Meditation and its results

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daniel ingram's view seems to be (having just looked it up) that he has not encountered anyone for whom they did not occur in quick succession. i have no view on it. my experience after attaining path was that i had an intuitive sense of what to look at / how to look from then on. there was also the feeling of relief but i would not say "beyond measure bright peace and liberation" on that particular occasion. i spent that summer just relaxing, watching the clouds unfold, and deconstructing anything that seemed to imply a sense of separation. it wasn't until 10 months later that i experienced an undeniable perceptual re-orientation that would better fit a sense of the word "fruition" that is not merely technical.

i'm not all that familiar with the maps and official hallmark enlightenment events. i suspect it doesn't always happen in exactly the same way for everyone. what matters to me is the outcome, that there are certain forms of suffering i no longer experience.

she seems very clear.

what works for me is to take mental states directly as objects, adverting to certain naturally occurring, uncontrived frequencies of phenomenality. i let be/let go until the mind is still enough that these frequencies become apparent, then the mind just naturally grooves on them. if i'm meditating regularly then they are immediately available. i have not deliberately trained them. ayya khema makes a point that not wanting jhana is key to entering it. not wanting anything (in a non-aversive non-apathetic sense) is a fine foundation for absorption. i'm not well trained in more usual concentration techniques like using the breath or a kasina. i just allow desire to go extinct, which can be like going through withdrawal if i haven't been meditating recently. the technique is basically just sitting, understanding that to express an intention is to reinforce it; to suppress is to introduce a conflicting intention, resulting in further tension. stop feeding it, and it will simply die. it may die screaming, and one might tend to think when this happens that something has gone wrong. not so. every intention unexpressed is the swan song of a dying tendency.

Is there such thing as meditating whilst you are walking?

Meditation roughly falls into two categories: 1 - concentration/tranquility; 2 - Insigth;

The first type is very, very difficult to practice while walking. It's best to practice while in the usual sitting position.

The second type is to be mindful of body, feelings, mind states or mental objects. It can be practiced while doing anything, including walking.

The main purpose of concentration meditation is that you use a high level of concentration to be able to insight while concentrated. This is the effectivce way to break through the delusion that causes suffering.

When I set out on a walk I always think that I'm going in search of something. I think I'm looking for treasure.

Then I get thoughts in my head, I just go with the thoughts, some just fizzle out. But then the thought comes along that I have been searching for, I let it run through my head until I've reached a resolution.

Then by the time I've got home from my walk all the nature, like the trees and the sky and the birds just seem to make sense.

Somehow the colours seem to be more pronounced and the raw of the wind through the trees is the most beautiful sound ever.

It's not magic or anything like that. It's just that my brain seems to be more in tune with things.

The result being is that I am so excited for tomorrow. For tomorrow is a gift that I shall unwrap.

Last edited by babybird on 05 Jan 2014, 11:58 am, edited 1 time in total.

Weren't there certain eastern monks who'd walk around in a circle? I remember seeing on Discovery or TLC a particular meditative art - I don't know it's origins albeit it appeared to be of Buddhist philosophical diaspora. It looked like the kind of cement pad that someone would lay out for a backyard half-court basketball set up but instead they had a circle painted or chalked on the cement (maybe eight or nine feet diameter). The walk was very slow and meditative and they seemed to be using it in a manner consistent with the idea of both keeping motion and breaking down the barrier between moving and entering transcendental states.

I think that I'm learning to see past things, rather that see through things. If you know what I mean.

Tibetan Buddhists do circumambulations around Stupas,you always go clockwise.You don't have to have a stupa,mantra are usually said.

I think this was even done in the Buddha's time. There are descriptions of people with some extra devotion walking around the Buddha (3 times? can't remember) before leaving his presence, to show respect, apreciation and/or gratefulness.

Nowadays this is done around stupas (generaly small monuments with relics from great monks/masters).

="babybird"]When I set out on a walk I always think that I'm going in search of something. I think I'm looking for treasure.

Then I get thoughts in my head, I just go with the thoughts, some just fizzle out. But then the thought comes along that I have been searching for, I let it run through my head until I've reached a resolution.

Then by the time I've got home from my walk all the nature, like the trees and the sky and the birds just seem to make sense.

Somehow the colours seem to be more pronounced and the raw of the wind through the trees is the most beautiful sound ever.

It's not magic or anything like that. It's just that my brain seems to be more in tune with things.

I get moments like this after going for nice long walks too. I often have moments when my mind clears and I notice the relationships between all things and I feel at one with the world. At times like this the beauty of the world is intensified or maybe I am just less distracted and can appreciate it more

Last edited by salamandaqwerty on 07 Jan 2014, 6:49 am, edited 1 time in total.

I like the sounds of everything just lately.

My ears have become really in tune, I feel as though I have got ear sight.

I think that maybe meditation and the results of it are very individual.

For me personally, I like to clear my thoughts and reach conclusions. This helps me manage the things that are troubling me in my life at any particular moment in time.

My main issue in life has been understanding verbal communication, I have found it extremely intimidating, because it is something alien to me.

Through "meditating", I have found a way of reconciliation.

I can't be more happy at this moment in time.

I don't know who to thank, so I'll thank the next person.

You're welcome

Seriously, though. I heard a teaching of a meditation master saying that the stages of concentration (jhanas/dhyanas) are like, in chaos theory's jargon, strange atractors. It means that when people are meditating, they are generaly inclined to attain these stages. And, taking the analogy further, just like Lorentz' atractor is a series of loops which are very close, the experiences of people vary within some range. However, some people experience altered states of consciousness, when practicing concentration, that don't fall in any of these stages.

The mindstates associated with insight meditation are much vaster, as far as I know, and since I don't know much, I better point to "Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha", by Daniel Ingraim. It's a good introductory overview, I think. Mostly because the language an attitude is apropriate to the western mindset.

Yes there is..and this practice is still continued today...

IN fact there is a religion based on spiraling....

IN fact i do this...

But..

I do what comes natural...

The positive feed back from all of nature...

Is what takes me on the next step of the path of journey i continue...

Seriously the thing that inspired me the most...

Was just watching a Hawk spiraling ..in the golden spiral of pattern..around the SUN...

I said..i can sense that is bliss...

i
m going there 2..

And now i visit that place
regularly every day...almost naked..in my back yard...

listening to whatever music..helps take me....

tHere

I am a FREE MASON...

FREE TO CREATE..WHATEVER I LIKE...

NO ONE LEADS ME...

BUT ALL
AS
ONE