[Judith RingMember]

Henk, I was going to reply similarly to tjansen. At one point or another when meditating, most folks have the experience of focusing attention on the object of meditation, like the breath. Suddenly they find themselves wondering what’s for lunch or mentally making a list for the grocery store or thinking about details for a work project. At the moment the mind becomes conscious of being distracted away from the object of meditation, the mind has turned itself inward. Checking in simply refers to the act of intentionally moving your attention from sensations of the breath to the mind to the mind to see what’s coming up.

I can’t tell from what you’ve written so far if this is a simple issue of misunderstanding or if you’re facing obstacles in moving your attention from focusing on sensations of the breath to conscious knowledge of thoughts arising in the mind.

Directing attention to your specific questions:
“-How does one effectively cultivate introspective awareness in one’s practice ? (especially when one has not cultivated it yet)” As you follow the practice goals for this stage, overcoming forgetting by following the breath and connecting, you will be you’ll be actively connecting with the meditation object. Introspective awareness is cultivated in this process as you label mental arisings like thoughts or distractions or emotions. Checking in is the conscious attempt to notice what is in the mind in the moment. There’s nothing extra that you need do beyond following the suggested steps. Introspective awareness strengthens as you meditate and employ the strategies of labeling and checking in.

For myself at this stage there was quite a bit of grasping on to getting beyond this stage quickly. I had to relax quite a bit and give up expectations of how fast I might learn and move beyond this stage.

“-How does one work with intentions/something else to cultivate and develop introspective awareness?” Questions about intention come up for folks in various stages. The term “intention” is defined in the TMI glossery as “A determination to acte in a certain way for the purpose of achieving a particulaar end or goal. Such action may be mental or physical. Intention underlies every movement of the mind, whether or not that movement results in overt speech or action….” An intention can be as simple as the thought during meditation preliminaries “I intend to consciously check in periodically to see what thoughts, emotions or distractions may be arising at the moment I check in.” Questions about intention are not simple perhaps because most of us don’t yet realize that “intention is present in every perceiving mind moment” – this is a phrase from the glossary definition of intention.

Are you concerned, maybe even worried, that you’re not doing something correctly?

Judith
Dharma Treasure Teacher in Training

[Judith RingMember]

Bobby, one important distinction comes to mind. The experience of bursting into tears came after experiencing unfathomable joy – it was unfathomable before the experience. It was the power, the overwhelming-ness and suddenness of something never experienced before and experiencing it in such a strong way – it was from this experience that tears arose. I experience energy moving in the body all the time. And I’ve experienced tears in meditation accompanied by energy moving in the body. Many of these times were related to purification. But the experience I was referring to before was most assuredly related to the sudden arising of joy as I’d never experienced before. I think that joy is an essential distinction between piti and purification – and a whole host of other experiences that include awareness of energy moving in the body.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 1 month ago by  Judith Ring.

[Judith RingMember]

Sorry for the extra post – something else came to mind.

I had some intense experiences with piti last winter and spring. Working with those experiences… really, it became like playing with those experiences. In the past, I had a tendency in meditation to go too fast. A lot of ego was involved – I attached to what seemed like unusual experiences, as if the experiences made me some kind of special meditator. At the time, quite a long time ago now, I didn’t know anyone – not even teachers – who could help me make sense of the experiences. Because of the attachment to them and probably more because of the ego-trip, I skipped steps and went too fast. My practice was all over the place. The result was that I didn’t make much real progress in meditation, not for years.

All of this is to say that until last winter I had a tendency to be really cautious in how quickly I moved from one stage to the next. With the strong and daily occurrences of piti I didn’t abandon that caution but I decided to let the experiences sort of show me what to do during that sitting. Each sit became an interplay with energies in the body and how they showed up. Granted, by the time I was in this phase of experience, focus was quite strong, so it felt like the right time to move away from the breath and focus more on piti-related experiences. There was great fun in playing around inside the experiences – not in moment to moment play, but in seeing what showed up as physical sensations and then in seeing what showed up about what to focus on during that sit.

This brings one last point to the fore – from personal experience I’d like to reply to one thing you noted about Shaila Catherine’s thoughts about piti. You note, “While I find this interesting – and I may try practicing with this notion more in mind, I can’t help but wonder how one notices the breath if not for it’s physical properties?” I agree with what’s implicit in this question. My experiences with the breath are physical sensations. Anything that takes me into the mind as a thought about the breath, rather than as an experience of the sensation of the breath – for me, that experience is typically at the tip of the nose or on the upper lip… well, I take that as a mental arising, a thought, that is a distraction from the meditation object.

peace be with you….

[Judith RingMember]

Hi Bobby,
I don’t have experience with Shaila Catherine’s work so it’s difficult for me to reply to that aspect of your post.

Interestingly, Culadasa shared an audio on Sound Cloud about the topic of piti (joy). Here’s the link: https://soundcloud.com/culadasa/piti-joy-culadasa

Generally speaking, it’s quite common for people to experience physical sensations in meditation. These experiences can occur in a wide range from twitching to seeing light. I experienced physical sensations in meditation shortly after I began practicing – these were tingling sensations in the face that sometimes occurred in different shapes like a diamond that connected forehead, chin and cheeks or, later, forehead, cheeks and heart. I was not studying with Culadasa then – but the teacher whose class I was in did suggest not to focus on the sensations – to note them and stay with the breath, which is what I did at the time.

Culadasa seems to concur with this. He notes that when piti first arises, continue focusing on the breath. He actually says to keep doing what you were doing to cause meditative joy to arise.

Culadasa is very clear in noting that meditative joy can be accompanied by different physical sensations that are similar to what you describe and suggests that these are sensations of energy moving in the body. The primary experience of piti is meditative joy but body sensations of energy, as well as experiences of bright light or sometimes sounds, are aspects of piti.

When I experience sensations related to this they can be quite intense. Actually, the first time I experienced the arising of piti I was not prepared for it in any way – I had not heard teachings about it – I was so unprepared I began to cry uncontrollably – crying lasted just a minute or so but I was disrupted emotionally for a little while.

Arisings of piti now are more frequent – physical sensations of energy often no longer accompany this experience – interestingly, there are on rare occasion mental arisings of attachment: a sense that I miss the sensations of energy moving in the body – this attachment lasts for seconds but it’s always good for me to see remnants as they arise.

Culadasa notes that when piti first arises, continue to develop it by:

1. doing what caused piti to arise in the first place and allow it to strengthen
2. don’t ignore piti – the experience of meditative joy will further enhance your focus and ability to stay clear – joy keeps you alert. Culadasa’s instruction is not to leave sensations of the breath and, at the start, not to take piti as the focus. That is, at the start, keep focusing on the breath with piti in the periphery.
3. as mental clarity and focus becomes more acute when piti arises, Culadasa suggests practicing a light form of jhanas. You can abandon the breath temporarily and take pleasantness or happiness as the focus of meditation during that sitting. This can be by focusing on a pleasant sensation located somewhere in the body or it can be by taking a general sense of joy as your meditation object. Be prepared in case piti intensifies. If this happens, Culadasa says to surrender into it.

As physical sensations abate, an experience of profound tranquility and equanimity begin. I have had this experience in brief spurts.

The audio file goes into further depth. I hope this helps.

Blessings your way,
Judith
Dharma Treasure Teacher-in-Training

• This reply was modified 8 years, 1 month ago by  Judith Ring.

[Judith RingMember]

Hi Chris,
If you’re eventually looking for a retreat to attend, Culadasa will be leading one in Massachusetts in June 2015. The dates are Jule 11-19, 2015. If you’d like to be added to the mailing list for updates about this retreat, please email me at communications@wisdomsheart.org.
Thanks,
Judith

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