Strong Determination Sitting Hack That Has Been Working For Me

[zunnyman]

I've been doing strong determination sitting now for 3 months now atleast, and wow I can see myself going places with this technique. I do 1 hour a day, sometimes 40 or 50 minutes. Past 4 days now have been very interesting. This started after implementing one hack. The months before that I had maybe 3-4 interesting days also with deep meditative experiences but I didn't have control over which day I would have a powerful session. But I think I have figured out, atleast for myself, how to consistently have a powerful session. Right before doing SDS + do nothing I splash my face with really cold water to stay very alert and fresh during the session. Because I have fatigue issues this really helps with my meditation. I have a feeling though others can try it as a hack. Past 4 days have been experiencing very meditative experiences, shaking, purging, and one intense crying episode 

I feel being alert during meditation is important because if you are tired I don't see how you can get very far. This goes back to leo's point that most people don't get far with spirituality because their diets are shit. If your diet is shit and your tired or you just want to be more alert try the cold water hack. 

Edited July 8, 2017 by zunnyman

[Joseph Maynor]

What do you think caused the effects?  Stuff bubbling up and out?  I never had anything like that happen to me In meditation.  No weird psychological cracks.  

Edited July 12, 2017 by Joseph Maynor

[Leo Gura]

Yes, the whole point of meditation is to be hyper conscious. Whatever technique you use, hyper-consciousness must be present, otherwise it's just a mechanical doing. So whatever helps you do that will be good. Meditating right after a short nap is ideal for me. Then there's least chance of sleepiness and greatest alertness.

Another tweak you can make in your SDS is to make sure your eyeballs are totally still. Do not let them wander around at all. Even tiny eye movements break your focus. Not easy to do though. Will require much training.

[Socrates]

@Leo Gura The freakiest things happen to me when I focus extensively on one object. I literally hallucinated yesterday, the colors became brighter and the object I was focusing upon had this flow feel to it. I can't hold it for too long though. Also weird when I focus on a dark area of the room my peripheral vision slowly blacks out and then my whole vision blacks out. I literally see only black in a room with light. 

[krazzer]

@Socrates happens to me too. I just recently started doing SDS for one hour, without moving the eyes. After about 15 minutes the stuff around the object I focus on begins to glow. Sometimes it looks like everything is inverted. 

And also complete black. No vision at all. This happens mostly if I let go of the urge to 'reset' this by refocussing. 

I don't find it that freaky though. Must be something with the brain/eye going on.

[zunnyman]

@Joseph Maynor If you're not experiencing much yet, maybe you haven't been doing it for enough time yet, or you are moving here and there. I'm sure if you do it for enough months you will. You can sort of test certain things techniques and see which one works for you and do that long term: 

(These are just some things I do, none of which are "official")

1) Try to imagine that everything in ur visual senses is "nonsense" or "nothing" and just completely try to let go. Especially with your breath. Are you breathing voluntarily or involuntarily?

2) Accept everything in the present moment. Everything. Have a calm smile on ur face. Imagine acceptance

3) Increase the length of your sit. This one could work like magic. The moments you feel like stopping the sit, just keep persisting. 

4) Do nothing technique to calm your mind down. Essentially you will reach deeper and deeper states the more calm and present you get. So maybe focus on calming down. 

5) Draw your awareness to the body, if you think a lot. Thinking is logical, body awareness is experience. I try more and more to be in experience, unless I am doing "do nothing". I think this is pretty effective. I highly recommend Leo's video "Part 3: Creating an experience of no-self". Its a guided meditation, and you can use the techniques in that video in this meditation and definitely experience crazt shit. 

I tend to experiment a lot in SDS. I even tried imagining death and just letting go of everything like im about to die and that even helps. You could also just experiment with techniques. Maybe even recall and be with painful thoughts?