[Ivan GanzaMember]

Hi Praxis,

Based on what you wrote, it seems you are setting up a situation where you are looking for progress and results. My first suggestion would be to try and let go (as much as you can) of the desire for progress.
Try to find a way to engage in the practice playfully and openly, without too much looking ahead for results. Like a kid playing on the beach or something.

I know, it is not typical. Usually in the west we decide to do something, have the result in mind, and steer towards that — and we are supposed to get somewhere right? From my experience, meditation cannot be approached that way.

This is more like you are planting seeds and preparing your garden. You have no idea right when the seeds will sprout and flower though. Do you uproot the seeds every day to check? Of course not, nothing
would grow like that. Plant them, take care of them, let them mature and grow in their own time, their own way. Eventually they will sprout.

You don’t do meditation. Meditation does you.

Try to see if you can plant your garden, cast off your boat, put up the sail, let go and let the meditation process happen.

If it feel like a ‘TODO’, that is okay, let it be a TODO and continue.

Also suggest you research “The Four Thoughts that Turn the Mind”, find a good book or read online. Contemplate those every chance you get.

That should help till your garden some more and get more of your minds processes in-line with your intention to meditate.

Do persist, it is worth it.

Hope that helps some.

Sincerely,
-Ivan/

[Ivan GanzaMember]

Hi Ahmed,

I don’t know your situation well enough to comment or answer your final question a/b or c.

In terms of hallucinations and such things — these can arise in your meditation practice. These kinds of experiences can be nice at first, even interesting, but they have a danger to them as well.

Just stick to the meditation instructions. Don’t make too much of experiences that arise….

Continue with the main practice…; follow the instructions.

Cheers,
-Ivan/

[Ivan GanzaMember]

Hi Bakary,

My understanding is that this is not a conceptual pursuit. You wouldn’t be really thinking about it and then having an internal dialog. It’s more like you want to ‘know’ the length and what is happening. This knowing is similar to how you do tasks that you are already familiar with. Take driving as an example, you probably know where your car is on the road without thinking thoughts about it? When making a tight or difficult turn you pay closer attention but you are probably not thinking but just knowing it/feeling it? Hope that helps to clarify somewhat?

Cheers,
-Ivan/

[Ivan GanzaMember]

Hi David,

Can you detect the feelings of coolness/hotness/fluctuations at the tip of your nose, or in that region? Is it so extremely faint you can not detect anything? Or is there something there?

Try it now and please report back your experience;-)

Cheers,
-Ivan/

[Ivan GanzaMember]

Hi John,

Interesting discussion and points.

I am not sure I would completely agree with your comment that Shamatha is impossible without placing all the other parts of life into secondary priority for periods of time. My fear is that we might give new comers the idea that the practice of Shamatha while not in retreat is basically pointless.

Practicing correctly with a steady 1-2 hours per day dedicated sit, combined with a diligent practice <I>off the cushion</I>, should yield a steady progress in one’s abilities. What occurs off the cushion, between the dedicated sits, seems to be very key here. Following the instructions in the book, I think one should be able to make great progress, without needing dedicated retreat. When one is ready, retreat can be a nice icing on the cake.

In terms of dark night of the soul, terrifying experiences and such. While it is true that these can occur and many people do seem to face them — if one does not practice just ‘dry’, but cultivates joy, tranquility and equanimity, the intensity and frequency of these experiences should be greatly reduced. The fear and terror come up mostly due to the fact of having to confront deep, long held, assumptions about the world that are found simply to be in error, and were never true. Confronting these, while at the same time having the lubrication of joy, tranquility and equanimity, should hopefully provide for a much softer landing.

With respect,
-Ivan/

[Ivan GanzaMember]

Hi Kurt,

I’m glad that you are giving this a try. From what you describe I think you are making good progress! Don’t get discouraged and keep at it! For some people, this process can be like kicking over the ant hill at the beginning.

Drowsiness at first is fairly common. We are habituated to basically falling asleep when the mind quiets down and there is not so much input to process. Usually this is an indicator that it’s time to sleep, so your mind is just following the habit.

One task right now is basically re-training the mind to not follow that old habit. In order to do that, there are great instructions in the book, which I am sure you have already read. It is just a matter of time and patience until eventually you will be free of that. All you need to do is follow the instructions (as you are) and keep working at it.

There is one aspect I would like to mention about sleepiness/drowsiness while meditating though. Be very careful that you don’t fall into the habit of sitting in a sleepy/dull/pleasant state for long periods of time. This is an aspect of dullness and definitely needs to be avoided as much as possible. You don’t necessarily need to sit a long time right now.

There is a fine line here, and you will need to find it. For example, if you can sit for five or ten minutes fairly clear, that is much more beneficial than sitting for forty minutes in a dull state. You might look to split up your sessions into three or four within your allocated time if that helps you stay clear again for a longer period of time.

In terms of the events you reported, both while in meditation, sleeping and such — these are good signs — but try not to read into them too much. They are just events occurring. Much strange stuff can occur as you follow this process. Whatever occurs is just a natural result of the process you have started here.

The main thing is to follow the instructions, focus on the practice, and retrain your mind. Keep the instructions in mind always, even when seemingly odd or wonderful things are occurring.

They will all pass eventually.

Please keep us updated as you go along!

Hope this helps.

-Ivan/

• This reply was modified 9 years, 2 months ago by  Ivan Ganza.
• This reply was modified 9 years, 2 months ago by  Ivan Ganza.

[Ivan GanzaMember]

Hi Mitchell,

It is possible for many different experiences to manifest as you practice and deepen your Samatha. In a way you are kicking over the anthill and who knows what you’ll find? The fact you are experiencing the nausea is (in my opinion) a good thing. It means your digging into something deeper inside yourself, and is a sign of progress.

Humbly suggest you don’t think of it as an issue; let the nausea be there, give it permission to be there, accept it completely, but don’t reject it. if you give it the space to be there I’m certainly eventually it will play itself out and you’ll no longer experience it.

Let us know how it goes!

All the best.

-Ivan/

[Ivan GanzaMember]

Hi Paul,

Let me try and help based on my own experience.

Cultivating awareness off the cushion is precisely the same as cultivating on the cushion. When we loose awareness, having set the intention to notice that, we notice and come back, without judging in any way, and return to what we intended to be doing. If we are on the cushion we return to our object of meditation. If we are off the cushion we return to attending to whatever we were doing–or what our intention was.

That is the high level answer but not necessarily practical in day to day situations.

Let me give you some more concrete examples.

During the day we engage in many different activities. Depending on where you are in training your mind, and the style and type of life you lead, you will very likely be engaging in many sorts of activities during the day. If you life is ‘fast’ paced there will be a great many of those things going on. Less so if you’ve calmed your life down. (As as aside it is good to simplify your life as much as possible in order to better facilitate this type of training).

Cultivate the intention to be aware and mindful during your daily activities. It can be good to set this intention every morning before you begin your day. Next pick one activity that you do every day for which you intend to be totally aware. Good examples are: brushing teeth, going to the toilet, putting on your clothes, getting into and turning on your car, opening a door you open everyday, sitting down in your office chair, turning a familiar street corner, eating lunch, etc…; I have found that tasks and activities we repeat very often are the biggest culprits in loosing awareness. These “automatic” activities are so automatic that we hardly notice them at all.

Therefore we begin by being aware and noticing just one of these every day. Consistently. Once you’ve mastered one of them you can pick something else. You can keep building this up until you are pretty much aware the entire day. Depending on your capabilities you don’t need to pick one but can do more–each of us need to be the judge of that.

Another angle to view this from is utilizing the powerful force of habit in our favor. Once the habit is established in just one case it is very hard to break. It will work automatically for you.

Having practiced in this way I think you will find it is of great benefit during the formal meditation period.

Finally I would suggest to study the “Four Foundations of Mindfulness”. I can suggest the following two books if you are interested:

– Satipatthana: The Direct Path to Realization
– The Heart of Buddhist Meditation: Satipatthna: A Handbook of Mental Training Based on the Buddha’s Way of Mindfulness by Thera Nyanaponika

I hope this is of benefit to you.

-Ivan/

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