[Bakary DieyeMember]

I’m not sur I’m following you here Ivan.What do you mean by throwing the bucket ? As I see it this is one of the major issue facing all meditators..finding a way to live in accordance with the principles of the Dhamma cultivated in Meditation Practice (and in daily life of course). Culadasa gives us a strong warning at the end of the book…even for a practitioner having reached Samatha (Stage 10), this is still a “conditioned state” meaning Life issues can still negatively affect him and the quality of his practice.Unless of course he had reached Awakening….

[Bakary DieyeMember]

Hello Jevan,
Basically that you should be careful during your daily life not to mess up your hard earned results on the Mat…if you watch a lot of tv,violent movies..or more generally lead a stressful life…you will lose part of your meditation training…and of course the more you train the more you lose…like a big leaky bucket..(size of the bucket equals importance of training).it’s on Page 4-5 of the book.

[Bakary DieyeMember]

Hello Jevan,
There’s a record somewhere on the internet of one student of Culadasa who is bipolar or have ADHD (I don’t recall)…but he entered retreat at Stage 2 and came out at Stage 8….he did 2 months followed by another 5 months…so that should give you some idea…
There is no doubt that you can reach a high level in retreat in 6-8 months…but then what ? remember what Culadasa says in the book about the leaky big bucket.
Before doing anything I suggest you ask yourself what kind of daily practice you will be able to sustain afterwards.Most teachers (including Culadasa) consider that below a daily 2 HOURS practice yours skills will erode..And of course most important do you have a lifestyle conducive to contemplation ? etc…
Hope this helps.

[Bakary DieyeMember]

Hello Ward,
In the early stages our main goal is to stabilize our attention without letting collapse our general awareness.Now stabilize include both the target and the scope.As long as you don’t change the scope of your attention (or let it change by itself…) you should be okay.There are a host of tools in Culadasa’s book to keep you engaged (Following and Connecting for Attention but also checking in and labeling for Awareness). Personnaly I also use counting to keep track of what’s going on during my practice
Hope this helps

Bakary

[Bakary DieyeMember]

Hello Ivan,
Many thanks for your post which had me frustrated…and made me reflecting on the premisses of my way of learning. I thank you for that.As far as I can remember when entering a new discipline or studying any sets of skills , I always had my eyes on more experienced people at least on the beginning. You rightfully pinpoint the danger of getting entangled in other ” people’s details” and I do realize that this question can appear a bit intrusive as well. I apologize about that.
However being humans, social animals learning a LOT by example…I don’t really see any harm in keeping an eye on our “elders”…a bit like subtle distraction usefulness ONLY in the early stages of Meditation…

Cheers

Bakary

[Bakary DieyeMember]

Hi Matthew,
Many thanks for your feedback. it does help !
What about you guys ?? there are a lots of you here…Don’t be shy ..
Hearing about advanced practicioner experiences is always inspiring and motivating

Cheers

Bakary

[Bakary DieyeMember]

OUPS… in the last paragraph…please read “My Attention is the focus…rather than my intention. Sorry for the Typo

[Bakary DieyeMember]

Hello Guys,
I’m very interested by the question raised by Amit about the Moments of Consciousness Model and its relation with sustained awareness. Being a beginner I just will give my modest opinion to learn a bit more from others.
The way I understand it , having a high degree of Awareness and a stable Attention means that there are FEW non perceiving Mind Moments…having none of them would be like being “in the flow” for athletes…complete Alertness
That being said the succession of Moments is fast,very fast , to such a degree that we can’t perceive it (at least not until much later in our practice…) so you can sustain both type of consciousness (attention and awareness) in a continuous form while “in reality” they just follow each other. This model was built by Advanced Meditators a long time ago…so it’s basically a tool that we can use to further our own practice without worrying about it’s “scientific ” relevance.
To illustrate the difference between Attention and Awareness I use the image of my torch when I practice Cave diving and I’m observing a beautiful rock and the formation around it… My intention is the focus of my lamp on the rock. it’s bright,well defined,subjective in that I CHOOSE where to put it, it also has a SINGLE target (the rock). My Awareness represents what’s NEXT to the focus,the other rocks next to the one I’m observing…it’s a bit darker,there are SEVERAL objects,I see them PASSIVELY,(there is no intention ).etc. what’s interesting is that to have a good awareness of the surrounding you need FIRST to STABILIZE your attention so that what appears in the background will be clearer…it’s like Meditation (and you do meditate when you cave dive…believe me…). Hope my rambling make sense and that it will be useful to you

Cheers

Bakary

[Bakary DieyeMember]

Hello Mikael,
I’m a beginner so please take my comments with a grain of salt…
For me labeling the distractions helps a LOT…I can now see a pattern…and when something comes up…I can see it rising..so I dismiss it fast congratulate my mind and go back to the breath…I don’t have a very strong attention like yours probably..so I can avoid the pitfall of strong absorption which lives you prone to distraction if you don’t have awareness.
Sensing the outbreath is ALWAYS a challenge for me too

Hope this meager experience will be helpful to you

[Author]

Posts