[Mitchell MeltonMember]

Blaz

(How did meditation practice changed your daily life? What difference do you feel?)

When I am doing two- one hour sits a day, I become fearless. Not the extreme sports type fearless, but the “I am not afraid so open myself up to others” type of fearlessness. I suppose that I also have the extreme sports type. I just think that those acts are often brought on by fear, or the denial of fear.

On the somewhat negative side. I have had this high pitched electrical hum at the base of my skull for the past couple of years now. I don’t really know if it has anything to do with my practice, but I suspect so.

Being able to block out distractions when necessary is a big plus in my line of work. I just have to be careful to use that ability for only a short time, otherwise I am not as aware of my surroundings.

Things will change with practice. It’s inevitable.

Mitchell

[Mitchell MeltonMember]

Hi Chris,
“There is no such thing as a bad meditation”. That has been my motto for the past four years as a beginner, and I still consider myself a beginner. The way that I was able in increase the length of my sits was to make the resolve to not get off of the cushion until the bell rang. I didn’t have to meditate, but I didn’t allow myself to do anything else. It is fine if you just sit there for the last fifteen minutes with your mind wandering, just don’t get off of the cushion.
There is no separation between the mind and the body. I can physically feel when I am in deep meditation. Train the body and the mind will follow because the are one in the same.

During the day I have found it easier to focus on the movement of my abdomen. I don’t focus on breathing, only the sensation of my gut rising and falling.

Just know that there is always a way, and I have found that being creative with ways to bring yourself back into the present during the day, adds a little spice to your practice. It’s okay to have fun while training your attention.

Just keep it up.

Mitch Melton

[Mitchell MeltonMember]

This may seem a somewhat extreme remedy for dullness, but I keep a two gallon Igloo thermos with ice water and a terry cloth towel next to my cushion. Whenever I am having a problem with dullness I take a short ice water bath.

I learned this from my Japanese martial arts days long ago. I believe it comes from a Shinto practice called Misogi.
After a while it becomes a conditioned response. Just the thought of the ice water becomes enough to overcome dullness, subtle or otherwise.

The jerking and twitching, which for me was sometimes quite extreme, will settle down eventually. Only my toes twitch now.
While the extreme twitching frightened me at first, I came to look forward to it during my sits. It became the sign post that I was about to enter a deeper stage of meditation.

[Mitchell MeltonMember]

Hi Blake,

That is kind of scary in its accuracy. I am going to have to sweep my condo for Dharma Treasure bugs. I guess I should have expected as much from a tradition that is thousands of years old.

I don’t want to air my dirty laundry in public. What I usually do is just spray on a little Febreze.

I guess it’s time to do the wash.

[Mitchell MeltonMember]

Ivan,

Thank you for the reply. I am not really worried about the nausea, as I have experienced many strange phenomena during my first two years. My practice has settled down for the most part. I was just wandering if it was anything common.

My theory is that I am transitioning from normal awareness to deep concentration faster than my body is prepared for. I am going to try walking meditation before my sits and see if that helps. Try to ease into it instead of jumping right into the deep end of the pool.

[Mitchell MeltonMember]

Just an update.

So I was dealing with the mania earlier this year and thought that I was going crazy. Then over a two week period there was a shift of sorts. I don’t know how to explain it.

Basically I become a more loving, caring, and sociable person. More so than at any other time in my life. I’ve connected with old friends, have long conversations with strangers, easily tell people that I love them, etc……. This just isn’t suppose to be in my personally. Never has been before but now it is part of me.

This is a huge lesson for me about the self, or no self, or not-self, or whatever term you want to use.

How can focusing on the sensations of the breath at the tip of my nose bring this on?

I don’t know, but I know that I like it.

[Mitchell MeltonMember]

Thanks Blake.

No I haven’t had any problems with mania before, but I recognize the systems. My father and my 2nd ex-wife were diagnosed
with bi-polar disorder.

So I am probably being a little over dramatic and self-diagnosing. I just don’t want to fall into the
trap of attributing all of strange things that have happened to my mind in the past two years to meditation and miss a
health issue.

If I had bi-polar disorder it would have showed up many years ago. It is just hard for my skeptical side to
accept that meditation is so mind altering and life altering. I know that is what I was going for when I first started meditating, but WOW!

Thanks for all the help.

Mitchell Melton

[Mitchell MeltonMember]

What I like about samatha meditation is the amount of honesty it requires. To practice samatha correctly IMHO is self-honesty at its very core. Or “not-self” honesty maybe the right way to say it, but I still have a hard time with the “not-self” part of Buddhist practice. I think that part has to be experienced and is not knowable as my definition of knowledge goes.

So in keeping with the spirit of honesty, my past months experience seems to have been mania. Maybe it was brought by changes in my brain from my practice or maybe not. Anyhow I did not feel like any progress was made during this time.

Basically, I crashed.

I fell asleep during a meeting at work and actually started snoring!!!
Thankfully all the people at the meeting have known me for years and
just thought that it was funny.

The amazing or disturbing thing was that I was not drowsy at all. I think sleep deprivation was a good call.

I am going to settle myself down and get back on my routine schedule of
of sleep and practice.

Hopefully this will serve as a warning to any 55 year old dharma practitioners out there. If you suddenly find yourself with superhuman thinking powers and think that you can get away with doing things like you did in your 20s.

YOU ARE WRONG!!!

Mitchell Melton

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