• When we are just a baby, we learn to use the body, hence we were other to begin with
• Following the senses inwards, each sense arrives at awareness
• Even when we sleep, awareness is there — does not a loud noise wake us up?
• The body changes and is impermanent, it grows, becomes mature, and eventually grows old, breaks down and dies
• When we do things, we use skills and responses we have learned — doing things is learned behaviour, conditioned
• Memory colours how we perceive the world, so from learned response, we grow into behaving as we do
• What we originally were, is not the body or the mind

I came across this video by a chap called Sadhguru on the subject…

All in the spirit of Non-seriousness.

In this painting at bottom the meditator begins with the mind (elephant) leading the meditator which is in turn led by a monkey (as in monkey mind). As time goes on the elephant is tamed, and is led by the meditator, and the monkey goes away. Finally, Enlightenment, followed by Buddhahood, is achieved and the meditator rides the mind. For more:

https://enlightenmentthangka.com/blogs/thangka/nine-stages-of-samatha-meditation

Many years ago after an X-ray examination, a doctor advised me that there was a condition in the neck called spondylitis. When I turned my head, it felt stiff and was painful, and I believed it would stay in that condition for the rest of my life. However, about twenty years ago, I acquired my first computer and was able to gain access to information very easily. By chance, I came across a page about the exercise known as neck circles or neck-rolls etc., and gave it a try, thinking that it might loosen up my neck. After many years of doing these neck rolls, I am able to report that (several years ago) a remarkable improvement in my neck occurred. Now, I can turn, or roll, my head as much as and for as long as I like, with not the slightest stiffness or discomfort, much less pain! Now, anyone that would like to try this exercise should consult the Internet before doing so, because there are caveats about the practice. Done wrongly, it is a potential source of damage to the neck. I should say that I had been doing it for years (with no ill-effects) before I learned about its dangers, so perhaps the cautions are just published as a matter of principle, rather than because injury might easily occur. As I found, it is possible to be too cautious.

Readers may wonder why information about neck-rolls should be posted on a Buddhist forum. Let me continue, and judge for yourself.

Over several years, I discovered that a session of neck-rolling (sitting in bed with my wife, after coffee) had a very marked effect on "my" state. By this, I mean that, many, many times (in fact, nearly every time a session occurred), a spontaneous state of meditation would arise. Many times, my wife would leave me sitting there, and go about her business, knowing that I would not rise for at least half an hour. On occasion, these sessions last much longer, but one's breakfast cannot be left for too long on the kitchen table, and it becomes necessary for me to reluctantly break off the meditation, and rise. Many are the times after a session of neck-rolling, when a state of heightened consciousness will occur. Whether there is any lasting benefit from these sessions, I cannot say. However, I am profoundly grateful for them. They strengthen my faith in invisible forces, and they certainly have bestowed insights that would not have arisen through thinking about the dharma.

Though what is written above is perfectly true, I used to wonder why it happened. I have heard of the Dervishes that rotate at dizzying speed, then go into a trance. There also is the remark made by R.W. Emerson, who, in one of his essays (I don't remember which), referred to a sect of his times (also, the name of this Christian sect escapes me), who had a practice of doing what he called a "Bruin-dance" ("shuffling about", as he put it, and dancing as bears were trained to dance, I presume), and by this practice, found some kind of spiritual state that helped them. (I have tried to find out more about this sect and the dance, but without success. I cannot even find out in which essay of Emerson's the reference to it is.) I read the essay many, many years ago. Blessings be on Ralph Emerson!

The mind (consciousness) and the body are linked — there is no doubt about that. (I think of breathing exercises and yoga.) All the same, it is rather strange that valuable meditation states can arise in the way I describe. I hope others may find this observation helpful.

If anyone wishes to ask a question about the above, I should be very willing to answer it in due course, but as stated, there simply is not the time to engage in any discussion.

Over the years my sitting has changed. How about you?

At the moment I am sitting without a cushion. Chanting very quietly. And modifying/relaxing any posture stiffness, The relaxation is part of how I am doing the Medicine Buddha chanting/focus. So the mudra/hand position goes through some interesting convolutions/softening.

I am starting to use the half lotus again but am in no rush to return to full lotus, kneeling or corpse meditation (yoga nidra).

For me there are some important reminders:

-medition is mostly attentive awareness
-'Bad' meditation is still pretty good
-find comfortable, not more suffering

... be interested in others insights/changes/preferences ...

Am I too broad in my new ageyness?
https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/the-12-major-types-of-meditation-explained-simply

While the Buddha did not seek comfort, was the middle way comfortable?

I don't understand how this works in experience so I'll try explaining a portion of how I see it through experience and maybe someone will be kind enough to help.

I've been spending too much time involved with thoughts and feelings of late but when I take a break and notice I'm in the present moment, I attempt to recall I'm not my thoughts, feelings, perceptions, the situation... so I don't need to be so closely involved in them (Like being lost in a movie or character and suddenly remembering you're at the theatre or just reading a book). This detachment usually accompanied by a really nice deep breath and a solidifying sense of being "here and now" in the present moment.

If I'm allowed more time aware of being here in the moment, I like to sit on my cushion near the wall. I close my eyes (sometimes open) and concentrate and relax myself as fully as possible into the awareness of breathing. It usually starts to feel pretty nice if the earlier recalling was strong. I just stay like that as long as I can until something distracts me. If it didn't work well, I usually get distracted by a thought or feeling and that pulls me into another "movie" or "character". Sometimes it can be revealing if I remain unattached, sometimes it can be sense-indulgent if attached. If I follow the thought or feeling attached, I often forget that "here and now" sensation and become involved with thoughts and feelings again, proliferating them. If I follow the unattached thought, it often leads me to some bit of understanding that usually ends in sutta study on some concept I'm trying to understand better.

The above description of practice appears to be focused on comfort.

Some days thoughts and feelings are a tempest and if there were a being to experience them, they would be tormented and push away. Other days thoughts and feelings are tranquil and if there were a being to experience them, they would be pleased and cling toward. I understand there's past karma involved here in shaping present experience including thoughts and feelings. The tempest and tranquil days are a result of past karma. They happen until past karma is exhausted.

Is the practice to increase the frequency of "tranquil days" or to transcend the beings experience so tempest or tranquil come and go all the same? A marriage, a divorce, a birth, a death, the body responds, the thoughts respond, the feelings respond, but there is no being there? The tears still flow, the smile still forms but there is no being there to push it this way or that which makes new karma? Is this how past karma is worked off and future karma is not made?

The difference between Dzogchen and Shikantaza ...;

( when one gets down to the nitty gritty ....there seems to be more similarities than differences )

Also for those interested "Tögal" means "crossing the peak."...

I’m not sure I want to subscribe to the premium app, $99 for a year seems like quite an investment and a bit of a money grab. But just the free content is quite refreshing in a nonsectarian kind of way.

From what I've learnt, you sit and allow all sense gates to enter a state of calm awareness without letting any become intensively overloaded, especially if this sense is the Mind, the great pilot of this human skeleton.

While meditation practice should not be orientated towards Enlightenment nor self-improvement, there is certain aspect in self-improvement which helps to get rid of the self. Though my question is, when is this dangerous as in "creating or feeding the ideal of illusory self" which will then just prolongue suffering? Maybe this is just the way it should be. A positive well-round self-concept will more likely engage in constructive thoughts which will lead to mindful acts in real life. Then, someday, just like from what I understood the Bodhissatva Path "project" consists of: when we are all "freed" or aware of this freedom, we can drop and renunciate and reach the other Shore completely.. but, to then re-start this cycle again?

If it is infinite, then why to completely renounce, why not simply continue on the path accepting certain attachments which are intrinsic to human nature, while accepting the Four Noble Truths?

This is why I sometimes like to understand zazen in terms of metacognition.

"Metacognition is, put simply, thinking about one’s thinking. More precisely, it refers to the processes used to plan, monitor, and assess one’s understanding and performance. Metacognition includes a critical awareness of a) one’s thinking and learning and b) oneself as a thinker and learner."

This aspect has definitively helped to be able to continue following precepts and wholesomeness.

Peace!

Does that mean that one should start checking when a thought finishes, and detach from the thought then? Or is it that one should take care not to let trains of thought develop by not allowing follow-up thoughts? Or jumps from one thought onto the next?

I still yearn to be able to sit crossed legged, but I've found that this chair and my cushion is the best. No pain in my knees, no burning sensation, no swolleness lasting for 1 week or 2...

Hopefully if I ever attend an actual meditation retreat / Zen temple, chairs are available for those of us who have torn their meniscus trying to be a yogi instead of being mindful of their body.

What has been your experience? Is it okay to request a chair at Zen centre? So far, I haven't seen this anywhere. Are chair-users simply barred from group meditation and limited to solo-practice? I might attend a temple called Shorinji in Extremadura (Spain). Perhaps I should write to them before hand?

Have a good day everyone!

In Spanish, we have a saying: "Quién quiere, puede" "If you want it, you get it". That's the motivation! What's behind the motivation? Wholesomeness, compassion, and hard-work! That last bit is what I forget sometimes in the path. It is hard-work, it is re-wiring your brain, ordering your mind; like cleaning a huge basement. It is not about getting it all cleared -which would be great- but maintaining certain consistencu and also learning how not to clutter up and return to the previous unwholesome / chaotic State.

For my case, I learnt I simply had to go to bed early, wake up earlier. I found quite inspirational this ex-marine called Jocko Wilkins. I know it might not sound very Buddhist / compassionate, but I take his discipline and the physical exercise routine as great aids to my path.

Good day to you all!

Worth a chat…

Just a reminder that there's a 30 minute Zoom meditation session at the top of every hour 24 hours a day Monday to Friday.

I join quite often and can highly recommend

Link below.

https://www.mindfulleader.org/meditate-together#:~:text=An online community of meditators,, 5 days/week..&text=Establish a regular meditation practice,a community with shared values.

This one especially made me think of @lobster…

Soon after that G. began to put "stop," as we called this exercise, into practice in the most varied circumstances.
G. first of all showed us how to "stand stock-still" immediately at the command "stop," and to try not to move, not to look aside no matter what was happening, not to reply if anyone spoke, for instance if one were asked something or even unjustly accused of something.
"The 'stop' exercise is considered sacred in schools," he said. "Nobody except the principal teacher or the person he commissions has the right to command a 'stop.' 'Stop' cannot be the subject of play or exercise among the pupils. You never know the position a man can find himself in. If you cannot feel for him, you do not know what muscles are tensed or how much. Meanwhile if a difficult tension is continued it can cause the rupture of some important vessel and in some cases it can even cause im­ mediate death. Therefore only he who is quite certain in himself that he knows what he is doing can allow himself to command a 'stop.'
"At the same time 'stop' demands unconditional obedience, without any hesitations or doubts.”

It seems to me an interesting exercise, it could reveal something new about the relationship with the body.

I would appreciate it if you could write me a few words, I will of course return the kindness and help when requested.

Thank you!!!

One tip I was given was to try five minutes of talking gibberish before starting vipassana. I’ve found it to be very lightening of the mood and the mind, maybe you might find it of benefit.

The underlying anxiety seems to have caused me to fall back into my old unhelpful / unhealthy worldly habits.

It's time to adjust and find the path of peace again. My body and mind really need it! Too much Dukkha.

Peace to you all

As we know the body, mind, universe are all interconnected. Rewiring the mind is the most useful technique in Dharma.
Some start with the heart eg Sufism.
Some with the body eg Hatha Yoga.
Some with the Universe eg. Kabbalah.

In a sense, as simians, we are not configured in an optimum way but randomly put together by karma, evolution, chance and OM IC ARE ON viral manifests etc

How to rewire? Tips and postcards to the usual address …

“The mind is by nature restless. Begin liberating it from its restlessness; give it peace; make it free from distractions; train it to look inward; make this a habit. This is done by ignoring the external world and removing the obstacles to peace of mind.”

And it set me on an interesting path as far as meditation is concerned. I set out to see if by ignoring the input from one’s senses one could meditate more easily. My first attempt led me to rigidity, freezing in place and concentrating so as not to allow the senses to disrupt things. On examining this more closely I found the tension to be detrimental to reaching a meditative space.

But I notice that with most of my attempts at real meditation I still do something with my attention. It’s on my eyes, in a slightly blurred way, or it’s on my sense of touch, looking at disturbances. I find it quite hard to just ignore everything that comes in, my attention zooms immediately to the nearest bright or hypnotic bauble that impinges on my consciousness.

I suspect the answer is something to do with repose, with just being. Has anyone else tried this?

Most of us are engaged in formal, informal, occasional or theoretical meditation. Mindfulness or aware being is the goal but how about the next step towards that?

eg.

• Change in posturing. Recently I mostly abandoned cushion support and sit on carpeted floor.
• Movement whilst sitting. Recently been doing mindful adjusting …
• Gentler nasal breathing.
• Relaxation of mind body states and even nazi straightening …

What and where is your next step?

The short guided meditation by Damian Echols 22.52 minutes in is interesting...

Be well be mindful...

Metta

Online retreat started yesterday for anyone interested - it lasts 10 days.

So... I almost tore my inner meniscus while meditating crossed legged (1/4 lotus). A burning feeling overcame my knees and instead of acknowledging it and doing something about it, I kept forcing my knees until I was overcome by pain and an almost constant burning / achey feeling.

It has been a good experience for my practice because I recall how resistant I was regarding using a chair or simply having a break until my knees recovered. It could have been a small break, instead of months of slow recovery. But, the ego was strong: "how can you not use your beautiful zabuton and a cushion like those monks you've read so much about? It doesn't look very "Buddhistic to use a chair."

After spending the last 2 months listening to my knees - using the chair and following the doctor's instructions- they are finally on their way towards a complete recovery. The veredict was that inner meniscus was swollen and I had slightly displaced it. Why didn't I listen to my body? I was so focused on practising and improving my mindfulness that I had actually gone in the opposite direction. I've learnt my lesson: don't entrap yourself by clinging to unrealistic phantoms created by the mind.

Any advice or suggested excercises are welcome. I'm currently just trying to lose weight and walking at least once around the lake everyday to strengthen my leg muscles. I would also like to know how common these injuries are. Has this happened to you? How long did it take you to recover? I remember Ajahn Punnadhammo warning people over YouTube of how many meditators that he had met in the 70s-80s ended up requiring surgery because they had ruined their knees (full lotus position). He recommended the cobbler's pose to stretch our poorly -assuming the reader is Western / Chair-educated- educated hips and thighs.

So the next time somebody calls you a 'Good for Nothing' so & so for just sitting around doing nothing...

...take it as a compliment

Tried a few things. So far a chair has been okay. Perhaps this is superficial of me, but the chair lacks the gravitas of sitting cross-legged on a cushion. But the pain of doing so quickly becomes a huge distraction.

Anyone else had to deal with alternate positions for meditation? Anything in particular work for you?

I considered…

• The love of my father, a man I greatly respect and admire, and love for his unexpected generosity, his silliness, his clean living
• The love of my mother, a woman who is artistic and dedicated and caring
• The love of dogs, their enthusiasm, running around and jumping into lakes chasing sticks, the sniffing of other dogs
• The love of nature, I enjoy the feeling of trees, of green, of birds flitting through the sky, grasses and flowers scenting the breeze
• The love of a friend, being good mates, eating soup together on the beach, going for a long walk

In a way science and analysis is a destructive process and a search without end. Sometime you have to let it go and meditate on what truly moves and inspires you.

A few images came to my mind, a humorous aside of a rather large man making a pass at a woman in a playful, rather clumsy way, but she responded and was grateful for the attention, and I thought, this is love too. My mind wandered to the subject of a soulmate, something I had once encountered in dreams, and I thought, this is love too. All other passions are reflections of this.

We find things in our lives to feel passionate about, but often these are dreams. The people we love, the animals we love, that ultimately leads us to kindness and compassion. We need to feed these things, with humor, courage, aesthetics, we bring our love to the surface.

Also, I seem to go between different meditations. Sometimes I observe thoughts, sometimes I focus on my breath, sometimes I chant the heart sutra.

I know that I've broached this subject before, but never in its own thread. I have some serious challenges with guided meditations and have solved that problem by avoiding it whenever possible. Oh sure, I've asked for guidance on occasion, I've just never understood the explanations. Circumstances have changed though, as they are wont to do, and I am finding myself having to pass through a guided meditation to get to where I'm going on a fairly regular basis - in other words, I'm getting really bad at avoiding it. So here is an excerpt from the transcript (the intervals were added by me) and then, following that, I'm going to try and formulate a question.

_Draw your attention away from the mind, and place your attention in your body, noticing the
body-- the sensations in your body-- <28-second pause> whether that means there’s some surface-level sensation in the body, which is like tension, tightness, or even pain. <16-second pause> Just let go of those labels and feel. Be one with what is. _

"Draw your attention away from the mind..."

Cool. Got it. On my way...

"...and place your attention in your body, noticing the body."

Okay, I was there - my attention was already away from my mind, but then you began talking again. I don't know if you're aware of this, but I can't follow your instructions without perceiving your words and their meaning which means I have to leave the place I'm at and run right back to the mind because that's where the sounds you make are interpreted and given meaning. Okay..it appears that she's stopped talking. Returning...almost there...and...

"the sensations in your body..."

I'm sorry, I was inside - did you want me to not be there? And 'just let go of labels'? Seriously? How do I let go of labels and know what it is you're talking about when you use labels like 'body', 'pain', 'tension'?

The experience (for me, of course) always seems like someone is asking you to run to the store and grab some missing ingredient for the dinner they're making. They tell you that it's very important that you make it back before what-ever-it-is comes out of the oven in twenty-five minutes. Then they give you instructions on how to get to the store, where to park, what aisle the item is in, which register you should go to in order to pay, whether you should choose paper or plastic, the route you should take on the way home, etc. The problem is, their instructions take twenty-five minutes to finish so you now can't actually be back in time.

Anyone? I've checked my copy of Meditation for Dummies but apparently it was too dumb of a question to be included - or, ~hopeful~ maybe it wasn't dumb enough.

Basically Osho describes meditation as doing nothing, just being. It has definite shades of shikantaza and Zen practice, that also believes that eventually meditation could be practiced continuously, that one could do a range of things as long as “the centering of one’s being is not disturbed”. It’s true that it is very simple, but it’s not that easy to actually do.

“Real meditation is not about mastering a technique; it’s about letting go of control. This is meditation. Anything else is actually a form of concentration. Meditation and concentration are two different things. Concentration is a discipline; concentration is a way in which we are actually directing or guiding or controlling our experience. Meditation is letting go of control, letting go of guiding our experience in any way whatsoever. The foundation of True Meditation is that we are letting go of control.”
― Adyashanti, True Meditation: Discover the Freedom of Pure Awareness

If I look at this quote, my gut tells me it’s true. It resonates, and it’s true that most forms of classically taught meditation are concentration exercises, such as on the breath. But my head tells me my mind is an integrated whole, which is always going to be based on some vestige of control. That’s reason, thought.

Some forms of meditation are pretty freeform though… Shikantaza?

The other thing that occurs to me is “what would Osho say?” Osho’s meditations incorporated wild uncontrolled dance, shaking, and sudden stops. His dynamic meditation was very much uncontrolled.

In any case, the voice hearing led me onto becoming an expert-by-experience. It involves a training in which you tell your story to a group, with the idea of helping others with your experience. It was one of the purest experiences of compassion I have known. Later on I joined a project for helping others deal with difficult experiences, and spent several years there working with clients. These were people suffering from loneliness, a man who hadn’t been out of his house for 20 years who I started meeting for coffee at a local centre, and a man suffering from bipolar.

Compassion I think comes from acting out of the heart, if I think back to those training sessions there was a tremendous honesty towards yourself and others, an openness, a tackling of difficult emotional subjects which I think is central to the expert-by-experience role. Looking back on the years I did this work it has enriching.

It was an interesting time. My father and mother ran a meditation centre for a while, and eventually separated. My father gave up his job, and we joined a commune in the forests in the heart of the Netherlands. It was a radical step at the time, leaving all ambition and worldly possessions behind. I think I had two small suitcases, one with toys and one with clothes, and that was it. My father had trained as a software engineer at a Technical University here, so he had a decent job within the commune and options outside it if he wanted to leave.

But we ended up going to Bhagwan’s commune in the United States, emigrating was an entirely different experience I have to say. For a while we lived in rooms in shared houses with other sannyasins, but we still wore the orange, even in schools before we got to the commune. For the actual commune experience in the US, I was 13 at the time, but already pretty self reliant. I remember going to school half days, and working part of the day answering phones and stuff. There weren’t many luxuries that we could afford, so we lived modestly within the commune system.

We weren’t quite true renunciates in the Hindu sannyasin style. There was plenty of sex in the commune, everyone had a little cabin to sleep in, and we didn’t have time to sit by the river and contemplate. Commune life includes a lot of hard work, but you did get to leave behind a lot of other things like a lot of personal possessions — cars for instance were nearly all owned by the commune — there were free bus rides, there was a shared free library, you could pick up new clothes if you needed them for free, it was a whole new way of living.

So I would argue that for my father and mother it was a way of renouncing, breaking with the larger world, getting away from the stifling christianity in the Netherlands. I just kind of grew up in this, in a deeply spiritual surrounding.

For many other dualities, the middle way is a good method, and should be deployed judiciously. It is often in finding a good balance that both sides of an argument are learnt, and wisdom arises. It is life experience, real lived circumstance, that often shows us where the extremes of things are, and allows the middle way to flourish. These things are part of the examined life, if life is lived in unawareness, then the lessons are not learnt and we do not become wise.

Sometimes it is a good idea to spend time at the extremes. I have spent a lot of time resting over the last few years. That is an extreme, but it can be a beneficial extreme. I have also done some fairly extreme diets in order to lose weight, and that had a beneficial effect, for a while. So as with all things, knowing when to make exceptions is also a good thing.

What I'm really wondering though is if this is a passing feeling brought up by some external factors or if I've peeled back some layers and am touching some sort of deep feeling. The difference being the former will pass on its own without having to pay it much mind. While the latter involves some deeper searching and sitting to fully see it and be able to let it go. I'm hoping there might be some insight that can be shared as to how I can tell the difference.

The things that you still cling to will be revealed, those things that call up a response of “this is very important” end up coming to the fore. In some people this ends up as strange beliefs and psychosis, while a meditator will weather the storm by saying “these are just thoughts and I will observe them”. The Buddha said that in the end all attachment to views should be let go of, or so I have heard, and this is good training for that.

In a way this inner journey is both a blessing and a curse, a curse because it is arduous, painful, disconcerting; a blessing because it is a ceaseless series of revelations of what we have not dealt with. As long as you continue to operate with inner honesty the path remains clear.

His Friday night guided meditations are excellent for us Noobs

Is it good that I'm aware of this? Or is it bad to not know better?

This three day online retreat started this morning (Easter Friday) here in Australia. Feel free to register and join. It's never too late.

Zazen

Samadhi

SN Goenka introduces Vipassana meditation

Lama Surya Das “Dzogchen”

Hope all are well!

On contemplating it further, it seemed to me that it was talking about the fragments of my inner mind, the things the inner self works with on the inside of the mind. I’ve always avoided imposing a rigid order on these kind of meditations, just working with the impressions I gather of there being some kind of entity in charge of the mind. It’s my own inner system.

I have always thought that the inner self would know how to work with the mind to make it meditative. Now for it to say that most of the things it works with are ignorance seems like a useful insight on its part. Slowly wisdom is arising in the inner world.