[InDMember]

The below is taken from:
https://www.shinzen.org/the-dark-night/

“(1) Historically it is not a term from the Buddhist meditative tradition but rather from the Roman Catholic meditative tradition. (Of course, there’s nothing wrong with using Christian terms for Buddhist experiences but…)

(2) One must clearly define what one means by a “Dark Night” within the context of Buddhist experience.

It is certainly the case that almost everyone who gets anywhere with meditation will pass through periods of negative emotion, confusion, disorientation, and heightened sensitivity to internal and external arisings. It is also not uncommon that at some point, within some domain of experience, for some duration of time, things may get worse before they get better. The same thing can happen in psychotherapy and other growth modalities. For the great majority of people, the nature, intensity, and duration of these kinds of challenges is quite manageable. I would not refer to these types of experiences as “Dark Night.”

I would reserve the term for a somewhat rarer phenomenon. This phenomenon, within the Buddhist tradition, is sometimes referred to as “falling into the Pit of the Void.” ”

I hope it answers the question.

[InDMember]

Anything from Shinzen Young is great (a lot on Youtube).
His Praise listing https://www.shinzen.org/resources/ has a lot of names whose work helped me to get a deeper understanding. Culadasa is in that list as well.

[InDMember]

I have the same problem.
I would love to take this course but a lot of my Saturdays are taken ;-(
If there is any way to combine my available Saturdays with catching up by watching recordings etc. that would be great.
Thank you.

[InDMember]

Hi Peter.
I had the same problem for a long time. I had it as a “headband tension” that would start and increase during my meditation but would subside and disappear once I am off concentrated state.
I am not entirely free from it now but below is what definitely helped me to start understanding this condition deeper and work it out.
I had several notes related to it in my meditation diaries. I compiled (with some modifications) several of them.
I hope it will help.

———————
When this symptom started I quickly noticed that the pressure rather quickly disappears when I stop meditation so I made an assumption that it must be related to “something that I bring with me” to the meditation, but it was awfully difficult to figure out what it is and how to work it out.
The first signs of progress came when I started watching closely the moments when this headband tension would JUST BEGIN to accumulate.
I found something unexpected: it was not just one reason that was bringing this physical manifestation of accumulated headband pressure. There was the whole bunch of problems that I was bringing with me to the meditation.
This is what I noticed:

1. I was trying to control.
I actually noticed that I had another symptom that was going along with the headband pressure – I was losing my breath as well.
The instruction sounded very simple: Make no attempt to control the breath. Just let the breath move naturally. Let go and allow the process to go along at its own rhythm. BUT for some reason, it was much trickier to do than I expected.
I started making progress when I switched to observing the nature of my CONSCIOUS INTENTION and started watching the delicate interrelation between the breath, the impulse to control the breath, and the impulse to cease controlling the breath. It was an amazing learning experience.
2. I was grasping.
I noticed that regardless of all the clear instructions, on the deep level I was FIGHTING to remain on the breath and I was grasping onto the breathing process instead of just being aware of it. This grasping generated an unnecessary tension, that would accumulate and turn into this headband pressure and some kind of a headache after. It was hard for me to realize the gentleness of the attention and how to proceed without forcing anything.

Definitely, to meditate I would create a point of awareness/attention to watch my breath.
Now all the processes that used to flow unceasingly all of a sudden start having this unusual point in their free flow where they are being watched. So I as meditator created an observer, who was not trained in fluidity, who reacted toward different contents shown to him, who grasps, who has the mind prone to mind-wandering, who potentially bring some aggressiveness to the set. All these qualities affected the ability to have sustained continuous and vivid (clear) experience.

By watching the very moment of the beginning of generating the attention of breathing (or any other meditation object) I noticed that I move not just my attention, I move a lot of physical level of sensations with it.
Try to do the following and see for yourself what you do:
Create an intention to start your attention and bring it to the tip of your nose. Concentrate gently but steadily then relax your attention. When you begin relaxing it, trace to see where your attention goes, what happens to it and how it disappears.
Now do the same but bring it to the top of your right ear and relax again.
Do it with the top of your left ear and relax then drop your concentration down toward your belly button and relax again.
Notice that you can do it in a way that will not move too much of your physical sensations OR you can move it in a way that will produce a lot of physical waves of pressure of some sort.

Best of luck,
G

[InDMember]

Dear Samuel.
I can confirm that I had similar experiences that started about a couple of years ago.
I will just report to you what was and is happening to me in hope that it will help you to understand changes that are happening to you.
About two years ago I first started feeling that my body started to reject meat. I ate meat all my life, so it was very weird to me and I could not figure out what was happening. I talked to my friends, I talked to my coach, who first suggested to start eating better meat (he said maybe you are buying some cheap meat – go organic).
I tried all the suggestion but my problem was that for some reason my body was LOSING energy by intaking meat and heavy food. I felt like wasting energy digesting food – felt very stupid, honestly.
Some of my friends start fearing that I may have some medical conditions and I passed all possible tests to see what’s wrong, but I was said that whatever it is with me – is not a medical condition.
So I decided to go without meat. AND – nothing happened I just started feeling better, more energy…
I kept going with my shamatha and very soon in the same fashion dairy products were out – painlessly, absolutely naturally – I did not do anything for that. I do consume “sour milk products”, like kefir etc from time to time, but they seem to not have the effect that milk products had on me: heaviness and lowering the energy level in my body and mind.
After about a year – eggs were out as well, very naturally without me doing anything or pushing anything or having any vegan ideology behind it…

I do eat eggs and fish from time to time, when I am out, working and need energy and have no access to food choices in which case body is perfectly all right with this.

Again – the main driving force behind all that was shamatha – nothing else. I just tried to make my meditation better – that’s all.
Sugar products, by the way, started decreasing as well at one point and came down to some very healthy amount.
I was 212lbs when I started practicing few years ago and went down to 183lbs without any efforts.
The process is still continuing and I can clearly see that the AMOUNT of food intake has been dropping.

So answering the questions you originally asked:
I have heard that some people make more time for their formal practice by eating less meals. I’m wondering how this works in practice. In particular, should the practitioner exercise less?
– I exercise 4 times a week (1.5 hours) + my regular morning 5 Tibetan Rites every day.
Are there any health risks involved?
– I recently had a full check of everything – all looks great + I feel much better than before.
Should more food be eaten each meal?
– the amount of food only naturally decreasing for me
How many meals are consumed a day?
– I would have 2 meals and some very light snack breaks.
Any other practices that should be combined with this?
– I pretty much only continue with my shamatha.

Hope it helps.
Good luck
G

[InDMember]

Hi, Magnolia.
Thank you so much for your pointers. I will definitely try 3D-ing the experience. I know exactly what you mean! Thank you for the book recommendation. I’ll go thru for sure.

Regarding the 12 qualities: This is the free book I found that speaks about the 4 Elements and their 12 qualities, but I still not discerning them well. I feel the power of mastering my meditation this way though.
http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/fourelements.pdf
Warmest wishes for the day,
G

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