Space

Shinzen is awesome! If you want some more detailed info on his techniques, I believe this is the most up to date version of the Unified Mindfulness pdf: http://www.shinzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/FiveWaystoKnowYourself_ver1.6.pdf There's quite a wide variety of 'noting' styles and techniques around. Different teachers have different methods, particularly when it comes to what labels are used, how fast you should note, what you should note, etc. Probably one of the most well known noting styles was created by a man called Mahasi Sayadaw. It's very different to Shinzen's. Both have their pros and cons of course.

If you want to get some crazy psychedelic-like effects then try working on getting very high levels of concentration, either by focusing on the breath or some other object (see Leo's concentration video). You can experience all kinds of crazy stuff in the higher samatha jhanas, or concentration stages. If you want to bring up (and then work through) any deep rooted emotional stuff, the higher concentration stages are apparently very effective at doing that. You can also experience some extremely blissful states that are probably far beyond any sort of psychedelic induced body-high. However it's likely you won't be achieving this any time soon, unless you've already done a lot of concentration, or are just naturally good at it. Some diligent practise is all it takes though. Plus concentration meditation is easy-peasy. Just a matter of putting in the hours. Try getting access concentration (the first stage) i.e. staying on your object of meditation for a good 20 minutes without getting lost in thought. Also check out Holotropic Breathwork. It's not so much a meditation, but it apparently induces some mind blowing psychedelic states.

As someone who has studied music technology and is also using Holosync I wouldn't worry too much about the quality of headphones, although there's no harm in buying some really good ones if you've got the money. Just make sure to get some in-ear or over-ear headphones in order to block out as much external noise as possible (i.e. not the normal Apple headphones). If you want to splash out then i'd recommend the Beyerdynamic DT770 Studio headphones (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beyerdynamic-DT770-Pro-Headphones-Ohm/dp/B0016MNAAI).

You shouldn't be moving your body around during meditation. Small adjustments to correct your posture are ok, but be mindful and don't be doing it constantly. Try to get as comfortable as possible before you start meditating so that you're less likely to want to move about. I'm not really sure what you mean when you say that your body "wants to move around everywhere". If you mean that you want to move around to avoid feeling uncomfortable, pain in the legs or the back, then you should avoid this - except for small adjustments as I said. The important thing is to be mindfull of the sensations of pain or discomfort, feel into them, don't try to get rid of them, observe them in an objective and non-judgmental way. Also be mindfull of the thoughts that arise with the discomfort. Don't be a slave to your mind when you start thinking about wanting to move or get up. Just remain aware and mindfull. The Do Nothing technique is simply about being completely aware of whats going on with your mind, body and other senses, without intentionally doing anything. The main 'rule' is to just drop any intention to do anything, particularly when it comes to thought.

@nightrider1435 Woah sounds like you're making some great progress. What is your daily practise like?

Telling people that becoming enlightened doesn't require any effort is stupid. For 99.99% of people it requires massive effort and massive action. The paradox is that only after a lot of effort do you get to a point where no effort is required. The exception being an Enlightenment Intensive retreat where you have a good chance of having a breakthrough in a matter of days.

@Heart of Space Sounds like you're making some serious progress! It's actually quite inspiring to read comments like yours, so thanks.

@Lenny Realise that "the mind" is just a thought. What actually is this mind that you're talking about? Is it a collection of thoughts? Is it the brain (also a thought). Maybe it's neither of these, but look at whether you're answer is actually something in your direct experience, or whether it's just a thought/idea/concept. How could you be a thought? Is a thought aware of the feeling of your hand? Maybe you think that you 'use' the "mind", but again, what and where is this 'you' that is in control? Maybe the sense of being the 'user', the sense of being the do-er, is also just a thought? Open up to the possibility that your current experience right now is an experience of no-free will.

Beginner's Insight Meditation (Mindfulness) Here is a video of Shinzen that really helped me when I first started doing the 'Noting' Mindfulness technique. Shinzen gives a quick and easy to understand explanation of the technique at 15:15, followed by a guided meditation, and then a demonstration of the labelling at 36:42. As simple as it may be, listening to Shinzen actually verbalise his labelling whilst he's meditating is great, even though it's just for a few seconds. I thought this video would be helpful for those of you starting out. Additional Information If you want to read up on Shinzen's 'Basic Mindfulness' techniques in detail, here is a link to his free PDF: http://www.shinzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/FiveWaystoKnowYourself_ver1.6.pdf This is another very interesting and useful PDF from Shinzen: http://www.shinzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/WhatIsMindfulness_SY_Public_ver1.5.pdf

If anyone has listened to Shinzen's 'Science of Enlightenment' audio book then you'll recognise this guy.

@Mondsee Focus on what is occurring in direct experience, right now. This is the only thing that matters because you have to make a distinction between what is clearly within your awareness and what is actually just belief. You think that you exist, so where are 'you' in your experience? If you say, "well...i'm just here somewhere, I must be!", realise what that literally is - it's a belief which is unsupported by any 'evidence' in experience. I've found that there is a lot of very similar beliefs that need to be questioned. You just think that you exist somewhere amongst the body/mind, but it's really just an unquestioned assumption. You might think that you're the thinker of thoughts, but look carefully and see what your experience really is. Is it true that 'you' are creating the thoughts, or is it just another belief? It may be true that you are indeed the thinker of thoughts, but is that true for you, in your experience, right now?? Probably not - the source of your thoughts is unknown. The point of this process is not to try to 'work out' the question of What Am I? on an intellectual level, but rather come to an experiential understanding that you don't know the answer. You say that, 'the voice quickly came with a ridiculously logical answer', but this is just you trying to work out the question intellectually. When you ask yourself 'Who is aware of this voice inside my head?', look to your experience, rather than coming up with some intellectual response, which is just another meaningless thought, and ultimately just another belief. Without thinking or saying anything, do you know what is aware of the voice inside your head, or the sensations of the body? Hope this helps!

@MochaSlap Personally I think you get more growth from doing a highly focused 30 minutes of noting mindfulness, than an hour of Do Nothing each day. That's not to say the Do Nothing technique is bad but noting mindfulness is so straight to the point and, as Leo said, your a lot less likely to go unconscious. If you've got the time do an hour of both! You can certainly alternate depending on how you feel though. Shinzen Young has a good approach to this. He says: If Do Nothing makes you too spacey, try Noting for a while. If Noting makes you too racy, try Do Nothing for a while.

I just started reading Sacred Knowledge - Psychedlics and Religious Experiences by William A. Richards. He works at the John Hopkins Medical Centre, which i'm sure most of you are familiar with. At the end of the book there is the 6 hour music playlist that is given to the people taking the mushrooms. The Spotify playlist is below. I'm not suggesting that people listen to music whilst taking mushrooms, but thought some of you guys might find it interesting either way. I love how the music choices get increasingly weird and trippy the further on the playlist goes, with an absolute banger of a track to finish it off. Enjoy!

I discovered the other week that semen retention has been a practise of Taoists for potentially thousands of years. "Many Taoist practitioners link the loss of ejaculatory fluids to the loss of vital life force: where excessive fluid loss results in premature aging, disease, and general fatigue". This isn't to say that every man should be doing this, or that they were correct in their beliefs, but they clearly saw some benefits from not ejaculating. They believed that if you have a 'retrograde ejaculation' or non-ejaculatory orgasm, the semen would go up into your head and nourish the brain. Obviously this doesn't happen, but i've no doubt that there are other benefits to nofap. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taoist_sexual_practices

It certainly was not a pretty sight. Looks like i've got a lot more work on my hands!

No I haven't. Even though it was a pretty horrible experience and not 'spiritual' in any way at all, I really want to do them again - especially after reading your report! It's so weird that on the same dose two people can have radically different experiences.

@cle103 Why don't you try to do a more self-observation type self inquiry, like Leo talks about? From personal experience, i've found that its a constantly changing process. Whilst there is some continuity, each day i'm contemplating in a slightly different way - almost like looking at the same problem from slightly different perspectives. I find this subtle sense of development and progress helps keep me motivated. If I was just doing exactly the same thing day in day out then I would probably not still be doing it! Also why don't you do the self-inquiry after work, maybe when you're just relaxing in the evening? Putting less pressure on yourself to do it in the morning, and doing it when you really feel like doing it may help you get 'into it' more.

Sounds like a great trip, I wish mine was like that! My first trip was also 1.5grams (thinking that it would just be a light trip) except rather than feeling all calm and aware I spiralled into a state of delusion and paranoia. I spent most of the trip unable to think rationally or logically about anything. I tried thinking about the fact that I couldn't think properly, and then couldn't understand why I couldn't think or what thinking even was. I tried eating an apple at one point and was so confused with what I was doing, even though some part of my mind knew how to eat. I literally lost my mind and was on the verge of calling people to help me out because I thought i'd really fucked myself up. I had a rough plan of things I wanted to think about as well, an intention etc, but that just went out the window. So for anyone who hasn't tried mushrooms, and is planning on doing so, be prepared for this! It may not be all spiritual and nice like @RossE talks about. Thanks for sharing though!

Here's some advice on the Do Nothing technique from Shinzen Young. See page 40 - http://www.shinzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/FiveWaystoKnowYourself_ver1.6.pdf

So i’ve been practising self-enquiry/observation for a while now. Whilst i’ve made a huge amount of progress since starting earlier last year, i’ve yet to reach a truly genuine state of not-knowing, or even anything close to it. I know that it’s important to get to that level of openness with the enquiry, so i’ll really try to become conscious of the fact that I don’t know what I am. But it’s always a sort of pseudo-not-knowing, a sort of intellectual not-knowing, as opposed to a state of true not-knowing where i’ve got that real conscious traction. So my question is; is this normal? Am I taking the right approach? Is a genuine state of not-knowing something that only happens prior to having a big breakthrough i.e. rare and/or difficult, or is it something that can actually be cultivated each time I sit down to contemplate? Cheers!

This is slightly misleading though, because Ralston didn't start pursuing Enlightenment until he was 21 (according to the Enlightenment Intensive book). I was surprised to read that he reached Enlightenment (on the questions What Am I? and What is Life?) on the Enlightenment Intensives. My impression was that he did it all on his own in solo contemplation. I'm guessing the bulk of his deeper contemplation was done after that?

Oh man i'm so jealous! I'd love to be able to do the Apprentice program. If you get a chance, you should definitely write a couple of blog posts on this forum whilst you're there, talking about your progress etc. I'd love to hear about it. I have a question about the contemplation and communication. How does it differ, if at all, from any other Enlightenment Intensive program? Just wondering because there are a few enlightenment intensives here in the uk, but i'd consider travelling to America if Ralston's were much better.

@Leo Gura A great addition to the site. Thanks for sharing! Definitely looking forward to future updates.

My brother is in first year university and he's also considering whether he wants to stay or not. It's definitely a really tough decision. I didn't enjoy my first year either, but I listened to my intuition and ended up leaving and starting a completely different course at a completely different university. My advice is to trust your intuition. Your intuition is telling you that your current course isn't quite right, and that you want to be doing something else. Your logical mind is telling you that it's a risk to leave and that your better off playing it safe by sticking it out. So whilst you have to consider the practical implications of leaving university, I think you should trust your feelings (as hard as it may be) rather than your logical mind. If you don't want to move back home or work, consider starting a new course? If you're from the UK then this might be an expensive option (as it was for me) but I believe you're allowed 4 years worth of university loans. If you're from a country where the fees aren't an issue then i'd say absolutely change courses. Goodluck!

Wow, this lecture is amazing! Thanks for sharing @Richard Alpert! Just finished watching the whole thing. I'd do anything to have a 5-Meo session with him!