Adam M

@Nahm Hey, my last inquiry was hard...there were many distracting thoughts and I was only able to focus for maybe 10-15 minutes... During that time I discovered that my present identification is that I am the body and the thoughts and that reality is outside of me...It is interesting to see that there is still identification with the body and the mind even though I have undermined that possibility many times in a Neti-Neti style of inquiry. Even though I have no proof that suggests my identification to be correct, I still believe it like a SUCKER! Lol. Going to continue practicing! thank you for me helping me!

@Ether wow I wanna hear it...get on that!!!

@Ether I'm a big Kendrick fan... "Levitate levitate levitate levitate" Untitled 07 has reference to "being vs doing" He says stuff like "drugs/sex/money/church won't get you high like this (meditation/being) Love Kendrick..conscious rap is no different from poetry

True! I'm going to inquire again and see how it goes...thanks!

Hey guys, I've only done self inquiry for 5 days and I just have a quick question about some of the symptoms I'm getting during my sits... My sits are VERY intense and I experience lots of body sensations that I can't control...I just would like to know if Self-inquiry is usually this violent... I experience: - full body spasms towards the end (like a mini seizure) - cross-eyes/ blurry vision when I'm trying to focus - heightened heart rate and heavy breathing - strong chills in all parts of my body - clammy hands and sweating - hyper focus, sometimes it seems as though the inquiry is doing itself...questions just spew out and my body gets extremely rigid and defensive - seems like a fight or flight response... I just assume that I'm doing a good job because it seems like I am having a physical reaction to my ruthless questioning... I can literally feel my sense of "I" getting very defensive and trying to distract the inquiry with body sensations. Again, I know that I'm still a n00b but I'm just getting excited because my sits are very intense... Hopefully this motivates people to start doing self inquiry and also, are these symptoms normal? Thanks :):):)

@ArasH This is just an educated guess based on what I saw in an interview. I think that he had an enlightenment experience but it was not a permanent enlightenment. This experience motivated him to dive head first into spirituality.

@Power If you get lost in thoughts you are not "wasting time.". You can't really help it...don't beat yourself up over something you can't control. If you are lost in thoughts for 5 minutes...notice it, let it go including your frustration and judgements, and go back to the breath . Yesterday I was meditating for 1 hour and I must have spent 30 minutes lost in thoughts....sometimes I sit down to meditate and I fall asleep! But I don't judge, I just notice and go back to the breath.

@sweater you'll feel good for 15 minutes then you'll feel "permafried", tired, pleasure seeking, and stupid for the next day...I used to smoke everyday....that's the way the cookie crumbles

@Power you will get better with practice. The more you practice the more you will understand. All I can say to guide you is this: Come back to the present. If you are worried/confused/anxious about your meditation, then you are lost in thoughts. There are no problems in the present moment. Keep practicing!

@Joel3102 Yes! I was completely beside myself with some of the insights in this book... Towards the beginning, he relates mystical experiences with reduced brain activity. Kastrup explains that the brain filters and localizes your perceptions and that when the filter is not working properly (ex. during suffocation), there is a higher chance of non-local/mystical experiences This idea interested me so much and it has changed my entire paradigm about the role the brain plays in our consciousness'. I'm definitely planning on reading "more than allegory"

DO IT DO IT DO IT DO IT DO IT ITS FUCKING AMAZING IVE DONE 2 RETREATS AND I CANT WAIT TO DO MORE

@Max_V I understand u entirely...... But I am talking about BEING AWARE of the present Everything always happens in the now but when we get lost in the content of our thoughts we lose touch with this truth... Right?

Too much porn, video games, and weed

Osho Dynamic Meditation Instructions: The meditation lasts one hour and has five stages. Keep your eyes closed throughout, using a blindfold if necessary. It can be done alone, and can be even more powerful if it is done with others. First Stage: 10 minutes Breathing chaotically through the nose, let breathing be intense, deep, fast, without rhythm, with no pattern – and concentrating always on the exhalation. The body will take care of the inhalation. The breath should move deeply into the lungs. Do this as fast and as hard as you possibly can until you literally become the breathing. Use your natural body movements to help you to build up your energy. Feel it building up, but don’t let go during the first stage. Second Stage: 10 minutes EXPLODE! … Let go of everything that needs to be thrown out. Follow your body. Give your body freedom to express whatever is there. Go totally mad. Scream, shout, cry, jump, kick, shake, dance, sing, laugh; throw yourself around. Hold nothing back; keep your whole body moving. A little acting often helps to get you started. Never allow your mind to interfere with what is happening. Consciously go mad. Be total. Third Stage: 10 minutes With arms raised high above your head, jump up and down shouting the mantra, “Hoo! Hoo! Hoo!” as deeply as possible. Each time you land, on the flats of your feet, let the sound hammer deep into the sex center. Give all you have; exhaust yourself completely. Fourth Stage: 15 minutes STOP! Freeze wherever you are, in whatever position you find yourself. Don’t arrange the body in any way. A cough, a movement, anything, will dissipate the energy flow and the effort will be lost. Be a witness to everything that is happening to you. Fifth Stage: 15 minutes Celebrate! With music and dance express whatsoever is there. Carry your aliveness with you throughout the ray My experience: I did this in a forest w/ a good friend. During the first stage I felt tingling in my feet and I was trying to become the breath. In the second stage I yelled my lungs out and I stripped naked and beat on my chest and made out with trees and it felt amazing. In the third stage I yelled HOO! and I felt energy building up in my arms In the fourth stage I stood still and I felt my cold hands become extremely hot very suddenly. I didn't move for 15 mins In the last stage I began to dance and I felt energy shoot out of my hands and all the energy dissipated out of my body and it felt amazing! A true celebration of life.

@Max_V Lost in thoughts

sounds extremely distracting, If your goal is to be aware of the present moment then I think that the music will pull you away from the now

Insight feels like "oooooooooooohhhhhhhh". Its like your thoughts are puzzle pieces and that moment when they finally fit together is an insight.

Just returned from my vipassana retreat today, probably did about 80 hours of meditation and I got some good insights about life. While talking to the teacher, I asked him about trying other practices... For the last 6 months I've been doing only vipassana meditation (similar to noting practice) for 2 hours daily and this was my second retreat. Basically my teacher said that you don't need to do any other practices, Vipassana is all you need really . After 10 minutes of respectful debate, I asked him about concentration, self-inquiry, visualization, etc. and he still told me that I should not mix practices. I told him that I wanted to try many different practices and that "I don't want to marry the first woman I fall in love with" but he just again said that Vipassana is a great practice and there is no need to do other practices. I was very confused after this conversation because everyone on actuaized.org practices a variety of meditations and this contradicts my meditation teacher's view. My teacher has practiced meditation for 10 years and was trained as a vipassana teacher in Thailand. Many monks spend 70 years with only one practice and they are extremely fulfilled so why should we have to do self inquiry and do nothing and mindful labelling etc... We concluded our disagreement with him saying "You can do whatever you want but don't blame me and I told you that you don't have to mix practices." This implies that he thinks that mixing practices may harm me/lead me off my path. Confused. Confused. Confused. Is my teacher being dogmatic (probably a little bit)? The way he speaks leads me to think that maybe he's onto something. Should I do only vipassana for the rest of my life? I'm probably going to dabble in other practices before I decide but is it beneficial to "get married" to one practice? An example of someone that I know that uses many different practices is Shinzen Young P.S. My teacher also said that you can't attain full enlightenment unless you are an ordained monk...Basically he explained that Buddhism has 4 or 5 main levels of enlightenment and the deepest ones can only be attained through a monastic lifestyle and that those people who claim to be enlightened but are not monks are likely at a lower level of enlightenment. What do you think about mixing practices? Is it okay or do they interfere with each other? Why do I need to do many practices when I can just stick to one? Thanks

@krazzer I find that they help to ground me. If I'm feeling lazy or unmotivated, after I hop out of a cold shower I feel like superman.

origami

@Leo Gura Thanks Leo. I guess that each meditation school is just a system and it has to hold certain beliefs for it to function in the way that it does. I've learned that it's important to remember that even those who diligently practice training the mind can still fall into certain mind-traps.

My teacher's teacher is this old monk Ajahn Tong. Apparently he has been in robes since he was very young (now he's 91). I told my teacher that I wanted to try other practices so that I can get a broader understanding of the world. He replied by saying that after a certain point, you will just understand all other practices without needing to do them. He used the example that a monk who has meditated with vipassana for 20 years understands the yoga of the kriya yogis "they don't disagree." I said that you can only understand from a buddhist perspective/paradigm and that you would have to move into a different perspective to truly understand it. He just said that it is difficult to explain to me and that he doesn't want to tell me too much because it will not serve me. He's probably right...it's probably just all mental masterbation and monkey mind...I will still try to explore multiple perspectives while also valuing mastery in one practice. Thanks guys for all your replies, you have all truly helped me and probably helped others too Ajahn Tong: His teacher's teacher revived vipassana meditation that the Buddha taught and spread it throughout the world. Checkout his bio, its very inspiring, includes of stories of Ajaan Tong walking/running 9km to study the Dhamma every day at 11 yrs old. Bio: https://www.sirimangalo.org/bio/ "Why should we be mindful? The Four Foundations of Mindfulness are a device that stops evil, stops bad deeds, stops defilement. 'Sati nivaranam settham' – Mindfulness is an exceptional preventer (of evil states). During the time when we are mindful, evil won't enter in to reach our hearts. We will have pure hearts always. "It is like dark and shining light. Mindfulness is a shining light; all defilements, all evil states, are like darkness. When the bright light shines, the darkness disappears. For this reason, we should be mindful at all times – our mind will be bright, clean and peaceful all of the time." - Most Ven. Phra Dhammamangalajaan Vi. (Ajaan Tong)

@Azrael I think you're right. I think the mastery aspect will really supercharge my meditation results in the long term by sticking with one practice. I will definitely experiment with other practices too. However, I wonder if I choose vipassana as my main practice, would it be better do to 2 hours of vipassana or 1 hour of vipassana and 1 hour of contemplation. Maybe I have the wrong mindset about how meditation works but I'm confused about whether mastery in one practice is more beneficial than competence in many practices...my intuition tells me that mastery in one practice is probably the best, especially a beautiful practice like vipassana@Preetom

@Shan Hey I haven't used this product but it looks cool. I use a meditation cushion that I got from a store that was in Toronto...I recommend finding a store to buy a cushion from because you can try it out at the store and ask the clerk there to help you choose the right cushion. I also sit/kneel in that kneeling position you see in the video. It really helps keep my back straight which is very important. I find that my knees really hurt in the kneeling position though, especially on retreat when you are meditating for hours every day. Usually at home the pain is bearable and it even helps me with my meditation. I am always trying new ways to make the kneeling position as comfortable as possible for me. https://torontomindfulnesscommunity.org/resources/posture/the-posture-of-meditation-kneeling-with-a-cushion/ Here you will see tips about kneeling posture. If you click on "resources" at the top and click on "postures of meditation" you will also find links to sitting on a chair, and lotus posture

@Max_V You're right. What you're saying makes me feel much lighter, thanks. My intuition tells me to try other practices and be mindful. When you are in the present moment you always know what is the right decision to make, even if the decision might be no decision for the time being.