Meditation and its results

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I thought I'd start this in response to some of the dialog started in another thread (ie. the one about sublime experiences).

I'm somewhat a beginner, ie. I didn't start meditating daily until maybe august or september, but what I'm already noticing with my meditations is that I'll get not only something of an alpha/theta state the moment I sit down and trigger the neurological impulse of 'this is a meditation session' (as separate from the rest of waking life) but I'll also get a certain kind of ringing in my ears when my brain is reacting favorably to it. I used to get that kind of ringing if I played with binaural beats, anymore I don't use that but I do use a digital clock as a focus object for the sake that playing with numerology as part of it is to your subconscious like playing/being active with and having a happy son or daughter.

It seems like scrying falls along the same link of building a bond to where your brain will go into a hypnogogic sort of state and will enter something of a dream mode when you start looking at whatever you've been meditating on - whether it be the 22 pieces of self or consciousness supposedly intended to be portrayed in the 22 major trump of the tarot, whether it's in an obsidian or black mirror, or whatever the situation would be. I know there are different schools of thought on this - some schools would claim that this is connecting the 'superconscious', others would claim that this is simply making use of dream faculties while awake and unlocking the immense power of the subconscious while awake - either is a ridiculously powerful result.

Just curious on whether or not anyone, atheists and theists alike, wanted to delve into some of the layers that they think they're finding the ability to sort of 'hack' into.

I've never really put much thought into it really, it's just something that happens to me when I'm really relaxed. (I am quite a relaxed person to begin with). But when I close my eyes, I feel as though my eyes are wide open and I can see spaces and it's like I'm travelling sometimes.

I've tried to explain it before but it's hard to.

It is a really lovely feeling.

It is hard for me to articulate though.

I'm practicing meditation every day, although not always the same amount of time per day.

I'm in the border between access concentration an 1st jhana. The best teaching session I ever heard is recorded in the video bellow. It's the outline of the buddhist meditation path from a person with a lot, if not all the personal experience of it. I assure you that it is well worth the time spent listening to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdxFS-j5oD0

I've done meditating quite a few times to peaceful music. A lot of times in my life, it feels as if my brain has been cluttered up and disorganized, like a computer badly in need of a defrag and disk cleanup. Once done, there's no denying the improved clarity of thought as so much chaff is stripped from the brain.

I don't doubt the efficacy of meditating in the slightest, and also believe there is nothing supernatural about it either, nothing more supernatural than running defrag and disk cleanup on your PC.

Is it possible that the ringing is always there, and you just don't notice it? It's usually a physiological phenomenon.

The ringing is a very common experience. IIRC it's because of blood pumping in the auditory system's arterias/veins.

That is quite likely. During a meditative state one is more aware of internal (bodily and mental) phenomenon and also external sensory input. I'll add the following which seems relevant here that I edited from my post in the spiritual experiences thread:

I practice Shikantaza Zen meditation. Unlike concentration based forms of meditation, shikantaza is more of an opening up of awareness rather than a narrowing down of it. The mind is usually full of noise from passing thoughts and sensations and they take our full attention. However, with practice, the noise of the mind can be stilled and you become aware of what remains of the thoughts arising and passing through your consciousness then departing. It is a bit like sitting next to a fast moving motorway / autoroute where cars are whizzing past so fast you don't really notice the individual vehicles and there is a constant roaring sound of vehicles. When the thoughts (mental noise) in the mind subside, it is like being on a deserted road and you clearly see an individual vehicle emerge in the distance, go past you slowly and disappear into the distance again. You can see much more detail. You can also hear any background sounds like birds singing.

In a deep meditative state some of the activity which is normally in the realms of the subconscious falls under the gaze of consciousness. It was always there in the background but people are generally unaware of it because their attention is entirely taken by conscious thoughts and a deluge of sensory information coming from our surroundings, jobs, TV, telephone and so on. In this deeper state of meditation you can become aware of the birth of each thought and where it came from (instincts, prejudices, lust) and so on. You can see the thought arise pre-language then see it being converted into verbal (word) form - if you speak more than one language you can see the thought being clothed in words of one or the other language.

Going deeper still into meditation you become aware that the sense of "I" or "me" is also a mental construct. There is no "I" or "me" witnessing these thoughts. The sense of self arises and passes just like any other mental construct. At this level of meditation "you" are essentially a witness of mental phenomenon going on in your brain. You are extremely alert - wide awake and sharper than you are during the normal waking state. Sensory information is more intense too - colours are deeper, sounds are more audible. You notice things that usually escape your attention... a tiny insect, barely visible, climbing a tiny blade of grass; a gentle breeze blows a dead leaf off a tree and you watch it descend.

At this depth of meditation you are aware that your most fundamental nature is that of consciousness. It isn't that you have consciousness so much as consciousness illuminates "you". Expressing this another way... there is no sense of individuality, the passing sensations of "I" or "me" appear within consciousness and are gone again - they are no more my real "self" than any other passing thought or emotion. My whole personality is a series of conditioned mental input / output responses - they are not "me"; but then "me" isn't me either. I am consciousness itself.

There is nothing supernatural or paranormal about any of this. This depth of awareness is available to everyone, in fact it is there all the time, but our attention is always distracted with the surface noise of the mind. Many of the things I've discovered about the functioning about my mind/brain also correspond with discoveries during the advances in neuroscience. The beauty of shikantaza meditation is that it is simply opening up to what is there. It is not about creating hallucinations or fancy imaginings, it is about shifting the attention from the usual clamour going on in the brain to the more subtle and deeper nature or our existence. An analogy is sometimes given that most people spend their time bouncing up and down on the surface waves of the ocean and they are oblivious to its profound depth and the immense beauty below the surface.

^^That reminds me of when I'm in a busy nightclub and I'm on the dance floor.

I always do the same thing. I stand there right in the middle, with everything buzzing around me, I close my eyes and I listen for the slowest beat in the music, until that's all I can hear.

Everything slows down, It is a really nice feeling.

I know that the place is full but it just feels like me.

I don't know if that is like meditating. But it is peaceful.

Very cool!

Thank you for sharing that.

A couple of comments:

- It's very interesting how much buddhists misunderstand "concentration". It's an, at least, 1500 years old misunderstanding. Fortunately it's begining to be corrected. The concentration that the Buddha thaught was not one of narrowing the attention. That sort of practice is what is traditionaly thaught as concentration. The jhanas/dhyanas are traditionaly thaught to be states of mind with such a deep focus that the mind is narrowed to the object alone, without any "movement", without feeling the body and, most importantly, without any possibility of using that very concentration to practice insight. While these states clearly exsist, they were not what the Buddha had in mind when he thaught concentration. You can see evidence for this in scriptures in which the Buddha or Sariputta talks about doing insight practice, while in jhana/dhyana. And that's what concentration is for: to be used as an extremely potent tool to break through an extremely though-to-break ignorance.
Furthermore, these things, as you know, are more fluid and organic in practice than in theory. People who practice just insight end up experiencing the jhanas/dhyanas. The most important vipassana tradition in Theravada has a name for these states: vipassana jhanas. Meaning that they experience the concentration levels that the Buddha thaught, directed at insight, and even say it's crucial to experiencing nirvana. But they reserve the name jhana for the somewhat unuseful states described above, which are the traditional "jhanas"

- Did you have the experience that even that consciousness is empty?

With the shikantaza meditation that I practice nowadays "I" have never found that consciousness to be "empty", it is always consciousness of "something", even when the things it illuminates are very subtle. There is never consciousness without an object. It is like the two sides of a coin and one seems to require the existence of the other. With this form of meditation there is no deliberate attempt to focus attention on anything... the meditation goes wherever it goes with minimal or no guidance from "me", other than occasionally noticing if a thought has taken root and not passed though and gently and consciously letting it go.

However, many years ago when I was a monk I used to practice a concentration / focus based meditation instead based on a mantra. On one occasion something very "peculiar" happened. Looking back now it was more than 30 years ago but its impact was considerable. After the zazen I made a conscious effort to try to commit to words and to memory what had happened but those words and memory are a mere shadow of the "event". I'll try to explain though: Suddenly and with no apparent reason, "I" completely ceased to exist. There was instead a brilliant and blazing light, brighter than a million suns, but the light did not burn. I was consciousness itself and extended for infinity in space and in all time / out of time - it was definitely infinity... not just very large. The consciousness was totally empty but there was also incredible peace and a sense of existence - but not "my" existence, there was no "I". I have no idea how long this lasted... it was outside of time. Suddenly and from nowhere a sensation of fear arose and that fear was attached to the sense of "I" that was dead/dying. This abruptly stopped the zazen and I slipped out of meditation. That was thirty years ago. Something changed that day, but "I" have never "experienced" a meditation like it ever again. Words completely fail because there was no "I" doing the experiencing nor can I say it was an "experience" either because inherent in the word "experience" is the implication of an entity having the experience! Both words miss whatever happened. Even the word "happened" misses, because it was something outside of time. The word "something" fails too! Impossible to express in words and impossible for the human mind to grasp.

I learned that the mind is always busy because that's what it does and that my thoughts aren't me. My personality is a construction of my thoughts. I noticed how my mind constructs my personality during my normal activities as opposed to meditative ones. In the sort of meditation I was doing (shikantaza) you stop trying to construct thoughts and just observe them.

I didn't get as far as realising that I was consciousness, though. I have heard it in theory, but experiencing it is a different thing.

I'll PM you. But, for now, thank you very, very much for sharing this.

I've just been having a look at this meditation business on the internet.

Beware seeing the words "meditation" and "business" in the same sentence. It implies someone trying to get money out of you for something that is simple to get started with and easy to get into. There is a lot of mumbo-jumbo talked about meditation and much of it is nonsense.

I found it interesting, and I think it's something that I already do anyway, without really realising.

I thought that when I read one of your earlier posts in another thread, you appear to have a natural inclination towards the still meditative state. You may find this helpful and intuitive to follow: