Dharma Treasure Community

Hi Mohnish,
Sustainable and adaptable are really good terms for a flexible practice 🙂

I do both group and individual mini-retreats. When we/I do them it is typically three one hour sits with 30 min walking meditations in between for a total of four hours. It is really nice to have folks doing the same thing so that you can discuss afterwards…[Read more]

Hi Mohnish,

I am happy to share my practice schedule with you.

I typically sit 2-3 hours each day divided between two to three sits and will do metta as one of them/TMI Stage for the others. Walking meditation is more difficult for me as there are not a lot of places to do them without running into someone I know(we live in a very populated area…[Read more]

Hi Ariel
Are you checking in to see if your peripheral awareness is vivid and that the object of your attention is clear?
If you still are not sure, try some of the antidotes for dullness to see if it makes a perceivable difference.
Meditating multiple times at different times of day can be really helpful in discerning, if you are dull, the…[Read more]

Hi Ariel,
I have had a lot of dullness in my practice and totally agree that it can be very difficult to detect sometimes. Some indications that may reflect subtle dullness are:

1. You are just not sure:) This is possible a lack of clarity in the relationship between your peripheral awareness and attention. Clarity is the key word which would…[Read more]

Hi Black Ghost,
I would recommend that you try some Yin Yoga to support your meditation practice. Because it produces high sensation in the body and clears out blocked energetic channels, it might help you feel more subtle sensations in the body when you are sitting.
It works primarily with connective tissue in the body which is pervasive….no…[Read more]

Hi Sanjeev,
Let me know how it goes 🙂

I do experience hearing like vision with a distinction between foreground and background. One of the first fruits of my meditation practice was that sounds that previously bothered me(like a heavy footed neighbor at 2am or a dog barking) do not bother me anymore and the reason is that I do not identify with…[Read more]

Hi Sanjeev,
I will try to answer your questions based on my own experience using a mantra practice.

1. How can one keep other sounds in peripheral awareness and the sound of the mantra in the field of attention?

This is very similar to the foreground/background of attention/peripheral awareness. You should have a larger percentage of your…[Read more]

Hi Becky,
I, too, am a novice and teacher in training 🙂

I like a mantra practice to help calm the mind and facilitate falling asleep and also elongating exhales. Every once in a while I will wake up in the middle of the night and I find that my mantra just smooths out the wrinkles and I fall right back asleep. Essentially, my exhalations become…[Read more]