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My direct awakening experiences around reincarnation came from a few years ago after getting very sick, and while exploring memento mori, they have given me personally tailored truths, that reincarnation is the name of the game. If you have not experienced proof of this, don't worry about it - each person's path is unique and we are each given different pieces of the puzzle. The less you conceptualize it and the more you actually face your fears around death, if you have any, you'll be more likely to have a direct awakening into reincarnation. The process is called memento mori, and by learning about different cultures, by practicing dying before you die, what can happen is that you can get a download aka awakening into the nature of reincarnation. You are really just "here" and always were, but the outside layer changes. This is what goes on after death: Break me in don't break me down Swimming in these empty towns I wonder if it's all so master planned Diving into sweeter bliss Falling fair before we miss Taste the taste before it's gone and you're too late Won't change what I am To find who you are Can't stay in these lines When I'm bursting at the seams My body might collapse If I carry one more dream If I carry one more dream I could be anything I could be anything Breaking out beyond the night Reeling in the quieter times Saving all the flavors of my mind Reflecting on the lessons learned The broken bonds and bridges burned Take the taste of hate and throw it away Won't change what I am To find who you are Can't stay in these lines When I'm bursting at the seams My body might collapse If I carry one more dream If I carry one more dream I could be anything I could be anything Some sources on reincarnation: Jane Robert's Seth Speaks books and Sri Aurobindo's book "The Psychic Being" along with the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Check out NDE's as well, and listen to people who are going through the dying process. Get very comfortable with it. Start a journal. Live, breath and feel it = what is inevitable, the body will pass on... go through every emotion that comes up with bravery - nature respects and rewards bravery - and offer gratitude and Love. Love combined with surrender can wake a person up if they practice this. You have to go on your own path to find the truth of reincarnation and not what me or anybody tells you. Awakening experiences happen when a person is ready usually, when they have inquired into something with an honesty and a curiosity. The answers to whether reincarnation exists rests within this research, spiritual practice, honesty, open heartedness and bravery. Some questions to get a person started: Am I afraid of death? If so why? What do I think will happen? And then go from there. There's a whole rabbit hole when it comes to exploring this kind of stuff, most people that genuinely have insight into reincarnation got there through going through some form of a death, be it an NDE or a spiritual death, an ego death, even when someone close dies, they can experience loved ones giving them messages about the other side.

Burn through your karma. Shadow work. The best way to grow up the ladder is to do as much shadow work as possible. Really get to know everything about yourself as the human that you are, for this incarnation. Treat yourself as soul that is on a journey and is growing as much as possible. The Seth material by Jane Roberts and the Psychic Being by Sri Aurobindo are both good reading material that can teach you how to do this from a yellow/turquoise perspective. You'll have to do a lot of learning, detaching, and meditation. You will want to get to the point where you can see/feel the screen, where you are above your emotions and thoughts as the witness. When you die, you can imagine whatever you want. Nahm's dreamboard idea helps bring positive things into your life, and the actions you take will carry over. What do you want out of this life, deeply, feel into your soul. Love. Deeply. Do good things that feel in alignment with who you are and your purpose. Rather than worrying about the next life, make this one the best you can. This carries over, not the feelings of not wanting to be human - as the soul actually loves learning and being all sorts of things - what you can do is direct your life in a way that includes the next life. Do you have a goal that you would like to accomplish that would take more than one lifetime? Often, martial arts teaches that it takes a few lifetimes to become a master - and so people learning think in terms of next life aptitude. You can direct your soul in any way you like. But the best way is to open your heart and follow what that intuition tells you. Also, Love. Love deeply, as Love is what opens the doors. Practice Love. The soul has an inherent direction to move towards, and it is all just about uncovering that soul and moving in what feels most 'right' to you. Reincarnation is like a katamari, you pick up as much stuff as you can (learn as much) and when you die, you get to "make" your next world based on what you have learned. Maybe you will want to be human again, maybe something else. Think of yourself as an archeologist uncovering hidden aspects of your deep psyche. Practice your death, pretend you are dying right n ow and go through all of the experiences - do you feel complete, or that more needs to be done? Do those things, practice your death again - until you are at peace. ^Take what feels right and throw away the rest, or set it aside - follow what works for you. Break me in don't break me down Swimming in these empty towns I wonder if it's all so master planned Diving into sweeter bliss Falling fair before we miss Taste the taste before it's gone and you're too late Won't change what I am To find who you are Can't stay in these lines When I'm bursting at the seams My body might collapse If I carry one more dream If I carry one more dream I could be anything I could be anything Breaking out beyond the night Reeling in the quieter times Saving all the flavors of my mind Reflecting on the lessons learned The broken bonds and bridges burned Take the taste of hate and throw it away Won't change what I am To find who you are Can't stay in these lines When I'm bursting at the seams My body might collapse If I carry one more dream If I carry one more dream I could be anything I could be anything

@Koeke I'll provide some source materials, and then I give a few comments. Information regarding Khecarimudra can be found in most Yogic scriptures, such as Dattatreya Yoga Sastram, Goraksha Samhita, Hatharatnavali, Hatha Yoga Pradipika, Shiva Samhita, Khecarividya, and the Yoga Upanishads, as well as many others. I don't know of many contemporary writers that really have anything to add beyond what can be found in the source texts. In the past, this teaching was considered secret, and it was only given from guru to disciple. I was fortunate enough to have a guru who was well versed in the subject. In the scriptures, there are details about how to prepare for the practice, how to perform it, and what are the fruits of the practice. Usually the preparation involves cutting and stretching. I honestly would not recommend this path unless you are being guided directly by a knowledgeable guru. I will say that there is another way that does not involve knives, which is Sahaja Yoga. The creative force or energy of Consciousness is called Shakti. In the body, this energy is referred to as Prana. Prana is responsible for maintaining all the functions of the body, and this energy is subdivided into 5 vayus (literally "winds"). The two most important are Prana vayu and Apana vayu. There are thousands of energy channels, or nadis, in the body, but the 3 most important ones are the Ida (to the left of center), Pingala (to the right), and the Sushumna (in the middle). Prana vayu, warm in nature, normally flows up the Ida nadi, and Apana vayu, cold in nature, flows down the Pingala nadi. In Yoga, the Prana vayu must reverse it's flow and meet Apana in the Mooladhara, or root chakra. This is the meaning of "Hatha Yoga," which translates as Sun-Moon union. This generates a great deal of heat, which disturbs the Goddess Kundalini, awakens her, and ultimately motivates her to move up through the Sushumna nadi, pulling Prana along with it. When this energy reaches beyond the throat chakra, Kecharimudra is the technique that takes it to the next level, which is the Ajna chakra between the eyebrows. All of the physical postures, movements, and breathing exercises in Hatha Yoga are for the purpose of purifying the energy channels, uniting the vayus, and raising the energy through the Sushumna to the Sahasara chakra above the head. At the stage where Khecarimudra manifests, your whole relationship to sexuality is transformed. You'll begin to understand what true union and bliss really are. It's not the final stage, but it is very advanced. I apologize for only scratching the surface, but this is a very deep science. Perhaps if there are specific questions, I can attempt to address those.

@axiom His fear could be deeper than that. An existential fear of Russia losing its identity when the West gets too much influence over Russia. He already saw Ukraine slowly 'westernizing' and feared the same thing happening to Russia. That the westerfication of Russia will make it lose its identity, and in turn, makes Putin lose his identity. Because Russian culture is the only thing he truly trusts, and if that slips away, Putin will have nothing to hold onto any longer. A fear of change can be pretty brutal on some people, even if that change is for the better. A lot of people rather have familiar misery, than uncertain bliss.

Goals: Practicing yoga every single day. Full time yoga teacher. Building a 6 figure income through teaching yoga. Highly proficient Mandarin Chinese fluency. 10,000+ word vocabulary. Radiant health and strength. Be a multi millionaire. Buying a house. Buying a Tesla. Realizing God. Self-Actualizing. Happiness. Bliss. Peace. Calm. Joy. Attracting my Dream girlfriend and high quality intimate relationship. Starting a concious awakened family in 10 or so years from now.

@Raptorsin7 In hindsight yes. The journey has been difficult. Kriya brings up A LOT from the subconscious. No spiritual journey is a linear easy path. Kriya is a powerful path but you will have to face your self again and again. Deep rooted memories, emotions, traumas, kriya brings ALL that shit to the surface, no hiding. But after 6 years, now the fruits are truly being reaped. Was worth all the struggle. Life is Bliss. Life is Love. Life is Joy. Life is Peace. You are all beautiful.

The character you're experiencing is a character, i.e. an imaginary construct, that only seems 'concrete' and 'real' because you simultaneously imagine 'time', 'space', 'brain', 'physical world', 'other', 'self' etc. Consider that everything you "know" about yourself, i.e. age, education, friends, parents, siblings, job, country, year & date & time, girlfriends, life events, personality, that your body is 'yours' , every fucking thing in reality is nothing else than a story, a serious story, sure, but still in the end just social conditioning, programming. You're hard-coded by your genes and upbringing to believe you are 'a person that was born and that can and will die' ... The most fascinating thing we do to our children is we tell them 'please, Thomas(ine), be a good boy/girl and be it by yourself, not because we told you to!'... You see? We tell our children they should be loving, good, tolerant, well-behaved adults, while simultaneously telling them that if they don't feel that naturally, they are still sinning. You see how fucked up that is? It's called a "double-bind" (google the term). We are basically programming souls (our true most essential nature) into socially survival-oriented robots (ego) without telling these souls that we did it. Dude, all of your beliefs, age, history: it's all code. And you didn't code it yourself (most of it not, at least). Age? Who gives a fuck about age. Career? Who gives a fuck about your career. Beliefs? Who gives a fuck about what you believe in. Success, money, your outward fake appearance? Who gives a damn. Well, dude, I don't, cos I'm not sleeping in ego anymore, but most people actually seen to take all these 'statistics'/stories very, very seriously, and they seem to be happy with it (being robots, being asleep). But when it dawns on you one day, that the whole of your life has been nothing but code/programming, well that fucking hurts. That fucking hurts. Ignorance is Bliss as they say. But when you have that realization, you are basically beginning to wake up. And when you are completely tired of fake games and inauthenticity, well, then you're gonna wake up. But it takes time. You can't fuck around with ego or survival. It takes time. You are already completely perfect in the eyes of God. Reality is an eternal Infinite process/movement; and you're right in the middle of that process.

As @Tim R said, nothing really changed. The dream is still the same. If you could enjoy it before, you can enjoy it now. And as others mentioned, when you have a complete and balanced awakening, it's not negative, but perfect and blissful. You woke up from the dream, but maybe you didn't realize the other facets of awakening equally deeply. Every kind of negativity or depression comes from the ego. It wants it one way rather than another way. With a full ego death, there is no depression. But yeah I understand, right now you probably aren't interested in dissolving your ego more, in order to be happy with Truth, but rather to get back some of the illusion to enjoy the dream as before, the way your ego was used to enjoying it. If you want to go back, forget about spirituality and immerse yourself in the dream, after some weeks you will probably have regained a lot of the illusion (unless you went seriously deep). Or you try to deal with it, integrate it. After some time, which can take months, it will be the new normal. You had a deep awakening, but there is more to understand. Realizing how Creation is perfect, how Oneness is perfect, realizing that it is the best way it could be. Because it means that God is Whole, One and not seperated. You are literally all of Infinity, all of God right now, If you realize this on deeper levels you will realize the Perfectness and Love and Bliss and Beauty that Leo mentioned. Also, You are Infinity, so every person that could ever exist within Infinity is right here. Every possible human, animal, alien and universe shapeshifted into your bubble, became the substance of your bubble, become you, is you. You as God will keep dreaming and shapeshifting for ever, so from a relative perspective, all these other dreams, all these other forms exist too, and from that perspective you also aren't alone.

Sometimes i feel like "ok, i'm god , i can relax and enjoy" but then is that i remember how i created my gf looking at her. Like i designed it my whole to life to this moment, she told me i was god and everything collapsed into me!!! Time, space, her,everything. i gave life to her, and everthing else!! I have 0 idea how to life just life next, everything lost all mystery and meaning to it, instead of pure bliss. I can't tell it to anyone, because everyone is me, just a fragment of my infinite imagination. I'm all alone.

I know this, I feel this now. I am sometimes feel like almost 80% healed and it feels amazing. It is feel.. healthy and I dont need to go any further. I can function very well. Knowing this, I am excited to doing more inner work! Thanks. Need to feel the 90%! YES. Suffering in other side is bliss from God.

So the last six months has been quite a journey. I've experienced spiritual, emotional, creative, professional and psychological burn out. This left me physically exhausted and time for a restart. Where I entered from there was Presence. I let go of a lot of heavy stuff. Heavy patterns of destructive behaviours mainly people pleasing, perfectionism, seeking and resistance. I have become somewhat dazed and confused because my old identities no longer serve who I am or who I want to be. Meditation continues to be my guide. Yoga my path. Presence is my bliss. Destination? Unknown.

" The sweet nectar" of kriya yoga as Yogananda said. Don't treat your kriya yoga or meditation practice as a pain killer. Don't treat yoga as a drug. Kriya yoga does not change your state like MDMA and then you return to "normal". Go into yourself with Kriya. There is no separation between the bliss and yourself. You are the bliss. You can not lose the bliss, for the bliss is you. You can not go 'back to normal' because the bliss is what is normal. The mind will do what it wants. Let it. Just come back to the kriya practice, come back to the bliss. As you return, again and again, the bliss will make itself known as your true Self. Your true home and you are always here. It is simply natures divinity. I'm 27. I started when I was 21. Trust me friend. Just keep practicing and you will see...

Definition of solipsism: : a theory holding that the self can know nothing but its own modifications and that the self is the only existent thing also : extreme egocentrism taken from Merriam-Webster dictionary (I bolded the words) Infinity/Reality/God is all there is. However, this certainly isn't nor can it ever be a theory, it can never be conceptualized. And more importantly: there isn't a self, and there certainly isn't a thing anywhere. Case closed. Enlightenment is not solipsism, it's so beyond solipsism that it's a disservice to Love to continue to use it. This concept is only being used on this forum, just notice that so many spiritual traditions have steered clear of such theories. Using this word is sloppy, incorrect, misleading and not aligned with Source, Love and all there is. This solipsism business is a sham, and it doesn't feel good because it isn't aligned with Truth. Truth feels amazing, it feels like love, connection, bliss, wholeness, perfection, heaven. Trust your inner guidance.

the matter is much simpler. There is only one truth and that is unity. reality is one. the more you move away from the unit, that is, the more you fragment, the less happy. the closer you get to unity, the happier. if you are in a pure non-dual state, pure bliss. If you are in a fragmented state, you can be a great person, have great relationships, have the best job, the best sex, and be a millionaire, there will be little happiness in you.

What do you mean with opposite direction? From the absolute perspective, You as God are doing everything, in that sense you might say there is only one direction. There are inherently no different directions. From the relative perspective you can conceptualize/invent different directions. Like becoming a saint or not. I recommend pretending to be the seperate self in order to be able to be pragmatic and effective in life. And then when you wake up you have 2 options: pretend like you still are a self. In order to be more pragmatic or in order to enjoy the dream more. While at the same time being fully conscious how you are God, and these games are just games. Or you can decide to align the illsuionary self with what you conceptualize to be alignment with high consciousness. Then you can become a saint. It's still just a game, but from the relative perspective, a more conscious and more mature game. Yes. Playing the character is fine. But when life gets tough, it's a good idea to remember that God is doing everything. That you are God and Love and everything is Perfect. And even suffering is actually Love and Bliss, from the egos perspective it doesn't seem like that, because it is misperceiving it.

@The0Self Can you give an example of someone who embodies what you describe? I paid him to guide my spiritual path, and embody my blissful states from psychidelics. I think it's fair to assume he offered to help me progress on the path to happiness and bliss, i mean idk why else he would have been talking if that's not what he was offering. He also mentioned awakening, like he was going to help me awaken. Go read the other thread if you're curious, I outlined more about what took place. You can also read through my journal history and see my earliest posts on the forum, that's when I had the most interaction with Nahm

@Null Simplex nice. Yes that's it. I had the exact same awakening..it was actually the final one for me. But it was exactly as you described. Everything you thought was external is seen in this expanded state to be actually you and Iinternal, held inside your Mind..you are shown that you are dreaming all of reality. It can bring a sense of aloneness because others collapse into you so your reality is recontexualized in an instant leaving you completely alone. But it is liberating to know at the level of Being that this entire thing is ALL yours. Anyway that's awesome. You validated Solipsism although it sounds kind you have not realized no self in which there is this moment when it hits you that you, thst this entity you thought you were, was an illusion..and what remains is Pure Consciousness or Awareness..this is bliss! You die.. for this is recommend self inquiry. . But that's awesome man!!

@PurpleTree Jan Esmann, check this out for more info: @Nahm There's a calling and curiosity. I'm also fascinated with mind-blowing experiences. Classic symptoms like kriyas (muscle jerks), love, bliss, heat, heart raising, ecstatic laughter, joy, pressure in the third eye, etc. What? I actually don't remember exactly but I think my friend mentioned bad trips, overwhelm. too fast rising of the kundalini, etc. No difference.

There are hundreds of styles of meditation as well which are crucial for embodiment and inner alchemical practices. I've been doing microcosmic orbit, three treasures and inner smile and am seeing results. I've also been doing Taoist Standing meditations which I really really enjoy. Developing pure bliss in my sits! Don't give your authority to any teacher.

practice kriya yoga and all your inferiority complex will go. uwill be in bliss/ecstacy/psychidelic state for 8 hours such that those bliss will make u love yoursefl

Eyes that see the lies exercise What is the goal of my life? Mr/Miss Eyes - your goal should be to get out of your situation, clear the mess, clean your karma. Take care of your health. Be yourself. Achieve your goals and dreams. Achieve peace and bliss. Let go of attachments. Work on yourself the best you can. You got this. Treat it like now or never. Work hard and harder, that's the only way. Till then keep coping in whatever ways you can. Be upfront. Challenge your mindset. Ask yourself where your flaws are. Check yourself. Don't be lame, be strict. Life is short and time flies by quickly. Set goals. Achieve them. Make it happen. You're the king/queen of your life. You got this. Keep walking. Keep working. Good things will come. Imagine you got everything in the world, now think what would you work on? What would you like to do with your time? Do that. Because things occupy so much time in our life that they stop us from really growing.

For me want & desire are the same. Both come from a fountain of ever overflowing love. The nature of your heart / essence / higher self is expansion and that expansive energy is what you feel because it's already in your heart. The destination is already here. About need & craving: they are lack / contraction / black hole. Fulfilling them isn't leading to expansion because of their nature. I use my board for expansion. That being said, there's nothing wrong with needs & cravings because they are human. I personally don't add them to my board. It seems to me that you notice that craving and porn feel off to you. I could also say that they aren't feeling good to you even though they lead to great peaks. Talking about bliss peaks which lead to me feeling not good or contracted in long-term: For me long-term contraction overwrites short-term bliss. They show me that they aren't positives in my life. And so they are dropped like thoughts in meditation (also notice that it's a belief that you got to fulfill a craving and notice that this too can be dropped). This continuous letting go can take as long as it keeps appearing, perhaps taking months, years or decades. Deconditioning yourself can be seen as beautiful in it's seemingly eternal cycle and you can also suffer when you believe it's hopeless.

@Raptorsin7 I relate to your experiences with Nahm's sessions. He sort of promised so much, you felt like you had to keep coming back. When he told me he lived in so much bliss that he didnt know what to do with it all, it made me think maybe i could access that too. I only spend a couple hundred bucks, so it was no big deal at all - i put together he wasnt on the same wavelength as me pretty quickly. I could easily see how someone could get strung along, feeling like it could just click at any moment and all suffering would vanish.

Put simply, there is no experience at all. If people are describing something as being experiential, it’s not cessation. Fruition and nirodha samapatti are the two types of cessation typically discussed. They are only different in how one reaches the “state” of cessation. Fruition is usually spontaneous, and nirodha samapatti is when cessation is accessed through progressing through the first formed jhanas and four formless jhanas in order which can result in cessation. Nirodha samapatti is typically only seen as being done by people who have experienced at a minimum of three cessations but, in most cases, many more than that. From Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha by Daniel Ingram: “Fruition (phala in Pali) is the fruit of all the meditator’s hard work, the first attainment of ultimate reality, emptiness, nirvana, nibbana, ultimate potential, or whatever extrapolative and relatively inaccurate name you wish to call something utterly non-sensate. In this non-state, there is absolutely no time, no space, no reference point, no experience, no mind, no consciousness, no awareness, no background, no foreground, no nothingness, no somethingness, no body, no this, no that, no unity, no duality, and no anything else. “Reality” stops cold and then reappears. Thus, this is impossible to comprehend, as it goes completely and utterly beyond the rational mind and the universe. In “external time” (if we were observing the meditator) this stage typically lasts only an instant (though the question of “duration” will be addressed below). It is like an utter discontinuity of the space-time continuum with nothing in the unfindable gap, exactly like what happens when someone edits out a frame or sequence of frames of a movie. It is not that you see a blank screen for a while where they edited the frames out, instead that part of the movie is just not there. The initial aftershocks following the first time this happens at stream entry (or the first time it happens at the beginning of a higher level of awakening), however, can go on for days, and may be mild or spectacular, fun or unsettling, or some mixture of these. There are times when it is fun to show off, and this is one of those times. (Particularly mature? No. Honest? Yes.) Aftershocks I have noticed after paths include but are not limited to: • the brief visceral feeling that sensory reality is so intense that the nerves in the forehead and upper neck may not be able to handle the strain; • the feeling that new brain pathways are now being infused with vibrant life they lacked before, as if new nerve channels are tingling into life; • the feeling that we have become diffused into the atmosphere without a center, purpose, function, sense of direction, or even will; • a feeling of joy and gratitude bursting through our being beyond our usual sense of appreciation; • the sense of having at long last discovered what we most needed; • the profound sense of coming home, a quiet awe like the stillness after a great storm; • rapturous transcendent highs that make anything that happened after the A&P seem like dry toast; • the profound feeling that something pressed a reset button on reality, causing it to reboot as new, clean, clear, bright, pristine, and fresh. All that said, there are those who won’t recognize it, particularly those who chance upon it outside of a meditative tradition that can recognize it. There will also be those for whom it happens within the context of their practice tradition, who can recognize it, but who fail to identify it as being what it is. Sometimes the afterglow is not so spectacular, though for most the series of insights, connections, syntheses, and the like that burgeon forth is impressive. Others will just go on practicing, not realizing what has just happened. Just after the attainment of a path, particularly the first path, is a time when formal resolutions have an outrageous amount of power. The Buddha said that the greatest of all powers is to understand and then teach the dharma, meaning to attain full realization, however you define it, and then to help others do the same. I had been advised to use this unique period in my practice well, and I resolved to attain this awakening for the benefit of all beings as quickly as was reasonably possible. Despite all the complex consequences of having done so, I do not regret my decision in the least and highly recommend that you do the same. On subsequent passes through Fruition of that path, the mind tends to be refreshed, bright, quiet, and clear for a while, and milder forms of the above-listed phenomena may occur. The afterglow can seem to clear out all the junk for a little while. There is a nice bliss wave that tends to follow and may take a few seconds to develop. You can take that bliss wave as a shamatha object if you wish and intensify it, as a possible option. If you have not learned the concentration states yet, doing so in the afterglow of a Fruition can make them much easier to attain and master. The breath may change on the reappearance of “reality”, being a bit deeper, slower, easier, and more fluid. The total synchrony of the sense sphere that leads to a Fruition shows a fun physiological fact: Fruitions always occur at the end of the out-breath, and reality always reappears at the beginning of the in-breath, which is one of the cool reasons that finding the end of the out-breath can be powerful practice. For those who really want to get to know something interesting, notice exactly how reality reappears or re-manifests, and how the mental processes resume at an extremely fine level. This is best done by intending to notice it some time before the Fruition happens. Most people who have a Fruition are so relieved by it that the relief is most of what they notice, but those who can pay attention to more detail than that and do this well are afforded a rare treat—getting to see the processes that make up the functioning of our brains as they come online and orient to the surroundings, as well as to see the restarting of the sense of the illusion of duality, and exactly what makes that up in that powerfully clear attentional mode. It is fascinating stuff, and can lead to some serious clues about essential parts of the puzzle that help later. I recommend doing this again and again, as it generally takes going through it a good number of times to see what is really happening clearly and notice the assumptions we make about those processes and how they relate to things like “me”, “time”, “space”, and the like. Please note that there are at least two uses for the term nibbana, one of which is Fruition. The reference for this comes from the Abhidhamma or higher (abhi) dhamma (“teachings”, in this context), accessible in English as A Comprehensive Manual of Abhidhamma, by Narada Maha Thera, available free online and in print form. This is the standard Theravada literature on Buddhist mind-moment (Pali javana) theory and many other technical points, and it details that there will be three or four pulses of phenomena (typically called javanas, or “mind-moments”, “impulsions”, or dhammas) which, when they occur the first time, are Conformity, Path, and Change of Lineage, and then the mind will turn to nibbana and then the stream of ordinary sensate awareness will resume. [See A Comprehensive Manual of Abhidhamma, III §8 (12), p. 124, for more.] For those who actually do check out the Abhidhamma, which is a very good idea if you want to give more context, background, and support to your practice, you will notice that some of the biology seems pretty archaic, so don’t get derailed by that. The meditation theory remains quite helpful. Those who sometimes mention online and in person to me that they think that Mahasi Sayadaw or I made up this stuff about the ñanas, jhanas, stages, or other Buddhist theory, should read the Abhidhamma, or get your practice to the point where you yourself can perceive directly what these early followers of the Buddha perceived, and you will be satisfied by direct knowledge. At that point, the texts those followers wrote might make a lot more sense to you, and you may gain even more benefits by appreciating them based on your own practice instead of dismissing them based on ignorance.” Also from MCTB: “Then there is an attainment called “the cessation of perception and feeling” (Pali: nirodha samapatti, henceforth NS, or simply nirodha in my general way of speaking) that is hard to classify. The word “nirodha” (meaning “cessation”) is also sometimes used without the qualifier “samapatti” to refer to Fruition, so be careful to keep your terms straight when reading the old texts or speaking with others about these subjects. I always mean the cessation of perception and feeling when I use the word “nirodha”, but others often do not and may mean Fruition. This is the highest of the temporary attainments. It is discussed in multiple places, including sutta 44, “The Shorter Series of Questions and Answers”, from The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha, in a talk given by a female arahant named Dhammadinna, and Path to Deliverance by Nyanatiloka, which draws from that fine text. You can also find it in commentaries, such as the Visuddhimagga, XXIII, 16, as well as in the last few pages of the Vimuttimagga. By the commentarial criteria at least, it can be attained only by anagamis and arahants who also have mastery of the formless jhanas. This attainment cannot be said to be either a state or not a state, nor can it be said to be strictly a concentration or an insight attainment, as it is attained by a fusion of both shamatha and vipassana and since it lacks a sensate basis for analysis, meaning there is no experience at all that can be analyzed, as perception and feeling have stopped. We attain NS by fusing insight and concentration practices in a gentle way that is much less precise than if we wanted to attain Fruition, as well as much less concentration-heavy than we would use if we were doing pure jhana practice. I find it slightly easier to attain NS when reclining, but the first time I attained it I was sitting. We rise through the shamatha jhanas in a low-key way with some light awareness of their true nature (the three characteristics), and then enter the eighth jhana (Neither Perception Nor Non-Perception), and then emerge from that state to that magical post-eighth junction point from which we might also attain the pure abodes. Technically, in the old texts we find that there are a few other points of set-up that we might do before this, including to make sure that we are not going to die before the state ends, resolving to wake up if summoned by the sangha, and some other minor details, but I have not found them necessary. Sometime shortly thereafter, and without warning or a very recent premeditation, we may suddenly enter the cessation of perception and feeling, or we might not, depending on whether we have met the entrance criteria and are not inclining to anything else. Please note that previous interest in attaining this during the preceding days or weeks tends to increase the chances of this attainment occurring, as do resolutions just before starting the ascent from the first through the eighth jhanas. As we get better at attaining this, we can slip in the inclination (resolution, intention) to attain it after emerging from the eighth jhana and then forget about it before dropping in. There is really nothing that can be said about this attainment, except for things that relate to entering, exiting, and the consequences of the attainment, all of which are unique to nirodha. The texts rightly say that, upon entering nirodha, verbal formations cease first, then physical sensations, then the whole of mental functioning ceases when the attainment is fully entered. This is traditionally explained as correlating to the first jhana, the fourth jhana, and then the entrance into nirodha, respectively. However, you may notice that in the three moments before cessation of perception sets in (during the complete power failure–like entrance) verbal formations, bodily formations, and mental formations cease in that order also in three consecutive and distinct moments, with the whole entrance taking about one-third of a second, like someone threw the master dimmer/power switch on sensate reality all the way down and the whole thing just shut off. The texts may have a double meaning, or may have been misinterpreted by scholars who had never themselves attained nirodha samapatti. I say this because it is still typical for bodily and verbal formations to arise between the eighth jhana and the entrance to NS, and thus the traditional interpretation does not hold up in experience. The texts also say that this attainment may last seven days or even longer (some say up to ten days), but I don’t personally know of anyone who has admitted to this occurring in their experience. That doesn’t mean it can’t happen, but it would probably require a long and sustained retreat beforehand to generate the necessary stability and stillness of mind. The duration of such attainments will be related directly to our concentration abilities, and these are very dependent upon practice conditions and how much concentration abilities have recently been exercised. Please also note that, like Fruition, there is no experience at all during NS. There is no time, no space, no something, no nothing, not anything at all. Just as a desktop computer shuts down totally when you press the power button, so too with anything to do with experience in NS. I have friends who have talked about something they got into where they could still feel time passing, and that is definitely not it. NS is like the ultimate rest for the mind, something far beyond even deep sleep, as even a few seconds in it leaves one with a massive feeling of having gone extremely deep in a way nothing else can match. Unlike Fruition, we exit this attainment in the reverse way we came in, with mental formations arising first, quickly followed by physical and then verbal formations in the characteristic analogue way of the entrance and with the same timing, like throwing on a big dimmer switch in about one-third of a second. After leaving this attainment, the mind tends to be a remarkable mixture of deeply peaceful while very clear, and our body tends to be very relaxed. The longer the attainment lasted, the stronger and longer-lingering this effect will be. I have found it to be by far the most impressive, long-lasting, and heavy of the afterglows of the various attainments, and have noted feeling the effects of it for up to about twenty-four hours afterwards. From my point of view, the whole point of attaining to NS (other than learning the level of control needed to attain to it, which has it own rewards for other avenues of spiritual development—and for just showing off and proving you can do it—is the amazing afterglow. Thus, I would not recommend attaining this immediately before entering into situations that require quick decisions or actions, such as driving in complex traffic. The texts say that we incline to solitude or quiet after attaining this state, and in general I agree. Loud noises and jarring situations can be particularly so after NS. Its afterglow is very conducive to deep relaxation, deep practice, deep insight, and deep magickal workings—that is if you can get up the emotional energy to care at all about those workings in the face of that stunningly chill afterglow. I talk about the powers later so, if the topic of magick bothers you, just pretend I didn’t write that. Say, “La, la, la, la, la …” in your head to clear the memory of it, or whatever. While I am nervous about the current trend to use meditation to create more productive, compliant, and docile worker-bees, I must admit that studying for my emergency medicine board exam one day in the afterglow of NS was like a dream come true. I could steadily plow through hundreds of pages for hours and hours with vastly less mental fatigue than I would have had in any other state I am familiar with. Aside from nirodha samapatti’s importance due to being included in some system’s criteria for various stages of awakening, it is worth mentioning this attainment because it is found today by real, living practitioners but has often been relegated to the realm of myth and legend or has been ignored or even forgotten entirely. It is not that nirodha samapatti is necessary, but it is a good and useful thing to be able to attain. In fact, I have not yet spoken with anyone who had attained it who didn’t consider it the absolute King Daddy of meditation attainments other than arahantship, as the depth of its afterglow never fails to impress and amaze. Hopefully, mentioning it will raise the standard to which people feel they can reasonably aspire, which is basically the whole goal of this book. One more little morsel for you brave adventurers … I have noticed that the easiest time to attain NS is usually a few weeks after attaining a path, when the vipassana jhana aspect of the progress of insight is becoming clear and a nice degree of mastery has been attained in that Review phase. However, it has this nice/nasty habit of helping to precipitate a new progress cycle, as the level of clarity gained in its wake is impressive, and clarity furthers insight. Thus, we may go from the best highs of a Review phase and NS’s glorious afterglow to the third ñana, A&P, and the Dark Night quickly. In fact, this seems to be a very natural part of many cycles of anagamis who also know the eight jhanas and how to ride the line between concentration and insight practices. One word of warning: NS’s afterglow is so extreme that it is easy to imagine that one has attained some new level of awakening, as the mind feels very, very different after NS has occurred, and residual hindrances and negative mind states may be very far away. Wait at least a few days after any dive into NS to see how those changes hold up in the face of the world before starting to draw any conclusions. I must say, there is something truly fairy-tale wonderful about NS. That you can pick up a book from about 2,000 years ago that gives complex instructions like some weird recipe for something you can do with your brain that you would have otherwise been extremely unlikely to know as even being possible, and that you can follow those instructions and they can actually work, blew my doors off the first time I did it. This stuff is just amazing! Yay, dharma!“

In some famous book was it written (forgot the name of the author though): "Kingdom of heaven is at hand" Which, translated into Eckhart Tolle words means: The inner feeling of joyfulness, liveliness, creativity and bliss is all contained in the here and now, if you accept it completely. Scary thing to do that. It might involve killing your ego, which feasts itself from ideas about how this here and now "should" be.