Dharma Treasure Community

Hello BG,

You stated that “I still struggle with being able to feel much in terms of bodily sensations.” Let me ask you, right now as you read the next words, are you breathing in or breathing out? If you could answer that question maybe the description that I give below might be helpful. If not, maybe using a mantra might help.

I don’t know…[Read more]

Michael Dunn states in his response above, “Checking-in will be conceptual at first, and that is also fine. The more you practice, the more raw it will become.” I am just beginning to work with the “checking-in” technique and I think that labeling would be helpful, rather than just sensing a vague, indistinct, state of mind. But I’m not sure…[Read more]

Since your oriiginal post was in October, you may have resolved your difficulty by now but I thought that I would still share what I do to calm my scattered mind.

(1) If my mind is scattered:

after I observe the beginning of the in-breath, I say to myself “in breath”
after I observe the beginning of the out-breath, I say to myself “ou…[Read more]

I am wondering if I am interpreting a couple of issues correctly.

Question 1:

If something is unconscious, it is just the sub-minds doing what the sub-minds do and I am not aware of it.

If something is conscious it is either peripheral awareness or attention.

If something pops into consciousness and I don’t “lock onto it” and investigate it, i…[Read more]