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whitespy
Germany
12 Posts |
 Posted - Feb 02 2011 : 2:22:21 PM
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Namaste fellow Yogi(nis),
I've practised Buddhist meditation for several years until last year I had a premature K awakening. Since then, I experienced what in my opinion is a "Dark Night of the Soul" - a backlash regression involving
terror, misery, disgust and indifference and equanimity. Daniel Ingram on his website charts this stage very good.
Because of fear of overload I've basically stopped meditating, but now want to begin again, wondering about continuing Zen style or beginning mantra meditation. I've discovered AYP and now ask myself:
does the AYP system mitigate the Dark Night through more emphasis on bliss stages?
best wishes
whitepsy
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CarsonZi
Canada
3189 Posts |
Posted - Feb 02 2011 : 2:25:42 PM
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Hi Whitespy 
quote:
Originally posted by whitespy
does the AYP system mitigate the Dark Night through more emphasis on bliss stages?
I only have a quick second, but I would respond to this question by saying that AYP mitigates the Dark Night through the cultivation of Inner Silence.
Love!
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tonightsthenight
846 Posts |
Posted - Feb 03 2011 : 8:42:34 PM
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Hey whitespy,
there are many "dark nights", or perhaps none.
each person's journey is different.
in order to have bliss you must suffer. the suffering is actually purification.
Carson is partly right that cultivated inner silence allows one to navigate the stormy waters that arise in the sea of consciousness... however, the catch is, before we have total inner silence we will probably have to navigate many dark nights!
quote:
does the AYP system mitigate the Dark Night through more emphasis on bliss stages?
actually, this is not the right question. AYP would mitigate the dark nights through an emphasis on self pacing. |
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Tibetan_Ice
Canada
758 Posts |
Posted - Feb 03 2011 : 11:52:57 PM
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Hi,
It is important to understand what we are talking about here.
So, I did some research (my small "I")..
What is the Dark Night?
To me, the Dark Night is the final stage when the ego realizes that it does not really exist, that there is no person, but the individual has not yet realized that God/presence/awareness/Big Mind/THAT is actually pulling our puppet strings from within.. :)
Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_N..._of_the_Soul
Here is a good page about this topic with some advice on how to get through it..
http://thehamiltonproject.blogspot....k-night.html
To me, the Dark Night is a form of suffering. My motto is: No mind, no suffering. It only hurts if you think about it! :)
Here is another link to an interesting discussion on this topic..
http://www.vipassanaforum.net/forum...85;topicseen
And, here is a link to Daniel Ingram's book in which he cultivates the concept of the "Dark Night":
http://www.interactivebuddha.com/mctb.shtml
Anyway, to answer your question, I would say that the way that AYP practices would mitigate the effects from the Dark Night is by helping to develop the Witness. Once a person puts space in between thoughts/feelings and the perceiver he/she realizes that "I am not these thoughts/feelings" and they lose their influence and power.
Lately I've been reading John Wheeler's books. He is an expounder of Nisargadatta's teachings through "Sailor Bob Adamson's" instruction. I believe that John (and Nisargadatta) would say that there is no person, there is only existence and awareness. He would say don't focus on the content of the awareness, but on the fact that there is awareness. The content will come and go. The forms are created and dissolved. Impermanence... The only thing that remains, unaltered and unaffected by the arising and passing of phenomenon is your True Self (God).
The other point I'd like to make is that there are teachings out there (like John Wheeler, Sailor Bob, Ramana, Ken Wilber etc) whose "models of enlightenment" do not contain varying degrees or stages of refining consciousness through practices. The stages are simply mental constructs created by a mind which needs some kind of linear path to follow. What is important to them is seeking the source of these constructs, which is awareness (or the AYP deep silence). Consciousness comes and goes, and is not present in deep sleep. Awareness is beyond. The One Taste.
So, if we truly don't exist as separate people, there is nobody that suffers. How can there exist a "Dark Night" in reality, when there is nobody there to experience it? The Dark Night is just a trick of the non-existent ego..
:)
TI |
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markern
Norway
171 Posts |
Posted - Feb 04 2011 : 11:51:22 AM
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As far as I understand Ingram the thing to do when in the dark night is be aware that your negative thoughts and feelings are now nonsense so don`t act upon them. You will not see clearly until you are out of the Dark Night. To get out of the Dark Night do a lot of insight meditation so that you can get to equanimity and then stream entry instead. Preferably go on a retreat. The longer the better. This is all unless you also struggle with energetic overload which you might be because of the kundalini. If so, you need to take a more balanced approach.
You might find this site useful: http://biologyofkundalini.com/ |
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JosephUK
United Kingdom
212 Posts |
Posted - Feb 14 2011 : 12:39:05 PM
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I think the principal problem will be the kundalini firing up your emotions and past hurts. I reccomend deep meditation and spinal breathing to balance out the kundalini, unless you have another plan to deal with your kundalini symptoms.
I've also read that people who have kundalini awakenings also get some kind of therapy to sort out the emotions that come up. It can't hurt.
I hope it works out for you.
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tonightsthenight
846 Posts |
Posted - Feb 14 2011 : 6:21:47 PM
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Good advice Joseph.
One thing to remember, however, is that during these times, for some people, deep meditation (or anything resembling meditation at all) and practices like spinal breathing can fire up the k even more rather than calm it down. |
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The Dark Night and AYP
