Help needed! - Discussion
Hello Gihan 
Welcome to the forum! Don't worry about your English (which is excellent btw), many of us here speak English as a foreign language
Thinking while meditating is not necessarily bad, particularly in the beginner stages... and the very advanced ones. But it is better to cut back on it in the intermediate stages
Either way, if you found no benefit in metta at the moment, I think it is perfectly ok to drop the practice
Could you tell us more about the vipassana instructions you have got? I am curious. The most famous ones in the Theravada tradition are probably Goenka / U Ba Khin body scanning, Mahasi Sayadaw choiceless noting, and Forest Thai. Is it any of these?
It sounds like the Knowledge of the Arising and Passing Away, particularly if you were doing body scanning. If you have never heard the term before, it is udayabbaya-ñana in Pali, the fourth of about 16 stages to Stream Entry (sotapanna). It is hard to confirm by forum, but, if it is, it is called informally "the little enlightenment", so it would be reason to celebrate
Can you elaborate on getting scared? Give us more details? Depending on the answer, it might be either be the sixth ñana, Knowledge of Fear (bhayatupatthana-ñana)... or simply a case of you having gotten scared by something that should not have scared you.
The ache between the eyes... no idea, it could just be straining. Probably someone on this forum has experienced it too, never happened to me.
In any case, if what you experienced was, indeed, the Knowledge of the Arising and Passing Away, a phase in which meditation feels difficult, painful, stagnating, scary, or makes you sad is very likely. Nothing to worry about, with correct practice it can be dealt with, but it is something that is good to know about.
It is normal. That is a transitory phase. It is perfectly fine to enjoy the vibrations while they last, but you should absolutely not associate progress with getting vibrational feelings on your body.
You've come to the right place. Lots of practice here!
It is a common problem in certain traditions, sadly. You can get Stream Entry working on your own. This e-sangha is here to help!
1. Am I on the right track ?
Hard to say without more details, but if you share your practice, you will get lots of advice here.
2. How long will it take to get in to sotapanna ?
Impossible to predict. Some people get it spontaneously, by accident so to speak. Some work on it for months, some for years. With smart and intensive practice and good instructions, months might be a reasonable goal. But it depends on putting in the right number of hours, the right kind of effort, finding the technique(s) that are best for you, and so on.
3. I am a student and I have to study about 10 hours a day. I can only meditate for like 4 hours. Is this enough ? Can I do that with my studies ?
Four hours a day is really good practice! If you practice correctly you can get a lot of progress from that. Absolutely keep doing your studies! There is no need to renounce your life, interests, hobbies and friends to cultivate meditation. (Actually, I would worry about the opposite, with 10 hours of study + 4 of meditation, do you find time for friends, family, some physical activity, and so on?)
If you want to know about the stages of progress towards Sotapanna, you should read Daniel Ingram's Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha, which is available for free here (400 pages):
http://static.squarespace.com/static/5037f52d84ae1e87f694cfda/t/5055915f84aedaeee9181119/1347785055665/
if you are burning with impatience to know about these maps, a much shorter presentation (40 pages) can be found here in Mahasi Sayadaw's book The Progress of Insight, the second link here:
http://www.saraniya.com/page/ebooks/ebooks-mahasi-sayadaw.html
The first book in this link, "Practical Insight Meditation" is also pretty nice (20 pages).
Welcome to the forum! Don't worry about your English (which is excellent btw), many of us here speak English as a foreign language
Gihan Saminda Pathirage:
Metta which seems useless now because I was thinking when meditating.
Thinking while meditating is not necessarily bad, particularly in the beginner stages... and the very advanced ones. But it is better to cut back on it in the intermediate stages
Either way, if you found no benefit in metta at the moment, I think it is perfectly ok to drop the practice
Gihan Saminda Pathirage:
Then few months ago I met a great teacher who changed my path, he taught me that this is not the reality and he told me to not to belive in those concepts such as rebirth. Then he provided me some techniques to meditate (vipassana).
Could you tell us more about the vipassana instructions you have got? I am curious. The most famous ones in the Theravada tradition are probably Goenka / U Ba Khin body scanning, Mahasi Sayadaw choiceless noting, and Forest Thai. Is it any of these?
Gihan Saminda Pathirage:
Last week I started to do vipassana, and few days later I got a feeling like vibrating all over my body and it lasted few days.
It sounds like the Knowledge of the Arising and Passing Away, particularly if you were doing body scanning. If you have never heard the term before, it is udayabbaya-ñana in Pali, the fourth of about 16 stages to Stream Entry (sotapanna). It is hard to confirm by forum, but, if it is, it is called informally "the little enlightenment", so it would be reason to celebrate
Gihan Saminda Pathirage:
Also I had a small ache between my eyes. I got scared and I immediately stopped mediatating for few days.
Can you elaborate on getting scared? Give us more details? Depending on the answer, it might be either be the sixth ñana, Knowledge of Fear (bhayatupatthana-ñana)... or simply a case of you having gotten scared by something that should not have scared you.
The ache between the eyes... no idea, it could just be straining. Probably someone on this forum has experienced it too, never happened to me.
In any case, if what you experienced was, indeed, the Knowledge of the Arising and Passing Away, a phase in which meditation feels difficult, painful, stagnating, scary, or makes you sad is very likely. Nothing to worry about, with correct practice it can be dealt with, but it is something that is good to know about.
Gihan Saminda Pathirage:
Then later my mind changed and I started to meditate, now I do not have vibrational feelings anymore.
It is normal. That is a transitory phase. It is perfectly fine to enjoy the vibrations while they last, but you should absolutely not associate progress with getting vibrational feelings on your body.
Gihan Saminda Pathirage:
It's hard to find a good teacher on Sri Lanka, because the things they are teaching is inttelectual.From Books. Not by experience.
Gihan Saminda Pathirage:
We have many vipassana meditation centres also but none of teachers seems have experienced the sotapanna.
It is a common problem in certain traditions, sadly. You can get Stream Entry working on your own. This e-sangha is here to help!
Gihan Saminda Pathirage:
1. Am I on the right track ?
Hard to say without more details, but if you share your practice, you will get lots of advice here.
Gihan Saminda Pathirage:
2. How long will it take to get in to sotapanna ?
Impossible to predict. Some people get it spontaneously, by accident so to speak. Some work on it for months, some for years. With smart and intensive practice and good instructions, months might be a reasonable goal. But it depends on putting in the right number of hours, the right kind of effort, finding the technique(s) that are best for you, and so on.
Gihan Saminda Pathirage:
3. I am a student and I have to study about 10 hours a day. I can only meditate for like 4 hours. Is this enough ? Can I do that with my studies ?
Four hours a day is really good practice! If you practice correctly you can get a lot of progress from that. Absolutely keep doing your studies! There is no need to renounce your life, interests, hobbies and friends to cultivate meditation. (Actually, I would worry about the opposite, with 10 hours of study + 4 of meditation, do you find time for friends, family, some physical activity, and so on?)
If you want to know about the stages of progress towards Sotapanna, you should read Daniel Ingram's Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha, which is available for free here (400 pages):
http://static.squarespace.com/static/5037f52d84ae1e87f694cfda/t/5055915f84aedaeee9181119/1347785055665/
if you are burning with impatience to know about these maps, a much shorter presentation (40 pages) can be found here in Mahasi Sayadaw's book The Progress of Insight, the second link here:
http://www.saraniya.com/page/ebooks/ebooks-mahasi-sayadaw.html
The first book in this link, "Practical Insight Meditation" is also pretty nice (20 pages).
Thank you so much for the reply . I was doing noting practices. I tried to do it everytime, but it seems hard because I can not note while studying. I really don't like socializing with other people. I try to avoid it as much as I can. I don't like being bothered by others. I wouldn't want to bother anyone because of me. I feel like everything around me is useless.
. I was doing noting practices. I tried to do it everytime, but it seems hard because I can not note while studying. I really don't like socializing with other people. I try to avoid it as much as I can. I don't like being bothered by others. I wouldn't want to bother anyone because of me. I feel like everything around me is useless.
I got scared because my heart was beating very fast.
Thank you so much for the books.
Thank you so much for the books.
Hello again! The books I suggested all focus on noting, so they should be useful. Ingram's book is without doubt the best around for mapping the progress to sotapanna, so I wholeheartedly suggest it. There are several parts that might not apply to your experience: they are about countering a certain North American / European approach to spirituality and Buddhism; I imagine things to be substantially different in Sri Lanka, although there must be things in common too. They might still be of interest, I guess.
Back to you.
Everything around you feeling useless. I am sorry to hear that. Has it always been like this, or has it got worse lately? Either way, meditation will mess with this feeling: you will see it getting better, then worse, then better, and so on. The overall trend is for improvement to happen, but it will not be all great. Trust the process. Most of all, try not to identify with this feeling of uselessness. Watch it happen, as you would watch a crow perched on a roof. You are not the feeling of uselessness. Acknowledge it. Note it!
Not liking to socialise: You don't have to. I am a little bit like that myself. Meditation might change this, at least it has for me. When you were trying metta, were you directing metta at others, or yourself? If you were trying with others, you might want to give it a second chance trying metta towards yourself. Again, you don't have to (I do not practice metta, for example).
Heart beating fast: First thing to know is that you cannot cause yourself a heart attack by meditating, so do not worry. Second thing, the physical manifestations of fear and anxiety are an integral part of "dry" vipassana practices such as noting. In the beginning they are scary, then you will be like: "oh, look, I have all the physical manifestations of fear without the emotional / psychological aspect of it. Fascinating!". So the trick is to just observe what is going on. Take it as a sign of progress, actually. If my intuition of your current stage of progress is correct (dukkha nanas / knowledge of suffering / the dark night), practice now might feel unpleasant and with little progress - which is a sign of progress, actually. Try to keep your momentum and practicing as well as you can. Be kind with yourself.
Not being able to note while studying: This is fine! When you study, your first goal is studying. Instead of trying formal noting, try some free-form mindfulness / awareness practice. So keep the subject of your study in the centre of attention, but keep a little bit of attention on your body sensations, mood, feelings, the sounds around you too. This will *not* be possible if you are super-concentrated, which is a good thing, because it means that:
1) you are studying well (first goal),
2) you are developing your skill at concentration through studying (which is useful for vipassana).
What you should avoid is mind-wandering. If you notice that the degree of effort necessary for studying leaves you some "brain power" free, instead of letting your mind wander, keep studying while being mindful of the things I suggested before. If you catch yourself mind-wandering, do not be angry with yourself; rather, be happy that you realised! Compliment yourself for noticing it, and go back to studying (+ mindfulness when possible).
Best of luck with your practice, studies and life
Back to you.
Everything around you feeling useless. I am sorry to hear that. Has it always been like this, or has it got worse lately? Either way, meditation will mess with this feeling: you will see it getting better, then worse, then better, and so on. The overall trend is for improvement to happen, but it will not be all great. Trust the process. Most of all, try not to identify with this feeling of uselessness. Watch it happen, as you would watch a crow perched on a roof. You are not the feeling of uselessness. Acknowledge it. Note it!
Not liking to socialise: You don't have to. I am a little bit like that myself. Meditation might change this, at least it has for me. When you were trying metta, were you directing metta at others, or yourself? If you were trying with others, you might want to give it a second chance trying metta towards yourself. Again, you don't have to (I do not practice metta, for example).
Heart beating fast: First thing to know is that you cannot cause yourself a heart attack by meditating, so do not worry. Second thing, the physical manifestations of fear and anxiety are an integral part of "dry" vipassana practices such as noting. In the beginning they are scary, then you will be like: "oh, look, I have all the physical manifestations of fear without the emotional / psychological aspect of it. Fascinating!". So the trick is to just observe what is going on. Take it as a sign of progress, actually. If my intuition of your current stage of progress is correct (dukkha nanas / knowledge of suffering / the dark night), practice now might feel unpleasant and with little progress - which is a sign of progress, actually. Try to keep your momentum and practicing as well as you can. Be kind with yourself.
Not being able to note while studying: This is fine! When you study, your first goal is studying. Instead of trying formal noting, try some free-form mindfulness / awareness practice. So keep the subject of your study in the centre of attention, but keep a little bit of attention on your body sensations, mood, feelings, the sounds around you too. This will *not* be possible if you are super-concentrated, which is a good thing, because it means that:
1) you are studying well (first goal),
2) you are developing your skill at concentration through studying (which is useful for vipassana).
What you should avoid is mind-wandering. If you notice that the degree of effort necessary for studying leaves you some "brain power" free, instead of letting your mind wander, keep studying while being mindful of the things I suggested before. If you catch yourself mind-wandering, do not be angry with yourself; rather, be happy that you realised! Compliment yourself for noticing it, and go back to studying (+ mindfulness when possible).
Best of luck with your practice, studies and life
Gihan:
I got scared because my heart was beating very fast. Thank you so much for the books.
Thank you so much for the books. Fear arising when getting into sotappana is normal. It happens.
Fear is an emotion or mental creation. It is a mental object.
Where as the observer in meditation is consciousness (vinyana; vinnana).
Fear is not the observer and the observer is not fear.
When fear arises, remain calm, trusting & courageous; observing the fear until the fear passes & dissolves.
Kind regards
Thanks for getting back to me necko . It says that 
To be honest I'm afraid, because I've done some bad things in past. (when I was about 7 years old I used to go fishing with my grandfather for fun. So.. Yes I've killed many fishes and now I feel bad about it) So according to this I wasn't a good tree. Is there a conscious existence after death ? Yesterday I sent an email to my teacher but he ignored be simply saying come see for yourself. Everything was going well until I see this.
http://www.nanavira.org/letters/post-sotapatti/1964/162-l-128-26-july-1964
Man is the tree, his conduct is the fruit, the vivifying energy of the fruit is desire. While this continues, the series will proceed: the good or evil actions performed give the quality of the fruit, so that the existence springing from these actions will be happy or miserable as the quality of the fruit affects the tree produced from it.
To be honest I'm afraid, because I've done some bad things in past. (when I was about 7 years old I used to go fishing with my grandfather for fun. So.. Yes I've killed many fishes and now I feel bad about it) So according to this I wasn't a good tree. Is there a conscious existence after death ? Yesterday I sent an email to my teacher but he ignored be simply saying come see for yourself. Everything was going well until I see this.
http://www.nanavira.org/letters/post-sotapatti/1964/162-l-128-26-july-1964
hahaa 
I just realized that It was just a dumb thought of me.
I just realized that It was just a dumb thought of me.
I don't think it was a dumb or a smart idea, but I do think it was a not-very-useful thought. See it like this: Now you realise that killing fish for fun is not a good thing to do. Be happy about yourself for having realised this, now you are a better person. And the world has become a better place. The past is the past, and you cannot change it
. Will this decreese the progress ? I feel like it does. 
Gihan:
To be honest I'm afraid, because I've done some bad things in past. (when I was about 7 years old I used to go fishing with my grandfather for fun. So.. Yes I've killed many fishes and now I feel bad about it)
Your reaction to your past actions is against Buddhist principles because Buddhism teaches loving-kindness (forgiveness).
In Buddhism, "you" are not the doer of wrong action. Instead, ignorance or not-knowing is the doer of wrong action.
Ignorance is not something personal. Ignorance is impersonal. It is a mental blindness every life form is born with.
Buddhism teaches all actions in life are a lesson for spiritual growth.
When you see with right wisdom a past action was wrong (harmful) and you cease to have the motivation to perform that action, the wrong action is purified. It is finished.
Please read the words of the Lord Buddha below.
With metta
The Blessed One said, "Monks, ignorance is the leader in the attainment of unskillful qualities, followed by lack of conscience & lack of concern. In an unknowledgeable person, immersed in ignorance, wrong view arises. In one of wrong view, wrong resolve arises. In one of wrong resolve, wrong speech... In one of wrong speech, wrong action... In one of wrong action, wrong livelihood... In one of wrong livelihood, wrong effort... In one of wrong effort, wrong mindfulness... In one of wrong mindfulness, wrong concentration arises.
"Yes, great king, a transgression overcame you in that you were so foolish, so muddle-headed, and so unskilled as to kill your father — a righteous man, a righteous king — for the sake of sovereign rulership. But because you see your transgression as such and make amends in accordance with the Dhamma, we accept your confession. For it is a cause of growth in the Dhamma & Discipline of the noble ones when, seeing a transgression as such, one makes amends in accordance with the Dhamma and exercises restraint in the future."
He who having been heedless is heedless no more, illuminates this world like the moon freed from clouds.
He, who by good deeds covers the evil he has done, illuminates this world like the moon freed from clouds.
He, who by good deeds covers the evil he has done, illuminates this world like the moon freed from clouds.
Hey again I've been doing noting practices and few days ago ,something strange happened. I was reading a newspaper and for one moment I felt like nothing exists. It only lasted like maybe 1 or 2 seconds. But it's hard to explain. Am I on A&P stage again ? Please help me.
Thanks a lot.
I've been doing noting practices and few days ago ,something strange happened. I was reading a newspaper and for one moment I felt like nothing exists. It only lasted like maybe 1 or 2 seconds. But it's hard to explain. Am I on A&P stage again ? Please help me. Thanks a lot.
Gihan:
Hey again I've been doing noting practices and few days ago ,something strange happened. I was reading a newspaper and for one moment I felt like nothing exists. It only lasted like maybe 1 or 2 seconds. But it's hard to explain. Am I on A&P stage again ? Please help me.
Thanks a lot.
I've been doing noting practices and few days ago ,something strange happened. I was reading a newspaper and for one moment I felt like nothing exists. It only lasted like maybe 1 or 2 seconds. But it's hard to explain. Am I on A&P stage again ? Please help me. Thanks a lot.
Hi Gihan
This is a spontaneous samadhi state of the mind. Consciousness released and normal perceptions ended/dissolved.
It felt like nothing exists because the thinking stopped & perceptions dissolved.
This shows an underlying potential of the mind to enter the stream & incline towards emptiness.
Therefore, to continue this potential, do not generate new thoughts & perceptions by thinking about the experience too much.
The path is one of letting go; of continally dropping thoughts, dropping unnecessary perceptions & not clinging to experiences.
The Buddha taught:
The noble disciple "shrinks and doesn’t build up," he "throws away and doesn’t cling," he "scatters and doesn’t pile up" and he "makes die out and doesn’t make flare up."
http://www.suanmokkh.org/archive/as/n10-45.htm
http://www.suanmokkh.org/archive/as/n10-45.htm
The five aggregates are heavy loads,
Holding them is suffering in this world,
Laying down the load is bliss.
The wise lay down this heavy load,
Without taking up another burden...
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn22/sn22.022.than.html
Holding them is suffering in this world,
Laying down the load is bliss.
The wise lay down this heavy load,
Without taking up another burden...
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn22/sn22.022.than.html
With metta