Dharma Treasure Community

Hi U. Tucker,

Thanks for your advice. Things are moving on and taking care of themselves.

I’m writing this short note to mention that, indeed, the service (or technology) that is supposed to be sending us emails … Notify me of follow-up replies via email… is not functioning. I haven’t once received an email to my inbox since…[Read more]

Hi Patrick,
First of all, just to be clear, I am a beginner (not to meditation but to this book) myself. I simply figure that I have sufficiently understood and assimilated the difference between peripheral awareness and attention.
That being said, one thing that has helped me is to go over the book several times. This is…[Read more]

And to drag things out further… :o) I forgot to omit the context of this thread from the very beginning. It has a lot to do with this paragraph from Stage 3 of Culadasa’s book:

“The dullness and drowsiness we’re concerned with here are due specifically to meditation practice, and need to be clearly distinguished from dullness due to other c…[Read more]

Hi Upasaka Tucker,

Thanks for your answer. You certainly put PSD in a larger context, which is helpful. I think a big part of my problem is that dullness follows me around through much of my days. I have something akin to chronic fatigue syndrome. Have you heard of how to deal with this problem in dealing with…[Read more]

Hi again,
I was wondering if anyone could address my last question (above)?

My predicament lies in knowing if one can move on to a subsequent Stage -in this case, from Stage 4 to 5 – when uncontrollable factors like a lack of sleep is confusing matters. In other words, if I can notice only subtle dullness when I have had proper sleep,…[Read more]

Hi Patrick,

Maybe another way of explaining the difference between alternating attention and peripheral awareness is to take the example of sound. You might be walking down a typical downtown city street and just hear the background hum of all the traffic as well as other activities. Meanwhile, as you continue walking, let’s say you…[Read more]

Hi Upasaka Tucker,
Thanks for your observations. I have also investigated dullness in a recent meditation, but there was little dullness as I did so. In any case, I’ll look into it further as you describe.
More than goofy thoughts, I have found the apparition of hypnagogia to be a current and infallible flag for dullness. But…[Read more]

Hi again,

I’ve moved on to Stage 5. The body scans have been very effective in general but I still seem to sometimes have problems with progressive subtle dullness.
But there is more to this. I have chronic sleep problems. So on some days when I have gotten a not too bad night’s sleep, I am relatively awake and alert in the day.…[Read more]

Thanks Blake…Your pointers are indeed helpful.