Soh Wei Yu
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I generally meditate everyday but still it is not good enough. John Tan has been telling me to meditate more. Also he told me months ago that he sits about 2 hours each day (or above, recently he has been doing self-retreat).
John Tan: "This period I progress tremendously. Stability of mind. You need to sit and meditate. If you don't have a stable and quiet mind, it is very difficult for you to penetrate the depth of your own mind. Try sitting in stillness without thoughts in radiance into samadhi for about 1.5-2hrs [Soh: each day] and keep it going for few months and see what happens... then tell me your progress."
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Soh Wei YuAuthor
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Buddha's teaching:
Numbered Discourses 4.94
10. Demons
Immersion (3rd)
“Mendicants, these four people are found in the world. What four?
One person has internal serenity of heart, but not the higher wisdom of discernment of principles. One person has the higher wisdom of discernment of principles, but not internal serenity of heart. One person has neither internal serenity of heart, nor the higher wisdom of discernment of principles. One person has both internal serenity of heart, and the higher wisdom of discernment of principles.
As for the person who has serenity but not discernment: they should approach someone who has discernment and ask: ‘Reverend, how should conditions be seen? How should they be comprehended? How should they be discerned?’ That person would answer from their own experience: ‘This is how conditions should be seen, comprehended, and discerned.’ After some time they have both serenity and discernment.
As for the person who has discernment but not serenity: they should approach someone who has serenity and ask: ‘Reverend, how should the mind be stilled? How should it be settled? How should it be unified? How should it be immersed in samādhi?’ That person would answer from their own experience: ‘Reverend, this is how the mind should be stilled, settled, unified, and immersed in samādhi.’ After some time they have both discernment and serenity.
As for the person who has neither serenity nor discernment: they should approach someone who has serenity and discernment and ask: ‘Reverend, how should the mind be stilled? How should it be settled? How should it be unified? How should it be immersed in samādhi?’ How should conditions be seen? How should they be comprehended? How should they be discerned?’ That person would answer as they’ve seen and known: ‘Reverend, this is how the mind should be stilled, settled, unified, and immersed in samādhi. And this is how conditions should be seen, comprehended, and discerned.’ After some time they have both serenity and discernment.
As for the person who has both serenity and discernment: grounded on those skillful qualities, they should practice meditation further to end the defilements.
These are the four people found in the world.”

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    1d

Soh Wei YuAuthor
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Fukan Zazengi (Universally Recommended Instructions for Zazen)
The way is originally perfect and all-pervading. How could it be contingent on practice and realization? The true vehicle is self-sufficient. What need is there for special effort? Indeed, the whole body is free from dust. Who could believe in a means to brush it clean? It is never apart from this very place; what is the use of traveling around to practice? And yet, if there is a hairsbreadth deviation, it is like the gap between heaven and earth. If the least like or dislike arises, the mind is lost in confusion. Suppose you are confident in your understanding and rich in enlightenment, gaining the wisdom that knows at a glance, attaining the Way and clarifying the mind, arousing an aspiration to reach for the heavens. You are playing in the entranceway, but you are still short of the vital path of emancipation.
Consider the Buddha: although he was wise at birth, the traces of his six years of upright sitting can yet be seen. As for Bodhidharma, although he had received the mind-seal, his nine years of facing a wall is celebrated still. If even the ancient sages were like this, how can we today dispense with wholehearted practice?
Therefore, put aside the intellectual practice of investigating words and chasing phrases, and learn to take the backward step that turns the light and shines it inward. Body and mind of themselves will drop away, and your original face will manifest. If you want to realize such, get to work on such right now.
For practicing Zen, a quiet room is suitable. Eat and drink moderately. Put aside all involvements and suspend all affairs. Do not think "good" or "bad." Do not judge true or false. Give up the operations of mind, intellect, and consciousness; stop measuring with thoughts, ideas, and views. Have no designs on becoming a buddha. How could that be limited to sitting or lying down?
At your sitting place, spread out a thick mat and put a cushion on it. Sit either in the full-lotus or half-lotus position. In the full-lotus position, first place your right foot on your left thigh, then your left foot on your right thigh. In the half-lotus, simply place your left foot on your right thigh. Tie your robes loosely and arrange them neatly. Then place your right hand on your left leg and your left hand on your right palm, thumb-tips lightly touching. Straighten your body and sit upright, leaning neither left nor right, neither forward nor backward. Align your ears with your shoulders and your nose with your navel. Rest the tip of your tongue against the front of the roof of your mouth, with teeth together and lips shut. Always keep your eyes open, and breathe softly through your nose.
Once you have adjusted your posture, take a breath and exhale fully, rock your body right and left, and settle into steady, immovable sitting. Think of not thinking, "Not thinking --what kind of thinking is that?" Nonthinking. This is the essential art of zazen.
The zazen I speak of is not meditation practice. It is simply the dharma gate of joyful ease, the practice realization of totally culminated enlightenment. It is the koan realized; traps and snares can never reach it. If you grasp the point, you are like a dragon gaining the water, like a tiger taking to the mountains. For you must know that the true dharma appears of itself, so that from the start dullness and distraction are struck aside.
When you arise from sitting, move slowly and quietly, calmly and deliberately. Do not rise suddenly or abruptly. In surveying the past, we find that transcendence of both mundane and sacred, and dying while either sitting or standing, have all depended entirely on the power of zazen.
In addition, triggering awakening with a finger, a banner, a needle, or a mallet, and effecting realization with a whisk, a fist, a staff, or a shout --these cannot be understood by discriminative thinking; much less can they be known through the practice of supernatural power. They must represent conduct beyond seeing and hearing. Are they not a standard prior to knowledge and views?
This being the case, intelligence or lack of it is not an issue; make no distinction between the dull and the sharp-witted. If you concentrate your effort single-mindedly, that in itself is wholeheartedly engaging the way.
Practice-realization is naturally undefiled. Going forward is, after all, an everyday affair.
In general, in our world and others, in both India and China, all equally hold the buddha-seal. While each lineage expresses its own style, they are all simply devoted to sitting, totally blocked in resolute stability. Although they say that there are ten thousand distinctions and a thousand variations, they just wholeheartedly engage the way in zazen. Why leave behind the seat in your own home to wander in vain through the dusty realms of other lands? If you make one misstep, you stumble past what is directly in front of you.
You have gained the pivotal opportunity of human form. Do not pass your days and nights in vain. You are taking care of the essential activity of the buddha-way. Who would take wasteful delight in the spark from a flintstone? Besides, form and substance are like the dew on the grass, the fortunes of life like a dart of lightning --emptied in an instant, vanished in a flash.
Please, honored followers of Zen, long accustomed to groping for the elephant, do not doubt the true dragon. Devote your energies to the way of direct pointing at the real. Revere the one who has gone beyond learning and is free from effort. Accord with the enlightenment of all the buddhas; succeed to the samadhi of all the ancestors. Continue to live in such a way, and you will be such a person. The treasure store will open of itself, and you may enjoy it freely.

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    1d

Susan Gallagher
Any reason we can’t just spend all day in meditation while engaged in activity or not? And make being present to it all a way of life, like while being in the shower, making a cup of tea, washing the floor, feeding the dog and so on….maybe I’m missing something but I don’t get the split of in meditation and not.

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    1d

Yin LingAdmin
Susan Gallagher you can, but the cushion is a nuclear lab .. it affects post meditation xp. But u can try and see for urself

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    1d

Andrzej Jankowski
Susan Gallagher Many reasons 😉 Mostly, in everyday life You can keep Your mindfulness but You will not significantly progress in concentrarion or insight.

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    1d

Tommy McNally
Susan Gallagher If the Buddha engaged in formal meditation, then that should indicate the importance of a formal, 'on the cushion' practice.
Many people like to think they're at a stage in their development where they no longer require a formal practice but, in all honesty and with all due respect, the vast majority are deluded and will only succeed in cultivating habits that reinforce the fundamental ignorance that gives rise to samsara in the first place.
Incorporating both formal and informal practice into everyday life is essential, but formal practice is where we really cut our teeth and develop stability and clarity.
Try incorporating a formal sitting practice, even if it's only for 15 minutes each day, and see for yourself how much of a difference it makes when applying mindfulness to everyday activities.

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    1d

Soh Wei YuAuthor
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Susan Gallagher
“Don't listen to people saying (that there’s) no need for meditation. These are people with only small attainment and realisation.” - John Tan, 2007

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    22h

Soh Wei YuAuthor
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Susan Gallagher
"This is an overstatement. Meditation can only be deemed unnecessary when a practitioner has completely dissolved the illusionary view of a self. If a person is able to totally dissolve the self in his first experience of non-duality, he is either the cream of the crop among the enlightened… or he is overwhelmed and got carried away by the non-dual experience. More often than not the latter is more likely. It is a pity if a person has experienced non-duality and yet is ignorant of the strength of his karmic propensities. Just be truthful and practice with a sincere heart, it will not be difficult to discover the deeper layer of consciousness and experience the workings of karmic momentum from moment to moment.
Having said so, it is also true that there will come a time when sitting meditation is deemed redundant and that is when the self liberation aspect of our nature is fully experienced. By then one would be completely fearless, crystal clear and non-attached. The practice of the 2 doors of no-self and impermanence will prepare us for the true insight of the spontaneous and self liberating aspect of our nature to arise." - John Tan, 2007
"What I meant is we have underestimated the implications and impacts of ‘the sense of Self’ can have on the quality of non-dual experience. There is no division in non duality, there is only the 'sense of self' that prevents one from fully experiencing our nature.
Forms are merely that ‘thingness’ and that ‘thingness’ is tightly bonded by propensities. It is these propensities that create and give the solidness and boundaries but in reality, it is empty. We mistaken these ‘thingness’ as real, material as real and not know that what is real is empty, unborn, uncreated, without a center and non local. This is taking the illusionary as real. It is easy to understand what that is being said in terms of knowledge, but to understand dissolution of ‘thingness’ as a bond from intuitive experience is entirely different. The quality of a non-dual experience will be greatly enhanced when:
1. That ‘thingness’ of ‘Self as background’, as container is eliminated. There is only one, not two. Thoughts and perceptions continue to hover but the background is gone.
2. That ‘thingness’ of ‘Body’ is eliminated. Thoughts and perceptions reduced tremendously. The background is clearly gone, the body is also gone. The ‘thingness’ in the inmost consciousness is greatly loosen. This is the experience of crystal transparency without a center, not only without a who, there is also no where. There is crystal clarity, realness in phenomenal manifestation.
3. That ‘thingness’ as subtle personalities of beginingless past is eliminated.
There can be no compromised for the dissolution on 'the sense of self'.
It is good to learn something about self-liberating aspect of our nature from this David Loy article and he did outline some important points. However we should not be misled to think that we have understood the gist of self-liberation. I have many times emphasized that self-liberating aspect of our nature is easily and mostly misunderstood. A person who cannot feel the ‘strength’ of these bonds cannot be said to know what consciousness is all about from a practitioner point of view, much less self-liberation. I must emphasize that if one has not eliminated the bond level 1 and 2, there is no way he can understand what self-liberation is all about. After bond level 1 and 2 are stabilized, non-locality aspects of our nature will somehow manifest. It is also due to the manifestation of these non-local qualities of our nature that help clear some very subtle propensities, without these non-local experiences, breaking and loosening these propensities can be difficult.
Normally self-liberated aspect of our nature is disclosed by fully enlightened sages as they really seen the truth of their nature, unborn, uncreated and lucidly clear. There are people of great caliber, great bodhisattvas taking birth will little propensities and bonds, cream of the crops among the enlightened, these people after the initial non-dual experience due their lack of attachments are able to attained fearless Samadhi and transformed consciousness into wisdom immediately. For propensities are the results of subtle attachments and without attachments, all is realized at once. But it is not for everyone. So without attachments, we are already liberated!
But for normal lays like us, we cannot truly understand self liberating aspect of our nature when we are still slave to our own attachments and preys of our own karmic propensities. We can’t even move one step away from the 3 bonds stated above that create the sense of self. Delegate time to practice hard; have enough quality time to experience the non-duality during meditation (walking, standing or sitting), otherwise it would be just empty talks." - John Tan, 2007

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    22hEdited

Soh Wei YuAuthor
Admin
Susan Gallagher also this is a partial excerpt from a text i pasted above:
Fukan Zazengi (Universally Recommended Instructions for Zazen)
The way is originally perfect and all-pervading. How could it be contingent on practice and realization? The true vehicle is self-sufficient. What need is there for special effort? Indeed, the whole body is free from dust. Who could believe in a means to brush it clean? It is never apart from this very place; what is the use of traveling around to practice? And yet, if there is a hairsbreadth deviation, it is like the gap between heaven and earth. If the least like or dislike arises, the mind is lost in confusion. Suppose you are confident in your understanding and rich in enlightenment, gaining the wisdom that knows at a glance, attaining the Way and clarifying the mind, arousing an aspiration to reach for the heavens. You are playing in the entranceway, but you are still short of the vital path of emancipation.
Consider the Buddha: although he was wise at birth, the traces of his six years of upright sitting can yet be seen. As for Bodhidharma, although he had received the mind-seal, his nine years of facing a wall is celebrated still. If even the ancient sages were like this, how can we today dispense with wholehearted practice?
Therefore, put aside the intellectual practice of investigating words and chasing phrases, and learn to take the backward step that turns the light and shines it inward. Body and mind of themselves will drop away, and your original face will manifest. If you want to realize such, get to work on such right now.

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        21h


Yin LingAdmin
I personally find when i meditate a lot, It feels like putting my mind into a furnace and cook it to high pressure. Like a pressure cooker.
If I practice concentration, it improves super fast in that few days. Then with that strength of concentration, my mind can hold the expansive emptiness powerfully for a longer time. Its super bright too. Without practising like that I cannot have these kind of powerful experiences. I often wonder how wonderful those panditas experiences are coz they do year long retreat , how nice.
But now don’t have much time to do that. Have arranged 4 days a month for the next few months for short retreats here and there to cook the mind now and then and that’s the most free time I could have.

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    1d

Daniel Lester
Yin Ling yes its a lot like working out. like trying to run 10k without warming up or pre conditioning. If Concentration meditation is lacking i think burnouts or lackluster practice is prevalent.

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    11h

Yin LingAdmin
Daniel Lester 100%.
I find unlike insight, Concentration also takes maintainence practise. If I don’t practise it enough, the power decrease. I neglected it a lot when developing insight so now catching up. Haha.
It’s quite easy to know, quality of samadhi is different.

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            10h

Peter Hong
This is interesting. I have been lurking in the background, trying to learn from the group. I always thought this group's practice is self-inquiry or inquiry-based practice and therefore do not put emphasis on samatha/samadhi. I am curious what prompts the change? So, even if we attain anatta, we still need to attain samatha/samadhi?

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    1d

William Kong
Peter Hong
What I have heard from some teachers (and it accords with experience), is that some level of competence of concentration practices is useful to stabilize the mind so that certain insights, pointing out instructions, observations of your own mind will become more accessible. A metaphor I like is that your mind is like a microscope, but it needs to be honed to have the requisite focus for investigation.
Even if you've had certain realizations, it becomes very apparent that propensities are not immediately erased. "Like a rolled up parchment that has been flattened, it has a tendency to roll itself up again"

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    23h

Soh Wei YuAuthor
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Peter Hong Self enquiry and samadhi are not at odds with each other. There are two most famous proponents of self enquiry in the modern era. One from Advaita - Ramana Maharshi. Another one from Ch'an, Master Hsu Yun.
Both of them are known to sit in deep samadhi for days and nights without leaving their seats, in caves or seclusion. Their samadhi is unparalleled and it is this that gains many devotees respect and reverence.

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    22h

Soh Wei YuAuthor
Admin
Some may argue Ramana wasn't totally Advaita, or something like that, but as far as I know his understanding is pretty aligned with it especially later in life.

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    22h

Soh Wei YuAuthor
Admin
And yes anatta realization does not erase the need to sit. Bodhidharma already had the anatta/emptiness insight when he arrived in China but then proceeded to spend 9 years facing the wall in caves. The Buddha continued to spend months in meditation retreat each year throughout his life even after full enlightenment.
Let alone someone who has just attained realization of anatta - which puts that person most likely in the category of stream entry, rather than arahantship - https://www.reddit.com/r/streamentry/comments/igored/insight_buddhism_a_reconsideration_of_the_meaning/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf%20 and http://www.awakeningtoreality.com/.../insight-buddhism... . And then according to the Mahayanist, even arahantship is not necessarily final (Theravadins may not agree on this point, it depends): http://www.awakeningtoreality.com/.../buddhahood-end-of... . Of course such a person must continue practicing and advancing in the path. It is not a finality by any means.
[insight] [buddhism] A reconsideration of the meaning of "Stream-Entry" considering the data points of both pragmatic Dharma and traditional Buddhism
REDDIT.COM
[insight] [buddhism] A reconsideration of the meaning of "Stream-Entry" considering the data points of both pragmatic Dharma and traditional Buddhism
[insight] [buddhism] A reconsideration of the meaning of "Stream-Entry" considering the data points of both pragmatic Dharma and traditional Buddhism

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    22hEdited

Soh Wei YuAuthor
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Peter Hong How silent meditation helped me with nondual inquiry
by Greg Goode in https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheDirectPathGroup
(The Direct Path Group is for discussions related to Greg Goode and Sri Atmananda's teachings related to Advaita Vedanta)
= How silent meditation helped me with nondual inquiry =
This is about how silent meditation helped me with nondual inquiry. Silent meditation is different from inquiry, and helps prepare one for doing inquiry. It helps in several ways, which I’ll say more about below.
There are various forms of silent meditation and various paths of inquiry. For example, Shamatha is recommended if one wants to realize emptiness via analytic meditation.
Personally, I found Zazen helpful for nondual inquiry. How can it help? It stabilizes the mind so that the mind doesn’t get off track or fall asleep during the inquiry.
Here is a very rough and schematic quasi-Vedantic account of how this works. It’s not a DP account, but something that we were taught in the Chinmaya Mission. Vedanta looks at the body/mind apparatus as composed of various layers or sheaths of active energy. At the grossest is the body. At a more subtle layer is the “emotional body,” then the mind as controller of its activities. And more subtle still is the intellect, the process of ratiocination, making connections and insight.
All activities engage all of the levels, but some activities have their center of gravity more on one level than another. According to the present scheme, Nondual inquiry begins largely at the energetic level of the intellect. But the insights permeate all levels. And nondual insights deconstruct the levels altogether.
In order that the intellect do its appointed job well, it needs to be somewhat calm. It cannot be jumpy or inclined to nod off into sleep.
For the intellect to be calm, the less subtle levels need to be somewhat calm as well. This is familiar - if there is emotional turbulence, it is hard to think.
There are activities that address each of the levels. Such as karma yoga or recreational dancing or athletics for the physical level. Bhakti yoga or art or singing or performing music for the emotional level. Raja yoga or study or concentrated meditation for the level of controlling the mind. And jnana yoga or mathematics or other kinds of coursing stuff out for the intellectual level.
The calmer the levels that are less subtle than the intellect, the calmer the intellect will be able to be.
This is where zazen helped me. It came in at the level of the control-of-the-mind level and smoothed things out wonderfully. Plus it gives a taste of silence. For me, it helped the mind stay with the subtleties of jnana yoga without a a rage of chattering thoughts, and without getting drowsy and falling asleep.
Zazen is taught at Zen centers. Phenomenally (not doctrinally) it is a process of keeping the mind extremely steady on a subtle object like counting or the breath. There are two things that could depart from that: a chatty mind or a sleepy one. Whenever you notice that either has happened, you simply go back to counting or following the breath.
Besides calmness and stability and subtlety, I noticed physically healthy things, like better digestion, more energy on the lower body and more closely focused in everything where needed.
One can do zazen earlier in the day, and then nondual inquiry later in the day. And nondual inquiry will be supercharged. Of course there are other preparatory activities that will help. This was just my experiences with zazen!
The Direct Path - A User Group
The Direct Path - A User Group
The Direct Path - A User Group

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Soh Wei YuAuthor
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Personally, I was sitting maybe around 1 hour a day (which is not a lot) when I had the I AM realization, and I was doing self-enquiry both in sitting and in daily lives from 2008 to february 2010. My Self-Realization happened during one sitting session when I was inquiring in stillness. And I definitely recommend everyone to have a consistent and disciplined sitting, because it will be foolish not to make such recommendation when it was essential for my practice.

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    22hEdited

Soh Wei YuAuthor
Admin
Peter Hong
also this is a partial excerpt from a text i pasted above:
Fukan Zazengi (Universally Recommended Instructions for Zazen)
The way is originally perfect and all-pervading. How could it be contingent on practice and realization? The true vehicle is self-sufficient. What need is there for special effort? Indeed, the whole body is free from dust. Who could believe in a means to brush it clean? It is never apart from this very place; what is the use of traveling around to practice? And yet, if there is a hairsbreadth deviation, it is like the gap between heaven and earth. If the least like or dislike arises, the mind is lost in confusion. Suppose you are confident in your understanding and rich in enlightenment, gaining the wisdom that knows at a glance, attaining the Way and clarifying the mind, arousing an aspiration to reach for the heavens. You are playing in the entranceway, but you are still short of the vital path of emancipation.
Consider the Buddha: although he was wise at birth, the traces of his six years of upright sitting can yet be seen. As for Bodhidharma, although he had received the mind-seal, his nine years of facing a wall is celebrated still. If even the ancient sages were like this, how can we today dispense with wholehearted practice?
Therefore, put aside the intellectual practice of investigating words and chasing phrases, and learn to take the backward step that turns the light and shines it inward. Body and mind of themselves will drop away, and your original face will manifest. If you want to realize such, get to work on such right now.

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    21h

Soh Wei YuAuthor
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Peter Hong
“what prompts the change?“
Perhaps you have not read the AtR guide before. The importance of meditation is emphasized inside so it is there from the start

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        21h


Luke Andrews
May be an image of text

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    23h

Soh Wei YuAuthor
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Luke Andrews
I know you are joking but the whole point in dharma is overcoming cyclic rebirth, hence genuine effort is called for in view of our samsaric predicament. If there is no rebirth, then we can just relax, chill out, sip martinis on beaches and forget all about meditation and enlightenment, and just YOLO (literally: you only live once). But that is not the case for us. Many practitioners here have recalled past lives http://www.awakeningtoreality.com/.../on-supernatural...
On "Supernatural Powers" or Siddhis, and Past Lives
AWAKENINGTOREALITY.COM
On "Supernatural Powers" or Siddhis, and Past Lives
On "Supernatural Powers" or Siddhis, and Past Lives

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    5hEdited

Soh Wei YuAuthor
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Buddha:
Thirty
Tiṁsa Sutta (SN 15:13)
NAVIGATIONSuttas/SN/15:13
Now on that occasion the Blessed One was staying near Rājagaha, in the Bamboo Forest, the Squirrels’ Sanctuary. Then thirty monks from Pāva—all wilderness dwellers, all alms-goers, all cast-off rag wearers, all triple-robe wearers, all still with fetters, went to the Blessed One and, on arrival, having bowed down to him, sat to one side.
Then the thought occurred to the Blessed One, “These thirty monks from Pāva… are all still with fetters. What if I were to teach them the Dhamma in such a way that in this very sitting their minds, through lack of clinging, would be released from effluents?”
So he addressed the monks: “Monks.”
“Yes, lord,” the monks responded.
The Blessed One said, “From an inconceivable beginning comes the wandering-on. A beginning point is not discernible, though beings hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving are transmigrating & wandering on. What do you think, monks? Which is greater, the blood you have shed from having your heads cut off while transmigrating & wandering this long, long time, or the water in the four great oceans?”
“As we understand the Dhamma taught to us by the Blessed One, this is the greater: the blood we have shed from having our heads cut off while transmigrating & wandering this long, long time, not the water in the four great oceans.”
“Excellent, monks. Excellent. It is excellent that you thus understand the Dhamma taught by me.
“This is the greater: the blood you have shed from having your heads cut off while transmigrating & wandering this long, long time, not the water in the four great oceans.
“The blood you have shed when, being cows, you had your cow-heads cut off: Long has this been greater than the water in the four great oceans.
“The blood you have shed when, being water buffaloes, you had your water buffalo-heads cut off… when, being rams, you had your ram-heads cut off… when, being goats, you had your goat-heads cut off… when, being deer, you had your deer-heads cut off… when, being chickens, you had your chicken-heads cut off… when, being pigs, you had your pig-heads cut off: Long has this been greater than the water in the four great oceans.
“The blood you have shed when, arrested as thieves plundering villages, you had your heads cut off… when, arrested as highway thieves, you had your heads cut off… when, arrested as adulterers, you had your heads cut off: Long has this been greater than the water in the four great oceans.
“Why is that? From an inconceivable beginning comes the wandering-on. A beginning point is not discernible, though beings hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving are transmigrating & wandering on. Long have you thus experienced stress, experienced pain, experienced loss, swelling the cemeteries—enough to become disenchanted with all fabrications, enough to become dispassionate, enough to be released.”
That is what the Blessed One said. Gratified, the monks delighted in the Blessed One’s words. And while this explanation was being given, the minds of the thirty monks from Pāva—through lack of clinging—were released from effluents.

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        5h


Soh Wei YuAuthor
Admin
John Tan, who also had past lives remembrance like others here, said in 2006:
“Life is like a passing cloud, when it comes to an end, a hundred years is like yesterday, like a snap of a finger. If it is only about one life, it really doesn'’t matter whether we are enlightened. The insight that the Blessed One has is not just about one life; countless lives we suffered, life after life, unending…. Such is suffering.
It is not about logic or science and there is really no point arguing in this scientific age. Take steps in practice and experience the truth of Buddha’s words. Of the 3 dharma seals, the truth of ‘suffering’ to me is most difficult to experience in depth.
May all take Buddha’s words seriously.”

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        4h

Dani Nöreen
I can barely handle 30 minutes with my ADHD and Autistic brain getting looped in cyclical thinking. A lot of respect for those who can go for longer periods of time.

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    23h

Oskar Melkeraaen Aas
Dani Nöreen its good l think.

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        21h

Oskar Melkeraaen Aas
For me doing mostly tantric practices it is a matter of working with energies as well as giving time for relaxing the energies, and physical practices.
But few things that is necessary every day is boddhicitta (usually tonglen), vajrasattva, guru yoga and then some just sitting, resting in rigpa maybe assisted with contemplations.

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    20h

Lewis Stevens
I thought that once awakening to emptiness is established, everything is meditation. Returning to the market place in the ox herding pictures.

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    14h

Yin LingAdmin
Lewis Stevens
Seeing how the truth is is just a start. But because the body mind has been trained to be in samsara for so long, we have a lot of ingrained bad habits. We don’t easily behave “nirvana”. If we do, we will be tenth ground boddhisatvas.
Meditation is like intense detox to rewire the whole body mind. Forcing down a new view into the the body mind system and update the OS completely. Takes a while even with diligence and determination.
Without practise, I don’t know how anyone can do it unless they are born with sufficient practise in their past lives like the Dalai Lama.

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Lewis Stevens
Yin Ling you are mixing your metaphors…. Meditation is like an intense detox…. Means our psyche is full of impurities…. Then you talk about rewiring the brain as if it were a machine …actually there are no wires in the brain so the metaphor of rewiring so popular these days doesn’t work for me…. Needless to say the computer metaphor which sees meditation as updating the OS is a weak metaphor and obscures the fact that meditation is often dangerous…. If you don’t believe me on this point I refer you to Daniel Ingram. Who would want to update the body mind OS if it resulted in malware being installed?

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Yin LingAdmin
Lewis Stevens wow lol. I didn’t use brain. Those are just analogies to help. If u don’t see fit just throw it away and ignore it. If you don’t want to practise it is okay too.
Though, on daniel Ingram. Not sure what u mean. I Appreciate his work , his practice, alongside serving the sick as a physician. Pure dedication to humankind. I can’t do all he does. I have my utmost respect for that guy

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Soh Wei YuAuthor
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Yin Ling
Maybe he was referring to dark nights.
Those who practice AtR path seldom report this. I didnt remember any distinctive dark nights. Though I experienced a seven day energy imbalance (not dark nights) in 2019 it was resolved quickly. And it was not triggered from sitting meditation - it was from intense PCE that started when I was jogging
With proper guidance and instructions all problems can be easily dealt with.
Not meditating is far more dangerous - get trapped in samsara and suffering forever.

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Soh Wei YuAuthor
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Lewis Stevens
After direct realization of emptiness, the first bhumi, the path of seeing, one will still need to meditate until equipoise fails to lapse and all traces of afflictions and knowledge obscurations are eradicated. This is “Buddhahood”, the so called eleventh or thirteenth or sixteenth bhumi. Even then, Buddha continued to go on meditation retreat in forest dwellings for months each year because by then, sitting meditation will be such a pleasurable and natural thing to so, you will naturally be inclined towards it.
Kyle Dixon, 2016: “One continues to fluctuate between equipoise [mnyam bzhag] and post-equipoise [rjes thob] until they are fully merged. It does not involve dissolving the self so much, as there is no self to dissolve in the first place. Rather it simply involves continually resting in a direct knowledge [rig pa] of the nature of mind [sems nyid] as much as possible. Although latent habitual tendencies will make it difficult to maintain that equipoise and will cause one to lapse back into relative dualistic mind. The point of the path [lam] is to exhaust those latent traces that obstruct one's nature, so that eventually one never regresses from that knowledge ever again, which is the result ['bras bu], i.e., buddhahood.”

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Soh Wei YuAuthor
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Lewis Stevens
Kyle Dixon:
"...The anatta definitely severed many emotional afflictions, for the most part I don't have negative emotions anymore. And either the anatta or the strict shamatha training has resulted in stable shamatha where thoughts have little effect and are diminished by the force of clarity. I'm also able to control them, stopping them for any amount of desired time etc. But I understand that isn't what is important. Can I fully open to whatever arises I would say yes. I understand that every instance of experience is fully appearing to itself as the radiance of clarity, yet timelessly disjointed and unsubstantiated.." - Kyle Dixon, 2013
“The conditions for this subtle identification are not undone until anatta is realized.
Anatta realization is like a massive release of prolonged tension, this is how John put it once at least. Like a tight fist, that has been tight for lifetimes, is suddenly relaxed. There is a great deal of power in the event. The nature of this realization is not often described in traditional settings, I have seen Traga Rinpoche discuss it. Jñāna is very bright and beautiful. That brightness is traditionally the “force” that “burns” the kleśas.
The reservoir of traces and karmic imprints is suddenly purged by this wonderful, violent brightness. After this occurs negative emotions are subdued and for the most part do not manifest anymore. Although this is contingent upon the length of time one maintains that equipoise.” - Kyle Dixon, 2019
“Prajñā “burns” karma, only when in awakened equipoise. Regular meditation does not.” - Kyle Dixon, 2021
….
The prajñā of meditation, also called the prajñā of realization, burns away kleśas.
Prajñā is a species of direct, experiential realization or omniscience (wisdom) that dawns in the individual's mindstream upon awakening. It arises as a profound insight into the nature of phenomena and by sheer force it has the power to burn away afflictive karmic traces that give rise to afflictive emotions [kleśa].
The Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra states:
Affecting the mind, kleśa and vāsanā can be destroyed only by a wisdom [prajñā], a certain form of omniscience [sarvajñatā].
There is a lesser form of prajñā that is able to eradicate the kleśas, and then a superior form of prajñā that destroys vāsanās. Only buddhas possess the superior form and have therefore dispelled both the kleśas and vāsanās. Effectively freeing themselves from negative karma.
The Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra continues:
There is no difference between the different destructions of the conflicting emotions [kleśaprahāna]. However, the Tathāgatas, arhats and samyaksaṃbuddhas have entirely and definitively cut all the conflicting emotions [kleśa] and the traces that result from them [vāsanānusaṃdhi]. The śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas themselves have not yet definitively cut vāsanānusaṃdhi... these vāsanās are not really kleśas. After having cut the kleśas, the śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas still retain a small part of them: semblances of love (attachment) [rāga], hate (aversion) [dveṣa] and ignorance [moha] still function in their body [kāya], speech [vāc] and mind [manas]: this is what is called vāsanānusaṃdhi. In foolish worldly people [bālapṛthagjana], the vāsanās call forth disadvantages [anartha], whereas among the śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas they do not. The Buddhas do not have these vāsanānusaṃdhi.

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Janice Davis
Do what's right for you, it's your path and yours alone.

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Soh Wei YuAuthor
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Consistency is key
May be an image of 1 person and text

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Kumar Kumarr
Soh Wei Yu I just have one question. The Title post of not able to meditate daily for 2 hrs is it recent or some past years?
And also about John Tan is this all recent or from past years
Kindly reply.

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Soh Wei YuAuthor
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Kumar Kumarr
I think you misread. He meditates daily for 2 hours or more.
The OP is a recent message from john tan

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Kumar Kumarr
Soh Wei Yu Thanks for the reply.
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Aditya Prasad
If someone is at a stage where the two stanzas / two contemplations / four aspects of I AM are relevant to contemplate, does "meditation" entail doing those? Or also shamatha, four immeasurables, nondoing practice (at whatever level), etc.?
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Soh Wei Yu
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Aditya Prasad
Can focus on intensity of luminosity in all senses like https://www.awakeningtoreality.com/.../thusnesss... and https://vimeo.com/250616410
And at the same time contemplate the nondual pointers / two stanzas/ bahiya sutta etc
Thusness's Vipassana
AWAKENINGTOREALITY.COM
Thusness's Vipassana
Thusness's Vipassana
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Soh Wei Yu
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Aditya Prasad a bit like dzogchen treckhod and shikantaza. All six senses are open. Its not sense withdrawal practice
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Aditya Prasad
Soh Wei Yu The issue I have is that when doing trekchod/shikantaza (which are nondoing practices), choosing to do some particular thing (like directing the attention toward luminosity or contemplation) generates the feeling of doership and pulls me out of it.
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Soh Wei Yu
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Aditya Prasad Kyle has some good advise here, do go through, excerpt "On the other hand, if while the forcing is going on, a recognition that in the forcing the forcing itself is simply spontaneously appearing itself and is spontaneously self-liberated then that is maintaining the view." --- http://www.awakeningtoreality.com/.../advise-from-kyle_10...
Also keep in mind that anatta is a dharma seal, it is what is always already the case. Even in the act of choosing, there never is an agent. It is just what is already the case. Just like wind is none other than blowing, lightning is none other than flash and not an agent of flash, it is only mistaken that verbs requires nouns and agents to initiate.
There is doing, never a doer.
http://www.awakeningtoreality.com/2020/06/choosing.html
Excerpt:
Choosing
John Tan:
The logic that since there is no agency, hence no choice to be made is no different from "no sufferer, therefore no suffering".
This is not anatta insight.
What is seen through in anatta is the mistaken view that the conventional structure of "subject action object" represents reality when it is not. Action does not require an agent to initiate it. It is language that creates the confusion that nouns are required to set verbs into motion.
Therefore the action of choosing continues albeit no chooser.
"Mere suffering exists, no sufferer is found;
The deeds are, but no doer of the deeds is there;
Nibbāna is, but not the man that enters it;
The path is, but no traveler on it is seen."
Related:
[10:40 PM, 6/15/2020] John Tan: Very good
[10:41 PM, 6/15/2020] John Tan: I wonder why people can't explain like Malcolm.
[10:42 PM, 6/15/2020] John Tan: Lol
[11:36 PM, 10/17/2019] John Tan: Yes should put in blog together with Alan watt article about language causing confusion.
Alan Watts: Agent and Action
Investigation into Movement
Also, an enlightening conversation recently (thankfully with permission from Arcaya Malcolm to share this) in Arcaya Malcolm's facebook group:
....
Malcolm Smith
Malcolm Smith [Participant 1] "The argument from chap 2 depends on natural functions (movement, burning of fire, seeing of the eye, etc.) being predicated on the moment of time which it takes place, and when the non obtaining of time is established it leads to the non happening of the function. This is not justified."
Why?
Nāgārjuna shows two things in chapter two, one, he says that if there is a moving mover, this separates the agent from the action, and either the mover is not necessary or the moving is not necessary. It is redundant.
In common language we oftren saying things like "There is a burning fire." But since that is what a fire is (burning) there is no separate agent which is doing the burning, fire is burning.
On the other hand, when an action is not performed, no agent of that action can be said to exist. This is why he says "apart from something which has moved and has not moved, there is no moving mover." There is no mover with moving, etc.
This can be applied to all present tense gerundial agentive constructions, such as I am walking to town, the fire is burning, etc.
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Advice from Kyle Dixon
AWAKENINGTOREALITY.COM
Advice from Kyle Dixon
Advice from Kyle Dixon
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Aditya Prasad
Soh Wei Yu It sounds like it might be enough to spend the whole time pouring a high degree of energy into noticing luminosity, nondoership, absence of an agent, etc. In other words, sitting powerfully with the intent for right view (which has been conceptually understood) to arise and inclining towards it. (?)
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Soh Wei Yu
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Aditya Prasad yes. Later noticing gives way to realization. For me in particular, Bahiya Sutta was what triggered the insight into anatta. It was very relevant to me because although I started experiencing nondual, the very deeply rooted notion or sense of the inherentness of Awareness couldn't be overcome yet. Until I realized that in seeing, there never was an inherent seer or even a seeing besides scenery, seeing is simply another word for the colors/scenery and so forth, in hearing just sound never a hearer or even a hearing besides, the whole seer-seeing-seen or subject-action-object structure was seen through. So it is a matter of realization that arose from a contemplation with the stanzas and an active experiential investigation and challenging of the notion of inherentness/inherent existence [primarily of Awareness/self/Self/agent/etc], not so much a 'noticing', although at first it begins with mindful reminders or you could call that noticing perhaps.
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