Having complete awareness of the cycles

Hello all,

I posted this on Kenneth's site but noone is replying so wonder if anyone here would.

My name is Nick. I just finished a 10 day Goenka course 4 days agao. Some of you may have read my account in Dharma Diagnosis.

I am fully aware of every cycle which am going through. And that awareness is purely physical. I have practised in the Goenka tradition for the past nine years. I feel every sensation on the body. Or rather wherever the mind is placed I feel vibration there. And as we speak there is [pleasant sensation all around. So for me AP is feeling the body as a mass of flowing pleasant vibrations. Now from reading other people's account of experiencing their cycles, it seems some are not so sensitve to what seems to be going on inside the body. This is what I see.

There seems to be a ball of energy which makes its way up the spine or close to it and stops at each of the places that correspond to chakras but it is starnge how the cylces seem to pass and stop at the exact chakra spots. Daniel has told me that talking about chakras in my experience probably indicates they are AP events but I certainly get fruitions at the end of a cycle. The bliss waves are undeniable. The sensations eminating from those spots in order as this ball of energy stops at each one and cleans it out so to speak and is clearly seen. This really corresponds with what Goenka says about burning out the sankharas. It really feels like it is clearing a path up the body and at the moment it spends a heap of time at the forehead . On the course I realsied I could manipulate it and stop it at a point on the body and watch it burn out , or what felt like a burning out of the unpleasantness there. So it starts at the bottom close to one's anus then up to the stomach, which I always assume is the fear knowledge then up to the solar plexus point, then the chest, the throat , by now I have passed into this equanimity stage and the sensations shift into subtler pleasantness almost a cooler feel. Then it passes to behind the eyes and stays at the forehead then up to the crown and then I have a frution. I see this clearly and without any need to feel the mental reaction to each of the flows of sensation to be witnessed.
For years everytime I had a strong negative reaction, I was able to pinpoint where on the body that reaction was stemming from. I was almost always focused on the chest and throat area and at times when scared the stomach. That is what Goenka's method is all about.

So is it possible that people who have a ttained path are not as concentrated? How much are people aware of the cycles? To what clarity? and what is observed?

hi nikolai,

i notice the thing with the sensations moving up through the body too (cooling off as goes higher, and then disappearing/integrating into the sensations that imply space/background/mental phenomena before resulting in a cessation moment) ... but i also went through almost a decade of u ba khin/goenka style vipassana (with an almost-exclusive emphasis on bodily sensations and vibrations). i know path-winners who haven't/don't experience this stuff, so it may be the result of the style of training or model of practice and progress, or a personal orientation, or both.

a tip you may find handy as you are inclined to notice this: as it moves, pay attention not just to the most obvious aspects of it, but look around it (like around its edges) and see if you can spot subtler stuff happening at the same time. how does the quality of the sensation change? how does the upward progression through the centre of your body affect its surrounding areas, like the periphery/the surface of your body? is there a sense of interplay between the sensations that imply the core (where you feel the ball of energy, as you call it) and sensations of the periphery?

tarin

Excellent!

Thankyou Tarin and not just for the reply. Your advice awhile back when I talked about witnessing the images and sensations of "I" was to observe space, anticipation, facination, etc and all those subtler things that prop up this"I" . This is all I could remember when I wondered what to do. And I believe it's what got me over the line. I got to the totality of the experience. Amazing!

And I will see what goes on around this ball of energy and post a reply.

When I think of who helped me , it is you and Daniel who I feel the most gratitude to. All my merits to you!

Nick