Dharma Treasure Community | Patrick Gillen | Activity http://dharmatreasurecommunity.org/members/patrickgillen/activity/ Activity feed for Patrick Gillen. Sat, 11 Apr 2026 11:32:53 +0000 https://buddypress.org/?v=4.2.0 en-US 30 hourly 2 4a6fe2a57bc6ac8f2535ddbaf4b72fbd Patrick Gillen replied to the topic Stage Three Question in the forum Meditation http://dharmatreasurecommunity.org/forums/topic/stage-three-question/page/2/#post-2185 Fri, 01 Sep 2017 19:58:27 +0000 To “close out” this thread, here is the advice I would give to myself of almost two years ago. (Since then, progress has been slow, but I’m now working in Stages 4-5 mostly, and I do feel I’ve learned some definite skills along the way.)

1. A more solid understanding of attention versus awareness will come with time, much in the same way as an…[Read more]

]]> 1d331a05ff3d56493a013555c77eeeb5 Patrick Gillen replied to the topic Insurmountable strong dullness and the perception of light in the forum Meditation http://dharmatreasurecommunity.org/forums/topic/insurmountable-strong-dullness/#post-1633 Wed, 19 Oct 2016 19:09:50 +0000 Hi Sasha,

I thought it might be useful to you to relay my own experience overcoming morning grogginess.

My usual practice time is 5:30 AM, and I do my best to get enough sleep the night before. A couple of months back, however, I was getting frustrated as it often happened when I sat down to meditate, 10 minutes after waking up, my mind felt…[Read more]

]]> 54f54f368f97e4d92844cf01e59606df Patrick Gillen replied to the topic Sleep, meditation and life management in the forum Meditation http://dharmatreasurecommunity.org/forums/topic/sleep-meditation-and-life-management/#post-1428 Wed, 17 Aug 2016 19:41:23 +0000 Hi moln1,

Like a lot of meditators, I have found the routine of getting up an hour earlier to practice, before anyone else in the household has awoken, works very well. I don’t feel like I’m “robbing” time from my young family, I can be reasonably assured of not being interrupted, and it doesn’t feel too tightly time-boxed (it doesn’t feel that…[Read more]

]]> 7d65cd3c615f71e681838be7387eb983 Patrick Gillen replied to the topic Stage Three Question in the forum Meditation http://dharmatreasurecommunity.org/forums/topic/stage-three-question/page/2/#post-427 Sun, 24 Jan 2016 21:34:57 +0000 I think I do now understand what checking-in means. I practiced it earlier today with my new understanding — actually, the understanding came to me while practicing, but the concepts I read on this forum triggered it, I’m fairly sure — and it definitely was not what I had originally understood and tried out for. What I actually had been doing…[Read more]

]]> 080e67e7084b26336769db6e9e4aea36 Patrick Gillen replied to the topic Stage Three Question in the forum Meditation http://dharmatreasurecommunity.org/forums/topic/stage-three-question/#post-421 Fri, 22 Jan 2016 09:27:10 +0000 Thanks for your input, Ted. Your theory sounds entirely plausible to me. I was thinking I could test it by trying to hold the intention to check in *more regularly* (i.e., almost to a beat) but I am also aware of the caution in The Mind Illuminated not to actually count the breaths between check-ins. My thinking goes that if check-ins are more…[Read more]

]]> d005a3166d80305b2d4b1b099e6856b8 Patrick Gillen replied to the topic Stage Three Question in the forum Meditation http://dharmatreasurecommunity.org/forums/topic/stage-three-question/#post-419 Wed, 20 Jan 2016 09:26:09 +0000 Blake,

I really appreciate your feedback. My understanding of attention and awareness has for sure increased. I’m now fairly certain I can simultaneously both pay full attention to the breath and hold background sounds in the practice room in conscious awareness. When it’s happening well, it really does feel different from alternating attention.…[Read more]

]]> 751fd27d4d623d8f671cba2c57310721 Patrick Gillen replied to the topic Stage Three Question in the forum Meditation http://dharmatreasurecommunity.org/forums/topic/stage-three-question/#post-416 Tue, 12 Jan 2016 13:49:31 +0000 Thanks, Blake. As you say, it will take me more time before I am confident I can distinguish between attention and awareness. I do feel I am moving forward again, however: I have been paying (closer) attention to the breath while simultaneously holding the (strong) intention to be aware of background noises within and outside the room I am using…[Read more]

]]> 2f55f8cd1815582297e8a67b62ad727c Patrick Gillen replied to the topic Stage Three Question in the forum Meditation http://dharmatreasurecommunity.org/forums/topic/stage-three-question/#post-411 Thu, 07 Jan 2016 08:51:49 +0000 Thanks Jacques. I will read the Fifth Interlude also as you suggest. I have already copped that The Mind Illuminated is the kind of book which needs to be studied more than just read through once. It has a *lot* content.

More experimentation (with a smidgen of theory to make some sense of observations) is definitely the way to go for me, which I…[Read more]

]]> fa7255de9bd0875e7caaac4b0df75feb Patrick Gillen replied to the topic Stage Three Question in the forum Meditation http://dharmatreasurecommunity.org/forums/topic/stage-three-question/#post-405 Wed, 06 Jan 2016 17:27:11 +0000 Thanks Jacques. That does sort of help. If I were walking down the street thinking about work and suddenly all the background noise were to go away, I am confident I would be aware of that strange happening, and in the next few moments my attention would move away from my thoughts of work and onto the absence of street noise. I can understand…[Read more]

]]> a85bf364cd9945658ba928a9bac526b2 Patrick Gillen replied to the topic Stage Three Question in the forum Meditation http://dharmatreasurecommunity.org/forums/topic/stage-three-question/#post-402 Tue, 05 Jan 2016 19:09:09 +0000 Blake,

Thank you for making the time and effort to respond to my question. I really appreciate it and will heed your advice to spend more time doing the practices in Stage 3 until, as you say, the concepts become clearer to me through direct experience.

The subtle distinction between alternating attention and peripheral awareness definitely…[Read more]

]]> cfac9f75cb9927d9800c34d411fc1c92 Patrick Gillen started the topic Stage Three Question in the forum Meditation http://dharmatreasurecommunity.org/forums/topic/stage-three-question Thu, 31 Dec 2015 10:29:53 +0000 I’ve been practising mindfulness of breathing, and occasionally cultivating the Brahmavihara, for the past eight months or so. Prior to that, I’d been practising a more secular style of mindfulness meditation. About a month ago I became interested in Culadasa’s teachings—which I happened upon via Matthew Immergut’s YouTube video—and now I’m wor…[Read more]

]]> 50807ff831ed764d39f7ef5b22289039 Patrick Gillen changed their profile picture http://dharmatreasurecommunity.org/all-activity-streams/p/415/ Thu, 31 Dec 2015 08:59:36 +0000 0 5df9fdcc973a5b3f5708cadd01208cb5 Patrick Gillen changed their profile picture http://dharmatreasurecommunity.org/all-activity-streams/p/414/ Thu, 31 Dec 2015 08:56:53 +0000 0