Dharma Treasure Community

Super agreed with Matthew. One of the Dharma Treasure teachers here in Tucson gave me this great advice last week, which is “mindfulness works except when it doesn’t.”

I conducted a study maybe 5 years ago on meditation practice and negative emotion, expecting to see a negative correlation. Actually, what the study found is that when people…[Read more]

Hi Kurt,

I oddly did a psychology PhD on the topic of sleep and meditation. The word “Buddha” means someone who is awake, and the neuroscience on the topic seems to show that this is not a metaphor. Meditation literally makes the brain (and the mind) more awake 24 hours a day, meaning meditative experiences in sleep and lucid dreaming both…[Read more]

I was trying to be vigilant not to take too long to respond to your thread, but I didn’t get an email that you had replied. Alas …

I think the intention behind Culadasa’s paragraph (and maybe he’s reading this and can correct me if I’m wrong) is to create a balanced approach to PSD. On one hand, we do want to try to overcome it if we can. On…[Read more]

I’m sorry Jacques! I just saw I never responded.

I’m not entirely sure I understand the question. So let me give a stab at an answer, and if it’s not what you were looking for, let me know (and I’ll respond this time, promise!).

Progressive subtle dullness (PSD) will both on a practical and definitional level prevent you from attaining Stage…[Read more]

Hey Jacques,

As regards dullness, I’ve found sometimes it’s possible to overcome it by applying the antidotes or practicing things like mindfulness, patience, etc. But if I haven’t been sleeping well, have a cold, etc., I sometimes find I can’t overcome it. What I try in these cases is mindfulness of dullness. My students have often seen…[Read more]

Hi Chris,

My name is Tucker, I’m a dharma teacher trained by Culadasa. I teach a weekly Sangha over Google Hangout, a group video chat forum, in the style of Culadasa’s teachings. It meets Tuesdays from 5:30 […]

Involuntary body movements are a not-much-discussed but quite normal part of meditative progress. It is related to prana/chi/inner winds, and it’s a little hard to talk about, because it requires adopting a […]

That’s right, Oleg. Essentially, you’re learning a new skill, so in one sense, you are starting from scratch. You should expect not to be as proficient at it and should expect more mind wandering.

Another […]

Hi Oleg, my name is Tucker. I’m a meditation teacher studying with Culadasa. We talked about your question this morning and he suggested that I respond, because I had the same problem about 7 years ago.

I […]