Has your baseline consciusness change since you started meditating?

[RedLine]

Let´s share how this journey has change our baseline consciusness/personality. What is your meditation background? Are you more compasion now that before begining? Are you more aware of the tricks of the mind now? Can you concentrate more on your tasks?  

 

Here´s my contribution:

My meditation background is 2012-2019 I meditated once in a while (basic samatha). 2020 I take it seriousley and I meditated 1 to 5 h every single day  (main techniques: do nothing without moving, mahasi vipassana, Culadasa meditation and one point concentartion on a metronome).

To be frank, I think I haven´t experience any clear baseline shift. Maybe I am more aware now but it is something sutle. Morever, my anxiety and rage problems haven´t reduce much. Still much work to do. What is a clear change is that I am more sunk into nihilism, which is something positive to this journey, but I don´t know if it is due to meditation.

Edited January 27, 2021 by RedLine

[Michal__]

2+ years.

Started at TM. Experienced some states of oneness when I did 3 sessions instead of the recommended 2. 4 day fast also massively helped.

Then after about half a year I started experimenting with Vipassana noting & concentration on the breath.

40m on average. Overall fucked around with many techniques. Made some progress, got some more experiences, mainly because of kundalini transmissions.

During the first corona wave I upped my meditation to 1.5h to 3h everyday (concentration). (The key was 1.5h sessions, instead of splitting it up, it truly feels magical that way). One kundalini transmission a week.

During the second corona wave (this) I started to do only 1h concentration a day + mindfulness during the day + kundalini transmissions here and there + some 36 / 24 h water fasts. 

Now I'm doing 1.5 to 3h again, but this time it's 45m concentration, 45m noting. Also I'm experimenting with IF, let's see if that makes any difference.

My baseline is way higher than before. In fact, I'm surprised by how much it's different. I'm experiencing random states of oneness etc. during my waking life. Overall it has been extremely rewarding for me.

[Someone here]

After 100 days of regular practice.. I can assure you 13-year-old me dream has come true!!! My concentration levels have drastically improved from what they were 100 days ago. I finally experienced what Swami Vivekananda said about paying such great attention to what you’re doing that you’ve lost track of time for hours. The other day I was reading.. I checked the time it was 8 pm.. the next time I looked up with a cramped neck it was 1 am. Similarly.. another time.. I was working on some code and I was able to work on it for 3 hours without breaking away and getting tired. usually.. my mind would wander every 15–20 minutes to check facebook but now I have better control on it. I really can concentrate for much longer chunks of time and its reduced the amount of hours I have to study for my projects. WOHOOOOO!

 

Meditation is the most life transforming  habit you can ever do. (at least if you are interested in this work we are doing here seriously). 

 

Edited January 27, 2021 by Someone here

[TheSelf]

Unimaginably more conscious,

I can be in a peaceful thought-less, clear state of mind, almost all the time, all thanks to Self-enquiry, meditation, Kriya Yoga.

I was emotionaly numb, zombie like person depressed as fuck almost in my entire life. These practices saved me from getting to a shitty suicidal state caused by those strong sadness and depression

So i was like this till the last year which i couldn't survive the suffering anymore so i watched all the Leo's spiritual videos, and a door to a whole new world opened to me.

Ps:  Self-enquiry was the most amazing, effective, life changing practice among them for me which awakened me and opened my eyes to see my true self.

Edited January 27, 2021 by m0hsen

[Javfly33]

Baseline Consciousness is a thought.

There's no such thing.

[Nahm]

43 minutes ago, Javfly33 said:

Baseline Consciousness is a thought.

There's no such thing.

“When I’m feelin stuck and need a buck I don’t rely on luck because the hook, brings ‘you’ back. I ain’t tellin you no lie!! The hook brings you back! On that you can rely!”  - John Popper, Absolute Master Of Resonance & Harmonics 

[snowyowl]

I'm not sure what's meant by baseline consciousness either. But my background is I've been meditating on and off for 40 years, a mixture of mantra, awareness of breathing, vipassana, do nothing / resting in being. My consciousness slips between dual and non-dual states in its own time. Not only during meditation but any time of day, my sense of self comes and goes. I spend more time as an ego while I'm awake though; I don't want it to disappear entirely because I've got a regular life and identity as a husband, father, employee etc to keep up! 

Edited January 27, 2021 by snowyowl

[Javfly33]

1 minute ago, snowyowl said:

I'm not sure what's meant by baseline consciousness either. But my background is I've been meditating on and off for 40 years, a mixture of mantra, awareness of breathing, vipassana, do nothing / rest in being. My consciousness slips between dual and non-dual states in its own time. Not only during meditation but any time of day, my sense of self comes and goes. I spend more time as an ego while I'm awake though; I don't want it to disappear entirely because I've got a regular life and identity as a husband, father, employee etc to keep up! 

So when you talk to other people you are conscious you are talking to yourself? 

@Nahm 

[Nahm]

18 minutes ago, snowyowl said:

I don't want it to disappear entirely because I've got a regular life and identity as a husband, father, employee etc to keep up! 

Experienced those same thoughts! Thoughts which are already appearing & disappearing, about perception which is already an appearance.  

Before enlightenment, chopping wood, carrying water. After enlightenment, chopping wood, carrying water. - Buddha

Nothing changes. You, do not change. Consciousness, does not change. No ‘thing’ is lost. What is actual is of course already what is actual. Change is not the actual challenge, change is illusory. The actual “challenge”, is siddhis, bliss, clairvoyance, etc. Imagine trying to type your reply now while in the middle of a fourteen hour organism. Wonderful, not a “problem” or “challenge” per se, yet, the challenge becomes “dialing it” down a bit. 

@Javfly33 ?

[RedLine]

21 minutes ago, snowyowl said:

I'm not sure what's meant by baseline consciousness either. But my background is I've been meditating on and off for 40 years, a mixture of mantra, awareness of breathing, vipassana, do nothing / resting in being. My consciousness slips between dual and non-dual states in its own time. Not only during meditation but any time of day, my sense of self comes and goes. I spend more time as an ego while I'm awake though; I don't want it to disappear entirely because I've got a regular life and identity as a husband, father, employee etc to keep up! 

wow

 

so you can´t be functional without ego? I never heard that.

[snowyowl]

@Javfly33  @Nahm @RedLine  it's not exactly like talking to myself, more like there's no self, no-one talking. Talking and listening just happen, appear out of oneness. When I have the ego thought, it's weaker than it used to be when I was younger, because I know it's  no more real than a thought. 

I'm still perfectly functional, but I have some residual fear about losing my personality or something, even though it's still here. I feel a calling to be a person with these identities for supporting and loving my family, that's my life purpose really. 

[Nahm]

@snowyowl

Beautiful, and relatable. It’s (imo) a pinch of subject object thought, not an actual potential loss. One can only have the thought that one could lose the personality, if that thought is preceded by the thought one has the personality. 

Is not the direct inspection of personality, only followed by thoughts of comparison? 

If there were only one personality, how would the definition, or connotation of “personality” have been derived in the first place? 

How many personalities are actually known?

0

What would it be to not have a personality? 

What was the value of said comparisons? 

What do we all know all to well, which we can never be pinned down on any one person? Joy? Love? Peace?  Can ‘these’ be lost? They can’t even be ‘found’! 

[snowyowl]

@Nahm I'm pretty introverted, to myself, introspecting. I don't think I even have a 'personality' until I'm linking with another, extrospecting, if you will. Similarly,  I-ness only arises when there's comparison with another. Playing with the children, we take on roles and have some fun. Next moment I may be in a meeting at work and be a serious worker. I have many ways of relating, being a person-ality with all sorts of others. Even though, this is the relative level of life. 

Edited January 28, 2021 by snowyowl

[Heaven]

@snowyowl Wow man I can relate with you so bad..I was reducing my practices cuz I felt like am losing the personality of my life story and I was afraid not to be able to fully function. From my direct experience I function different with calm mind and a “monkey” mind.

[snowyowl]

@Heaven  yeah there can be some scary moments, I'm like you, scale back if it gets intense. Others like a more hardcore practice and stick with it. Truth is patient, waiting for us to be ready 

[Inliytened1]

4 hours ago, snowyowl said:

I'm not sure what's meant by baseline consciousness either. 

Its just like a starting point - which is relative, of course...  Your baseline level of consciousness will increase (hopefully) on its own even without meditation.  That's just from years on this planet  (in your particular finite form) - due to experience... 

Now consider the consciousness level of an ant compared to a human...it is much lower relatively speaking - and probably not going to expand much.  

[Seraphim]

Yes it used to feel like I existed in the head behind the eyes, but now the consciousness is open and infinite, and I see and feel that everything is me. That's why we were seeking, our perception of the world was uncomfortable, it felt scary to be a little human in a big, dangerous world. But now it feels safe to be in this world of the self, no matter what happens everything will be okay because my divine mother and father is here with me (inner child channeling)

Edited January 28, 2021 by Seraphim

[Consilience]

Baseline has changed massively. I'm currently meditating 2 hours a day, started doing 1 hour a day around 3 years ago and increased to the 2 around 5 months ago. Going from 1 to 2 hours of daily practice made a significant difference in baseline. Also yes I feel much more compassionate. 

[Surfingthewave]

After many years of meditation (my) sense perception has altered considerably. Intuition, sight, sounds etc. 

Goal-less meditation is important. Whatever goals you have for meditation, for a different approach, drop it. 

It's important to remember this isn't about effort, it's about a recognition or a realisation. 

Effortless awareness can arrive quickly, you don't have to put in hours and hours. 

The fun starts when (the meditation) is meditating the "you" you perceive to be rather than the other way round.

With enough practice "you" no longer are a person "meditating". The meditation becomes..... (insert your perception here). 

 

Edited January 31, 2021 by Surfingthewave