PsiloPutty

You mean paranormal abilities or paranormal experiences? I'd imagine he's had some of the latter, but I doubt he channels Babaji or levitates when he meditates or shit like that.

@Mikael89 I'm sure the OP will be back, but I've heard of it a few times in regard to eyes-open meditation. Having a wall right in front of your face is very similar to simply having your eyes shut, as there's nothing there to look at. The idea behind it is that your brain isn't interested in directing the eyes AT anything, so eyesight becomes just another sense idling in the background of the meditation. Now, if you ask what the difference is between doing that and just closing your eyes, I couldn't tell you.

I often do a simple mantra-based meditating for the first 20 mins of the session and Vipassana for the last 25-30 minutes. The mantra clears my mind and prepares it for Vipassana.

Heck no, you don't have to be at any certain level of anything to do a meditation retreat. I don't know if there's an 18-and-older policy at these things, but you could easily find that out. Don't be hung up on "where you're at" with meditation.....just do it.

You have the right idea. Sit down, get comfy, close eyes or leave open (don't look around at things if you leave them open. Let them go out of focus) and then....you just sit there perfectly motionless. Pretend you have an observer watching you the whole time. All they should see is you breathing and swallowing once in a while, with sneezing and uncontrollable coughs as rare exceptions. Bottom line: you will know if you cheat. You can't lie to yourself. What you think of and "do" during the sit is up to you. For my SD sits, I usually do a half hour of mantra meditation, an hour of Vipassana and then just plain breath-focused meditation for the last while (2 hours is my new "record"). It gets wild at the end. I start to feel like I'm going crazy. How much time is left? The bell should have rung by now. Did I set it wrong and I've actually done 2.5 hours now? What is time? OPEN YOUR EYES!! No, leave them shut. OPEN THEM! Lol, this is how the end always goes for me.

I bought one for ~$50 on Amazon when I started meditating regularly. I love the thing and only rarely sit without it. ETA: mine is a zafu.

@SoonHei You can do SD sits with eyes open or closed.

I love SD sits. They teach me so much more about patience, acceptance and the present moment than any other technique.

I think two grams is a good dose for self-reflection and contemplation. You will be able to follow YouTube videos and such, or at least most people on that dose would be able to. I wouldn't expect the chocolate to catalyze the experience very much, so it's more like you're doing 1.5.

OK, let's say a Christian monastic meditates 10 hours a day for years and reaches a full awakening. Upon seeing himself as everything and nothing, what would keep him adhered and devoted to Christianity? Wouldn't he see beyond a shadow of a doubt that the bible is just a collection of stories? Wouldn't he see that HE is Christ, Allah, the Buddha and leave religion behind as a matter of course? I can understand how a non-fully awakened monk would likely remain devoted to his religion, but it seems to me that a full awakening would lead them to walk out the door every time. Summed up: do fully enlightened people ever keep their previously-held religion? How? Why?

And better tastes!

@jse LOLd

Ahhhh, right on.

Have you watched Leo's video on Kriya yoga? It's not very physical, but other than that, it sounds like what you're saying that you want. The yoga you'll find at the YMCA is the bastardized hatha yoga.

@Nahm <-----smooooooth! Pamela, I'm in my 40s and I thought the same things when I first started watching YouTube videos of Leo's. Then it occurred to me....shit, there's no difference between me and a younger guy; more yesterdays and fewer tomorrows may be the only difference. But heck, even if I croak tomorrow, I made today a better experience for me than it would have been without this path. The present moment is all we have ever had and all that we will ever get. Make it as good as you can. Meditation is, I think, the traditional first step here. Do you meditate yet? One of my friends is 62, and she came to me just last week and asked if I could help her get started meditating. She said she's doing it every day for 15-20 mins and can already see how it will eventually benefit her, so don't worry.....you can DO this.

Oh yes. Ever since I was little, I've enjoyed letting my mind settle on all the people around me....wondering about their lives and how similar each one's is to mine, despite surface appearances. @starsofclay Yes, that's one of the main things I think about on roadtrips. Each and every car zipping by is full of potential. Every one of them. Thoughts, hopes, dislikes, love, hatred, selfishness and compassion. It's mindblowing when I really focus on it. It's very.....road-trippy. Thousands of MEs going by. Same thing when I see a teeeeny little 747 up in the sky 30k feet. So easy to miss, but there's so much inside that tiny speck. Hundreds of evolved apes up there, right above me, each with its own interpretation of the universe in their heads and hearts. Each unaware of this little voyeur ape down here, looking up, contemplating them and their contemplations. So simple, so complex.

Cool, man. I can relate to what you said above.

"Shoulda drank more beers and killed more critters" -Bubba (sorry, in a goofy mood)

I liked this ^^^ No idea what they'd say, though.

Without looking at them or moving them, can you sense your feet? Well, that's what your feet are doing right now, they are feeting, and you likely wouldn't have been aware of it if you hadn't stopped to sense them. Try to notice little things like that at multiple times every day. Stop yourself and notice what your ears are hearing, what your eyes are seeing, the mood you are labelling yourself with at the moment, feel your heartbeat, feel your precious breath going in and out, notice your eyes as they naturally blink. Doing even these small things raises your consciousness. Making it a daily habit is a good start. Good job with meditating, by the way! If you're new to it, stick with it; it will change you.

Daaaang, y'all were busy in the night. Trying to wrap myself around this enlightenment business is a mysterious, seductive and confounding endeavor. Maybe I won't ever realize it in this life, but I enjoy trying. Wow, some awesome posts in this thread; many thanks. And Leo, don't you like Pea Soup? Ohhhhh, I crack myself up.

Interesting....had no idea. I used to play table tennis with a dude from Sweden. I learned some curse words in Swedish by listening to him, but that's all I know of Sweden. No idea how to spell them, but a couple of them sound like "Javla kyook" and "Javla fay-tah." I think those are talking about the devil.

I understand that. I mean more your writing style than anything. I've mentioned this a few times to others, but I find many posts here to be too cryptic for me to pull much meaning out of. I know that enlightenment is more nebulous than other topics, but I can, at the very least, follow the intention of your posts. Some folks go way over my head and I can't even get the gist of what they're trying to convey.

@Mikael89 Maybe you should read it. *shrug* Hard to deny that sort of synchronicity. And what religion are most swedes?

Tsuki, I wish everyone here wrote like you do. Easy to understand.