Toilet Meditation

[Cepzeu]

No, this is not a new meditation technique lol.

I want to describe something that happened to me. Maybe some of you have had similar experiences. I'll cut to the chase.

I was studying at the library and went to take a bathroom break and scroll on my phone for a bit. 

I was the only one in the bathroom, it was very quiet, and I was scrolling on my phone in a very automatic manner, not really paying any attention.

All of a sudden, I became aware that it was as though I was this empty void that was conscious and observing reality through the body's eyes. (It really is hard to describe). 'My' body was just carrying out these automatic actions and it 'felt' like 'I' was observing the creation of being in real time.

This was not a thought at all, I could clearly 'see' 'my' body doing this automatic thing, and then thoughts arising and falling, and arising, and falling. I did not associate with 'my' body at all anymore and the reality of no free will really became clear. I recognised how thoughts and chaotic sounds/sights are distractions from the underlying consciousness. I think that because I was in that bathroom and it was a very quiet place with no distractions 'I' just 'saw' 'it' right there. It/I am always in the background. It was this shift in awareness that has never happened before. (Side note for clarification: there were no psychedelics involved. This was just a regular day and I did not intend on doing any spiritual work) 

'I' did not freak out, in fact, the body and mind that I generally think of as 'mine' just went about doing  it's automatic thing. It's a stretch to even mention freaking out because 'I' 'knew' that there was no-one to freak out, so to say.

It happened last week and I've been integrating it over this time. Just wanted to post this on here if anyone had any guidance. 

[Hellspeed]

Welcome to the start of pain and suffering  

[Sockrattes]

On 21.9.2018 at 1:08 AM, Hellspeed said:

Welcome to the start of pain and suffering  

What does it mean?

When he don't identify with his body anymore, how can there be suffering?

Isn't it like watching a movie or somethig?

[Cepzeu]

This wasn't my first mystical experience but I think it was my first moment of becoming conscious of consciousness. I felt at ease, and I've studied it to where I had a conceptual understanding of it, but this time it was direct experience.

[Nahm]

@Cepzeu

Absolutely beautiful. ??

[Ingit]

@Cepzeu Wow !

[Leo Gura]

@Cepzeu Toilet Satori -- a classic!

The guidance is, keep digging deeper. What are you? What is reality? What is consciousness? What is God? What is another? What is a distinction?

[cetus]

34 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

Toilet Satori -- a classic!

 In Hinduisim it's known as Potti Samadhi

[Leo Gura]

@cetus56 Lol

And in Christianity, the Holy Shit.

[cetus]

"May the Holy Spirit move you"

[Dan502]

Cepzeu I wonder if it would be worth taking a look at everything that happened in the hours, days, weeks, months and years leading up to that moment, particularly in terms of any psychological progress that might have preceded it.

I make this suggestion as a humble fool, who knows nothing about how a person on the spiritual path should best integrate or respond to such an experience, if indeed, there is any response to be recommended.

[now is forever]

34 minutes ago, cetus56 said:

"May the Holy Spirit move you"

the end of foodphilosophy

[Cepzeu]

5 hours ago, Dan502 said:

Cepzeu I wonder if it would be worth taking a look at everything that happened in the hours, days, weeks, months and years leading up to that moment, particularly in terms of any psychological progress that might have preceded it.

I make this suggestion as a humble fool, who knows nothing about how a person on the spiritual path should best integrate or respond to such an experience, if indeed, there is any response to be recommended.

Very good question @Dan502, and I think there was something actually...

I have done meditation for about 8 months in the past but not recently.

I wanted to start doing Kriya yoga 2 months ago and am currently getting through the books, understanding the positions of the chakras and getting my flexibility up to do the pranayamas. Unfortunately I don't have much time currently as I've got exams coming up and I feel that I still need a bit more understanding of kundalini to make sure I'm doing it safely. 

So to sum that up, I haven't been doing much strict spiritual practice lately. Also, I've read many of the books on Leo's list, as well as watched many of the video's on consciousness and the materialist paradigm itself so I feel like I have a good grasp of the overarching theory.

About 2 weeks ago I went to a party and got drunk, then I packed my backpack and walked 20 min to my gf's house. As I walked, I noticed how my body and mind were experiencing drunkenness but that there was also a 'background observation' that was happening, which wasn't drunk. It was as if I was watching a VR first person game where the player character was drunk, sort of.

A week before the experience I decided that I was mentally masterbating with the theory and the posts on this forum so I just decided to take an hour and just look around my room without trying to assign any meaning to anything. 

Then the next day I looked at Leo's List of Enlightenment Exercises (

) and I did exercise 1. (Side note: I did a bit of self inquiry before and didn't find 'myself' outside the body or the mind, so my biggest challenge was breaking the idea that I am somewhere in my head, behind the eyes). What I noticed was that when my finger touched my sternum, it was not actually touching 'me'. I pressed hard, and tapped on my chest but 'my' finger was just tapping on a body and not 'me'. Then I moved to gently pressing on my closed eye and again, felt that I wasn't touching myself but just pressing an eye. Finally, I gently started tapping all over my head with my fingers, with my eyes closed. Lots of times, all over my head - (to try and locate a spot where 'I' would 'feel' myself getting touched). What this resulted in is me realising that I am not inside the head, but that my consciousness is a field in which my head exists (note that I was conscious of tapping on a head and being 'outside' it, but not conscious of what was actually experiencing it (which is consciousness - which is what I experienced in the toilet) - kinda doesn't make sense, I know.)

And then the toilet thing happened. I was not doing anything specific aside form being in a very quite place and doing a monotonous activity (scrolling on my phone).

 

Edited September 23, 2018 by Cepzeu

[Ingit]

4 hours ago, Cepzeu said:

Very good question @Dan502, and I think there was something actually...

I have done meditation for about 8 months in the past but not recently.

I wanted to start doing Kriya yoga 2 months ago and am currently getting through the books, understanding the positions of the chakras and getting my flexibility up to do the pranayamas. Unfortunately I don't have much time currently as I've got exams coming up and I feel that I still need a bit more understanding of kundalini to make sure I'm doing it safely. 

So to sum that up, I haven't been doing much strict spiritual practice lately. Also, I've read many of the books on Leo's list, as well as watched many of the video's on consciousness and the materialist paradigm itself so I feel like I have a good grasp of the overarching theory.

About 2 weeks ago I went to a party and got drunk, then I packed my backpack and walked 20 min to my gf's house. As I walked, I noticed how my body and mind were experiencing drunkenness but that there was also a 'background observation' that was happening, which wasn't drunk. It was as if I was watching a VR first person game where the player character was drunk, sort of.

A week before the experience I decided that I was mentally masterbating with the theory and the posts on this forum so I just decided to take an hour and just look around my room without trying to assign any meaning to anything. 

Then the next day I looked at Leo's List of Enlightenment Exercises (

) and I did exercise 1. (Side note: I did a bit of self inquiry before and didn't find 'myself' outside the body or the mind, so my biggest challenge was breaking the idea that I am somewhere in my head, behind the eyes). What I noticed was that when my finger touched my sternum, it was not actually touching 'me'. I pressed hard, and tapped on my chest but 'my' finger was just tapping on a body and not 'me'. Then I moved to gently pressing on my closed eye and again, felt that I wasn't touching myself but just pressing an eye. Finally, I gently started tapping all over my head with my fingers, with my eyes closed. Lots of times, all over my head - (to try and locate a spot where 'I' would 'feel' myself getting touched). What this resulted in is me realising that I am not inside the head, but that my consciousness is a field in which my head exists (note that I was conscious of tapping on a head and being 'outside' it, but not conscious of what was actually experiencing it (which is consciousness - which is what I experienced in the toilet) - kinda doesn't make sense, I know.)

And then the toilet thing happened. I was not doing anything specific aside form being in a very quite place and doing a monotonous activity (scrolling on my phone).

 

???????

[Cepzeu]

Here are my mystical experiences in order:

1. After many months of meditating (before I knew what enlightenment was) I had an experience of deep concentration in one point somewhere 'in my head', I guess. This is a direct note from my phone and this was before Leo made the enlightenment videos, so I had no understanding of it whatsoever and had never heard it: "Meditation: felt out of body experience, felt like I was accessing a new part of my brain. Felt like my body dissolved and was nothing." Still operating from the materialist paradigm here, thinking that I travelled to a new part of my brain and was still an entity.

2. After watching Leo's videos on enlightenment it suddenly dawned on me that it might be possible for me to not be a body or a brain. This was an intellectual understanding, though, but still important. It's funny how I take this insight for granted now. This is the point when I turned from thinking that Leo lost his mind and became crazy to realising that he could be on to something .

3. I was sitting and doing a bit of meditation when I became directly aware on thoughts coming into and out of existence. This was probably the moment when I got rather unsettled. It felt like my point of view shifted and I was watching thoughts arise. I still thought that this was just me viewing the brain activity from a different part of the brain. This occurred during some closed-eyes meditation.

After that there was a post by Faceless on how he/she became enlightened and I messaged them a few times to discuss it.

There were no more huge breakthroughs for a while, I spent about a year learning about enlightenment, doing a bit of self inquiry, and just practising being aware of things coming into and out of consciousness. I can't say that I had a strong practice to be honest. This was a period of just learning theory with a bit of practice here and there, but not much.

What happened next is described in my last post (above).

 

I think that the next step is to go deeper into this as Leo said. As others have said, this is just my first sight of it and now the work begins to question the paradigm of existence I had built up over the years and to questions dualities that arise. My plan is to get exams out of the way and build up a solid Kriya practice before the end of the year, with a possibility of trying a psychedelic for the first time next year. I can see this work is important but I have to balance it with my LP. 

Something Leo said in another post made a lot of sense. Most people prioritise survival first without ever experiencing being. But I can see how putting being first and then playing the survival part with awareness of the illusion (or should I say letting the body do what it was gonna do anyway) makes more sense for enjoying life.

 

[Hellspeed]

On 22.09.2018 at 2:49 AM, Sockrattes said:

What does it mean?

When he don't identify with his body anymore, how can there be suffering?

Isn't it like watching a movie or somethig?

When one does not identify with the body anymore will fall into the "light, good, morality", duality. (egoic enlightenment, as the majority of gurus, are).

 

The suffering arises because the body in the majority of us is atrophied, the cause of many decades of only worshipping the head and the mind (having literally the attention there). The majority of spiritual teachers are liars, including the written knowledge in any spiritual or religious books; they are like a double-edged sword. The truth is encountered upside down and backward usually, as in art too. 

Have you ever wondered why old people have right side body issues? And why we age? Identification outside of the body. 

In reality, as humans, we have a hacking tool as the Planet Earth has. There are life and death constantly, being the reason Planet Earth can go to immortality so to speak. Humans who decide to follow the Planet Earth vibration will die. We have the same tool as Planet Earth, we can extend life through awakening/enlightenment because we are literally autonomous in the sense that we use the own body tools and food from outside to literally manage indefinitely. Sounds insane until one discovers it. 

 

I don't know. 

Edited September 23, 2018 by Hellspeed

[now is forever]

i‘m really impressed by „toilet satori“ and want to throw in tanizaki jun’ichirō‘s  „in praise of shadows“ for the question why just why on the toilet.

[Hellspeed]

4 hours ago, now is forever said:

i‘m really impressed by „toilet satori“ and want to throw in tanizaki jun’ichirō‘s  „in praise of shadows“ for the question why just why on the toilet.

The fastest way one can learn what to relax in the body and where to focus the energy & attention.  

After that, there is no need. 

By the way, it is a misconception to focus on the forhead  just saying. 

 

I don't know. 

Edited September 23, 2018 by Hellspeed

[SgtPepper]

19 hours ago, cetus56 said:

 In Hinduisim it's known as Potti Samadhi

 

19 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

@cetus56 Lol

And in Christianity, the Holy Shit.

lmfao.

 

To OP, you are definitely not alone, I myself have experienced this stuff. They usually happen at random too kind of like how you describe it.

[Shin]

My recurrent nightmare,

Having an enlightenment experience on the toilet ...

Please don't ???