Once upon a time ...
http://newbuddhist.com/discussion/4389/full-lotus

Many yogi, dharma religions, new-wagers (spiritual capitalists), Buddhists, magicians etc, advocate the Full Lotus for meditation.
What are the benefits if any?

My own experience

• If painful or disabling (yes it can damage people) it is distractive at best
• Slight discomfort keeps us attentive
• Some practitioners attach to its cultural mystique

Are you a pretzel Buddhist?

Spend a lot of time working logically. Spend a lot of time coming to determinations logically. Spend a lot of my waking life playing logical games and making what feel like logical moves to logical places.

But then there is the rest of life. The parts that will come and that will manifest without logical intervention.

There is the emotional and affectual side.

There is the gut and intuitive level and deeper.

Since i (= this jumble of patterns) began practicing meditation it became more apparent that logic was not the only way to come to knowledge.

When I was in college as a first year, a professor challenged us with the question: how else to come to a conclusion but with reason?

And although I had no way to articulate what I knew to be true, I was very unwavering in my presentation that there were other ways to Know and Decide.

Ten years latter I finally have some words on the matter.

Fascination

Expectation

Frustration

Procrastination

Contemplation

Continuation

Revelation

Concentration

So where are you at ?
Do you often get stuck ?
Or at times do mood swings take you through all stages ?

I must admit I quite enjoy sitting around doing nothing

The way I sit for meditation is on a Buckwheat cushion, sat on top of a mat. The "position" I have been trying to do is the Burmese posture, however I find my poor ankles crying out in pain (one of which I am pretty sure still hasn't healed from a sprain I suffered about 15 years ago). My feet also love to fall asleep on me and cause great discomfort. For the past few days I have felt very frustrated during meditation due to the pain and the inability to get my monkey mind to concentrate on the breath. Today I tried the "seiza" position by turning the cushion on it's side and straddling it. Surprisingly, I felt little pain and even seemed to breath better! So I am investing in a seiza stool and seeing if that helps.

So I guess my question is, how do YOU like to sit? How long did it take for you to realize that was THE position for you? Also, any advice for a meditation newb?

Thank you!

But I have long wrestled with the tumble-down-the-rabbit-hole of lustfulness, especially with one’s darkest deepest fantasies just 2-3 mouse clicks away. I find myself wrestling again with my old traveling companion, Lusty. And short of finding a charnel ground or tracking down that Buddhist Playboy, I’d welcome how others keep Lusty at bay. I recently encountered on a more wholesome web search, kusozu, Japanese watercolor paintings that graphically depict human decomposition, which were popular between the 13th and 19th centuries. I maybe should put those watercolors on speed-dial (or speed-click). ?

One thing that has stayed with me though, for all the years after that “Satori”-kind of experience, is a burning spot in the middle spine and in the stomach (sometimes, it seems to be in the first-mentioned place, and sometimes in the second. Though it affects the stomach, it radiates from a spot in the spinal nerves, located at about the middle distance down the spine). More than anything else, it is very much like heartburn, and can be quite severe at times. I still practice meditation (watching the rise and fall of the abdomen) and sometimes, when I don’t sleep well, I practice this while lying in bed. Sometimes, the practice, while lying down, can carry on for hours.

Recently, I retired to bed with what seemed to be an insoluble personal problem on my mind. I lay for hours, wrestling with this problem, which was linked with other parties. To lie there, unable to see a way out, was rather like being in hell. I started to watch the rise and fall of the abdomen, and kept this up, despite wandering thoughts, coming back to it when I realised that attention had wandered. Hours passed and, eventually, daylight started to creep into the bedroom. Still, I had not slept.

The next thing that I knew, I was waking from a short, deep sleep. In that sleep, my consciousness had “plunged down” (this is the only way that it can be described) from being concentrated “in my head” (because of worried thoughts) to the same nerve centre, down in the spine. (This had happened years before, on more than one occasion.) On waking, it felt as if “I” was surfacing, after diving into deep, deep water, which water was black. Instantly, and without any thinking, I realised that the problem that I had been wrestling with had totally dissolved. There was no problem left, for an insight, given from that “dark centre”, had dissolved it totally! (With intellect alone, I should never have seen that solution in a hundred years!) Further, from the nerve-centre radiated feelings of healing. Very soon after this, I fell asleep again, and, in a vivid dream, I was trying to find someone that I knew could help me in a certain matter. I asked different people where this person could be found, but they refused to tell me. Finally, someone told me that, in this locality (it was a village strange to me), people believed that, if something needed to be known, one would be led to it “by telepathy”. Surely, this must have been a reference to the insight that had arrived out of the blackness?

I could go on. Many times, rather wonderful events have occurred. Then, when they faded away and became mere memories, things seem to return to the humdrum course of events that I call my life.

However, there is one constant factor, and this is that the “nerve centre”, down in the spine, does not always radiate peace or healing. Mostly, it radiates burning pain. Yet, there are occasional days when this does not happen, and my body feels normal.

I recall reading (somewhere in the Buddhist sutras, but I forget where) that Buddha said that a meditator would need to put up with "pricking pains, ?? pains", before he found the way through. That's all that I remember. My experience seems to show that he was telling the truth. However, no matter what I do or how I practice, this almost-permanent pain remains.

Does anyone have any knowledge of how this discomfort can be alleviated, or what could be done to "get through" it? Many years ago, I mentioned this problem to a fellow-meditator, describing it as severe heartburn. He must have known something about it, because he replied, “Joe (not my real name), it isn’t heartburn.” Yet, I did not have wit to ask him what he meant! Perhaps he could have shed light on the matter, and helped me in some way. However, this opportunity was missed.

I am hoping that someone in this forum will be able to do that. If private correspondence were necessary, I should be very willing to engage in that.

With thanks in hopeful anticipation,
Q.

Does anyone have any advice on meditation in this circumstance? Maybe a different type of practice?

What happens when none is left?

Unity Attained:

Who dares to equal him
Who falls into neither being nor non-being!
All men want to leave
The current of ordinary life,
But he, after all, comes back
To sit among the coals and ashes.

https://dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?f=69&t=29215

@Kerome said:
It’s a good question though, what do we bottle up? Or rather what is the thing that arises out of us when put under pressure? With me I often return to fear, that when I encounter something new the first thing I end up looking for is what to fear and so I generate fear inside myself.

But what do we want to bottle up?

We are not the bottle/container/shell but the contents. Most of us are a strange perfumed pickled thought menagerie ...

We just can allow the contents to settle. We each have a different approach but we must:

• return to the breath
• improve our behavour
• follow the Middle Way

etc.

Well we know the drill. Improve the interior and glow ...
Interior and exterior merge

As we know from hagiography the Buddha in his final incarnation spent his early life in ignorance pursuing worldliness (tsk, tsk) then starved and abused his body as was the spiritual fashion at the time until:

• ay caramba. Awakening.
• quick chat with local gods and bingo. Buddhism.

Now we have the opportunity of a more mature posture.

Entering a yoga pose can give us an understanding and training in discomfort/dukkha and its arising/relaxing/accepting ... It works for me at the moment and has health benefits too ...

Do you ever meditate in an asana/posture? Well apart from the usual seated, lying and standing postures?

This morning I found myself looking for repose in a very gentle shoulder stand and finding it ...

Next I may adopt the child pose ...

I did try and find a nice video or something on Tibetan 5 rites practice but nothing appropriate so far ...

I thought that this might make a good topic for discussion here, where we can all learn and find out how we can put these teachings into practice in our every day lives. In a nutshell, the idea of lojong practices are to change our habitual way of thinking away from our normally ego-centric mode of being.

Here we will be discussing the "7 Points of Mind Training", which is a text that is generally attributed to a Tibetan Master named Chekawa Yeshe Dorje (1102-1176) who was a student of the great Indian Master Atisha.

The 7 main points are:

1. The Preliminaries, which teach the support for dharma.

2. The actual practice, training in bodhicitta.

3. The transformation of adverse conditions into the path of awakening.

4. The utilization of the practice in one's whole life.

5. The extent of proficiency in mind training.

6. Commitments of mind training.

7. Guidelines of mind training.

These are further broken down into 59 slogans. There have been numerous commentaries in this classic text and the one I will be mainly referring to was written by Jamgon Kongtrul (1813-1899) and was given the title "The Great Path to Awakening". Many modern day contemporary Masters have written their own explanations of the 7 points in the form of books, and these include Pema Chodron, Ringu Tulku, Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche and others.

It is my wish that some may gain benefit from these discussions, and may even inspire some to receive these teaching themselves someday.

In the following posts I will begin with the slogan, which will be bolded. I encourage anyone to join in on the discussion, including how we can (or do) put each slogan into our everyday experiences. After all, this is the purpose of these teachings!

Please be patient, as I will try to update new slogans and thoughts when I can. I am married, have a 2 year old and a daily practice which takes up a good deal of time...lol.

Enjoy...

So a recent trend in my meditation has been a niggling, sometimes thundering doubt that I don’t know what I’m doing. This voice says things like:

“I’m not doing the right practice. Breath-focus is a basic technique and I should have moved on by now.” (FYI, I do do other practices from time to time.)

“I’m terrible at meditation. What good is it doing me or anyone, if I can’t even do it properly?”

“I’m not spending long enough doing this each day.”

And so on, all within a mind that has become quite prone to meditative dullness recently.

Has anybody else experienced periods of disillusionment with meditation? Did you overcome them?

It strikes me as perfectly ironic that being so unsure of myself, is actually a sign that I’m sure of my [space] self. I’m sure that these doubts are “mine”, sure that my meditative progress is part of “me”. Do you know what I mean?

“One approach is to think of meditation as instrumental, as a method, a discipline that allows us to cultivate, refine, and deepen our capacity to pay attention and to dwell in present-moment awareness…This way of looking at meditation is necessary, important, and valid. But…this method-based way of describing the process is not in itself complete and can, by itself, give an erroneous impression of what meditation actually involves…

“There is a second, equally valid, way to describe it, a description that is critical to a complete understanding of what meditation really is when we come to practice it.

“The other way of describing meditation is that whatever ‘meditation’ is, it is not instrumental at all. If it is a method, it is a method of no method. It is not a doing. There is no going anywhere, nothing to practice, no beginning, middle, or end, no attainment, and nothing to attain. Rather, it is the direct realization and embodiment in this very moment of who you already are, outside of time and space and concepts of any kind, a resting in the very nature of your being, in what is sometimes called the natural state, original mind, pure awareness, no mind, or simply emptiness. You are already everything you may hope to attain…You are already it. It is already here. Here is already everywhere and now is already always…And there is no purpose to meditation…other than to be awake to what is actually so…

“These two ways of understanding what meditation is are complementary and paradoxical, just as are the wave and particle nature of matter at the quantum level and below. That means that neither is complete by itself. Alone, neither is completely true. Together, they both become true.

“For this reason, both descriptions are important to know of and keep in mind from the very beginning…That way, we are less likely to get caught on the horns of dualistic thinking, either striving too hard to attain what we already are, or claiming to already be what we have not in actuality tasted and realized and have no way of drawing on, even though technically speaking it may be true and we are already it….

“These two descriptions inform each other…”

--Jon Kabat-Zinn, from his wonderful book Coming to Our Senses. I think this beautifully expresses what I was trying to express in my recent “Note” on “The Paradox of the Wave Seeking the Ocean.”

X

There are always many discussions on how meditation has impacted people's lives . I am just wondering what kind of impact metta has had on you? What insights and impacts have you gained from the practice? I think it is such a beautiful practice, it brings me such a sense of love, joy and wellbeing. I also find it puts me very much in touch with my emotional realm - I can feel any sadness or grief, but there is space there too.

The Existential Buddhist

https://tricycle.org/magazine/vipassana-meditation/

In Vipassana mediation, the meditator uses his concentration as a tool by which his awareness can chip away at the wall of illusion that cuts him off from the living light of reality. It is a gradual process of ever-increasing awareness into the inner workings of reality itself. It takes years, but one day the meditator chisels through that wall and tumbles into the presence of light. The transformation is complete. It’s called Liberation, and it’s permanent. Liberation is the goal of all Buddhist systems of practice. But the routes to the attainment of that end are quite diverse.

THE OLDEST BUDDHIST MEDITATION PRACTICE

Vipassana is the oldest of Buddhist meditation practices. The method comes directly from the Satipatthana Sutta [Foundations of Mindfulness], a discourse attributed to the Buddha himself. Vipassana is a direct and gradual cultivation of mindfulness or awareness. It proceeds piece by piece over a period of years. The student’s attention is carefully directed to an intense examination of certain aspects of his own existence. The meditator is trained to notice more and more of his own flowing life experience.

What is this world of zero in which he says most of us exist? It is the ice of our illusions and our desires, the frozen expanse of our misunderstandings, in which we are trapped. The open water of the world into which we were born has gradually frozen into rigid delusions about how things actually are. Little by little, our opinions, our ideas, our viewpoint have congealed until we are trapped within them.
https://ancientwayjournal.wordpress.com/2018/04/01/the-world-below-zero/

Tsk, tsk can it be true? What then is the fresh flowing water? The letting go of steam and ultimately returning to plasma ... perhaps ...

Is it ironic, that frozen zen sitting leads to melting and melting frees our ability to freeze?

Hope there is something of value in the link ...

When your ass goes numb on the cushion, it doesn't feel like such a smart ass.

Are we sitting comfortably? Fidget meditation?

We have many niggles, which the samsaric mind latches on to and enlarges to monster proportions ...
This might be very apparant during sitting. Relax. Let go. Accept. Heard that before?

For me, many phases and the gradual fading of outer focus. Meanwhile ...

What is your sitting niggle and cure?

https://oneminddharma.com/meditating-while-high/

Zazen: seated meditation
Shikantaza: Just, only, exactly, precisely sitting

Now what is the difference?
If I tell you to sit and meditate, what do you do?
In a recent question the person asked what to do when losing focus in shikantaza: return to the breath, return to body awareness or otherwise?
If you were doing 'sit and meditate' these would be valid answers.
However, shikantaza is not 'sit and meditate'. It's Just, only, exactly, precisely sitting.
The moment you return to the breath you are not doing 'only sitting'.
The same applies to 'return to awareness of the body', this is also not 'only sitting'. The moment you are thinking about sitting you are not doing Just, only, exactly, precisely sitting. Even when you sit without any point of focus but sitting and have the notion 'I'm doing 'sitting and nothing else' you are off.

To know the difference you'd have to experiment. What does it mean to sit and meditate? You probably know this.
But what does it mean to do Just, only, exactly, precisely sitting?
You'd have to work to understand just that. And it's not an easy task.
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-zazen-and-shikantaza

• Mindfulness meditation ... oh dear ... meditation at all times ...

What are your top five, or are you a one technique type of gal?

It’s happened to me a few times, I’m sitting there in silence with my eyes closed. It starts off with a little blob of colour that catches my attention and as I focus on it it expands and then there’s another one in the corner of my vision. Before I know it there’s a few of them all expanding or shrinking with new ones appearing.

There’s no drugs or alcohol involved.

• deep breaths, concentrating on the nostrils, thinking “in” and “out”... this brings quite a high focus to the nostrils, but it can lead to a calm meditative state within about 10 minutes
• sucking air in and out through the mouth, concentrating on the breath in the mouth, thinking “in” and “out”... this also brings a high focus, is maybe even better for very noisy environments, can bring a calm meditative state within about 20 minutes

Just wanted to share these because it can be quite difficult to get past a turbulent mind.

I had quite a satisfactory meditation with these methods yesterday.

https://www.diamondway-buddhism.org/diamond-way/

I settled myself down in meditation posture, half closed my eyes and focused on the concept of fear, seeing what insight might come. After about five minutes what came was that “fear was a protector”. The thoughts that followed were about protecting ourselves from physical arm, and the thought to not take things so easy. Several minutes later the thought came that “fear was avoidance”, that it altered the patterns of our thoughts and behaviour away from a true seeing and being, that it was one of the Three Poisons.

The last thing that came was a thought about “what is the source of his vanity?” Which I thought was an interesting hint for me.

Have you ever thought deeply about the nature of fear and how it shapes us?

Do you know what you are doing? In fact are you doing too much?

Here are some clues:

• Concentrates: tight ass, one technique based discipline. Working?
• Contemplation - sort of mind rapping on a theme. Focus needed. Not mind wandering ... or then again ...
• Meditation - answers in an email to the usual address...
• Relax ... oh that is a big clue ...

I get the definite impression there is more going on when I meet these things, that I’m not properly understanding their origins.

To keep things short, ive encountered some energies of a different order, a more focussed and cleaner energy that was more dense than how I perceive my essence, which is totally transparent and colourless to me. It was quite beautiful and I ended up wondering if it was possible or desirable to shift my own pitch to match.

I know the Sona Sutta talks about

"In the same way, Sona, over-aroused persistence leads to restlessness, overly slack persistence leads to laziness. Thus you should determine the right pitch for your persistence, attune the pitch of the [five] faculties [to that], and there pick up your theme.”

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an06/an06.055.than.html

Does anyone have any experience “attuning the pitch of the five faculties”?

But in spite of trying to let go, some frustration remains. It takes around 30 minutes for my mind to settle down some. At that point, I can sometimes try focusing on my breath or metta, and that usually works out well. What’s a bit frustrating is the really long time it takes for my mind to settle. And also, after it settles, boredom sometimes kicks in, making it harder to focus.

Any thoughts or suggestions? I’ve kind of plateaued with this, and am not quite sure where to go from here.

What has meditation ever done for us?
https://www.reddit.com/r/Meditation/comments/3wb0xx/what_has_meditation_done_for_you/

Here is some of my benefits from a daily practice:

• More peace of mind/less suffering
• Developing understanding
• More awareness

What are your experiences?

1. On impermanence
2. On the fading of desire
3. On cessation
4. On relinquishment

But I found Thich Nhat Hanh has done a beautiful translation which I wanted to share:

1. Observing the impermanent nature of all dharmas: the concentration on impermanence is a deep and wonderful path of meditation. It’s a fundamental recognition of the nature of all that exists. Everything is in endless transformation and all things are without an independent self.
2. Observing the disappearance of desire: Seeing the true nature of our desire and the objects of desire, we know that happiness doesn’t lie in attaining those objects or in our hopes for future accomplishments. We observe clearly the impermanent nature of all things, their coming into being and fading away.
3. Observing cessation: Cessation means cessation of all the erroneous notions and ideas that keep us fromdirectlyexperiencing the ultimate reality, and cessation of the suffering that is born from ignorance. Then we can be in touch with the wonderful true nature of the way things are.
4. Observing letting go: This exercise helps us look deeply (in)to give up desire and attachment, fear and anger. We don’t let go of reality, we let go of our wrong perceptions about reality. The more we let go, the happier we become.

It’s quite a series of contemplations to do in one sitting

One’s “mind becomes steadied internally, quieted, brought to singleness, and concentrated.”

Merry Christmas

It’s interesting the stuff the mind throws up trying to interpret these sensations, it builds a whole story and tries to tempt you into jumping in and taking control. And the moment you move away from meditation you get lost in the story, the withdrawal stops, like a sign you are getting too involved.

I finished off the day with a little laughing meditation... good way to shed vibes from an intense meditation.

I don't need to resolve to meditate. Every day more benefits ...

For those intending to practice ... here are some tips:

• Keep the spine relaxed, note use of hammock-mind
• You can drop the hat or wear it
• Wear loose or lost clothing
• Think beach, not wail
• Keep the Inner Shining

http://sweepingzen.com

New forum for Zen beginners, novices and Zeniths
https://zen1.space

Do you do? How do you do? All I got is a zafu ...

Going through the various parts of the body.

This has a two fold affect I find - creates disgust and aversion for our body (Asubha) and also shows that the body is not self.

Very calming and sobering I have found...

Similarly when I close my eyes, in meditation I often come back to the sensation around my bum, where there are often something that feels like ticks or twitches. It is an awareness of the body, but it is not directly touch on the skin. It often seems to be in an area below my bum.

Have you explored your senses in meditation? Can you keep them separate, for example noise in touch and noise in hearing seem to overlap?

When I was a Krill, I was curious about awakening ...
http://www.dummies.com/religion/spirituality/how-to-practice-curiosity-for-mindfulness/

Now that I am more attentive to awareness I wander more in Wonderland ...

Curiouser and curiouser!” Cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English).”
Alice in Wonderland.

Is awakening the end or beginning of curiosity?

_ /\ _

https://autopsy.online

I am a great believer in breathing. So far so good.

Buddhist breathing 'technology' includes:

• Tantric wind farming
• Chanting
• Observance of breath

Lately I have been breathing silently, in and out through the nose. Into the mind, out from The Still.
https://meditation-oasis.squarespace.com/how-to-meditate/general-guidelines

Where is your breath at?

Those who know me, will understand why this mala is important to me, having lost everything I possessed previously, including mu Buddha-altar statues and lamps, to an unscrupulous and mean-spirited landlady....

Would you like to post pictures of your dispensable, transitory 'precious tools'....?

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-01/slow-walking-is-taking-off-in-national-parks/9207068