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Stimuli
ThailandTom
Veteran
Recently in meditation and everyday life I have been started to become aware at how much stimuli is hitting our brain each moment.
The meditation aspect of realizing this stimuli is of no real problem, obviously it is quite the opposite. If I feel an ache in my foot I tell myself, 'ache' and then relat it to my senses picking something up and sending a signal to my brain. If I must move the foot due to the ache, I am consciously aware that I am telling my foot to meet, subseqently it does.
I just keep telling myself of the stimuli and connection between body and mind basically.
When it comes to not sitting in meditation, I try to imply a similar method-my eye can see the chair, which tells my brain I am seeing a chair, but this is only a lable, it is in fact bits of wood and metal crafted to make the 'chair'. This is only one sense, and one 'object', one could go insane trying to apply this constantly with regards to the 6 sensory doors.
And ontop of that, when I say on the computer or talking to people, it is near impossible to be so mindful. If I am for example with my GF and I merely sit and observe my senses in this way, there exactly would not be much conversation going on :-/
The meditation aspect of realizing this stimuli is of no real problem, obviously it is quite the opposite. If I feel an ache in my foot I tell myself, 'ache' and then relat it to my senses picking something up and sending a signal to my brain. If I must move the foot due to the ache, I am consciously aware that I am telling my foot to meet, subseqently it does.
I just keep telling myself of the stimuli and connection between body and mind basically.
When it comes to not sitting in meditation, I try to imply a similar method-my eye can see the chair, which tells my brain I am seeing a chair, but this is only a lable, it is in fact bits of wood and metal crafted to make the 'chair'. This is only one sense, and one 'object', one could go insane trying to apply this constantly with regards to the 6 sensory doors.
And ontop of that, when I say on the computer or talking to people, it is near impossible to be so mindful. If I am for example with my GF and I merely sit and observe my senses in this way, there exactly would not be much conversation going on :-/
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Comments
''my foot to meet'' lol, 'foot to move''
''I have been started to become aware'' - ''I have started to become aware''
I guess this is due to my seizure because I never use to make such mistakes. Anyway, sorry for the typos and excuse the spelling
It's the outside stimulus that gets me. Radio, TV, cars, helicopters, barking dogs, chain saws, leaf blowers, etc, etc, etc. I got rid of TV in my life a long time ago. I listen to the radio, but 99% of it is news (NPR or BBC) and classical, ethnic, or jazz music. And it's not on 24/7 in my house either. One reason I'm so keen to move back to my house in the country next summer is that most of the time, I can leave the windows open and hear nothing but the sounds of nature. The little spring that burbles past my window, dozens of kinds of birds, cows mooing, the wind rustling the leaves, etc. Nature, unlike man, doesn't generally assault the senses. Man-made noise for the most part is like a physical assault. Mozart excepted, of course
I recently have just finished a session and there is a piano playing somewhere which was somewhat lulling, but then a motorbike scorted past the other side of my house at some fast rate.
Anyway, I was hoping for some advice on everday life, for example what I stated with regards to being in company of people or alone with my GF, how can one be so mindful to deconstruct each thought and the 6 sense doors in such situations?
The dog is barking?
The dog joins in the mantra.
The plane is flying over?
The plane joins in the mantra.
The passing car blares its stereo?
Its boom chacka lacka sound joins in the mantra
mantra
mantra
mantra
The entire earth screaming, crying, loving, fighting...
the sound of all these children learning, growing, becoming...
the great wheel turns with compassion for all
the great compassion mantra
I live in Thailand as I am presuming you do
and much respect for trying meditation as a method to enhance your life and your experinces of it. If you want to lift only you then carry on.
If you want to lift yourself and others then mahayana is your path.
If mahayana is your path then it has to be the lotus sutra.
To be the lotus sutra it has to be Nichiren.
To be Nichiren it could be the sgi, but then this would be like choosing the short straw.
To choose the long straw, to drink from the natural platform of life.
Chant Namu Myoho Renge Kyo, insert Kempon Hokke Shu into your browser and begin your enlightenment journey on the path of your life.
If you comment under maybe we can meet or talk more
analytical mental labeling is not skillful mindfulness as i understand it. it actually is kind of the opposite of mindfulness...
In a Dhamma talk I recently listened to Bhante Gunaratana actually talked about this and why it is not a productive thing to do. I can find the talk for you if you are interested, just let me know.
But thanks, I will go and do some reading on kempon shu
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/mahasi/progress.html
I know that labels mean nothing, but it states within that link that you should make a connection between the 6 sensory doors and your body by doing certain things.
certain techniques, as you can see, may be more appropriate for sitting and not appropriate for normal 'waking life'... i ran into a very similar problem trying to develop right concentration and not being able to function socially in a correct way, because what i had developed was WRONG concentration for non-sitting.
it seems to me like your technique may be more appropriate for sitting...
if your mind is flopping around trying to break apart and label everything when youre having a conversation this is wrong concentration and wrong mindfulness. in my experience, right mindfulness does not interfere in any way with social interaction, but GREATLY enhances it.
''must, in fact, be developed by noticing,[15] according to their specific and general characteristics,[16] the bodily and mental processes that become evident at the six sense doors. At the beginning, however, it is difficult to follow and to notice clearly all bodily and mental processes that incessantly appear at the six sense doors. Therefore the meditator who is a beginner should first notice the perfectly distinct process of touch, perceived through the door of bodily sensitivity; because the Visuddhimagga says that in insight meditation one should take up what is distinct. When sitting, there occurs the bodily process of touch by way of the sitting posture and through touch sensitivity in the body. These processes of tactile sensitivity should be noticed as "Sitting _ touching _," and so forth, in due succession. Further, at the seated meditator's abdomen, the tactile process of bodily motion (that is, the wind, or vibratory, element) which has breathing as its condition, is perceptible continuously as the rise (expansion) and fall (contraction) of the abdomen. That too should be noticed as "rising, falling," and so forth. While the meditator is thus engaged in noticing the element of motion which impinges continuously on the door of bodily sensitivity in the abdomen, it becomes evident to him in its aspects of stiffening, of vibrating, and of pushing and pulling. Here, the aspect of stiffening shows the motion element's characteristic nature of supporting; the aspect of vibrating shows its essential function of movement; and the aspect of pushing and pulling shows its manifestation of impelling.''
I have just realized that this whole link is about sitting meditation, then joshua said that I should go about my day to day life reminding myself at times exatly what I am feeling and doing. But, in this link it goes on to state that
''Thus, when seeing a visual object with the eye, the meditator knows how to distinguish each single factor involved: "The eye is one; the visual object is another; seeing is another, and knowing it is another." The same manner applies in the case of the other sense functions.
For at the time, in each act of noticing, the meditator comes to know analytically the mental processes of noticing, and those of thinking and reflecting, knowing them for himself through direct knowledge by his experience thus: "They have the nature of going towards an object, inclining towards an object, cognizing an object." On the other hand, he knows analytically the material processes going on in the whole body — which are here described as "the rising and falling movements of the abdomen," "sitting," etc., knowing them thus: "These have not the nature of going or inclining towards an object, or of cognizing an object." Such knowing is called "knowing matter (or the body) by its manifestation of non-determining." For it is said in the Mula-Tika, the "Principal Sub-commentary" to the Abhidhamma Vibhanga: "In other words, 'non-determining' (as in the passage quoted) should be understood as having no faculty of cognizing an object."
.....
its been my experience that some of the more advanced Buddhist writings and commentaries can be very confusing if you are new to meditation or practice in general. you may have better results with a more simple & clear manual like 'mindfulness in plain english'.