• Hi guys,

    I have recently taken up meditation again using the sensations of the breath at the nose as my object.
    However, I’ve noticed that while looking straight ahead with my closed eyes, it never really feels like the breath sensations are in the (spacial) center of my field of attention/perception, but always a little below it. This seems to…[Read more]

  • Thanks for your answers guys.

    In one of the other threads, Blake Barton gave a reply to a slightly different question, which could also be applied here. He said to keep the attention in the same spot and keep looking for even the slightest tingle or movement of air, even if it feels like there is nothing there. I guess I’m just not able yet to…[Read more]

  • Hi guys,
    I am still a bit uncertain about how to handle the pauses between the out- and inbreath and I am not sure if the book has clarified it enough for me.

    As far as I am understanding it, our main meditation object is defined as “the sensations making up the breath, particularly at the nose”. Now after the outbreath, for me there is a clear…[Read more]

  • @Wiley Fox
    That sounds like a good idea, although I won’t be able to do an official “out of house” retreat in the near future due to my work schedule. However, I plan on doing something along the lines of a 10-week meditation challenge, where I try to keep up a good amount of meditation (say 2-3hrs) every day.

    I have done a more intensive…[Read more]

  • Thanks for your input, guys. It all seems to point in the same direction, namely that the effort should only be in the constant remembering and bringing back of the attention to the meditation object until even that gets sort of automatic.

    In the beginning, some kind of physical tension will probably be unavoidable (I’m thinking especially…[Read more]

  • Hi Kurt,
    thanks for your reply!

    It sounds to me like you are also suggesting a very soft and relaxed approach with just the slightest bit of effort (until even that fades away).
    That just makes me wonder why Culadasa chose to explicitly put in the fire as a symbol for effort in the “stages of meditation” images in the book. Is it there just to…[Read more]

  • Hi all,

    I have read “The mind illuminated” and really love the clarity and accessibility of the instructions.

    However, I am a little unsure about the use of effort. In the book, effort seems to be an absolutely necessary ingredient up to the higher levels of the progress ladder. On the other hand, I was watching a Youtube clip called “The stages…[Read more]

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