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Jim and His Karma
2111 Posts |
 Posted - Mar 02 2006 : 6:17:56 PM
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I asked Yogani a question about lengthening meditation time, and he noted that negative effects can be delayed, by even weeks or months.
But I started thinking about it. I don't doubt that it's true...I've seen surprising delayed reactions a few days after big changes in my practice. But if you feel an ill effect 3 months hence, how could you trace or link it to a moderate or gradual change? Anyone have any ideas on this? |
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yogani
USA
5241 Posts |
Posted - Mar 04 2006 : 10:54:18 AM
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Hi Jim:
Rapid increases in practice times or the number of practices is an area where tracking the relationship of practices and experiences is tricky, because the cause/effect dynamic can be spread out in time.
The phenomenon does exist, as anyone who has had a big energy surge coming out of nowhere can attest (sometimes uncomfortable).
Think of the situation as being like a dam where the water is steadily rising behind it. The spillway of the dam has a certain limit for water to pass through the dam safely. Once the water reaches a level well beyond what the spillway can handle, the dam becomes strained and can break apart in large pieces. Until then, there may be no sign of the impending break -- the delayed reaction to the rising water. When the break finally does happen, it is not usually an orderly event, and not even progressive, as the dam can be damaged in the process.
The dam is our nervous system with impurities still in place. The water is our spiritual energy wanting to flow through the dam. The spillway is our present capacity to handle the flow, which we are working to increase with our daily practices. The rising water behind the dam beyond what the spillway can comfortably handle is what happens when our practices produce energy exceeding the openings we can handle in the present -- a pile-up behind the dam. The pile-up can be quiet and unnoticed, like water steadily rising behind a dam. We may only notice the pile-up of inner energy when there is finally a crumbing from the build-up in the pressure and a chaotic breakthrough -- the delayed reaction.
Of course, what we are trying to do is a smooth purification of the dam of our nervous system, without causing undue stress and damage to the dam itself, or our confidence and ability to continue with the dam purification project on a daily basis. We are gradually increasing the spillway to handle the infinite divine flow that is available within us at all times. It does not work so well with cycles of big inner pile-ups and big crumblings. Hence, we go gradually, increasing our practices in small steps to make sure we do not exceed the capacity of our nervous system (our spillway) to purify and open in a smooth and safe manner.
This is what self-pacing is all about. We each have our own inner dynamic, and self-pacing is about matching our practices and experiences to be both progressive and manageable. Taking delayed reactions into account as we ramp up practices is part of this process, one of the more tricky aspects. But we learn quickly after getting ahead of ourselves with practices and having a few unexpected time-delayed sunburns from the inside, yes? 
The guru is in you.
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Jim and His Karma
2111 Posts |
Posted - Mar 04 2006 : 2:34:15 PM
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What a great description, Yogani, beautifully stated, and it perfectly matches what I myself have experienced (actually, it sounds a lot like the frenum snipping instructions for kechari, which seems to be a microcosm of the whole practice!). I definitely have noticed the bore size of my nervous system expand to handle greater flow. And I've just been made to see that it's still not all that wide!
The majority of my recent posts are confessions of bone-headed things I've done, but, hey, if it helps anyone avoid my mistakes, great.
quote:
But we learn quickly after getting ahead of ourselves with practices and having a few unexpected time-delayed sunburns from the inside, yes?
Uh huh. A few factors caused my meditation time to sneak up on me over past two months.
1. My "inner clock" has been telling me my 20 mins are up at the 30 or 40 or 45 min mark
2. I'm getting a lot more silence, and it's painful to leave it
3. At 20 mins, I'm just settling in, and I feel like I'd be doing more harm by wrenching myself out at that point than in slurping over by a few mins.
So I've let it expand. And I feel like crap today. You know that weak, shuddery, whiney, unpleasant feeling of fever? That's me. And I missed a harbinger: a few days ago, I woke up at night feeling vertigo as if I was drunk. I failed to fully register it. You've got to watch for those small preliminary signs, lest you get hit with the wallop of the follow-up sign. I'm in wallop phase right now.
Interestingly, this has little in common with the burnout that comes from energy-based overdoing. I don't feel burnt, I don't feel pains at the base of my skull, I don't feel fuzzy. I feel more flu-ish (but it's not flu). Low strength. I do have headaches, but they're a different sort.
Now my task is to find a way to scale back just enough, but not to over retract and start lapsing again.
I should note that yesterday I did something I'd never before done. I started meditating in a parked car, expecting my friend to arrive in 20 mins. She arrived in 5 mins, just as I was starting to get some serious energy flows. I did a hard cut-off to the meditation. So I'm not sure how much of this effect stems from that, and how much from the overdoing in meditation. But my intuition is that it's both. |
Edited by - Jim and His Karma on Mar 04 2006 2:35:26 PM |
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riptiz
United Kingdom
741 Posts |
Posted - Mar 04 2006 : 5:10:45 PM
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Dear Jim,
The flu like symptoms are simply cleansing caused by the purification process.Once thes ses symptoms are over I always feel a difference in the energy as the ability to channel energy increases.Look at it like the pipes expanding to allow more energy through.
L&L
Dave
'the mind can see further than the eyes' |
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Etherfish
USA
3615 Posts |
Posted - Mar 05 2006 : 10:49:17 AM
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| I'm glad I read this. I've had a little of the vertigo feeling during the day and wondered what it was. Must be that damn purification process Yogani was talking about. |
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Jim and His Karma
2111 Posts |
Posted - Mar 05 2006 : 12:06:26 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Etherfish
I'm glad I read this. I've had a little of the vertigo feeling during the day and wondered what it was. Must be that damn purification process Yogani was talking about.
I'd urge you to consider that it may be a sign of overdoing. If your meditation time is creeping up, you may want to creep it back! |
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Etherfish
USA
3615 Posts |
Posted - Mar 05 2006 : 5:44:15 PM
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| Yes that's the conclusion I came to. Thanks. |
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david_obsidian
USA
2602 Posts |
Posted - Mar 06 2006 : 10:47:17 AM
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Jim said:
I started meditating in a parked car, expecting my friend to arrive in 20 mins. She arrived in 5 mins, just as I was starting to get some serious energy flows. I did a hard cut-off to the meditation.
A hard cut-off like that always gives me a fractured feeling, a very high-frequency shuddery-jumpiness and irritibility and unease. I don't meditate any more in situations where there is a high risk of a hard cut-off.
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Edited by - david_obsidian on Mar 06 2006 11:15:55 AM |
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Jim and His Karma
2111 Posts |
Posted - Mar 06 2006 : 2:45:10 PM
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I"m mostly sorry that I had these two factors going at the same time. I had 48 hours of feeling badly flu-ish (today it's pretty faint), and I'm not sure which was most to blame. And if you feel awful and can't learn a precise lesson, well, that's just a shame! :)
I"m pretty sure that if I'd just raised, like, a finger (indicating "just a minute"), I could have managed to avoid the brunt of this in 30-60 secs (just doing conventional relaxation things). |
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Etherfish
USA
3615 Posts |
Posted - Mar 06 2006 : 11:21:15 PM
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Yes it's much better just to avoid those situations, but I've had days where I had to skip morning meditation because of getting up too late. Then I end up having to wait in my work truck
for an hour midmorning, waiting for a cell phone call. i'm thinking this is just not fair.
So I close my eyes and do three spinal breaths, then six AYAMS. rest ten seconds. Then three spinal breaths and six AYAMs again. etc.
That gives me meditation in little tiny doses so when I am interrupted I don't feel bad.
it takes much longer than normal for those to do any good, but sometimes that fits my schedule.
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Super Time Delayed Reactions
