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themysticseeker
USA
342 Posts |
 Posted - Dec 07 2008 : 4:42:22 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Neptune
Hi TMS and all,
You want to know about all perceptions ceasing to exist.
Nothing to say. It just does. Then later, you are back again having thoughts, again aware of your body, that your back hurts, and that time has passed in a wink without your knowing. And you are thinking again.
How this occurred for me is through self enquiry on Buddhist, meditative retreats. It was a very purifying process like being burned up. It was and is still the hardest work I know. You get back from a 3 day or a one week retreat at a retreat center and people ask you how your vacation was! All you can think is that you are exhausted and glad to be home, but it´s terribly crucial and beneficial. To be ripped away from all your routines and your computer, and your family, and the newpapers, and so on.
And the end product of these retreats is just one thing really, ultimately. It is realizing how absolutely primary one goal has become for you: To be kind. To be kind to yourself first. To accept all your strange little foibles and wierdnesses and failings. <Not repudiate those, but the opposite, to sit with those things.
And secondly, to be kind to everyone as well as yourself. That´s the tangible milestone. To be incredibly kind and caring. That´s the upshot and product. Proof you are going in the right direction.
Beyond all that I think the yoga practices recommended here are fabulous, especially khechari mudra and yoni mudra, and dynamic chin pump. But I´´ tell you something: there is no substitute for the really work that has to get done. And for me that has been and is, self enquiry. It´d be real nice if I could do that without going off on these meditation retreats, but for me there is no substitute. For me the mind or ego is incredibly tricky and capable of pulling the wool over my eyes time and again. I just have to get away from every day responsibilites to get the job done and it is a work in progress. I realize Yogani and Christi will say you don´t need to do this. And I respect their opinion, but I´m telling you, I totally disagree with that. Going off on a meditation retreat periodically is absolutely crucial for self enquiry. The mind is just too tricky to do this work at home.
I would recommend going off to the forest like retreat center in your area and sit a few retreats for yourself. Sit for 45 minutes, walking meditation for 30, then another 45 on the cushion. All day long. It´s dynamite. But it´s hard work. But it´s time well spent.
One disclaimer though. I am practicing outside and beyond the purview of Yogani´s recommended practices. I do his practices too, but not exclusively. Caveat emptor. Let the buyer beware.
Neptune speaks for TMS |
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themysticseeker
USA
342 Posts |
Posted - Dec 07 2008 : 5:10:25 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Neptune
Hi TMS and all,
You want to know about all perceptions ceasing to exist.
Nothing to say. It just does. Then later, you are back again having thoughts, again aware of your body, that your back hurts, and that time has passed in a wink without your knowing. And you are thinking again.
How this occurred for me is through self enquiry on Buddhist, meditative retreats. It was a very purifying process like being burned up. It was and is still the hardest work I know. You get back from a 3 day or a one week retreat at a retreat center and people ask you how your vacation was! All you can think is that you are exhausted and glad to be home, but it´s terribly crucial and beneficial. To be ripped away from all your routines and your computer, and your family, and the newpapers, and so on.
And the end product of these retreats is just one thing really, ultimately. It is realizing how absolutely primary one goal has become for you: To be kind. To be kind to yourself first. To accept all your strange little foibles and wierdnesses and failings. <Not repudiate those, but the opposite, to sit with those things.
And secondly, to be kind to everyone as well as yourself. That´s the tangible milestone. To be incredibly kind and caring. That´s the upshot and product. Proof you are going in the right direction.
Beyond all that I think the yoga practices recommended here are fabulous, especially khechari mudra and yoni mudra, and dynamic chin pump. But I´´ tell you something: there is no substitute for the really work that has to get done. And for me that has been and is, self enquiry. It´d be real nice if I could do that without going off on these meditation retreats, but for me there is no substitute. For me the mind or ego is incredibly tricky and capable of pulling the wool over my eyes time and again. I just have to get away from every day responsibilites to get the job done and it is a work in progress. I realize Yogani and Christi will say you don´t need to do this. And I respect their opinion, but I´m telling you, I totally disagree with that. Going off on a meditation retreat periodically is absolutely crucial for self enquiry. The mind is just too tricky to do this work at home.
I would recommend going off to the forest like retreat center in your area and sit a few retreats for yourself. Sit for 45 minutes, walking meditation for 30, then another 45 on the cushion. All day long. It´s dynamite. But it´s hard work. But it´s time well spent.
One disclaimer though. I am practicing outside and beyond the purview of Yogani´s recommended practices. I do his practices too, but not exclusively. Caveat emptor. Let the buyer beware.
Hi Neptune, Thank you for sharing that. This has been an important discovery for me as well. The first level of feeling good and feeling well is very important preparatory stage of finally feeling up to the task of facing the self. The revelations about our conditions boil down to choices we have made, perhaps over many lives. Addressing our direct responsibility for creating our conditions requires a lion heart, because what we discover is often quite disturbing, especially when life has been harsh. We have to address what we have become to address what we will develop and from what source of power we tap in the development.
Self inquiry often causes one to realize a sense of entrapment, realizing one has allowed one's self to be led into misbehaviors over and over again, day after day, life after life, all due to doubt and the unwillingness to face difficult great truth. One may also realize the microcosmic result of one's personal story resembles the macrocosmic scale of societies and civilizations, centuries, eras and epochs. Understanding timelessness in meditation provides a ground for extremely long perspectives. As time truncates, we sense dangers as more imminent. We become highly sensitive to the manner in which mind is both a sponge and a filter. The sense of others' ego deluded timestreams feels dangerous. So the desire to withdraw comes. The seed of the ascetic urge begins sprouting. We must withdraw our senses from the conventional habits to address ourselves accurately and with appropriate energy and focus. Know thyself.
Yoga is the path of becoming somebody. Because you have to become somebody before you can become nobody. The path of ecstasy is prerequisite to the inevitable moment when one turn one's attention to the mind itself, dissecting it to understand what we will make of this life, and how to integrate deep wisdom into everyday life. Will we change the world? Is it enough to change ourselves? How much burden is good for us and for everyone?
I commend you Neptune. I'm not sure of this, but I get the sense that you are a young person. You are the hope of us all. You are a torch of yourself, so we all see a light ahead.
Respect and blessings,
Surrender |
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Neptune
99 Posts |
Posted - Dec 08 2008 : 6:54:39 PM
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Hi TMS,
we are agreed. do you do Kechari stage 2 (yet)?
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themysticseeker
USA
342 Posts |
Posted - Dec 08 2008 : 8:59:12 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Neptune
Hi TMS,
we are agreed. do you do Kechari stage 2 (yet)?
Hi Neptune, No I haven't. I'm working on it. I may have to use a razor. I'm experimenting with it. I'll let you know. I will keep an open mind about it. Thanks...
TMS |
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themysticseeker
USA
342 Posts |
Posted - Dec 09 2008 : 3:32:09 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Neptune
Hi TMS,
we are agreed. do you do Kechari stage 2 (yet)?
I wanted to add that I strongly agree with you about retreats. My experience is that monkey mind does not stop hopping for three full days in silence. There's a notable feeling of release that happens even when not meditating, when relaxing in a quiet place with no television, radio or telephone. We have to isolate ourselves consciously from our interconnections with noisy land.
Only after three days can real results in meditation happen. The centrifugal force of thought motion finally settles down.
TMS |
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Neptune
99 Posts |
Posted - Dec 10 2008 : 5:53:10 PM
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Hi TMS,
So you are validating my exact observation of monkey mind needing a couple days to settle down and stop misbehaving.
How often do you do these Buddhist retreats?
And where? And with whom?
There are audiotapes of reoccuring subject matter that keep going around and around until the mind just sort of gets bored with it and moves on to emotional subject matter. That too becomes boring after a day and then the mind can settle down and just be more docile like a dog that went to obedience school. Doesn´t tug on the leash, doesn´t jump up, is house broken, and will just sit and stay.
Then the serious stillness will descend more and more, especially on the night shift of sitting meditations. We become the Buddha, or Bodhisattva for a little while and come to the glimmer of an understanding of what´s what. |
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themysticseeker
USA
342 Posts |
Posted - Dec 11 2008 : 11:16:25 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Neptune
Hi TMS,
So you are validating my exact observation of monkey mind needing a couple days to settle down and stop misbehaving.
How often do you do these Buddhist retreats?
And where? And with whom?
There are audiotapes of reoccuring subject matter that keep going around and around until the mind just sort of gets bored with it and moves on to emotional subject matter. That too becomes boring after a day and then the mind can settle down and just be more docile like a dog that went to obedience school. Doesn´t tug on the leash, doesn´t jump up, is house broken, and will just sit and stay.
Then the serious stillness will descend more and more, especially on the night shift of sitting meditations. We become the Buddha, or Bodhisattva for a little while and come to the glimmer of an understanding of what´s what.
I have my private retreat places around the world. Different places give me different feelings. I usually go at least twice a year and spend at least a week. I go with my partner. We are both very spiritually inclined. She's my teacher in most ways.
Respect and blessings,
TMS |
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