Dharma Treasure Community

Hi Alex,

As I understand it, the anatta doctrine is not quite the bald assertion that there is no real self (atman) at the basis of our consciousness. The point is that there is no Self, or basic reality which may be grasped, either by direct experience or by concepts. Apparently the Buddha felt that the doctrine of the atman in the Upanishads…[Read more]

Thank you all, for your responses. Its not that I personally don’t feel compassion, I do!, but whether it was dependent on being self-aware. I can agree with what Meshe said – “insight informs behaviour- that is what we call compassion. We become unable to act with aggression or seduction towards beings and objects, and this begins to look like…[Read more]

Hi,

As the previous replies suggest, it might be that ‘willpower’ is impairing peripheral awareness. In my experience, the antidote is that the attention should be more awareness on the actual sensations of breathing (wherever that might occur e.g tip of nose etc), rather than rigidly blocking off anything else that may arise (peripheral…[Read more]

Hi,

In my experience, moments of dullness always arise as a result of lapses of attentional awareness on the sensation of the breath – for me this usually occurs due to physical or mental tiredness. It is much easier to avoid dullness if the mind and body is ‘fresh’ i.e. for me, first thing in the morning (or in the book, Culadasa provides…[Read more]

Hi,

Yes, maybe they are not piti or directly related to meditation; having said that, I wondered whether there was any reference to lucid dreaming or OOBE’s by the Buddha or in any sutta’s. I looked online and there are references to a dream body in the Samaññaphala Sutta:-

“With his mind thus concentrated, purified, and bright, unblemished, f…[Read more]

Hello, I have also had numerous lucid dreams and so-called OOBE’s. I am in my 50’s and began inducing OOBE’s when I was a teenager in the 70’s after reading Rampa’s books – this was before I ‘got into’ proper Buddhism, I was only living in a small town in Yorkshire, so at the time access to Buddhist literature and groups was virtually…[Read more]

Hello, I have also had numerous lucid dreams and so-called OOBE’s. I am in my 50’s and began inducing OOBE’s when I was a teenager in the 70’s after reading Rampa’s books – this was before I ‘got into’ proper Buddhism, I was only living in a small town in Yorkshire, so at the time access to Buddhist literature and groups was virtually…[Read more]

Hello, I have also had numerous lucid dreams and so-called OOBE’s. I am in my 50’s and began inducing OOBE’s when I was a teenager in the 70’s after reading Rampa’s books – this was before I ‘got into’ proper Buddhism, I was only living in a small town in Yorkshire, so at the time access to Buddhist literature and groups was virtually…[Read more]