Alternating fast noting with slow noting - Discussion
[ I've changed the title of the thread as it seems more appropiate, hopefully someone will leave a comment ]
Hi,
Last week I began practicing noting, following Daniel's method of watching sensations arising and passing at both index fingers or hands. Before that, I'd been noting and decomposing lights at sight while sit in meditation, for over a month. There I have experienced some stuff that looked like 3&4 Jhana, but was unable to go on (I was told to do a strong resolve and try to jump into stream-entry, but failed). And before that, I'm been practicing different samatha and samatha/vipassana methods (following the breath, candle flame, Metta and dissolving methods of Bhante V and taoist circles) for over three years. Also, because of being involved in Taijiquan for over 14 years, I have experienced strong energy releases, which seem to be close to A&P stuff.
As I have wrote in another thread, while doing Daniel's fast noting I acknowledge the arising part of the physical sensations but not the passing part. After reading Shinzen Young on "The Power of Gone", I tried to focus on the vanishing part of sensations, which have both slowed down but also enhanced the quality of noting. I found myself noting until that part of skin/body disappears and stayed focused in it until a sensation arised again. So noting speed changes over time, speeding up while I'm unable to see the passing part and then slowing down when I'm able to see it. The void before a new sensation arises feels like samatha to me.
It looks like this practice [ alternating fast noting with slow noting ] seems to be combining sequentially vipassana & samatha as it happens to be, back and forth, regarding my present ability to observe things. Just curious, is this the kind of practice done in Equanimity?
Yesterday a strange thing happened. Usually chaotic lights stuff arise while practicing, but also bursts of TV snow, moire's patterns, and close followed waves. With the intention to blend with these chaotic lights, trying to cut aversion to them, I tried different eyes positions, in order to relax them. Oddly though, I tried focusing upwards, and some sort of strong rush happened, only comparable with those energy releases that look like A&P stuff. There was a strong pulse / sound wave that hook me that came from back of my head/body, lights waves too and some sort of white circle in the middle of the eye field, where some light filaments converge. The sound wave was strong, slow and low pitched, not like previous energy circulation stuff in back and front meridians, whose sound were annoying, like an electric saw. Well, this low pitch sound wave lasted about 3-5 "ondulations", I was unable to follow anymore. Before, while noticing lights (as I wrote in the first paragraph) I have had that sucking into a "worm-hole" seeing at the end a red circle. These time, I was already near the circle (only this time white).
Please, let me know your opinions & recommendations regarding this [ alternating fast noting with slow noting ] practice, and of that strange experience.
Thanks for reading!
Hi,
Last week I began practicing noting, following Daniel's method of watching sensations arising and passing at both index fingers or hands. Before that, I'd been noting and decomposing lights at sight while sit in meditation, for over a month. There I have experienced some stuff that looked like 3&4 Jhana, but was unable to go on (I was told to do a strong resolve and try to jump into stream-entry, but failed). And before that, I'm been practicing different samatha and samatha/vipassana methods (following the breath, candle flame, Metta and dissolving methods of Bhante V and taoist circles) for over three years. Also, because of being involved in Taijiquan for over 14 years, I have experienced strong energy releases, which seem to be close to A&P stuff.
As I have wrote in another thread, while doing Daniel's fast noting I acknowledge the arising part of the physical sensations but not the passing part. After reading Shinzen Young on "The Power of Gone", I tried to focus on the vanishing part of sensations, which have both slowed down but also enhanced the quality of noting. I found myself noting until that part of skin/body disappears and stayed focused in it until a sensation arised again. So noting speed changes over time, speeding up while I'm unable to see the passing part and then slowing down when I'm able to see it. The void before a new sensation arises feels like samatha to me.
It looks like this practice [ alternating fast noting with slow noting ] seems to be combining sequentially vipassana & samatha as it happens to be, back and forth, regarding my present ability to observe things. Just curious, is this the kind of practice done in Equanimity?
Yesterday a strange thing happened. Usually chaotic lights stuff arise while practicing, but also bursts of TV snow, moire's patterns, and close followed waves. With the intention to blend with these chaotic lights, trying to cut aversion to them, I tried different eyes positions, in order to relax them. Oddly though, I tried focusing upwards, and some sort of strong rush happened, only comparable with those energy releases that look like A&P stuff. There was a strong pulse / sound wave that hook me that came from back of my head/body, lights waves too and some sort of white circle in the middle of the eye field, where some light filaments converge. The sound wave was strong, slow and low pitched, not like previous energy circulation stuff in back and front meridians, whose sound were annoying, like an electric saw. Well, this low pitch sound wave lasted about 3-5 "ondulations", I was unable to follow anymore. Before, while noticing lights (as I wrote in the first paragraph) I have had that sucking into a "worm-hole" seeing at the end a red circle. These time, I was already near the circle (only this time white).
Please, let me know your opinions & recommendations regarding this [ alternating fast noting with slow noting ] practice, and of that strange experience.
Thanks for reading!
Pablo . P:
[ I've changed the title of the thread as it seems more appropiate, hopefully someone will leave a comment ]
Hi,
Last week I began practicing noting, following Daniel's method of watching sensations arising and passing at both index fingers or hands. Before that, I'd been noting and decomposing lights at sight while sit in meditation, for over a month. There I have experienced some stuff that looked like 3&4 Jhana, but was unable to go on (I was told to do a strong resolve and try to jump into stream-entry, but failed). And before that, I'm been practicing different samatha and samatha/vipassana methods (following the breath, candle flame, Metta and dissolving methods of Bhante V and taoist circles) for over three years. Also, because of being involved in Taijiquan for over 14 years, I have experienced strong energy releases, which seem to be close to A&P stuff.
As I have wrote in another thread, while doing Daniel's fast noting I acknowledge the arising part of the physical sensations but not the passing part. After reading Shinzen Young on "The Power of Gone", I tried to focus on the vanishing part of sensations, which have both slowed down but also enhanced the quality of noting. I found myself noting until that part of skin/body disappears and stayed focused in it until a sensation arised again. So noting speed changes over time, speeding up while I'm unable to see the passing part and then slowing down when I'm able to see it. The void before a new sensation arises feels like samatha to me.
It looks like this practice [ alternating fast noting with slow noting ] seems to be combining sequentially vipassana & samatha as it happens to be, back and forth, regarding my present ability to observe things. Just curious, is this the kind of practice done in Equanimity?
Hi,
Last week I began practicing noting, following Daniel's method of watching sensations arising and passing at both index fingers or hands. Before that, I'd been noting and decomposing lights at sight while sit in meditation, for over a month. There I have experienced some stuff that looked like 3&4 Jhana, but was unable to go on (I was told to do a strong resolve and try to jump into stream-entry, but failed). And before that, I'm been practicing different samatha and samatha/vipassana methods (following the breath, candle flame, Metta and dissolving methods of Bhante V and taoist circles) for over three years. Also, because of being involved in Taijiquan for over 14 years, I have experienced strong energy releases, which seem to be close to A&P stuff.
As I have wrote in another thread, while doing Daniel's fast noting I acknowledge the arising part of the physical sensations but not the passing part. After reading Shinzen Young on "The Power of Gone", I tried to focus on the vanishing part of sensations, which have both slowed down but also enhanced the quality of noting. I found myself noting until that part of skin/body disappears and stayed focused in it until a sensation arised again. So noting speed changes over time, speeding up while I'm unable to see the passing part and then slowing down when I'm able to see it. The void before a new sensation arises feels like samatha to me.
It looks like this practice [ alternating fast noting with slow noting ] seems to be combining sequentially vipassana & samatha as it happens to be, back and forth, regarding my present ability to observe things. Just curious, is this the kind of practice done in Equanimity?
I don't really see what the connection is between speed of noting and Equanimity. There does generally tend to be more peace (samatha) up in Equanimity, to the point where there is very little distinction between the Equanimity ñana and 4th jhana.
Yesterday a strange thing happened. Usually chaotic lights stuff arise while practicing, but also bursts of TV snow, moire's patterns, and close followed waves. With the intention to blend with these chaotic lights, trying to cut aversion to them, I tried different eyes positions, in order to relax them. Oddly though, I tried focusing upwards, and some sort of strong rush happened, only comparable with those energy releases that look like A&P stuff. There was a strong pulse / sound wave that hook me that came from back of my head/body, lights waves too and some sort of white circle in the middle of the eye field, where some light filaments converge. The sound wave was strong, slow and low pitched, not like previous energy circulation stuff in back and front meridians, whose sound were annoying, like an electric saw. Well, this low pitch sound wave lasted about 3-5 "ondulations", I was unable to follow anymore. Before, while noticing lights (as I wrote in the first paragraph) I have had that sucking into a "worm-hole" seeing at the end a red circle. These time, I was already near the circle (only this time white).
Please, let me know your opinions & recommendations regarding this [ alternating fast noting with slow noting ] practice, and of that strange experience.
Thanks for reading!
Please, let me know your opinions & recommendations regarding this [ alternating fast noting with slow noting ] practice, and of that strange experience.
Thanks for reading!
It's hard to say without seeing the pattern of your previous sits. An annoying vibration at that frequency is something I normally associate with the dukkha ñanas. The lights/worm-hole thing may have been the 4th ñana.
But again, it's hard to say for sure without a lot more context.