay to not enjoy doing it, or not feel good about doing it.
Today less pain in the upper back and rib-cage, more vibrations in right shoulder blade, and pain in the base of spine.

3:58 PM
Did a few things that I was resisting. Reminded myself that it’s okay to feel bad or not good about starting it, doing it, and not feel good after doing it. This is very important for me to remember. There is an element of overwhelm here. When there are more than 1-2 pending things, at least sometimes, the mind can’t decide which one to do or how to do, so it goes to despair and non-doing. What has worked is this: Just pick one, doesn’t matter which one, and start doing, doesn’t matter with what quality, just take an action, and ignore all the rest of it.

I was thinking about working, then thought that I should set some limits for activities that are not necessary, and immediately I noticed positive valence and hope, but the other one showed up quickly too, despair. Two mind-states are competing, one sees life and experience as interesting, enjoyable, hopeful and positive, the other sees it as not interesting, hopeless and unpleasant. I should watch to see what conditions give rise to each one of them. Then I remembered that I had thought before, that there is a lack of earth element. Lack of structure, stability, firmness and healthy pride. Lack of structure gives insecurity, or when there is a structure, but something happens that threatens that structure.

5:31 PM
Ok, I noticed another thing. While watching a video, I noticed that I don’t do it comfortably and don’t enjoy it, because I am worried about the next thing that I should do, because I can’t trust that if I decide to do x at time t, I’ll do it. Cure should be to define small steps, but try to fulfill them. Now then next step is that I’ll start the work at 6:00 PM. Now, let’s relax for 26 minutes.

9:39 PM
I didn’t relax that 26 minutes! I was checking the clock every minutes, and I wanted to start the work before 6:00, but I forced myself to wait until 6, and after starting it, I wanted to get out of it. Of course this kind of thing is frustrating, but now more than anything, it’s interesting to watch the attraction and aversion. Before starting I focused on the body for some minutes and there was stable attention and spaciousness. I pushed myself to work for a few hours, and eat and wash dishes.
I try to maintain awareness of back and abdomen, and these pains and energy currents have more movements from one place to another.

Friday, November 12, 2021, 12:40 AM

Sat for 75 minutes and focused on the body, mainly on pains in the middle back and rib-cage. I am almost certain that they are caused because of blocks and tensions related to energetics and emotions. Main ones are at the level of solar plexus energetic center, the other ones are at the level of heart center. There were changes in the intensity and locations of the pain. Later part more energy currents and some vibrations in legs. It was interesting that I didn’t become sleepy. A few times there was intense shaking in the abdomen.
Last several hours there is stronger urge to pay attention and let attention penetrate sensations, and as a result, higher clarity and stability in attention. It seems that there is a desire, a discomfort in the core of my being, that wants to solve something, or get something, or get rid of something.

We will call this log-therapy!
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Siavash ', modified 2 Years ago at 11/12/21 12:51 PM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Friday, November 12, 2021, 2:22 PM

Continued practice in bed. Usual stuff. Energy currents, vibrations and back pain. Some street fight dreams. After 7 hours of good sleep I woke up, and forced myself to get up, but it felt like taking meet out of a cat’s mouth. The body really needed to sleep, but I thought it’s better to maintain the structure, and sleep is the most important part of having a structure for life. The mind-state has been relatively calm or neutral. Left leg and right shoulder blade constantly have vibrations. Made food without having a thought or plan about it, just started doing it and thought let’s see what happens, and that was very good. I should practice resting and enjoying things without worrying about the next things that I should do. I really find it difficult to rest, not always but often.
First part of the practice in bed I focused on change in all sense doors and it caused lots of tingles, and energy currents around perineum and lower back and base of spine. Later I think there was flying dreams, but I forgot.
I think the fear and worry about work comes from this thought; What if someone said you didn’t do it well. I should do some disapproval practice.
Oh I remembered. For some minutes in bed I focused on lower back, and there were sharp pains mixed with burning, also strong pain in rib-cage, all very painful, that made me worried of continuing that focus. It also caused intense shaking and throbbing in abdomen, arms and legs. But I continued and they subsided.

10:15 PM
Did some informal practice following Ken’s The Warrior’s Solution Passivity and Freedom series, then followed a guided practice from it that uses a power symbol and meets a memory from the past. Once in childhood a relative gave a gift and asked me to take it back to my family. No one from the family was there and I felt very helpless, I was sitting there and my eyes were looking down, I became frozen and couldn’t say a word to thank them. Some time passed and after that they said it again, that this is for you…, but I couldn’t say anything again, and they got upset and said, hey I am talking to you.., but I couldn’t get out of that frozenness and move a muscle, I don’t remember what happened next. During this practice, this memory came to mind, and following the instruction, I did what I had to do there. When I imagined entering that scene, I burst into tears and felt the loneliness and helplessness of that kid and felt compassion for him. I felt a clear sense of relief after that. In the last part that he says light shines and become so bright.., it felt very good and I just wanted to pour light from my being into anything that could shine. There was relaxation and stability and I sat in that for some minutes, it felt good.

Thanks for recommending this series Shargrol. I had not listened to this one before.
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Saturday, November 13, 2021, 12:12 PM

The numbers have decided to play again! emoticon

Last night before going to bed I did some informal practice with Shinzen’s Auto-Think, focusing on the mind space and noting mental talks and images, then continued that in bed. For maybe half an hour there were all kinds of thoughts and memories, that usually only show up when focusing exclusively on the mind-space. Most of the memories were from situations that there was discomfort about something. Later it settles down, and there were occasional thoughts popping up. It was interesting how this technique affected the body. There wasn’t gross energetics, only fine-grained vibrations, and mostly in lower abdomen and pelvic, but the moment I focused on the body, the gross ones arose again.
Because of focusing on the mind-space, the murk looked bigger for a while, somewhat like looking at sky from a small window.
Before waking up I had a few dreams that I was in hospital, the injected a vaccine, but with some cruelty, and then they were taking my blood. Once or twice I gained awareness that this is a dream and I thought why I have these dreams, is it because there is pain in my right arm or what. Had a long sleep but still the body didn’t want to get up.  Not sure this higher need for sleep is related to chemicals or mind-states or what.

9:55 PM
Today it was quite productive. There was less thinking, worrying about starting the work, so I started it earlier and was able to work more. Although now I notice despair arising, but that’s okay. Every time that I have a productive day, despair arises, because I think when there is less productivity, there is worry and insecurity, but with high productivity they don’t have a chance to arise, but probably a thought-stream arises saying; so what, is this what you were looking for to be satisfied?; And I think that’s okay too.

Sunday, November 14, 2021, 12:42 AM

Followed the same guided meditation from Ken that I used yesterday, let’s call it “claiming your power” practice. It didn’t bring too much emotions this time. I used a memory, that I liked to do something but I hesitated because of the fear of judgment and didn’t do it and then regretted it. There was a little sadness when entering the scene, and after doing what I was supposed to do, there was a smile in my face.
Now pain arose in the left side of chest, there was some pain in the chest yesterday too after this practice. Probably it’s because of paying attention to energetic centers.
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Sunday, November 14, 2021, 11:11 PM

Practiced Auto-Think in bed. There were less thoughts and more bodily energetics and pains this time. I tried to focus on the sense of solidity in visual space and investigate it, that how it comes mostly from the memory of touch sensations and not from the visuals. Long sleep again and difficulty getting up.
Today had much less resistance about working and started it relatively easily. There have been a few issues, some related to work, that have caused a lot of anger and resentment. Being productive at work wasn’t enough to prevent this sense of bitterness, sadness and insecurity. I notice that I bend forward and to the right more today, I don’t know if it’s related to insecurity. Unlike yesterday there is more pain in the right side of back and rib-cage. Last 1-2 hours I notice coldness in the base of spine and a few other energetic points, like ice-water touch feeling. Also there is more vibrations in the tip of left long toe. Don’t have the interest and motivation for eyes-closed sitting practice. I’ll try to do some eyes-open I guess.

Monday, November 15, 2021, 11:49 AM

Last night some informal practice before bed, then in bed tried to relax the body and focused on relaxation. I set some intentions to not let worries and thoughts about other people enter the mind, and to reserve this time for myself to rest and enjoy. Quickly after starting, there was ice-water coldness, mildly pleasant, in all painful points in the upper and middle back that was interesting. Paying attention to the relaxation and tingles in hands and legs caused them to increase, also created strong pain in right fingers, then in left finger tips, then some intense vibrations with electric shocks and it settled down after that. There were similar coldness in tendons, and a feeling like coldness or a cold water moving in some places, in sacrum and right ear etc. I guess I fell asleep, and at some point I gained awareness and noticed I am in my bed and there are gross sensations in my chest while breathing, as if the central part of torso has been tied with a chain or rope, and with each breath there was a strong pressure in solar plexus that felt like is pushing it outward. I don’t know if there was actual upward movement or not. I think I was asleep, but the awareness remained, then I thought this sensations in solar plexus are energetics so let’s focus on the whole space of the room, and I expanded the visual focus, and 1-2 seconds later I noticed the body started moving and flying toward the other end of the room. The room was bigger than my actual room and was similar to a older house, and I went toward entrance door. The rest of the house and building looked like that old house. I passed through the door and reached the building wall and window. Before passing through that, I thought, this seems like a realm experience, but I don’t want to encounter a dead city again, and I want to see people when I enter the street. Then I entered the wall, but the scene became murky and all shapes faded away and it was just darkness and gray statics. Remained there for a few seconds, then I noticed nothing happens when I expand the focus. There was a shift in perception of space and I was awake after that and noticed the same darkness is there, but smaller and like wakefulness.
I could get up easily this morning after 5-6 hours of sleep. The body feels sleepy but it feels good that I got up early. I don’t see much resistance about working, and that’s good. There is resentment about a few issues, but that’s okay.
I try to adjust the brightness of light, the same way Andrew Huberman recommends, hope to remember to do it every day.
Today I feel more sensations (energetics-pains) in the point where Ken refers to as water center, half-way between navel and solar plexus.

7:16 PM
Today there have been energy currents in the whole body without intentional focus. Also a sense of movement or waviness in visual space, or mini-momentary vertigo. A pain in the back of the head that seems energetic. More activity around solar plexus. And last 1-2 hours lots of color statics and lights and shadows, those expanding-contracting purple lights. Don’t know if it’s related to sleep deprivation or not. It’s some minutes that restlessness has arisen in both legs, uncomfortable, and very much like what I had before starting meditation. This was unexpected.

Tuesday, November 16, 2021, 12:54 AM

Relatively comfortable day. Could work well. Not much uncomfortable emotions or bodily pain. Just the right side of back and rib-cage, but it also had lots of energy currents and vibrations.
Singles dots keep arising, white and black, but very bright.
Did some informal open awareness practice, then sat and focused on relaxation, but there was an interrupt for a conversation which was important, so I turned that to a practice object with noting see hear feel, to not go to bed too late. For over half of the conversation I forgot the practice.
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Tuesday, November 16, 2021, 3:27 PM

While practicing in bed, there were energetics in torso that affected a dream. There were intense throbbing in legs, the tickling pain in the soles and I think in the base of spine, and it felt like a finger touched lower abdomen that startled the body. In the dream I was in my friend’s house, his guest was pressing the sides of rib-cage with her fingers, those were the painful points (Noticed before and after waking up). Then I lied down to sleep and it felt cold, but before falling asleep my friend came and hugged me from back to make me feel warm, and that felt very good, but it was strange because it was totally unexpected from him. Then I woke up, and realized that it was a dream, but I still could feel the touch sensations clearly in the body as if he is there, also there was a breathing sound coming from back that I didn’t understand what it is. My in-breath was loud but out-breath not, with each breath, just after finishing my in-breath, the sound arose from the back as if it’s someone’s in-breath, but I noticed when I breathe longer it becomes longer, when shorter it’s shorter, the arc of sound was similar to my in-breath, like a close copy that played after my in-breath. It was weird. Also in that period, with each in-breath there were itchy tingly vibrations spreading in the lower back and hips, that was pleasant.
Since last night there are painful points in skull. Today sometimes vibrations arise there.
There was urge for music, and listening to it caused strong feelings and whole-body vibrations.
Long sleep and lots of difficulty getting up. There is sadness because of that, also because of other issues I guess.

Wednesday, November 17, 2021, 12:55 AM

The rest of the day was difficult, uncomfortable emotions, and the pain in right ribs became stronger. Flavors of anger, resentment, sadness and despair. I’ve been paying attention to them, but last 2-3 hours I started to cultivate self-worth, and gratitude, openness and empathic joy, and the unpleasantness decreased. I need to remind myself over and over to cultivate gratitude, self-care and self-worth and empathic joy. Listened to Martinez and that helped with opening the space.

11:55 AM
Didn’t sit last night, and practiced longer in bed. In the first round I focused on the whole space, then on the arising-passing in all sense doors. It brings higher concentration, so the energetics became crazy, starting with sharp pains in spine like it’s on a nail, then it spread to whole body, and currents in the spine that were different from the usual one that is neutral to pleasant, this one was like a painful pressure with upward movement. They startled the body a number of times. The second round I focused on the relaxations and pleasantness, and it was the same. The other day that energetic points had coldness, this time they had this sharp pain. I guess they subsided after I became sleepy.
Got up easier than yesterday. The body is still in high need for sleep. I see more clearly how resentment is poisoning my life. I notice it much more quickly and clearly, and I notice that’s one of the main things that I’ve learned from the environment in early years, people demanding more attention, respect, care and kindness from each other, and usually/always(?) resentful toward each other. Visually it seems to me very much like poisoning, or like dirt comes and pollutes brightness. It usually finds an object, either me or others, and it puts guilt on one of them, rebelling against the shame with guilt and anger.
These two days there are more energetics in the head and face. Mostly pressure in temples and forehead and pain in the back of the head.
About motivation to do things that I need to do, I had come to this conclusion that first I should be strict about the structure of the day, with the most important part being sleep, and try to maintain it at all cost, and then I’ll find whatever I need to do, and last night I heard Martinez saying the exact same thing, that say to yourself that I’ll wake up at t and do it, then look and see what inspires you.
Resentment gives this impression that I want something badly, but when untangled a bit, I notice that no, I don’t want it that much, and actually I may not want it at all, and if I get it, I may not like it and abandon it. It’s a game formed around attachment and abandonment.
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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 Thursday, November 18, 2021, 3:31 PM

In bed, I focused on the mental visual space, and for a while noticed the many arisings of mental impressions and images. Again the energetics became intense, especially in the left side of the body, and it was interesting how they arose. There were small painful points, like burning or prickling, but it was like they are connected with a less painful line of sensations, one in the lower mid-thigh, one in mid-hip, one in mid-back. Once they spread over the heart and it caused a little worry. The other interesting thing is, these kinds of pains, no matter how intense they get, they usually don’t bother at all, but the moment there is emotionality, it becomes bothersome.
It happens sometimes that in the period of falling asleep and waking up, I hear something like a car passing, like in each second there is a sound like you are in a road and you noticed a car passed very fast. Last night I noticed this again, but got curious, is it sound or image? I noticed I hear a sound, but each time the visual pointer in the mind points to a different location, and also the shape of the sound changes. Then I thought maybe these are just lower-layer thoughts that are more primitive.
Long sleep again today. It seems that the body-mind goes into a kind of paralysis, that the body doesn’t get up, and perceptually I think that I am not able of getting up.
There is this pressure-like tingling in the back like the whole area is made of several pieces, and they are tied to each other, and one vibrates and causes pressure and vibrations in the others. Frequently there are vibrations, arising from the middle back and spreading to the whole body.

11:38 PM
I am facing some difficulties in my work. Some old conflicts between companies that we were hoping they could find a resolution, but it seems like a dead-end, and I’ll probably have to change my job. That creates lots of uncomfortable emotions. I notice that when I let the emotions lead, then I feel helpless and powerless, and it affects the body and posture quickly and it goes to a contracted state. When I straighten the spine and focus on my abilities, it brings more openness and power. There will be a transition period, and I’ll need a lot of reminders to do it right. I haven’t looked for a new job in over 15 years, and opportunities have found me, so I don't feel comfortable doing that after all these years.

Friday, November 19, 2021, 1:29 AM

In nature, what I like the most, is places that have big open spaces and you can see the horizon, so I usually prefer an open field to a jungle. Also, I like places that there is some open space in the middle, surrounded by trees. I think these two types of images impact how I experience emotions. I notice that when I feel more safe and hopeful, there is one of these images as the perception of time and space, especially with the hope that correlates with the perception of openness in the time-space, when feeling hopeless, the space-time shrinks, and it feels uncomfortable to perceive openness. That is one of the reasons I have started to pay more attention to mental image space these few days because I think a lot of these perceptions are related to how this body-mind interprets mental images.

I’ve concluded that what follows is a good solution for me to get my life together, although a lot of times I forget and slip back to old patterns: Do small, or short self-care activities, and do them regularly. When you don’t have the motivation to do them, just do them mechanically and don’t expect to like what you do. And don’t do more than what you have defined for a day, and leave that for the next days.
Following that, last few days I’ve resumed doing physical exercises, and today I started having a short period of study on a specific subject, with the intention to do it daily. Hope to remember and continue. 
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Friday, November 19, 2021, 5:05 PM

Practiced focusing on mental images in bed, I don’t remember much what happened. There was much less energetics, and concentration was shallower. Had some uncomfortable dreams that we were arrested by some security service and I was thinking that I’ll never have any freedom again.

I needed to do something but I notice resistance, then I thought ok, just do it mechanically, but resistance remained. Then I thought, do you like to have it done? The answer was yes, so just let the body move. That had a better result.
Then I noticed a shocking thing (I have noticed this before but have forgotten), that a big part of why I resist these activities, is because deep down I think that I should do them for others, and I don’t want to do that anymore. But when I think that I do them for myself, and I do them to enjoy and be satisfied, it changes. It becomes more meaningful.

Saturday, November 20, 2021, 4:17 PM

Last night the experience was poisoned by resentment, guilt, and insecurity, not pleasant. I didn’t sit so I stayed awake longer in bed and practiced. There was tension in the abdomen and solar plexus that made breathing difficult and unpleasant. For a while focused on change, then doubted what should I practice, but then wanted to fall asleep but there wasn't sleepiness. Tried to let distractions in to have less awareness, but it didn’t work. At last, I tuned into sleepiness, and let go of wanting to fall asleep. This caused strong energetics, but I fell asleep. There were many strange dreams, lions that were mating, mad dogs the size of a tiger chasing me, gunfights, etc.
In one of them, a famous nature documentary producer said that they are going to make a film about boars, and I said to him, yeah I have these dreams that I see 4 boars, but it seems they are people, and then they all leave the land. He said yeah, we are looking for them because they are gone. Then a boar cub was there and it had grabbed my finger and wanted to cut it. It was very painful and I felt it clearly in the body. I wanted to free my finger but I couldn’t. Also, there was something that was kicking the testicles from the back. These were energetics that I perceived them that way. In another one, I was in an old friend’s house. It was a smart house in a village in a desert. Very strange place, like the hidden land that ultra-rich people go there to have fun. We went for a walk in that village, it was night, but something pulled me up into the air, something like the flying dreams, but it was different, and I woke up and noticed the experience, but it didn’t go away. The force became stronger, one was pulling me up into the sky, another was pushing me up from the bottom. I tried to move slowly but the force was much stronger with clear sensations in the body. I guess it was pleasant and frightening. I could see the village from above, then a voice started talking, saying that there are evil forces in this world, and they are governing the world, remember that guy died a few years ago, it was a fight between these forces. Then the voice said, the king of this village has intended to be the most bloodthirsty king in history. As I went above, I had doubts about where should I focus, on the village or sky, but then I came back to my bed. The energetics that I felt in the whole dream, became much stronger. It felt like something, an animal or a being, had grabbed me, my hands and feet while kicking testicles from the back, and I couldn’t free my body. I felt like an evil force is trying to possess my body. After several failures, I thought, I’ll gather all my strength, also I can set intentions, I’ll set the intention to make this force go away. And I did and after that, I could move the pains and pressures faded away. Before that, I guess I was thinking, and maybe saying to this force, that show me your face if you dare. There was a heavy feeling after waking up, and for 30-40 minutes there were goosebumpy vibrations in the body.
It took a long time to get up today. I had alarms going on every 5 minutes for several hours, each time I turned it off but couldn’t get the body up. It was like it is stuck to the ground with that heavy sleepiness discomfort in the body. I was thinking no one deserves to feel like this.

hmm, now that I think about it, all the imagery in that village, the contrast between desert and those houses, the dogs and the king, all were symbolic.
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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 Monday, November 22, 2021, 2:41 AM

These 2-3 days I’ve been feeling terrible because of the situation at work. Filled with anger and resentment. Although they have apologized and said that they are going to do what they needed to do, but that hasn’t helped me with these emotions. Last night it affected the body, with headache and then other feelings in the body that started to become like a panic attack. I did some informal practice focusing on sights and sounds and tried to make it less severe. In bed, I intended to relax and enjoy the resting and relaxation, but there were strong energetics and pains all over the body until I fell asleep. It’s the same today especially with the headache and pain in the fingers. I notice that this was the feeling that I used to have since childhood when I wanted something but didn’t get it. It’s like all those situations come to mind, and they all resonate with the current situation. I don’t like what I see, but I know that I have a lot of work to do. It’s like everywhere is filled with poison. I had not felt this way for some years, and the intensity of feeling kind of surprised me.
I’ve defined some self-care activities to do each day, and I’ve forced myself to do them, to not let the negativity take over. I’ve learned some lessons in the course of what happened these few weeks, about self-esteem and managing my financials and relationships. I hope to remember and use them.

Tuesday, November 23, 2021, 12:41 AM

These few days that I am facing challenges with my work and financials, I notice that I should prioritize my time and energy, and what I notice is that the weakest part is the first victim, which is the structure of the day and sleep. I had reached some stability in that regard in the last few weeks, but last few days I lost it. So I’ve decided that my priority should be maintaining that structure, meaning the sleep time, and also doing the self-care activities that I have for a day, and after that comes work and practice, because, without them, I lose all of it, but when maintaining the structure, although I may lose work and practice for a few days or not do them more, after a few days I can do all of them. That is the main lesson. That no matter what happens, I will care for myself and do things that benefit me, because my value comes from myself and not from people and externalities.
Although I practice usually for an hour or more in bed, there is some guilt when I don’t sit. But that’s not more important than the structure. I need to remind myself over and over and apply it until it becomes a part of the routine.
Like yesterday, I had very little motivation today, but fortunately, I was able to apply the guideline of letting the body move, because the body knows what to do, and that was successful.
Although the experience was very painful emotionally yesterday, today there was very little anger, resentment, and guilt. Probably part of it was due to things that happened, also may be related to some practice that I did last night, that I brought to mind all of the people that were involved, and said to myself, they have a right to be this way the same way that I have that right, or they have a right to do x and y the same way that I have, or they have a right to feel this or that way the same way that I have that right, and that was very good.

I sometimes notice that almost all touch sensations are in the spectrum of sensations with sexual tone. Like any kind of pleasantness in the touch-field, is just a milder form of sexual feeling, even the pains. I am not sure to say this about all bodily sensations though. 
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Sunday, November 28, 2021, 4:02 PM

The last 3 nights I practiced longer in bed, first because of the sleep issues that I have again, and second because of the technique that I used. I was mostly focused on seeing what is me and why is me and what is not me and why is not me. I experienced a lot of tension in the body around energetic points, and I still feel it. Some of it seems like I can relax it but some are in inner layers. Enough for now.

4:44 PM
The mind was very busy in bed. I had felt intense emotions all day, and things that happened before going to bed made it worse. Just anger, resentment, and bitterness. Like, what does this poisonous experience wants from me, and what I want from it. So I started giving permissions to make the mind calmer. X and y have all rights to be good, to be bad, silly, cruel, whatever, and I have all those rights. That made it better.
While investigating sensations, upon noticing one and saying that it’s not me or mine, I had this impression that of course all of it is me and mine, and of course, none of it is me or mine.
Once I got up and went to the bathroom, and I coughed and my mouth became full of blood and I spitted it out, then regretted it. After I woke up, I noticed that it was a dream. Or maybe it happened, who knows.
In another dream, I had 2-3 antique instruments. They were very similar to kamancheh, and I thought they were the earlier versions of kamancheh. I couldn’t find its strings so I had difficulty playing it, then after paying careful attention, I found them, they were so thin that was almost invisible.
After the energy rises and tension of last night’s practice, today there is a pain in a few points in the back.
The resentment has decreased today, there is mostly sadness.
I don’t know what is going on with sleep. It takes a few hours to fall asleep, but then I don’t wake up and get up easily. I thought it might be related to temperature, so these 2-3 days I haven’t used the heater, but it didn’t change. I had 8-9 hours of sleep today and I still feel sleepy.

Monday, November 29, 2021, 10:10 PM

I had some conversations with colleagues that reduced my anger and resentment to some extent. Also last night I was able to work and that brought a little more comfort. For 2-3 days before that, there was so much poison in the experience that I couldn’t gather my mind to work. In bed, I focused on the change in sensations. This time the energetic pains were very intense and a few times I doubted about continuing the focus. Although the type of energetics has changed in these few days. Unlike usual that there are smaller areas with these sensations, there were much bigger areas that the sensations spread homogeneously in them, mostly in the torso and upper legs, with vibrations in the left side of the head. Although there were strong pains in fingers and toes and ears too.
In general, I’ve had lesser energetics for over a week, except when practicing in bed, which were different in recent days. Probably the daily physical exercise has some effect on it, don’t know.
Still had a lot of difficulties when getting up. The body felt very uncomfortable with the sleepiness, and I still don’t understand what causes this much need for sleep.
Had dreams with movements, maybe flying, some maybe were when I was half-awake.
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Tuesday, November 30, 2021, 8:50 PM

Last night I practiced for two rounds in bed, focusing on the change. The energetics started intensely. Previous nights that tickling pain that used to arise in the feet had reached up to the abdomen and pelvis. This time they arose in the chest on both sides of the rib cage. The intensity reduced after an electric shock release. There were some pleasant sensations after that, in the spine and lips I guess.
Toward the end of the first round, some vibrations arose in the head, then there was a click sound, like a small rock fell on a metal surface, and at the same time, there was the rise of energetics or vibrations in the head that forced the eyes to close.
Once there was flying, but I wasn’t sure that I was awake or asleep. I had focused on the vibrations and noticed that they increased in the body especially in the legs. As I focused on them, the sense of movement increased, and the body started moving upward. I felt it clearly that the body moved higher and higher toward the ceiling. I am not sure I was seeing the image of the body getting closer to the ceiling, or the image of the ceiling becoming closer to me, but it was different from previous ones. At that time I thought that I am awake, and that was my intention, to have these experiences while I am awake. Because I thought I am awake, I doubted that I could sustain the experience. Then I moved toward the wall to pass through it and move to the outside, but the movements stopped, and the next moment I was in my bed. I don’t remember if there was a landing or it was an abrupt shift. Then I focused on the legs again but noticed that the vibrations are different, and they don’t lead to movement. Also, there was a shift in perception that made me think that maybe I was asleep in the previous state.

Wednesday, December 1, 2021, 4:59 PM

Like last night, focused on the movements of color statics, and bodily sensations. Immediately the energetics filled the body, with new kinds and higher intensity. A sharp pain in the left long toe that was pretty much like stabbing, that the body jumped up with an involuntary sound because of pain. Then similar ones arose in the left hip and spread to the left leg and back, but after having one, I could stay relatively calm and equanimous. Again there was a big release with electric shock flavor and tickling pain, and after that, they became milder. A few times there was going in and out of sleep, that I didn’t know I am practicing in wakefulness or sleep.
Different ideas came to mind about why I have these sensations and what is going on, but let’s leave them out.
There were some new kinds of energetics that I couldn’t have enough clarity about, that they arose in one spot or moved upward. I was trying to get a clearer sense of the images of the head, but it didn’t become as clear as I wanted. It seemed there wasn’t much space between the image of the face and the image of the back of the head. Ah, too many words.
I had intended to have one round of sleep, and not wake up in the middle of it, so it happened! I woke up after 11-12 hours of sleep! Fucking weird. Didn’t have the pain in the rib cage for some days, but today it arises with vibrations in the right shoulder blade.

Monday, December 6, 2021, 5:00 PM

Have a close friend as my guest for some days, and that has been helpful with some of the emotions. I’ve practiced fire kasina in the last 3-4 nights before going to bed. Had some dreams, energetics, and flying-like dreams experiences, but not much, and it has been less than usual. Still have a problem with sleep, although today it was better and I could get up easier than before.

Monday, January 17, 2022, 5:01 AM

A few hours ago I went to bed to have some rest and practice. I focused on color statics, there was a very strong energetic at the base of the spine that made the body jump up. This hadn’t happened for a while so it wasn’t ready for it. There were some other ones too but I was informed and could keep the body still and fall asleep. In the dream I was in my parents’ house, lying down in bed and practicing, focusing on color statics, and I noticed pressure under my arms and shoulders. The pressure became stronger and I noticed I can not keep my arms on the ground. They started moving up and I could feel that, but at the same time, I could feel this other body that was on the ground. Then I was up in the air and about to move out. I thought that I should go into the wall, and I guess that happened, and the images went away and it was just color statics. I guess afterward there were colored crystals in the visual field, coming toward me, they were beautiful. Then I was out in a street, a few feet above the ground, but I could still feel the body in bed and knew that the physical body is on the ground and this is the dream body that is moving outside. Then I was back in my parent’s house, flying in the yard, and at that point it became super-vivid. Just seeing was very enjoyable. I don’t know if it was day or night, probably both. I was seeing a clear blue sky, very beautiful, but I think there were stars too. Then my mother came to the yard, I was waiting to see if she should see me or not. It seemed that for a moment she noticed a presence, but then walked away and didn’t see me, and I still could feel the body lying down in bed in the other room. Later the sensations of the body in bed became stronger, and I could feel both bodies at the same time, and I noticed that it takes me some effort to keep this dream-body flying in the yard. Then as if I woke up, I noticed that the body is in bed in my own house and not in my parents’ house, but I still was in the yard of that house. Then it became harder to keep me there and I returned to my bed and woke up. It was very interesting and strange, that I could feel that I am in two places at the same time, and I had awareness of two bodies.
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Chris M, modified 2 Years ago at 1/17/22 7:04 AM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Glad to see you back!
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Siavash ', modified 2 Years ago at 1/17/22 8:32 AM
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Hi Chris,
Thank you : ) .
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Best wishes S! emoticon 
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Siavash ', modified 2 Years ago at 1/18/22 3:06 AM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Thank you Papa Che : ) .
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Siavash ', modified 2 Years ago at 1/24/22 9:31 PM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Sunday, January 23, 2022, 7:25 AM

While in bed, I don’t know if I was asleep or not, focused on the movements on my legs and on the color statics that had turned into a bright dot, then movements increased, started moving while keeping the focus on the dot, and seeing that I am moving and images of the room changes. Then moved higher. I thought, let’s see if I could see my body in bed, because I thought that I’ve left my body, and I saw it, it was there, asleep in bed. Then I tried to get closer to it. The force was keeping me in the air, so I swam down toward the floor, when I tried to touch the body, it moved away like when you put two the opposite poles of two magnets close to each other. But then it stayed still and I touched it, and after touching it, I somehow woke up or got back to the body or room or whatever. But the room was different from my room, so probably I was asleep.
Yes, I must have been asleep, because I had dreams before that, talking with an ex-colleague and a politician about a work project, or maybe not because I had a clear awareness of my body in bed. But it was interesting to be able to see my body from the outside and touch it. After “waking up”, I had the impression that I learned and experimented with a new trick!

Tuesday, January 25, 2022, 6:55 AM

There have been higher energetic activities today, and a stronger urge to penetrate sensations. Did some sitting practice to get some rest, at one point it became clearer that all these sensations are like each other, just some movements, but it became more solid later. The previous entry needed some editing!
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Siavash ', modified 2 Years ago at 1/27/22 6:49 PM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Tuesday, January 25, 2022, 6:12 PM

Today in bed there was harsh energetics. I set an intention to fly out of the body, I don’t know if I was asleep or not, but at some point, I noticed that I am flying out of a building, a previous workplace, I encountered some people but they couldn’t see me. The awareness of the body and movements was clear, but the border between sleep and wakefulness remained unclear.

Wednesday, January 26, 2022, 11:39 PM

This morning in bed I set the same intention to fly out of the body and focused on the movements in sensations. After a while, I became more sleepy and there were dreamy images, I noticed the arms and legs are filled with vibrations and I am about to move. I was trying to adjust my focus on the bodily vibrations and the color statics in the visual field, and when I started moving in the air, I frequently asked myself, am I awake or asleep. I was checking the sounds in the environment to see if I am awake or asleep. Today it wasn’t as cold as previous days, so I had fewer clothes, and while moving, I could feel the coolness of the air on my skin. A few times I passed through walls, and I felt it in the body that the movement was not as smooth because of the wall. A few times my feet hit some external objects, and I felt a mildly painful sensation in the feet. After I entered a building and saw some people, I became more obsessed with the question about being awake or asleep, and that made me wake up or come back. After that, for a while, I focused on vibrations, a few times the body started to move again but didn’t have enough force, so it couldn’t, and I fell asleep.
During the night, there was a strong urge to be in practice mode, and a need to practice and experience sensations with higher clarity. I did some practice and was in a slow-motion mode for a few hours which helped increase clarity.

Friday, January 28, 2022, 4:02 AM

I am in the process of changing my job. I left the previous job, and I’ve decided to be self-employed, and I’ve started a project and am working on it to be my own boss and employee. Since it’s in its early stage, there is insecurity around it, but I have a strong passion for it. It gives me a lot of energy, so for the last 1-2 months, I’ve been working over 10-15 hours a day on it. I guess it’s because of this passion that these days sometimes I feel a strong need to feel all sensations with high clarity. Despite the insecurities and financial difficulties, I feel the freedom to be able to work for myself. My hope is that this freedom could enable me to use my potential properly. Fortunately, my friend is still staying with me, and that makes it easier to navigate this transition period.
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Chris M, modified 2 Years ago at 1/28/22 6:33 AM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Congratulations on becoming your own boss, Siavash!
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Thank you Chris emoticon
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Papa Che Dusko, modified 2 Years ago at 1/28/22 2:19 PM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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May it flourish and be of benefit to you! emoticon your new self employment that is emoticon 

​​​​​​​Be a kind boss to yourself! 
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Siavash ', modified 2 Years ago at 1/28/22 2:32 PM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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 Thank you Papa Che,
May you be well and happy as well emoticon

​​​​​​​Yes, I try to be kind to myself!
 
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Pepe ·, modified 2 Years ago at 1/28/22 7:38 PM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Great decision Siavash! My life changed for good once I became my own boss. Happy to hear that you took that  big step forward. Cheers! 
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Siavash ', modified 2 Years ago at 1/29/22 12:55 AM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Thank you Pepe,
​​​​​​​Yes, I needed that change.
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Siavash ', modified 2 Years ago at 2/10/22 3:00 PM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Friday, February 11, 2022, 12:07 AM

Today I had some interesting experiences while practicing in bed and later in a dream. These few days the energetics are quite active and cause involuntary movements in the body. In bed I had focused on my arms and hands, that at some point while I was awake (or maybe was asleep and woke up at that point) I noticed strong pressure under my shoulders, wanting to move the shoulders above the ground. I remembered that previously it had happened several times during dreams, that this pressure caused the shoulders to move above the ground. So I continued the focus, the pressure became stronger, to the point that I felt my head and torso is about to implode, but the body was still on the ground. The pain and pressure in the bones became more intense and made me worried, but no movements. I thought maybe this won’t happen while I am awake, but I wanted to experience it in wakefulness. After that, I became more sleepy and a few times noticed a little movement, but I fell asleep. Probably after falling asleep, there were movements and maybe flying, but I don’t remember clearly.

Later in a dream, I was playing with an app on my laptop, it was like a game, and I had played it many times so I was fluent in all of its steps. It was pleasant. I updated it and noticed that the new version is different and has some new things in it. The interesting thing was that as I played it, I could feel it in the body too. For instance, the changes in visuals of the game had a physical counterpart in the body. It was very enjoyable. If I wanted to pick some words to describe it, they would be connectivity, fractals, math, gymnastics, and beauty (including beautiful girls). I paused the game to go to the bathroom, but noticed that parts of the movements in it didn’t stop and I was looking for a button to pause them too that I noticed, oh this is a dream experience, and if I leave it and go to the bathroom, I’ll be awake and probably I won’t be able to get back to it, should I leave this experience or not? But then I woke up. I guess the energetics in the body and colors/color-statics in the visual field had led to these manifestations. After waking up, the sleepiness went away completely and there were lots of vibrations in the body and higher clarity in sensations.
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Siavash ', modified 2 Years ago at 3/26/22 11:10 AM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Saturday, March 26, 2022, 8:24 PM

Some notes to remember.

It’s been some weeks that I’ve stopped doing sitting practice, because there is resistance to it, and I just practice in bed or while doing other activities, but last two nights I did a few short sits because I was bored of everything else and thought that the practice is the only entertaining thing that I could do. Played with fire kasina and body awareness.
Last night I defined a challenge/exercise for myself to maintain body awareness for 48 hours so that whenever I remember it, I start paying attention to the body, noting body parts, or having whole-body awareness.

The movements and flying experiences while being aware of it have become a recurring part of my sleep/dream time. Sometimes every day, or every other day I have them, but still, it’s not clear to me what is being asleep and what is being awake in those states. Last night in bed I noticed at some point that there is movement/flying, but I noticed that there isn’t overlap between the two spaces, the space that the flying happens in it, and the space that I perceive the room and the body in it. I kept noticing again and again that when I direct the mind to the space of the room, the movement stops and I get out of that other space, and when I direct the mind to that space, I lose the awareness/sensations of the room. Maybe it was something like getting in and out of sleep, I don’t know, but it seemed that the awareness is common between the two, and there are these two spaces or two states, that the mind switches between them.

The uncomfortable energetic sensations have become stronger and wilder, but there is higher equanimity in the system to keep the body still when they attack.
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 4/1/22 9:15 AM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Friday, April 1, 2022, 6:12 PM

Last night I had an intense experience in bed. I was tired and sleep-deprived, and that causes the wavy feelings in the body to arise more, which I think leads to movement and flying in dreams. There was a sharp pain in the base of the spine, like stabbing with a hot knife, that was a sign that there will be more. At some point, I gain awareness and noticed there are vibrations everywhere and the body starts to move, but it seemed that I didn’t have much control and something else was moving the body. A few times it happened this way: It felt like a force is turning the body, pressing the top of my head to the ground, and then starting moving the body. I was aware of the room so once I directed the attention to the room to see if my body is in that position, which it seemed it wasn’t. I flew out, pass through some wall, then lost the flying fuel and landed in a building yard, moved toward the door to open it and go out, but the door opened itself, and there was a guy there that seemed to be living in that building, feeding a cat and talking to it. I moved a few feet away, turned around, and asked him: Can you see me? He fell to the ground with fear, because he couldn’t see me. He was trying to form a sentence but couldn’t talk. Then I told him: But you could hear me! And walked away. I was wondering, if I don’t have any form, then how I am standing there, if I have a form, then why he couldn’t see me.

Then I was back to bed, and it started happening again, that something was pressing my head, arm, and rib cage, but this time it didn’t lead to movement, and the pressure became stronger. Then I noticed and felt that there is something here that is trying to take over the control. Also, I thought that there is someone else in the house, sleeping in the other room, maybe my friend that left some days ago, or another friend, but I felt it clear that he is there, so when coughing I tried to not make a loud noise to not wake him up. I felt that this thing is sitting above my head. It grabbed my wrist quite strongly, and I yelled at it to leave my hand while being worried about waking up my friend. Then I reached out and grabbed its hand, all of this felt very clear as if a person is there, and the sensations of the hand felt exactly like a hand. Then I felt that it put a heavy metal bar beside my neck and pushed it on my bones. I grabbed the bar, and it seemed that at that point I came out of that state(?), whatever, and noticed that there is no bar, it’s this bluetooth headphone that I use when sleeping because of neighbor’s noises! That left me wondering, is it that there are just some sensations in the body, but something happens and I notice them several times clearer, then it leads to the perception of these dreams or experiences? Or is it that I am an object, in a game that some kid is playing somewhere, and she/he is just playing with its properties, changing their intensity and resolutions, fine-tuning it, and having fun with it, or what.

I woke up, and there was a heavy emotional residue, and I still felt that there is someone else in the house. I asked myself several times, why I can’t see him, I feel it, but why he is not visible, there should be something wrong. The feeling stayed maybe for 40-50 minutes, and after that, it felt clear that there isn’t any other being there.
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Chris M, modified 1 Year ago at 4/1/22 9:36 AM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Wow. Your dreams seem quite vivid!
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 4/1/22 9:46 AM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Yes, recently there is higher awareness and clarity in 'dreams', and that makes the border between dream and non-dream murkier for me. It gets harder and harder to know what is sleep, awakeness, dream, or any other state!
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 4/1/22 5:58 PM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Saturday, April 2, 2022, 3:13 AM

Some scattered notes about the current state of mind.
It seems that these two days, the mind is in a state that if I would map it to PoI, it would be closer to maybe A&P, or Fear, also part of me thinks of it as Equanimity, but I guess the first two are closer.
There is more energetics in the body. Last several hours the energetics have that coolness/coldness flavor, that feels like cool water just dropped on a location on the body, or some bone feels the same coolness, which is nice. Sometimes the attention locks onto a small object and perceives it clearly, noticing its stillness and beauty. A drop of water on an object is one that grabs attention most in this way. There are more vibrations and chills, especially around the back and spinal cord.
And I notice numbers with repetitive digits too many times. Yesterday once it became freaking that for some minutes I noticed these numbers everywhere.
Part of me worries that if I go to bed, the same presence that I felt last night, will be back. Another part is interested and curious about that.
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Papa Che Dusko, modified 1 Year ago at 4/2/22 1:03 AM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Mind looping the same thing might well be a DN (even Re-obs) especially if it has unpleasantness to it mixed with fear, disgust, misery, desire for deliverance ... 

Having resolve to just let into it all is very good and this might be the curiosity/acceptance part. 

Nice you can use dreams for practice emoticon I wish I could do that as now with two kids I find hard to sneak out to do actual practice. 

​​​​​​​Best wishes Siavash! 
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 4/2/22 2:44 AM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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 Thanks Papa Che.
Yes, this practice in bed with sleep/dream, as someone calls it beditating, has been a useful way to do the practice, and it seems it has changed/improved the quality and content of sleep and dreams noticeably. I'd recommend it :-) .
 
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 4/3/22 7:59 PM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Monday, April 4, 2022, 3:49 AM

These two days there seems to be a shift in the body-mind state. The energetics with coolness flavor is gone, and the body constantly has sensations similar to an anxiety attack. I can’t find any other cause for it other than probably the shift in energetics. The mind is usually calm and it doesn’t go toward panicking, but there are different uncomfortable sensations in the body, like the heart pumping, shakiness in the arms and legs, and constriction in the throat. Last night in bed the energetics were very uncomfortable, and it made me worried. Usually, my response to these sensations is curiosity and it doesn’t bother me at all, but there have been a few times like last night that it caused worry. Heat and burning, electric shock, tensions, and hard pain and pressure, sharp pain on certain parts, are just some of the manifestations. I wonder what would be next!

By saying that usually the mind is calm, I think it’s the surface level of the mind that is calm, whatever that means. Probably in the lower layers of the mind, there is more chaos going on that affects the body. When I slow down the movements of the body and try to reduce the context-switching of the body and mind, it calms down the body more, which probably affects the lower layers of the mind, calms them, and then they reflect back their calmness to the body! Something like that I guess!
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 4/7/22 9:38 AM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Monday, April 4, 2022, 6:59 PM

Today the purple-violet lights are here in front of the eyes. It’s been a few weeks that I hadn’t seen them. I guess that means another shift. Today there is less tension and uncomfortable sensations in the body.

Wednesday, April 6, 2022, 6:19 AM

Yesterday the first part of the day those sensations similar to an anxiety attack in the body faded away and they were absent for a few hours. Once there was coolness at the base of the spine, but then they came back again at night with higher intensity, feeling like most of my body is beating along with my heart. In bed I tried to relax as much as I could, there was loud humming and ringing in my ears, I hadn’t had that one for quite a while. Today for most of the day I had these uncomfortable sensations with varying degrees of intensity. There is a quietness in the mind in terms of usual thoughts, but the humming and ringing and sometimes drumming are there. Sometimes it’s like I listen to my heartbeat with a headphone, and there is tension, I guess everywhere in the body, and pressure in the head. This last hour I notice vibrations arising in the head, and there is coolness here and there. It seems that there will be a shift soon.

10:58 PM
Last night in bed I tried to relax the body and investigate to see what’s going on in the body-mind. The uncomfortable energetics were present for maybe half an hour, then there was more relaxation. There were multiple layers of tension, after relaxing part of the body that I thought there is no tension in it, I’d find that there is another layer of tension, especially in the head that had pressure from the inside and it was not possible to relax its tension because I didn’t have control over the muscles there. Today it has been almost like previous days, and I still don’t understand why there is this much tension in the body. I was able to function without problem, but I have to relax the body-mind regularly and not let negativity take over.

Thursday, April 7, 2022, 4:20 AM

Did some practice in bed, tried to keep the body relaxed and relax the tension the moment I catch them. It was relatively successful, and the result was that most of these uncomfortable sensations, resembling an anxiety attack, were gone after half an hour, but there was strong pain in the arms and legs, which I think is the result of keeping the muscle relaxed. The energy that normally turns into tension, without the tension causes pain in the muscle.

7:02 PM
Last night stayed awake longer and just practiced relaxing the body. The side effect was a lot of pain, but after a while, there was relaxation without much pain. Today there is less discomfort, but there is some.
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 4/10/22 4:03 AM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Sunday, April 10, 2022, 12:35 PM

This past 1-2 days, there have been fewer of these uncomfortable sensations in the body that look like an anxiety attack, and yesterday before going to bed there was this sense that attention kept locking into beauty and pleasantness in sensations. During the practice in bed, there was intense energetics for a while, but although most of it was painful, there were some pleasant ones too. Today the coolness flavor in energetics was present for some time, and the body started to feel almost ‘normal’, but then I went out for grocery shopping and there was a quick shift, and all those uncomfortable sensations came back with high intensity, but after I came back home got busy with cooking, I forgot it and then noticed it’s all gone. For the nth time, it became clear that there isn’t any health issue, it’s just some underlying mind-state or emotions that manifest as these sensations, although this time the difference is that the mind is calm and equanimous most of the time, but the body not. Earlier there was an urge to pay attention more clearly, so I did a sit and some eyes-open practice. These days it seems that I feel and hear some of the sensations with a magnifier, and it seems that is one of the causes for the uncomfortable feelings like I hear my heartbeat and external noises quite loudly, or if I scratch my face, I feel that sensation with high intensity for a while after the scratch. During the sit, there was a constant ringing in the head, and I felt my head is on a vibrator. During the practice in bed, once it felt or seemed that for a moment it became black and then returned to the usual form. This has been happening in recent weeks and months once in a while, that looks like for a moment you turn on the lights, and then turn them back on again. I don’t have any guesses about it though.
Last few days the violet lights sometimes arise and become quite clear. And sometimes a dot appears for a moment, but it’s different from before, it appears for a fraction of a second and is like a very bright spark of fire, the moment I notice it, it’s gone.
Sometimes there is quietness in the mind, it’s like there is no movement in any direction, or better to say there is no direction and just the stillness.
It’s been a while that I hadn’t had fine-grained vibrations in the body, but in the recent few days, they sometimes arise, sometimes in the head, sometimes in the left leg.
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 4/14/22 1:32 PM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Wednesday, April 13, 2022, 5:45 PM

These two days there has been a reduction in the uncomfortable bodily manifestations. It could be that I was busy with working and so they had less chance to arise, or there was some shift.
For two days I had dreams that seemed to be about aliens. In the first one, I was waiting for a traveler, and I woke up to her phone call, but my phone was off but was still ringing, and it showed some notifications to check if it was in the danger zone or not, something like the end of the world thing. The traveler seemed to be an alien, or she had visited aliens and was on her way back to earth. And yesterday I had another one, I was waiting for a girl that I had hosted some years ago, and she just arrived at my place in the dream. It seemed that she had traveled to other worlds and was coming back from there.

Thursday, April 14, 2022, 9:30 AM

Today there seems to be a shift in energetics. There are many sensations of itches and insect-crawling in the body, especially what feels like an insect is moving under the skin, mostly on the left leg. I wonder what is different about the left side of the body, especially the left leg that has these many energetics.

10:57 PM
Another shift it seems. Since the evening I started feeling very sleepy, like in previous periods that it would happen, but it hadn’t happened for weeks or months. It feels like the skin is a few sizes smaller than the body.
Went to bed for 2 hours, and tried to relax and practice. Energetics started with itches and insect-crawling, then coolness flavor, slightly pleasant, then it became painful. A few times they caused the body to jump up, once with electric shock, but two of them were of a new kind. With one, I felt that something is denailing a fingernail from the left hand. In the other one, I saw shoe boxes falling on me. I seem to have a higher resolution with images that appear in bed. Sometimes I intend to visualize something, and I get a higher resolution than before, although I rarely remember or want to do that.
These two days, sometimes there is a polarity of satisfaction and despair, that it feels like everything is satisfactory, or everything can be satisfactory and enjoyable, also with it, it feels that everything smells despair, and there is no point or meaning to anything and everything.
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 4/15/22 6:50 AM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Friday, April 15, 2022, 6:28 AM

I wanted to maintain mindfulness and not lose clarity, but I kept noticing that it requires effort, and I didn’t like to exert effort, that was bothering me, then it occurred to me that I should stop “paying attention” because that means effort, and I should stop intending to notice something clearly, or deciding what object I should focus on, or trying to direct attention, because that divides the experience into two parts and creates tension, and whenever I become aware, I should just stay aside, and let the experience be experienced. There shouldn't be a need to have an object, or create an object, to observe another object.

9:21 AM
I wanted to do a sit but there was too much resistance for it, then I accidentally visited Michael Taft’s page, used his latest guided meditation, and kept renewing the intention to continue it to its end. It was good and felt like coming home. The kind of heavy sleepiness that arose toward the end, looked like a state/stage-related thing. In the first part, there was insect-crawling and other painful energetics. Letting the awareness be aware and not direct the attention gets easier as I get back to it again and again.
It’s such a deep habit to control the attention, and even control the muscles, that’s why I think there is still too much tension in the body. It all comes from fear of losing control.

1:25 PM
This makes me really curious. I don’t know to what extent I can trust my memory, but as far as I can remember, I never had any sensations or experiences of denailing, and that has always been one of the things that I really didn’t want to experience, unless maybe in a life or death situation. But how is it that I get that sensation so clearly and with such an intensity that causes the whole body to jump up. It created different questions!

Back to “control”, on the one hand, is the fear of losing control, on the other hand, is being controlled by other people’s expectations and wants. Having had regular judgments and control from the adults in childhood, especially the father, there is often worrying about not causing dissatisfaction for others, which creates silly situations. For instance, I was giving some guidance to someone about a topic, but there was the worry, am I giving too much, am I giving too little…? Or, taking a day off from the work, since it’s the weekend, I get vague images of my previous job and employer, with uncomfortable emotional feelings, conveying: Are you sure you are doing the right thing by resting? So, other people’s wants, or even imaginary and projected wants, become something that controls the system, put it together with the fear of losing control, it creates a conflict that has no way to resolve itself!
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Chris M, modified 1 Year ago at 4/15/22 9:12 AM
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... I never had any sensations or experiences of denailing...

Hi, Siavash!

What is "denailing?"
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 4/15/22 9:23 AM
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 Hi Chris,

What is "denailing?"

I meant pulling off a fingernail with pliers or some other tool for torture.
Interesting that Wikipedia has Denailing, but it seems it's not used or common in English?
 
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Chris M, modified 1 Year ago at 4/15/22 9:26 AM
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Ouch!!!
George S, modified 1 Year ago at 4/15/22 10:58 AM
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I used to torture myself by imagining similar horrible things. My "favorite" was imagining a nail being banged into my eyeball! I think it was a symptom of an underlying reservoir of anxiety trapped in my body. Over time as I have practiced noticing and feeling anxiety directly, I've stopped being bothered by compulsive thoughts.  
Martin, modified 1 Year ago at 4/15/22 11:03 AM
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You appear to be thinking about control a lot. I'm curious as to whether, on an intellectual level, you see yourself (and people in general) as having control/agency. I ask because, if you do not believe in agency on an intellectual level, then it can be interesting to look at the feeling of control as a feeling, but if you do believe that we are in control of our minds, then investigating how that belief compares with experience could be interesting. 
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 4/15/22 12:14 PM
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 Martin,

I think the control that I am talking about, is mostly at the level of emotions/mind-states and urges, not thoughts. In terms of sensations, can’t say with 100% certainty, but to me it looks like it’s meaningless to ascribe agency or control to sensations. I don’t know how a sensation could or could not have agency/control. I think agency is an undefined property to sensations. But emotions, they operate tied to concepts, constructions, and control is one of those concepts and construcs, so at the level of emotions, based on the habit that has formed these emotions, the concept of control becomes relevant. Although usually if I become aware of it, it just falls apart, and there is just sensations, but often it goes unnoticed, and that is what creates tension and dissatisfaction. And these periods of going unnoticed can be long, or as short as a fraction of a second as the mind jumps from clarity to non-clarity. 
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 4/15/22 11:45 AM
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George,

These occurrences that I described, are not thoughts, or imaginations, or intentions to imagine something. Quite different from that. It’s a physical sensation, arising suddenly and involuntarily without any intention before that that I would be aware of, but upon arising, the mind categorizes it as some specific kind of sensation, or finds similarities between them and previously experienced ones from memory.
Martin, modified 1 Year ago at 4/15/22 12:12 PM
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I think we could be talking about different things here. As I see it, control is a sensation. Some refer to it as an emotion. I can, at different times, feel that I am controlling something or, likewise, feel that someone else is controlling something. There isn't any actual control in either case, but it sometimes feels like there is. This may be what you are pointing to when you mention the "concept of control." Is that the case, or are you talking about something else that I am missing?

When you say, "Back to “control”, on the one hand, is the fear of losing control, on the other hand, is being controlled by other people’s expectations and wants," is this a fear of experiencing a lack of control (while knowing that control doesn't really exist) or a fear of the actual loss of control (which you are thinking of as a genuinely existing phenomenon)?

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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 4/15/22 12:45 PM
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 About the first part of your comment,
By sensations, I mean seeing, hearing and feeling, which tasting and smelling are part of the feeling. Any thing other than that, I don't use the word sensation for it, since it's a construct, an emotion, or concept or whatever. In your example, at difficult times feeling that you are controlling.., this feeling that you are controlling is made of many sensations, right? Mental images of you, mental images of other objects that might be subject to control, the idea of control which would be some mental images and/or mental talks or sounds, some physical sensations in the body. When they all arise together in a package, they give this feeling that one is controlling something, or is being controlled. In that sense, yes, control as a concept, idea and construct exists. But if we say that sensation x is controlling sensation y, like an itch on my right hand is deciding for an itch on my left foot, I think that's irrelevant. Or if we think that one sensation observing another sensation, or recognizing another sensation, or perceiving another sensation, or deciding what should the next sensation should be, I think that's meaningless and not the case.

About the second part,
I think it's the fear of experiencing a lack of control, because that part of the body-mind 'thinks' that it needs that control in order to survive, which I think yeah, there is no such control in the first place if we set aside the concepts. It's I think the survival instinct, fear of insecurity and death, which manifests as this emotion, but the other part of the mind knows that this fear is not reasonable, so there are many many many moving back and forth between these two modes, one part is afraid of insecurity, rejection, loneliness and death, the other part knows and says there is no need to be afraid, and the experience happens between these two poles, which a lot of times is tiring.
 
Martin, modified 1 Year ago at 4/15/22 1:43 PM
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That makes sense. Thanks for answering!
George S, modified 1 Year ago at 4/15/22 4:39 PM
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Sorry, I didn't mean to suggest that you were doing it on purpose. For me, the physical sensation (anxiety) was already there and I think my mind would automatically create an unpleasant image/story about it, which would become compulsive over time and worsen (or at least perpetuate) the anxiety.
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 4/18/22 8:08 AM
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Sunday, April 17, 2022, 11:08 AM

Today I try to dedicate the day to resting, relaxing, enjoying, and practicing. Have done a few sit, guided practices because it’s easier for now, since the last few months I’ve been practicing in bed, and still there is difficulty with sitting.
In recent days I notice this quality more, I am not sure what to call it, presence, awareness, space, existence or non-existence or stillness, I don’t know, something. I think stillness and movement are both qualities of it. ‘Container’ is not the right word, but it seems like a container that the experience happens in it, but it’s not affected by the valence, and it works well as a refuge. It’s all-pervading. I guess one way to put it would be, having all sensations and experiences happen, without having any wanting or intentionality in it, maybe.

4:32 PM
Did some more practice, mostly guided ones. It seems it has become easier to detach from the sense of watcher that is behind the eyes, and it’s more accessible to perceive space without that center point in it. The mental images of the head and face seem to be less solid, and sometimes it’s almost transparent or absent.

Monday, April 18, 2022, 5:34 PM

Managed to sit for nearly 40 minutes. The moment I started, restlessness arose in the abdomen, legs, and arms, wanting to stop and do something else, and breathing became difficult and I had to breathe with my mouth. After 10-20 minutes the restlessness decreased, and there were fewer thoughts. A few energetics here and there, heat and coolness. Focused mostly on the face and abdomen, and the constriction in the throat.

Another sit for 75 minutes. Again there was restlessness the moment I started, but it decreased after 10-20 minutes and went away after 40-50 minutes. The first part focused on the breath while counting it using Leigh’s instruction. The second part focused on the whole body. Although the muscle tension decreased toward the end, it didn’t go away. There was some pleasant coolness several times. It bothered me that I felt there is a distance between attention and sensations(?) as if I didn’t get the clarity that I wanted, and attention didn’t get close enough to sensations. I know this framing is wrong. I don’t think attention is separate from sensations.
There was mental talk at a lower level going on most of the first part, later it decreased.

Another sit for nearly 85 minutes. Focused on the body and the space around it, and the vibrations and arising/passing of sensations. This time very little restlessness and resistance to sitting. There were some energetic pains, for some times tried Rob Burbea’s instruction to make the pain turn into vibrations, by imagining the breath as a column of bright light, that enters the body at that painful location and goes out from there, and spreads inside the body as light and vibration. It (or something else!) caused some of the pains to move and go away. Some pleasant coolness. Subtle dullness toward the end, that during it I had thoughts that were different from the ordinary thoughts, but for most of them, I only had a vague feeling of it, and the next moment I forgot completely what it was. I could remember the last one, there was this thought that before this contemporary group of psychologists, certain concepts or ideas were not known or well-known, and I perceived those psychologists as the hairs on my right eyebrow, as if each hair is a person, and one of those psychologists were different from others because there was hair that had went above and I could feel it on my skin.
Much less muscle tension in this sit, but some negative emotions like insecurity and despair, are not predominant though.
The most annoying mind-state is this one that conveys: If I continue to practice, I won’t be able to work anymore (won’t have time/energy), and if I don’t practice and just work, I won’t be able to practice anymore and that doesn’t worth it. In recent months this mind-state has caused much less trouble for me and I could handle it better, but still, it has power.
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Chris M, modified 1 Year ago at 4/18/22 8:27 AM
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The most annoying mind-state is this one that conveys: If I continue to practice, I won’t be able to work anymore (won’t have time/energy), and if I don’t practice and just work, I won’t be able to practice anymore and that doesn’t worth it. In recent months this mind-state has caused much less trouble for me and I could handle it better, but still, it has power.

Yes, this can be a delicate balance. I was always mindful of not being able to practice as much as I wanted due to having children and a full-time job. But I kept to a regular schedule on weekdays: 30 minutes of practice early in the morning before starting work and 30 minutes in the evening after getting home from work. This made my practice a habit that I've managed to keep for almost 30 years. On weekends I did whatever practice I had time for, sometimes a few hours a day and sometimes nothing at all.

You can do it, Siavash!
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 4/18/22 8:47 AM
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Thank you Chris.
Yeah, I am trying.
Discipline is the key, which I always had difficulty with it, and only in this past year I’ve just started to have some discipline with some of the activities, by myself, without being forced by external conditions. It takes practice!
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 4/20/22 10:47 AM
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Monday, April 18, 2022, 7:28 PM

Since I ended the practice, a deep feeling of grief has arisen, mixed with insecurity. It occurred to me that these two mind-states could be mapped to d4d and re-ob. First strong desire to practice and get results, and then having these familiar negative mind-states.

11:57 PM
This used to happen before, but in recent days seems happening more, that for a moment or a few moments, it seems that the point of observation is outside of the perceived body, and it makes it look like the body is a small object like other objects.

Tuesday, April 19, 2022, 2:57 PM

Probably because of more practice yesterday, last night the moment I started practicing in bed, energetics started with high intensity and were quite painful, although the interesting thing is that this pain doesn’t bother me at all. There is no dukkha in it. Once I heard a loud sound, like a bump and there were vibrations and a release of energy in the head at the same time.
Long sleep and dreams that looked like went deep into memories. Several times I woke up and noticed vibrations in the body.
Feeling sick today, don’t know if it’s related to the emotions after the shift last night, or if it’s a cold or something. There’s that quiet sadness present, with silence in the mind. Taking refuge in music to get some comfort.

10:31 PM
It’s a few hours that the quiet sadness is gone, and it feels the same as it did several days ago, with uncomfortable sensations as if there is an anxiety attack. Also, there is sleepiness and a lack of energy.

Wednesday, April 20, 2022, 2:57 AM

Practice in bed: Intense energetics, mostly painful of different kinds. Sensations in the exact location of energy centers, the center of forehead, chest, throat and neck, the base of spine, crown, and below the navel and perineum, mostly sharp pain as if you push a sharp metal there. Vibrations in the body and visual field. The whole murk started flickering several times with bright white light entering it from the periphery. Heard sounds like a click or a bump a few times. Distorted sleepy thoughts about the energetics and work, like I was thinking that I am about to deploy an app on a server, and if it deploys correctly, the energetics will flow freely in the body, or energy centers will become active, and had difficulty untangling these two concepts.
Also, there was pleasant coolness and tingling. Tried to relax and let whatever happens, happen.

8:00 PM
Couldn’t sleep well and got up early in the morning. There was an increase in energy, and it seems like a shift. Negative emotions have decreased, and there is increased clarity and mild pleasantness in physical sensations.
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 4/21/22 11:26 PM
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Thursday, April 21, 2022, 4:14 PM

Last night I tried that Hemi-Sync audio that Ni Nurta had suggested in Linda “Polly Ester”’s practice log. I tried it two days before that once, but it gave me anxiety. I am very sensitive to sounds and when something feels a little out of harmony, it quickly makes me uncomfortable. This time I tried to relax and pay more attention to space rather than the body. After some minutes the body became relaxed. Toward the end I started feeling a pleasant perfume quite strongly, don’t know if it came from the outside or was mind-generated. In the first 1-2 years of meditation before having these painful energetics, I used to get into light jhanic states and have pleasant tastes and smells, mostly smells. The practice in bed, unlike usual, there was much fewer energetics.
More sickness symptoms today, bodily pain and fatigue, and nausea. Probably it’s flu or covid.
Yesterday and today several times I noticed joyful feelings bubbling up in the body. It’s like it’s going to be a burst of joy and pleasantness but it doesn’t get to that point of release.

Friday, April 22, 2022, 7:00 AM

Sat for an hour, with the intention to practice Do Nothing. I thought since I want to sit, there won’t be much or any resistance, but there was. It took over 10 minutes for restlessness and difficulty with breathing to go away. Then there was pleasant energetics, mostly coolness, and I started remembering memories from the distant past, where there was restfulness and pleasantness in the atmosphere. This made me go to the default state of wanting to do something, and constantly evaluating myself, so it led to disappointment, and feeling like I failed/will fail to do/not to do x or y, or it could/should be better, I could/should do better. Tried over and over to remind myself that the goal of this sit, is to just sit, nothing more, relax and let whatever happens, happen. Toward the end had more success with it, and there was more restfulness in the body-mind.
There is a clear recognition here. One moment the mind is clear, and there isn’t wanting the experience to be any other way, then there is wanting, and that contaminates the experience and causes negative mind-states to arise, but it doesn’t untangle easily, yet. But there is an important improvement, it seems that the mind knows now, that it can relax, rest and enjoy. Previously it didn’t feel possible.

8:51 AM
Did another sit, near an hour. The takeaway was: When you are not actively doing something, then there is nothing to do, nothing to change, just be and if it’s available, enjoy.
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Ni Nurta, modified 1 Year ago at 4/22/22 10:40 AM
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Siavash '
Toward the end I started feeling a pleasant perfume quite strongly, don’t know if it came from the outside or was mind-generated. In the first 1-2 years of meditation before having these painful energetics, I used to get into light jhanic states and have pleasant tastes and smells, mostly smells.

I think Robert put too much perfume that day ;)

Those beats being for astral projection makes some sense to help develop all sense hallucinations. I myself listened lots of them in my past and then developed all sense synesthesia. I did some things but it felt like mind saw some direction it could take with all the ideas which arose and I just put some effort inventing what to do and doing it.

One fun thing you can try is smelling part of your mind. Those which are in jhana will have heavenly fragrances. At one point in time, at 2nd path if I remember correctly, I even used this specific method on parts of mind which didn't feel very jhanic and it seemed to have profound effect on them. Like mind connected all the stuff there to main consciousness and with that connection processing powers enabled by main/global consciousness could quickly resolve issues. It did however make certain aspects of mind which I was smelling to also go elsewhere but in different form. Part of the healing process I presume.

You should imho try it, especially if you already have knack for this type of experiences. I mean as much smelling jhanas but most of all your painful energetics.
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 4/22/22 2:42 PM
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  Hi Ni Nurta,

I think Robert put too much perfume that day ;)
I think it was his partner! ;)


One fun thing you can try is smelling part of your mind. Those which are in jhana will have heavenly fragrances.... 
I like this idea. Checking different parts of mind and making them communicate. Will give it a try, if I could remember to do so!


You should imho try it...
​​​​​​​Yeah, I like to try it. Thanks for the suggestions.
 
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 4/23/22 9:17 AM
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Saturday, April 23, 2022, 1:00 AM

There must have been a shift in mind-states. Yesterday there wasn’t any sleepiness so I slept late, but then that heavy sleepiness came, and it took hours to be able to get up. For hours it felt that the ground pulls me down. More severe sickness symptoms today. There are bright flickering lights and colors, it’s part of that shift, along with the sleepiness. Also, the temperature is higher and there is some sweating, I guess it usually comes with the sleepiness package, but not sure, could be because of sickness.
During the practice in bed, the energetics were mostly pleasant, mildly.

6:41 PM
Did a few hours of practice, mostly focused on the body and its mental images and some on thoughts. The energetics were mostly around the throat and neck, and solar plexus and heart. Clearly something is going on in those energy centers.
For quite a while I haven’t had that higher base level of mindfulness that previously was available, but now it’s available again. Interestingly, there was much fewer energetics compared to usual, I guess partly because of the current mind-state (sleepiness package), and partly because I didn’t exert too much effort and let go of control whenever I could.
At some point, I started having imagery of my elementary school and its yard when it was full of students, and how I didn’t like such crowded places when I didn’t know where I belong and felt a sense of being lost. Insecurity. Then had more images like that, of parties, weddings, public prayer gatherings, and all had that feeling of insecurity and being lost and looking for some refuge. Also had earlier memories, when I was 4-5 years old, it was the last 1-2 years of the war, and we were running from one place to another from time to time when there was a bombing or an alarm. The basements in a school that we would go to and other places. Then I remembered that whenever I take a bus, I either sit in the front sits or back sits, same with trains, I never like the middle part. Or remembered how in gatherings I used to find a corner and sit there because it felt more secure.
It makes more sense now.

Did another sit, focused on the mind-space. There was an ongoing stream of low-volume mental talks. Toward the end, it subsided and there was more silence. Then became sleepy, but I heard a bip sound and ended the sit. Last night heard similar sounds a few times too. There was higher clarity and spaciousness in this sit. Also more vibrations.
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Ni Nurta, modified 1 Year ago at 4/24/22 3:22 AM
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Not sure whose. When I started thinking about Robert I mostly felt scent of cigarettes emoticon

Rather interesting jump from smelling mind to making brain parts communicate... Yeah, that's exactly it!
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Sunday, April 24, 2022, 6:03 PM

Last night in bed, much less energetic than usual, just some electric shocks and tickling pain, the neck/throat center and heart center seemed to be most active. A few times I gained awareness of the body and bed, and noticed I am laughing, and thinking that: There is nothing funny about this thing that I am laughing at, but it’s still good to laugh so let’s continue.
This sickness has the same pattern as the ones that I had since covid. It becomes very hard to get up after waking up, and for some hours it feels quite sick, but then it gets better for some hours, and when approaching the time of sleep, symptoms come back again.
Today that sleepiness mind-state is gone, and there are more anxiety-type sensations.

Monday, April 25, 2022, 12:17 PM

Last night there was much more energetics while practicing in bed. It seemed that there was an opening in some of the blockages. I usually feel pain in a few locations along the spinal cord when energetics arise, but this time it didn’t cause that kind of pain there, and there was the movement of energy current there. Once it was quite strong at the base of the spine, that startled the body and I couldn’t feel it clearly. More activity in the right side of the chest and pelvis, and energy currents in the left leg. More coolness and breeze feelings. A few times heard a sound, one was louder, like hands clapping. Fewer sickness symptoms today, and less sleepiness.

Tuesday, April 26, 2022, 4:43 PM

Someone should write a code to take all these reports, analyze them, and give you a neat summary.
Last night too the energetics in bed was quite strong. Some new kind of pressure arose in the head, and new kinds of pain in the extremities, the outmost locations had the strongest pain, like the tip of toes and fingers, genitals, the crown of the head. It seems to me that the system wants to let go of something, but another part of it fights to keep it from leaving, and they are fighting in the periphery of the body. At first, it became uncomfortable like my heart was beating inside my right ear, then there were pleasant sensations.
Some uncomfortable dreams. I had arguments with a friend, and family. forgot that I had a train ticket, had forgotten my internet password, couldn’t lock the door because it was broken, there was a water leak in the house. It was an interesting mix!
This is a pretty inefficient way of recording and communicating information. All of this can be thought of in a second, but you need minutes to write or read it and then have a vague understanding of it. The ‘external’ senses operate way slower than the ‘internal’ ones.

Did a sit for 40 minutes now. It was just boring. Instead of that, for now, I just prefer eyes-open informal noticing of everything coming and going. Strangely, after the sit, a deep sense of disappointment and despair arose.

Wednesday, April 27, 2022, 1:20 AM

Did some formal and informal practice. It seems that it brought that sleepiness state. Sleepy as if I was drugged. There have been regular vibrations, and for some minutes felt like the core of my being wanted to jump off. Something like itching or tickling in my bones was also mixed with some tension.
The right side of the body seems to be more active energetically since yesterday.

Friday, April 29, 2022, 2:43 AM

After a few days of sleep deprivation, today I slept long, and for a few hours before getting up, there was a strange feeling or perception, that it felt I am on the border between existence and non-existence. Felt like I am about to become nothing, or stop existing. I felt that I am lying on top of a narrow wall, and at any moment I might fall and disappear, so I was trying to adjust my body on that spot and make sure to not fall. It was like my perception of myself was just a small area of flat-like space that wanted to vanish or fade out into nothing.

Saturday, April 30, 2022, 4:35 PM

Last night in bed practice was mostly pleasant. Very few or no painful energetics, and they were mostly pleasant, with vibrations spreading in the body. In general, there has been higher energy these few days, I guess I’ve wasted most of it though.
An hour ago suddenly I got hit by music. The mind-state changed, and there was beauty and tenderness, upward vibrations spread in the torso, and there was silence and awe in the mind. Also, flashbacks of early memories, how I was amazed by nature and music.
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Chris M, modified 1 Year ago at 4/30/22 7:59 AM
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Someone should write a code to take all these reports, analyze them, and give you a neat summary.

This is a fascinating idea, Siavash. I have a friend at Stanford University who is actually into this kind of thing. He has applied natural language processing to the medical and legal fields, but it's an intensive process. One of the companies I used to work for was a start-up based on his work that employed his technology in consumer products.

​​​​​​​I wish there was an app for this.

emoticon
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 4/30/22 8:16 AM
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Hey Chris,
Yeah, I'd love to have such an app too. I haven't researched on this, but I guess it should not be easy. Actually I think implementing it is the easy part. The difficult part is to have a clear analysis of cognition and perception, and find out what is the data model that is used by mind to store information and create relationships between them.

-- Edit:
I guess language is way farther from where the perception and cognition happens. Language is just a later translation of what happens first in other modalities. I guess I would go with images and symbols!

-- Edit 2:
I guess I mixed two different things here. The edit above was mainly about having another way of conveying ideas, to be faster than external senses, and in order to have that, there should be a clear understanding of the mind.
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Chris M, modified 1 Year ago at 4/30/22 10:32 AM
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My friend is an AI researcher specializing in semantic logic/natural language processing.

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Yeah, they have a whole science for it emoticon
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Arena Heidi, modified 1 Year ago at 4/30/22 4:40 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 4/30/22 4:40 PM

RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

Posts: 73 Join Date: 4/16/22 Recent Posts
I really appreciate your log Siavash. My favorite here thus far. If I do a log, I will model it after yours. What I like is that you incorporate all parts of your life in a way that I receive a sense of wholeness from you and from what you write. I can feel how you are working on all aspects and interrelationships, and towards a sense of balance between all the parts. Also, I understand and can empathize and relate to so much of what you write. There's an intimacy to your log where I have a sense of you as a real human being writing really relatable things that so many of us have struggled with. Thanks for doing that. I will return and read more.
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 4/30/22 5:28 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 4/30/22 5:28 PM

RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

Posts: 1679 Join Date: 5/5/19 Recent Posts
 Hi Arena,
Thank you, I appreciate your feedback.

Yes, I don't see any separation between practice and life, it's all just one journey, and I try to be open about it. I hope it's useful or entertaining if someone reads it.
 
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 5/3/22 6:39 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 5/3/22 6:39 PM

RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

Posts: 1679 Join Date: 5/5/19 Recent Posts
Saturday, April 30, 2022, 11:32 PM

Today this somewhat new kind of sensation arises frequently, that feels like glass-dust is stuck under the skin, and rubbing or scratching the location doesn’t make it go away.
Also, like the last few days, this sense of the observer in the back of the head annoys me. It feels like being in a cage. I’d like to have no observer, no center point, and no directionality.

Sunday, May 1, 2022, 8:24 PM

This time in bed it was a mix of vibrations, painful and pleasant energetics, with high intensity. After a few weeks of not having movement and flying in dreams, today I had. I gained awareness and noticed movement, but didn’t have the power to fly. Several times I speeded up the movements and vibrations by focusing on color statics and vibrations in the body, but when I wanted to take off, it stopped. There were other forms of movement too, driving a car, riding a bicycle, and other strange dreams. Today I woke up having the sickness symptoms again. The same pattern again,  that they came back after a break of 2-3 days. I guess I should have taken the booster vaccine, and I should resume eating eggs.
Or maybe it’s not related to health and it’s a states/stages thing, who knows. Today there is more pain in the back and ribcage, that’s likely energetic.

Monday, May 2, 2022, 6:56 AM

The body has started feeling sick again. There seems to be some change. Relatively higher equanimity, some uncomfortable sensations in the head and throat, like buzzing/ringing, hearing my heartbeat louder, and energy currents moving in the body.

9:30 PM
Before going to bed the body started feeling sick. Then in bed, the moment I started focusing, intense energetics arose, mostly painful, electric shocks, hard pain like a piece of metal is stuck inside tissues, constriction in the throat, a louder heartbeat in my ear, and anxiety-type feelings and tension. Also, the tickling pain in the lower legs and below the knees was very uncomfortable, I had to move the body and try not to be aware, and try to distract myself, because being aware caused more. It seems that the energy is moving more toward the neck and head, and probably that causes hearing the heartbeat louder. A few times it caused headache as it moved toward the head.
Similar to previous days, for some minutes I was seeing faces in the murk. They have higher resolution than before, and for some seconds it seems that I perceive color statics as a face. It’s not photo-realistic, but it’s relatively clear. I got up after 1-2 hours and the sick feeling was mostly gone, sleepiness was gone and it took a while to fall asleep again. It’s been the same since waking up, and there is hard pain in the back. Once, I don’t know what happened, but the body filled with vibrations, it seemed that it initiated from the middle back.
There has been anger and frustration because the internet sucks today, and I hate it when they slow it down. Boredom and low mood in the last hours.

Wednesday, May 4, 2022, 3:50 AM

Last night the boredom increased so I had to go to bed earlier. Energetics was intense again, I focused more on the head and throat. There was a bright white light that seemed to be moving around, arising for a moment, then moving, and disappearing in 1-2 seconds. A tickling pain that usually arises a few times in the lower legs and below the knee, this time moved higher and was in the hips.
There was a mix of movement and fear in some of the dreams like I jumped from a high building and was afraid when going down, but like always, some rope appeared in the air and I grabbed it and landed safely! Higher energy and productivity today, and almost no signs of sickness. Today I tried to practice while doing things, but again it felt boring, the mind doesn’t engage if I am not reclining.
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 5/5/22 9:52 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 5/5/22 8:48 AM

RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

Posts: 1679 Join Date: 5/5/19 Recent Posts
Wednesday, May 4, 2022, 7:44 PM

The body was relatively quiet energetically in bed. After I woke up and ate, the body started feeling sick again with aches and fatigue. I guess I have to monitor my diet to see if it’s related to this feeling. The body temperature is lower, feeling cold, but the upper legs feel hot. The same feelings that I had with the last episodes in the last 1-2 years.
Before getting up there were distorted thoughts/feelings about time, getting up and what’s gonna happen. I think these kinds of thoughts/feelings are very important, they are the essential part of emotions I guess, that the thought has not formed clearly yet and you can’t articulate it, but it has emotional force.

Thursday, May 5, 2022, 1:06 AM

I noticed now itches and energetic sensations moving on and around the tail bone and remembered that in bed a few times I woke up and noticed strong pain there that didn’t go away by moving the body or focusing on it.

4:33 AM
It seems something just shifted, a strong pain arose in the right hip as if a piece of metal is stuck inside the tissue, and an exactly similar one in the middle of the spinal cord. Then headache, and vibrations in the legs. Today was very productive and I am satisfied with the day, maybe that has moved something!
Also, bright white dots appear that then turn into black dots. And buzzing/ringing in the head.

4:42 PM
In bed, I tried to relax the body and focus on relaxation. At first, the energy moved toward the head and feet and caused pain there, then there were some pleasant sensations, one very pleasant, and then coolness and breeze sensations on the skin. And the pressure and pain on top of the head that remained much longer. Then tickling pain arose and spread to the whole body this time instead of just lower legs and feet, also wavy sensations arose in the whole body, a mix of pain and pleasantness, and stayed like that for 1-2 hours maybe. I guess I fell asleep, and then gained awareness, I was in a big room with vibrations everywhere, and I was flying slowly in the room, actually, the energy was moving me around but it was gentle. Then it got mad and became very fast, it was like a typhoon with a loud sound, it felt like the energy grabbed me and was dragging me around like a wild monster, and during that, I felt pain and pressure everywhere in the body, like something has grabbed it and is crushing it. It moved me toward the window to go out, I thought this thing has become mad, it will hit me to the wall as hard as it can and it will be painful, but after this thought, it slowed down and stopped beside the window. Then I noticed it was getting bright, I thought we skipped over the wall and are out in the street, but then I noticed no, I am waking up, and after a moment it was clear that I am fully awake now, and it became quiet, the sound of the movement was quite loud.
In later dreams, very disgusting smells in the environment, that I was about to vomit, and everyone was annoyed by the smell.
The whole time energy currents were moving in the body. Pain in the base of the spine and on the tail bone, mixed with pleasant sensations. Despite all the pain, overall it felt pleasant, especially the first part of the flying.
Got up after 2 hours, and the sleepiness was completely gone, and I couldn’t sleep again. The body temperature is higher, and for some minutes energetic pain arose in the shoulder blades that were stronger than usual. These two days some of the pains go toward being unbearable and cause a feeling like the body can not tolerate it, although it doesn’t bother emotionally.
I guess the high energy went away and sleepiness has arisen with bright violet lights flickering in the space.

--Edit:

7:17 PM
After all the hard pain in the back and shoulder blades since getting up, now pleasant coldness arises at the base of spine, thighs and perineum. Forgot to mention above, in the morning that I tried to fall back asleep again, I focused on the lower body, and concentration became good for a while and pleasant sensations arise in the perineum and spread to the lower body. For some minutes it was very pleasant, but didn’t spread to the whole body.
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 5/6/22 6:28 PM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

Posts: 1679 Join Date: 5/5/19 Recent Posts
Thursday, May 5, 2022, 7:30 PM

The pleasant coldness that I mentioned above, didn’t last long, and these hard and sharp pains arise again in the back and pelvis. Now that I wrote it, it turned into pleasant coldness! Surely something has changed, It’s a long while that I haven’t had these many energetics during daily activities.

Friday, May 6, 2022, 1:54 AM

There is a light show, bright lights appear in front of the face, dancing flickering expanding contracting. Violet, purple, white and light blue. It’s part of this sleepiness, along with headache, and spaciousness. The mind is quiet, and the murk is bigger and have higher volume.
Did 1-2 very short sits. The mind tends to focus on objects while holding the whole space in awareness. Slightly pleasant valence in sensations.

8:58 PM
It’s so interesting and strange. Yesterday I felt normal, but today the body feels sick again! Once I woke up and felt very cold, like it’s winter with no heater and I had to use extra cloths and blanket. It was like that after getting up, slightly better in the last 1-2 hours. Now the temperature is high with sweating. Once in bed I felt the ground moved an I got up, thought it might be earthquake, fortunately it wasn’t.
The bright flickering lights are still present, mostly violet. Also a sense of equanimity or stillness, that when I stop, or start paying attention, there is tranquility and spaciousness, and mild pleasant valence in sensations. Also, like usual, regular occurrences of feeling insecurity, and I notice this more clearly, and realize how much cost I’ve paid in my life because of this feeling. Its content is silly but it still has a lot of force. For example, I liked fried potato, and when there is a desire for fried potato, I get this feeling that: What if there is no potato in the world and there is no way to make fried potato!? Now that kind of worry often is present with a lot of stuff. It takes quite some effort to not let those worries and feelings run the show, but sometimes they do.
The other big one, is the worries and feelings with the theme of “I’ll fail”, that runs in the background and screws things. I thin if I could heal these two to some extent, life would be much much happier and more fulfilling.
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Chris M, modified 1 Year ago at 5/6/22 9:21 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 5/6/22 9:21 PM

RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

Posts: 5117 Join Date: 1/26/13 Recent Posts
Thank you, Siavash.

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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 5/6/22 9:26 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 5/6/22 9:26 PM

RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

Posts: 1679 Join Date: 5/5/19 Recent Posts
Thank you, Chris!
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Smiling Stone, modified 1 Year ago at 5/7/22 5:32 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 5/7/22 5:32 AM

RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

Posts: 341 Join Date: 5/10/16 Recent Posts
Hey Siavash,

I also enjoy coming to your log (just came back after learning about your feat concerning the portlet, just a hint here really...). As you write quite a bit, it's hard to keep up! But there seems a bit of a lightening of experience lately which seems promising (the coolness in the back is a positive marker for me, and might bring reaction, as anything might...). Your night experiences are amazing!

About your covid symptoms, have you thought about long covid? Two of my friends got that, it sounds quite a bit like yours (fever out of nowhere, periodic resurgence of the symptoms) and it's an ordeal, so good luck with that... I don't think the booster would have helped but what do I know...

with metta
smiling stone
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 5/7/22 9:40 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 5/7/22 9:40 AM

RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

Posts: 1679 Join Date: 5/5/19 Recent Posts
Hi Smiling Stone,
Thank you for your feedback!

The coolness sensations are a recurrent phenomena, but often it’s a sign that there will be positive mind-states after that. It can change several times in a single day.
About the sickness symptoms, yes I think it’s most likely the residue of long covid. When the covid first hit, I had the sickness for 4-5 months, and after that there have been periods with these recurring on-and-off symptoms.
Thanks.
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 5/8/22 1:22 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 5/8/22 1:22 PM

RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

Posts: 1679 Join Date: 5/5/19 Recent Posts
Saturday, May 7, 2022, 6:58 AM

Did some formal and informal practice, just being aware, or focused on the color statics. These two days there was a lot of pain in the back around the shoulder blades, during the practice it cracked open, and since then energy currents are moving around those locations and spread around toward the head and arms.

Did another sit, focused on the visual space and the body. The mind got more quiet and spacious. The energy in the back moved more toward the arms, then to the right shoulder and neck, and turned to a mix of itching and tickling, both pleasant and painful, and now it’s moving in different locations. The body-mind tends to slow down, and attention locks into an object and expands from that.

8:10 PM
This morning there was a stronger urge to sit and focus, and I continued to a point where the energy subsided, and sleepiness was predominant.
Today the sickness symptoms are completely gone, and despite not enough sleep, it feels okay. The mind and energy body are relatively quiet, and sometimes the violet light show arises.
As usual, when finishing something and moving to something else, a deep feeling of despair arises, and there is a back and forth between contentment and despair.

Sunday, May 8, 2022, 2:10 AM

Last several hours, pervasive despair and loneliness, and grief. Quiet and dense. It reminds me of a period of around 10 years in the past when going to my hometown or returning from there here, I’d have this feeling, and I couldn’t decide about staying or leaving, I’d get a ticket but then cancel it. Usually, when finishing something and starting something new, I experience this kind of feeling, but this one is very similar to those years. Also similar to feelings I had in middle school for a while, a boarding school in another town, being away from home, and feeling lonely and empty.
Change. Removes the usual distractions, and brings up the innate loneliness of the man. All experiences are like the sound of a passing car coming from the opposite direction on a road that disappears into cold quiet nothingness. It doesn’t even begin to form into something that could be grasped or kept.
It’s the difference between these two states, in one, there is a place to stand and a place to go, and locates the person in time and space and create enough ‘distractions’, but without these places, the time and space become meaningless or irrelevant, and it’s just nothing. Meaning has no anchor or reference point. Although the feeling that ‘everything is empty’, itself is not perceived as empty, otherwise it wouldn't feel how it feels now.
It seems part of cycling. For a few days there were strong sexual feelings, lots of energetics, and vibrations and movement in dreams, then this low mood, spaciousness and tranquility, and light-show and sleepiness.

5:13 AM
Did some informal practice. The heaviness of the mind-state decreased, it’s mostly tranquil and spacious with a mild sadness, and colors and lights vibrating in front of the eyes. Since the mind is quiet, there is higher clarity and stability.

10:34 PM
When I went to bed, suddenly tension arose, especially in the abdomen. It looked like the fear stage. The body jumped up with single-pointed burning on the right leg & hand. Based on the shifts in mind-state, I was expecting to have fearful dreams, being chased by dogs, etc, but I and others were chased by wolves. I had to stay in nature in a vast open space with no food or shelter, and with wolves there, I was looking for a stick to defend against wolves but it was just grass. In other dreams, there were losing bags, trying to avoid conflicts. In all of them, there was danger, but it didn’t threaten me directly.
The day started with mild sickness symptoms but then they were gone. No obvious emotions.
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 5/10/22 7:47 PM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

Posts: 1679 Join Date: 5/5/19 Recent Posts
Tuesday, May 10, 2022, 3:57 PM

Yesterday before going to bed there were lots of itches, ant-bites, and burning. Later blue color arose in the murk. In bed, there were more itches ant-bites, and intense pleasant sensations in the lower body that because of its intensity felt uncomfortable. There were wavy sensations, felt like something pushes the body above the floor. The body feels okay today, and regular despair-insecurity feeling arises. It’s the same feeling I had two days ago, as if I don’t have a place to stand, and time and hope are irrelevant. Feels like suffocation.

Wednesday, May 11, 2022, 1:13 AM

The mind has become very quiet and empty. The main thought-form that is present is the mental image of the face, which has a sad hopeless expression. I think the thing that makes this mind-state feel negative or unpleasant, is that there isn’t the ordinary ‘me’ there, and the relationship of ‘me’ to time or anything else is almost meaningless. When I try to think about 'me' or have a definition for it, either nothing comes up, or there is only the image of the head and body, which doesn’t convey much.
This could be the 7th-nana-like territory. With closed eyes, there is blue and green statics, but much more like a solid color, and sometimes bright white mixed with violet and purple expanding and contracting. Based on previous times diagnosis, the 7th nana has this feeling and also has a fatigue-like feeling with aches in the arms, which is present now. It seems the energy has started moving toward the head. There is a constriction in the throat, buzzing in the head, and hearing heartbeats louder sometimes.
I was thinking about what change I’d like to have in this experience, and no answer came to mind because the question seemed meaningless and irrelevant. Only silence comes up as a response to questions.
There are some low-rate vibrations, like a current moving in toes once per second.
To have a wild guess, I guess it’s related to dopamine and the reward system, not just that dopamine level could be lower, but there might be that something about the reward system is off, that what in other times was rewarding, in this state is not that rewarding. Reward loses its definition. But, what do I know.

4:34 AM
Did a sit, first open awareness, then focused on the body, especially on relaxation in it. The energy moved toward the head causing sensations there, then the body-mind became tranquil, and some energy currents arose, and mildly pleasant tingling and coolness and vibrations spread to most of the body. Some recurring sensations felt like the body is light or thin. Later it became very sleepy that I had to end the sit. There have been more energetics in the back and top of the head and the throat center.
The mind-state has become more positive after the sit, sleepiness is predominant, body temperature is lower and it feels cold. At the beginning of the sit, there was a sharp pain in some of the energy centers that then disappeared, after the sit, they arise again. Since yesterday some itches feel like burning, I think this only happens in certain states/stages.
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 5/12/22 6:35 PM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Thursday, May 12, 2022, 4:25 AM

It was some days that I didn’t have electric shock arising from the left long toe, last night they started arising again, and in bed, a few times it was quite intense, but somehow the system had enough equanimity to stay still, although a few other sensations startled the body. Today the mind-state is ordinary, with not much emotionality. These two days I had dreams about people and places of childhood. Once in sleep I noticed, this thing, the energy has grabbed the whole body, feeling like it was crushing it, don’t remember if it was flying.

1:04 PM
I focused on the body and visual space in bed, it became spacious, and the electric shocks mixed with tickling pain became very intense, next level, mostly active in the right side of the body that somehow caused a feeling like it makes the body thinner as if it wants to disappear, although there was enough equanimity to stay still.

Friday, May 13, 2022, 12:41 AM

Before going to bed some sensations felt like something is moving on the skin, also itches and burning. In bed, there were more itches and ant-bites, and strangely, this time these two annoyed me. I felt like I am tired of all these itches.
Had some interesting dreams. During the second round in bed, there was a mix of electric shocks, tickling, and wavy sensations, and I guess that led to movements. I gained awareness and was in a room with a guy and a kid, there was an invisible being, seemingly an evil one, that had entered that kid’s body, and the guy tried to help him, but it was a movie, but I was seeing them in the room that I was in. Then I decided to fly and went above toward the window, it was closed and I thought I’ll break the glass and go out, but the body stopped. Had another try, this time the window opened itself, and I went out. This time I think I had the most control over the flying that I’ve ever had, but it was very short, I landed in a neighbor’s yard but I noticed there are people there so I flew out, then I landed on a rooftop and entered the building and that ended the flying. In the building, I was thinking about going inside an elevator and flying there or flying the stairs instead of walking it. After exiting the building, I stared at the sky trying to get a sense of the space to fly again, but I woke up. I focused on waviness and vibrations to fly again, I guess it happened but I don’t remember. The start of flying was very enjoyable, but when leaving the building, there was a trash can in my hand and I tried to empty it but there was stinky garbage stuck to it, and on the outside, as I tried to notice the beauty of the sky, it didn’t feel beautiful. I think this was related to a shift in mind-state.

Sometimes in flying dreams, it’s night and dark, even if I’ve slept during the day, but sometimes it’s early in the morning in the dream and very bright, like this last one, especially it happens that it’s dark inside the house, and when flying out of the house, it becomes bright. I think this is related to the visuals in the murk (the central part of the visual field with eyes closed), that I am guessing because bright light arises and fills most of the murk, it looks bright in the dream.

Both times in bed, most of the tickling and vibrations initiated mostly from the center of the right palm and sole, and some from the left long toe. It seems the centers of palms and soles are important in the energetic map of the body.

Last few hours there has been a feeling of satisfaction, and fortunately this time there isn’t much despair with it.
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Chris M, modified 1 Year ago at 5/13/22 6:43 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 5/13/22 6:43 AM

RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

Posts: 5117 Join Date: 1/26/13 Recent Posts
... fortunately this time there isn’t much despair with it.

​​​​​​​Excellent!

When I have vivid dreams they almost always seem to occur in the morning just before waking up. I'm not sure why that is, but maybe someone here has an idea about it. I used to have dreams that seemed to showcase how mind controls my experience but those dreams have stopped. I now have dreams related to working, which I no longer do, so maybe I miss it or need to further process it.
George S, modified 1 Year ago at 5/13/22 7:38 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 5/13/22 7:38 AM

RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

Posts: 2722 Join Date: 2/26/19 Recent Posts
I think it's because you're more likely to remember the dreams that occur just before waking up.
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Chris M, modified 1 Year ago at 5/13/22 8:47 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 5/13/22 8:47 AM

RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

Posts: 5117 Join Date: 1/26/13 Recent Posts
Aha!
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 5/13/22 9:28 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 5/13/22 9:28 AM

RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

Posts: 1679 Join Date: 5/5/19 Recent Posts
I usually remember the dreams more when they happen just after falling asleep, but sometimes a dream wakes me up so it has occured just before waking up, but I have all combinations that occur! Some of them can be quite vivid no matter when they happen.
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Chris M, modified 1 Year ago at 5/13/22 9:34 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 5/13/22 9:34 AM

RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

Posts: 5117 Join Date: 1/26/13 Recent Posts
I mostly remember vivid dreams. Sometimes those will wake me up, too.
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Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 1 Year ago at 5/13/22 12:32 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 5/13/22 12:31 PM

RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

Posts: 7134 Join Date: 12/8/18 Recent Posts
Hey, Siavash, are you a swim-flyer or a superman-flyer or do you fly in some other fashion? I mainly swim-fly, or rather sort of tread water in the air and float/glide.
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 5/13/22 1:19 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 5/13/22 12:53 PM

RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

Posts: 1679 Join Date: 5/5/19 Recent Posts
 Hi Linda,

I don't know the difference between these forms of flying that you mentioned.
For me, it happens in several forms. Sometimes as I am standing in a dream, I intend to go up and the body moves up in the air and moves around in that standing posture without moving the arms or legs, this intending is a subtle inclining of the mind toward movement. Sometimes as I am lying down on my back in the bed, I gain awareness of the dream and notice vibrations, and the body starts moving in that reclining posture and the whole flying is in that posture without moving my arms or legs. Sometimes it's the opposite, the body is horizontal but I am facing the ground, and in this form, sometimes it happens that I use my arms as wings to move and steer. This is less common. And sometimes I have no control over it, this energy just grabbes the body and moves it around like a mad monster, and this has happened with different postures of the body.
 
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Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 1 Year ago at 5/13/22 2:08 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 5/13/22 2:08 PM

RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

Posts: 7134 Join Date: 12/8/18 Recent Posts
Cool! To me that sounds like you have a lot of flexibility, very few hang-ups about how things are supposed to happen. 
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 5/13/22 2:22 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 5/13/22 2:22 PM

RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

Posts: 1679 Join Date: 5/5/19 Recent Posts
Yeah, I welcome all of it, it's just an experience emoticon
Though some are more interesting or entertaining than others.
George S, modified 1 Year ago at 5/14/22 4:52 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 5/14/22 4:52 AM

RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

Posts: 2722 Join Date: 2/26/19 Recent Posts
You seem to have exceptional dream recall! My dreams are usually quite mundane and slightly troubling. Often they seem to be trying to tell me something about work, family, relationships etc. I read somewhere on Awake Network that this was Freud's theory I think (the dream is our subconscious trying to tell us something in a way that will get around the defences of the rational mind), and I'm finding it quite a helpful lens for viewing dreams.
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 5/14/22 8:30 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 5/14/22 8:30 AM

RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

Posts: 1679 Join Date: 5/5/19 Recent Posts
 Yeah, probably.
Since childhood, I've always liked to remember dreams and see what's going on there, it's lke a window to another world. It makes life much more interesting. I think life would be much more boring without dream world.
 
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 5/14/22 10:12 AM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Friday, May 13, 2022, 10:56 PM

The moment I lay down in bed, agitation and muscle tension arose in the whole body, don’t know why. I had a mild headache, which I guessed was related to some aversive thoughts, it became worse as time passed, especially because there was a strong perfume smell in the environment which I didn’t know where it came from, I like that perfume but it was so strong that I felt difficulty with breathing. Once in sleep I noticed I am talking out loud and laughing. The silliness of it made me wake up. After getting up both the headache and perfume were there, strangely, now the headache is gone.
In bed the nada sound was loud, so I focused on it, it intensified energetics and caused some sexual sensations. After getting up there were sexual feelings and mild pleasant tingles in the body, it’s gone now and boredom has arisen.

Saturday, May 14, 2022, 6:01 PM

Last night the boredom increased, I sat for a few minutes and tried to do more but felt so boring and I had to go to bed earlier. I tried to relax the body and focus on the whole body and its vibrations, also movements in the space. For some minutes vibrations and tickling increased and felt like the body is melting into the ground. I took a deep breath and let it out very slowly, the next thing I remember, I was in a dream, in ‘my room’ flying, trying to go toward the window and go out, but the body moved in another direction. The energy kept pushing me back toward the wall, I thought this room is not that big and my back should hit the wall, but there wasn’t any wall. I opened my eyes and noticed as I had moved back, the room had become way bigger and I was beside the wall. Then I thought let’s see if my body is there in the bed or not and reached out to the bed, but it wasn’t there. It brought the question: Is this the dream body or the physical body? Dogs were barking in the street, I opened a window and felt fresh air on my face, it was a group of 20-30 dogs, one was bigger like a male lion, I thought let’s jump out of the window and see what happens, but then I thought maybe this is the physical body and I’d die if I jump, I was making sounds like barking to communicate with dogs, thinking that this is a parallel world and no one could hear me. Next scenes, besides the wall, again tried to reach the window, but the energy pushed me into the wall, it became darker as it seemed I am inside the wall moving upward there, then I came out, feeling it physically moving from the wall into the air, and I was in another house, similar to mine but different. I opened a door, a young boy came out and said: ‘Dad what are you washing?’, I said nothing go inside. I opened another room thinking to see another person there, but there wasn’t anyone there, just a bed and furniture, and I flew out by passing through the window. It was night and dark inside the building, but when I passed through the window, it was early in the morning and bright. The city was a mix of several different places, but different from all of them. I noticed a grape tree on a wall and landed there to pick a few grapes, there weren’t any, so tried to fly again, but I noticed I have to exert effort, and it ended the flying, and it became dark. Slowly in about a second I noticed I am returning, and it was becoming brighter. It wasn’t the daylight, it was the bright light in the visual field. There was a heavy feeling after waking up. It felt like transitioning between two worlds, dying to one and being born to another. For about 20-30 minutes my perception of the house was different, and I saw vague mental images of windows, similar to an older house I had lived in 15 years ago, but I didn’t try to change it. There was a sharp pain in the base of the spine, tail bone, and back of the head when I woke up, with energetics and vibrations moving around in the body. Mindfulness and concentration were much higher than usual, I could notice tiny movements of attention and objects.
Had several other dreams, mostly in my hometown, everything looked symbolic, relating to the sense of shame, guilt, fear, pride, etc, and again there was a heavy feeling after waking up.

This has become a dream log!
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Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 1 Year ago at 5/14/22 10:26 AM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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As a kid I once flew by way of sitting on a cushion and squeezing a soft ball (every squeeze brought me higher up), and once  in a flying sofa. 
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 5/14/22 12:40 PM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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 That's very interesting!
I'd love to have flying with a sitting posture, especially in wakefulness! I haven't had any success with it.
Also very interesting to move higher with squeezing a ball, expansion contraction emoticon .
 
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Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 1 Year ago at 5/17/22 2:43 AM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Ha, yeah, I didn't think of that. Expansion and contraction, of course. I love that part of Shinzen's teachings, by the way. 

When I was young I had very regular flying dreams and I loved it. Then as an adult I lost the ability to fly for many years. I lost it gradually by getting heavier and heavier in the dreams. I believe that says a lot about how I was limiting myself. When I started to shed away layers of restrictions to my life, I regained the ability to fly in dreams. That was a gradual development too. Yet, for some reason I still don't fly as much as I used to once, and not in so many different ways. Your ability to fly so effortlessly in dreams and in so many different fashions sounds very healthy to me, and beautiful, and I'm glad for you. 
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 5/17/22 5:31 AM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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 Thanks.

Yeah, I love the expansion-contraction formulation too.

It was the same for me too. In childhood I started having flying dreams, I still remember the first one, it felt so strange at the time. Sometimes it would feel so "real" that in wakefulness I'd expect to be able to fly, and I'd think why it doesn't happen in wakefulness! But then I lost it. Later years I'd have it once in a while but then lose it again. After I started doing daily fire kasina, it became somewhat regular, and it happens in various forms since fire kasina.
 
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Chris M, modified 1 Year ago at 5/17/22 7:41 AM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Dreams!

When I dream I don't seem to inhabit a body. I'm some kind of floating entity that observes the goings-on and has the feelings of the first person perspective at the same time as having a second-person witnessing and judging perspective (kind of like waking life, I suppose). In waking dreams I'm more like a puppeteer, with control over all the aspects of "me" in the dream, plus other things. 
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 5/17/22 7:55 AM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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You've transcended having a body Chris emoticon

That should be very interesting!

​​​​​​​By "waking dreams", you mean wakefulness? Or lucid dreams and such?
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Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 1 Year ago at 5/17/22 8:28 AM
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In my non-lucid dreams (or at least they aren't explicitly lucid) I'm often the editor of what is going on, changing aspects to explore different possibilities, while at the same time also being a main actor that has to live the current version of the story without any powers of its own to change it. I sort of zoom in and out. The editor seems to float around very similarly to what Chris describes. It reminds me of video games where you can see the happenings from the point of view of the avatar but also zoom out and see a larger context - and change the settings for the game. I don't plan when to zoom in and out. It just happens. 

In my lucid dreams I often observe the fabrications and get fascinated by how real they appear although I know that they are all fabrications. It's all both emptiness and form at the same time. 
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Chris M, modified 1 Year ago at 5/17/22 8:36 AM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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​​​​​​​By "waking dreams", you mean wakefulness? Or lucid dreams and such?

Yes, I meant lucid dreams. Sorry about that.
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 5/17/22 8:49 AM
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 Thanks for clarifying Chris.

I'd love to have a third-person perspective and see it from the outside, or be able to edit the dreams, but usually it's fully embodied and I am immersed in the story and it happens the way it wants. Though it has happened a few times recently that I could see my body from the outside, or could change the dream, it was very interesting! Great possibilities you have Linda emoticon .
It's really fun to know while in the dream that it's a dream and a fabrication. I've never had that before fire kasina.
 
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 5/17/22 2:09 PM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Saturday, May 14, 2022, 10:46 PM

Today I feel that something is stuck to my toes and it wouldn’t go away by scratching. I haven’t had this for some weeks or months. Also, there has been some discomfort around the chest, with mild dizziness that I'm guessing is related to cycling or energetics. Like the last two days, there is lower motivation and I feel that I am tired. We are approaching the full moon, maybe that’s a contributing factor. Also, there is hard bone pain in the side of the rib cage, middle back, and shoulder blades, also some pain in muscles as if I’ve done a workout, this one is new.

Sunday, May 15, 2022, 9:46 AM

For a few hours, lots of itching and insect-crawling sensations. The mind-state became more positive after I forced myself to start doing what I wanted to do, but wasn’t motivated before.
Constant vibrations in the head and left side of the body.

8:39 PM
Today in bed there were some new kinds of energetics. Other than energy currents, tickling and vibrations, there was a kind of pressure that several times startled the body. I’ve forgotten most of it, but one was pressure in temples like something pushed from both sides of the head. More vibrations in the head and abdomen which I think is very good. Yesterday it happened a few times, that as if for a moment the observer wasn’t there, I suddenly noticed that awareness, or maybe the observer, returned from the back of the head. When going to bed, the energetic pain in bones and muscles increased, but today it’s gone. Now bright dots arise that then turn into black dots.

Monday, May 16, 2022, 12:27 AM

Very low mood in the last few hours. haven’t been much productive. There are strong itches in energy centers, like burning, especially below the navel.

11:43 AM
I don’t know what’s going on, I’ve been feeling tired and sleepy all the time in the last 2-3 days. Last night the feelings became quite unpleasant so I went to bed earlier. Interestingly there was almost no energetics while practicing in bed, except in the base of the spine which is more active these days. I had focused on the whole body and space, and it stayed uneventful for maybe an hour. Fell asleep, and at some point, I noticed the whole visual field is flickering rapidly with bright white and violet/blue lights, then I noticed the body is becoming lighter and lighter and is about to move up, but it stopped and I fell asleep again.
After getting up, still I am feeling sleepy.
Last night I had a brief chat with a friend, for a few moments, in the beginning, it felt strange, that what are we that are talking to each other? Then I noticed as if smaller parts got packaged into two entities, me and him, and a directionality formed between the two, and it became familiar.
Since last night there are flickering lights with eyes open. It becomes clearer that it always happens with sleepiness.
It has become harder to find and maintain the sense of ‘me’. I noticed that there are many instances of that, different from each other, the one in the supermarket is different from the one arising when talking with an ex-colleague, some of more familiar, some like a stranger.

6:38 PM
Went to bed to do some practice since there was no productivity and I felt sleepy, I focused on my head and face and noticed the attention wants to stay away from there and focus on the other object, probably since that’s where emotions manifest mostly. Tried to keep the attention there, and that caused energetics in the rest of the body, mixed with sleepiness that distorted the vantage point. I don’t remember how it was, but I guess it wasn’t clear where the top and bottom of the body are.

Tuesday, May 17, 2022, 10:32 AM

Had a long sleep since I felt sleepy and the energy was low. Still, I wanted to sleep but the body rejected it. A few times I woke up with strong sharp pain in the tail bone and the back of the head. It seems that I needed this much sleep, and now it feels somewhat better.
Today since waking up there has been a burning smell, like how the inside of a computer case smells. I am almost certain this is mind-generated. After doing regular fire kasina a few years ago, this smell arises once in a while and stays for hours, and sometimes days or weeks.

11:25 PM
Today I could get back to productivity again. These few days I’ve been watching how insecurity screws different aspects of my life, and I’ve had much better results these few days, just watching the insecurity and not acting. That “not acting” is crucial. Today this not acting prevented some losses, and it was eye-opening and fulfilling.
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 5/20/22 12:33 AM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Wednesday, May 18, 2022, 4:27 PM

Last night buzzing and ringing arose in the head, with feeling the heartbeat in my throat and hearing it louder. There were some aversive thoughts then a headache, I think these two are related.
Practice in bed started with wild energetics, beating in the right leg that felt like an animal tries to jump out of it, and beating in the perineum and base of spine, and strong painful sensations. It got scary for a moment, then there was vibrations like opening, some pleasant, mostly in the right side especially right hip.
It feels that my fear of insecurity has decreased.
Today it seems the clouds are gone mostly and the sun is shining. Vibrations arise frequently in the body with pleasant valence, and music arises in the mind.
There are vibrations at the top of the head, like a little volcano is active there.

Thursday, May 19, 2022, 1:55 AM

In the early part of the day, I kept noticing insecurity with the impulse to act based on the fear that came with it, but there was enough equanimity and I just  watched the insecurity to come and go. Although the day was productive, but last several hours feeling of despair has arisen, and it’s over an hour that there is anxiety too, with shakiness in the body, sweating in the palms and constriction in the throat and a mild headache. This was unexpected.
Earlier there was burning in the toes. Now there is vibration in the top of the head.

5:17 AM
I don’t know what was this anxiety, but it went away. I usually don’t have headaches, but tonight I’ve had, also more vibrations in the head. After the anxiety, there was vibrations spreading in the body, two different kinds, one felt like electricity, as if I feel it slightly away from the skin. Also there was/is energy currents along some of the bones, e.g. spinal cord and lower legs. For 1-2 hours the despair became more intense, like the body-mind desperately wants some satisfactory experience but couldn’t find it, now it feels better. Still, I’ve been handling insecurity better than usual, just watching it and not acting with fear impulses. There is noticeable improvements because of this.

Friday, May 20, 2022, 9:39 AM

Went to bed to practice, usually these days I don’t exert any effort in practice to ‘concentrate’. I just incline the mind toward the object and let it do whatever it wants to do. This time I put more effort. There was heightened clarity and some new kinds of energetics. Usually energetics are in the back of the body mostly, this time it was mostly in the front, especially some intense shooting ones, mixed with tickling and electric shock. A few times from genitals went toward the head along the central line. A few times from solar plexus that was new. Left leg turned into vibrations a few times. One sharp pain moved from the base of spine toward the middle back. I felt really grateful that these sensations don’t bother me at all. Had a dream that was interesting. In a short scene, several times the subject changed and the person that was with me changed to someone else a few times. Really interesting how the mind keeps connection between objects and ‘stores’ information.
Previous night, I started feeling the heartbeat in most of the body quite clearly, and it was interesting that each beat caused sexual feeling in the lower body. With each beat it felt like the whole body expands and contracts.
The sleepiness that I had for several days seems to be gone, although I still feel a lack of energy.
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Chris M, modified 1 Year ago at 5/20/22 7:50 AM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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... although I still feel a lack of energy.

Get well soon!

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Papa Che Dusko, modified 1 Year ago at 5/20/22 8:52 AM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Best wishes Siavash! 
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 5/20/22 3:37 PM
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Thanks Chris and Papa Che!
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 5/22/22 2:42 AM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Saturday, May 21, 2022, 4:26 AM

I wanted to do a few hours of practice, but I couldn’t do it while sitting, the body kept rejecting it, so I spent a long time in bed, some for practice, the rest for sleep.
In the first round, there was a brief flying that felt very interesting. I think I was awake. At the time I thought I was awake, but I can’t be certain. I started visualizing someone being in the room, as I had their mental image, I noticed the body went into the air, my face was looking down and my arms were open. I was surprised, but it ended quickly. I tried to do it again, but I don’t remember what happened, maybe I fell asleep.
Later a dream, I had started working in a new company, new office new people. It showed many of the things about me that I, or part of me, don’t want people to see, and since that’s not possible, it creates unpleasantness. Again, a lot of scenes and people kept changing rapidly and it ended up as a family gathering.
Next rounds there was more energetics, and some were very painful, affecting my breathing. It seems that some blockages have opened, so the energy can move to new locations and new blockages, and it creates new kinds of sensations. The right side was more active again, with strong pain in the right toes, that then vibrations initiated from the exact location and spread to the right side of the body. Also, there was some muscle and bone pain in the arms and legs that remain after getting up, with mild fatigue. The right toes have the pain arising regularly too. If I didn’t know about the energetics, I’d think it’s a mild flu or covid, but I am almost certain it’s the energetics. The body is rewiring itself.
The locations that previously had more pain, now have more pleasantness compared to before, so I think this will happen to the new locations too.

6:25 AM
Last two days when practicing in bed, there was some energetics in the chest especially around the heart, like pain in the bones. For the last hour, I’ve started feeling very hot, with sweating in the whole body, then a pain arose in the right side of the chest, and it reminded me that, oh, this is the fire center in the chest, so maybe there is an imbalance in the fire element.

11:46 AM
The heat was gone after 1-2 hours, and after that, the sleepiness and low energy returned. Then there were some interesting sensations. These few days there is mild pain in the lower arms, I noticed it was gone and a mild burning arose, similar to the burning and itching that I’ve experienced in recent years in my arms when they are exposed to the sunlight. Also, there was burning in the toes, similar to the feeling there when they had been burned with boiling water many years ago. It reminded me of a thought that I had, that in the rewiring, all the pains that I had in the past but not experienced with equanimity, come up again, to be experienced with equanimity and purified. Later, in one of the painful locations in the back, a pleasant coolness arose that startled the body, then a mildly pleasant coolness arose in most of the body. It was very nice but very brief. And after that a mild pain in the chest. These all bring to mind the fire element and the fire center in the chest.

Sunday, May 22, 2022, 11:29 AM

Yesterday the sleepiness came back again, so I was in bed for long hours.
Practice in bed, like yesterday, started with shooting and energy currents in the central front line of the body, then it moved to the right side with vibrations, pain, and pleasant coolness.
The last round was around 14 hours I guess, a few hours of practice, then I fell asleep and had dreams while I was aware of the body and bed, then I was gone. When sleeping like this, the dreams go to the older memories. For the third time in a week, I had a dream that I went back to the university to continue my studies. I thought that my mind has come to a resolution with that, but it seems it hasn’t.
Today so far the mind-body is calm. Several times I noticed that when I think about doing something that I should do, or about going out, the next image that comes to mind is the image of my bed. So I should just ignore the thoughts and do whatever is needed to be done.
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 5/24/22 12:38 AM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Monday, May 23, 2022, 2:08 AM

It seems that the sleepiness and low energy were mental-emotional, and a way of hiding and running away. I needed to do a few things that I was procrastinating day by day. Today I forced myself to do one, I needed to go downtown, and when I left home, for some minutes the body became very uncomfortable, especially the tensions in the throat. After I came home, I wanted to do the other one, but the mental images of going to bed kept arising frequently, and I was about to go to bed, but changed my mind and decided to do the other one. After I did that one too, I noticed my energy level and mental status changed. The mental images of going to bed were gone, and there was a boost in productivity. It took me 6-7 hours to do them but it was worth it. And now I think if I could force myself to do those activities and the result was positive, I can apply that to sitting practice too, why not.

4:15 AM
Did a sit for 45 minutes, and focused on the whole space, very gently. The mind was relatively quiet. The body had a few energetics, and some discomfort especially with breathing for most of the sit, but it felt good that I could do it.
Similar to the last few days, today I felt that the insecurity has less control over me, and there was a tangible benefit because of that.

8:38 PM
Before going to bed, I did a brief fire kasina, just lit a candle and stared at it for some seconds. The red dot (it had many colors) stayed for over 20 minutes, bright and stable, especially with the eyes open. I guess I focused on the space or the body. There was more energetics this time, both pleasant and painful, vibrations in the legs that felt like melting, and a strong pain in the sacrum moving a few inches above for some minutes. There was good equanimity with the pains, and I decided that I won’t change the focus and told the pains, show up how much you want, and I’ll just watch you come and go. Later there was a loud bumping sound that startled the body, like a shift from one space to another. Then I was in a dream, the energetic pain had become stronger and I heard myself moaning, and making sounds, but in the dream, it looked like there is a war, and the other side, a bigger power, was targeting me with their jets, and causing more energetic pain for those that were under sanctions. Later it became a military base, and I was about to fight with the commander that I woke up. There has been some bodily pain and fatigue after getting up, but that low mood and sleepiness are mostly gone.
I keep trying to do brief periods of practice, a minute here and there.

Tuesday, May 24, 2022, 3:12 AM

As I started working, I noticed that the same depressive feelings of wanting to go to bed and low energy arise again. It’s based on fear. The fear that I could fail, especially when faced with something that seems like I might fail, and then trying to run away from that by sleep or hiding it. Of course, it’s not logical, and it’s the pure animal thing. Habit. I should keep reminding myself that there is nothing to lose and nothing to fail or fear about, and not act based on these feelings. I am seeing quite some improvement regarding insecurity in other areas, this is the same insecurity applied to a different aspect.

7:57 AM
Last hours there have been more energetics in the back and chest at the level of the heart, also in the pelvis and base of the spine. Mostly painful but sometimes the pain turns into pleasant coldness. I think it’s improving and opening. Once after I solved a problem that I was working on, there was a wave of satisfaction, interestingly enough I noticed it arose and moved up along the central line, almost along the spine.
I notice more clearly how this body-mind identifies itself with problems: There should be a problem, so there is challenge and conflict, and if there isn’t, then what to do, what is the point, the meaning, let’s find or create a problem.

Later there were more sensations around the fire center in the chest. A point on the spinal column at the level of the fire center has started vibrating and spreading other sensations to the periphery.

9:52 AM
Did a sit for an hour, with the intention to drop any intention that arises. At first, the body became restless with difficulty in breathing and an urge to yawn. After the restlessness decreased a little bit, energy currents arose in the right side of the torso, one in the chest another beside the navel, and moved to the right and up like piercing the body with a chilling itching tickling flavor. Then more energy currents arose, and similar ones arose on the left side. The body became more relaxed and comfortable. Once a bright white arose, like a mix of bright blue and white like there was snow and an image in the snow. It was so brief that I didn’t know what it is. There was a bright white light present, but a few times a brighter light arose for a moment that was like a shift. Then sleepiness arose and there were distorted thoughts. I focused on whatever arose after that, but the sleepiness increased. Now there is a heavy sleepy feeling in the body. There weren’t too many thoughts, but a few times there were clear mental talks as if someone said it. With the vibrations and energy currents, the body felt like it was opening.
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 5/25/22 9:35 PM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

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Wednesday, May 25, 2022, 2:36 AM

Did a sit for near an hour. Tried to relax the body-mind as much as possible. Concentration and mindfulness were not as good as yesterday, but the body was more relaxed and tranquil. Although there weren’t too many fully formed thoughts, but there was an ongoing undercurrent mental activity that prevented deepening of concentration and equanimity. Like yesterday the nada sound was loud and had multiple frequencies. There were very few energetics.
Toward the end I focused on the mental talks and the head, and the head started rocking for 5-10 minutes.

4:14 AM
I’ve been watching this fear of insecurity, and I notice that every time that I don’t stay still and let the fear cause action, there is negative consequence. Overall there has been a lot of improvement, but if I am not careful, it can take over in a fraction of a second. In such cases, there is a generalization, a small issue and the fear around it is generalized to the bigger scope of life, as if that thing happens, everything will be affected negatively. A distortion in proportionality. I guess this is because the identity is threatened when there is a fear of failure or insecurity.

Another thing that I keep noticing over and over, is that when adding two numbers, it’s much easier for me to add the smaller number to the bigger one. It feels natural. When adding the bigger number to smaller one, it looks like there is disharmony, like standing on one foot and bending the body, and I have to exert effort to get the result right. I guess this could be related to the scarcity mentality. Needs more observation.

Thursday, May 26, 2022, 6:57 AM

Last night a minute after going to bed, intense energetics arose, some very painful. For some minutes I felt the body is over water or on ball bearing and subtly moving, felt pleasant. Later part of it felt like becoming weightless and wanting to go up. There were some feelings like opening and dissolving maybe, and it also felt like I am going to die or stop breathing.
Later, gained awareness and noticed the energy is pushing the torso upward while feeling like it crushes it from the sides, feeling the lower body on the ground, and the upper body constantly going up and coming down with the expansion and contraction of energy. At some point my control increased and I started flying. There were lots of details that I don’t recall now. I found myself in a house that was similar to the previous flying dream, with the same drapes. A few times I went toward the walls and windows trying to go out, and when reaching them I felt resistance in the body because of the pain of hitting them, but I forced myself forward and felt its pain in the body. Once it didn’t lead to moving through the wall, and my nose kept pushing the wall for some seconds and it causes strong pain there that I had to stop. After going outside, I landed beside the window of an old house, and I changed the dream by bringing to mind what I want to happen, and it happened, but happened only once or twice, then it didn’t proceed the way I wanted and caused disappointment, so I had to leave there, which sent me back to the bed. I could initiate the movement a few more times, by intending and focusing on vibrations, but the movement fades away gradually.
The whole times there were pleasant tingles, and if I kept attention on one object more than a few seconds, the pleasant tingles increased.

A few hours ago I went to bed because there was a lot of nervousness and worry because of things that is happening, and started focusing on the emotions, thoughts and the sensations on my face. There were lots of energetics. Some blockages must have opened. The energy moves to locations and in ways that never did before. A mix of pleasant and painful. It seems more easily available that if I focus on a locations, it can turn into vibrations. 
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Chris M, modified 1 Year ago at 5/26/22 7:06 AM
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RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

Posts: 5117 Join Date: 1/26/13 Recent Posts
I’ve been watching this fear of insecurity, and I notice that every time that I don’t stay still and let the fear cause action, there is negative consequence. Overall there has been a lot of improvement, but if I am not careful, it can take over in a fraction of a second. In such cases, there is a generalization, a small issue and the fear around it is generalized to the bigger scope of life, as if that thing happens, everything will be affected negatively. A distortion in proportionality. I guess this is because the identity is threatened when there is a fear of failure or insecurity.

Siavash, ​​​​​​​I'm very familiar with this phenomenon. I suspect it's a normal human reaction caused by our desire to stay alive and avoid existential threats. The problem is that our minds interpret little threats as being existential, and see death (ego or otherwise) around every corner. And, it doesn't take much to trigger this downward spiral. In my personal experience practicing dharma helps to examine the process from a more ego-less, objective perspective, and that then helps us to re-interpret our negative inclinations.

But it seems you've already got this figured out, so I'll stop lecturing.

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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 5/26/22 8:11 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 5/26/22 8:11 AM

RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

Posts: 1679 Join Date: 5/5/19 Recent Posts
Thanks Chris.

No worries, this is helpful, I appreciate your feedback emoticon .

Yes, it seems to be the fear of death, or more accurately probably, fear of non-existence. In the surface it looks like other fears, like becoming homeless, or being rejected by people or losing their trust and etc, but I guess it all is related to the core fear of death and non-existence.
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 6/3/22 2:41 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 6/3/22 2:41 PM

RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

Posts: 1679 Join Date: 5/5/19 Recent Posts
Tuesday, May 31, 2022, 9:10 PM

This past week has been difficult. After I had a family member here and helped them do what they needed to do, there was a new experience that was good, but also I became very tired. Last few days there have been ongoing uncomfortable emotions and lots of energetic pain. Last night it became worse. I stayed in bed for some hours without falling asleep and practiced there. There were lots of burning, exactly like having been burned with hot water, and a strong headache, there was pressure inside the head that I felt was going to explode. The pressure later spread to other parts of the body. Lots of itches and other kinds of pain. Then there were flying and movement dreams. Once I noticed it was dark in the sky and jewel-tone particles are falling from the sky. At some point I became aware that it was a dream and had some control over it, then the movements speeded up, and pushed me out of the building at high speed, and it became bright and spacious, like it was another realm, with very strange buildings, built around a big circle, and at the same time I felt an evil being has grabbed me from behind, it had grabbed my hands and it felt like its hands are 2-3 times bigger than mine, and it felt very painful inside my hands as if it was its nails. I heard myself saying loudly something like I take refuge from all evil forces, and I was trying to free my hands. After some struggle, I woke up. There was heavy sleepiness in the body.

Thursday, June 2, 2022, 2:19 AM

Last night there was constant headache and head pressure, also pain and pressure in other parts like the arms and hands. There was intense insecurity and anxiety and nausea and shakiness because of that. The body was easily startled without external stimuli. I kept trying to talk to the body-mind that, what’s wrong, there isn’t any problem but didn’t have much effect.
Similar sensations were there later in bed. I didn’t fall asleep for hours, and I tried to relax and practice See Hear Feel, but the mind was scattered. Later I guess the system became tired of it and relaxed and I fell asleep. There were many strange dreams and perceptions in sleep which I don’t remember. Once there was a flying dream and I became aware of it, but the moment I started to control it, it ended.
It was almost the same after getting up, then music arrived. I played a favorite piece, and it grabbed me. Vibrations started spreading in the body, a deep peace arose, then there was letting go and enjoying music. It intensified more, became very tender, and led to sobbing for an hour. I played my Setaar and was surprised that although I had not touched it in months, there was harmony and skill there, higher than my normal. For some hours it was very peaceful, and sometimes joyful, although in the last few hours the headache and head pressure, and uncomfortable emotions have returned.

Friday, June 3, 2022, 11:41 PM

Two days ago the experience had become very uncomfortable that last night I thought the only way out of it is to go to nature. For some years I used to go hiking in mountains but it’s been 3-4 years that I had not done it, mainly covid and financial situation was the justification for not doing it. I left the house early in the morning and was in nature for 10-12 hours. It was very good. In another activity, I’ve been practicing patience, and I noticed that it helped me with hiking in a noticeable way. In the mountains that I used to go to, there are several stations before the top, I used to go up to station 4 almost half the way before the top. Yesterday I thought if I could reach station 1 it would be very good since the body was not ready for it. But I noticed there is less fear of insecurity, and less worry about what happens if I go this much or that much, so I just let the body walk slowly, and eventually, it got to station 4. It was a great learning experience, showing me how patience is my greatest ally, and how with patience I have an edge in dealing with challenges mainly the fear of insecurity. I felt worthier, stronger, and more confident during and after the hike. The headache and head pressure were present most of the time. It still is present a good portion of the time, and sometimes turns into fine-grained vibrations and goes away.
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Chris M, modified 1 Year ago at 6/3/22 2:49 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 6/3/22 2:49 PM

RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

Posts: 5117 Join Date: 1/26/13 Recent Posts
I'm thinking of you, Siavash and hoping you will feel better soon.
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 6/3/22 3:00 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 6/3/22 3:00 PM

RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

Posts: 1679 Join Date: 5/5/19 Recent Posts
Thank you Chris, I am very grateful for your help and support. I feel much better compared to two days ago.
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Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 1 Year ago at 6/3/22 3:00 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 6/3/22 3:00 PM

RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

Posts: 7134 Join Date: 12/8/18 Recent Posts
My very best wishes for your practice and wellbeing! It sounds to me like the force is with you, but that can be a mixed blessing. I believe in you.
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 6/3/22 3:03 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 6/3/22 3:03 PM

RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

Posts: 1679 Join Date: 5/5/19 Recent Posts
 Thank you Linda.
Yes, some lessons should be learned. Some times the pain is the greatest teacher if we are fortunate enough to be open to learn from it.
Thanks.
 
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Papa Che Dusko, modified 1 Year ago at 6/4/22 12:00 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 6/4/22 12:00 PM

RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

Posts: 2680 Join Date: 3/1/20 Recent Posts
And sometimes pain can just be pain in the ars! emoticon excuse my language this is red wind talking! Cheers all and may all be free from suffering! emoticon 

 Best wishes! 
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Siavash ', modified 1 Year ago at 6/4/22 4:11 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 6/4/22 4:11 PM

RE: Siavash's Practice Log 8

Posts: 1679 Join Date: 5/5/19 Recent Posts
Yes, exactly! emoticon)

Thanks Papa Che, best wishes to you as well!

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