[Ted LemonMember]

Striving is generally used to refer to a certain kind of activity in pursuit of the goal which winds up being counterproductive. Culadasa uses the term “diligence” to refer to what you might call wholesome striving, as opposed to “striving” which is unwholesome and causes stress.

What you have described here is essentially what Culadasa calls “diligence.” Of course, it’s perfectly valid to call it wholesome striving, but that’s not generally how the term “striving” is used in the context of meditation training. Because it’s so frequently used to mean unwholesome effort, particularly in other traditions, using a different word to refer to the activities that are wholesome is helpful.

[Ted LemonMember]

I’ve heard this suggested as well, but I actually try to avoid putting any effort into telling the eyes where to look, because for me that creates tension. But you’re definitely right to suggest noticing what’s going on with them, because I was unconsciously staring at my nose, and that was causing significant eyestrain, even though my eyes were closed. 🙂

[Ted LemonMember]

You can definitely experience piti. However, I would tend to suspect that this is a stage four purification, which is expressing itself in the form of muscle tension. You may also be engaging in efforting. If it’s manifesting as pain, that’s a bit unusual—for me that sort of piti generally manifests as pressure, but isn’t particularly painful. If you can, treat it as just another distraction. Don’t avoid it, but just surrender to it rather than thinking that it’s something that is a problem or has to go away.

That said, headaches and stiff necks can also be signs of illness, so you might want to consult with a doctor to be sure you aren’t bypassing something.

If it’s not medical, another thing to consider it using a different meditation posture that doesn’t put tension on the neck, so as to give you an opportunity to work through the purification, if it is one, without debilitating your neck. You could try doing it in shavasana, perhaps with a small cushion to support your head if that’s an issue.

[Ted LemonMember]

Ah, thanks for clarifying. Using momentary concentration at stage five is not what Culadasa recommends—he says that momentary concentration, while it can be successful in producing insight, is less stable than continuous attentional stability with mindful awareness. You should keep reading! 🙂

[Ted LemonMember]

Ah. I know several people who definitely use this technique, but I don’t use it myself, so I can’t really speak from personal experience. But I would say you are probably on firm ground here, if it’s working for you. Do you have a sense of what stage you are meditating at?

[Ted LemonMember]

Are you talking about Mahasi-style noting practice?

[Ted LemonMember]

I can’t tell you much about the effect of pain meds, but I can tell you that what you are describing sounds pretty normal to me. Getting to where you are experiencing clear, vivid sensations at the nose and in the body takes a while. Some people get lucky and figure it out quickly; for others it can take a long time. It took me a long time. 🙂

Try not to push. Rather than turning up attention, turn up awareness. Don’t be disturbed by things that appear in awareness that aren’t what you are trying to feel. Let them be there, and instead play with the focus of your attention.

[Ted LemonMember]

Great! Yes, that’s what I was getting at.

[Ted LemonMember]

What is your awareness like when you relax your attention and dullness starts to progress?

[Ted LemonMember]

Can you go out and not drink, just experience the music? Can you do it in moderation, so that you aren’t always tired?

One of the key things that you get out of a meditation practice is an understanding of how to be bored and be okay with it. But possibly you are also lonely?

As for your problem with dullness, how hard are you focusing on the object? Can you try to back off on the intensity of your focus and see if anything changes? If you are really overtired, this won’t help, but if you’re in an okay state of awakeness, it should be possible to notice that the more perfectly you try to hold your concentration, the more dullness arises. In stage four, perfect concentration isn’t a goal, but it seems so attainable, so we have a tendency to try to get ahead. But if you do that, you wind up launching right into progressive subtle dullness.

[Ted LemonMember]

That’s a longer schedule than Culadasa normally does in retreats. It might be okay for a single day, but we normally start sitting at 7am and the last sit is normally scheduled for 8pm, with a fair amount of slack time in the middle. Culadasa’s retreats aren’t quite as hardcore as some other lineages do. You might want to try a mix of 30-minute, 45-minute and 60-minute sits, rather than doing them all the same length.

[Ted LemonMember]

The diagnosis that you have provided doesn’t particularly match the symptoms you are describing. It might be worth stepping back and telling us more about how you got to where you noticed this as a change, and identified it as a problem. Is this your experience all the time, or just when you are bored, or doing some particular activity?

[Ted LemonMember]

Consciousness is everywhere, but we’re not aware of all of it? The unconscious is simply that portion of consciousness that does not appear in awareness. Since I am not directly aware of any of your cognition, my knowledge that you are thinking is not based on direct awareness of your thinking, but rather awareness of the effects of your thinking. I’m sure you’d consider it a bit presumptuous of me if I were to assert that you were not conscious simply because I can’t perceive your consciousness directly. 🙂

[Ted LemonMember]

Ah, I see. Attention can only observe the activities after they have happened. What Culadasa is talking about here is that introspective awareness can watch the activities of the mind as they are happening. I think he talks about this somewhere in that section, but I may be mistaken.

[Ted LemonMember]

How do you know that you are experiencing your mind state in your awareness and not in your attention?

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