Re: Question about Khenpo Gangshar's vivid awareness
Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2013 2:53 am
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My friend (who recommended that I check out vivid awareness) advised using the breath as a kind of stabilizer when things get too wild. Not to shift over to anapanasati, rather to let awareness of breath enter gently into vivid awareness and then let it go when things calm down.Jinzang wrote:If it happens that things start getting a little wild, or too intense, that is scattering, and you need to relax and loosen up on noticing your thoughts.
No. Don't do anything. Don't notice anything. Don't look for anything. Don't practice anything. Dont try to relax. Just rest.rachmiel wrote:My friend (who recommended that I check out vivid awareness) advised using the breath as a kind of stabilizer when things get too wild. Not to shift over to anapanasati, rather to let awareness of breath enter gently into vivid awareness and then let it go when things calm down.Jinzang wrote:If it happens that things start getting a little wild, or too intense, that is scattering, and you need to relax and loosen up on noticing your thoughts.
When I "just rest" I usually drift off into half (or full) sleep. Even at my peak awake hours. The feeling I have is that brain, having nothing to do or focus on, turns itself off and sleep follows. Surely this can't be a useful "practice" ... nodding off for 20 minutes in the middle of the day?deepbluehum wrote:No. Don't do anything. Don't notice anything. Don't look for anything. Don't practice anything. Dont try to relax. Just rest.
Hehe.deepbluehum wrote:Don't practice anything.
Sleeping is ok. Drifting is fine. Getting lost is thought is fine. You get into no particular preference for some "state". No need. It will help if you can go longer than 20 mins so that you can experience how things change.rachmiel wrote:When I "just rest" I usually drift off into half (or full) sleep. Even at my peak awake hours. The feeling I have is that brain, having nothing to do or focus on, turns itself off and sleep follows. Surely this can't be a useful "practice" ... nodding off for 20 minutes in the middle of the day?deepbluehum wrote:No. Don't do anything. Don't notice anything. Don't look for anything. Don't practice anything. Dont try to relax. Just rest.
Btw, I'm not new to meditation. I've been doing it off and on for 20 years, both sitting (anapanasati, vipassana) and waking (mindfulness). Throughout this entire time, the moment I "just rest" -- stop trying to do/be anything and just sit there -- I fall into a near sleep (on the cushion) or get lost in thought (mindfulness). I.e., meditative states have never come to me without conscious effort ... unless you count being momentarily struck by the beauty of a landscape a meditative state.
rachmiel wrote: When I "just rest" I usually drift off into half (or full) sleep. Even at my peak awake hours. The feeling I have is that brain, having nothing to do or focus on, turns itself off and sleep follows. Surely this can't be a useful "practice" ... nodding off for 20 minutes in the middle of the day?
Do not cling to the snapshots.rachmiel wrote:When practicing vivid awareness as taught by Khenpo Gangshar, if I follow his instruction to stay in the present moment without any trace of past (memory, resonance) or future (anticipation), my sense of continuity drops away and I am left with what feels like a succession of quick "snapshots" ... like a set of fast short edits in a movie: this, this, this, this, this, etc. It feels as if I am directly experiencing annica = constant change.
Normally a sense of deep and steady calmness arises when I meditate. But when I practice vivid awareness, things get kinda wild, and all I can do is hold on and watch as the world flashes by!
I'm a newbie to this technique. Does it sound like I'm "doing it right?" Should calmness arise from vivid awareness? Or the succession of fast discontinuous snapshots I've described?
Thanks for the help.
This is not good advice for 99% of meditators. Most need some focus and prematurely giving the instruction will hinder them. There are plenty of people spouting "the best meditation is no meditation" anc a conceptual view of ultimate reality (not necessarily you, of course.) This is not helpful. Buddhism is a path and we need to repect the fact that people need different instructions at different stages.Sleeping is ok. Drifting is fine. Getting lost is thought is fine.
Maybe that's how you guys do it. Not us. We say all this focus meditation is the hindrance. Because you training in an expectation. This goes back to Tilopa. No one taught shamatha in Kagyu. The entrance into the mahamudra is aspiration and action bodhichitta. Pure Mahayana dharma. Leave Hinayana aside. Forget ideas of beginners and advanced and progress. When he doses off his body finally is getting rest it needs. When the mind is wandering it is sloughing. This method of rest is the best. Just stay with it through the awkwardness. It really pays off.Jinzang wrote:This is not good advice for 99% of meditators. Most need some focus and prematurely giving the instruction will hinder them. There are plenty of people spouting "the best meditation is no meditation" anc a conceptual view of ultimate reality (not necessarily you, of course.) This is not helpful. Buddhism is a path and we need to repect the fact that people need different instructions at different stages.Sleeping is ok. Drifting is fine. Getting lost is thought is fine.
Is "sloughing" the word you meant? If so, in what sense?deepbluehum wrote:When the mind is wandering it is sloughing.
Heh.rachmiel wrote:I'm looking into cloning myself so I can try out each piece of (often contradictory) advice yous guys have given me!
Just like a snake's skin.Azidonis wrote:Is "sloughing" the word you meant? If so, in what sense?deepbluehum wrote:When the mind is wandering it is sloughing.
Check Jewel Ornament of Liberation, chapter 16: The Perfection of Meditative Concentration. Gampopa gives you ample reasons to practise shamatha. It is "Pure Kagyü Dharma".deepbluehum wrote:No one taught shamatha in Kagyu. The entrance into the mahamudra is aspiration and action bodhichitta. Pure Mahayana dharma. Leave Hinayana aside.
Mahamudra shamatha is resting in the nature of mind. Not anapanasati. Six paramitas are simultaneous or their not paramitas.Astus wrote:Check Jewel Ornament of Liberation, chapter 16: The Perfection of Meditative Concentration. Gampopa gives you ample reasons to practise shamatha. It is "Pure Kagyü Dharma".deepbluehum wrote:No one taught shamatha in Kagyu. The entrance into the mahamudra is aspiration and action bodhichitta. Pure Mahayana dharma. Leave Hinayana aside.