Recent Posts

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Meditation, Practice And The Path / Re: Need help!! Anger/frustration regarding expectations

« Last post by Velvet Donkey on September 15, 2021, 05:27:00 PM »

Hi Whoami, it would be good to hear how things have progressed.

As a comparison I got caught up with expectation and desire as well. After an initial six months of what seemed like a relatively frequent route to stillness and glimpses of bliss, I started to form an expectation of what would happen at each sit. Then things started not to happen! Just nothing. That was about two years ago now, and I've got a daily 45 minute practice. I still worry about whether I can actually be meditating if I don't feel that altered state of mind. However I'm much more content now to just keep turning up and observing my own attitude and whatever is there.  Alex mentioned equanimity above, and I won't say I'm great at it, but that mindset helps.

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Meditation, Practice And The Path / Re: My experiences

« Last post by raushan on September 13, 2021, 09:47:56 AM »

Breathing in long “is like this”
Breathing in short “is like this”.

 

  True.

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Meditation, Practice And The Path / Re: My experiences

« Last post by Middleway on September 12, 2021, 03:42:31 PM »

Breathing in long “is like this”
Breathing in short “is like this”.

 

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Meditation, Practice And The Path / Re: My experiences

« Last post by raushan on September 12, 2021, 08:52:24 AM »

Going back to the basics of meditation. Our mind or ego whatever we call is very clever. In the disguise of that I need to progress as fast as possible and multiple other random thoughts I didn't realize I have been creating more thoughts in the mind rather than helping myself.

I will be again ignoring thoughts and return to the breathing. I will also follow what's Matthew shared, the link from accesstoinsight.

'Breathing in long, he discerns, 'I am breathing in long'; or breathing out long, he discerns, 'I am breathing out long.' [2] Or breathing in short, he discerns, 'I am breathing in short'; or breathing out short, he discerns, 'I am breathing out short.'


I have felt very calm and peaceful before while doing the Samatha meditation. Yesterday felt same kind of feeling while doing it.

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Meditation, Practice And The Path / Re: Procrastination ...

« Last post by Matthew on September 08, 2021, 09:30:52 AM »

The point is the dulling of clarity happened as he progressed through childhood ...

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Meditation, Practice And The Path / Re: Procrastination ...

« Last post by raushan on September 08, 2021, 04:29:36 AM »

Hi Raushan,

The author goes on to say that education is what dulls the mind. I think it's a bit more than that. We learn things at school, how to understand, but also in the world, in our families etc. We put names to things and stop seeing clearly because we habituate a perception linked to the name, to the thinking, not seeing things clearly as they are but through this lens of accumulated habits.

Exactly, it's not like people outside of school are all free and speaks the truth. Their mind is also equally conditioned. Agree with that. Krishnamurti says we should be able to live without any kind of resistance or conflict.

This is what I think the skandha teachings of the Buddha are about. Skandha means 'heap' or 'pile' so, I believe, this refers to the heap of accumulated preconceptions that are wired into the neurons of the brain by repeated firing of those circuits. It's a lot of what we are undoing in practice: quieting the mind, stopping those patterns, then gaining insight once we have established calm and equanimity, seeing through to the roots of these piles of habits, and undoing them, taking away their power, so we see everything fresh, without the filters.

Yes agree with that. Haven't read for since a long time the suttas. But I can see myself how many things in my head carrying. I still feel the pain of very early life incidents that means I haven't really let them go yet.

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Meditation, Practice And The Path / Re: Procrastination ...

« Last post by Dhamma on September 08, 2021, 02:39:05 AM »

Hi Raushan,

The author goes on to say that education is what dulls the mind. I think it's a bit more than that. We learn things at school, how to understand, but also in the world, in our families etc. We put names to things and stop seeing clearly because we habituate a perception linked to the name, to the thinking, not seeing things clearly as they are but through this lens of accumulated habits. This is what I think the skandha teachings of the Buddha are about. Skandha means 'heap' or 'pile' so, I believe, this refers to the heap of accumulated preconceptions that are wired into the neurons of the brain by repeated firing of those circuits. It's a lot of what we are undoing in practice: quieting the mind, stopping those patterns, then gaining insight once we have established calm and equanimity, seeing through to the roots of these piles of habits, and undoing them, taking away their power, so we see everything fresh, without the filters.

I forget the Pali word (Theravada) for what you're talking about. But it has do with how our cultures, customs, traditions, etc.  blind us and stop us from seeing with a clear mind.

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Meditation, Practice And The Path / Re: Procrastination ...

« Last post by Matthew on September 07, 2021, 10:13:11 PM »

Hi Raushan,

The author goes on to say that education is what dulls the mind. I think it's a bit more than that. We learn things at school, how to understand, but also in the world, in our families etc. We put names to things and stop seeing clearly because we habituate a perception linked to the name, to the thinking, not seeing things clearly as they are but through this lens of accumulated habits. This is what I think the skandha teachings of the Buddha are about. Skandha means 'heap' or 'pile' so, I believe, this refers to the heap of accumulated preconceptions that are wired into the neurons of the brain by repeated firing of those circuits. It's a lot of what we are undoing in practice: quieting the mind, stopping those patterns, then gaining insight once we have established calm and equanimity, seeing through to the roots of these piles of habits, and undoing them, taking away their power, so we see everything fresh, without the filters.

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Meditation, Practice And The Path / Re: Procrastination ...

« Last post by raushan on September 07, 2021, 08:58:53 PM »

Hi Matthew,

Even I am dealing with this question. Dulling of the mind as we grow older. Although I am a lot younger than you but I am also approaching 30. I feel from 30 people start seeing the mind dullness. I think it's mostly because of the weight we carry or the past things get stored up as memory. And I guess that start to make the mind old.

Because I have seen the videos of J. Krishnamurti and Thanissaro Bhikkhu whether they talked about that our physical body gets old but our mind need not get old. The weight of memory makes it old. But if we have the ability to let go or seeing the mind as it is it will be fresh even at the age of 90.

What's your thoughts on this?

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Meditation, Practice And The Path / Re: Procrastination ...

« Last post by Matthew on September 07, 2021, 05:35:59 PM »

Just reading the 'Bible' of improv. This is the first paragraph 🙂🙏