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Revolving Colours

ThailandTomThailandTom Veteran
edited December 2011 in Meditation
I am not a good meditator to say the least, but recently when I have been meditating I sometimes get a kind of visual. After reading about visuals for the last 2-3 years, I know that they are a bi-product of meditation and one should not become attached to them. I get that, that is fine. I was just wondering if you could use the visuals as a 'focus point' instead of or as well as say your breath? These revolving colours are not bright and in your face so to speak, the only way for me to explain it is that if you had a photoshop document with a black background, these colours would been a layer above but with an opacity of about 25%. They kind of swirl around slowly and change shape slightly. Is it wrong to focus on them instead of your breath at this point?

Comments

  • ajnast4rajnast4r Veteran
    edited December 2011
    It would be incorrect to focus on those. You won't be able to establish concentration on those. Any visual you see at the beginner stage (new, less than 30 mins sitting like you had said) should be ignored.
  • ThailandTomThailandTom Veteran
    Okay thanks for that. I was under the asumption that if I focus on them, then I would still be concentrating my mind to a single point. But of course I will take your advice. I really should make myself meditate past 20 minutes. I get to that point and I just lose concentration and the urge to open my eyes starts to distract me more and more with each second.
  • ajnast4rajnast4r Veteran
    You may be able to establish basic concentration on them I'm not sure. The idea is that some objects will take you into jhana and some will not. the breath will.

    The distraction your feeling sounds like restlessness. I had this same problem and would break my meditations at the 20-30 minute mark as well for a long time as soon as that restlessness popped up.

    Restlessness is a hindrance and there are specific techniques for dealing with them. Mindfulness in plain english has a section on dealing with the hindrances. What I do is simply note it as restlessness and return to the breath. Usually after 5-10 minutes this initial restlessness breaks into basic concentration. You ultimately make the choice to give in to it or not... You just have to make the commitment to overcome it and not give in. It may come up for 30 seconds and go away, it may come up for hours... Either way it can (and must) be overcome.

  • ThailandTomThailandTom Veteran
    Enter right effort I assume. Will power, that is one part of my personality I really do need to work on. Next time I come to meditate, which should be at 1am with the newbuddhist retreat (but I have my second thai exam 2moro so I am not sure), I will keep in mind what you have suggested. Thank you :)
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    'observe' rather than 'focus'.
    I get them too, all the time. Fascinating.
  • Telly03Telly03 Veteran
    edited December 2011
    I get them as well...purple and greens. It was a new approach for me to stop focusing on them as I used to before I called sitting zazen... still a bit of a challenge, but making progress.
  • JeffreyJeffrey Veteran
    Just curious, but are your eyes closed?
  • ThailandTomThailandTom Veteran
    yep, they are closed. That is why I described it as being a photoshop document which is a black background with colours of opacity around 25% lol. The best way I could think of describing it. My eyes may be ever so slightly open, but I cannot be sure.
  • CittaCitta Veteran
    edited December 2011
    There is a whole traditional Buddhist practice...which in my opinion needs personal instruction before commencing....called Kasina practice. The object of attention is a disc of colored material...often cardboard. Different colors are used to produce mental states...but also to point to the process by which those states come into being, it can go as deep as you want.
  • Steve_BSteve_B Veteran
    Some years ago I read the Tibetan Book of the Dead. It gave me intense images of the infinite universe and our time and place in the cosmos. I don't remember if these images are specifically in the text or it evoked them in me, but it planted a seed of contemplating our (my) miniscule-ness against the unfathomable vastness of the galaxies and cosmic time and space.

    When I close my eyes to meditate I see these slow swirling vague shapes that remind me of the interaction of galaxies. I like that I have a window to the infinite cosmos. Fitting that the images seem within, but directly link to the great beyond.
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    Sorry @Steve_B, but you really shouldn't attach any cosmic significance to them at all. they're just phosphenes, and very common.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosphene
  • Steve_BSteve_B Veteran
    I don't consider them any more cosmically significant (or less cosmically significant) than my breath. Just a simple physiologic process in my own body that I can focus on, but with convivial imagery.
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    Ah. ok, cool. It's just that we have had previous posters, attaching a great spiritually-moving experience to them, and creating great fantasies out of something which (sad for them, to say) is actually nothing of the kind.... people can get caught up on these notions, and fly off in all kinds of directions....! :)
  • JayjayJayjay Veteran
    I've been experiencing slightly the same phenomenon and without reading all this can someone help me out? Sometimes when I focus on chakras and the colors associating with them I can see that color in the same way described above except its more of a blotch or paint splat not a rotating orb of color. Like the other day while meditating I saw a purple blotch shape and thought it was a signal to my crown chakra growing/opening/expanding/or something else. I was in a deep meditation and thought it was a good thing so I slightly focused on it while focusing on my breath. Good or bad? Thank you all once again for the help :) Love you all!
  • DakiniDakini Veteran
    Stay with the breath. You can color the breath purple, if you want, really. If you're a beginner and are already reaching "deep" meditation, you're doing well indeed. It's all good. Don't worry. Breathe. :)
  • Telly03Telly03 Veteran
    Recognize it, but there is no reason to focus on it... It's normal. I have had the colors from the first time I meditated around 15 years ago, and I still have them, even with eyes open. I guess they helped me to calm and focus on something, but that was before I called it zazen and learning to focus on breaths.
  • JayjayJayjay Veteran
    @Dakini and @Telly03 Thanks for the advice, will do! I'll focus on the breath now. I'm gonna start a discussion on another meditation 'sensation' I've had a couple times so I don't have to continue a conversation on someone else's discussion.
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