Seeker_of_truth

What do you mean that your legs were woken up ??

@Gabriel Antonio I'm just a newbie here but I've seen Shinzen Young's video on do nothing meditation and what he says is that in this type of meditation, your previous meditations and god (or whatever you want to call it) meditate you. Which means I think you need to have done some other meditation before having the do nothing technique in your meditation routine.

@barry Yup, I can relate. I felt like that a lot of times after my 15 minute meditation sessions and whenever I feel that, I just enjoy it and keep simply sitting till I think my knees can't take that much long of a sitting or till someone disturbs me (which happens sometimes bcuz no one in my house knows that I meditate ). That experience is one of the few things that keep me stick to my meditation routine.

I normally do 15 mins of meditation everyday (Just started my routine, its been around 50 days). Yesterday I did the same 15 mins of normal meditation in sitting posture then just slept for 8-10 mins flat on the ground and then a 20 minutes (Not sure of the time as I didn't check the time when I started it, I think it definitely was at least 20 minutes) of super calm session of simply sitting and closing my eyes - I think you could say do nothing meditation. I wanted to sit like that forever but my knee started hurting (that's bcuz I sit in a certain cross-legged posture everytime I meditate as it helps me to easily keep my body still) and I didn't want to cause any damage to it but I think I could've easily dismissed the pain and just sat there but I stopped just so that I don't cause any injuries. That was my best meditation session ever until now. I felt as calm as you'd feel in deep sleep but I for sure was not sleeping. Thoughts were still there but behind those thoughts, a pleasant calmness was there. Usually in normal state for me behind thoughts, there is a sense of restlessness.

How do you then go to sleep ? That's scary.... But anyway we can do things while we breathe so I think we'll eventually learn how to keep on keep the breath going while doing the same thing we are doing now - getting lost in thoughts. When we can get lost in thoughts while we are bathing I think we can also make breathing like bathing - we'll just keep doing it mechanically.

So true dude (LMAO !!!). @Annetta What do you think about the concepts she talks about ? She sounds logical, so I think she should be talking the right things. I don't care if she copied it from someone else, all that matter is that I need the techniques that work and concepts that are logically/experientially verifiable.

Anything that I do, if I love DOING it then I'll do really great things with it. If I don't love what I'm doing then I'll try doing it as much as possible but will most probably fail at accomplishing anything. Only for those things that I don't love doing it, I need motivation to do them, but I haven't found any motivation strong enough. So the drive that keeps me moving forward is just loving what I do which means there are certain things I can't do and certain things I can do. I wonder if it is possible to love every action and find fun in it....

If you are planning to train yourselves to sit in cross-legged postures then these exercises might help : I suggest you to do these exercises before every cross-legged meditation session as this will serve like a warm-up and thus will help you to sit comfortably very easily.

@Justin Evans I think what Leo was talking is about the body and not specifically the reflection. How do you know that you are that body ? I think that is the question Leo is asking.

@Purple Jay If you can sit in a chair comfortably without falling asleep then I think its ok. If you are considering sitting on the ground, it seems you can make your legs not fall asleep. For example I sit in siddhasana (the accomplished pose) in which I find that if I sit properly, my legs won't fall asleep (without any cushioning), the only problem that I face with that is after I finish the meditation, if I stretch my legs my right knee will hurt for 20-30 seconds probably due to my lack of flexibility. I've found no problem during the meditation. I just started sitting in the posture for 3 weeks, I think with time my mastery over this posture will increase. Padmasana (the lotus pose) and siddhasana (The accomplished pose) are considered ideal postures for meditation in hatha yoga as both of these postures keep your back straight so that you won't fall asleep. Padmasana is the best but if you can't do that then try siddhasana. With any yogasana you need time to master it. It seems there are some benefits in sitting in certain asanas. I don't know if its true but I've just decided to give it a try and see if it works. Here you can find more information about what yogasanas does to you according to sadhguru :

I see many people talk about energies, chakras, kundalini, etc. Can a normal human (enlightened ones are included) perceive such things like he perceives sight or smell or sound ?

Yoga (Many people teach it, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev is a famous one)

Whenever I meditate at some point in the meditation I try to experience nothingness. But what I repeatedly find is that I experience only the nothingness within my body outline. I've done a few self enquiries before and what I've found is that I can't locate myself within the body and I think I've almost no problem with the fact that I'm not my body or any kind of thing inside it. That nothingness that I feel when I try to experience nothingness, is it real or am I deluding myself after hearing Leo talk that I'm nothing ? Today while meditating I again tried to experience nothingness and then this thought occurred - "I right now only experience the nothingness inside me, then my goal is to somehow also experience the nothingness outside". So my second question is, am I aiming towards the right direction ? Or am I thinking too much and should I just strictly stick with the technique of the meditation ?

I don't think the meditation (the appropriate word for the practice that I do is kriya) that I do involves doing nothing. Its a 3 part technique and in the first part of it I'm supposed to have a mild focus between the eyebrows while taking in the thought "I'm not the body" with inhalation and "I'm not even the mind" with exhalation. So when I take in those thoughts, at some point I try to feel into it and try to experience something beyond the mind and the body but it seems everytime I try I can't experience anything beyond the mind. So I think this is what Leo said that I need to repeatedly fail in this attempt so that my mind finally gives up. Maybe this isn't what you call meditation but I thought I'll try this out. I'm just starting to get into a routine, before that I was just doing meditation whenever I feel to. I actually put this kriya in the routine before my planned date. Maybe on the planned date I'll add a normal meditation probably the do nothing technique. Besides this, I also recently started doing something called the Stop technique in which suddenly during the middle of the day I suddenly stop doing everything (even breathing) for a moment. When suddenly I stop it said that the mind also stops for a moment and I try to notice it. Again here I noticed that feeling of nothingness within my body.

I don't know if any of my experiences are the same as yours but there have been 2 dreams which were too much out of ordinary and it fits the description of ego death as in both cases my sense of what is me changed in the dream. Not complete ego death but partial ego death. But since nothing has changed out of the dream, I'm thinking that both were just some mind playing tricks with me. I don't know.... I had this weird dream 2 or 3 days ago after watching some videos that day on other dimensions of perception - I remember I was in some house and there was a person standing in the next room of that house. I was standing there just watching my right hand. Then I was hearing some weird sound (it was more like someother beings' voice) filling the whole space and as I was hearing that sound, the blue coloured wall in front of me become blurry and my hand and the other person whom I could see with my peripheral vision were vanishing. My whole body was disappearing. It felt like I was dispersing into space. It was really scary for a moment especially that sound, then I thought maybe I was entering some other dimension of reality and then curiosity over took my fear and then I let that happen (that doesn't mean I wasn't scared, what I meant is I choose to be scared rather than be so close to something interesting and miss it), but then as soon as I let it happen I woke up. I was scared to go to sleep again but then I said to myself that it was just because I was watching some videos that my mind was imagining too much and then went back to sleep. I remember last year I had one dream where I was seeing the universe from outer space but what was me was extended long. I couldn't see my body I was just space with stars dotted. Then once I realized my usual body outline was missing I asked myself "WHERE IS MY BODY" and then in a second I could feel my body then I was awake.

Thanks a lot.

@Huz Well in that case here are some techniques that can be easily brought into everyday life: 1. Whenever you are emotionally triggered, you should take a moment to stop and realize that the emotion is coming from within you - you are the source of that not someone/something that is external. Maybe the someone/something was a trigger but basically the emotion is coming from within you. Observe that emotion arising within yourself. It'll be hard in the beginning to do this as when you are emotionally triggered you'll most probably not be able to think all this. But if you can then that's a step towards spiritual purification. So use those triggers as a boon instead of worrying about them. 2. When you are hungry and there is food in your plate before you, before starting to eat, realize that you are not your body then the hunger will be there but it'll be okay. This practice will slowly disidentify you from your body. 3. Mindfullness in everyday activities. 4. Contemplation of death. This doesn't always need to be done like a 20 min meditation session. You can just remind yourself that you are mortal whenever you feel so. You can also set up a routine that whenever you brush in the morning, you'll remind yourself this. While brushing think what'll you'll do if this is your last day. Etc. If you keep doing this you'll becoming a more loving and happy person (who wants to be shitty to other people even on their last day with them). 5. When you eat or drink, just look at that food/water with positive emotions (love, gratitude, whatever) and then consume it. If you can be make yourselves feel positive emotions just by seeing a glass of water, isn't it great ? And if you do this and then if you eat or drink that food/water you'll be easily mindfull of the food/water when you are eating or drinking it.

I haven't had such experiences, I'm just starting my journey but I've read something about this in sadhguru's blog here: http://isha.sadhguru.org/blog/yoga-meditation/demystifying-yoga/asleep-but-aware-possible/ "Those of you who have been initiated into shoonya meditation may have experienced a few moments here and there of what in yoga is called sushupti – that means being fast asleep but wide awake. The day this state of sushupti lasts for even just two to three seconds, you will not be able to sleep at night. You will be bright and alert." Here also he talks a few things about sleep here although I don't know if that'll be useful to your current situation anyway I thought I'll just mention: Insomnia: The Different Kinds & A Few Solutions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu-F5-oIpUM How to Reduce Sleep Quota and Increase Sleep Quality? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_fHa73_nOg Although the title says something, he discusses what sleep is and why sleep is needed, etc. in these videos.

@Huz Your list is quite interesting and I'd like to know what do you mean by spiritual purification. What is the goal of it ?

I feel sleepy during my meditation sessions. I meditate once during the morning soon after taking a shower and sometime in the evening. The meditation that I do is Isha Kriya. I've found that I also feel sleepy when doing the Do Nothing meditation with eyes open ! In 5-10 minutes I get sleepy and my eyes will start closing. I read that somewhere in this forum Leo said naps can be useful to combat sleepiness. But as I said I meditate in the morning after 8 hrs of sleep and right after taking a shower in cold water. So I don't think naps will be helpful... What's going wrong or is it normal at the beginning days of starting a routine ? Its been 2 weeks since I started this routine, I've never done any meditation this consistently ever before but I feel bad when instead of meditating with full alertness I'm trying not to fall asleep.

Wow, its like you have byakugan (its an eye that can see chakra flow in an anime called naruto). Thanks for your comment though. @Deep I see... Yeah they're not necessary for god-realization but I just want to perceive them, after all they are a part of my body (if they do exist).

@heisenburger Yup. But the problem I have with lotus pose is that I don't have enough flexibility to sit in that pose without my legs hurting. So recently I found this posture called accomplished pose which does the same thing - it keeps your back straight without any effort and so there'll be no sleepiness.

Development towards what ? Transcendence of ego ?

@Dingus I thought through emotions you can know your energy's state or something. That's how I've heard some people talk about..... You are saying emotions are the energies. But aren't emotions a part of the mind ? Isn't mind and energy different ?

@Martin123 Well if that is so then those who have transcended their egos shouldn't have energies according to your definition. ??