[B LejonMember]

Sure JavaJeff, I will.

I’m all over it at the moment and with great guidance.

🙂

[B LejonMember]

Thanks for your help!
I think I now have a better view on how clear the peripheral awareness is supposed to be to not be attention and will train to keep it like that.

I thought I would start TMI from the start since I’ve already had some concentration but the exercises in the early stages kept me there since this attention and peripheral awareness relationships is not as direct and automatic as breathing awareness through the whole body. But when I find this balance then maybe I can move up faster through the stages but I want to understand this basic part first.

[B LejonMember]

I’ve found out it wasn’t boredom that pulled down my attention span fron minutes on the breath to 2-3 breaths before getting caught up in stuff, it was me focusing to hard on the breath.

I come from practicing anapanasati sutta so I built up some concentration but not watched the nostrils like I’m doing now with TMI, I’m feeling the balance out now though. Even though I can loosely follow the breath easily for minutes, as soon as I start to watch it closely I quickly start thinking about other things. I need to get used to watching the breath closer while still having broad awareness.

[B LejonMember]

Great! Now I have something new to do because since “learning” to watch the whole breath from beginning to end I totally lost interest in the breath and can’t follow more than 2-3 breaths before going to a thought or a sound. It’s amazing how quick my mind gets bored, I guess only having the in and out breaths without the pauses to watch make me bored faster.

[B LejonMember]

Thanks, that made the task a whole lot easier but I will try that because I think I need to do it at stage 3 already since my following the breath technique is already decimated because of my lack of breaks/pauses.

[B LejonMember]

Thanks!

Then next question about the following the breath technique is the 3-4 sensations I’m going to find, are they all going to be in the nostrils or am I going to watch breath sensations in the whole body at this point? Culadasa writes that one will be able to detect a dozen sensations later but I have a hard time “believing” this if only watching the sensations at the nostrils.

Thanks!

[B LejonMember]

I understand exactly what you are going through as I’m at the same place my self.

What is this technique ‘punching the air above your head’? How do you do that?

Ted, you made me interested in giving the clench up and release technique another try, it seems effective but I think I didn’t try it well enough last time.

Exactly Glensys H, when this process is over and done with it will be a very nice release. This hit me strong almot instantly as my thoughts stopped and everything was so quiet.

[B LejonMember]

I have now started to meditate with my eyes wide open and fixating on a spot. Then I follow my breath at the nostrils and do a ‘check in’ as often as I remember, sometimes between breaths just too get in the habit. This feels better than anything I’ve been trying lately and I’m going to keep doing this for a while. I can really keep my energy up and thoughts at bay and I feel like I’m back at late stage 3 or early stage 4 again.

But, when I check in it’s way more easier to notice sounds and bodily feelings than emotions and thoughts i.e mind objects. Is this normal at this stage and will this be more obvious when I check in at these (3-4).

[B LejonMember]

Thanks for the replies.

I will continue examining this as this is something I try to keep ‘open’ and be aware of as much as possible at the moment in my training.

[B LejonMember]

Yes, I think I’ve been at stage 4 but then I ran into this dullness and it felt I have to start all over again, that seems to be the wrong thing to.

I will try to watch the breath as I did before and try to be aware when dullness is coming and just go through it with the help of peripheral awareness.

It really felt I went backwards after reaching stage 4 and I thought I did something qrong at the earlier stages and this is why I wanted to restart fresh and with dullness in mind as a problem.

Thanks

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