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“In the Buddhist cosmology, as in the ancient Indian cosmology, the world has no beginning nor end and is cyclical (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_cosmology#Temporal_cosmology). There are periods when the last Buddha’s teachings are lost. If you are born during such a period, you are out of luck… (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Ages_of_Buddhism). But after a Buddha is born and teaches, his/her teachings continue to be passed on and practiced for thousands of years, and people can awaken during those times. The Buddha does not need to be alive for people to benefit from her/his teachings. We are lucky to be living during one of those epochs when we have access to the Buddhadharma. ‘All’ we have to do is to practice it diligently. ”

This is extremely intersting! Thanks for refering this.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 3 months ago by  Filipe.

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Hello,

Dcurtis, i am extremely interested to know about your progress. Simply because what you wrote could very well be written by me! Falling from 3 to 2. Physical tension increase. Wow, i am experiecing the very same despite practicing for at least 3-4 hours per day. It’s frustating. I can’t even check in, i forget about it.

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So, to develop our peripheral awareness, we can simply do walking meditation. How about step 1 of the preparatory phase, can it used to develop it as well?

This is confusing, sometimes i think we have turn on a secondary antenna for peripheral awareness. You say, we just need to NOT block it. Well, how could we block it if we wanted? Earplugs?

EDIT: What makes this confusing, is that the book says many times to maintain peripheral awareness. Like we should be doing something “special” about it. Well, to be honest i don’t know how to NOT hear the bird. Peripheral awareness is going to be there wether i want it or not (excluding altered states).

• This reply was modified 7 years ago by  Filipe.

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Ok,I didn’t pass the first milestone yet for good tough. But good to know in advance. Sometimes i have emotional stories on mh mind, but that one was a real past event.

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Ok Blake, i will read those.

Now i’m kind of surprised one can focus on emotions for meditation object. Doesn’t focusing on them, will make them too “center stage” for emotional equanimity?

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Sorry for the late reply, but i haven’t received an email about your reply.

On that stage 4 session, no way for me to stop the emotional stuff from dominating my attention. It was too strong. I actually wonder what to do with the stuff that arises. Are they “warnings” for me, to “fix” those matters or purification will take place automatically? Like, can it serve as catharsis, helping me to come to terms with it?

Whenever emotional stuff comes up, is this always going to be a stage 4 session or can be a stage 1 session where intention has not been strongly implanted? Oh, i ask this because sometimes i start the session feeling emotional already. With no stopping power for it.

It just hit me on the second half of a session these days, TMI is working down our 3 centers, mental, emotional and physical, is that right? I mean, the resistance starts with mental distractions, passes by emotional stuff on stage 4 and later, i have read about involuntary body movements and even sensorial stuff too.

I have read the overview chapter, but nothing about this there.

Thanks for you input Blake.

• This reply was modified 7 years ago by  Filipe.

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Ted, many thanks for the clarification once again.

For me, i definitely had/still having insights from meditation in the early stages. The biggest one being aware of the monkey mind that pushes me away from what i really want to do. Being aware that quite probably, this drunk monkey works the entire day. He’s on the driver’s seat. Making me miserable.

I totally agree with you on a teacher should use whatever is needed. Even if from an outside source. Is this case, the method really emphasizes in concentration practices before going to vipassana. Which is kind of intersting, because to best of my knowledge, there are other methods that are popular, but give minimal attention to concentration. I am aware of Culadasa’s advice about being proficient in concentration before advancing to insight to avoid problematic passages by the dark night / dissolution. Oh and he also says that, better concentration leads to deeper insight.

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Thanks Aniannie and Ted, i have been clarified. While i know that too much craving is bad, i also know that i don’t want to stare a wall and die of starvation to use Ted’s term. My goal is too live more, not in a sense of “party” more, but live without the ego restraints or own foot shooting.

Now i’m still confused about a possible interaction between TMI and a Therevada path. Isn’t TMI just anapanasati + peripheral awareness split in various stages to help the beginner meditator “chew” it better?

The Therevada path i refer too, has various concentration practices, like anapanasati till the 8th jhana, 32 body parts meditation, kasina meditation on your own body parts, dependant origination and of course, insight meditation. How could TMI fit in to this?

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“I would suggest you are zooming in and focusing too closely on the breath which makes it very difficult to stabilize attention. You want to take a mental step back and zoom out slightly so that your attention is centered on the breath, and you are still aware of other things in the background or alternating with the meditation object.”

Wow, i thought the goal was to zoom in as much as possible without losing peripheral awareness. There are times when i sense the entire nose-upper lip area and decide to focus on a tiny spot because that area is too big. Is this wrong then? Can focus on a big area still lead to access concentration/jhana/nimitta?

Now i’m lost, i thought the point was to zoom in or, get sharper while perceiving the sensations, as much as possible.

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