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  • #3438

    Mimi M
    Member

    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 and it is also really nice to journal/reflect individually after if retreating by yourself.

    You should try one!

    Namaste,
    mimi

    #3433

    Mimi M
    Member

    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 so I thought about creating a t-shirt that says walking meditator☺) and our residence is pretty small. So anytime I walk I try to make it a walking meditation as best I can even though I am not walking super slowly….walking to work, to the store or whatever.

    Half-day mini retreats are also a favorite of mine and I try to do at least one or two per month.

    A big realization for me was that it is okay to respond to whatever circumstances arise so that if I do not get as much formal meditation in as I’d like, I don’t sweat it or if I am traveling and my sitting schedule has to change, it is fine. This was liberating for me and transformed my practice into something much more seamless and integrated. My practice has become more continuous regardless whether I am formally sitting or walking or just living my life. So if I do not get in as much sitting as I would like, I will amp up the metta as I am living my daily life (like a mantra). This was super helpful as recently my husband and I traveled to Italy for two weeks and sitting practice was very challenging on many levels. The metta practice helped us cultivate great tolerance amidst some pretty chaotic and difficult travel situations. It is like a continuous mindful review that can be supported with journaling. That being said, when I am not traveling or have some other disruption to formal sitting, I do try to stick to a consistent schedule.

    Thanks for sharing your practice and I hope this helps you in some way ☺

    Namaste,
    Mimi (teacher in training)

    • This reply was modified 5 years, 5 months ago by  Mimi M.
    • This reply was modified 5 years, 5 months ago by  Mimi M.
    • This reply was modified 5 years, 5 months ago by  Mimi M.
    #3037

    Mimi M
    Member

    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 potential reason for dullness (sleepiness, resistance, gaps in moments of consciousness). Your experience at anytime of day will likely change too. For example, mornings used to be the time when I would have the most clarity yet now it is the evening or one of my midday sits.
    The Stages in practice do blend into one another and the measure for where you are at any given time is based on what skills you can consistently achieve. If you can consistently achieve skills for the mastery of Stage 3, then you are working in Stage 4. If you are working in Stage 4, it is okay to start Stage 5 practices but you would never skip a stage. If you are working on Stage 4, that does not mean that you would not need to re-visit Stage 3 practices sometimes…..or even Stage 2. Every sit will be unique. Just remember to consistently monitor the skills you can consistently achieve to determine where you are overall. Reread the overview of the stages every so often….it really helps when you are feeling lost…..Page one of TMI.
    Practice on and try your best to be patient and kind to yourself. It is a courageous practice.
    Namaste
    Mimi

    • This reply was modified 5 years, 9 months ago by  Mimi M.
    #3032

    Mimi M
    Member

    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 indicate a bright, spacious peripheral awareness even though your attention is focussed clearly and specifically on your object of your meditation(breath sensations at the nose). In Stage Five you will be using a Body Scan and Following and Connecting to strengthen your introspective awareness (the best antidote for dullness)so that you develop the skill to know immediately (without any discursive activity) if you have the optimal relationship between peripheral awareness and attention (mindfulness).

    2. You get startled at the ending bell of your meditation or with any sharp/loud sounds during the meditation.

    3. If you are groggy afterwards.

    As Culadasa states in the book and as you may have experienced, subtle dullness is VERY pleasant and can lure us into thinking we are in the zone because it seems effortless.

    It is good to understand this in your own practice at this stage because dullness can come back in stage 7 as you begin to explore true effortlessness.

    Your second question seems to indicate that you are having purifications. I had many at stage four that felt like non-specific rivers of emotion a lot like anxiety. If you examine where you feel emotions, including anxiety, you may find that they are located in the same region of the body. It sounds like you are engaging the experience in a good way. What Culadasa says about thoughts seems to apply to the level of emotive sensation that you are feeling: Let them come, let them be and let them go. My guess is that they will eventually pass.

    I hope that is helpful and good luck with your practice!

    Namaste,
    Mimi

    • This reply was modified 5 years, 9 months ago by  Mimi M.
    #2803

    Mimi M
    Member

    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 cell left behind 🙂

    Namaste,
    mimi
    Teacher-in-Training

    #2708

    Mimi M
    Member

    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 them anymore so my conscious power does not go there but it goes to what I choose it to attend to instead(going to sleep). It helped me a lot to regard them as just sounds or manifestations of energy without regarding any associated content.

    Perhaps taking some time in an initial stage of identifying whatever arises in your peripheral awareness with labels would be helpful in setting a level playing field for all phenomena that arise: sounds, thoughts, sensations, emotions…anything that can arise through your sense gates. Then narrow the field of awareness incrementally and just watch things fall into the background as you refine your area of attention until it is just your mantra. Then the other sounds won’t have anymore power to distract you then any other rising phenomena. Essentially follow Culadasa’s four stages in getting to your meditation object but dwell a little longer in the first stage and add labels that are not content ridden.

    Namaste,
    mimi
    Teacher-in-Training

    • This reply was modified 6 years ago by  Mimi M.
    #2701

    Mimi M
    Member

    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 conscious power placed on the foreground, in this case the sounds of the mantra. The mind will fluctuate rapidly between what is in attention and what is in peripheral attention in the earlier stages at a subconscious level but try your best to spend more time on the mantra where your attention is residing. It is not easy, but the more you try, the more your skill will improve.

    2. How can following and noting work in the case of following a small mantra?

    You can use the same techniques of connecting and following the breath (in this case the mantra). Try counting at the end of each mantra and if that is not enough, try connecting to the parts of the mantra. For example, I use vedic mantras which have three notes(a tonic, a higher and a lower note) and I note the distinctions between the vibrations of each of the notes and when they happen in the mantra. You could break your mantra into component parts and examine those as you chant. All other sounds will be there but dimmer and in the background. The strength of your attention is at the mantra. If you find that you can still think easily over the mantra or that your drawn more to the background sounds anyway after trying all of these techniques, try changing your mantra to one that is less familiar so that your efforts for chanting it will be greater than any distraction.

    I find in my practice that doing both following a breath object sometimes and following a mantra as an object sometimes is a very helpful way of seeing the similarities between the types of meditation practices and getting nice benefits from both.

    I hope that helps.

    Namaste,
    mimi
    Teacher-in-Training

    #2514

    Mimi M
    Member

    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 elongated through the practice and it keeps me from thinking about anything that will entangle me.

    My mantra (and there are many to choose from) is a very old mantra from the Upanishads. I really connect to its meaning and I like the way the sanskrit resonates in my mind and body. When trying to go back to sleep, I do it silently but it is also really useful during waking hours if I find myself obsessing about anything and it does not make me fall asleep but just keeps my mind free from concerns.

    Asato ma sadgamaya
    Tamaso ma jyotir gamaya
    Mrityor ma amritam gamaya
    Om shanti shanti shantih

    Lead me from ignorance to wisdom
    Lead me from darkness to light
    Lead me from death to immortality
    Om peace peace peace

    Namaste,
    mimi

Viewing 8 posts - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)