No attainment to sneeze at

Matt, modified 9 Years ago at 9/14/14 12:43 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 9/14/14 12:40 PM

No attainment to sneeze at

Posts: 316 Join Date: 1/14/14 Recent Posts
I noticed something during this mornings sit that has happened a few times before:

I start feeling a sneeze coming on.  My pre-meditation experience of an impending sneeze has always been one of the following:
  • I jump on the roller coaster of sensations with gusto, and enjoy letting the event develop and explode.
  • I jump on the roller coaster, but the roller coaster coasts to a disappointing stop.
  • I try to resist the roller coaster but am involuntarily overtaken by the sneeze, or maybe with vigorous effort I suppress the sneeze.
Here's the new thing: when the sensations come on, I apply simple equanimous awareness to the sensations and the roller coaster slows down, gracefully stops and passes away.

OK, it's not super impressive, but I always like to notice when my experience of life has changed. emoticon

I'm curious, what changes have others noticed, but not previously felt it was worth reporting?

Matt
Matt, modified 6 Years ago at 3/22/18 9:44 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 3/22/18 9:42 AM

RE: No attainment to sneeze at

Posts: 316 Join Date: 1/14/14 Recent Posts
This morning I had the hiccups.  They were annoying me.

I realized that I was holding tension in my abdomen.

I realized that the reclining chair I was in was in a state of being about to recline a little bit more.

I realized that I didn't want the chair to recline becase I was using my head as a device to shade my wife's face from early morning sun.

I released the tension in my abdomen, the chair reclined, the sun hit my wifes face, the hiccups went away.

Awareness For The Win!

(I closed the venitian blinds to protect my wifes face from the early morning sun.)
junglist, modified 6 Years ago at 3/22/18 11:54 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 3/22/18 11:54 AM

RE: No attainment to sneeze at

Posts: 232 Join Date: 1/25/17 Recent Posts
matthew sexton:
I noticed something during this mornings sit that has happened a few times before:

I start feeling a sneeze coming on.  My pre-meditation experience of an impending sneeze has always been one of the following:
  • I jump on the roller coaster of sensations with gusto, and enjoy letting the event develop and explode.
  • I jump on the roller coaster, but the roller coaster coasts to a disappointing stop.
  • I try to resist the roller coaster but am involuntarily overtaken by the sneeze, or maybe with vigorous effort I suppress the sneeze.
Here's the new thing: when the sensations come on, I apply simple equanimous awareness to the sensations and the roller coaster slows down, gracefully stops and passes away.

OK, it's not super impressive, but I always like to notice when my experience of life has changed. emoticon

I'm curious, what changes have others noticed, but not previously felt it was worth reporting?

Matt
Replying to the old part of the post about something off cushion in the very exciting and super-unimpressive spirit:

When I go out in the cold, especially on my bicycle, my nose pretty much always goes through an intense twinging phase that last for 5 to 10 seconds, as whatever it is in my nose, sinuses or whatever, adapts to the cold. For a long time I went "Aaaaargh!" and screwed my face up, all in good humour, of course. Now I notice the twinge arise, notice it reach a strong intensity, and some seconds later it's gone, All done quite mindfully, and in good humour.

Now that I think about it, I don't think I've managed to notice it fully all the way from start to finish, probably because when one rides a bike one has to be mindful about not crashing.
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Bruno Loff, modified 6 Years ago at 3/22/18 5:07 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 3/22/18 5:07 PM

RE: No attainment to sneeze at

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Wouldst that someone figure out how to take a shit without having to read something, I would maketh him my beloved guru! (For it seems that taking a shit, for me, is one of those things that is all the more difficult the hardest I focus on it!)
junglist, modified 6 Years ago at 3/23/18 2:15 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 3/23/18 2:15 AM

RE: No attainment to sneeze at

Posts: 232 Join Date: 1/25/17 Recent Posts
Bruno Loff:
Wouldst that someone figure out how to take a shit without having to read something, I would maketh him my beloved guru! (For it seems that taking a shit, for me, is one of those things that is all the more difficult the hardest I focus on it!)

Hehe, I must admit I’ve noticed my mindfulness increase quite significantly while taking a dump. I’ve seen it written in a couple of places in the Majjhima Nikaya that the Buddha recommended defacating and urinating fully mindful. 

Some say that awakening can happen at anytime, anywhere, and I’ve occasionally joked with myself about what would happen if I became enlightened in mid squeeze. Would that make me the Buddha of Poo? I do not want to be the Buddha of Poo. But then that means I have aversion to becoming the Buddha of Poo, so if I finally let go of this aversion and attain full unexcelled enlightenment, then I would become ...

Oh man. Is there no escape?
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Bruno Loff, modified 6 Years ago at 3/23/18 4:03 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 3/23/18 4:03 AM

RE: No attainment to sneeze at

Posts: 1094 Join Date: 8/30/09 Recent Posts
junglist:
Bruno Loff:
Wouldst that someone figure out how to take a shit without having to read something, I would maketh him my beloved guru! (For it seems that taking a shit, for me, is one of those things that is all the more difficult the hardest I focus on it!)

Hehe, I must admit I’ve noticed my mindfulness increase quite significantly while taking a dump. I’ve seen it written in a couple of places in the Majjhima Nikaya that the Buddha recommended defacating and urinating fully mindful. 

Some say that awakening can happen at anytime, anywhere, and I’ve occasionally joked with myself about what would happen if I became enlightened in mid squeeze. Would that make me the Buddha of Poo? I do not want to be the Buddha of Poo. But then that means I have aversion to becoming the Buddha of Poo, so if I finally let go of this aversion and attain full unexcelled enlightenment, then I would become ...

Oh man. Is there no escape?

The meta-buddha of poo? :-)
junglist, modified 6 Years ago at 3/23/18 4:36 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 3/23/18 4:36 AM

RE: No attainment to sneeze at

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Bruno Loff:
The meta-buddha of poo? :-)
I’d much rather be the sneezing Buddha, or the protecting-my-dear-wife’s-face-from-the-morning-sun-but-slip-on-my-chair Buddha, or metta-Buddha of course, but anything scatalogical is just too icky, even as manure that nourishes fields to grow and bear wondrous fruits... I hope there is another, more sanitary, path to benefit all beings...
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Noah D, modified 6 Years ago at 3/23/18 8:13 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 3/23/18 8:13 AM

RE: No attainment to sneeze at

Posts: 1211 Join Date: 9/1/16 Recent Posts
My pain reaction has gone down slightly , but all the time.   Meaning, I flinch less dramatically.  I don't think this happened until recently.
rik, modified 6 Years ago at 3/24/18 4:25 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 3/24/18 4:25 PM

RE: No attainment to sneeze at

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Noah D:
My pain reaction has gone down slightly , but all the time.   Meaning, I flinch less dramatically.  I don't think this happened until recently.


Something I've noticed too.  It's made going to the dentist much more tolerable.  Not really to do with flinching and being surprised but it's easier to sit and watch unpleasant sensations come into existence and quickly fade away with a sense of curiousity as opposed to pure aversion.
Matt, modified 6 Years ago at 3/27/18 3:25 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 3/27/18 3:25 PM

RE: No attainment to sneeze at

Posts: 316 Join Date: 1/14/14 Recent Posts
junglist:
I’d much rather be the sneezing Buddha, or the protecting-my-dear-wife’s-face-from-the-morning-sun-but-slip-on-my-chair Buddha, or metta-Buddha of course, but anything scatalogical is just too icky, even as manure that nourishes fields to grow and bear wondrous fruits... I hope there is another, more sanitary, path to benefit all beings...

[Cross posted from my log]

A mundane attainment that I don't think I could have ever experienced without vipassana:

Wifey bought girl scout cookies.  I feel they are not good for me to eat, sugar etc.  But I have gone to the trouble a couple times to walk into the pantry and grab a few to scarf, all fairly mindfully.  3'rd time is a charm, I paused half way to the pantry and investigated the feelings of being pulled towards the poison.  Then I sat back down in my chair with eyes closed and investigated the feelings, not theory or concepts, simply the feelings in my mouth and torso that seem to stem from the cookie vision..... A realization popped up in me, that I have an assumption that I get to have pleasurable feelings, that the universe owes me those feelings, that if the sense pleasures don't fall in my lap then I get to go out and get them, dang it.  Then, somehow the 'go do it devil' on one shoulder was smaller than the "don't do it" angel on the other shoulder.  Here I sit, typing, with less greed for cookies....

It happened again, the idea of thin mint, the mouth starts to water, but that's where it stopped, zero pre-activation of the spine or legs etc.  That's exactly what Goenka describes, that the feelings arise but are known, inside the yogi where they need to be dealt with as opposed to the feelings escaping into suffering/action out in the world
junglist, modified 6 Years ago at 3/28/18 3:17 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 3/28/18 3:17 PM

RE: No attainment to sneeze at

Posts: 232 Join Date: 1/25/17 Recent Posts
Ooh, I definitely noticed the urge to eat, taste, etc., including different intensities, but the debt from the universe is interesting.
I’ve also noticed quite clearly the desire for more food/taste sensation arise at the moment the food finishes, which perhaps suggests the idea of “guarding” the sense doors.
Another mini-mundane attainment I’ve noticed is after someone has said something, the sensation of a thought and desire to make a humorous comment and then pass.
I don’t think I would have noticed these things so clearly if not for vipassana.
Nice thread!
Joe D, modified 5 Years ago at 6/5/18 3:16 AM
Created 5 Years ago at 6/5/18 3:16 AM

RE: No attainment to sneeze at

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Insights during meditation retreats are quite rare due to the desire "to become", the strong addictive experience, and the tendency of focusing (zooming too close). It's these choiceless "as it is" mudane moments that spawn powerful insights. Right effort is the interest in learning all the time. 

Indeed nice thread! 
Matt, modified 5 Years ago at 6/5/18 8:11 PM
Created 5 Years ago at 6/5/18 8:11 PM

RE: No attainment to sneeze at

Posts: 316 Join Date: 1/14/14 Recent Posts
junglist:
Bruno Loff:
The meta-buddha of poo? :-)
I’d much rather be the sneezing Buddha, or the protecting-my-dear-wife’s-face-from-the-morning-sun-but-slip-on-my-chair Buddha, or metta-Buddha of course, but anything scatalogical is just too icky, even as manure that nourishes fields to grow and bear wondrous fruits... I hope there is another, more sanitary, path to benefit all beings...
I was told me to be mindful (observent) while dumping.  Following the advise, I noticed sometimes there are very subtle sensations deep inside that help predict the potential productive value of an additional couple minutes of sitting (on the toilet).  So the dumping meditation object is this ethereal sense of, I guess it would be movement, in the torso. I felt like a pretty Bad Ass Meditator figuring that out, so I call that practice the BM for short. [sorry for that tortured out punchline]

Continuing in the vein (so to speak) of the gut, I was sitting the other day, noticing sensations around the nose, and I found that there was something smelly in the room.  Eventually it occured to me that the bad smell was either my sinuses or the poorly cleaned dental retainer I've been wearing for the last month.  While mulling/investigating that, someting in my gut went flip flop in the same way that sometimes my brains seems to do while meditating.  I'd like to think that in some way my gut was undergoing a jhanic state change or sumptn.
rik, modified 5 Years ago at 6/5/18 10:55 PM
Created 5 Years ago at 6/5/18 10:55 PM

RE: No attainment to sneeze at

Posts: 51 Join Date: 2/9/17 Recent Posts
Recently I've gained a much stronger awareness of how all of the muscles in my neck/head/face/scalp coordinate to move my head around and it feels more and more like my head is another limb on the body, as opposed to being the control center where "I" reside.
Joe D, modified 5 Years ago at 6/6/18 2:19 AM
Created 5 Years ago at 6/6/18 2:16 AM

RE: No attainment to sneeze at

Posts: 11 Join Date: 5/21/18 Recent Posts
Hehe, I must admit I’ve noticed my mindfulness increase quite significantly while taking a dump

Yep everyone have their moments emoticon. My is after waking up. Once, upon waking up, I noticed the full flow of energy all over the body.  Just watching the sensations, then sudden realized something: Aha! there is only flow of sensation, no temperature (cold) why people say this is coldness? This insight allows the mind not only deal with coldness but also pain much easier. 
Matt, modified 5 Years ago at 8/7/18 11:11 PM
Created 5 Years ago at 8/7/18 11:10 PM

RE: No attainment to sneeze at

Posts: 316 Join Date: 1/14/14 Recent Posts
Seeing my 6 year old squirm in the back seat of the car when his bladder is full, the anxiousness he exhibits reminded me of this conversation, and the arising and passing of experience. He can be having fun somewhere with no thought about his bladder, then I pick him up in the car and a few minutes later he acts as if he is going to die if he does not get to the closest bush or bathroom. If I skillfully distract him, it's like he was back on the playground without a thought of his bladder

To me the full bladder experience is an indicator of brain wiring. Do a few stretch sensors around the bladder take control of my experience, cause me to react to everyone in a different way, make it impossible to think about anything but urinating, or is it one sensation out of many that comes and goes and does not lead to a cascade of single-mindedness?

It seems to me that my full bladder experience has changed a lot in recent years, but like lots of other stuff, it's hard to tell for sure why things change over time.
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Noah D, modified 5 Years ago at 8/10/18 3:34 PM
Created 5 Years ago at 8/10/18 3:34 PM

RE: No attainment to sneeze at

Posts: 1211 Join Date: 9/1/16 Recent Posts
The Gelugpas (probably others) say that buddhahood can happen while sneezing.

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