Mondsee

Day 11 Days in a row: 2 Start time: 11:50 a.m. (aprox) Finish time: 12:15 p.m. (aprox.) Location: Room at my father's apartment Technique: Do nothing Eyes: closed Highlights: This meditation felt unending, I asked myself for a long time when it was coming to an end, and I had to resist the urge multiple times to see ir I really had set the alarm on my phone. I felt really tired, maybe because I had previously just meditated + done some yoga, but I did not fell asleep. I moved much more than on an average session, readjusting my hands, my legs and my neck.

Ok, so there is eternal consciousness, it has, and always will be there... but what is life? Specifically, what is human life? It's really a weird thing... it is as if a portion of consciousness decided to go blind for a period of ca. 80 years, just because! (Unless the human gets enlightened, of course). Any thoughts? Edit: in other words, why did consciousness adopted the form of life?

Does it really? Put in these terms, if life is eternal it means that, if you get conscious while "existing", thus starting to "live", you will still be conscious after death? Is Osho saying life is an opportunity for consciousness to become aware of itself?? This is confusing. Thanks for sharing @Prabhaker

Day 11 Days in a row: 1 Start time: 12:30 p.m. Finish time: 12:55 p.m. Location: Room at my father's apartment Technique: Do nothing Eyes: closed Highlights: I sat in half lotus, and had no discomfort from the beginning till the end. Hands were in dharmadhatu-mudra and my thumbs kept separating constantly. I feel like I just wasted my time with this meditation, I could hear soft rock coming from the living room the entire time, the type of songs everyone knows the lyrics from, and you sing at a campfire. That was really distracting, I tried not to resist it, and rather be mindful about it, but it's just a bad type of music to do that. Mind was all over the place, and I had stomachache. Also my father called me at some point, and I just didn't answer. I had thoughts about a series I'm watching, about sex, about the film I watched yesterday and many other things. All in all, definitely a low quality meditation session. P.S. I have been skipping meditation for the entire week. I haven't really found time in my new schedule, but I might try start meditating on the way to the university on the bus. I also feel that the lack of practice is what led me to this level of meditation of today.

I don't know exactly under which category to post this, but I'll try here. Today I woke up, I was absolutely aware of what was going on around me, could hear everything, feel everything, but I could not move at all. I remember trying to open my eyes, trying to say something, and also to move my arms very very consciously, I was even thinking, "WTF, why can't I move!? eyes, open, open!" But nothing happened. After what felt like a minute, I could finally open my eyes. Apparently, this phenomenon is called sleep paralysis. I wanted to know if this has happened to anyone here, and if there is some practice to take advantage of it in case it happens again (thinking about lucid dreaming, astral projection and all that stuff I don't know much about). Interested in your experiences, opinions, ideas and knowledge!

@phoenix666 cool! it's nice to hear that!!

@spiral yeah, too late @dude the problem is that it was a party to meet new people from the university, and we were all chatting and we were all dancing, and we were also all exchanging numbers because, you know... you're knowing people, it wasn't like we were flirting for hours or as if he came with that intention from the beginning @SFRL haha it sure works!

@SLICKHAWK OMG I can find so many reasons not to say any of that! I'm so bad at this... But thank you anyways!!

@SLICKHAWK yes, ok... but how?? In very practical terms, how do I do it? I mean, to tell him, I'd need to start a conversation with him, and if I do, how long should I wait to let him know? Because I suppose if I just start chatting with him, he'll automatically assume I'm into him too, and how am I supposed to bring up that I'm not?

Day 11 Days in a row: 1 Start time: 10:55 a.m. Finish time: 11:17 a.m. Location: Room at my father's apartment Technique: Do nothing Eyes: open Highlights: I tried for the first time sitting in half lotus (hanka-fuza) with the right ankle on top of my left thigh. I thought it was going to get very uncomfortable, but during the last minutes of my meditation I literally thought "I hope this could last forever". I also tried the dharmadhatu-mudra for the hands. I don't remember which had I had on top, and I did feel frustrated as I was first trying to find balance between my thumbs. I thought it was a very unstable gesture and that I'd have to almost use force to keep my thumbs in that position, but with time it proved to be a great help to focus, in the moments when I started daydreaming the most (above all thinking about memories), my thumbs started to fall apart, and putting them together again has a way to regain focus. Since nothing in my view-field was changing, my mind was dedicating to perceive how different noises entered the present, making this permanent thing ("the now") constantly change. Other random thoughts and memories also came in. I want to thank @Azrael for sharing the information about the posture of zazen with us.

Having someone in this forum saying, I've done the work and gotten the promised results is truly inspiring. Leo always says "don't believe any of what I'm telling you" and "be skeptical" and all that, so I do the work, but I've never forgotten that I might as well be doing all this for nothing because it's a scam until I prove it to myself. But having you telling us you proved it to yourself is a great motivation, so thank you. I also have a question for you: I understand you're a student. Has your relationship to your studies changed, or has your performance suffered any modification to how it was before? Thanks in advance!

Day 10 Days in a row: 1 Start time: 4:55 p.m. Finish time: 5:17 p.m. Location: Room at my father's apartment Technique: Do nothing Eyes: closed Highlights: Random thoughts. At some point half way through, my father called me complaining I abandoned clothes at the washing machine. I answered I didn't abandone them and continued with the meditation.

Day 10 (Report from yesterday) Days in a row: 2 Start time: 6:30 p.m. (aprox.) Finish time: 6:50 p.m (aprox.) Location: Airplane Technique: Do nothing Eyes: open Highlights: I experimented on using my time during a flight to meditate. I decided to do it with my eyes open, looking out the window. Although I didn't move, I didn't reach a meditative state, maybe because I didn't have a steady point to focus on. I got distracted on a couple occasions because of what was happening around me. At the end, although I kept the eyes open, I felt very sleepy and was fighting not to fall asleep.

This year I started with a pretty healthy and solid morning routine. It includes about half an hour of yoga and around 25 minutes of meditation. Next week I start with some courses that begin early in the morning and end late at night, I've done the math, and if I want to keep sleeping 8 hours, there's no time left for yoga & meditation. I feel very sleepy when I sleep less than 8 hours, but on the other hand, I simply can't imagine now my day without yoga and meditation, plus, I also feel unfit and lacking energy when I don't do that. Do you think I should sacrifice some sleep to continue with my practice? In total I'd be sleeping around 6 and a half hours, I don't know if in the long run I'll be able to keep up with this pace...

Day 9 Days in a row: 1 Start time: 11:50 a.m. Finish time: 12:12 p.m. Location: My room at my parent's house Technique: Do nothing Eyes: open Highlights: I felt at the beginning excitement rising up in my body and extending through my arms into my hands. It was very interesting following that process. After that I had some random thoughts, again some narrative discourse on how I was going to write this report, and in the latter quarter of the time (approximately), my left leg got numb, so I was hoping for the alarm to ring soon.

This is what Leo told me once on a similar doubt I had: It may help you!

Day 8 Days in a row: 8 Start time: 8:20 p.m. Finish time: 8:45 p.m. Location: Balcony at my grandma's house Technique: Do nothing Eyes: closed Highlights: Today my grandma joined me sitting next to me on a chair. At the beginning I had some sad thoughts because I knew this was going to be the last time I meditated with her (she joins me every now and then), because I leave her house tomorrow. I felt a little as a mother who doesn't dare to leave her little daughter alone, because I have been looking after her for the last month. After that I had some random thoughts I can't remember very well, but I know for some time I listened to a French song repeating on my mind and enjoyed a lot the wind blowing. During the second half I thought about an application I'm planning to do to a job, and at the end I hoped for the alarm to ring because my grandma was moving in her chair and my left leg was numb. I was about to check how much time was left, but I resisted the temptation and the alarm rang just a little after.

Day 7 Days in a row: 7 Start time: 9:10 a.m. Finish time: 9:35 a.m. Location: Balcony at my grandma's house Technique: Do nothing Eyes: opened at first, half closed the rest of the time Highlights: Story mode, it felt a little like daydreaming... don't know if I should've allowed that to continue. It was about me playing on a swing with a friend of mine, and some other stuff I'm rather ashamed to recall in here.

Day 6 Days in a row: 6 Start time: 8:25 a.m. Finish time: 8:50 a.m. Location: Balcony at my grandma's house Technique: Do nothing Eyes: closed Highlights: I felt some mosquitos biting me, but resisted the temptation to move. Thoughts about things I need to do today, and story-like thoughts about a series I watched yesterday and about sex.

Day 5 Days in a row: 5 Start time: 10:35 a.m. Finish time: 10:55 a.m. Location: Balcony at my grandma's house Technique: Do nothing Eyes: closed Highlights: Thoughts all over the place. I was listening to "Les Toréadors" by Bizet in my mind for a long time, then I thought I could do some mindfulness meditation with that inner sound in my mind, after that I started to wander if during the "Do Nothing" technique one should allow or avoid the mind changing the meditation technique. On the one hand it would be allowing the mind going to where it wants to go, on the other one tough, It'd mean changing the technique. I decided not to focus in being mindful about the song in my head. Because I had just done the breathing meditation, I also thought about focusing on that, but didn't do it consistently. Thoughts of all kinds crossed my mind, included an insight regarding my life purpose, the time I'd have left after the meditation to have breakfast and get ready, thoughts of some friends, and finally on the similitudes of kamasutra and yoga's asanas... quite weird, but it is what it is. In the end I was thinking about a stair I was looking from below, where a girl was standing. Nowhere I have ever been, nor was it a girl I knew.

Day 5 Days in a row: 5 Start time: 10:10 a.m. Finish time: 10:25 a.m. Location: Balcony at my grandma's house Technique: Breathing meditation - Eyes: closed Highlights: My yoga practice of the day included a meditation, so I'm reporting about it too. Very comfortable meditation, probably because it was so short. During the minutes in the video of silence and actual meditation I had to remind myself a few times to relax my belly and focus on my breath. At some point my mind really started to wander for longer, but I gained focus on my breath again towards the end. Thoughts felt like when practicing "do nothing" technique, just somewhat calmer.

Day 4 Days in a row: 4 Start time: 9:20 a.m. Finish time: 9:45 a.m. Location: Balcony at my grandma's house Technique: Do nothing Eyes: open only at the beginning, almost closed the rest of the time Highlights: Today the practice seemed longer than usually, but I didn't feel impatient for it to finish already. Random thoughts crossed my mind, some career related, some were memories and a couple times, again, I thought of how I was going to report about those thoughts in here.

Day 3 Days in a row: 3 Start time: 8:00 a.m. Finish time: 9:25 a.m. Location: Balcony at my grandma's house Technique: Do nothing Eyes: open only at the beginning, closed the rest of the time Highlights: Right after I started I had an itch in my neck which kept drawing my attention. I had many thoughts of important things that I have to do today and I shall not forget. Also spent a while trying to remember the name of a guy that I know and I haven't seen lately (for the record, I still can't remember it). During the last minutes my left leg got numb, and I hoped a couple times to hear my alarm to stop already.

Hahahahaha! This is it! I'll check it out, thanks

@Leo Gura Ah! I see! Thanks for that!