The Buddha & strong determination sitting!

[Tony 845]

I may not be the smartest guy in the world, but the Buddha sat under a bodi tree all night long & didn't move to become enlightened isn't that the same a strong determination sit????

[Hello from Russia]

Yes, it is. On vipassana retreats (vipassana is considered a technique that Buddha used to attain enlightenment) they stress SDS so much

Edited August 17, 2018 by Hello from Russia

[Hello from Russia]

18 minutes ago, Mikael89 said:

I think itches are worst during strong determination sittings. Torture.

Should SDS be made staring at a blank wall in close up?

You should accept itches as they are and not give importance to them. It's not really a torture when you realise they come and go. Everything is impermament. That actually is the main point of it. You learn to not react to every occuring phenomena and it helps you with concentration A LOT.

In vipassana tradition they stress that you should keep your eyes closed but I think there are different ways on how to do SDS, up to you, really.
The general rule is to have a strong determination to not change your setup whatever pain\discomfort you experience.
Buddhists have a story that it was how Buddha became enlightened. He sat under the tree and decided to not move even if it means that he would die from this.

[Arkandeus]

 from what I remember from the story he sat there because he was sort of emptied, he gave it his all

he was actually finally not trying to do or achieve anything, not sure if I'm recalling it right

[Hello from Russia]

Yeah it was something like that

[Tony 845]

@Mikael89 yes that's what I do, makes it much better for concentration reasons.

[dorg]

@Mikael89 It is good to do SDS after you more or less know that you are not the person doing the sitting but rather, the awareness of it. That way, you can sit and watch the discomfort in more of a detached manner. In fact the less you believe you are the person, the less the discomfort. (The Buddha would have had prior insights into this before his final 'push through').

As in your last SDS, you were not unreasonably pushing yourself too far beyond comfort, but just testing the limit of 'how far you were willing to go'.

You could just keep chipping away at your 'limit of comfort' with SDS to see it change over time. You would be effectively slowly working at fear/anxiety reduction so that you can have more surety that 'something nasty' will not happen to you. It is only fear itself that is the nastiness.

So no-one is asking you to go past your limits, but testing them can be very revealing.