My last thread

A Dietrich Ringle, modified 9 Years ago at 4/18/14 11:17 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 4/18/14 11:17 AM

My last thread

Posts: 881 Join Date: 12/4/11 Recent Posts
Introduction

Well, it’s time to sit down and write. It’s therapeutic you know. It’s also a great form of meditation. Pause, write, pause write.

I have spent quite a bit of time writing over at my favorite website, The Dharma Overground (.org). What I hadn’t foreseen was that I would lose motivation so quickly. It comes and goes, so I just have to ride that wave.

That’s the end of it. Reading this stuff just won’t help with anything, because I am not writing it for any particular purpose. That’s why I have decided to write this book, entitled Aimless Words, because I don’t want to keep starting threads and bugging people. They can take a quick glance over this way and dismiss this garbage like any other practice log.

Another title of this might read, MY LAST THREAD!!. Not my last post, mind you.
A Dietrich Ringle, modified 9 Years ago at 4/18/14 11:18 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 4/18/14 11:18 AM

RE: My last thread

Posts: 881 Join Date: 12/4/11 Recent Posts
Chapter one

…on why people write dharma stuff in the first place.

It can really depend. I am writing right now because it keeps my bliss trip going, and you never want to get off the bliss train. It’s a bumpy ride though, so you have to keep a close eye on the gauges and whatnot to make sure she don’t go running off on ya.

Another reason I am writing this is because I always wanted to write a book. I was supposed to write a thesis in college but I dropped out. I don’t like having to strain my brain at things, and that was precisely what I was doing.

Now, my mother likes me to do things that are constructive. She suggested that I write a book. I want it to be a clean and wholesome book. So there won’t be any whimsy, neither will there be any plot or structure other than my interrupted thoughts.

There is great fear and trepidation in learning how to press the save button correctly. It has consequences that will never be fully understood. It’s also great fun to sit and pine away.
A Dietrich Ringle, modified 9 Years ago at 4/19/14 8:11 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 4/19/14 8:11 AM

RE: My last thread

Posts: 881 Join Date: 12/4/11 Recent Posts
Chapter two

Why do people write. Perhaps its because they want to correct misinformation they see in the world. Yes, everything is relative in some weird extreme, (ultimate?) sense, but I guess there are personal truths to be seen in the full light of day.

I said something about the bliss train yesterday. Had to keep it going. Well, I actually think its derailing, and I am ok about that. I think I was attracted to the idea of my blood flowing into a region of my body, causing me slight discomfort, and then focusing on some aspect of that blood leaving, creating kind of a pleasant pain I called bliss. It's how I made my decisions and interpreted life, the dharma, and pretty much everything under the sun. Well, its gone now (the pain that is, and mostly, at least). I have some dull aches and pains leftover.
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Eric M W, modified 9 Years ago at 4/19/14 8:49 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 4/19/14 8:49 AM

RE: My last thread

Posts: 288 Join Date: 3/19/14 Recent Posts
So how is your meditation practice, anyway? emoticon
A Dietrich Ringle, modified 9 Years ago at 4/19/14 9:45 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 4/19/14 9:45 AM

RE: My last thread

Posts: 881 Join Date: 12/4/11 Recent Posts
Its pretty good. I don't do many formal sits other than watching some stuff going on when I wake up in the morning.
Mostly my priorities lately have been geared towards keeping my body functioning healthily and figuring out some volitional stuff, which is what the above is about largely.
A Dietrich Ringle, modified 9 Years ago at 4/19/14 11:20 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 4/19/14 11:20 AM

RE: My last thread

Posts: 881 Join Date: 12/4/11 Recent Posts
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katy steger,thru11615 with thanks, modified 9 Years ago at 4/19/14 3:21 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 4/19/14 3:21 PM

RE: My last thread

Posts: 1740 Join Date: 10/1/11 Recent Posts
Adam Dietrich Ringle:


Okay, okay, okay, I gotta: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckqO2zjL5Wk&feature=kp Good luck with your practice/process, mr. ringle.
A Dietrich Ringle, modified 9 Years ago at 4/21/14 7:32 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 4/21/14 7:32 PM

RE: My last thread

Posts: 881 Join Date: 12/4/11 Recent Posts
Chapter three

There is a phenomenon I have encountered in my daily life over the past months and year(s). I will call it the kick back syndrome. When I become too attached to life, death creeps near and teaches me some lessons.
A Dietrich Ringle, modified 9 Years ago at 2/20/15 3:02 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 2/20/15 12:50 PM

RE: My last thread

Posts: 881 Join Date: 12/4/11 Recent Posts
A two day model: decision making and life force pinging
 
 
For a long while now I have struggled with voices in my head. Sometimes they tell me to do something, other times they keep me from doing what it seems like I want to do.
 
Part of the letting go process that I associate with growing is that it is hard for me to solidify joyful, peaceful, or perhaps solid feeling states and then keep them around. Impermanence is a seeming constant in all of this.
 
Renunciation is the process of giving away things that one holds dear due to seeing different characteristics in such phenomena that allow us to let go. I have found that I enjoy the process of watching myself make decisions and that the impermanent nature of different seemingly restful states is better enjoyed from the vantage point that is radically accepting of shifting states.

The life force travels between points on a scale that is made up of requets, interupttions, impulses, thoughts, coincedences, etc. These, rather than a centralized will, dictate the mode and manner of experiential reality. Thus the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of certain "dharmas" is irrelevant save that they play a role in the shaping of coincedences, thoughts, impulses, interupttions, requests, et all.

Thus I dedicate this post to anyone who might stumble upon it. I have no idea of its effectiveness. Such a dedication is like acknowledging a will where it is seen that there is none
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SeTyR ZeN, modified 9 Years ago at 2/21/15 2:35 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 2/21/15 2:35 AM

RE: My last thread

Posts: 113 Join Date: 9/9/14 Recent Posts
Thank You Sleepy Buddha
A Dietrich Ringle, modified 9 Years ago at 2/26/15 10:10 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 2/26/15 10:10 PM

RE: My last thread

Posts: 881 Join Date: 12/4/11 Recent Posts
Working with Catatonic Schyzophrenia, Bi-Polar Depression, and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (all largely in remission thanks to meds and other support)...

Stream Entry works, although I have no one near or dear to me who I would recommend it to.

For the middle paths, I tried preaching moral teachings of renunciation and got the cops called on me after I axed my parents tv (landed 2nd after a trip to a native american doctor). Over the next several months and years I tried various objects, including kasinas, to meditate upon. My meditations become increasingly esoteric and my obbsessions with renunciation got the me sent to the mental hospital three times.

I landed third path by doing something inherently unpleasant. 4th is still not certain, as I feel I can continue to hone my skills working with mental illness, taking my meds, etc. However, today was a pleasant suprise as I actually saw correletion between some skillful behavior supposedly in my past and some skillful mental stabilization acts today.

Today I talked with my father about the paths and fetter model. He seemed skeptical. It was a bit uncomfortable. I find no logical reason to talk with my friends and family about stream entry or the maps and modles of meditation.


I recently read a thread by Daniel about stream entry. I felt that it was right on with the exception of a section where he remembers some previous A&P experiences. How can he be certain about the number? (although it seems like a pretty stupid objection now that I think about it). All in all, I feel like his teachings on the maps and stream entry are as good as teachings come in any area or subject.
A Dietrich Ringle, modified 9 Years ago at 2/27/15 9:28 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 2/27/15 9:28 PM

RE: My last thread

Posts: 881 Join Date: 12/4/11 Recent Posts
I am currently DNing.

I was thinking about something I read in one of thich nhat hanhs books about the nimitta. He was talking about focusing attention on the tip of the nose solely rather than the breath as it enters the body. Doing such a practice I noticed that I got a similar feeling that I get when trying to work with light (fire) kasinas...I feeling that I am losing it or "going." I haven't heard anything similar from anybody on this site. I feel kind of like I am bookended between the light and breath nimitas. It is not a very pleasant feeling.
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SeTyR ZeN, modified 9 Years ago at 2/28/15 1:18 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 2/28/15 1:13 AM

RE: My last thread

Posts: 113 Join Date: 9/9/14 Recent Posts
Hi SBS, I also still encounter sometimes that feeling of losing it, or "going" , its a crazy unspeakable horrific feeling ; (i rarely manage to let it overwhelm me with a perfect let go and watch it vanish)

like you, when i do concentrate on the tip of my nose, (i also read and listened much of Tchich),  i found it usefull to abstain from that kind of contentration / meditation for a while and switch to extensive body only concentration , quite the opposite of the nose thing, try to feel my body in its entirety, and abandon thinking about anything else; just feeling my body, accept it like it is, and following my breath in the background, at the stomach level.

Ideally you want to practice both and develop awareness to remember to switch, as regularly as possible  .

Finding at which moments of your day you will do one or the other is up to you to find; 

Im still wondering when is best to do them.

Cheers;
 
A Dietrich Ringle, modified 9 Years ago at 2/28/15 1:29 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 2/28/15 1:29 PM

RE: My last thread

Posts: 881 Join Date: 12/4/11 Recent Posts
Good advice thanks
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SeTyR ZeN, modified 9 Years ago at 3/2/15 1:51 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 3/2/15 1:51 AM

RE: My last thread

Posts: 113 Join Date: 9/9/14 Recent Posts
You're welcome emoticon
A Dietrich Ringle, modified 9 Years ago at 3/5/15 2:35 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 3/5/15 2:35 PM

RE: My last thread

Posts: 881 Join Date: 12/4/11 Recent Posts
Sleeping Buddha Syndrome:
Working with Catatonic Schyzophrenia, Bi-Polar Depression, and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (all largely in remission thanks to meds and other support)...

Stream Entry works, although I have no one near or dear to me who I would recommend it to.

For the middle paths, I tried preaching moral teachings of renunciation and got the cops called on me after I axed my parents tv (landed 2nd after a trip to a native american doctor). Over the next several months and years I tried various objects, including kasinas, to meditate upon. My meditations become increasingly esoteric and my obbsessions with renunciation got the me sent to the mental hospital three times.

I landed third path by doing something inherently unpleasant. 4th is still not certain, as I feel I can continue to hone my skills working with mental illness, taking my meds, etc. However, today was a pleasant suprise as I actually saw correletion between some skillful behavior supposedly in my past and some skillful mental stabilization acts today.

Today I talked with my father about the paths and fetter model. He seemed skeptical. It was a bit uncomfortable. I find no logical reason to talk with my friends and family about stream entry or the maps and modles of meditation.


I recently read a thread by Daniel about stream entry. I felt that it was right on with the exception of a section where he remembers some previous A&P experiences. How can he be certain about the number? (although it seems like a pretty stupid objection now that I think about it). All in all, I feel like his teachings on the maps and stream entry are as good as teachings come in any area or subject.

I wanted to clarify something I said about "landing third path". I think being released from sense pleasures and anger is much more of a process than simple fruitions. For one, there are many forms of these and thus review stages can quite complicated and require deep unleveraging.