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intersting question
Ok, first of all, hello 
I'm new here, I mostly post in the meditation forums but I think this is a broader question.
To start, I was listening to
http://www.dhammatalks.org/Archive/090826%20A%20Touchstone%20at%20the%20Breath.mp3
About half way through it the speaker talks about tapping into the water element. From the point on I feel like I have never heard any of that before, can't find any info on it in other places, and feel that it is very advanced of a topic.
Through some recent mediation and reading I'm seeing that it's a process, a preverbial path if you will. I know I'm not there now but I'm just curious about it. If you listen longer he talks of a women who while meditating found her guru's voice saying "your going to die tonight". She kept meditating and found that she felt like all of herself was on fire, and she couldn't escape, but it was said that "she went into space" and saved herself.
At this point my head is spinning, I understand this is advanced but I can't stop thinking about it. Could someone offer me some closure and try to explain this? This seems like it may be from a sect school of thought, I mean it's not accept by the most of general population. I may be very wrong in this thought, but I would love to hear what everyone has to say!
I'm new here, I mostly post in the meditation forums but I think this is a broader question.
To start, I was listening to
http://www.dhammatalks.org/Archive/090826%20A%20Touchstone%20at%20the%20Breath.mp3
About half way through it the speaker talks about tapping into the water element. From the point on I feel like I have never heard any of that before, can't find any info on it in other places, and feel that it is very advanced of a topic.
Through some recent mediation and reading I'm seeing that it's a process, a preverbial path if you will. I know I'm not there now but I'm just curious about it. If you listen longer he talks of a women who while meditating found her guru's voice saying "your going to die tonight". She kept meditating and found that she felt like all of herself was on fire, and she couldn't escape, but it was said that "she went into space" and saved herself.
At this point my head is spinning, I understand this is advanced but I can't stop thinking about it. Could someone offer me some closure and try to explain this? This seems like it may be from a sect school of thought, I mean it's not accept by the most of general population. I may be very wrong in this thought, but I would love to hear what everyone has to say!
0
Comments
Who is the speaker?
He is just teaching weird things to exalt himself.
His teachings on the body, breath & space are fine but this "playing with the elements" is non-sense.
Kind regards
looking at, I'm not sure. If there is I can't form it. do you want to give it a try?
http://www.dhammatalks.org/
The teaching was fine except for the matters you questioned.
As least it shows you have some discernment about what is useful & what is not.
Kind regards
DDhatu
As far as elements are concerned, they're probably using the elements in the ways the relate to the body. This isn't very useful for someone who isn't familiar with the terms. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mah%C4%81bh%C5%ABta#Buddhism Take a look and see if this fits in with the context of the MP3. It would be more helpful to just say that in meditation we begin to explore the true nature of ourselves on all levels...
From your summary it sounds like the person is simply telling an allegory to explain a concept. It sounds like they're probably talking about the pure awareness you can experience in meditation, where "I" does not attach itself to any sensation. She -felt- like she was on fire, you said... she didn't save herself from dying, but rather, saved herself from the mental anguish she was perceiving. She maintained pure awareness, there was no "I" experiencing pain anymore. What she felt remained just an external process which she simply observed.
Sit, breathe, be mindful, maintain pure awareness. The Mindfulness with Breathing meditation I linked you to originally only sounds simple, but in reality, it's very difficult. You don't need talk about exploring the elements and whatnot. If you follow the instructions in that video, that's all you need. Mindfulness w/ Breathing and Insight Meditation. When you've mastered that, you can come back to this teaching... although, you'll already be Enlightened.
What the Venerable Thanissaro was saying here was when the women heard the bad news, the elements of her body went crazy. This means her mental emotions stirred up her physical body.
So she decided to turn her attention to making her mind spacious, to focus her mind on the element of space.
Then her suffering subsided.
So the space here is spacious, brightness & quietness of mind.
That is all.
Whilst to place the mind in quiet open spaciousness is an excellent practice, Venerable Thanissaro was speaking in a very spooky way.
Whilst I trust this is possible, these yogic practises have little to do with Buddhist meditation.
If we wish for our body & mind to be cool, calm, relaxed & deeply peaceful, to just focus on spacious mind together with breathing in a simple natural way is sufficient.
May all beings find contented inner peace.
Regards
DDhatu
Thanissaro is generally a good teacher but this talk was slightly bizarre and it also addressed too many topics.
Try to find a 'guided' meditation talk, which sticks to one subject in depth.
Keep searching.
Kind regards
DDhatu