To be honest, the type of meditation that leads to awakening is not the type of meditation that is good at addressing traumatic material, and this is by design.
This is because awakening specifically comes from a realization that is not dependent on particular experiential content - and trauma specifically comes from particular experiential content. So, to address trauma, you have to address that content.
Although meditation may not be the right tool, there are types of self-therapy that can use the skills built in meditation. In particular, I have found this book/method, despite how quirky it seems on the surface, to be really fast and effective, and excellent for meditators: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00452V8EG/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
If persistent psychological patterns are hindering your meditation, I highly recommend using something like this to address them rather than/in addition to just "meditating through it"
It feels like a lot of us are struggling with this right now, with curiosity about Tataryn's stuff but unwillingness to spend hundreds of dollars to test it out. Hopefully he will develop a bit more affordable content in the next few years. (Do we have time to wait?)
I'm thinking about buying The Power of Focusing which I read here or on the TMI subreddit is a better update to the Gendlin book. But I haven't gotten around to it.
I talked to my therapist about this. She asks why I'm looking to do something on my own rather than working with her. She is probably right.
In the meantime I'm spending a lot of my time on the cushion doing body scans on the chest and time off the cushion trying not to run from feelings.
My wife bought two beginner dharma books for herself seemingly out of nowhere. She picked these two out because she felt something resonate for her with them.
Jack Kornfield The Art of Forgiveness, Lovingkindness, and Peace. https://www.amazon.com/Art-Forgiveness-Lovingkindness-Peace/dp/0553381199
and Rob Nairn- What is Meditation? Buddhism for Everyone https://www.amazon.com/What-Meditation-Buddhism-Rob-Nairn/dp/1570627150
She seems to be showing more and more of an interest in meditation lately, I think the seed has been planted. She might just start meditating with me, now that would be cool.
Core Transformation was by far the most valuable method I've ever used for psychological healing and integration. There's a book by that name as well as live trainings in the method. I was able to transform 95% of my anxiety and depression using just that one method over many self-guided sessions (approximately 500) over several years. Full disclosure: I work for the author. And of course there are many other wonderful methods too, but this one really did the trick for me.
A great book on this just came out with a mindfulness angle on NVC. It's called "Say what you mean"
A proto-question from /u/airbenderaang
From /u/seriously_try_lsd
So this has to have been posted before, but I need to share Rob Burbea’s jhāna retreat.
It has been, to my experience, the single most helpful piece of work in practicing samādhi I have ever come across. Even if you’re not interested in practicing the jhānas, his way of conceiving practice in general is incredibly open and intuitive. As one of Rob’s final gifts to the world, it came out as something truly special.
There’s also a transcription of the whole retreat available to read. It’s a large document — a 473 page pdf — but if you read it, I strongly suggest not skipping over any parts. Even if you come up on one of the talks and you read the title and kind of think, “oh I’ve already got a grasp on this bit”, just read it, there will almost certainly be something there for you.
<em>The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way</em> by Nargajuna would be a good place, if you like dense Buddhist Madhyamika texts.
Yeah this is what happens. It is not described extensively mainstream. Taoist meditation and qigong has always been interested in managing these feelings and flows. This book is very explanatory https://www.amazon.com/Tao-Longevity-Transformation-Huai-Chin-Nan/dp/087728542X
Also Bruce Kumar frantzis has devoted his life in teaching in a western way methods of managing energy flow
I'm not too concerned with interpretations, I think that can lead to mental masturbation. For now, I take things one step at a time, and with practice I will attempt all the different interpretations and paths. I have two books at the moment which I'm following, Leigh Brasington's Right Concentration, and Beyond Mindfulness in Plain English by Henepola Gunaratana. Both are actually very similar. I also listen to Ajahn Brahms videos which can help me at times when I'm stuck on my progress.
Also I'd like to note that Ayya Khema also comes from Theravadan buddhism, which is where Leigh Brasington learned his interpretation as he was taught by her. I also listen to her talks/videos on Jhanas.
Thanks for your feedback, Cheers.
Please read Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha first (which can be found here), then report on your practice (what type of practice, for how long, what makes you think you went through the first stages, describe your A&P experience, etc).
Try to be as precise as possible in your phenomenological description of your meditation experience.
Then maybe we could try to help you diagnose, but even then it's even better to get a teacher who follows you. The nana's are difficult to diagnose in isolation, but easier to identify by what happened in stages before and after, so a teacher that follows you along is in a much better position to diagnose you than people on the internet.
In any case, the advice will be pretty much the same: in case you're pre-A&P: keep practicing. In case you're in A&P: keep practicing. In case you're in the DN: keep practicing. In case you're in equanimity: keep practicing. In case you're past streamentry: keep practicing.
I think you get the gist :)
BTW, since you're into Rob Burbea's teachings - This was shared with me shortly after I posted my update. It was one of Rob's final reflections.
Also, congrats on reaching first jhana!
Culadasa talks about it himself here.
Show Notes
2:30 – Culadasa’s system vs. Shinzen Young’s: stability of attention
10:20 – Culadasa’s system vs. Shinzen Young’s: sensory clarity and peripheral awareness
>Success didn’t stem from textbook knowledge about trees, it grew from realizing we shared the world with trees in mutual interdependence. “We are mere components in complicated interdependent and reciprocal processes,” Powers said. In other words, we are not in charge. “So long as science has a program of being in charge, it will be at war with art. Because the best thing that art does, the thing that’s really in the corner of the artist, is that sense of surrender to things larger than yourself.”
We Are All Bewildered Machines
The article has a lot to do with stuff we are interested with, anatta, dealing with the fear, bewilderment (dukkha), etc.
Interestingly there is no indication that either of them have a buddhist background. Very interesting article.
Not sure if we can stream the event, but you can come sit with us for the rest of December.
Daily Holiday sits every weekday 7am pacific time. Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/576714535
Wednesday Night Q&A, 7:30 pm Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/649282601
I remember the Metta nimittas partially discussed here at 6 min:
Analayo book on Brahmaviharas is great:
Coming back into regular sitting after a year off, working through some of the practices in Daizan Skinner’s book “Practical Zen: Meditation and Beyond”.
The breathing meditation is going well (feeling the abdomen rather than the nostrils is a nice change from what I’m used to). The Unborn meditation is very opening. I’m not so sure I “get” meditating with a koan yet, though…it just feels akin to a mantra right now. I’m assuming this changes. Anyone with words of wisdom on this front?
You're right; there are many axes of development, and being well-developed along one doesn't necessarily imply anything about another. "Enlightenment" is a highly loaded term, with as many proposed meanings as people who talk about it. Chapter 30, Models of the Stages of Enlightenment, in Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha, and the chapters that follow, attempt to address this topic in depth. It's not perfect, but it's the best resource on these matters that I'm aware of. If you're interested in them, you should read the whole book.
I think the brahmiviharas and their cultivation allow for a huge amount of creativity and individual expression. We're all going to have different things or ways of practicing that really bring out the intention and feelings of them for ourselves. So yeah there's a ton of room to play around and see what clicks. As mentioned by /u/aspirant4, Rob Burbea also really influenced how I approach metta practice. He's amazing for inspiring a more playful style and opening to more experimentation. You can find all his transcribed talks, as well as links to the audio here if you're interested. If I remember right, I found the 2010 metta retreat to be helpful.
You can find transcripts in pdf format here:
https://airtable.com/shr9OS6jqmWvWTG5g/tblHlCKWIIhZzEFMk/viw3k0IfSo0Dve9ZJ
You'll have to figure out the kindle part yourself, but it shouldn't be too hard.
Direct link to transcript in question. I breifely skimmed through the beginning and saw one of the passages which you may be referring to.
Burbea was most definitely human with his own biases and faults, as all people do. Two things really come to mind in response to your share. I'm not trying to be right, or anything along those lines, but just wanted to defend and share.
First off, we where not there during the sharing from the female student, so we don't know the context of how it was shared and how he asked to share it. For all we know this, erotica, was a topic which was slowly, cautiously, gently unfolding over the period of many conversations. But you are right, there is definitely a power dynamic at play between a teacher and a student, particularly one with different sexes considering the larger context that is life.
Secondly, and more importantly, I think what's truly interesting is your reaction. Now, I have some questions, which you don't even have to answer, but it might be good to ponder. How would you feel if Burbea was sharing an erotic story he heard from a male student? An agender student? What's driving your reaction? What lies beneath?
Hi. I don’t seem to be getting many shifts. So I want to try the Cochise stronghold retreat schedule on my own. This will be tough. I have done a retreat before, but at a vipassana centre. I am used to wasting my day with distractions and indulgence, so I really need to get into this.
Any advice for how to make this work, besides not looking at my phone/computer? I will probably have a noise generator on in the background, to keep me entertained, even though I think it is a hindrance, I have really nice speakers for them and they have brought me to places of peace and calm. The generator I would use is something like this
There are lots on the site, I have a few faves. I really need to do this, by any means necessary, I need to sit.
Any other advice appreciated, or criticism about the noise. Thank you.
I can't speak to that specific method as I've not done it. Hundreds of self-guided Core Transformation sessions over several years helped me develop secure attachment in my marriage. (Full disclosure: I'm biased because I work for the author/creator.)
Hey friend. Similar thing happened to me after doing 2-CB. Personally, I didn't have a regular meditation practice at the time so I can't speak to that specifically (I tried several times and only found myself feeling more upset afterwards), but I do want to tell you that someday you will get back to "normal". Not sure how attached you are to your therapist but if you've been seeing them for over a year and they haven't really helped in your reduction of anxiety, it may be a good idea to find someone else. For me, DBT was very helpful for getting out of this mind state. EMDR may be another route to consider.
The single most important tool for me to remap my neural pathways was The Anxiety & Phobia Workbook. It helped me identify sensations and perceptions (something it sounds like you have no trouble with, thanks meditation), and then how to go about rewiring my reaction to them in a way that made me feel supported and safe.
You can take everything I've said with a grain of salt because my by estimation I'm rather stuck somewhere around the equanimity stage and have not obtained stream entry. Something about needing to stop trying, I think c: but in terms of trauma and healing from it, I'm inclined to think just based on my own experience that you would benefit from addressing that primarily.
An excellent and important question!
I think of this as "resilience" and divide it up into 3 categories:
Metta would be #2 mostly, so would things like gratitude practice, jhanas, reflecting on and using your strengths, spending time with people you love, etc.
For #1 you've got things like Core Transformation (my favorite recommendation, although I'm biased as I work for the author), Internal Family Systems therapy, tapping, ideally insight meditation (although not always depending on how a person does it), etc.
For #3 you have things like cold showers, exercising, strong determination sitting, intermittent fasting, and picking the thing from your to-do list you are most avoiding and at least getting started on it.
I generally recommend Core Transformation as it is incredibly powerful for working with emotional stuff (Full Disclosure: I work for the author). Internal Family Systems therapy is a popular alternative that also involves working with "parts" of one's self.
A much less complicated technique for working with emotions is Trauma Tapping Technique. Think of a memory or imagined scenario, feel the emotions briefly in your body, then do the 2 minute tapping sequence, and repeat until calm.
I am a broken record, but I'd highly recommend Core Transformation from Connirae Andreas. Full disclosure: I work for Connirae so I am biased. But it was the best thing I ever did for my neurotic patterns. I had become aware of them through introspection and reading a lot of self-help books, but they only really started to change when I did loads of Core Transformation on myself.
Metta is also a good option, in fact any useful approach will involve self-compassion. A lot of people also really like Internal Family Systems therapy, which has many similarities to CT but also some differences.
Came across this just today, relevant to our conversation, which integrates our two views!
>A practitioner who has newly achieved calm abiding can abide comfortably in single-pointed concentration on her chosen object for hours, even days. However, if she changes the object or tries to analyze the object within the space of calm abiding, laxity and excitement will reemerge, temporarily disturbing her calm abiding. So the next step is to work with just these two skills -- changing the object and analyzing it. Initially analysis, such as considering the object's impermanent nature, will slightly unsettle the mind, but gradually it will not do so, and eventually analysis will actually enhance concentration. When the practitioner reaches a point where analyzing the object actually increases the blissful pliancy she experiences, she has achieved a special insight, also known as the union of calm abiding and special insight.
From the Translator's Introduction to Mastering Meditation: Instructions on Calm Abiding and Mahamudra by Choden Rinpoche.
I am nowhere near able to rest in my chosen object for hours or days comfortably myself! So I'll have to take their word for it. :)
I think it's worth mentioning that before he started the Finder's Course, Jeffrey Martin published a book called The God Formula. It's available on Amazon for free with Kindle Unlimited, or $4.99. I would imagine that it contains much of the information and ideas that are in the Finder's Course.
This may be a good introduction to Jeffrey's research and ideas if anyone is considering taking the course, but unsure because of price.
-edit-
Okay, so I actually purchased the book and read it. It has little if nothing to do with enlightenment, it's actually a relatively simple read on manifestation with vague references to enlightenment. I really don't recommend it as worthwhile.
Even better, the book is now available for pre-order:
MCTB 2: 5/31/2018 according to Amazon, though still good to verify.
Yes! Alan Wallace's translation of the Vajra Essence is wonderful (and I believe the only one out there in English) Here is the link to it on Amazon
The other two books in the set are also wonderful and very helpful
>Would you be able to recommend any?
Mark Singleton's Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice is a good place to start. A lot of contemporary moves have their origins in Swedish gymnastics and British army calisthenics. Also a lot of overlap with early bodybuilding aka "physical culture." In fact early yoga marketing materials referred to it as bodybuilding.
There is one or two textual examples of postural yoga prior to the mid 20th century, but other than that there is no evidence at all that modern postural yoga has any historical precedent. It is a wonderful new invention, and its newness does not take away from its effectiveness, but in the yoga tradition it is a tradition to pretend new innovations are ancient received wisdom.
I'm in the UK and can often only do a few of the sessions live, so for some I listen to the recordings. Works great for me, though you miss out on being able to ask questions, so if you're aiming for that I would try to join at least one live call. They send out the recordings soon after the session finishes so if you just block off that time for practice you can do the most of it in the same weekend.
You get an email the day before with the phone number and access code. I use "Free Conference Call HD" to dial - you can either use a computer browser or there's an Android app (I think an iOS one too though I haven't tried it). It's totally free to call; there is a cost associated with registering for the retreat, but no cost to dial using FCC HD service.
The big difference in meditation schools and tradition are those who are concerned with getting to here and now and those who are concerned with getting somewhere else. Or perhaps, those who are concerned with being aware, and those who are concerned about purification. Now this is a gross over simplification and there are plenty of teachers who try and show that these are not different at all, but the practices prescribed and how they talk about them says otherwise. This is true in contemplative Christianity (positive and negative ways) Hinduism (Yoga, Advaita Vedanta) and Buddhism (Theravada and Mahayana) and in comparing the pragmatic teachings of say, Daniel Ingram and Jon Kabat-Zinn.
The upshot is that if you listen to one side with the mindset of the other side you get very confused and frustrated. This goes both ways. I have a tendency to take on the mindset and understanding of whomever I am reading or listening to at the moment. So finally getting to the point and going "wow these people really are different" is a fairly big deal because I can now actually choose how I want to do this, understand the arguments for and against (and there are plenty of arguments to go around) and not just get jerked around.
If you want a sense of the difference, just look at the instructions for sitting meditation in The Miracle of Mindfulness and then in The Mind Illuminated. It is not just a matter of detail but each reflects a different understanding of what meditation is supposed to do and how it eases suffering.
Same thing happened to me. Eckart Tolle is really good as an introduction for many people because of his very down to earth way of explaining things. But it isn’t nearly as detailed of a map as some of the more advanced and comprehensive books like Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha or The Mind Illuminated.
My practice has fluctuated continuously since I took an interest in meditation around 6 months back. I've experimented with nondirective meditation, staring at candles and even zazen, though my efforts weren't particularly fruitful. I would get bored fairly quickly, so my sessions typically didn't last longer than 10 minutes. I also felt frustrated by the lack of immediate results. When I discovered this community around 2 months ago, I tried the technique suggested by a book mentioned in /r/streamentry's FAQ, only to give up because I wasn't able to get a good grasp of the "body scan" meditation.
I then moved onto the breath meditation recommended in the book Mindfulness in Plain English, only to have that attempt go south since I found it difficult to feel the sensation of the out-breath at the tip of my nose. As a result, I found it difficult to really focus which in turn made it easy for me to succumb to the restlessness of the monkey-mind.
Despite the difficulties, it hasn't been all bad. While the breath is still my primary meditation objection, I've recently turned to focusing on the rising and the falling of the stomach during breathing, as recommended by meditation teachers Yuttadhammo Bhikku and Ajahn Achalo. Since I've found that I can now sit in meditation for over 30 minutes , I'm tempted to say that the transition has been quite helpful. Other new developments include taking up walking meditation as well as taking the Five Precepts, as both are said to help one progress in the practice. I think that what I need most at this time is having consistency in my practice by using the same technique for the same amount of time on a daily basis.
Wonderful -- thanks for taking the time to answer these (and thank you /u/SufficientlyZen for posting them!)
> My current practice looks like a refined version if what I was doing this time last year. Investigating, and relaxing, letting the process work itself. I note sometimes and sometimes I don't. It's never a bad idea to investigate your sense of self, the feelings of HERE as opposed to THERE.
Could you describe your current practice in excurciating detail for me? Concretely, what are you doing when you sit? How are you inclining your mind? What do you think of as "the point" of what you're doing? The word vipassana means many different things to different people, so I'm trying to get an idea of precisely what you mean.
> I'm an over the top intense crazy and ridiculous person and my practice is so quiet and mundane and normal. It's an observation I've made many times.
I have seen a few advanced practictioners mention that their personalities became more and more exaggerated as they continued along the path. Have you noticed anything like that?
> All in all though, my mind is quieter, I'm kinder, and more patient than I was a few years ago.
Would you say that you experienced a reduction in thought? If so, were certain classes of thought more affected than others?
DharmaOverground and Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha have popularized an emphasis on "vibrations." Is this an important part of your development? Have you spent much practice time observing this phenomenon?
Are you able to experience a cessation at will?
At one point I wanted to start a metta practice, but for whatever reason I didn't like the instructions I found, so didn't start. I think I was looking for a canonical explanation of the practice. Eventually I started a very short practice at the end of chanting. I can't say that I noticed any benefit from it beyond a moment of goodwill.
I'm partway through the book and I started practicing with the first meditation as soon as I received the book. Ironically this meditation is similar to the one in Mindfulness in Plain English; I had the whole passage marked, yet never tried it. I've noticed a marked difference in my feelings towards others for about a day or so after a good practice where I clearly generated the emotion. This helped me with people and situations that I typically react to with some form of anger, typically annoyance. I've still been trapped in thoughts and emotions of annoyance, frustration, and even anger - but much less than before I started reading.
I've not encountered any new teachings in the book. However, reading it has helped me absorb the teachings more. Carefully reading the book is a metta meditation of its own.
In insight practice, people make a distinction between insight practice based on concentration and the jhanas and insight practice done without developing concentration. The concentration-based approach is known as the "wet" path, and the non-concentration-based approach is called the "dry" path. So "dry noting" refers to doing Mahasi-style noting without first developing one's concentration skills. Insight practice in general leads to movement through the stages of the Progress of Insight. The Dark Night/dukkha nana stages can be difficult for many practicioners, and developing concentration can make it a less emotionally taxing experience.
It could depend on context, but "accidental dry noting" probably is talking about how someone started doing Mahasi-style noting without being aware of the Progress of Insight and found themselves in some of the less-pleasant parts without knowing what was happening or what they should do in their practice to get past it. A large part of Daniel Ingram's motivation for writing Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha was that he wanted to make sure that information about the Progress of Insight and the Dark Night was available to practitioners in that situation.
Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha is probably the most detailed break down of noting I can recommend, if you're not put off by Daniel's "Dharma Cowboy" style. Personally, his style of writing was the thing that got me hooked, but different things work best for different people.
Shinzen Young is another excellent source, and has a lot of material out there. His youtube channels are rich. I'd recommend starting here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StBTuX0tqU8
You can also go directly to the man himself and see what Mahasi Sayadaw has to say: http://www.tathagata.org/DhammaTalks/Instructions/Mahasi_Instruction.html
Don't hesitate to ask for clarification! The only potentially confusing terms I spotted in reviewing the above comments were references to stages from the Progress of Insight (Re-observation and Equanimity/EQ). Are you familiar with that map? If not you really should be if you're doing noting practice. :) Have a look at the Recommended Resources on the page sidebar, specifically Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha (MCTB) and the link to Ron Crouch's description of the Progress of Insight. If you're not familiar with MCTB, I'd strongly recommend going through that at your earliest possible convenience, as it will greatly clarify the kind of terminology and models commonly used in talking about this stuff.
> If possible, would you know of any good resources for [Culadasa's] practice?
By far the best resource is TMI, but there are a few other freely available online resources, also linked on the page sidebar. The "meditation guide" linked there, in particular, will give you a relatively brief overview of his model and the stages of development in his practice.
Regarding your original noting question, I stand by the last part of my comment from earlier, which I think should be pretty clear. :)
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(cc: /u/Share-Metta)
This is run by a group of experienced TWIM students:
Metta (Loving-Kindness) for Beginners
What: These classes are for anyone interested in learning how to start Loving-Kindness Meditation. Prior experience with meditation is not required. Everyone is invited!
Agenda: Intro to Metta Meditation (15-20 min), Guided meditation (30 min), Intro to Dhamma (15 min)
When: Saturdays 10AM EST convert to local time, August 7 to September 25 (8 weeks)
Where: Zoom link - Meeting ID: 873 2250 2236, Password: 8888
In Creative Samadhi, Rob Burbea says:
>Now, of course, some say – and it’s quite popular – we’re going nowhere. The path goes nowhere. This is quite a popular phrase: “The path goes nowhere.” What does that mean? What does it mean to say this goes nowhere? Because there are worlds of difference in what that phrase might mean, worlds of difference. Oftentimes, again, this ‘going nowhere’ just comes to mean, comes to funnel into a meaning of ‘just be present.’ “You’re not going anywhere, anyway. Just be present with what’s happening, what’s coming up.” We try and live a life of mindfulness and a life of presence, and that’s what it comes to mean: trying to live a life of presence. But that, what it’s come to mean very popularly nowadays, is not at all the original meaning of the path going nowhere, not at all. That phrase had its origins in Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism when it evolved, in the Prajñāpāramitā texts, the beautiful texts, in the Vajrayāna, the tantric teachings – it’s
very common there. And then in Chan, in Zen. But it means wholly different things than ‘just be present,’ wholly different.
He goes on to describe what he thinks are some of the main points of the totality of Buddhist teaching, but I don't know that he ever actually resolves this point he brings up that some people interpret this as "just be present" but that's not what was really meant.
Would anyone more familiar with the Mahayana be able to comment more about this and what people seem to be missing when they interpret in this way? This isn't a practice point for me necessarily. It was just something I noticed as I was listening to this talk and found it interesting and thought some folks around here might be able to shed some more light on it.
Sorry about the rant, but I just have to say this: I really love a lot of Rob Burbea's teachings. But today I read part 2 of his 'theatre of selves' series (https://airtable.com/shr9OS6jqmWvWTG5g/tblHlCKWIIhZzEFMk/viw3k0IfSo0Dve9ZJ?blocks=hide). While the framework is really beautiful and in my practice, it has been very useful, I'm just so extremely upset and angry about some of the sexually-charged conversations he seems to have had with female students and then on top of that felt like sharing; I remember from another talk where there was something similar that he said he's only sharing what they gave him permission to. But to what extend is that true; as in, maybe they said yes when this male authority figure asked them to, but was that really ok to ask them whether this can be shared in the first place?!? Like, it seems that kind of conversation, you'd go to someone who's had specific training in dealing with this and knowing what kind of emotions that might be interpret wrongly otherwise might be evoked in the person one's speaking to.. Anyway, just had to get this off my chest.
Here is an overview of his speeches categorized by topics etc.
https://airtable.com/shr9OS6jqmWvWTG5g/tblHlCKWIIhZzEFMk/viw3k0IfSo0Dve9ZJ?blocks=hide
https://airtable.com/shr9OS6jqmWvWTG5g/tblHlCKWIIhZzEFMk/viw3k0IfSo0Dve9ZJ
Massive thanks to whoever put this together (I think it was someone on this sub).
I'm basing my comment off the text the top poster mentioned:
​
​
Thank you for the suggestions and the link! I'll try this soon!
this is the book: https://www.amazon.com/You-Must-Relax-Practical-Reducing/dp/0070321841.
the-wesson, and electrons-streaming seem to somehow understood this on their own so you can look at their postings.
maybe it's me, but i do get a ton of vitriol thrown my way for pointing out these things. worse, i don't think i'm helping.
for now, this is it from me :)
best.
There is a spontaneous intuition that points to the technique describe among other in the following book.
As for me, yes i know tightness in the solarplexus area alot. Yet for me it is in everyday live when i am guided by worries.
In Meditation it is not there. Maybe because for me it is just simple: "sit straight; close eyes; observe breath" and no other scanning techniques.
All the Best for your ways.
This is going to be very personal if you aren't a monk. I really liked the book <em>The Six Perfections: Buddhism and the Cultivation of Character</em> by Dale Wright as a great take on living Buddhist virtue in daily life.
Of course there's formal practice, but then the real trick is getting the rest of life to also be practice without having to change the activities (except in some cases, like your decision to get out of the alcohol industry).
I'm trying to work on making my work into practice by transforming aversion to tasks I don't like and craving to procrastination, and working in focused work sprints.
Sure, I’ve heard it elsewhere, but I know it’s in one of Kenchen Thrangu Rinpoche’s commentaries — I believe it’s from his commentary on Clarifying the Natural State. But maybe it’s his commentary called “Pointing out the Dharmakaya.” He goes over two techniques for reducing thoughts during shamatha without an object practice, one of which is the technique I described. I’d send a picture of the page, but I’m on vacation.
Crystal Clear: Practical Advice for Mahamudra Meditators https://www.amazon.com/dp/9627341517/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_W9RZEM9FWGHDRJ80AJ39
Cool, man. I feel we made progress in this conversation. Not by persuading each other - people seldom do - but by getting to understand each other better.
More specifically, you hit the nail in the head with your last reply. You practice in order to "actualize our already awake nature". I, on the other hand, do not share that interest or goal. I am, as many here know, an awakening skeptic, in the mold of, say, Evan Thompson's "Why I am Not a Buddhist".
This begs the question of why I even practice, which would be an awesome question that more people should ask of their own practice. After a lot of practice, I can now say that I practice because I enjoy it. Full stop. I don't practice to awaken, or to enlighten myself, or to improve myself. I practice as an act of self-love and that's all. In the words of Bob Sharples:
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>Don’t meditate to fix yourself, to improve yourself, to redeem yourself; rather, do it as an act of love, of deep warm friendship to yourself. In this way there is no longer any need for the subtle aggression of self-improvement, for the endless guilt of not doing enough. It offers the possibility of an end to the ceaseless round of trying so hard that wraps so many people’s lives in a knot. Instead there is now meditation as an act of love. How endlessly delightful and encouraging.
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So thanks for being open about your positions and for disagreeing respectfully with me. It's helped me to understand where you are coming from better. And I very much respect were you are coming from, even if I'm coming from a very different place.
Hope your practice continues to blossom and mature!
I've been interested in this as well. I decided to tackle it head on and bought this: https://www.amazon.ca/Assertiveness-Workbook-Express-Yourself-Relationships/dp/1572242094/ref=sr_1_3. I also realized I had lots of self-hate and feeling unworthy and less than others. And so I've been going through a self-compassion book as well. Those two things have really helped.
What you described is a part of an emotional relapse. In DBT, you wouldn't even start working on untangling that until you develop tools for distress tolerance and emotional regulation.
This makes sense when you see addiction as a very powerful but detrimental strategy for self-regulation. You shouldn't dig into it or take it apart before you've got a better strategy to use in its place. Once you have the skills to regulate without relapsing, you'd start working with these kinds of beliefs. I found this part of DBT weak. Using tools from Internal Family Systems (IFS) or Ideal Parent Figure Protocol (IPF) would probably be more efficient, and you could leverage your meditation skills.
You can actually do a lot of good work using these approaches on your own, though having them facilitated would make it easier.
Here's a primer for self therapy using IFS.
And for IPF, I recommend George Haas. He explains how early childhood events affect the attachment mechanism and form the beliefs like you mentioned. At the end he gives a guided meditation for repairing the attachment disturbance that's at the root of it.
And if you want something simple, you can just to loads of metta directed at parts of yourself that are suffering enough to make you relapse. It worked wonders for me, but one needs to be very stubborn and patient with it.
Good insights. I am a bit of a broken record here, and I'm biased because I work for the author, but I can't say enough good things about Core Transformation, which you can explore both with a facilitator and on your own. (The first Core Transformation Coach Certification is ending soon, so there will be 30+ more highly qualified facilitators in the world any day now.)
It is particularly helpful for these sorts of issues, the "if I do X, then I'll be happy and can chill out" strategies. I'd say the main thing it does is deconstruct that faulty logic.
Also for me personally, getting stream entry on a Goenka retreat ended this kind of neurotic striving for awakening for me. I still had plenty of issues to work out after that of course. :)
Best of luck with your practice.
Constructive Living as in the book by David Reynolds? I've been meaning to read that one for years. I had someone tell me about the philosophy and it seems right up my alley.
My daily practice has evolved over the past 15 years. Awareness of body sensations is indeed what I did at first for many years with Goenka Vipassana (body scan). I also found attention on the breath to be challenging, I was gripping too tight and yet also had too much agitation/anxiety. Just feeling the body which I had been so dissociated from was very helpful.
What worked best for me personally was initially a combination of Goenka Vipassana to get to stream entry, ecstatic dance (really helped work out social anxiety and suppressed emotions like anger), and then Core Transformation for several hundred self-guided sessions over a few years. After Core Transformation, I was then able to successfully do other methods that didn't work for me before.
I think there are many possible paths, and the key is to go for something that appeals to you and commit to it long enough to make traction. And then keep checking in with your own inner wisdom to see if it is still working for you, or if you've outgrown it or need something else now.
I respect Ingram very much, as you can see here. I also disagree with Ingram about most things. When it comes to his views on awakening, I'll just say that there are different ways of seeing and framing experience (this is the core insight in Burbea's masterful Seeing That Frees). And, crucially, that awakening can be seen as simply another concept that helps us frame and see experience in a certain kind of way.
It is my view that seeing and framing things through the lens of awakening is: (1) not necessary to live a fully examined life, and (2) probably counterproductive to living such a life, at least for a significant number of people.
I'll end by saying that I think it's way more productive to stop talking about "awakening" as a goal or end-point of practice and instead talk about making progress towards accomplishing "your most important thing" as the objective of practice.
I don't have the space here (or the time right now) to fully develop and defend these claims, which I'm sure many, of not most, here will disagree with, so it's unlikely I will follow this up with further explanation of my view, although I'm happy to continue this kind of conversation by PM.
Metta! Mucho!
FWIW, it's not among the 40 meditation subjects of the Visuddhimagga, which are the ones traditionally used to access jhana. Though that wouldn't necessarily mean it's impossible to get to jhana using it. There's also this book by Edward Michael Salim, which is all about this practice from a yogic perspective.
Posture is interesting; if you want, it can form the foundation of a pretty legit practice.
I've never sat for 6+ hours in one stretch, and I'm not sure that's a great idea in the first place, but after trying a bunch of sitting options I've found this bench works best for me during long sits:
https://www.amazon.com/Meditation-bench-Adjustable-Portable-Lightweight/dp/B07FCY7TDT?th=1
I'd also highly recommend this book:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085BS3RVX/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
I hate to recommend products, especially if you don't feel like spending money, but I can say pretty confidently that the 45 bucks or so I spent on those two items is by far the best bang for my buck I've dropped on my meditation journey so far, including retreat fees, fancier benches, and online courses. But everyone's gonna be different, of course.
Lying on the floor is totally fine; I do that quite a bit. Standing meditation is also great. The key is to really tune into the sensations of your body and increase your perceptual acuity so that you can understand why discomfort is arising, then learn how to stack your bones and relax your muscles in whichever subtle way is necessary to release the tension that's causing discomfort. It's a process.
A few years ago I was dealing with lots of pain related to sitting, and I decided to spend a few months dropping most technique and just learning how to sit comfortably, in a physical sense. A few months turned into a few years, and it's become more or less my main practice.
One of the most useful tips for daily practice that I got was to do it as one of the first things in the morning. Specifically, my friend told me that his morning routine was:
with nothing between those steps that could interrupt. I haven't managed to establish quite as disciplined of a routine as that, but I did make "meditate as one of the first things in the morning" a habit, and it's been a big part of why I've now got a pretty long streak of daily meditation. This may or may not be feasible for you, but if it is then I suggest giving it a shot.
(The other major reason is that the meditation timer app that I use tracks the length of my current streak, and if I miss a morning, I still make sure to meditate later in the day so as to not break the streak. Reaching enlightenment by being attached to a number in an app, here we go! 166 days currently.)
Absolutely!
For those who are interested check out this introductory video series or The Way of Energy.
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> Aside from that cheeriness, I had a very strange experience last night. I sat right before bed for 45 mins, and then when I finally got into bed, I suddenly found myself locked on the in/out breathing again. Something was different though. There was a slight shuttering effect - like a camera shutter, on the perception of the breath. It was as if I could see each individual perceptual frame, and there almost a felt "click" with each passing frame of perception.
You might want to check out Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha, if you haven't already. Daniel talks about this some, I think under the section about the characteristic of impermanence. I usually see this associated with the stage of insight called the Arising and Passing Away.
Here's how one Dharma Overground poster describes it:
> This level of awareness really kicks off at the A&P, it's at this stage we're able to start perceiving objects arising and passing as individual sensations, like being able to speed up the sense of sight to perceive the flickering between frames but not quick enough yet to see the gaps. We begin to see that the motion picture of reality is really just a series of stills flashing past at the frame-per-second rate which helps create this illusion of continuity.
I'm not too keen on taking the maps too literally, but some of the other things you mention (fear, the temporary-ness of everything, not automatically grasping at form) are also very reminiscent of the stages that follow the A&P.
Hi. Outsider here. Never meditated before (though I've tried to do breath-focusing while driving once). Found this subreddit from a user in r/slatestarcodex, who responded to a post about a blog post reviewing Daniel Irma's book "Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha".
Anyways, long introduction, but my question is:
Is there a form of meditation that can make me more disciplined about going to the gym eveyday, quitting smoking, acting more confident socially, or achieving other discipline-improving/masculinity enhancing/social extrovert improving goals?
For that matter, are there any different branches of meditation at all? Like, different varieties or flavors of meditation that can be optimized for the individual? Or is there exactly 1 set path to exactly 1 set notion of enlightenment?
Hi there everyone, I have two questions for this sub.
So I just started stage 4 of TMI and I am a little bit confused with this stage. It's hard for me to determine how much to back away from the breath (while still keeping it anchored in my attention) so that I can cultivate and develop introspective awareness. I feel like when observe my mind's behavior, I almost immediately begin to forget the breath, or gross distractions start to heavily pour in. It's hard to find that sweet spot where I have stable attention on the breath and I can still observe mind activity and how things come and pass. I would bet this is normal, but I'm not entirely sure if I am doing it correctly. It quite frankly feels much different than the other 3 previous stages and that I am trying to do too much, even though all I'm really doing is breathing and observing my mind.
Also, when I browse this sub, there is a lot of terminology and ideas being discussed that I simply have no idea what 90% of it is. Is most of this found in the text "Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha"? That's currently my best guess.
Competing definitions of "dark night" have collided in this discussion. In Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha, Daniel Ingram used the term as a substitute for "dukkha nanas" (potentially unpleasant modes of perception that present prior to stream-entry and between paths), borrowing from the writings of St. John of the Cross, a Christian mystic. This is the most commonly used meaning of "dark night" in the pragmatic dharma community. Jeffery is using this version of the term when he says that Mahasi noting, absent other practices, can cause dark nights. Likewise when Culadasa states that samatha can be used to reach stream-entry without experiencing the dark night.
In a 2014 interview, Shinzen Young proposed that "dark night" be repurposed to describe what he calls "the pit of the void", the rare co-occurrence of depersonalization-derealization syndrome with awakening.
Shinzen's re-application of the term has a couple of issues.
First, it is inapt: in St. John of the Cross, "dark night" originally referred to a period of spiritual dryness preceding the attainment of knowledge. This maps to Buddhist descriptions of the dukkha nanas and may be the same phenomenon, whereas Shinzen's "pit of the void" occurs simultaneously with awakening and exhibits different characteristics.
Second, it creates confusion: since Ingram first adopted the term when MCTB was published in ~2005, its use as a substitute for dukkha nanas has become relatively common in meditation circles. Coining a new definition midstream has the potential to create confusion, as we see happening here.
What you mean by "dark night" may be different from what others mean. When you're talking about Shinzen's "pit of the void", it may be safer to use that specific term.
>In books like the Ven. Sujiva one you linked they talk about Jhana involving losing track of time or being out (?): "like falling into a state deeper than sleep. Yet on emerging..."), which seems like a qualitative change of losing awareness rather than just intensifying the feeling of bliss.
I think what he is talking about is the aspect of time itself and not a feeling of drowsiness or losing consciousness. I think it's also important to remember that monks like Bhante Sujiva sometimes have a very high bar for what constitutes Jhana. For practical purposes though, and speaking from my own experience, you are very much alert and focused during Jhana, though time can certainly appear to move much more quickly. One of the five hindrances to Jhana, Sloth and Torpor, which can lead to sleepiness actually prevents Jhana from occurring.
The Jhanas are wholesome states that are worth cultivating for the increased power and unification of mind that they bring. If you'd like to explore Jhana, I'd recommend the following books:
>The Mind Illuminated, by Upasaka Culadasa.
>Right Concentration, by Leigh Brasington.
>Beyond Mindfulness in Plain English, by Bhante Gunaratana.
Ahhh Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain! Yes! That is such a great comparison. There is a very similar sense of dropping preconceptions and looking with fresh eyes, with a kind of naive, childlike perspective. So true! Very odd too that I have had that book sitting on my night table for sometime with the intention of eventually diving into it. There was a great New Yorker article (Adam Gopnik I think) where he goes into this way of drawing in depth. Great stuff.
1 -Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha, 2 -Culadasa - The Mind Illuminated, 3 -Anything by Mahasi Sayadaw
I was disappointed with Shankman's book. Perhaps because it did not mirror my personal experience. Even the 2nd half of the book was self contradictory. This was probably desired by the author which is why he chose the "multiple interview" method. Consensus is not taking a stand though, or planting the flag.
Thanks for your sharing. I like Keegan's theory a lot. Helped in systems thinking. And the subject to object paradigm just makes sense, in his theory and in self inquiry. The article summarizes it very well.
This short book is also a summary of Keegan's theory. I read it a couple years ago. His other books are like 350+ textbook pages long.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1520760183/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
If you want a condensed version of Robert Kegan's theory. This book is pretty good for it.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1520760183/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
This is the bench I went with, it's a little pricey but I found it worth it. I tried a curved bench on retreat and found that it dug into my thighs so I went with a flat and padded one. Good luck!
No formal retreats, yet. Only listening to the recordings from Rob Burbea's retreat, around an hour a day, and practice. Reading should be mentioned as well - I can warmly recommend this book: https://www.amazon.com/Seeing-That-Frees-Meditations-Emptiness-ebook/dp/B00SI7PQD8
You are going about it backwards. The kasina objects are more subtle than the breath and other oft-selected, 'novice' objects of awareness, making them much, much harder to focus on if you cannot, at a minimum, reach the jhanas with your breath as your object. For this reason, it is recommended that one first be able to attain jhana with the breath, before continuing onto the 32 body parts meditation and finally the kasinas.
The best modern book on the entire process from your first sit to the eighth jhana and beyond to the most subtle kasinas is: Practicing the Jhanas by Tina Rasmussen & Stephen Snyder. Please pay for a copy if you can.
You might also find my recent post, on the precursors to the first jhana, useful.
This e-book is free.
https://www.amazon.com/Guide-Unified-Mindfulness-Happiness-Anywhere-ebook/dp/B092HMTFZW/ref=sr_1_1
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You can use the techniques in daily life or in formal sitting meditation.
Look up Progressive Muscle Relaxation guided audios on YouTube and Insight Timer. Or any kind of "body scan" meditation where you feel each part of the body and relax it. Gentle yoga or stretching can also be helpful.
Zhan Zhuang is great, especially with a body scan where you relax all needless tension. Zhan Zhuang is basically body scan in the standing position. I'd also recommend doing the same body scan / progressive relaxation in a sitting position and in a lying down position.
You also might want to get yourself a massage tool called a Theragun. The Mini is $159, about the cost of one or two full-body massages. Using this on tight spots will definitely help loosen them up. It's a little loud, but my wife and I are still able to use it while watching TV.
A cheaper self-massage option is to get yourself a $6 lacrosse ball. Put it behind your back and stand against the wall for light pressure, or lie down in bed with the ball behind your back and between the bed, or lie down on the floor for the firmest (ouchy) pressure.
ha, yeah, true! tbf I was doing just body scanning by the end (okay, with some noting as well, but still)
By the way ajt13a, here are some transcripts from beloved teacher Rob Burbea's jhana retreats, I've found them really helpful (although no one beats Leigh Brasington's little book for practicality): https://airtable.com/shr9OS6jqmWvWTG5g/tblHlCKWIIhZzEFMk/viw3k0IfSo0Dve9ZJ/reclPrrvlXhJ1Oqq1/fldC5Okhw9Ay3uEZq/attf8PUR48518x1Bk
Over the weekend I listened to a three part talk by Rob Burbea that I think everybody who wants to teach should know. He goes very deep in questioning one's assumptions of Buddhism, the path, practice, and so on. It's not something you will present in a beginners' course. It's something for you to make you more aware of how you see and understand what you eventually are going to teach. This is the link to the transcript, it's the latter three talks I'm speaking about.
> good practical tips you can give me a heads up on
To paraphrase bodybuilder Ronnie Coleman, "Everybody wanna stimulate their vagus nerve, but don't nobody wanna read no heavy-ass textbook on the Polyvagal Theory."
When it came out in 2011 I tried to wade through Stephen Porges book The Polyvagal Theory. I have a background in undergraduate cognitive science and I couldn't get through some of the chapters, the neuroscience was beyond me.
But from what I gathered, a lot of the practical implications are not things you can really do yourself. They are things like playing specific tones in the ears of autistic children, or doing deep brain stimulation with probes.
Now in theory, anything that leads to greater calm, relaxation, resilience to stress, and so on is training the vagus nerve. But I'm not convinced we have any hard evidence of any of this, it's mostly speculation. Maybe the science has advanced a lot in the last 11 years, but in general science is very, very slow. Funding a single study of meditation or breathing can cost half a million dollars or more, so not many get done, let alone ones that also have an fMRI budget.
So for now, I'd honestly just recommend sticking with what subjectively seems to lead to good results, and not worry too much whether you are stimulating your vagus nerve, or if it's actually your medulla oblongata, or your parietal lobe, or some other part of your nervous system. Meditation is thousands of years old, neuroscience is in its infancy. Don't wait for the science to catch up to your actual, real, lived experience now. Brain science explanations are just a way for us materialists to think that meditation is "real" but of course it is, you can experience the difference right here and now. Experience is primary in any case.
karezza people talk a lot about energy that is developed in erotic touch that does not finish with orgasming. there are a lot of classic texts available on this -- for example: https://www.sacred-texts.com/sex/krz/index.htm
i think what is stirred through contact between bodies is, quite often, much more than we think it is. and quite different from what we think it is. so any attempt to reduce it to something -- or to formulate an explanation for why it arises / why it is the way it is -- is going to feel limited.
so maybe, instead of trying to find an explanation, make it your practice to explore how it feels to feel this way now -- make the practice about feeling as closely as possible and understanding as closely as possible what is it like to be in your skin right now. maybe spend some time exploring this lying down, rather than sitting. and maybe wonder if staying with something like this is sustainable long-term.
>Should I see her again, or take a break? How much should I disclose about this activation I've been on, and how much to attribute to our time together?
i d say the ethical thing to do would be at least to have a talk with her. and ask her how was it for her. if she experienced anything like that. and the talk can show if it is worth continuing / exploring further.
my own touch-related explorations -- even if they were not so intense as yours -- were worth it.
btw, i'd also recommend looking into something called "sensate-focused caress". the best book on it that i read : https://www.amazon.com/Sensate-Focus-Sex-Therapy-Illustrated-ebook/dp/B06X9VH2D5/ref=sr_1_1?crid=290VF4WSK3762&keywords=sensate+focus&qid=1644886868&s=digital-text&sprefix=sensate+focus%2Cdigital-text%2C294&sr=1-1
If you're curious about Pure Awareness you can check out the audio program here as well!
This is run by a group of experienced TWIM students:
🌺 Metta (Loving-Kindness) Meditation for Beginners Classes (August 7 to September 25, 2021) Eight weeks-long sessions for beginners’ classes will be starting on August 7 at 10 AM EST. These classes are for anyone interested in learning how to start Loving-Kindness Meditation. Prior experience with meditation is not required. Everyone is invited! Intro to Metta Meditation (15-20 min) Guided meditation (30 min) Intro to Dhamma (15 min)
Join Zoom: Global Sitting Group (7 AM PST or 9 AM CT or 10 AM EST) https://zoom.us/join Meeting ID: 873 2250 2236 Passcode: 8888 To find out your local time by clicking on this link https://everytimezone.com/s/09547f51
You might enjoy the book Coming to Wholeness by Connirae Andreas (full disclosure: I work for Connirae).
The method is basically a form of self-inquiry where you ask "Where is the 'I'?" instead of the more typical "Who am I?" and then dissolve it into Awareness. That's the oversimplified version, there are many nuances after that. But works quite effectively with repeated application.
The app is by John Goodstadt, link to google play store here. On iphone the app will be the same - look up resonant breathing and the logo is a little guy with a pair of lungs.
I get the chest tension too. It was way worse before I learned this but it's still pretty bad. Over time spent with the breathing, or just sitting in place and feeling the body, it gradually unclasps. You just have to be patient and gentle - even a little less tension is progress and can subjectively feel like a big relief. You want to try and include the abdomen in the breathing, I find that being aware of it is enough for the breathing to shift. It's also possible to breathe too long and exasperate the tension, which I did when following Patrick Mckneown's Buteyko instructions which from what I remember amounted mostly to long holds and breathing as subtly and exhaling as long as possible, this was but at 7 bpm you're pretty much safe - 7 bpm won't feel much longer than breathing normally - if 7 bpm is too much, just go a little bit longer, even half a second.
I give myself permission to take big, ugly gulping breaths, yawn on the cushion sometimes, whatever it takes - there's a kind of rhythm where for a while I can't get a satisfactory breath so I'll just eat the discomfort for a few good, resonant breaths until I feel like I can breath all the way through and I'll do that, force some air in, then go back to the breathing. When I would try to avoid bad breaths altogether I'd just be more and more uncomfortable.
Hey everyone, I’m extremely happy to share that after about 2 years of starting with an idea and learning to program, the beta for my nature-inspired mindfulness app, Guide, is now available for testing in the Play Store!
It’s designed to use moments in nature as a meditation guide to develop mindfulness and find calm with a variety of natural settings to choose from. Other mindfulness tools include a timer for meditating silently and a journal to record daily thoughts and progress.
If you want to give it a try, you can check it out by clicking the play store link below.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.guide\_meditation.guide
I hope this helps those who have been struggling with meditation, let me know what you think!
Hey folks, I recently recorded a podcast episode with an advanced student of Rob Burbea's and I'm sure many here will thoroughly enjoy it. We get into the intricacies of jhanas (the guest's experience of them), Rob's flavour of jhana, their relationship to insight, emptiness, and daily life.
I'm deeply appreciative to have been able to explore this with him and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. You can find it here (where it'll link to any podcast platform):
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1559513/8135921
Best,
TImmy
Re: Motivational Interviewing, also check out the short version Instant Influence (ignore the seemingly manipulative subtitle, it is a deeply non-manipulative method). See this article for a summary.
If you haven't ever read <em>The Yoga Tradition</em> by Georg Feurstein, I'd recommend it. He breaks yoga into many different subdisciplines like karma yoga, and makes a strong case that any of them, pursued to the utmost, can lead to awakening.
I think probably there are many kinds of awakening. Not all of them look like "stream entry" as defined by Theravada Buddhism. I think that represents the diversity of human beings too. Ananda's enlightenment wasn't the same as Gautama Buddha's, despite living at his side for years and years.
My personal opinion, which I'm sure many will disagree with, is that you should follow what path you feel called to, and do it fully, whatever that may be, regardless of whether it looks like anyone else's path or not.
It's this one, right? Yeah, that segment was interesting, though inconclusive. Shinzen Young has a similar view; he seems to favor the "different axes of development" model.
> Extremely helpful. This is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for by posting this stuff. Thanks.
Hey, ThermiteDemon! I'm not the person you replied to (u/guitarino), but If you find Daniel Ingram's stuff/maps/models helpful now, you might be interested in his forum, for example:
On the "Fantasies? In same sentence with awaking?" response:
Both Daniel Ingram (alive) and Rob Burbea (dead) are mentioned in sidebar's recommended resources.
So there's a short answer and a long answer to this question. Note that my answer comes from a background of listening to a lot of talks but mainly doing samadhi practice with insight primarily as a support to my samadhi practice so it might be somewhat incomplete.
The short answer is the intentionality of the practice - in samadhi practice, as you mentioned, the intention is to bring the mind to sense of energetic calm and then eventually rest in some sort of pleasant abiding. In vipassana practice however, the intention is insight into the fabrication/emptiness of all things which as another user mentioned involves momentary focus on (broadly speaking) the three characteristics, although contemplations exist that go deeper than this. The goal of both is some reduction in suffering starting from grosser levels of suffering to subtler and subtler levels although they're approached from different angles.
The long answer is that in some traditions, they're treated as completely different, in some traditions they are considered inextricably linked. I fall in the latter camp and to understand how insight and samadhi are linked, I'd direct you to a much longer exposition on this subject by Rob Burbea (aptly named to answer your question - The relationship between concentration and insight). You'll need to search for it in the airtable but it should be easy to find. Here's a direct link to the talk.
You might want to listen to Rob Burbea's audio talks from his jhana retreat (or read the transcripts at https://airtable.com/shr9OS6jqmWvWTG5g/tblHlCKWIIhZzEFMk/viw3k0IfSo0Dve9ZJ ) - there is a lot of material on developing deep samadhi while de-emphasising the struggling for continuous tight focus. You don't even have to go deep into the jhana parts, the base practices for generating pleasant feelings as an object might be a nice break from TMI for you
You can find transcripts as well as links to the retreat recordings here. The art of concentration is in 2008, and Practicing the Jhanas is in 2019.
Well I was just referring to his basic teaching of "Resting in Being". I don't think he explicitly categorizes it as a either form or formless practice. He lays out the practice here.
hey man sorry for the delay, I have a lab practical (online lol) tomorrow in comparative vertebrate anatomy and it's killing me lol.
here's a really solid intro to IIT, but I'd also recommend checking out some shorter YouTube videos first for a simpler intro that's less mathy.
http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Integrated_information_theory
No worries. It is me getting worked up over it. :)
As for resources, you can't go wrong with r/buddhism 's extensive book list. It has a lot of recommendations including more academic ones. Foundations of Buddhism by Rupert Gethin looks promising for a historic overview. I learned a lot of basic context from the Great Courses World Religions: Buddhism. It is a bit pricey though your local library might be able to get a hold of it for you.
For understanding zen, I am partial to Thich Nhat Hanh's stuff especially Zen Keys and The Heart of the Buddhist Teaching, but I really like Shinryku Suzuki's work as well. Opening the Hand of Thought: Approach to Zen by Kōshō Uchiyama is also an excellent introduction of zen philosophy and practice.
I had planned on attending. However as long as using proprietary software is a requirement I will be not be joining. Please consider using something FOSS (free (as in freedom) and open source software) such as Jitsi next time.