Losing track of everything in meditation.

Discussion of meditation in the Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions.
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Jesse
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Losing track of everything in meditation.

Post by Jesse »

I have a quick question, as it's not something I've experienced often, but a few times and once recently.

In meditation after a certain point your concentration seems to become so overwhelming that you lose track of everything except your object, and after this you lose track of everything entirely, for all you know you could have been 'gone' for 30 seconds, or 10,000 years.

What state of meditation is this?

It's very particular, similar to sleep, but different, as there is a vague sense of remembering, it's just that there is nothing in particular to remember, not even the passing of time. Only that there was some form of awareness remaining, which had no objects what so ever to focus on.

I can only differentiate it from sleep by a few distinctions, it definitely isn't sleep, so what else could it be ?

if it makes a difference, my object was my Dantian.
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A flash of lightning in a summer cloud,
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SunWuKong
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Re: Losing track of everything in meditation.

Post by SunWuKong »

Torpidity

It's possible to get some high-quality rest this way however, so I don't want to come down negatively on it.

I can occur anywhere during meditation, in a wide variety of psychic or altered states, or simply the normal "consensual state"

Sharpen your awareness, it mean you want to go deeper, but your losing control, try to wake up and be attentive, aware
"We are magical animals that roam" ~ Roam
Jesse
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Re: Losing track of everything in meditation.

Post by Jesse »

SunWuKong wrote: Wed Jun 13, 2018 4:22 am Torpidity

It's possible to get some high-quality rest this way however, so I don't want to come down negatively on it.

I can occur anywhere during meditation, in a wide variety of psychic or altered states, or simply the normal "consensual state"

Sharpen your awareness, it mean you want to go deeper, but your losing control, try to wake up and be attentive, aware
It's possible, this meditation was kind of 'forced'. I had extremely high anxiety.. actually, I was having a panic attack. :rolling:

Somehow, I moved the feelings of anxiety from my chest, throat, and mind. (it was causing me to feel like I couldn't breathe, like I Was dying etc)..

Somehow I moved all of these feelings into a small ball inside my gut, behind the belly button.. it felt like a small dense ball of anxiety, and the more sharp, and consistent my focus was on this place. (it's basically where the dantian supposed to be.), either way, when I did this, the anxiety vanished, and so did my breathing issues.

Dogen had a saying, " engage yourself in zazen as though saving your head from a fire", this meditation took this saying to a very literal place. :tongue:

Tbh my attention was pretty sharp up until this 'state'. I suppose I'll just accept that it was Torpidity because I did feel very rested afterward. Though it's still possible to examine some of the qualities of this state, so maybe it's not a pointless state either.

I almost imagine it to be similar to death, because although there is a very very light amount of awareness remaining, (very dull awareness.), there is no sense of time passing, there is no 'self', nor another else tbh. It's... impossible to describe actually. Other than it's like being in a timeless state, where nothing exists except a dull bit of awareness.
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Thus shall ye think of all this fleeting world:
A star at dawn, a bubble in a stream;
A flash of lightning in a summer cloud,
A flickering lamp, a phantom, and a dream.
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SunWuKong
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Re: Losing track of everything in meditation.

Post by SunWuKong »

I couldn't say what death is like. Maybe no one can. It may be that there is no such thing, at least not the way we think about it.

The meditation I'm familiar with involving the lower dan tien is quite similar to my standard sitting practice, which comes straight out of the suttas/surtas on Ānāpānasati (Pali; Sanskrit ānāpānasmṛti), meaning "mindfulness of breathing" ("sati" means mindfulness; "ānāpāna" refers to inhalation and exhalation.) Only in this case the lower Dan Tien was the focal point that the breath is felt in, as well as the proper center of gravity.
"We are magical animals that roam" ~ Roam
Jesse
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Re: Losing track of everything in meditation.

Post by Jesse »

SunWuKong wrote: Wed Jun 13, 2018 9:48 pm I couldn't say what death is like. Maybe no one can. It may be that there is no such thing, at least not the way we think about it.

The meditation I'm familiar with involving the lower dan tien is quite similar to my standard sitting practice, which comes straight out of the suttas/surtas on Ānāpānasati (Pali; Sanskrit ānāpānasmṛti), meaning "mindfulness of breathing" ("sati" means mindfulness; "ānāpāna" refers to inhalation and exhalation.) Only in this case the lower Dan Tien was the focal point that the breath is felt in, as well as the proper center of gravity.
Well, I suppose we can know for sure death will either be like something or absolutely nothing. (incomprehensible)

There are some ideas about it in some parts of Buddhism, but then again I've never known anyone (including accomplished monks/teachers) to have come back from the dead.
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Thus shall ye think of all this fleeting world:
A star at dawn, a bubble in a stream;
A flash of lightning in a summer cloud,
A flickering lamp, a phantom, and a dream.
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SunWuKong
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Re: Losing track of everything in meditation.

Post by SunWuKong »

i openly asked my friends about reincarnation when i was 4 years old. That would have been in 1956. I wonder where that came from?
"We are magical animals that roam" ~ Roam
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avisitor
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Re: Losing track of everything in meditation.

Post by avisitor »

Jesse wrote: Thu Jun 14, 2018 12:56 amWell, I suppose we can know for sure death will either be like something or absolutely nothing. (incomprehensible)
The sensation of living comes from this body
It creates the notion of me and being separate from others
You feel pain in your body. I don't feel that pain.

So, when death comes, there is no sensation from the body.
There is no self to feel anything.
What was .. returns to where it came from
The karma created goes onto the next birth

I don't want to say bad things about losing track of everything in meditation
But, isn't it like going to sleep. Lose track of self and fall asleep?
Isn't meditation the focus of attention and the letting go of thought?
Am I doing it wrong then?
Am I trying to polish a roof tile into a mirror?
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