Tibetan_Ice

I don't think Alzheimer's classifies as enlightenment... https://thesevenworlds.wordpress.com/2013/11/21/the-ten-fetters/

Just reading a book called "Breath by Breath" -Rosenberg. Very interesting... He says: It is nice to get affirmations from the external world. I also found this quite interesting... From http://www.lionsroar.com/entering-the-jhanas/ It is interesting that jhanic bliss is being equated to kundalini and tummo types of energy. That resonates with my experiences...

It is "to be a rock and not TO roll". I guess you didn't "listen very hard"...

I was browsing DharmaWheel the other day and I came across this post called: "giant pressure in between my eyebrows". http://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=15334 The poster, "threeyears" posted this: So big deal.. eh? Well, the first response was from Malcolm, the very same Malcolm whom has been idolized and mega quoted by Simple Jack and others as being the 'end-all, be-all' in Tibetan teachings.. I was totally amazed. Here was Malcolm, a Tibetan doctor, supposed great scholar and authority, telling "threeyears" this: Then, needless to say, the rest of the posters follow suit and spew out a series of responses all implying that something is sick or broken and needs fixing.. Wow! I can't believe that the forumites on DharmaWheel have no idea about ajna, the third eye, the etheric body, the advanced thogal practices and that particular experience of feeling 'pressure between the brows'. In essence, the ignorant posters on DharmaWheel have probably succeeded in convincing everyone that pressure between the eyebrows is detrimental and something to be avoided. Well, it is not. Far from it. Pressure between the eyes is a sign that the third eye is opening. I myself am very familiar with the effect which resembles a magnetic black hole that expands and contracts, moves about the head, especially down the nose and is a very important experience to master and exploit. First off, Samuel Sagan talks about the pressure between the eyebrows because it is something to develop, nurture and bring to fruition. In his book called "Awakening the Third Eye" he says this: http://www.amazon.com/Awakening-Third-Eye-Samuel-Sagan/dp/0958670056 In the preceeding quotes, we have seen how the 'pressure between the eyebrows' is key to developing the third eye. Ah, yes, but what good is the third eye, or developing the point between the eyebrows from a Buddhist or Dzogchen point of view? Surprise surprise! In the book called "Natural Liberation - Padmasambhava" in the advanced practices it sheds some light on the use of the point between the eyebrows. So, you see, the 'third eye stuff' is very relevant, even to Dzogchen.. To me, the most important function is to separate the dual from the non-dual.. (my words.. read on) Yes, the "Lamp of Pristine Reality-Itself"... This is from the Thogal section: So there you have it. The third eye, or the "Lamp of Pristine Reality-Itself" is something to be developed and it has a purpose, and is part of Thogal practices. I have spent many many times feeling the pressure at the third eye, between the brows. It feels like a magnetic black hole. It can get bigger or smaller if you will it to rotate in one direction or another. If you 'suck' in inwards towards the area about 1 inch inside the head, it produces ecstasy as there is a connection to the perineum at that point. If you gently breath into that area, just above the sinuses as if you were subtly sniffing a fine essence, it activates the pressure. I've spent many a night feeling that magnetic black hole move around my head, move around my face, distorting the feeling of the physical form as it moves about. If you look at the area that becomes pressurized, you can see a very clear open space in which visions and thoughts are present. If you push yourself outwards from the pressurized area, you enter into other realms. It is quite an amazing area. If you 'suck' the pressure downwards, you can dissolve most of the body as it moves. It most definitely is a major key in the discovery and development of spirituality. So the next time you read about "avoiding the pressure between the brows like it was the plague", you will know better, unlike the poor fools at DharmaWheel.

Karl, You shouldn't be going around trying to undermine someone's impetus to practice. It's bad karma. You practiced for eight years, had a bad experience that you could not handle and went running to materialistic objectivism, Rand and trivium. Perhaps that is what you need at this time but that still does not give you the right to attempt to push others off of their path.

I went back to focusing on the feeling of the breath at the nostrils. Since I am on vacation, I have been meditating three times a day sitting, and two times a day walking. I focus on the sensations in the feet during the walking meditation, trying to note and maintain my awareness solely on the feet. Today I read Webu Sayadaw's writings here: http://www.bps.lk/olib/wh/wh375-u.html And this one too: http://www.bps.lk/olib/wh/wh384-u.html He is a proponent of continual practice of anapanasati, focusing at the air flow as it enters and leaves the nostrils. He is also an advocate of doing that practice 24 hours a day! Even instead of sleeping! According to him, if you lay down to sleep, you have given up. What a concept... Anyway, today was my first attempt to continue the practice during the breaks. After I had finished my supper, I decided to do some focusing on the sensations at the nostrils while sitting with eyes open in my recliner. During the day's meditations (and the previous three days') I had no success at arriving at the first jhana. I might have been trying too hard or not hard enough, I don't know. I did notice today that during my first two meditations, my left nostril's breath flow was more prominent than the right nostril's. So, I started to focus on the sensation of the air passing by the nostrils. I noticed that the right nostril's air flow was now more prominent. I tuned into the sensation at the right nostril and BAM, I hit first jhana. The rapture started up within 3 seconds. I was amazed. Here I was, sitting in my recliner, eyes open, not really trying hard at all, mind very active with thoughts and I was getting a good strong sensation in the right nostril accompanied with rapture. It was hard to believe. I mean, the last meditation in the afternoon was so tough. I had many thoughts and visions popping up and just couldn't seem to focus. I'd put in lots of effort and could attain some stability for about two or three seconds, then I would lose it. I thought that the rest of the day would pretty much be a write off. Now here I was, focusing on the sensation at the right nostril for a few seconds and feeling the whole root chakra area, lower pelvis become consumed in rapture. It was so easy, I played around with it. Point at the feeling in the right nostril, feel the rapture. Notice that thoughts were still occurring, eyes were even open... Point again, more rapture, even more intense. As I played with it, the rapture was gaining in intensity. The rapture was also staying long after the initial focus and release at the nostril. Now I believe that it may be true that once you gain access to a jhana, you can recall it at will. However, it has taken a while to get to that point. Then a strange thing happened. I suddenly remembered a segment of a previous life, wherein I was a homeless person pushing a shopping cart next to this large bridge. The main city was below and I was accompanied by a female friend (also homeless), who for some reason I believe is also my friend in this current life. I didn't think you could get memories of previous lives on the first jhana, I thought you had to get to fourth jhana to be able to do that. Learn something new every day. In my final analysis, I think that the ease of getting to first jhana was somehow related to the fact that the right nostril's air flow was more dominant than the left nostril's air flow, because the other three times I had achieved first jhana had been by focusing on the sensation in the right nostril, on the inhale (when I was using the focus at the nostrils technique). I'm also curious about why it is easier to activate jhana from the right nostril...

I have found an excellent writing about the stages of jhana ( although now I don't see much difference between shamatha jhana and vipassana jhana other than you examine it). http://homepage.ntlworld.com/pesala/Pandita/html/jhanas.html This is a really good summation and well worth the read.

http://spiritualmysteries.com/spirit/a-tibetan-story/

That's all you're going to say about it?

Karl, You've said a few times now that spirituality made you crazy. What happened to you? Did you write about your experiences anywhere?

If it is hard to know what the original Buddhist philosophy was, as you've stated, then your statement that your definition of suffering fits nicely into Buddhism, is based on ignorance (in the conventional sense). You said:

Hi Stosh, He did not walk away from it... Those excerpts are from a whole chapter called "Understanding Dukkha". He, Ajahn Chah, goes on to explain how happiness births suffering. Suffering is built right into happiness by virtue that anything born, due to impermanence, has to die. He explains it like this:

You have a superficial knowledge of Buddhism and obviously cannot see where your definition does not fit.The Buddha defined dukkha very succinctly and doesn't need any help from you. From The Teachings of Ajahn Chah A collection of Ajahn Chah’s Dhamma talks:

Except for an epiphytic bromeliad.

Thank you for all the links, Ichigo! It has taken me a bit of time to read them all and do some research. I did not realize that there were also vispassana jhanas, but apparently it is true, a later development in the Buddhist timeline. And, I can see now that the noting practice and the procedures in shamatha practice are different. I found this about the difference between the jhanas. This monk seems quite knowledgeable.. Aside comment: rapid noting like Daniel Ingram suggests, up to 10 times per second is at the other end of the spectrum from trying to fix the concentration on one object and keep it there, isn't it? It reminds me of striving to become superconscious. Thanks again for the discussion and links.

Thanks for your comments Ichigo. Very interesting! There appears to be two different practices going on. One is concentration/shamatha and the other is noting. I thought that you get to the jhanas through the concentration practice. In noting practice you are supposed to note everything, and somewhat quickly too according to Daniel Ingram. So are you doing concentration practice or noting?

Feeding the pain body... According to Tolle...

That is partially right. According to Eckart Tolle you can learn to identify the pain body and work with it..He has many solutions and has written extensively on the subject. From "Praticing The Power Of Now": http://www.amazon.com/Practicing-Power-Now-Eckhart-Tolle-ebook/dp/B002361MNS/ref=tmm_kin_title_0

Ok. I've read "Mahasi Sayadaw’s Practical Insight Meditation: Basic and Progressive Stages (1991) once. My goal is to read it five times too, like Daniel Ingram. ( the pages 32 and 35 are unreadable in the pdf due to some strange font. But, if you copy and paste the whited out garbled text into Notes, or some other text editor, it renders that text correctly) Funny, I've switched to focusing the breath at the abdomen for two meditation sessions today and during the second one, I started to hit first jhana towards the end of it. (By the way, this is something that Alan Wallace said that was not achievable when focusing on the abdomen because the movements and sensations from breathing were too coarse at that location... Learn something new every day) The other thing that I find strange is that in that book, the part of the instructions that says not to focus on the lights seems to be at odds with the typical instruction of using the nimitta as an entry point to jhana, as per Ajahn Brahm and other Theravada teachers. However, I will say that a nimitta/moon of white light is very prominent at the navel area and very easy to see psychically there, so maybe that counts for something.. However, when I started to hit the first jhana during my second session, I did notice that the path of motion of the abdomen's movements was turning into a counterpart sign (mental representation of the object of focus). According to Sayadaw, you would note that a few times until it disappeared and then go back to noting the sensations at the lower abdomen. Interesting stuff.

If you are mentally representing nothingness or emptiness as a belief or concept, that is part of your problem. Holding on to a view or belief, like pretending that the world is empty or illusory is a form of conceptualization which requires brain power to maintain. I've tried that form of meditation and it also gives me a headache. It is incorrect practice. The pressure between the brows indicates that you have achieved a state of concentration. For more information about that, see here http://thedaobums.com/topic/36844-dharmawheel-pressure-between-the-eyebrows-bad-advice/

http://www.aypsite.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=15497

So has anyone read Daniel Ingram's highly recommended book by Sayadaw? From MCTB2: https://ia801403.us.archive.org/14/items/bub_gb_M2S-7-lWzHIC/bub_gb_M2S-7-lWzHIC.pdf Or here: https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_M2S-7-lWzHIC ?

But think of the money you could make selling tours...

Why would I want to sit on the couch of someone whom has abandoned mystical knowledge and attempts to strip away and disempower the ineffable by resorting to materialistic objectivism? Perhaps, instead, you could explain how Tibetan masters have left their footprints in stone.