{"product":{"product_id":"B01INMZKAQ","title":"The Mind Illuminated: A Complete Meditation Guide Integrating Buddhist Wisdom and Brain Science for Greater Mindfulness","price":"19.99","image_url":"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51mdLjackML._SL500_.jpg","url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01INMZKAQ"},"comments":[{"body":"\u0026gt; I start feeling warm and energized and just totally present. That’s when I can really “take in” the effects of meditation I guess. That’s where I experience bright colors, and “psychedelic” experiences, and all that fun stuff.\r\n\r\nI don't know what tradition you are following, but in some traditions what you are describing sounds somewhat like one of the dullness traps. As described in [The Mind Illuminated](https://www.amazon.com/Mind-Illuminated-Meditation-Integrating-Mindfulness-ebook/dp/B01INMZKAQ/):\r\n\r\n\u0026gt; **The Seduction of Dullness**\r\n\u0026gt; \r\n\u0026gt; Strong dullness can be a seductive trap. States of dullness lead to dream imagery, archetypal visions, pleasurable sensations, paranormal experiences like channeling, past-life recollections, and the overall feeling that something profound is occurring. If you anchor attention on the breath, you can sustain them for a long time without falling asleep. In certain traditions, these states are purposely cultivated. However, when it comes to cultivating attention and awareness, these states are only a hindrance. Remember that visionary experiences, brilliant insights, and any other seemingly profound encounters should all be avoided at this Stage [Stage Four, when you are free from both gross distractions and strong dullness. Dullness no longer leads to drowsiness, nor causes perception of the breath sensations to grow dim or take on hypnagogic distortions]\r\n\r\nIf those sorts of states are what you want, cool. Just be aware that dullness should be avoided if your intention is to strengthen awareness and keep the overall energy level of the mind high.","subreddit_name":"Meditation","author":"omapuppet"},{"body":"Why don't you just buy the book? It's like $16. [Here, let me Amazon it for you](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01INMZKAQ/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8\u0026amp;btkr=1). \r\n\r\nThe book will change your life. If you can't find $16 for the book - you likely wouldn't have the dedication to follow through anyway so you shouldn't bother getting it at all. ","subreddit_name":"TheMindIlluminated","author":"batbdotb"},{"body":"Consider the idea that you have both attention and awareness and they can both be active while you meditate. Your attention can be on the breath while maintaining peripheral awareness. Think of it like talking with a friend in a coffee shop or cocktail party. You can focus on them but you are still aware of the sounds, sights, and smells around you. \r\n\r\nIf you are sitting in meditation and you get distracted/shocked by a sound, it means your peripheral awareness was low and the sound pulled your attention. Most teachers will probably tell you to not use earplugs because developing awareness is a step in developing strong mindfulness. And, this helps you develop equanimity towards your present situation.\r\n\r\nFWIW, QuietMind is built off the ideas presented in [The Mind Illuminated](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01INMZKAQ/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8\u0026amp;btkr=1)\\- a pretty incredible manual on meditation I would highly recommend and can help you answer these types of questions.","subreddit_name":"Meditation","author":"mynameis_wat"},{"body":"Meditation can make you feel worse if you're doing it wrong. \r\n\r\nMeditation is for the mind what physical training is for the body, and as with exercise, doing it wrong enough can lead to poor or negative results (though with meditation it's unlikely one could do it wrong enough to hurt oneself as severely as one can with physical training).\r\n\r\nAs an example from beginner levels, a common pitfall is called 'dullness'. Dullness causes reduced introspective clarity, dream imagery, pleasurable sensations, and suchlike, and it can be seductive. The impaired introspective awareness caused by dullness makes it hard to notice the onset of dullness, so it takes practice to recognize and avoid it. Several habits lead to dullness, but one of them is excessive focus on the object of meditation (conversely, insufficient focus leads to other problems). One of the several ways to avoid dullness is to keep the mind active by looking beyond the meditation object with peripheral awareness to keep the mind active, but once dullness has set in strongly its often necessary to use much stronger tactics.\r\n\r\nConsistently meditating in a persistent state of dullness will train your mind to tend to seek and remain in that dull state and can leave you feeling mentally foggy, slow, or 'down' after meditation. \r\n\r\nA primary purpose of meditation is to train your mind to behave as you want with minimal effort. Like \"drawing the rest of the fucking owl\" one could eventually train the mind without experienced guidance, but that's very difficult to do when one does not know how the owl looks, or even how to use the pencil effectively. As with learning to draw, to learn effectively one should seek out high-quality guidance. I like the book _[The Mind Illuminated](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01INMZKAQ)_.","subreddit_name":"Funnymemes","author":"FeliusSeptimus"},{"body":"I am chiming in to affirm that you are not being teased.  “Monkey mind” is a generally accepted way to say “thought treadmill” or “uncontrolled thoughts” - exactly what you are describing as the primary issue.  \r\n\r\nStep 1 is to sit quietly by yourself and .. yeah the thoughts are racing.  That’s okay.\r\nIf you feel like you can’t do it, that’s okay, whatever thoughts come up, that’s okay.\r\n\r\nSit with your thoughts and focus on your breath.  Allow yourself some patience and credit for remaining sitting with no distractions, just the racing mind in your head.\r\n\r\nfocus on your breathing.  Each time your thoughts race, don’t worry, just refocus on your breath.\r\n\r\nEventually, one day, it gets easier.  Eventually, it will actually start to make you feel better, at peace.\r\n\r\nFrom there, there exist many teachings to help guide and further your practice.\r\nSee, e.g. “the mind illuminated” for example:\r\n\r\nhttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B01INMZKAQ?ref=KC_GS_GB_US","subreddit_name":"Meditation","author":"tlmbot"},{"body":"It's just practice. Your mind has habits of behavior and if you want you can retrain it to behave differently. The first step is to learn to introspect, that is, to learn to notice what your mind is doing through internal self-observation. \r\n\r\nThis can be frustrating because when you are not good at noticing what your mind is doing it's hard to notice that your mind has wandered off the task of learning to notice what it is doing (this problem, called 'mind-wandering' is one of the first things you have to learn to deal with).\r\n\r\nAs you get better at avoiding mind-wandering you'll encounter other kinds of issues that you have to learn to recognize and deal with.\r\n\r\nTraining your mind to think the way you want is a lot like learning a complex physical skill like any sport. It takes a lot of practice time, and you'll benefit greatly from practicing in certain ways (if you practice wrong you won't get better, or you'll get better up to a certain point but will reach a plateau and not be able to progress).\r\n\r\nThe book [The Mind Illuminated](https://www.amazon.com/Mind-Illuminated-Meditation-Integrating-Mindfulness-ebook/dp/B01INMZKAQ) is a great no bullshit manual if you'd like to know more.","subreddit_name":"AskMen","author":"slacktopuss"},{"body":"This is a C+P of a response I made to a similar question:  \r\n\r\n\r\n\u0026gt;You have an emotion that you are calling anxiety (this works with any of them, though). When you first notice that emotion, acknowledge it. Even if it's days, months, or years afterwards. Label it. The more you consciously do this, the more you will unconsciously do it. It will become easier and easier to recognize Anxiety closer and closer to the triggering point. As you do, explore the physical manifestations of this Anxiety. Just because they're subjective and mean different things to different people: What I label as anxiety has a deep, throbbing pain feels just below heart. This could be very different for you, but the important thing is that you start to understand the body's reactions to the emotion, because they ***always*** precede their conscious counterparts. This skill will progress, and as it does, you'll be able to pick up on ever-more subtle manifestations that allow you to understand that anxiety is rising within you before it has the ability to take over completely.  \r\n\u0026gt;  \r\n\u0026gt;It's the same basic idea behind the breath meditation that we are practicing with TMI. In the first stages, you get distracted and can only notice it retrospectively. So you return to your breath with the intention of noticing it earlier and earlier. And over time it works until the Gross Distractions have become Subtle. In the same way, labeling and resolving to understand the manifestations of an emotion go from enveloping us and taking over our thought-stream and actions, to a more subtle understanding that the emotion is there, but *we don't have to engage with it*.\r\n\r\nThere are a few terms that I reference from [The Mind Illuminated](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01INMZKAQ/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8\u0026amp;btkr=1), but that's the only vocabulary I have to discuss these things. If you would like any further clarifications about any of it, though, please don't hesitate to ask","subreddit_name":"Meditation","author":"MeatFloggerActual"},{"body":"Also check out [The Mind Illuminated](https://www.amazon.com/Mind-Illuminated-Meditation-Integrating-Mindfulness-ebook/dp/B01INMZKAQ) ( /r/TheMindIlluminated  ). It emphasizes finding joy in the practice and is supposedly more stabilizing than the dry insight Ingram used to advocate.","subreddit_name":"samharris","author":"ignamv"},{"body":"\u0026gt;I seek to help others through the Bodhisattva Vow to help others reach enlightenment\r\n\r\nIndeed, and it is the Noble Way, but remember that the vow of the Bodhisattva is to attain enlightenment for all sentient beings. It is not a vow of altruism, so do not be led astray by your feelings of compassion.\r\n\r\nI understand your concern, that in non-attachment we lose our desire to help others; but I promise that is not the case. Non-attachment precludes nothing, compassion and love still shine through. In fact, far more radiantly, they can shine, for without an attachment to how things are or how things should be, compassion and love can more fully pervade all action and all speech. When we act with a pure mind, that is how we can benefit the world.\r\n\r\nFurthermore, full awakening is not a requirement either; stream-entry is not a lofty goal, and will be enough for the purpose you seek to fulfill. It does not require becoming a nun or a monk, and is attainable if you are diligent (it all is, in fact), and so, to that end, I recommend [this book](https://www.amazon.com/Mind-Illuminated-Meditation-Integrating-Mindfulness-ebook/dp/B01INMZKAQ), for its contemporary language and ease of understanding. It helped me in my meditation practice, and perhaps it may help yours, too.","subreddit_name":"Buddhism","author":"TamSanh"},{"body":"You helped me. Great insights. If you haven't caught wind of it yet, I recommend checking out Culadasa's [The Mind Illuminated](https://www.amazon.com/Mind-Illuminated-Meditation-Integrating-Mindfulness-ebook/dp/B01INMZKAQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8\u0026amp;qid=1498349427\u0026amp;sr=8-1\u0026amp;keywords=The+Mind+Illuminated). In my patchwork quilt of things that are working, this is the stitches. All the best on your journey.","subreddit_name":"Meditation","author":"balanced_goat"},{"body":"I'm really sorry to hear that. \r\n\r\nIn addition to meditation practice, I would also suggest cultivating the right thoughts/mindset; Enjoying with family, and friends. I found this book really good: [the mind illuminated](https://www.amazon.com/Mind-Illuminated-Meditation-Integrating-Mindfulness-ebook/dp/B01INMZKAQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text\u0026amp;ie=UTF8\u0026amp;qid=1495396835\u0026amp;sr=1-1\u0026amp;keywords=the+mind+illuminated)","subreddit_name":"Meditation","author":"autumnwolf27"},{"body":"For those of you who have the old edition, the newer edition of the book has a foreword that [can be read on the Amazon page.](https://www.amazon.com/Mind-Illuminated-Meditation-Integrating-Mindfulness-ebook/dp/B01INMZKAQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8\u0026amp;qid=1491746093\u0026amp;sr=8-1\u0026amp;keywords=the+mind+illuminated#reader_B01INMZKAQ)\r\n\r\n**First Impressions**\r\n\r\nThe first few paragraphs of the Introduction was all it took to reel me in. To explain, I need to provide a little backstory:\r\n\r\nThere are tons of research papers highlighting exactly what the benefits of meditation are, ranging from stress reduction to mood regulation and more, many of them mentioned on page xiv. In fact, that was my initial motivation for starting a practice several years back, but rather quickly I became confused by the often contradictory instructions online and all the Pali and Sanskrit words everywhere. I ended up doing basic samatha practice, but my motivation waned at times because I didn't have any clue about training the mind. After a while, I settled into a state of strong dullness and had no clue that it wasn't what I was looking for. I remember wondering why I felt spaced out all the time after my sessions. \r\n\r\nOne of the reasons I no longer frequent the meditation subreddit is because with hindsight I recognize there is a lot of bad advice there from people who don't know any better. I'll share a rather humorous example: [I recently read a thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/Meditation/comments/5hqi1k/my_mind_shuts_off_my_senses_too_my_body_starts_to/) where a guy was clearly experiencing dullness/drowsiness, and the only thing making him aware of this was the fact that his own flatulence startled him to wakefulness. Well, the top few responses were just jokes and everyone who answered him seriously gave bad advice because they didn't know any better. \r\n\r\nI just remember thinking that if I didn't have TMI I would've been stuck in dullness forever, probably. I wouldn't have gotten out of it with the help of that sub. So you can imagine my feelings of relief to find this book, and to have my gut feeling be validated.\r\n\r\n\r\n**Key Points**\r\n\r\nI think overall there are four key points in the Introduction: \r\n\r\n* Through meditation it is possible to train your mind and to ultimately achieve awakening. \r\n\r\n* There is (or, was) a strong need for a clear map of the process because with meditation's rise in popularity, fewer and fewer people are even aware of the potential for Awakening through meditation.\r\n\r\n* Both samatha and vipassana are necessary for Awakening.\r\n\r\n* \"Brief episodes of samatha can occur long before you become an adept practitioner. Insight can happen at any time as well. This means a temporary convergence of samatha and vipassana is possible and can lead to Awakening at any stage.\"  \r\n\r\nI find that last point in particular to be a tremendously powerful idea- one that I've used to great success during my sits. I have a problem with being impulsive. Thanks to meditation it's much less of an issue, but I'm not able to always maintain the long-term view. Being able to remind myself before every sit that if there is sufficient cooperation among the sub-minds Awakening can happen at any moment - that's a very important concept for me. It makes it much easier to cultivate a joyful attitude.\r\n\r\n","subreddit_name":"TheMindIlluminated","author":"jormungandr_"},{"body":"I just finished this book, [https://www.amazon.com/Mind-Illuminated-Meditation-Integrating-Mindfulness-ebook/dp/B01INMZKAQ](https://www.amazon.com/Mind-Illuminated-Meditation-Integrating-Mindfulness-ebook/dp/B01INMZKAQ)\r\n\r\n\u0026amp;#x200B;\r\n\r\nI strongly recommend it!","subreddit_name":"Buddhism","author":"MilkAndJam"},{"body":"You might like:  \r\n\r\n\r\n*  [\"The Mind Illuminated\" by John Yates (Culadasa)](https://www.amazon.com/Mind-Illuminated-Meditation-Integrating-Mindfulness-ebook/dp/B01INMZKAQ). It is a very clear and lucid introduction to meditation. There's a good-sized Reddit around it: [https://www.reddit.com/r/TheMindIlluminated/](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheMindIlluminated/). I am an authorized teacher in this lineage and have given literally cases of the book away. \r\n* Daniel Ingram's \"[Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha](https://www.integrateddaniel.info/book/)\" is also good (and free if you want to read it online).\r\n* Ram Dass' \"[Remember Be Here Now](https://www.amazon.com/Be-Here-Now-Ram-Dass/dp/0517543052/)\" is an absolute classic. Get the hard copy; not the Kindle or a PDF. It's worth having in print.\r\n* I found Michael Singer's \"[The Surrender Experiment](https://www.amazon.com/Surrender-Experiment-Journey-Lifes-Perfection-ebook/dp/B00NDTUDOS)\" very approachable and inspiring. \r\n* \"[Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism](https://www.amazon.com/Cutting-Through-Spiritual-Materialism-Chogyam/dp/1570629579/)\" by Chögyam Trungpa was also excellent, though Chögyam certainly had some major, major failings as a teacher.","subreddit_name":"Meditation","author":"chrisgagne"},{"body":"There are a few books written with emphasise on jhanas. These book provides a step by step guide and more details into the practice. \r\n\r\n1. [The mind illuminated](https://www.amazon.com/Mind-Illuminated-Meditation-Integrating-Mindfulness-ebook/dp/B01INMZKAQ/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=the+mind+illuminated\u0026amp;qid=1670492720\u0026amp;sr=8-2) by Culadasa\r\n2. [Right concentration](https://www.amazon.com/Right-Concentration-Practical-Guide-Jhanas-ebook/dp/B017JJOXQ6/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2E4GPI4Y9Q5GT\u0026amp;keywords=Right+concentration\u0026amp;qid=1670492785\u0026amp;sprefix=right+concentration+%2Caps%2C316\u0026amp;sr=8-1) by Leigh Brasington. \r\n3. [Beyond Mindfulness in Plain English: An Introductory guide to Deeper States of Meditation](https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Mindfulness-Plain-English-Introductory-ebook/dp/B003X27ORE)by Henepola Gunaratana\r\n\r\n**Online Information:**   \r\n[Meditation Guide](https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/thai/lee/inmind.html) by Ajahn Lee  \r\n[Info](https://www.accesstoinsight.org/ptf/dhamma/sacca/sacca4/samma-samadhi/jhana.html) on Jhanas from [accesstoinsight.com](https://accesstoinsight.com)  \r\n[List of information on jhanas](http://www.leighb.com/jhanas.htm) from Leigh Brasington. \r\n\r\n**Audio Talks** on Jhana: \r\n\r\n1. Jhana [talks 1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMHPFhI29ek\u0026amp;t=457s) and [talks 2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4iGguaz7yA)  by Ayya Khema. \r\n\r\nLastly, just wanted to point out, sila is a foundation required for concentration. Without sila, concentration will be difficult to achive.","subreddit_name":"Buddhism","author":"elnoxvie"}]}