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Herb
Canada
111 Posts |
 Posted - Jan 08 2017 : 12:51:08 PM
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I think I just made a breakthrough. About 5 minutes in I hit a place of such complete stillness that even thinking the mantra seemed to bring me up from that deep peacefull level of consciousness. Once I realized that, I just stayed in complete stillness, a place of relitively no thoughts, just an all inclusive feeling of quiteness and peace.
Once out, a feeling of peace has stayed with me. But It's not as deep and blissfull as that deep stillness I found in meditation. I'm really looking forward to my next meditation.
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Ecdyonurus
Switzerland
479 Posts |
Posted - Jan 08 2017 : 3:59:53 PM
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Hi Herb, nice to read your excitement while resuming your meditation practice!
Concerning that blissful silent state, I would say that this is just one of the states one experiences during meditation. Although it is a very pleasant state, I don't look at it as the "holy grail" of meditation. Meditation, to me, means embracing all the very different states that I experience during those 15 minutes. Trying to favour/trigger a certain state, implies the exclusion of other states. Concerning that silent state (nirvikalpa), well, I like and enjoy it when it happens in meditation, but I try not to make my mind shut IN ORDER to experience silence. Just my point of view, of course.  |
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Christi
United Kingdom
4514 Posts |
Posted - Jan 08 2017 : 5:12:54 PM
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Hi Herb,
Sounds like good things are happening. 
If you are following the practice of Deep Meditation and you enter a state of stillness and silence, once you realize that you are off the mantra, then come back to the mantra again. This will take you deeper into silence.
Sometimes when we enter silence the mantra will become very refined and subtle just before entering silence. If that is happening and then you enter silence, (no mantra or thoughts), then when you notice that you are off the mantra, come back to the mantra at the same level of faintness and fuzziness that you were at before you entered silence. You may find that you are back with the mantra for a while, before entering silence again, or you may find that just picking up the mantra once or twice, will bring you into silence (samadhi) again.
So Deep Meditation is a proactive way of working with samadhi states.
Christi
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Herb
Canada
111 Posts |
Posted - Jan 08 2017 : 5:51:41 PM
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Thank you Ecdy and Christi It sure is nice to hear from those who have gone through what I am experiencing. Also I am reading about great Swami's and Yogi's as they were on their path to enlightenment. My spiritual journey has sure picked up steam since I have decided to start Meditating again. And this time I'm doing it for spiritual reasons as well as health reasons so I'm learning about so much more than I did before. Your advice is quite subtle so I will have to read your comments again before meditating for the next few times.
I have a book coming called The Yoga of the Bhagavad Gita. I am excited to get and read that great spiritual text. |
Edited by - Herb on Jan 08 2017 7:20:07 PM |
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Christi
United Kingdom
4514 Posts |
Posted - Jan 08 2017 : 6:17:25 PM
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Hi Herb,
The Yoga of the Bhagavad Gita is on the recommended reading list for the AYP Teacher Training Course coming up in April. It is an excellent book by a very high level Yogi. There is also a film out now about his life called "Awake" which is certainly worth watching if you are able to.
Christi |
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Herb
Canada
111 Posts |
Posted - Jan 20 2017 : 12:58:42 AM
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It's been over a week since I experienced that sustained state of perfect stillness. I meditate for 20 minutes twice daily and it is back to the regular thinking the mantra then drifting off it or getting distracted, then going back to thinking the mantra. I just read a supposed quote from the Yoga Sutras that most closely explains what I experienced:
"When all distraction disappears and the mind becomes one-pointed, it enters the state called samadhi."
Can anyone verify that the above is a direct quote and maybe comment on what I may have experienced? It was like within minutes of starting to meditate all distraction completely disappeared and I was 100% wide awake consious, but having no thoughts other than the awareness that I was sitting there meditating. And it lasted for a full 15 minutes or so until I checked the time, saw my 20 minutes were up and gradually came out of meditation.
If that is samadhi then samadhi is totally awesome man! Also I had a deep feeling of calmness and peace for the rest of the evening and a good sleep if I remember right. I'm glad I wrote this down so I can compare it to the next time it happens. |
Edited by - Herb on Jan 20 2017 01:23:37 AM |
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Charliedog
1625 Posts |
Posted - Jan 20 2017 : 04:32:06 AM
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Hi Herb,
You described this beautiful and I understand you.
For a long time I was looking for words to describe it. One teacher said, sat-chit-ananda, the other called it samadhi (which has many layers) the other one said this is turya. Then one said, it doesn't matter, there is many terminology, your description is beautiful, I believe that was Yogani. 
It is beautiful to be one.
quote:
"When all distraction disappears and the mind becomes one-pointed, it enters the state called samadhi."
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Herb
Canada
111 Posts |
Posted - Jan 20 2017 : 6:30:36 PM
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SuperTrouper
USA
49 Posts |
Posted - Feb 25 2017 : 02:03:36 AM
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| States come and go. A state like what you experienced will become more stable as the preceding state is mastered. They're mastered simply by spending more time in them; you'll naturally move on to more refined states as the mind grows perfectly stable in that state, and then naturally begins to incline towards the next. But all of the states are impermanent, manufactured realities based on specialized conditions of attention and awareness, and the skill of the person using them. Until you begin to hit the jhanas (I prefer to use the buddhist mindmaps of the Jhanas instead of the "enlightenment milestones" of AYP, because they're more logical, consistent, and replicable), you will go through many unusual experiences, and often times each meditation session will be wibbly-wobbly like learning to ride a bike, but occasionally you'll strike the perfect balance of naturally strong concentration and naturally strong mindful awareness without interruption for the duration of the meditation, which creates a clean, calm, and cool spacious silence. And then the next one will again be wibbly wobbly. But once you begin entering the jhanas, or the meditation milestones as AYP calls it, the experiences during sitting meditation as well as daily life will be increasingly consistent, ease-ful, uniform, and highly enjoyable. |
Edited by - SuperTrouper on Feb 25 2017 02:46:09 AM |
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Herb
Canada
111 Posts |
Posted - Feb 28 2017 : 6:44:57 PM
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Hi Supertrouper.
Thanks for that. I have been having a lot of trouble meditating for a while now. I just don't go very deep and can't meditate for very long. I'm learning several pranayama's right now and I'm hoping that doing a solid pranayama session leading into meditation will help.
Your experience with Buddist meditation sounds like it has helped you. Down the road I hope to study and practise Buddist meditation, but I've got a LOT to learn and master in Yoga and Hinduism first. When it comes to spirituality I like to practice only one faith tradition at a time until I have attained the spiritual goals of that religion. I now wish I had transfered from Christianity to Hinduism sooner, but that was my first transfer and Christianity was how I gained God-Realization. So my faith is now mature and I have a much better understanding of what I'm doing. |
Edited by - Herb on Feb 28 2017 11:39:11 PM |
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SeySorciere
Seychelles
1571 Posts |
Posted - Mar 01 2017 : 11:21:04 AM
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Dear Herb,
At AYP we do not look to what is happening during our meditation sessions ("deep" or not, experiences or not) to judge the effects of meditation but to how our daily life is flowing. We look at our relationships and interactions with others. It sounds as if your meditation sessions are not yet stable. I would not advice adding pranayama- it may increase your sensitivity and you will have to self pace more. Plus you will not be able to tell which practice is causing the sensitivity making it hard to find the right balance and timings. At most I would advice a couple of rounds of alternate nostril breathing. With AYP less is more, so take your time before piling on practices and I would advice against mixing and matching from different systems. For example, I did Deep meditation a whole year before adding SBP - not that you have to wait that long - but I don't regret doing it that way.
Take it slow my friend and good luck !
Sey
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Herb
Canada
111 Posts |
Posted - Mar 01 2017 : 12:41:56 PM
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Sey, as always, your advice and compassion is greatly appreciated. You are getting to know me and your advice is being taken to heart. I follow the Spirit above all human advice, but when you give well thought out advice from the heart like that the Spirit works through you to help people.
Thank you my friend and may God bless you richly |
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aguacate
Germany
44 Posts |
Posted - Mar 05 2017 : 5:59:09 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Christi
The Yoga of the Bhagavad Gita is on the recommended reading list for the AYP Teacher Training Course coming up in April.
Hi Christi,
I searched for the list, but wasn't able to find it. I haven't had the one year of experience for the training yet, but would like to start reading now.
Best,
aguacate |
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Christi
United Kingdom
4514 Posts |
Posted - Mar 16 2017 : 6:55:16 PM
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Hi Aguacate,
The Teacher Training recommended reading list is here.
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Will Power
Spain
415 Posts |
Posted - Mar 21 2017 : 8:22:06 PM
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Well, for me, asanas and pranayama before meditation makes meditation excellent, so if he is wandering much in meditation, I don't see why he should not add other practices to pacify the prana and bring it to sushumna before meditation.
quote:
Originally posted by SeySorciere
Dear Herb,
At AYP we do not look to what is happening during our meditation sessions ("deep" or not, experiences or not) to judge the effects of meditation but to how our daily life is flowing. We look at our relationships and interactions with others. It sounds as if your meditation sessions are not yet stable. I would not advice adding pranayama- it may increase your sensitivity and you will have to self pace more. Plus you will not be able to tell which practice is causing the sensitivity making it hard to find the right balance and timings. At most I would advice a couple of rounds of alternate nostril breathing. With AYP less is more, so take your time before piling on practices and I would advice against mixing and matching from different systems. For example, I did Deep meditation a whole year before adding SBP - not that you have to wait that long - but I don't regret doing it that way.
Take it slow my friend and good luck !
Sey
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Herb
Canada
111 Posts |
Posted - Sep 15 2017 : 08:53:11 AM
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Thank you all for commenting on this thread. Looking back I see the original experience as God blessing me with a powerful experience of samadhi only about one week after I started meditating to give me a taste of what is to come if I don't get frustrated and give up. On the thread called "What is inner silence?" Christi posted the following:
"Samadhi is the eighth limb of yoga and means 'absorption in pure bliss consciousness,' or 'abiding in inner silence,' 'the witness,' 'stillness in action,' etc., all which we talk about so much around here from an experiential perspective. Everyone who loses the mantra during deep meditation enters samadhi.
There are as many types and grades of samadhi as one might care to define, and it can get very technical in splitting hairs. It really depends on experience. Before then, it is mostly academic. ' [Yogani]
Just to clarify though, as I was explaining above, silence/stillness is not only experienced between two thoughts. It can also be experienced as our own awareness (pure bliss consciousness) which is that within which thoughts and the mantra arise and dissolve. This is important because people can develop the idea that the goal of meditation is to stop thoughts/ the mantra, in order to experience inner silence, which is not correct practice. The goal of meditation is to follow the simple procedure of returning to the mantra whenever we realize that we are off it. It is a subtle difference, but it is important.
One of the simplest ways of describing samadhi is by it's accompanying conditions. Early stages of samadhi will be experienced as peaceful, blissful, balanced and silent (though not necessarily because of the absence of sound/ thought). It is not necessary that all of these conditions will be present, but most of them will be. It is as if the background (awareness), comes to the foreground and the foreground (the objects of the senses and the objects of the mind) goes to the background. What we did not notice before (pure bliss consciousness), because we were occupied by and identified with things that are temporal, becomes our fundamental condition of being.
In higher states of samadhi, with a purified (ecstatic) subtle nervous system, we become fully absorbed in the Self and the experience of this is one of unity, freedom and divine love."
I want to thank Christi, not only for his posts on this thread, but for his great insight throughout this forum. The above quote is a perfect example. I especially liked his insight about there being so many types or kinds of samadhi.
The experience that started this thread was not only never repeated but, for several months of dedicated practise, I experienced no other samadhi of any kind. If God hadn't blessed me with such an amazing samadhi early on and my friend Sey hadn't come to my rescue at a desperate time in my practise, I probably would have quit meditating. (I had been on a dedicated spiritual path from the late 90's till the fall of 014. My spiritual progress went from mild to interesting, then to full God-realization on April 03/012. Then, for over 2 years I was granted an amazing mystical life with almost daily experiences of divine revelation, some very powerful and life changing. Then, in the fall of 014, I had a dark night experience where my "perceived" spiritual life suddenly dried up. As I had been relying on sensory revelations for my faith for over two years and the experiences I had were over the top blissful and satisfying, I was devastated to "think" that God had suddenly abandoned me. I just didn't know that my relationship with Him had only changed, not ended. This revelation only dawned on me last night, along with a clear understanding of how I might pick up where I left off, but that experiencing God with my external senses is no longer how I am to find Him).
But I have kept at it religiously(yes I am poking fun at all the SBNR folks here that may be slightly put off at my religiosity) and it is now bearing fruit. A few months ago the Self or Atman began to express or manifest intermittently. Then I learned a technique that started to turn that experience into a very blissfull experience of unitive consciousness. In Yogic terms I would explain it as an "Atman is Brahman" experience or Being-ness/bliss awareness.
As I approach the stable state of Self-realization, or unitive consciousness, this forum combined with dedicated practise and study has all worked together. I thank all of you as I wouldn't be where I am without you. I'm sorry that I never felt the desire to practise AYP in an anyway pure form, but much of it has helped me. And there is much similarity and overlap between AYP and my practise.
I love it that Yogani says somewhere, and this is from memory and not a quote, that even if a person does not practise AYP, he hopes that he/she will still benifit from what he is doing here. And, Yogani, I have, big time! Thank you!!
Herb
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Edited by - Herb on Sep 20 2017 11:53:45 PM |
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SeySorciere
Seychelles
1571 Posts |
Posted - Sep 15 2017 : 10:41:36 AM
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Sey |
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BlueRaincoat
United Kingdom
1734 Posts |
Posted - Sep 16 2017 : 09:35:22 AM
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Thank you for sharing Herb. Good to hear you have found peace.
I think we all know that, at the end of the day, each of us has his/her unique path. The SBNR folk here would not dream of judging you.
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Bodhi Tree
2972 Posts |
Posted - Sep 16 2017 : 11:46:22 AM
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Great to see you post again, Herb. Peace be with you.  |
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Dogboy
USA
2294 Posts |
Posted - Sep 16 2017 : 11:13:51 PM
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| Brother Herb |
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Charliedog
1625 Posts |
Posted - Sep 17 2017 : 02:27:17 AM
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Hitting that place of complete stillness
