Life in B Flat(Science and Spirituality)

Thursday, October 8, 2020

Easy Meditation

This article describes a form of meditation which is a bit simpler than what I have described on my web site. As with any type of meditation, before you begin to practice it you should be aware that there are some risks involved.

(It can be helpful to prepare for the sitting meditation described below by doing relaxation exercises first. Relaxation exercises are a form of meditation, they require attention and mental focus. When time is limited they can be done instead of sitting meditation.)

Sit comfortably in a chair the way you normally sit.
Breathe in the way that is most comfortable and relaxing, it could be your natural way of breathing or breathing more slowly or deeply. What you find most comfortable might change from time to time so it's okay to change how you breath. Breathing in a relaxing way is an important part of the process because it activates the parasympathetic nervous system which helps to turn off the body's stress response.
You can try meditating this way now if you like. There are a number of additional instructions below which you can read and add to your technique at your own pace.
Try to keep your attention focused on your breathing. Focusing your attention on your nose or an area just below the navel works well. (I don't recommend focusing on the chest.)
Try to relax as you do this. Notice the pleasant feeling of relaxation as you inhale and exhale.
Your concentration should be wakeful and alert but not too intense, it should be relaxed. Like the difference between searching intently for a lost object vs looking at a beautiful sunset. One is stressful and unpleasant, the other is relaxing and pleasant.
If you find it hard to concentrate, you can count breaths up to five or ten (or any number you like) and then start over at one, or say "in" and "out" as you inhale and exhale.
In addition to the breath, notice what your senses are perceiving. Noticing what you see, hear, or feel with your sense of touch will help to deactivate the default mode network in your brain which will have the effect of reducing the intensity of unpleasant emotions and reduce mental chatter. Don't think too much about what you are sensing, just be aware.
You don't have to be aware of everything at once. You can let your mind shift naturally, or stay focused on one sense, or intentionally shift your awareness, just don't forget about breathing in a relaxing way and noticing the pleasant feeling of relaxation.
You can meditate with your eyes closed or open. If you want to try meditating with your eyes open, be aware of seeing, but without thinking too much about what you are seeing. You don't have to focus your attention on any particular spot or object you can just take in the scene in front of you as a whole.
If you meditate with your eyes closed, you can try to be aware of the colors and shapes you see when your eye lids are closed.
If unpleasant emotions arise, don't push them away, but also don't get carried away by them. Let yourself be fully conscious of the emotion, any physical sensations in your body associated with the emotions, and any thoughts that caused the emotion and then return to meditating. During this process, try not to judge yourself, other people, your thoughts or your emotions.
If you experience a lot of unpleasant emotions coming up during meditation, it can cause your stress levels to rise. Try to be aware of this possibility and put extra effort into relaxing if you see it happening.
You will have to workout for yourself how much of observing your emotions is right for you. Too much or too little can cause problems.
If you are experiencing an unpleasant emotion during your meditation session, try not to focus on it, try to focus on your breathing, the pleasant feeling of relaxation, your sense perceptions. I don't mean you should try to suppress any thoughts or emotions just that for the meditation session the instructions are to focus on specific things and to not focus on other things. If you focus too much on an unpleasant emotion during meditation it can have the effect of reinforcing and increasing the emotion. If you find that happening, it might be better to stop meditating at that time and try again later or do relaxation exercises instead.
After your meditation session is over try to keep your meditative mood. You can also meditate this way, with your eyes open, doing different activities in daily life, doing the dishes, taking a walk, etc. When walking, instead of counting breaths you can count steps per breath. And be aware of your surroundings - only meditate when and where it is safe to do so.

I also find it helps to prepare for meditation with relaxation exercises. Actually, relaxation exercises are like a form of meditation, you can just do them if you want.

If what you read below ever seems to be too complicated, confusing, or overwhelming, you can come back here to the first section and just follow this and enjoy relaxing meditation.

Why Meditate?

People sometimes wonder why anyone would meditate. One reason is that when you experience a state of consciousness during meditation that is clear and seems to be more natural and relaxed than ordinary consciousness, and it seems to dispel a kind of mental fog and strong emotions that are present during ordinary consciousness, and it seems that ordinary consciousness is confused and made turbulent by attachments and aversions, then you will want to spend your time meditating so that you can exist in clarity rather than confusion.

It is as if you realized you were dreaming and you wanted to wake up, or someone had the TV playing too loudly and you wanted to turn it down, you wouldn't need will power, it would be natural to do it.

To find this state try to notice what it is like after a meditation session when your mind is quiet (how does your mind feel?) and other times in daily life when your mind is turbulent (how does your mind feel then?). Which do you prefer? Which is a better quality of existence? Can you just sit with this clarity?

Being Lucid

Michael Singer, in his book The Untethered Soul, uses the phenomenon of lucid dreaming to explain how to develop a sense of detachment to unpleasant thoughts, emotions, and impulses.

He says that in a regular dream you think it is real, but in a lucid dream you know you are dreaming.

To be lucid with respect to your own mind means to be aware of the activity in your mind as if you were an observer, not a participant like when you are watching a movie and become so drawn in to it that you forget where you are and react as if the movie was real. To be lucid with respect to the activity of your mind, is to observe your thoughts emotions and impulses but not to get drawn into them so that they take over you mind and you forget you are observing them and start reacting to them.

There are various ways to cultivate lucidity. While you are meditating and observing your breath, notice when thoughts, emotions, and impulses arise, and observe them but try not to get drawn into them. If you find you do get lost in thoughts and emotions, just go back to meditating and being an observer while you remain aware of the thoughts and emotions. They should gradually fade. Notice if the thoughts and emotions were unpleasant that they are less so when you are an observer rather than a participant. This is because being an observer deactivates the default network in the brain.

In daily life, if you try to focus your attention on what you are doing while you are doing it, that should help to keep you from being drawn into your thoughts etc. Another technique you can use while meditating or in daily life is to notice what comes to your senses as well as any activity in your mind. And just as you do when meditating, try to maintain the perspective of an observer, don't get drawn into your thoughts. If unpleasant thoughts or emotions arise, try to go back to just observing while being aware of them and notice them fading.

Awakening

Awakening is the process of letting go of attachment to self.

In this context, "self" means anything we consider "me" or "mine". It could be the body, the mind, our thoughts, emotions, and impulses, our social status, our possessions, people we care about, and groups of people we care about or belong to, etc.

Attachment to self results in a lot of emotional pain when something that is "me" or "mine" is threatened.

One way to let go of attachment to self involves learning to stay both lucid and also physically and mentally relaxed. Relaxation and lucidity work together. Lucidity helps you to develop a sense of detachment from your unpleasant thoughts, emotions, and impulses and from unpleasnt physical sensations. Relaxation turns off the body's stress response. You can cultivate both relaxation and lucidity at the same time by being relaxed and breathing in a relaxed way while you observe the activity of the mind and or sense perceptions in meditation and in daily life.

Awakening doesn't entirely eliminate unpleasant emotions, you still feel emotions, but it creates a sense of detachment that diminishes their unpleasant quality and keeps them from taking over your mind. Traditionally, the process of awakening is described as occurring in stages, and very few people ever perfect it - so if you are interested in awakening, you should have realistic expectations.

If you want to try to stay physically and mentally relaxed when you are not meditating, try to notice if you are tense during the day and try to relax your mind and body. Relaxation exercises can help you learn how to do this. Also try to move in a relaxed way anytime you are active. And it will also help, while you are learning, if you can avoid things that make you tense or upset.

When you notice unpleasant emotions arising, don't try to push them away. Allow yourself to feel emotions, you don't have to like them but try to accept them rather than resist them, and also try to stay physically and mentally relaxed. It is the resistance, the rejection of what is, that causes a lot of mental anguish. (It will help you learn to notice when emotions arise if you also try to notice the physical sensations in your body that accompany emotions.)

Relaxation is not entirely mental. It is physical too. Relaxation is something you do with the mind that affects the body. The effect on the body in turn affects the mind. It is an indirect way of influencing emotions.

In addition to reducing emotional pain, letting go of attachment to self diminishes your sense of duality, the sense of the separation between self and other.

Friday, October 2, 2020

Seeing Things As They Really Are.

Seeing Things As They Really Are

Becoming conscious of suppressed thoughts can ease the emotional pain they cause. Digging through layers of denial and suppression and becoming conscious of the root cause of unease can provide relief from unpleasant emotions when they are caused by suppressed thoughts.

Suffering arises when reality conflicts with our attachments. When we don't have what we want, our cravings are unsatisfied. The mind may resist acknowledging these conflicts, it may invent stories to explain them and suppress the truth. When this happens, the mind is ignorant and deluded.

However, when the mind accepts that reality does not coincide with our attachments, it accepts reality, it does not hide the truth or invent stories. It sees things as they really are. The mind feels a little pain, but much less. It is not ignorant or deluded.

To end ignorance and delusion, to see things as they really are, you have to learn to allow emotional pain to come through to consciousness unhindered, to accept and acknowledge unsatisfied cravings. It can be painful to release emotions this way, but over time it leads to less suffering.

You can learn to be more aware of your emotions by being mindful of the physical sensations in your body because emotions are often accompanied by physical sensations.

When you notice an unpleasant emotion, ask your self, "Why do I feel this way?" Repeat the question through multiple layers of answers. Revisit it again at a later date if necessary.

Meditation can help if it quiets the mind so you can see what is happening within it and not get carried away by strong emotions. And meditation can create a feeling of tranquility that eases the pain of emotional release.

Freedom From the Fetter of Identity View

Our attachments tend to reflect our innermost beliefs about how we think we should relate to the world around us, ie. about our beliefs about the distinction we make between self and not-self. We tend to be tolerant of and care a lot about self: ourselves ("me") and things we consider ours ("mine" - our possessions, friends, family, favorite sports team etc), and we also tend to be intolerant of and care less about not-self: anything that is not "me" or "mine".

This distinction between self and other, caring about self and intolerance of not-self is the source of most of our attachments and so is the source of most of our unpleasant emotions.

When you learn to see things as they really are, learn to be conscious of your emotions, remove from your mind ignorance and delusion about your emotions, you can begin to see how this distinction between self and not-self, between self and other, is the source of your suffering. This understanding of how things really are helps to free you from the fetter of identity view.

Wednesday, September 30, 2020

When you can't find Tranquility

Sometimes it is hard to concentrate during meditation, or reach a state of pleasant abiding through meditation, even if you prepare for meditation by doing relaxation exercises first. If something is on your mind and it keeps going round and round and you can't focus in meditation, or if you are feeling a persistent unpleasant emotion, it can help to use the following method described by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. He uses anger as an example but it can be used with any emotion.

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/concmind.html

The Path of Concentration & Mindfulness
by
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
...
One technique I like to use — when anger is present and you're in a situation where you don't immediately have to react to people — is simply to ask yourself in a good-natured way, "Okay, why are you angry?" Listen to what the mind has to say. Then pursue the matter: "But why are you angry at that? " "Of course, I'm angry. After all..." "Well, why are you angry at that?" If you keep this up, the mind will eventually admit to something stupid, like the assumption that people shouldn't be that way — even though they blatantly are that way — or that people should act in line with your standards, or whatever the mind is so embarrassed about that it tries to hide from you. But finally, if you keep probing, it'll fess up. You gain a lot of understanding of the anger that way, and this can really weaken its power over you.

It is often very helpful to keep digging this way because often the things you are not thinking about and are not conscious of are the real trouble makers.

This has some important implications for awakening. Letting go of attachments and aversions results in less suffering. And while it seems obvious that we might have a hard time letting go of attachments to those aspects of self we like and or want to protect: the body, our opinions, social status, possessions, people and groups we care about, what is less obvious is that to let go of the sense of self, we have to be conscious of it, and often those aspects of our sense of self that we don't like, our faults, failures, and unpleasant past experiences etc. sometimes get pushed away out of the forefront consciousness. So some of the big aversions we need to let go of, the things we need to surrender to, are hidden or pushed to the side unless we really go looking for them. This hidden aspect of the sense of self is one of the things that makes awakening such a difficult undertaking, and facing the emotional pain of acknowledging our faults, failures and unpleasant past experiences is one of the things that causes dark nights, and difficulty in maintaining a consistent and continuous meditation practice.

Sunday, September 13, 2020

Self and Not-self. How to Suffer Less

Introduction

Suffering (mental anguish) is to a large extent caused by our attitude toward "self". By changing your attitude, you can gradually reduce the suffering you experience. This gradual change will be in proportion to the effort you put in, but you don't need to wait for "enlightenment" or some type of a "BIG CHANGE" to experience the benefits in your life.

We are intolerant of what is not "me" and "mine".

When someone you dislike does something annoying, it could cause you to feel anger.

But if someone you love does the same thing, it might not bother you at all.

And if you did it yourself, you might not even notice it as a potentially annoying act.

We are tolerant of people we love because we think of them as "ours". Our friend, our child, our parent, our spouse.

We are very tolerant of "me" and "mine": our-self and things that belong to our-self.

We are less tolerant of things that are not "me" or "mine" of things that are not-self.

We worry about "me" and "mine"

If you learned of property damage in some far away country or even if you heard about the death of a person you never met, It might not bother you much.

But if a friend or loved one was harmed, or if your car was damaged, or if you yourself suffered some physical harm, you would probably be upset.

We worry more about "me" and "mine".

How to Reduce Suffering

This is how our ideas about self can cause us suffering: We are tolerant of self ("me" and "mine") and intolerant of not-self. We worry about self and are much less concerned about not-self.

The way to reduce suffering is to reduce your attachment to self, to reduce your attachment to "me" and "mine".

When you become less attached to self, you become less averse to not-self. The distinction between self and not-self is diminished. You become less concerned with personal loss and you become more tolerant of other people. You suffer less.

Some people may have a philosophical aversion to diminishing the attachment to self. That is their right. But others may want to try diminishing their attachment to self because they want to benefit from reduced suffering.

What can you do to change your ideas about self and not-self, what can you do to reduce your attachment to self?

There are several things you can do.

Observe in your own life how your ideas of self and not-self cause you to suffer. Most people should be able to do this: notice how you are less tolerant of people you don't like, and how you worry more about yourself. When you are conscious of this, you start to recognize how your ideas of self and not-self are making you suffer. When you experience loss or when someone does something annoying, you recognize it is your ideas of self and not-self that are causing you to suffer. If you maintain consciousness of this over time, this understanding, reinforced by repeated observation, will cause you to become disillusioned with your attachment to self because you are constantly reminded of how it causes suffering for you. This disillusionment will tend to encourage you to begin to let go of your attachment to self.
Relaxation - Relaxation exercises (actually a kind of meditation) can help you relax and relieve stress. When you are relaxed, your stress levels go to zero. When you are stressed you are focused on yourself. Stress hormones cause us to be fixated on the source of the stress, we become fixated on "our" problem. When you are relaxed you are much less irritable, less self-centered. You are less attached to self.
Quieting the mind - Meditation quiets the turbulent mind. Thoughts of self and not-self are less frequent and less intense when the mind is tranquil. If we think less about self and not-self, our attachment to self is reduced.
Spiritual feelings. Certain meditation techniques can produce spiritual feelings such as compassion, forgiveness, goodwill, humility, equanimity, serenity, surrender, contentedness, joy, and connectedness. When we have these feelings we are much less attached to self. When you experience these emotions, either from meditation or in the course of ordinary life, you see how true it is that when you love others and aren't focused so much on yourself, you suffer much less. Annoying people don't bother you as much, and feelings of disappointment and loss are diminished. You understand the way to reduce your own suffering is to love others and let go of your own sense of self-importance. It might sound contradictory and impossible, but loving the people you "don't like" and stopping worrying about yourself reduces the suffering you experience. When you see this from your own experience, you will likely want to do it for your own benefit, letting go is a natural reaction. (Sometimes people think this means you should ignore your own needs or ignore that harm others may be doing - that is not what this means).
And these spiritual feelings are pleasant, we like to have them. When we notice what causes these feelings to dissipate (unpleasant emotions caused by attachment to self) we also become disillusioned with our attachment to self and begin to let go of it. In addition to the meditation linked above, samatha meditation and metta meditation can have a similar effect and are somewhat easier for many people to do.
Goodwill. If you can produce feelings of goodwill through relaxation exercises , samatha meditation, or metta meditation (.mp3), and extend feelings of good will to people who are not "yours" and to people doing things you don't like, you bring those people into self, they stop being "other" and become "yours". Extending metta in this way increases your freedom from identity view.
Meditation can also allow you to understanding how the mind creates the separation between self and not-self. This distinction happens when your mind is aware of sensations (sight, sound, smell, etc) and it recognizes the objects they represent. The moment when that recognition occurs is when the mind makes the distinction of self and not-self. This happens so rapidly and so often that, just as the frames of a movie create the illusion of motion. it creates the illusion of a continuous self that becomes ingrained in our world view and is taken for granted. But when you see directly it is an illusion, the attachment to self becomes diminished.

Conclusion

It is rare for anyone to completely eliminate their attachment to self (to "me"and "mine"), but most people if they want to, can reduce the suffering they experience by reducing their attachment to self. This will not automatically make someone a better person or a nicer person if they don't want it to. But if you do want to experience those kinds of changes, reducing your attachment to self can help.

Friday, September 11, 2020

A Practical Exercise for Eroding Identity View

This article describes a practical exercise that will help you put into practice the ideas I discussed in two previous articles: Experiencing Anatta and Varieties of Non-Self and Non-Dual Experiences. The purpose of the exercise is to help you to suffer less from some types of unpleasant emotions. You will get more out of this exercise if you meditate first to quiet your mind which willl make it easier to notice all that is happening within it.

For the purpose of an experiment, suppose you are not in control of your thoughts, emotions, impulses etc. Suppose they just arise in your mind from unconscious processes. And suppose sense perceptions: sight, sound, smell, etc. are the like that too, you don't try to hear you just hear when there are sounds. Suppose if you are not in control of your thoughts and impulses then when you go about your daily tasks, say washing the dishes, there is no conscious control over your movements, they just happen because of unconscious processes. And there is no conscious control over your use of reason when you try to solve a problem. Even when you seem to be trying to do something, the sense of intention is just an illusion, it comes from unconscious processes too and just appears in your mind. It might seem like you are an observer but even the idea or feeling of being an observer is just something that comes from the unconscious and anyway it is absurd because if you sense there is an observer then you are observing it so who is observing the observer?

(Be aware that none of the above or any of what follows necessarily has to be logical or true. This is not a mathematical proof. It is an attempt to communicate a feeling using words. Feelings are not logical.)

This is all very interesting as a thought experiment, but to make it real, to use it to erode the fetter of identity view, you have to put it into practice.

To do that, go ahead and make all those suppositions, even supposing there is no observer or that the feeling of being an observer is an illusion. Then do something like washing the dishes and just let one thing happen after the next. Notice how thoughts and emotions arise and pass away. Notice how you see, feel, hear, etc. and those sensation arise and pass away also. Notice how your hands and body move while you wash the dishes, but you don't feel in control. Notice that behind every intention to carry out an action was a decision that was made by unconscious processes. Noticing these things gives you a sense that you are not responsible for anything.

The feeling that you are not in control, that you are not responsible, gives you a feeling of being liberated. You are freed from responsibility. It is like a huge weight being lifted from your shoulders. You become more resistant to emotional pain because you are not in control, you are not responsible. Emotions may come and go but you don't get carried away by them. This freedom does not make you callous or nihilistic or irresponsible. It makes you more compassionate and considerate because you don't need to be as protective of yourself as you were before, you can think of others more than you used to.

After a while practicing this way, noticing what is happening in your mind and body and noticing sense perceptions, you don't have to make any suppositions, you just experience reality that way.

Actually, if you meditate to quiet the mind, to slow it down so that you can see what is doing, and then observe the activity of the mind, you will see that all those suppositions are true. It sounds disconcerting but the actual experience of it is very nice. It's nirvana. (Although perfecting it can take some time.)

Thursday, September 10, 2020

When Seeing Just See, When Hearing Just Hear

If you can observe it, it is not you.

When you look at an object and recognize what it is, in that instant of recognition something of great significance happens.

When the mind understands what an object is, it recognizes it as not-self. (If you can observe it, it is not you.)

And when the mind creates not-self, that by necessity implies self. You can't have not-self without self.

That is how the mind creates the sense of self. Moment after moment, perception after perception, recognizing objects it sees, hears, tastes, smells, touches, etc. which imply a self because of the recognition of objects that are not-self. Like the frames of a movie, each recognition is distinct but because they happen so fast one after another, they blur together to create the illusion of continuity, the illusion of the continuity of self.

Try looking around at objects when your mind is made quiet by meditation and try to experience what consciousness is like without making that recognition. Try to experience what consciousness is like before it makes self and not-self. Just look at things. Let your quiet mind be quiet, not thinking about what it is seeing, but just seeing.

A Zen master called this "The before thinking mind".

It won't necessarily be a huge realization the first time you try it. You might just get an inkling of a feeling of experiencing reality in a different way. But if you can get a glimmer, then with practice you can grow the experience.

First try this with one object at a time. Then try to do it with your whole visual field.

And don't just practice with seeing. Practice with all the senses: hearing, taste, smell, bodily sensations etc.

You can do this while sitting and meditating, or standing in the kitchen washing dishes, and at other times.

The same Zen master said, "When seeing just see. When hearing just hear."

Try doing that.

Monday, September 7, 2020

Neutral Meditation

UPDATE: I have written a newer article which I recommend instead of this one. There is a lot more information in the newer article. It's okay to read this article too, but I am concerned that this article could encourage readers to suppress emotions including the pleasant feelings that relaxing meditation can produce and that was never my intention in writing this article.

In this article, I describe a form of meditation I call "neutral meditation" that may be best for people who want to try meditation but don't want to experience the intense effects produced by the method of meditation described in the main article on meditation on my web site. Neutral meditation is good for relieving stress and producing a tranquil mind and spiritual well-being. It also helps you learn to avoid bad moods by teaching you to let go of unpleasant emotions before they become entrenched.

Most forms of meditation are intended to quiet or slow down the mind so it produces fewer thoughts and impulses. Focusing the mind on the object of meditation and returning to the object of meditation when the mind wanders quiets thoughts. Sitting still quiets impulses. Neutral meditation additionally reduces the arising of various attitudes (which can lead to emotions) within the mind, so it produces a even quieter mind. Quieting the mind is beneficial because a quiet mind produces fewer unpleasant thoughts and emotions, and when the mind is quiet you are better able to see what is happening within it which make understanding the nature of your own consciousness easier.

To do neutral meditation, meditate by noticing your breath. Try to be as neutral in your attitude and emotions and expectations as possible, while not pushing anything away or forcing anything anything into your mind. Do try to notice if you have an "attitude" that is extra that you don't really need to to have and let go of it. If you can have a neutral attitude without suppressing anything that is good. There are forms of meditation that produce intense bliss, but sometimes people unknowingly stumble on to a similar method that produces unpleasant emotions. The point of this meditation is avoid pushing any kind of mood, good or bad, on yourself when you meditate. During your meditation session, try to notice if any attitudes sneak back into your mind. This could happen because of distracting thoughts, events going on around you, or for other reasons. Asking yourself, "What emotion am I feeling?" can help you recognize if your attitude changes. If you notice any attitudes arising, try to return to a neutral frame of mind.

When you meditate this way you can sit in a chair they way you normally sit. It's good to relax, but don't try so hard to relax that you cause yourself stress. One of the differences between letting go of emotions and suppressing emotions is that letting go tends to involve relaxing and suppressing tends to involve tensing. When you take a neutral attitude and when you let go of emotions try to do it in a relaxing way not "resisting" or "fighting against" but relaxing.

Don't try to concentrate intensely just gently notice your breath in and out. If you notice you have become distracted and your mind is wandering, just go back to noticing your breath. Don't be upset if your mind wanders it is normal and to be expected. It can be useful to notice what topics you are thinking about when your mind wanders. At first the topics are likely to be things that are giving you the most stress, after a time those issues may settle down and the distracting thoughts will be about various of events of the day, and after that more random issues about your past or future may arise. Noticing this can help you recognize the progress you are making in calming your mind and help you recognize how much meditation you need to do.

If you have a lot of trouble concentrating, there are a couple of things you can try. Doing relaxation exercises before you meditate can help quiet your mind. It can also help you to stay focused when you meditate if you count your breaths to yourself up to ten and then start over at one. You can count inhalations, or exhalations, or both. The number doesn't have to be ten. It can be whatever feels right at the moment. Two, four, or five sometimes work well. Or you can say "in" and "out" as you inhale and exhale.

If your natural mode of breathing is relaxed, you can breath that way if you want to, or you can choose whatever depth and rate of breathing feels most comfortable. If your're not sure where to focus your attention, focusing on the air going in and out through your nose is okay, also focusing on your whole body or on a point slightly below the navel are also okay. Sometimes focusing on the diaphragm or the chest may be confusing and produce discomfort when breathing. If you like to focus on those areas it's okay to do so, just be aware if you have problems, try focusing on a different location. And if you feel short of breath while meditating, try exhaling slowly through pursed lips.

If you find meditating this way produces a pleasant mood, don't try to produce that mood, stick with neutral meditation and let the pleasant mood come by itself.

A beginner will need some guidance on how much meditation to do. My suggestion is 20 to 30 minutes once or twice a day. However, eventually I believe each person should decide for themselves how much meditation to do. I don't believe you should need willpower to mediate. You should meditate because you want to. There are a few reasons I believe it is worthwhile to meditate: 1) It helps relieve stress and produces tranquility. 2) It produces spiritual feelings that help you live according to your spiritual values. 3) It feels good - it produce a pleasant relaxed mood. Other people might have other reasons. I don't meditate because I expect to get some benefit in the future. I meditate each day for the benefits I get that day. After someone has been meditating for some time, I believe they should meditate as much as they feel is worthwhile in order to to relieve stress and or to produce the pleasant and spiritual feelings that they want to experience. And the amount they meditate could vary from day to day depending on the circumstances.

If you try to bring the mental habit of attitude neutrality into daily life, it may help you to recognize that many unpleasant emotions that arise during the day are easy to avoid if you notice them forming early but can seem to be "involuntary" if you don't pay attention and let them accumulate. For example, if you are reading the news and you read a disturbing article, you might be able to let go of the emotion easily if you notice it and make the effort. But if you read one news story, and another, and another and don't realize until later you are in a bad mood, at that point it can be hard to let go. I suspect part of the problem involves stress hormones. Once levels of stress hormones start going up, I believe, you need to physically relax before you can let go - either through natural relaxation (which can be infrequent in modern life), a moderate amount of meditation, or a shorter period of relaxation exercises. Neutral meditation develops a mental habit that can prevent "grumps" before they start. However it should be understood I am referring to emotions that have a cognitive basis (a basis in thinking), other types of emotions that might be due to genetic or developmental effects on brain chemistry might be a different matter. And you also have to be sensitive to emotions and avoid suppressing them which is not the same as letting go.

Wednesday, September 2, 2020

The Empathic Brain Network and Spiritual Development

In my previous post Natural Awakening Without Intense Meditation I discussed an article in which Buddhadasa Bhikkhu uses the term "spiritual well-being". I believe this state of spiritual well-being is referring to a state where the empathic network in the brain is active. Having the empathic network active will enhance any type of spiritual practice.

Research has shown that because of the structure of the brain, analytical thinking and empathic thinking are mutually exclusive.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/252241.php

Scientists have discovered that the brain circuits we engage when we think about social matters, such as considering other people’s views, or moral issues, inhibit the circuits that we use when we think about inanimate, analytical things, such as working on a physics problem or making sure the numbers add up when we balance our budget. And they say, the same happens the other way around: the analytic brain network inhibits the social network. ... When not doing anything in particular, our brains switch between social and analytic networks. But, when working on a goal-directed task, healthy adults engage the appropriate neural pathways, say the researchers.

The analytical network has a tendency to produce callous thinking. This is believed to by why some economic and political policies fail because they ignore human realities. The policy makers were out of balance, thinking only analytically and not empathically.

When the empathic network is active, it can produce a spiritual feeling or a "pleasant relaxed mood", where feelings of compassion, forgiveness, goodwill, humility, equanimity, serenity, and connectedness are common and where the jhanas are easily accessible.

It is possible to learn to recognize when your empathic network is active and learn to activate it at will if it is not active. Just knowing about the two networks might help you understand your own experiences and allow you to activate the empathic network whenever you want to.

If you are not sure what it feels like to have the empathic network active, try metta mediation, or samatha meditation, or jhana meditation, or relaxation exercises. When your empathic network is active, you may experience a pleasant relaxed mood with feelings of compassion, forgiveness, goodwill, humility, equanimity, serenity, and connectedness.

Having the empathic network active will enhance any type of meditation practice.

I recommend meditating with the empathic network active. Analytical thinking is good for many things and I think both networks should be developed to be in balance. But I think it is more likely that the relief from suffering, the insights, and the realizations people are seeking from meditation are more likely to come from the empathic network than the analytical network. And having the empathic network active has a soothing, healing, influence on the mind.

It is often said that intellectual understanding alone is not enough to trigger awakening. Also, a lot of suffering comes from analytical thinking. We worry about the future, we over analyze things, we go over the past repeatedly, we obsess about status etc. This is all analytical thinking.

Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn is Professor of Medicine Emeritus and creator of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He explains, using slightly different terminology for the brain networks, how having the wrong network active in the brain causes suffering.

https://blogs.psychcentral.com/mindfulness/2010/10/living-as-if-it-mattered-an-interview-with-jon-kabat-zinn/

One pathway is a mid-line pathway, very akin to what is called a default mode, that seems to be functioning when nothing else is supposed to be happening — like being or mind wandering, or something like that, which is what they call the narrative network for self. So like what you tell yourself about who you are, where you’re going, how things are going, how stressed you are, how great it’s going to be in the future, how horrible it was in the past, or vice-versa, how wonderful it was in the past, or how horrible it is in the present. So it is a narrative ongoing story of me. And that occupies a certain kind of brain territory.

In a podcast, Dr Kabat-Zinn descrbes this kind of thinking as "the story of me."

But what if you could reassign neurons away from the network that produces suffering and "the story of me" and reassign them to producing feelings of compassion, forgiveness, goodwill, humility, equanimity, serenity, and connectedness? This is possible because of neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity refers to the brain's ability to rewire itself, assigning neurons to pathways that are used more often and reassigning neurons away from pathways that are used less often.

That is exactly what Buddhadasa Bhikkhu is saying to do when he says:

".. we simply encourage (nirvana) to come about of its own accord, naturally, by developing, day and night, the joy that results from mental purity, until the qualities we have described gradually evolve. ...We do it just by making our own way of daily living so pure and honest that there arise in succession spiritual joy, calm, insight into the true nature of things, disenchantment, disentanglement, escape, purification from defilements, and finally peace, nirvana."

Buddhadasa Bhikkhu says you can do this without a meditation practice.

But you can also do it in conjunction with any meditation practice. Try to learn to recognize when you empathic network is active, and get a feel of how to activate it, and then live and meditate with your empathic network active.

Friday, August 28, 2020

Natural Awakening Without Intense Meditation - Buddhadasa Bhikkhu

Buddhadasa Bhikkhu has written about how to attain full awakening without a formal meditation practice.

He says cultivating spiritual well-being from generosity, good conduct, or the simple forms of meditation naturally leads to full awakening.

There are several stages in the process: spiritual well-being -> tranquility -> insight into the true nature of things (the 3 characteristics) -> disenchantment -> disentanglement -> emancipation -> purification -> nirvana.

Buddhadasa Bhikkhu says generosity, good conduct, or the lower stages of concentration produces spiritual well-being. This leads to tranquility of mind. This tranquility of mind causes insight into the three characteristics to arise naturally. When one sees all things are inconstant, unsatisfactory, and not-self, disenchantment results and clinging begins to come undone. As clinging loosens, disentanglement occurs which culminates in emancipation from the objects of clinging. This results in final elimination of mental defilements or purity that produces nirvana.

He sums up by saying:

".. we simply encourage [nirvana] to come about of its own accord, naturally, by developing, day and night, the joy that results from mental purity, until the qualities we have described gradually evolve. ... We do it just by making our own way of daily living so pure and honest that there arise in succession spiritual joy, calm, insight into the true nature of things, disenchantment, disentanglement, escape, purification from defilements, and finally peace, nirvana."

https://dhammaratoblog.wordpress.com/insight-by-the-nature-method/

Insight by the Nature Method
Buddhadasa Bhikkhu
In the Tipitaka there are numerous references to people attaining naturally all stages of path and fruit. This generally came about in the presence of the Buddha himself but also happened later with other teachers. These people did not go into the forest and sit, assiduously practising concentration on certain objects in the way described in later manuals. No systematic effort was involved when arahantship was attained by the first five disciples of the Buddha on hearing the Discourse on Non-selfhood, or by the one thousand hermits on hearing the Fire Sermon. In these cases keen, penetrating insight came about quite naturally. These examples clearly show that natural concentration is liable to develop of its own accord while one is attempting to understand clearly some question; and that the resulting insight, as long as it is firmly established, is sure to be quite intense and stable. It happens naturally, automatically, in just the same way that the mind becomes concentrated the moment we set about doing arithmetic. The same happens when firing a gun. When we take aim the mind automatically becomes concentrated and steady.
...
Normally we completely overlook this naturally occurring concentration because it does not appear the least bit magical, miraculous, or awe-inspiring. But through the power of just such concentration, most of us could actually attain liberation. We could attain the path, the fruit, nirvana, and arahantship, just by means of natural concentration.
...
Now we shall see how concentration can come about, naturally
...
Now let us look at the nature of the stages of inner awareness leading to full insight into the world, that is, into the five aggregates (khandhas).
The first stage is joy (piti), mental happiness, or spiritual well-being. Doing good in some way, even giving alms, considered the most basic form of merit-making, can be a source of joy. Higher up, at the level of morality, completely blameless conduct by way of word and deed brings an increase of joy. We also discover that joy of a definite kind is associated with the lower stages of concentration.
...
This joy or rapture has in itself the power to induce tranquillity. Normally the mind is quite unrestrained, continually falling slave to all sort of thoughts and feelings associated with enticing things outside. It is normally restless, not calm. But as spiritual joy becomes established, calm and steadiness are bound to increase in proportion. When steadiness has been perfected, the result is full concentration. The mind becomes tranquil, steady, flexible, manageable, and at ease. It is then ready to be used for any chosen purpose, in particular for the elimination of the defilements.
It is not a case of the mind’s being rendered silent, hard, and rocklike. Nothing like that happens at all. The body feels normal, but the mind is especially calm and suitable for use in reflection and introspection. It is perfectly clear, cool, still, and restrained. This is quite unlike sitting in deep concentration. A deeply concentrated mind is in no position to investigate anything. It cannot practise introspection at all; it is in a state of unawareness and is of no use for insight.
...
The expression “insight into the true nature of things” refers to realizing transience (anicca), unsatisfactoriness or suffering (dukkha), and non-selfhood (anatta). It means seeing that nothing is worth getting, that no object whatsoever should be grasped at and clung to as being a self or as belonging to a self, as being good or bad, attractive or repulsive. Liking or disliking anything, even an idea or a memory, is clinging. To say that nothing is worth getting or being is the same as saying that nothing is worth clinging to. “Getting” refers to setting one’s heart on properly, position, wealth, or any attractive object. “Being” refers to the awareness of one’s status as husband, wife, rich man, poor man, winner, loser, or even the awareness of being oneself. If one can completely give up clinging to the idea of being oneself, then being oneself will no longer be subject to suffering.
...
When we have really come to perceive clearly that nothing is worth getting or being, disenchantment (nibbida) develops in proportion to the intensity of the insight. This is a sign that the clinging has become less firm and is starting to give way. It is a sign that we have been slaves for so long that the idea of trying to escape has at last occurred to us. This is the onset of disenchantment and disillusionment, when one becomes fed up with one’s own stupidity in grasping and clinging to things, believing things to be worth having and being.
...
As soon as disenchantment has set in, there is bound to come about a natural, automatic process of disentanglement (viraga), as if a rope with which one had been tightly bound were being untied, or a rinsing out, as when the dye that had been firmly fixed in a piece of cloth is removed by soaking it in the appropriate substances.
...
This process, whereby clinging gives way to a breaking free or a dissolving out from the world or from the objects of that clinging, was called by the Buddha emancipation (vimutti). This stage is most important. Though not the final stage, it is an essential step toward complete liberation. When one has broken free to this extent, complete liberation from suffering is assured.
...
Once broken free from slavery, one need never again be a slave to the world. One becomes pure and uncontaminated where previously one was defiled in every way. To be enslaved to things is to be defiled in body, speech, and mind. To break free from slavery to the delightful tastes of the world is to achieve a condition of purity and never be defiled again. This purity (visuddhi), once it has been attained, will give rise to a genuine calm and coolness free from all turbulence, strife, and torment. This state of freedom from oppression and turbulence was called by the Buddha simply Peace (santi), that is, stillness, coolness in all situations. It is virtually the same thing as nirvana.
...
... we simply encourage (nirvana) to come about of its own accord, naturally, by developing, day and night, the joy that results from mental purity, until the qualities we have described gradually evolve.
...
We do it just by making our own way of daily living so pure and honest that there arise in succession spiritual joy, calm, insight into the true nature of things, disenchantment, disentanglement, escape, purification from defilements, and finally peace, nirvana.

Saturday, August 22, 2020

How Mindfulness of Breathing Leads to Awakening

In the book Selves & Not-self: The Buddhist Teaching on Anatta by Thanissaro Bhikkh, there is an explanation of how a meditation technique called anapanasatti (mindfulness of breathing) leads to stream-entry - the first stage of awakening.

The explanation involves the Buddha's teaching on the First Noble Truth: that clinging leads to suffering, and the clinging is to the five aggregates.

In Selves & Not-self, Thanissaro says:

"In his [Buddha's] first noble truth, he identifies suffering as the five clinging aggregates."

In the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta translated by Thanissaro, it says:

Now this, monks, is the noble truth of stress:[1] Birth is stressful, aging is stressful, death is stressful; sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair are stressful; association with the unbeloved is stressful, separation from the loved is stressful, not getting what is wanted is stressful. In short, the five clinging-aggregates are stressful.

And it is the five aggregates from which we build our sense of self.

In Selves & Not-self Thanissaro writes:

As we will see later, he explains the five aggregates as the raw material from which you create your sense of self, but that it’s not skillful to think that they constitute what you are.

When one practices anapanasatti, the steps of gladdening the mind, calming the mind etc result in letting go. You are not attached or clinging if you are relaxed and happy. If you feel good, you are not suffering (ie you are not clinging to the aggregates).

In the Dipa Sutta translated by Thanissaro, it says:

{5} He trains himself, 'I will breathe in sensitive to rapture.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe out sensitive to rapture.' {6} He trains himself, 'I will breathe in sensitive to pleasure.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe out sensitive to pleasure.' {7} He trains himself, 'I will breathe in sensitive to mental fabrication.'[4] He trains himself, 'I will breathe out sensitive to mental fabrication.' {8} He trains himself, 'I will breathe in calming mental fabrication.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe out calming mental fabrication.'
"{9} He trains himself, 'I will breathe in sensitive to the mind.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe out sensitive to the mind.' {10} He trains himself, 'I will breathe in gladdening the mind.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe out gladdening the mind.' {11} He trains himself, 'I will breathe in steadying the mind.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe out steadying the mind. {12} He trains himself, 'I will breathe in releasing the mind.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe out releasing the mind.

In Selves & Not-self, Thanissaro writes:

To wean the mind off its usual habit of feeding on sensuality, we have to train it to enjoy the genuine health food provided by the other means of skillful clinging. This is one of the main reasons why we have to feed it with concentration. The pleasure and rapture of jhana help provide the sense of well-being we need in the here and now to be willing to change our diet [§§21-22].

Thanissaro clarifies what he means by jhana in The Path of Concentration & Mindfulness.

Many of us have heard that jhana is a very intense trance-like state that requires intense staring and shutting out the rest of the world. It sounds nothing like mindfulness at all. But if you look in the Canon where the Buddha describes jhana, that's not the kind of state he's talking about. To be in jhana is to be absorbed, very pleasurably, in the sense of the whole body altogether. A very broad sense of awareness fills the entire body.

As you let go of clinging to the aggregates, the same aggregates that you build your sense of self from, you become freed from identity view.

Thanissaro has written a book on meditation: With Each & Every Breath: A Guide to Meditation

My web page on meditation also includes a suitable technique.

Some people may find it hard to practice the jhana's, in that case, according to Bhante Vimalaramsi, metta meditation will work too: On Bhante Vimalaramsi's web site it says:

Happiness arises as the burden of the ego melts away. Bhante talks about the benefits of using Metta here vs. the breath. Metta is much faster and easier for the path to awakening. Metta is not just a "feel-good" practice; it is the direct path to the unconditioned (SN 46.54(4)).

In Selves & Not-self, Thanissaro also discusses the sense of self. He says our idea of self is constantly changing. We might think of ourself in one moment as a child of someone, in another moment as a parent of someone else, at some other time as an employee and later a supervisor, etc etc. What we consider ourself also defines what we consider not-self. Since we are constantly changing these two things, we should learn which forms are beneficial and which are not.

Thanissaro writes:

So, to repeat, the issue is not, “What is my true self?” but “What kind of perception of self is skillful and when is it skillful, what kind of perception of not-self is skillful and when is it skillful?
We already engage in these perceptions all of the time and have been doing so ever since we were children. We have many different perceptions of self. Each sense of self is strategic, a means to an end. Each comes with a boundary, inside of which is “self” and outside of which is “not-self.” And so our sense of what’s self and what’s not-self keeps changing all of the time depending on our desires and what we see will lead to true happiness.
Take an example from your childhood. Suppose you have a younger sister, and someone down the street is threatening her. You want to protect her. At that moment she is very much your sister. She belongs to you, so you will do whatever you can to protect her. Then suppose that, when you’ve brought her home safely, she begins to play with your toy car and won’t give it back to you. Now she’s no longer your sister. She’s the Other. Your sense of your self, and of what is yours and not yours, has shifted. The boundary line between self and not-self has changed.
You’ve been doing this sort of thing—changing the boundaries of what’s self and not-self—all of the time. Think back on your life—or even for just a day—to see the many times your sense of self has changed from one role to another.

We can adopt some ideas of self that are beneficial and lead to happiness and reject others that are not beneficial as not-self. It is this sense of not-self that "anatta" referrs to.

Thanissaro explains this:

... the most skillful form of self-identity you can take along the path—the self that takes pride in always being willing to learn from its actions.
...
We also need to develop a healthy sense of self, which is self-reliant, responsible, and heedful. So we need to feed in these three ways. As for clinging to sensuality: This is the one type of clinging that has no role on the path, but we do require external conditions conducive to training the mind. We need a certain amount of sensory pleasure provided by food, clothing, shelter, medicine, and the pleasures of a peaceful, quiet place to meditate. We’re advised not to obsess over these things, but if we haven’t yet gotten to the point where we can maintain our mental center everywhere, we have to hold to the principle of searching out surroundings conducive for the practice whenever we can.

Thanissaro also points out that the Buddha, when directly asked, refused to say if there is a self or not. This occurs in the Ananda Sutta.

Then the wanderer Vacchagotta went to the Blessed One and, on arrival, exchanged courteous greetings with him. After an exchange of friendly greetings & courtesies, he sat to one side. As he was sitting there he asked the Blessed One: "Now then, Venerable Gotama, is there a self?"
When this was said, the Blessed One was silent.
"Then is there no self?"
A second time, the Blessed One was silent.
Then Vacchagotta the wanderer got up from his seat and left.

Thanassaro also says the sense of self is "an activity, a process."

The important point to notice as we connect these talks with our meditation is that we can view our sense of self as an activity, a process. It’s something we do, and something we can learn to do more skillfully. At the same time we’ll look at our sense of what’s not-self—which is also an activity —and learn how to do that more skillfully, too.
When we learn to do this in the proper way, we’ll arrive at true happiness, free from any suffering and stress. At that point, questions of self and not-self will be put aside. When you arrive at true happiness, you no longer need strategies to protect it—the way you do for forms of happiness that are subject to change—because it’s unconditioned. It doesn’t depend on anything at all. The strategy of self is no longer needed, and neither is the strategy of not-self. As Ajaan Suwat, one of my teachers, once said, when you find true happiness, you don’t ask who’s experiencing it, for that’s not an issue. The experience itself is sufficient. It doesn’t need anybody to watch over it. But to reach that point we have to learn how to develop our skill in employing both the strategies of self and the strategies of not-self.

Thanissaro also explains how full awakening occurs

First you master the state of jhana. Then you try to develop perceptions that give rise to a sense of dispassion for the jhana. Once you’ve developed that sense of dispassion, you develop the perception in which you see all-around dispassion and cessation as desirable. Then you learn how to drop even that perception and stay right there. That, the Buddha says, is where full awakening can occur.

Part II

The path to awakening with anapanasatti works by producing the seven factors of awakening.

Mindfulness->Analysis->Persistence->Joy->Tranquility->Concentration->Equanimity->Awakening.

This series of steps is more like a pipeline than a sequential series of attainments. You start experiencing improvements in subsequent factors as soon as you begin to make improvements in preceding factors. You can measure your progress by observing the development of the factors of awakening within yourself. This is consistent with my views on gradual awakening.

Another way of monitoring your progress involves the stages of awakening which are defined by freedom from the fetters. Anybody can monitor their own progress through observing their own increasing freedom from the fetters over time.

Thanissaro describes what stream-entery is like in his book Into the Stream. The excerpt below is from the table of contents. The first part is how to attain stream entry. The second part is what it is like to be a stream-enterer. There is much more to it than meditating and realizing anatta. It includes virtue. If you don't have virtue you are not awakened. All those highly rated "arhats" who were exposed in sex scandals (described in part here and here) may have had innumerable realizations and "enlightenment" experiences, but they would not even be considered stream-enterers by this reckoning.

Part I: The Way to Stream Entry

Association with People of Integrity
Listening to the True Dhamma
Appropriate Attention
Practice in Accordance with the Dhamma
Mindfulness & Alertness
Restraint of the Senses
The Three Forms of Right Conduct
The Four Establishings of Mindfulness
The Seven Factors for Awakening
Clear Knowing & Release
Part II: Stream Entry & its Results

The Arising of the Dhamma Eye
The Three Fetters
The Character of a Stream-winner
Rewards
Advice

Monday, August 10, 2020

Practicing Relaxing Meditation Before Insight Meditation

When I have been on meditation retreats at a Buddhist monastery, we would do bowing practice and chanting practice before sitting meditation. This is how the monks normally prepare for meditation. If the monks who are professional meditators need to prepare for meditation, it seems reasonable that a lay person would also need to prepare for meditation.

When I start a meditation session, I often begin by doing relaxing meditation first. This helps me to have better concentration and a more consistent experience when I meditate and it frequently eliminates any unpleasant emotions I might be experiencing at the time. Stress and mental fatigue are two main causes of poor concentration and mental turbulence. Relaxation eases stress and mental fatigue.

If you try this relaxing meditation, you will see that it requires concentration and attention to do just like other forms of meditation. If you are upset, or tense, or experiencing mental turbulence and you don't have enough time to do both relaxation exercises and sitting meditation, you might choose to do just these relaxing meditation exercises.

These meditations should be done in a relaxed way. That doesn't mean forcing yourself to go slow if you are in a hurry. It means don't be in a hurry. Let go of the hurry and be relaxed as you do the meditations without force.

First I do physical relaxation exercises like progressive muscular relaxation where I move each part of the body ten times. Every joint in the body has two sets of muscles that move it. One set bends the joint and the other straightens it. When you bend a joint, the muscles that straighten it receive a nerve impulse that causes them to relax. When you straighten a joint, the muscles that bend it receive a nerve impulse that causes them to relax. So bending and straightening joints is a very effective way to relax muscle tension. Unpleasant emotions often cause muscle tension when they affect your facial expression, posture, tone of voice, or rate of breathing. Relaxing this muscle tension can be helpful in dissolving those emotions. Other types of physical relaxation exercises that also work well include certain forms of tai-chi, qigong, and yoga, etc.

Next, I do mental relaxation exercises, either lying down or sitting in a chair. (If you try these exercises sitting in a chair and have trouble reaching the deep states of relaxation or the transition described below, it might help to do the exercises lying down.)

First I visualize colors of the spectrum where I name each color (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet) and at the same time visualize either just the color or something of that color (fruits, flowers, and vegetables work well but it can be anything).

Then I do an autogenic relaxation exercise where I mentally name and relax each part of my body noticing a relaxed, heavy, tingling or numb feeling in each part as I relax it.

Then I do a few complete breaths. A complete breath involves inhaling from the diaphragm then expanding the chest to inhale further, then relaxing to exhale and then contracting the abdominal muscles to exhale further. This has a very powerful relaxing effect because it stimulates the vagus nerve which activates the parasympathetic nervous system.

I repeat the visualization and the autogenic relaxation and the complete breaths several times. As I do this, I notice my respiration calming down to the point where I am aware of my heartbeat. While visualizing colors, if you name each color as you visualize it you might notice a feeling of relaxation as you name each color. This can happen if your breathing becomes synchronized with your heartbeat and you exhale as you name each color (even though you are just thinking the name not saying it aloud). As you do this you may notice a feeling of relaxation in your body pulsing along with your heartbeat. You can then bring that same pulsing relaxation to the autogenic relaxation where you notice tingling in each part of the body in synchrony with your heart beat.

If I first start the pulsing relaxation during the visualizations and than make my whole body tingling/numb/heavy with the autogenic relaxation, I often feel a transition to a different mental state. Sometimes the transition may be stronger, other times it may be more subtle.

As this transition occurs, it may seem like you lost focus for a moment but now your mind is very clear and alert. Any unpleasant emotions I may have been feeling have dissipated and I feel positive spiritual emotions such as forgiveness, compassion, goodwill, and humility. These spiritual feelings come from the empathic network in the brain. If you can notice the difference between being in your analytical network and empathic network, it will be easier to maintain this relaxed state and these spiritual feelings if you try to stay in the empathic network.

Feelings of humility are extremely helpful in easing mental suffering. If you observe the activity of the mind, you will notice that most suffering is caused by the ego. If you cultivate humility, you reduce the need to defend your ego from insult and injury, and you suffer much less.

At this stage I also find blissful states are easily accessible. This pleasant state is fragile and may be disrupted by unpleasant or stressful experiences, but sitting meditation can make it more durable and resistant to disruption.

It can also help to spend a brief time breathing in a relaxing way counting to three as you exhale (to slow down and prolong your exhalation - which has a relaxing effect), pause for a moment and then inhale and repeat this mode of breathing until you experience the transition.

Sometimes you may do these exercises and not quite reach the same deep level of tranquility that you have in the past, and you might not be sure exactly why. This can be due to what I call "invisible stress". At times you can be somewhat tense or stressed but not be aware of it. Maybe because you experience it so often it seems normal, or there may be an unpleasant emotion lurking just below the level of consciousness. But if you look around within your mind and body you can sometimes find it and recognize it. Then, once you are aware of a feeling of tension or stress or emotion, you can continue with these exercises until you fully relax. It might help to repeat the physical relaxation exercises to help you be more aware of feelings of stress in your body, and this is one reason you should not skip the physical relaxation exercises at the start of a session even if you don't feel physical stress or tension.

Another obstacle to full relaxation can be stress that has some type of biological cause. In this case a mental technique may not be able counter it. One situation that can occur is if you eat a lot of sugary foods, a few hours later you might experience low blood sugar due to the body overreacting to elevated sugar levels. When this overreaction happens, the body uses stress hormones to signal the the body to release sugar into the blood causing you to experience stress. In this case consuming a small amount of carbohydrates might be able to bring your blood sugar levels back to normal and allow you to reach full relaxation using these exercises. In this situation, one way to tell when you blood sugar levels are back to normal is if you find your mood is slightly elevated after consuming the carbohydrates.

While doing the relaxing meditation exercises, it can be helpful to notice the stages you go through as you become more and more relaxed:

If you are tense and don't realize it, when you do physical relaxation exercises and notice the sensations in your muscles, you may start to notice the feelings of physical tension and mental stress. Physical tension is often caused by mental stress. As you become more aware of these feelings in some cases you might feel like releasing emotions through physical expressions such as grimacing or crying. If present, these feelings should diminish if you do mental relaxation exercises after the physical exercises.

When you first start a session of mental relaxation exercises, you may sometimes become distracted by thoughts about whatever might be causing any mental turbulence you are experiencing, such as thoughts about events of the day or worries about the future. After continuing with the mental relaxation exercises, you may notice these distracting thoughts quiet down, and the distractions that arise are just random thoughts about this and that. When those types of thoughts quiet down, you may notice nonsensical dreamlike thoughts arising. At this stage (if I don't get the feeling of floating earlier) I will begin sitting and meditating. (This link has been changed the old link is here.)

It may help to maintain the relaxed state after you finish the relaxing meditation exercises if you continue to think of the floating feeling.

While you are in a deeply relaxed state, you might find that you are able to think of something unpleasant or some unpleasant situation or something you are worried about without actually feeling any unpleasant emotions. If you practice this during a relaxing meditation session, you might be able to maintain that non-attachment after the session - be able to think about it without reacting. And if you can think about it without reacting, then if it happens you might not react strongly either. So while you are in the deeply relaxed state you can practice and learn how to let go of attachments and aversions. You might even get a general feeling for letting go that you can apply to any situation in daily life.

One thing that can be helpful for maintaining a peaceful feeling in daily life is to remind yourself, "The only thing that can interrupt my peace is me." After a meditation session as you return to daily life, if you notice a peaceful feeling and try to stay relaxed and mindful of it, you will also notice what interferes with the peaceful feeling. Over time you will come to understand that all disturbances to that peaceful feeling pass through your mind and it is your mind/body that interrupts the peaceful feeling. Reminding yourself of this can help you maintain that peaceful feeling during daily life.

After doing the relaxing meditation, the mind may still have a tendency to resume its running chatter and this can create mental turbulence and undo the effects of the relaxation exercises. To prevent this it can be helpful to quiet the mental chatter by meditating by counting the breath. Try to stay mindful of the peaceful feeling while you breathe in a relaxed way and as you do so, count exhalations up to ten and then start over at one. You can also count inhalations or both exhalations and inhalations. As the mind calms down, you can count fewer breaths - maybe up to 4 or 5. Try to keep your attention on the peaceful feeling and counting but do this in a relaxed way. Making an intense effort will create tension and have the opposite effect from what is desired. Whenever you notice you have become distracted, consciously notice what distracted you (a thought, an emotion, an impulse or a sensation etc) and then gently return your attention to counting the breath. Some people may consider counting the breath a technique for beginners. It isn't a beginner's technique or an advanced technique. It has various uses one of which is to help quiet mental chatter. If you lose the peaceful feeling while you are meditating this way, you can try to regain it by doing the visualization and the autogenic relaxation while you are meditating.

It can be beneficial to be mindful of whether or not you are relaxed or experiencing muscle tension in daily life. Noticing the physical sensations that accompany emotions can help with this. When you notice you are tense, try to relax.

Monday, August 3, 2020

Experiencing Anatta

Thoughts, emotions, feelings, and impulses arise from the unconscious mind unasked for and uninvited. They are not you or yours.

Seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, touch, etc, are the same. You don't try to hear, you just hear.

When you try to solve a problem it may seem like you are deliberately using your mind, but where does the impulse to solve the problem come from?

It may seem like you are just awareness observing the activity of the mind and sensations in the body and perceptions of the outside world.

But the sense of being an observer is just like any other thought or feeling. It arises from the unconscious. If you can observe it, it isn't you.

When you look for a self within your mind the thought "self" creates a sense of self. Like telling someone not to think of pink elephants causes them to think of pink elephants.

When you look closely and observe the activity of the mind, sensations: sights, sounds, smells, feelings, etc., and mental activity: thoughts, emotions, impulses, etc., you see that consciousness is a series of discrete moments of awareness like the frames of a movie that are seen so quickly they create the illusion of continuity, they create the illusion of a continuous (permanent) self, when there are really only distinct moments of awareness. When you ponder continuity, also consider your self-concept. Is the angry self the same self as the happy self? Is the self of past years the same as the current self? When you are at work, you might think of yourself as an employee or a boss. When you are with your parents, you might think of yourself as their child. When you are with your child, you might think of yourself as a parent. Whatever you do, wherever you are it can influence who and what you think you are. Which self is real? Are any of them the real self? During daily life, try to notice how your self concept changes throughout the day.

When asked if there is a self, Buddha refused to answer because saying yes or no would not help his students to understand. What Buddha did say is that if you look for a permanent self, you can't find one anywhere. Buddha wanted his students to understand the sense of self as an activity or process.

To experience anatta (not-self), think through what is written above including the linked article. Notice the feeling of just being an observer of moments of awareness. Then consider that there is no observer either. How do you feel? Now, drop all thoughts of self or not-self or observing or awakening or dharma or Buddha or attaining states of consciousness or attaining anything from meditation.

Drop all intentions. Intentions are often intertwined with attachments to the self such as success/failure, winning/losing, and craving/aversion.

Just observe the activity of the mind with a clear mind.

This is not supposed to be a logical argument that is true or false. It is an attempt to communicate a feeling. Feelings are not logical.

Monday, June 1, 2020

Facets

There is a thing that has several facets. The facets are:

Forgiveness
Surrender
Compassion
Good Will
Letting go of the sense of self importance.
Relaxing
Letting go of unpleasant emotions.

Sunday, May 31, 2020

Letting Go of the Ego

Meditation can helped you to learn how to let go of your ego.

I recommend a form of meditation that is very relaxing.

After meditating this way regularly for some time, relaxing begins to feel like letting go of unpleasant emotions because unpleasant emotions are the source of tension. You can't be angry and relaxed at the same time.

Most unpleasant emotions have at their root some sort of attachment to the self.

If one continues to meditate regularly, relaxing, letting go of unpleasant emotions, begins to feel like letting go of the ego. You recognize the egotistical nature of unpleasant emotions and relaxing begins to feel like giving up the egotism. You realize that unpleasant emotions are selfish. Producing unpleasant emotions feels like a selfish act. You see that it is more pleasant to let go of those feelings than to hold on to them. You see that the self is not so important after all.

The ego is a creation of the mind. It is an opinion not something concrete. It is much nicer to be relaxed than to be upset by unpleasant emotions in a pointless attempt to defend an imaginary thing. (I don't mean to imply that problems needing attention should be ignored. But problems should be solved with reason and compassion not with egotistical tantrums.)

Trying to maintain a relaxed state during and after meditation feels like watching for the ego to arise and letting go of it before it can cause trouble.

Letting go of the ego feels like giving up the sense of self-importance. Through regular meditation you learn that egocentric attachments are the cause of the unpleasant emotions that cause suffering for oneself and others. You see how you produce them and can refrain from doing so by staying relaxed or relaxing if you become upset.

Saturday, May 30, 2020

Forgiving

A few days ago I was walking home from the dentist's office when I passed by a park near my home. In my town, during the pandemic, the parks are open for people to use if they maintain social distancing. In the park, I saw a mother and her young daughter playing on a skateboard. The mother was walking, holding her daughter's hands, helping her to balance on the skateboard as it rolled along the ground. The mother and child were enjoying themselves, both were laughing.

It reminded me of how childhood can be happy, carefree, safe, fun, and full of love. I thought how unfortunate it is that growing up fills life with responsibility, worry, disappointment, and other unpleasant emotions. But as the sight of the mother and daughter reminded me of that carefree time of life, I felt the carefree feeling. For a moment it stopped all the mental activity that weighs one down as an adult: responsibility, worry, resentment, anger at life and other people.

Letting go of all those feelings was really the same thing as forgiving.

Oddly, seeing the mother and daughter showed me how to forgive.

Then I thought about how the presence of those feelings in me affected me and I felt regret over how those feelings affected other other people through my interactions with them. I thought about how gloominess might dampen the mother and daughter's enjoyment of the moment if its shadow fell over them. I wanted to stop casting that kind of shadow if I could.

Now I can still remember the sight of the mother and daughter and the feeling of carefree childhood that is really the feeling of forgiving. I can also remember the thought of how unpleasant emotions arising in me might spill over and spoil the moments of carefree innocence of other people. It motivates me to cultivate the spirit of forgiving as much as I can by recalling that carefree feeling to help me let go of unpleasant emotions. It produces a kind of freedom that only forgiving can grant.

Pages

Thursday, October 8, 2020

Why Meditate?

Being Lucid

Awakening

Friday, October 2, 2020

Seeing Things As They Really Are

Freedom From the Fetter of Identity View

Wednesday, September 30, 2020

Sunday, September 13, 2020

Introduction

We are intolerant of what is not "me" and "mine".

We worry about "me" and "mine"

How to Reduce Suffering

Conclusion

Friday, September 11, 2020

Thursday, September 10, 2020

Monday, September 7, 2020

Wednesday, September 2, 2020

Friday, August 28, 2020

Saturday, August 22, 2020

Part II

Monday, August 10, 2020

Monday, August 3, 2020

Monday, June 1, 2020

Sunday, May 31, 2020

Saturday, May 30, 2020

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